Mid-Autumn Festival custom:
——? Eat moon cakes?
Eating moon cakes on Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional folk custom in China, just like eating zongzi on Dragon Boat Festival and glutinous rice balls on Lantern Festival. It is said that there was a custom of eating moon cakes in the Mid-Autumn Festival in the Tang Dynasty, but as a food name, moon cakes were associated with the Mid-Autumn Festival in the Song Dynasty. The royal family in the Northern Song Dynasty likes to eat a kind of "palace cake" in the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is commonly known as "small cake" among the people. Su Dongpo said in a poem: "A small cake is like chewing the moon, and there is pulp in it." Zhou Mi, a writer in the Southern Song Dynasty, first mentioned the name "moon cake" in Old Wulin. According to legend, at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, people also used moon cakes to convey anti-meta information, indicating that moon cakes had entered the homes of ordinary people at that time and became a necessary food for the Mid-Autumn Festival. For a long time, China people have accumulated rich experience in making moon cakes. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, bakers printed fairy tales such as the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon on moon cakes as food art paintings. A scholar in the Qing dynasty described it as "peach-stuffed moon cakes, icing ice cream", which seems quite similar to the present moon cakes. In modern times, with workshops specializing in making moon cakes, moon cakes are made more finely, with exquisite fillings and beautiful appearance, and are also divided into flat, Soviet, Guangdong and desktop flavors. As a symbol of auspiciousness and reunion, moon cakes are entrusted with people's good wishes. The custom of eating and sending moon cakes has continued to this day.
——? Enjoy osmanthus and drink osmanthus wine?
Because during the Mid-Autumn Festival, osmanthus flowers began to bloom. As the saying goes, a year's plan lies in autumn, and osmanthus fragrance is ten miles away. At this time, you can smell osmanthus fragrance ten miles away. Osmanthus fragrans is in the middle of the month, and the fragrance is floating outside the clouds. Since ancient times, people have loved osmanthus fragrans, which can be purified and concentrated, and has the reputation of "Murraya". It is elegant and noble, full of fragrance, and is called "Xianyou" by people.
Osmanthus fragrans is regarded as the city flower in many places, such as Chengdu, Suzhou, Xianning, Lu 'an, Xinyang, Hangzhou, Guilin, Weihai and Quzhou.
Osmanthus fragrans is not only appreciated, but also edible. It can be used to brew osmanthus wine, soak osmanthus tea, or make Osmanthus Jelly. After autumn, osmanthus began to blossom, and after mid-August, osmanthus began to wither slowly. People collect the fallen osmanthus and make osmanthus wine. Osmanthus fragrans wine tastes mellow, sweet and sour, mellow and soft, and has a long aftertaste. Moreover, drinking a little osmanthus wine after meals also helps to sleep.
——? Solve the riddle on the lantern?
The origin of Mid-Autumn Festival solve riddles on the lanterns has a long history in China, with a history of more than 3,000 years. "argot" appeared in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and was the embryonic form of lantern riddles. In the Han Dynasty, "argot" began to divide into two directions. A mystery of things characterized by descriptive characteristics; Another literary mystery mainly focuses on the form and meaning of words. In Wei Dynasty, it was called a riddle. With the prosperity of poetry in Sui and Tang Dynasties, poetry puzzles appeared in large numbers and became the mainstream. Since the Song Dynasty, some literati have often posted riddles on various lanterns on the night of the Lantern Festival to attract pedestrians to guess and shoot. This is the origin of "lantern riddle". After the middle of Qing dynasty, enigma prevailed and many enigmas appeared. After the Revolution of 1911, lantern riddles formed two styles: "Southern School" and "Northern School". In the old society, because riddlers were mostly literati, some of them were conceited, emphasizing elegance unilaterally and rejecting folk lantern riddles. After liberation, under the guidance of the party's literary policy of "letting a hundred flowers blossom", riddles have developed more vigorously, and they have become more and more perfect and rich, making great contributions to building socialist spiritual civilization and invigorating the cultural life of the masses. At present, Chinese and overseas Chinese all over the world have lantern riddle activities and lantern riddle academic exchanges.
——? Playing with lanterns?
Since ancient times, people in China have had the custom of celebrating the Lantern Festival in the Mid-Autumn Festival. In the Northern Song Dynasty, "Old Wulin Story" recorded that during the Mid-Autumn Festival, the "Little Red" lantern was put into the river to drift and play. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the custom of Mid-Autumn Festival has become more popular, and many places have formed customs such as planting Mid-Autumn Festival trees and putting lanterns.
Lantern Festival is not only a variety, but also often decorated with paper-cuts, calligraphy and painting, poetry and so on, which is a display of traditional folk handicrafts in China. In Guangzhou, Hong Kong and other places, the activity of "Tree Mid-Autumn Festival" means putting up colored lights. Bright colored lights not only enrich the festive atmosphere, but also become a unique landscape of the city. In Nanning, Guangxi, in addition to all kinds of lanterns tied with paper and bamboo for children to play with, there are also simple lanterns, pumpkin lanterns and orange lanterns. The so-called "sky lantern", that is, Kongming lantern, is a kind of paper lamp. Light a candle under a lamp. The hot air can make the lamp fly into the air and make people smile. Lights symbolize hope. Lantern viewing is very popular in traditional festivals in China, which shows that the Chinese nation is optimistic about life and full of expectations for the future.
——? Sacrifice the moon?
In ancient China, there was a custom of "autumn and dusk". The moon at night is to worship the moon god. In the Zhou Dynasty, every Mid-Autumn Festival night, activities to welcome the cold and offer sacrifices to the moon were held. Put a big incense table, with offerings such as moon cakes, watermelons, apples, red dates, plums and grapes, among which moon cakes and watermelons are absolutely indispensable. Watermelon must be cut into lotus shapes. Under the moon, put the moon statue in the direction of the moon, and the red candle burns high. The whole family takes turns in Yue Bai, and then the housewife cuts the reunion moon cakes. If people are laid off in advance, the number of people in the whole family will be counted, including those at home and those from other places. You can't lay off more or less, but the size should be the same.
——? Appreciate the moon?
Mid-Autumn Festival, China has the custom of enjoying the moon since ancient times. There is a record of "autumn twilight and the moon" in the Book of Rites, that is, worshipping the moon god. In the Zhou Dynasty, every Mid-Autumn Festival night, activities to welcome the cold and offer sacrifices to the moon were held. Put a big incense table with seasonal fruits such as moon cakes, watermelons, apples, plums and grapes, among which moon cakes and watermelons are absolutely indispensable. Watermelon must be cut into lotus shapes.
In the Tang Dynasty, it was quite popular to enjoy and play with the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival. In the Song Dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Festival was more popular to enjoy the moon. According to "Tokyo Dream", "On the Mid-Autumn Festival night, your family decorated the terrace, and the people competed for food and play with the moon". On this day, all shops and restaurants in Beijing have to redecorate their facades, tie silk on archways and sell fresh fruits and refined food. The night market is very lively. Many people visit The Upper Terrace, and some wealthy families enjoy the moon in their pavilions and arrange food or family dinners to reunite their children.
After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the custom of enjoying the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival remains the same. Many places have formed special customs such as burning incense, planting Mid-Autumn trees, lighting tower lanterns, putting sky lanterns, walking on the moon and dancing dragons.
——? Watching the tide?
The custom of watching tide in Mid-Autumn Festival has a long history. "I know that the Jade Rabbit is round and it has been frosted in September." Send a message to close the door and the key, and the night tide stays on the moon. "This is the poem" Watching the Tide on August 15th "written by Su Shi, a great poet in the Song Dynasty. In ancient Zhejiang, besides enjoying the moon, tide watching was another Mid-Autumn Festival activity. The custom of watching tide in Mid-Autumn Festival has a long history, which is described in Mei Cheng's Seven Hair in Han Dynasty. After the Han Dynasty, Mid-Autumn tide watching became more popular. There are also records of watching the tide in Zhu Tinghuan's "Making Up the Past of Wulin" in Ming Dynasty and Meng Lianglu in Song and Wu Zimu's. The spectacular tide-watching scenes in these two books show that the Mid-Autumn Festival tide-watching reached an unprecedented peak in the Song Dynasty.
——? 8. Turn on the light?
On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, there is the custom of burning lanterns to help the moon. Nowadays, there is still the custom of piling tiles and burning lamps on towers in Huguang area. Jiangnan has the custom of making lantern boats. The custom of burning lanterns in modern Mid-Autumn Festival is more prosperous. Today, Zhou Yunjin and He He said in their article "Talking about the Four Seasons": "The lanterns in Guangdong are the most prosperous, and every household uses bamboo sticks to tie lanterns ten days before the festival. Make fruits, birds and animals, fish and insects, and "celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival" and so on, and paint various colors on the paste paper.
The internal combustion candles of Mid-Autumn Night Lights are tied to bamboo poles with ropes and hung high on tile eaves or terraces, or made into fonts or various shapes with small lights and hung high on houses, commonly known as' Mid-Autumn Festival on trees' or' Mid-Autumn Festival vertically'. Rich people can hang lights as high as tens of feet. Families gather under the lamp to enjoy drinking, and ordinary people erect a flagpole and two lanterns to enjoy themselves. The city is full of lights and glass. From ancient times to the present, the scale of the custom of burning lanterns in Mid-Autumn Festival seems to be second only to the Lantern Festival.
Due to China's vast territory and numerous ethnic groups, the custom of Mid-Autumn Festival has gradually changed and become more colorful in the long historical evolution. In addition to these common customs mentioned above, there are also some customs with regional and ethnic characteristics, such as dancing dragons in Hong Kong, piling towers in Anhui, eating snails in Guangzhou, burning towers in Jinjiang, watching the moon in Shihu, Suzhou, Miao jumping on the moon, Dong stealing moon dishes and holding balls in the mountains. Although the customs of the Mid-Autumn Festival are varied, China people's desire to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival and their hope for family reunion and a better life are always the same.