August 15th of the lunar calendar is the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival. This is the middle of autumn, so it is called Mid-Autumn Festival. In China's lunar calendar, a year is divided into four seasons, and each season is divided into three parts: Meng, Zhong and Ji, so Mid-Autumn Festival is also called Mid-Autumn Festival. The moon on August 15 is rounder and brighter than the full moons in other months, so it is also called "Moon Night" and "August Festival". On this night, people look up at the bright moon in the sky like jade, and naturally look forward to family reunion. Wanderers who are far away from home also take this opportunity to pin their thoughts on their hometown and relatives. Therefore, Mid-Autumn Festival is also called "Reunion Festival".
In ancient times, our people had the custom of "autumn dusk and evening moon". The evening moon is to worship the moon god. In the Zhou dynasty, every mid-autumn night was held to welcome the cold and offer sacrifices to the moon. Set up a big incense table, and put moon cakes, watermelons, apples, red dates, plums, grapes and other sacrifices, among which moon cakes and watermelons are absolutely indispensable. Watermelon has to 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 worships the moon in turn, and then the housewife cuts up the reunion moon cake. Cut the people in advance to calculate the number of people in the whole family, at home and in the field, all together, can not cut more or less, the size should be the same.
According to legend, the ugly woman of the ancient State of Qi had no salt. When she was young, she was devout to Yue Bai. When she grew up, she entered the palace with superior moral character, but she was not favored. Seeing the moon on August 15th, the son of heaven saw her in the moonlight and thought that she was beautiful and outstanding. Later, he made her the queen, from which the Mid-Autumn Festival Yue Bai came. In the middle of the moon, Chang 'e is famous for her beauty, so Yue Bai, a young girl, wishes to be "like Chang 'e, and her face is like a bright moon".
In ancient times, the Han people's Mid-Autumn Festival banquet custom was the most elegant in the court. For example, eating crabs was popular in the court in the Ming Dynasty. After the crabs were steamed with cattails, everyone sat around and tasted them, accompanied by wine and vinegar. Drink Su Ye Tang after eating and wash your hands with it. The banquet table area is full of flowers, pomegranates and other fashionable things, and the mythical dramas of the Mid-Autumn Festival are performed. In the Qing Palace, a screen was placed eastward in a certain courtyard, and cockscomb flowers, soybean technology, taro, peanuts, radishes and fresh lotus roots were put on both sides of the screen. There is a square table in front of the screen, with an extra-large moon cake on it, surrounded by cakes and fruits.
After the moon festival, the moon cake was cut into several pieces according to the royal population, and each person symbolically tasted it, which was called "Eating Reunion Cake". The size of the moon cakes in Qing Palace is unimaginable. For example, a moon cake presented by the last emperor Puyi to Shao Ying, the minister in charge of internal affairs, is "about two feet in diameter and weighs about twenty pounds".
In the north, farmers in Qingyun County, Shandong Province offer sacrifices to the God of Earth Valley on August 15th, which is called "Young Miao Society". Zhucheng, Linyi, Jimo and other places have to pay homage to their ancestors in addition to the moon. Landlords in guanxian, Laiyang, Guangrao and Postal City also entertain tenants in the Mid-Autumn Festival. Jimo Mid-Autumn Festival eats a festive food called "Wheat Arrow".
Lu 'an, Shanxi Province hosted a banquet for her son-in-law in the Mid-Autumn Festival. Datong county calls moon cakes reunion cakes, and it is the custom to keep vigil in mid-autumn night.