The Mid-Autumn Festival originated from the worship of celestial phenomena and evolved from the worship of the autumn moon in ancient times. Offering sacrifices to the moon has a long history, and it is a kind of ritual activity of ancient people in some places in ancient China. The autumnal equinox in the twenty-four solar terms is an ancient "Moon Festival". Mid-Autumn Festival is popular in Han Dynasty, which is a period of economic and cultural exchanges and integration between the north and the south of China, and cultural exchanges between different places spread together.
According to written records, the folk Mid-Autumn Festival started in Wei and Jin Dynasties, but it did not become a custom. In the Tang Dynasty, it was quite popular to enjoy and play with the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival. Many poets wrote poems about the moon in their masterpieces.
Chasing the moon is also a custom of Mid-Autumn Festival. The so-called "chasing the moon" means that after the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, the excitement is not over yet. So the next night, many people invited relatives and friends to continue to enjoy the moon and named it "Chasing the Moon". According to the preface of A Qing Chen Zihou's Lingnan Miscellaneous Notes: "Good people in central Guangdong gather in Izayoi in August, waiting for wine and food to enjoy the moon, which is called chasing the moon."
Mid-autumn festival custom
1, sacrifice to the moon. Offering sacrifices to the moon is an activity of offering sacrifices to the "Moon God" in some places in ancient China. As one of the important ceremonies of Mid-Autumn Festival, offering sacrifices to the moon has gradually evolved into a folk activity of appreciating and praising the moon, and it has also become the main form of modern people's longing for reunion and pinning their hopes for a better life.
2. Play with lanterns. As early as the Northern Song Dynasty, it was recorded in the story of the old Wulin that the Mid-Autumn Festival was a custom, and a little red light was put into the river to drift and play. Lantern playing in Mid-Autumn Festival is mostly concentrated in the south. For example, the autumn festival in Foshan mentioned earlier, there are all kinds of colorful lights, which are amazing.
3. Drink osmanthus wine. On the Mid-Autumn Festival, people have had the custom of drinking osmanthus wine since ancient times. On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, looking up at the bright moon, smelling the bursts of Gui Xiang, thinking of WU GANG cutting sweet-scented osmanthus, drinking a glass of sweet-scented osmanthus wine, and celebrating the sweetness of the family, getting together has become a holiday enjoyment.