Autumn equinox is one of the Chinese traditional twenty-four seasons, since ancient times, the folk of the autumn equinox festival attaches great importance to the more classic inherited customs are the moon festival, worship God, eat autumn vegetables, vertical eggs, send autumn cattle, sticky bird mouth, and so on. The following specific to understand the following it ~

1, autumn equinox moon festival

Autumn equinox was traditionally a "moon festival". In ancient times, it was said that "the sun was sacrificed in spring and the moon was sacrificed in autumn". Now the Mid-Autumn Festival is from the traditional "moon festival". According to evidence, the original "Moon Festival" was set in the "Autumn Equinox" this day, but because of this day in the eighth month of the lunar calendar every year on different days, may not always have a full moon. The moon festival without the moon would be a great deal of fun. So, later on the "Moon Festival" by the "Autumn Equinox" to the Mid-Autumn Festival.

According to historical records, as early as the Zhou Dynasty, the ancient emperors had the spring equinox sacrifice of the sun, the summer solstice sacrifice of the earth, the autumn equinox sacrifice of the moon, the winter solstice sacrifice of the custom of the sky.

The places of worship were called the Altar of the Sun, the Altar of the Earth, the Altar of the Moon and the Altar of Heaven. Set up in the four directions of southeast, northwest and north. Beijing's Altar of the Moon is the place where the Ming and Qing emperors sacrificed the moon. Rites of passage: "the son of heaven in the spring towards the sun, the moon in the fall. The morning of the sun, the evening of the moon." Here, the evening of the moon of the evening, refers to the night sacrifice to the moon. This custom is not only for the official court and the upper class aristocrats practiced, with the development of society, but also by the new influence to the folk.

2, eat autumn vegetables

In the Lingnan region, in the past, the four yup (now plus Heshan for the five yup) of Kaiping Cangcheng town of Xie, there is a custom of the festival, called the "Autumn Equinox to eat autumn vegetables". "Autumn Vegetables" is a kind of wild amaranth, which is called "Autumn Artemisia" by the villagers. On the day of the autumnal equinox, everyone in the village went to pick autumn vegetables. When searching in the fields, most of them are young and green, thin, and about as long as the palm of your hand. The vegetables were usually served in a soup with slices of fish, which was called "autumn soup". There is a jingle: "Autumn soup to fill the dirty, wash the liver and intestines. The whole family, young and old, safe and healthy." In the fall of the year, people are still praying for peace and quiet in the home, strong and healthy.

3, vertical egg

In the autumn equinox day every year, there are tens of millions of people around the world in the "vertical egg" test. This is called a "Chinese custom" play, how to become a "world game", it is difficult to prove. However, it is simple and fun to play: choose a smooth and well-proportioned, just four or five days after the birth of a fresh egg, gently on the table to put it up. While there are many failures, there are also many successes. Autumn equinox is the best time for the egg game, so there is a saying "Autumn equinox is here, the egg is pretty", and the erected egg is very beautiful.

4, send autumn cow

Autumn equinox is coming, then there will be sent from house to house autumn cow picture. Autumn cow map is the two open red or yellow paper printed on the lunar calendar throughout the year, but also printed on the farmer plowing patterns, the name is "autumn cow map. Sent to the map are some folk good words singers, mainly say some fall plowing and auspicious not against the farming season words, each to a family is the scene, see what to say, said the owner of the joy and give money until. Although the words come out of the mouth, but every sentence has a rhyme and sound. Commonly known as "say autumn", say autumn people will be called "autumn official".

5, sticky bird mouth

Autumn equinox day farmers are customary holiday, every family to eat dumplings, but also do not have to wrap the heart of the dumplings more than ten or twenty or thirty boiled, with a thin bamboo fork skewer placed in the outdoor field side of the ground, the name of the sticky finch mouth, lest the finch to destroy the crops. This is, of course, only the beautiful imagination and wishes of farmers, but this also shows a truth, that is, the sticky dumplings are relatively large, not easy to digest, should not be eaten more. Dumplings are mostly made of glutinous rice as the main raw material and some other ingredients, glutinous rice is warm, sweet taste, the added ingredients are often high sugar, high-calorie things, a small amount of food in the spring cold season to help supplement the body's heat, tonifying the deficiency of the blood, rising sun and spleen. However, glutinous rice is sticky and difficult to digest, so eating more of it may lead to food stagnation. With onion, garlic and other pungent foods, you can balance the stagnant effect of the dumplings.

6, kite flying

Autumn equinox is a good time for children to fly kites. Especially on the day of the fall equinox, even adults participate. The kite categories are king kites, chub kites, squint moth kites, thunderbug kites, moonlight kites, the big ones are two meters high, and the small ones are two or three feet high. There are kites for sale in the market, more small, suitable for children to play, but most of them are still their own paste, larger kites, and also compete with each other to see which one can fly high.

7, worship

Worship is the act of going to temples and Taoist temples to make sacrifices. Folk festivals around the Autumn Equinox include February 15th Birthday of the Sage King of Kai Zhangzhou: The Sage King of Kai Zhangzhou, also known as the "Sage King of Chen", was Chen Yuanguang, a scholar of the Tang Dynasty, who was meritorious to Zhangzhou and became the guardian deity of Zhangzhou after his death. On February 19th, Guanyin Bodhisattva's birthday, every birthday, the believers more Rusu Qi, to the Guanyin temples to pay homage.

Thus, worshiping the god is a traditional Chinese custom that represents our good wishes for the future.

Traditional Chinese customs have been carried on for thousands of years, carrying rich cultural connotations, and have been rooted in the blood of the general public and have become part of our lives. We need to give these traditions a new spirit of the times, and achieve the code of conduct that carries on the past and uses the past for the present.