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The origin of the Mid-Autumn festival
Legend of Mid-Autumn Festival
Five points for attention in eating moon cakes in Mid-Autumn Festival
The origin of the Mid-Autumn festival
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 15th 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 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 the Tang Dynasty, it was quite popular to enjoy and play with the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival. In the northern song dynasty. On the night of August 15th, people all over the city, rich and poor, old and young, put on adult clothes, burn incense and express their wishes to Yue Bai, and pray for the blessing of the moon god. In the Southern Song Dynasty, people gave mooncakes to each other, which meant reunion. In some places there are activities such as dancing grass dragons and building pagodas. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the custom of Mid-Autumn Festival has become more popular. Many places have formed special customs such as burning incense, planting Mid-Autumn Festival trees, lighting tower lanterns, putting sky lanterns, walking on the moon and dancing dragon.
Today, the custom of playing under the moon is far from prevailing in the old days. However, feasting to enjoy the moon is still very popular. People drink wine in asking for the moon to celebrate a better life, or wish their relatives far away healthy and happy, and have a wonderful time with their families.
There are many customs and forms of Mid-Autumn Festival, but they all entrust people with infinite love for life and yearning for a better life.
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Legend of Mid-Autumn Festival
The First Legend: Tang Gaozu and "Zhujie Cake"
The first protagonist of Mid-Autumn Festival is moon cakes. There are many legends about the origin of moon cakes, and the more popular view appeared in the Tang Dynasty. At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the East Turkic was powerful. When Li Yuan rose from Taiyuan, he surrendered to the Turkic Khan in exchange for the relative stability in the north. After the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, the Turks supported the separatist forces such as Xue Ju and Liu Wuzhou, and fought against the Tang Dynasty. On the other hand, he relied on the army to strengthen Ma Zhuang, and constantly invaded dispatch troops south. In order to pacify the foreign invasion in the north, Tang Gaozu Li Yuan appointed Li Jing, a famous general at that time, as the commander-in-chief of the Northern Expedition (marching general) to fight back against the Turks and finally win.
The day of Li Jing's triumph happened to be August 15, and it happened that Turpan people presented cakes to Li Yuan that night. Li Yuan was sharing the good news of Li Jing's victory with his ministers at that time. He was very happy to see the round cake. He smiled at the sky and blurted out, "You should invite toads to the Hu cake." The general meaning of this sentence is that the god of the moon should be invited to come down to earth to share this delicious Hu cake with everyone. Li Yuan then distributed Hu cakes to the ministers, who tasted them together and enjoyed the moon. It is said that the custom of eating moon cakes on the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15th came from this and spread from the palace to the people.
In fact, this legend cannot be used as the basis for the origin of moon cakes. In ancient times, the ancients in China worshipped the sun, the moon, the stars and other celestial bodies, so there was a custom of "worshipping the sun in spring, Yue Bai in autumn, and astrology at night". When they were in Yue Bai, they always offered a small round cake, which was the embryonic form of moon cakes.
The second legend: Yang Guifei named the "moon cake"
Tell the legend of the origin of moon cakes, and then tell the story of the name moon cakes. In the early days, people didn't call moon cakes "moon cakes". There were many names, such as "Hu cakes" mentioned by Li Yuan, as well as "small cakes", "moon group", "palace cakes", "golden cakes" (Song Dynasty) and "moon cakes" (Yuan Dynasty). In the Tang Dynasty, the most popular name was naturally Hu Bing. In the past, the Han people referred to the Huns, Xianbei, Di, Qiang, Tubo, Turkic and other nomadic peoples living in the north and west of China as "conference semifinals". Hu people's daily bread is called "Hu cake" by Han people. This kind of cake is round, filled with sugar and covered with nuts. It's delicious.
Then, how did Hu Bing change its name to moon cake? This is related to Yang Yuhuan-Yang Guifei, one of the four beauties in China.
Yang Yuhuan, formerly known as Yang Furong, was originally the eighteenth son of Li Longji in the Tang Dynasty and the concubine of Li Mao, the life king. Yang Meiren is familiar with temperament, can sing and dance well, and the most important thing is that she is outstanding in appearance. If she is really out of the water, men will not be tempted. Li Longji, a lecherous woman, got her 27-year-old daughter-in-law into her harem, conferring her the title of imperial concubine, and she was pampered by thousands. One Mid-Autumn Festival, Li Longji and Yang Guifei ate Hu cakes together to enjoy the moon. Li Longji, who is romantic, pretends to be elegant. She thinks that Hu Bing is not nice and wants to change her name. But what should I call it? I can't think of it at the moment. Yang Guifei looked up, and there was a full moon hanging in the air at that time, just like this round Hu cake, so she blurted out-moon cake. Hearing this, the Li Longji repeatedly clap your hands. A "moon cake", which was called out.
But this legend seems unreliable. It is recorded that Li Xian of Tang Xizong once gave a cake to the new Jinshi in the Mid-Autumn Festival. At that time, the cake was not called moon cake. Li Xian was born later than Li Longji 177. It is certain that in the Tang Dynasty, at least in the late Tang Dynasty, moon cakes were still not called moon cakes. Some scholars said that the word "moon cake" appeared in Wu Zimu's book "Dream of Liang Lu" in the Southern Song Dynasty. I looked it up, but there was no such word.
In fact, in the Song Dynasty, people didn't call moon cakes "moon cakes", but literati liked to call them "golden cakes". For example, Su Shunqing, a writer of the Song Dynasty who is equally famous with Mei Yaochen, wrote a poem: "The clouds bloom brightly" and "The golden cakes are separated from the forest and the moon". In Song Dynasty, the custom of eating moon cakes in Mid-Autumn Festival was not popular. It was not until the Yuan Dynasty that the custom of eating moon cakes in the Mid-Autumn Festival became stronger, but it was often called "moon cake". It was not until the Ming Dynasty that the "moon cake" was officially named, and the custom of eating moon cakes in the Mid-Autumn Festival was also widely popular. For example, "Ming Jiajing's Wei County Records" said, "Mid-Autumn Festival, buy wine to play with the moon, and give it to moon cakes. "Ming Tian Rucheng's" West Lake Tour Club "records:" August 15 is called Mid-Autumn Festival, and the people take mooncakes as a legacy to get together. "
The third legend: eating moon cakes and "killing Tartars"
The legends of Mid-Autumn Festival are mostly wonderful, but this story of "killing Tartars" permeates an unpleasantness, which is related to the legend of the uprising at the end of Yuan Dynasty. At the end of Yuan Dynasty, natural and man-made disasters occurred repeatedly, and the people were in dire straits. The Mongols' rule over the Han people in the Central Plains was also more severe. In order to prevent the Han people from rebelling, people are not allowed to hide ironware, and only ten families can have a kitchen knife. These enslavement policies aroused the dissatisfaction of the Han people, and the civil resistance was strong. Uprising was brewing everywhere, and they agreed to "kill the Tatars" and overthrow the Yuan regime. At that time, public gathering was not feasible. In order to convey the signal of unified action and ensure secrecy, Zhu Yuanzhang in the south, later Ming Taizu, chose the opportunity of eating moon cakes on August 15th, and wrapped the note with the signal of uprising in the moon cakes. Through this way of transmission, a huge uprising force was formed.
In fact, the legend should be that Li Dai was crowned with pride. It was Zhang Shicheng, the great salt merchant in Taizhou, Jiangsu Province, who later became king in Suzhou, who came up with the clever plan of "eating moon cakes and killing tartars", not Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming Taizu. Zhu Yuanzhang was not so awesome in those days. He was born as a monk and a beggar, but he couldn't live any longer, so he started a revolution with Guo Zixing and finally won the country.
The fourth legend: the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon and the "elixir of youth"
The Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon, a well-known love legend, is the most poignant among all Mid-Autumn legends. How did the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon get in touch with the Mid-Autumn Festival? There are many stories here.
Chang 'e, formerly known as Heng E, is the wife of the mythical figure Hou Yi. In the Western Han Dynasty, it was renamed "Chang 'e" to avoid the taboo of Emperor Liu Heng. There are two versions of the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon, both of which can be found in Huai Nan Zi. In one version, Chang 'e stole the elixir and ran to the moon: "You invited the elixir to the Queen Mother of the West, but before taking it, Heng E stole it, and gained immortality, and ran into the moon as the essence of the moon." Hou Yi got the elixir of life from the Queen Mother of the West. After stealing it from her husband, the greedy Chang 'e ran to the moon and became the goddess of the moon.
Another version is that Chang 'e was forced to take the elixir: Feng Meng, who studied archery with Hou Yi, heard that Hou Yi had got the elixir of life, so he went to steal it. Feng Meng failed to succeed, and evil came from bravery, trying to harm Chang 'e. In desperation, Chang 'e swallowed the elixir herself and flew to the sky.
In addition to these two versions, I have analyzed the notes of the ancients and put forward another version of the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon: She ran to the moon because her husband Hou Yi had an extramarital affair. This view was later taken by many people and became their own research experience. Cut the gossip. After the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon, she became a "moon essence", the goddess of the moon.
When he became a god, people began to worship the goddess Chang 'e, but Yue Bai is a woman's business, that is, the so-called "men don't Yue Bai, women don't sacrifice stoves". Married women, in particular, must worship the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival, because the moon belongs to the Yin, giving birth to children, and in the past, it was a blessing to have many children. Naturally, Yue Bai hoped to get pregnant more. When I was in Yue Bai, I was given a round cake with stuffing, which gradually evolved into a "moon cake". In addition to moon cakes, there will be fresh melons and fruits, especially melons with seeds. In addition to Yue Bai, women used to "touch the autumn" and "send melons" during the Mid-Autumn Festival, and sending melons is sending children, which is an expression of the wishes of beggars in China in the past.
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Five points for attention in eating moon cakes in Mid-Autumn Festival
Eat moon cakes in the morning. It can supplement the energy needed in the morning, and it is not easy to gain weight. Older people with cardiovascular diseases should pay more attention to eating time, otherwise it may increase the risk of thrombosis.
Some people can't eat moon cakes. People with diabetes, hyperlipidemia, hypertension and obesity should be careful. Diabetic patients are most afraid of sweets, so they can't eat moon cakes as a meal to avoid the increase of blood sugar. In addition, some special people should be cautious when eating moon cakes, such as patients with duodenitis or gastritis, cholecystitis, cholelithiasis, people with dental caries, obese people, diabetics, patients with hypertension, hyperlipidemia, coronary heart disease, infants and the elderly.
Don't eat too many moon cakes. Because moon cakes contain a lot of oil and sucrose, excessive consumption will lead to bloating, indigestion and even diarrhea. In addition, it will also affect appetite, leading to loss of appetite and increased blood sugar. Especially for the elderly and children, eat the Mid-Autumn moon cakes in moderation to avoid affecting the gastrointestinal function.
Moon cakes should not be stored in the refrigerator. Moon cakes should not be stored in the refrigerator. Under the condition of low temperature, starch will become aging, which will make moon cakes hard and taste worse. It is best to store moon cakes in a cool and dry place indoors, and pay attention to the storage time not to be too long. Bulk moon cakes can be stored for three to five days; Mooncakes with independent small packages, or with antiseptic packages in the packages, can be kept for more than ten days.
Dietary collocation of eating moon cakes. Eating moon cakes should not be accompanied by drinks such as soda or juice with high sugar content. At the same time, we must reduce the intake of rice and oil, or eat more grapefruit rich in vitamin C and cellulose. For example, it is healthier to eat moon cakes with green tea, which helps to promote digestion and help solve greasy.
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