Mid-Autumn Festival students hand-written newspaper
Mid-Autumn Festival Customs in Other Areas of China
China has a vast territory, a large population and different customs. The Mid-Autumn Festival is also varied and has a strong land nature.
The characteristics of the square have formed various customs about the Mid-Autumn Festival.
In Pucheng, Fujian, women have to cross nanpu bridge to live longer during the Mid-Autumn Festival. In Jianning, hanging lanterns on Mid-Autumn Festival night is a good omen to ask the Moon Palace for children. People in Shanghang County celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, and most of their children are invited to visit their parents when they are in Yue Bai. When Longyan people eat moon cakes, their parents will dig out round cakes with a diameter of two or three inches in the middle for their elders to eat, which means that they can't tell the secret to the younger generation. This custom stems from the legend that moon cakes contain the message of anti-meta-killing. Before the Mid-Autumn Festival in Kinmen, Yue Bai should worship God.
There is a custom of Mid-Autumn Festival Yue Bai in Chaoshan, Guangdong, which is mainly aimed at women and children. As the saying goes, "men are dissatisfied with the moon, and women don't sacrifice stoves." At night, when the bright moon rises, women set up a box in the yard and balcony to pray. Silver candles burned high, cigarettes filled the air, and the table was filled with good fruits and cakes as sacrifices. There is also the custom of eating taro in the Mid-Autumn Festival. There is a saying in Chaoshan: "River to mouth, taro to eat." August is the harvest season of taro, and farmers are used to using taro to worship their ancestors. Of course, this has something to do with farming, but there is also a popular folk legend: 1279, Mongolian nobles destroyed the Southern Song Dynasty, established the Yuan Dynasty, and brutally ruled the Han people. Mafa defended Chaozhou against the Yuan Dynasty. After the city was broken, the people were slaughtered. In order not to forget the suffering of Hu people's rule, later generations used taro as a homonym with "Hu tou", which looked like a human head, in order to pay homage to their ancestors and pass it on from generation to generation, and it still exists today.
Burning towers on the night of Mid-Autumn Festival is also very popular in some places. The height of the tower varies from 1-3 meters, mostly made of broken tiles. The tower is also made of bricks, accounting for about 1/4 of the tower height, and then stacked with tiles, leaving a tower mouth at the top for fuel transportation. On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, it will be lit and burned. The fuel is wood, bamboo, chaff, etc. When the fire is booming, rosin powder will be poured to cheer, which is very spectacular. There are also folk rules for burning stupas. Whoever burns the stupa to the whole house wins, and those who fail or collapse in the burning process lose. The winner will be presented with colorful flags, bonuses or prizes by the host. It is said that burning towers is also the origin of Han people's resistance to cruel rulers and Mid-Autumn Uprising at the end of Yuan Dynasty.
There are also various folk customs about Mid-Autumn Festival in Jiangnan area. Nanjing people love to eat moon cakes on Mid-Autumn Festival, so they must eat osmanthus duck, a famous Jinling dish. "Sweet-scented osmanthus duck" should be listed in Gui Xiang. It is fat but not greasy and delicious. After drinking, you must eat a small piece of sugar taro and pour cinnamon pulp on it. Beauty speaks for itself. "Guijiang" was named after Qu Yuan's Songs of the South, Little Commandments and Drinking Guijiang to Help the North Close its doors. Cinnamon pulp is a kind of sweet-scented osmanthus, which is picked around the Mid-Autumn Festival and pickled with sugar and sour plum. Jiangnan women are good at turning poems and songs into delicacies on the table. People in Nanjing enjoy the moon with their families, which is called "celebrating reunion", the group sitting and drinking is called "full moon", and the market trip is called "walking on the moon".
Nanjing in the early Ming Dynasty
There are the Moon Tower and the Moon Bridge. The Moon Tower was built under the Lion Mountain in the Qing Dynasty, and it is for people to enjoy the moon, especially those who play the Moon Bridge. When the bright moon is high, people go to the Moon Tower to play the Moon Bridge, so as to enjoy watching the Jade Rabbit. "Xiyue Bridge" is located in the Confucius Temple on Qinhuai River, next to the mansion of Ma Xianglan, a famous prostitute. On this night, the literati gathered on the bridge to play the flute, sing songs and reminisce about Niuzhu playing with the moon and writing poems for the moon, so it was called playing with the moon bridge. After the death of the Ming Dynasty, it gradually declined. Later generations have a poem saying: "The romantic Southern Song Dynasty has been exhausted, leaving the west wind to be a long Banqiao, but remember to take the Yuren Bridge and teach the flute under the moon." Longbanqiao, the original Moon Bridge. In recent years, the Confucius Temple in Nanjing has been renovated, some pavilions and pavilions in the Ming and Qing Dynasties have been restored, and the rivers have been dredged. Until the Mid-Autumn Festival, you can enjoy playing with the moon together.
Wuxi county, Jiangsu province
Light a bucket of incense on Mid-Autumn Festival night. There are silks around the incense barrel, which depicts the scenery in the Moon Palace. There are incense sticks made of thread Kaori with paper kuixing and colorful flags on them. Shanghainese Mid-Autumn Festival Banquet with Sweet-scented osmanthus honey wine.
Ji 'an County, Jiangxi Province
On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, every village uses straw to burn jars. When the crock is red, put the vinegar in it. At this time, the whole village will smell a fragrance. During the Mid-Autumn Festival in Xincheng County, grass lanterns are hung from the evening of August 1 1 to August 17.
Wuyuan, Anhui Province
On the Mid-Autumn Festival, children build a hollow pagoda with bricks. Curtains, plaques and other decorations are hung on the tower, and a table is placed in front of the tower, displaying various utensils to worship the "tower god". At night, lights and candles are lit inside and out. Children in Jixi Mid-Autumn Festival play Mid-Autumn firecrackers. Mid-Autumn Festival firecrackers are braided with straw, picked up and smashed stones after soaking, making a loud noise, which is a custom in Youlong. A fire dragon is a dragon made of grass with incense in it. When you visit the dragon, there are gongs and drums teams. They tour the village before being sent to the river.
Besides eating moon cakes, Sichuanese also have the customs of killing ducks, eating sesame cakes and candied cakes. In some places, orange lanterns are also lit and hung at the door to celebrate. There are also children who burn incense on grapefruit and dance along the street, which is called "dancing meteor ball" Jiading County's Mid-Autumn Festival is called "Guanyin Club" for offering sacrifices to land gods and performing zaju, vocal music and cultural relics.
In the north, farmers in Qingyun County, Shandong Province offered sacrifices to the god of land valley on August 15, 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 their tenants in the Mid-Autumn Festival. Jimo Mid-Autumn Festival eats a kind of holiday food called "Wheat Arrow". Banquet for son-in-law at Mid-Autumn Festival in Lu 'an, Shanxi. Datong county calls moon cakes reunion cakes, and it is a custom to keep vigil on Mid-Autumn Festival night.
Wanquan County, Hebei Province called the Mid-Autumn Festival "Little New Year's Day", and there were pictures of Xing Jun and Guan Di reading the Spring and Autumn Festival at night on moonlight paper. Hejian county people think that the rain in Mid-Autumn Festival is bitter rain. If it rains in the Mid-Autumn Festival, the local people think that vegetables must be terrible.
On the Mid-Autumn Festival night in Xixiang County, Shaanxi Province, men row boats and climb cliffs, while women set up banquets. No matter rich or poor, people should eat watermelons. On Mid-Autumn Festival, drummers blow drums along the door to ask for money. In Luochuan county, parents lead students to bring gifts to their husbands, and there are more lunches than school dinners.
Some places have also formed many special customs about Mid-Autumn Festival. In addition to enjoying the moon, offering sacrifices to the moon and eating moon cakes, there are dragon dances in Hong Kong, piling towers in Anhui, Mid-Autumn Festival in Guangzhou, burning towers in Jinjiang, moon-watching in Shihu, Suzhou, moon-dancing in Dai and Miao, moon-stealing dishes by Dong and dancing in Gaoshan.
Domestic Mid-Autumn Festival Gift-giving Customs
The Mid-Autumn Festival in the autumn harvest season is a good opportunity to strengthen family ties and enhance feelings, and it is a big gift-giving festival after the New Year in a year. Gifts for Mid-Autumn Festival are called "Welcome Festival", "Send Festival" and "Chasing Festival", and Shaanxi Liquan is called "Send Autumn Festival". Often a few days before the festival or even at the beginning of the month, people began to hold festivals and feed each other, and pedestrians on the road came and went like boats. Until today, the custom of giving gifts before the Mid-Autumn Festival is still prevalent, which is almost equivalent to giving gifts for the New Year. Gifts are usually given before the festival, but there are also gifts after the festival. For example, in Zhou Tao, Gansu, the day after the Mid-Autumn Festival, people will give cakes and fruits to their relatives.
As a symbol of reunion, moon cakes and fresh melons and fruits are good gifts. Other festivals vary from place to place, for example, in Dong 'an, Guangdong, candied fruit is served; In Blue Mountain, Hunan, ducks were given to relatives and friends. In Liuhe, Jiangsu, every household presented them with lotus roots, squatting owls and sugar cakes. In Jiangjin, Sichuan, the day before the Mid-Autumn Festival, people will give cakes to each other. One or two days before Tongan Festival in Fujian, relatives and friends exchanged moon cakes, sweet potatoes and taro naan as sacrifices to the gods in the Mid-Autumn Festival. In Chiayi, Taiwan Province Province, before the festival, people will give each other moon cakes, cakes, cakes and so on.
There are many customs of giving gifts in Mid-Autumn Festival. For example, in Jiangsu, apprentices give gifts to master, separated sons give gifts to parents, son-in-law give gifts to Yue family, and students in bookstores give gifts to teachers for holidays. Among them, the most important thing is to exchange gifts between relatives.
It is a common custom for mothers to give gifts to their daughters in the Mid-Autumn Festival. In Xin 'an, Henan Province, my mother's family took jujube cakes (stacked with several layers of flour, with the big ones at the bottom and the small ones with dates inside), moon cakes, pears, persimmons and pomegranates to see their daughters, which were called "sending cakes". In Tai 'an, Shandong Province, there is also the custom of visiting my daughter on August 15th. Before the festival, every family bought moon cakes, carp and other gifts, and went to visit their married daughters by carrying loads, riding donkeys and taking buses.
For newly married women, the gift from their parents' family is more grand. In Qing Wu, Zhejiang, the families of newly-married women will send moon cakes to their daughters' homes in trays or boxes, which is called Mid-Autumn Festival. Sara, Zhejiang's maiden must send fruit and rice balls (meaning reunion). In Gaoyou, Jiangsu, the bride's family gave her newly-married daughter a holiday gift, but she didn't leave a meal. In Fuding, Fujian, parents send Mid-Autumn Festival gifts to their married daughters. The first gift is called "giving the first year". Gifts should be rich, mainly Mid-Autumn moon cakes, plus wine, chickens and ducks. Among them, jiaozi in Mid-Autumn Festival has white jiaozi (steamed with rice paste and salt), sugar dumplings (steamed with rice paste and brown sugar), meat dumplings (steamed with rice paste and salt, fat pork, scallion oil, scallion leaves and so on. ), taro egg dumplings (also known as betel nut taro dumplings) and so on. Daughters receive Mid-Autumn Festival and moon cakes, other gifts are generally returned, and several gifts are added as gifts. The year of Mid-Autumn Festival, cut into pieces and distributed to neighbors, relatives and friends, is called "a separate year".
In some places, the Mid-Autumn Festival has the custom of giving gifts to grandchildren and nephews. In Mount Fuji, Fujian, all grandparents will give their nephews and grandchildren Mid-Autumn Festival cakes and carp cakes. In Gaoyou, Jiangsu, grandma will make a pagoda for her grandson on the Mid-Autumn Festival until he is ten years old. In Fuding, Fujian, every Mid-Autumn Festival, my uncle will send Mid-Autumn Festival cakes and grapefruit to my nephew, and some nephews will send several copies until my nephew 16 years old.
Of course, there is also the custom of giving gifts in the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the son-in-law gives gifts to his in-laws. For example, in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, the son-in-law usually gives his father-in-law a pair of ducks, with fish, meat and bean cakes. Counter-offer with three brocade, dry powder and Sydney. If you have grandchildren, you must add moon cakes and "enjoy the moon food". On the Mid-Autumn Festival in Yueqing, Zhejiang Province, sons-in-law, nephews and godchildren need to give gifts to their parents-in-law, uncles and godmothers, commonly known as "looking forward to August 15th" or "looking forward to the Mid-Autumn Festival". Gifts include dry powder, fish and meat. The son-in-law hopes that there will be six kinds of gifts such as duck meat and fish in the first Mid-Autumn Festival, and the rest are mainly moon cakes, followed by taro and tea bags. It is also equipped with silk and bamboo, which is very interesting.
Other gift-giving etiquette, such as in Fuding, Fujian, people can't steam Mid-Autumn moon cakes on the Mid-Autumn Festival when their parents or elders die. Married daughters or relatives want to send Mid-Autumn moon cakes to their families, which is called "sending filial piety". In Gaoyou, Jiangsu Province, on this day, suitors often take cocks, geese, lotus roots and moon cakes to the woman's house to "chase the festival". These are some sentimental Mid-Autumn Festival gift-giving customs.
Happy Mid-Autumn festival
The annual Mid-Autumn Festival is coming again. This year's Mid-Autumn Festival in our family is different from previous years, because my uncle's family will come back to spend the reunion festival with us.
In the evening, my mother cooked us a sumptuous dinner, including fish-flavored shredded pork, red-cooked chicken and my favorite clear soup ribs! The family sat around the dining table, eating and saying good wishes, and they were happy.
After dinner, we came to the living room to eat moon cakes. My mother bought a lot of moon cakes, including my favorite fruit stuffing, strawberry flavor, pineapple flavor, peach flavor, coconut flavor, corn flavor, and old moon cakes that adults like to eat, including five kernels, thousand layers of salt and pepper crisp and thousand layers of beef crisp. Everyone picked out their favorite moon cakes and ate them. Finally, my sister cut the biggest moon cake and we shared it. It is stuffed with red mud yolk, which is fragrant and sweet, soft and delicious! After eating moon cakes, we came to the top of the bungalow to enjoy the moon. When we reached the roof, wow! The moon on 15 is particularly round and bright. Seeing the round moon, I can't help thinking of the story of "the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon". I want to fly to the moon like Chang 'e, to explore the mystery of the moon, to visit the moon, and to appreciate what is not on the earth. I want to tell Chang 'e quietly how much our earth has changed. How advanced science is and how rich our life is. I will also persuade her to come back to this world with us and live a rich life. My sister called me, "Come and see, I will post it online so that people all over the world can share this reunion day with us." .
How happy Mid-Autumn Festival is! I hope the moon will be rounder and brighter in the Mid-Autumn Festival next year. Our life is better.