One, worship the moon, enjoy the moon
The Mid-Autumn Festival in the Shantou region to worship the moon, mainly women and children, adult men do not kowtow to, so there is a "men do not sacrifice the moon, women do not sacrifice the stove," the proverb. Chiu Chow people say that the moon worship for the moon lady. The moon is Yin, called Taiyin Maiden, folk tube called Moon Maiden. Worshipping the moon are in the open air, city dwellers, in the balcony rooftop or their own courtyard; rural people to worship the moon, most of them focused on the village of Dacheng worship.
After dinner, the women put on new clothes and lead the children to set up incense and offerings, waiting for the moon to rise. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, fruits and vegetables such as pomelo, persimmons, star fruit, pomegranate, nectarine, pineapple, ringo, taro, etc., make their appearance, and people dedicate these seasonal products, as well as mooncakes, pastries, fried piles, and oil cakes, etc., to the Moon Lady. In the countryside, women often perform handicrafts on these offerings, such as building tashan with glutinous rice and rice sticks, sticking pomelo with paper cutouts, and tying peacocks with oil candies with branches and leaves. Nowadays, people worship the moon, there are a lot of items on the market, people figure convenient to buy, just not as clever as before.
After the moon, the family laughed in front of the court, eat cakes, drink tea, enjoy the moon and talk about the sky, relaxed and happy. At this time, the adults always like to tell the children many myths and legends about the moon: according to legend, the moon on the vague shadow is a woodcutter in cutting a laurel tree. The woodcutter's name was Wu Gang, and he was so drunk on immortality that he refused to concentrate on his studies, which enraged the Emperor of Heaven, who forbade him to stay in the Moon Palace and ordered him to cut down the osmanthus tree every day. Whoever could get the osmanthus branch that Wu Gang cut down the tree would live forever. So, it is common for some naive children to run around on the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, hoping to pick up the osmanthus branches falling from the sky. Mid-autumn night, the young people, more pleasure, boating under the moon, singing for fun, cool breeze, floating in the air. Mid-Autumn Festival, all in the moonlit night. The children are more self-paste paper lanterns, moonlight parade, to get together, also have some fun. Contemporary towns and cities to buy more children to the flower and paper store, multi-style lamps and lanterns to enjoy the tour. Some schools arranged for students to make their own lanterns, to carry out competitions, is a very good craft and art education.
Two, eat moon cakes
Moon cakes are also the traditional cakes loved by the Chaoshan people during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Chiu Chow people make mooncakes to the moon, and the custom of giving each other has a long history. Ming Chen Tianzhi "Dongli Zhi" cloud: August 15, "people's children, set up under the moon cakes and fruits under the moon clothing ring things, class moon and worship, in order to invite the moon aunt." Qing Jiaqing "Chenghai County Zhi" said: "August 15 for the 'Mid-Autumn Festival', the scholarly and commoner's family to the moon cake feed each other." Qing Guangxu "Haiyang County," said: "Mid-Autumn Festival" reunion cake, No. 'moon cake'.
The Chaoshan people are famous for their cleverness, dexterity and good business skills. The mooncake made by the Chiu Chow people is called Chiu Chow Mooncake, which is known as "Chiu Chow Mooncake" to the locals. It is famous both at home and abroad for its sweetness, crispness and softness, fatness but not greasiness, and has now become one of the five nationally renowned flavor series of cakes (the others are Beijing-style mooncake, Tianjin-style mooncake, Sioux-style mooncake and Cantonese-style mooncake). According to relevant historical records, in 1949, after Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang tasted Chiu Chow cake in Shanghai during the Mid-Autumn Festival, he was full of praises and wrote the words "Tea Ceremony Champion" as a gift to him. In 1982, Peking Opera master Mei Baojiu, the son of Mei Lanfang, tasted the Chiu Chow cake in Beijing, and praised it again according to the words written by his father, which became a beautiful story in the catering industry. It became an interesting story in the food industry.
Teochew mooncakes can be categorized into different varieties according to their fillings, such as green bean paste mooncake, black bean paste mooncake, crystal mooncake, taro mud mooncake and double-cooked mooncake. The production of mooncakes was initially carried out individually within the family, and then with the development of the economy, it gradually developed towards refinement, deliciousness, stereotyping and specialization. Nowadays, there are many manufacturers producing Chaozhou-style mooncakes, Shantou City was more famous in the past years with Sun Guan, and in recent years, the output and quality are better than that of Shantou Confectionary and Biscuit Food General Factory. The factory's Chaozhou-style moon cake color golden bright, crispy skin, thin and crispy, thick bean paste filling, lubrication, sweet taste, fat but not greasy, popular with customers at home and abroad, and in 1986 won the first China Food Expo Silver Medal.
Technological mooncakes are more famous among Yixi Boulevard, Guiyu Island Holiday Cake and Southern Sudanese Cake. Yixi County NT NT Cake was produced in Yixi Town, Chiu Chow City. The production of mooncakes in food factories started in the Qing Dynasty during the Qianlong period, especially Fan Hesheng's workshop was more famous. Guiyu Cake was produced in Guiyu Town, Chaoyang City. During the Kangxi period in Qing Dynasty, it was founded by two stores, namely Xue Yuanhe and Hou Yuanhe, and was divided into two kinds of cakes: fasting cakes and meat cakes. As early as during the Daoguang period, it was highly praised for its fine ingredients, no fishy and not greasy. Southern Song Cake is produced in the vicinity of Chenghai Southern Jiangsu Province and was firstly created in the late Qing Dynasty. It is made of flour with piggy back, sweet bean paste as filling, and then refined and baked by printing and grilling. The cake skin is crispy, thin and multi-layered, which is powdery and fragrant, and the filling is sweet, soft, smooth and refreshing. The products are sold all over the world and are well received.
In recent years, the tide of moon cakes in compliance with the ancient legal system on the basis of the combination of modern food technology principles, using scientific methods to formulate fillings more suitable for the taste of the masses, the launch of the tide of Guangdong and the wall of lotus seed paste, five kernels, egg yolks, fruits, and other different cakes, and continue to improve the quality of cakes and food, so that the product is more reputable and highly favored.
Three, peeling taro
The Teochew Mid-Autumn Festival to pay homage to the Queen of the Moon, there must be taro in the offerings, the folk have peeled taro taro custom. In this regard, Fangzhi also recorded, the Qing Shunzhi "Chaozhou Fu Zhi" cloud: "Mid-Autumn Festival to play the moon, peeling taro food, called 'peeling ghost skin'." Qing Jiaqing "Chenghai County," said: "(Mid-Autumn) with cooked taro peeled food, said 'peeling ghost skin'." Qing Qianlong "Jieyang County Zhi" says: "(Mid-Autumn) or peeled cooked taro and eat, called 'peeling ghost skin'. Today, Chaoshan still like to use steamed taro to worship the moon, to a large meat loose, skin cracks for the best, that is, the Chao commonly known as taro "smile". After worship, the whole family will peel and eat taro, enjoy some fun.