This year's lunar calendar August 15th (September 25th) is my country's traditional Mid-Autumn Festival, and it is also the second largest traditional festival after the Spring Festival.

According to the ancient Chinese calendar, August in the middle of autumn is called "Zhongqiu", so the Mid-Autumn Festival is also called "Zhongqiu Festival", "August Festival" and "August Half".

During the Mid-Autumn Festival, there are folk customs such as worshiping the "Moon Goddess" and "Taiyin Star Lord", worshiping the moon, appreciating the moon, walking on the moon, hanging lanterns, eating moon cakes, eating reunion dinner, offering rabbits, drinking osmanthus wine and other folk customs. Therefore, August 10th

May is also known as "Reunion Festival" and "Mooncake Festival". The humorous Hutong old man sometimes even calls it "Father Rabbit Festival".

The term "Mid-Autumn Festival" first appeared in the "Book of Zhou Rites": "On the mid-spring day, drummers preach elegance to welcome the heat; on the Mid-Autumn night, they also welcome the cold like clouds." The Mid-Autumn Festival originated from the ancient sacrificial activities to the "Moon God".

Moon worship originated from the worship of the moon by ancient people. They personified the moon in the celestial body and became the "Moon God".

Throughout the dynasties, the Moon God was called the God of Night, and after the rise of Taoism, the Moon God was called the Taiyin Star Lord.

Due to the spread of many myths and stories such as Chang'e flying to the moon, people often believe that the moon goddess is Chang'e, and call them Yue Gu and Yue Sister.

Therefore, there is a custom of setting up a table to worship the "Moon Goddess" on August 15th. On this day, in Taoist temples, incense is burned to pray to the Taiyin Star Lord.

In old Beijing, five altars of heaven, earth, sun, moon and sheji were built since the Ming Dynasty. Among them, the Moon Altar (also known as the Xiyue Altar) was built outside Fuwai in the ninth year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty (1530).

The Moon Altar is composed of the Moon Worship Altar, the Hall of Furniture, and the Divine Kitchen. It became the place where emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties prayed to the God of Night and the gods of the stars in the sky. The Moon Altar has now become an important cultural heritage and scenic spot in Beijing.

monuments.

Among the people, there are customs of royal nobles worshiping the moon, literati and poets appreciating and chanting the moon, common people worshiping the moon at home, appreciating the moon with their families, and women walking on the moon.

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties and the Republic of China, dignitaries and literati in Beijing also went to the Changhe outside Xizhimen, the Second Gate outside Dongbianmen and other places with great scenery at the time on the Mid-Autumn Festival. They visited the restaurants and tea shops on the shore or went to Shichahai, Taoranting, Tianjin and other places.

In the pavilions and halls of Ning Temple and other famous temples, you can admire the moon from the window, sip tea and drink, recite poems and talk, talk and have fun, and then return home at night.

After worshiping the moon in the courtyard, families in the courtyard also sit under the bright moonlight, watch the moon, and have reunion dinner. They eat moon cakes that symbolize reunion and beauty, and share steamed reunion cakes.

This corresponds to a common saying: "The heart knows the gods, and it is for people to eat." There is a folk song in Peiping that sings: "The lotus flowers have not been completely unloaded, and it is the Mid-Autumn Festival. Every household is cutting moon cakes, fragrant wax paper, horse and rabbit, and playing guessing games with the same order.

"Appreciating the moon." vividly summarizes the scene of celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival in the courtyard.

There is a saying that "men do not worship the moon, and women do not worship the stove." Therefore, housewives are responsible for worshiping the "Moon Goddess" in courtyards. On the night of the full moon, they pray for happiness, reunion, and good fortune for the whole family, so they eat it.

Moon cakes are also known as eating reunion cakes, and the Mid-Autumn Festival is also known as the Reunion Festival.

The moon waxes and wanes, and people are divided into rich and poor.

The moon crescents over Kyushu, and some families are happy and some are sad.

During the Mid-Autumn Festival in old Beijing, not every family could be reunited and every family could be so happy.

For those poor people in old Beijing, celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival was like going to hell. Loan sharks often took advantage of the Mid-Autumn Festival to come to their homes to demand debts. The Mid-Autumn Festival was one of the three traditional festivals where creditors came to their homes in the past (the other two festivals were the Dragon Boat Festival and the Dragon Boat Festival on May 5th.

The 30th day of the twelfth lunar month).

There is a poem "Mid-Autumn Accounting" in "Miscellaneous Odes of Dumen": "The Mid-Autumn Festival lasts all night long, and the creditors are full and refuse to let go. The old and the young stop drinking and the sound is silent, and the reunion wine is in the Ming Dynasty." To avoid debts, he left.

People who run away from their families or are forced to hang themselves in rivers are often reported in the newspapers. Of course, this is not a reunion festival. Of course, these old events are unknown to the younger generation.

Reminiscing about the bitterness and thinking about the sweetness, the past is passing by like clouds, and today's happy life is like sweet mooncakes covered with honey, adding sweetness to the sweetness.

The custom of eating mooncakes has many origins and legends.

As early as the Yin and Zhou dynasties, there was a kind of "Taishi cake" in Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas with thin edges and thick heart in commemoration of Taishi Wenzhong in the late Yin and Shang Dynasties. This is the ancestor and the original prototype of Chinese mooncakes.

After the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, mooncakes have become a traditional delicacy during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

In novels and anthologies of the Ming and Qing dynasties such as "Water Margin" and "A Dream of Red Mansions", there are descriptions of worshiping the moon, appreciating the moon, guessing moon riddles, and eating moon cakes.

"Wanshu Miscellaneous Notes" written by Shen Bang in the Ming Dynasty recorded the grand occasion of mooncakes in Beijing: "Everyone in the neighborhood made dough cakes of various sizes and called them moon cakes. The shops used fruit as fillings, and they had strange names. There was one

The cakes were worth hundreds of dollars. "The mooncakes at that time were of various sizes, including round mooncakes with images of toads and rabbits in the moon palace, crescent mooncakes of various shapes for men, gourd mooncakes for women, and mooncakes for women.

Mooncakes in the shapes of small animals, rabbits, etc. that children play with.

From the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, pastry shops in old Beijing also produced and sold "red and white mooncakes" called Zilaihong and Zilaibai.

In old Beijing, the mooncakes made by Zhimei Zhai outside Qianmen and Dashengzhai, a time-honored Hui brand in Tong County, were the most famous.

Nowadays, Beijing mooncakes are made with more sophisticated craftsmanship, more sophisticated selection of materials, and many varieties.

Some time-honored brands such as Daoxiangcun and Meiweizhai have launched corn mooncakes, five-ring mooncakes, sugar-free mooncakes, floral mooncakes, etc. Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant has also launched roasted duck with five kernels, duck meat crisps and other high-quality mooncakes, offering a variety of innovative and unique mooncakes.

Citizens tasted and gave them to relatives and friends, and were praised.

In old Beijing, folk worshiping the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival required offering the Moon Palace Divine Code (talisman) and "Rabbit Lord". This folk custom is related to the beautiful legend of the moon by the common people.

Legend has it that there is a Jade Rabbit in the Moon Palace who accompanies Chang'e and makes medicine for her.

If any naughty child plays with the rabbit on the altar table during the Mid-Autumn Festival, he will be beaten.