The 15th day of the eighth lunar month is the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival in China. Influenced by Chinese culture, Mid-Autumn Festival is also a traditional festival in some countries in Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia, especially overseas Chinese living there. Although both are Mid-Autumn Festival, different countries have different customs, and various forms are entrusted with people's infinite love for life and longing for a better future.
Japanese people don't eat moon cakes on the Mid-Autumn Festival
In Japan, the Mid-Autumn Festival on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month is called "the fifteenth night" or "the moon of the Mid-Autumn Festival". Japanese people also have the custom of enjoying the moon on this day, which is called "see you on the moon" in Japanese. The custom of enjoying the moon in Japan originated from China. After it was spread to Japan more than 1 years ago, the local custom of holding a banquet while enjoying the moon began to appear, which was called "Moon Watching Banquet". Unlike China people who eat moon cakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival, Japanese people eat glutinous rice dumplings while enjoying the moon, which is called "seeing dumplings on the moon". Because this period is the harvest season of various crops, in order to express gratitude to nature, the Japanese will hold various celebrations. Although Japan abolished the lunar calendar and switched to the solar calendar after the Meiji Restoration, the custom of enjoying the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival is still maintained in all parts of Japan, and some temples and shrines hold special moon-watching parties during the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Vietnamese Mid-Autumn Festival children play the leading role
With the approach of the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15th of the lunar calendar, the "moon cake war" and "toy war" among merchants have made the festive atmosphere in various parts of Vietnam particularly strong. Unlike the Mid-Autumn Festival in China, the Vietnamese Mid-Autumn Festival features children playing the leading role. There are all kinds of moon cakes, colorful lanterns, colorful children's toys and other holiday foods and toys with different tastes in the market, and children's faces are full of longing for festivals. This year's Mid-Autumn Festival, shops selling moon cakes along the streets of Hanoi, the capital, were hung in red and green, red lanterns with the words "moon cakes" hung high in front of the shops, and moon cakes of various brands were filled with shelves.
Every year during the Mid-Autumn Festival, lantern festivals are held all over Vietnam, and the design of lanterns is evaluated, and the winners will be rewarded. In addition, some places in Vietnam also organize lion dances during festivals, which are often held on the nights of August 14th and 15th of the lunar calendar. During festivals, local people sit on balconies and yards, or go out to the wild with their families, and put on moon cakes, fruits and other snacks, enjoying the moon and tasting delicious moon cakes. Children are carrying all kinds of lanterns and having fun in groups.
With the gradual improvement of Vietnamese people's living standards in recent years, the custom of the Millennium Mid-Autumn Festival has quietly changed. Many young people gather at festivals or at home, sing and dance, or go out together to enjoy the moon, so as to enhance the understanding and friendship between their peers. Therefore, the Mid-Autumn Festival in Vietnam, in addition to the traditional family reunion accident, is adding new connotations and is gradually favored by young people.
Singapore: Mid-Autumn Festival also plays a "tourist card"
Singapore is a country where Chinese make up the vast majority of the population and has always attached great importance to the annual Mid-Autumn Festival. For Chinese in Singapore, Mid-Autumn Festival is a godsend opportunity to connect feelings and express gratitude. Friends, relatives and business partners exchange moon cakes to express greetings and wishes.
Singapore is a tourist city, and the Mid-Autumn Festival is undoubtedly an excellent opportunity to attract tourists. Every year when the Mid-Autumn Festival approaches, the local famous Orchard Road, Singapore Riverside, Chinatown and Yuhua Garden are newly decorated. At night, the lights are on, and the whole street is red and exciting.
On the Mid-Autumn Festival in p>24, a giant dragon lantern of Xiangyun, which is 3 meters long and 4.5 meters high, was made at a cost of 7, US dollars. Whenever night falls, the giant dragon lanterns with water spray shine all over the body, reflecting the river in Singapore in a fiery red, and the scene is spectacular. In Chinatown, a traditional Chinese settlement, besides the giant lanterns imported from Nepal, Vietnam and other countries, 44 little dragons consisting of 1,364 small red lanterns add a lot of color to Chinatown. The Royal Garden, which has the charm of an ancient Chinese garden in Singapore, is currently holding a large-scale dream lantern festival. There are not only the popular Disney series lighting, but also the huge Beijing Temple of Heaven and the dragon-shaped lighting, which is particularly eye-catching.
Malaysia, Philippines: Overseas Chinese don't forget Mid-Autumn Festival
Eating moon cakes, enjoying the moon and holding lanterns are Mid-Autumn Festival customs handed down from generation to generation by Chinese in Malaysia. As the Mid-Autumn Festival approaches, time-honored merchants from all over Malaysia have launched various kinds of moon cakes. There are mooncake counters in all major shopping malls in Kuala Lumpur, the capital, and mooncake advertisements in newspapers and TV stations are overwhelming, creating a festive atmosphere for celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival. Chinese communities in some places in Kuala Lumpur recently held lantern-carrying parades to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival. Apart from dragon and lion dances, floats carrying Chang 'e and the Seven Fairys roamed among them, and artists and young people with bright costumes sang and danced, which was very lively.
Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional festival that overseas Chinese living in the Philippines attach great importance to. Chinatown in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, is very lively, and local overseas Chinese hold activities to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival. The main commercial streets in overseas Chinese communities are decorated with lanterns, the main intersections and the small bridges entering Chinatown are hung with colorful banners, and many shops sell various kinds of moon cakes made by themselves or imported from China. Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations include dragon dance parade, national costume parade, lantern parade and float parade, which attracted a large number of spectators and filled the historic Chinatown with a cheerful festive atmosphere.
In South Korea, the Mid-Autumn Festival is as important as the Spring Festival and New Year's Day. From August 14th of the lunar calendar, the whole country will have three consecutive holidays to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival. The most important thing in South Korea's Mid-Autumn Festival is that the whole family will reunite with their grandparents' home. First, they will worship their ancestors, and then the whole family will drink, dance and enjoy the moon together to celebrate. Mid-Autumn Festival is used to eating "muffins", which is a kind of food similar to moon cakes.
Like the Mid-Autumn Festival in China, Thailand's "Praying for the Moon Festival" also falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. On this day, Thai men, women and children will pay homage to the moon. People sit in front of the generous table and pray, and worship Guanyin Bodhisattva and the Eight Immortals. Legend has it that during the Mid-Autumn Festival, when praying for the moon, the Eight Immortals will bring peaches to the Moon Palace to celebrate Guanyin's birthday, and the immortals will "bless". In addition, the table of every household is filled with delicious food such as "peaches" and "moon cakes".
In August, Burmese people want to put on lanterns and tie colored lanterns to celebrate the coming of Hanukkah. The King of Myanmar personally presides over the celebration every year. The king will also go out to watch the lanterns and hold a grand charity surrounded by guards and officials. On the night of the festival, thousands of lights in Myanmar are bright as day, and there are "cities that never sleep" everywhere. Movies, plays and puppet shows, dancing and singing will be shown all night, and there are large-scale activities such as giving alms and fasting in the stupa.
Indians call Mid-Autumn Festival "Moon Festival". On the night of the full moon, young women stood on the camel's back with five overlapping mud pots on their heads, and climbed up the sand dunes slowly, praying for a bumper harvest of grains and the prosperity of six livestock. "Moon Festival" is also called Diwali. Diwali generally lasts for five days to commemorate the triumph of justice over evil, the triumph of light over darkness, and the triumph of wisdom over ignorance. During the festival, all buildings and water bodies are decorated with lights, or candles, or oil lamps-these are the earliest methods of artificial lighting after the bonfire era.
The "full moon festival" in Sri Lanka is spread according to the custom of "Buddhist calendar". When the moon reunites once a month, a festival is held, and of course the "full moon festival" in the Mid-Autumn Festival is the most grand. On the day of "Full Moon Festival", Sri Lanka has a national holiday. Good men and women are scrambling to go to temples or shrines to listen to the scriptures and worship the moon.
Cambodians hold a traditional "Moon Worship Festival" on the 15th day of the first quarter of December in the Buddhist calendar. Early this morning, people began to prepare gifts for the moon, picking flowers, digging cassava to make soup, frying rice and boiling sugar cane water, which was full of joy and busyness. In the evening, everyone put the offerings into the tray and went to the treetops that month. People were sincere to Yue Bai and prayed for blessings. After worship, the old man stuffed the flat rice into the child's mouth until it was too full to chew. This means "full circle" and "harmony and beauty"