Spring Festival, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, and Mid-Autumn Festival are the latest of the four traditional festivals in modern China. The Mid-Autumn Festival was formed during the Han folk festival system, and there is no trace of the Mid-Autumn Festival. Related to the vulgar Mid-Autumn Festival and the National Day, which were the central part of the full moon in the Tang and Song Dynasties, the Mid-Autumn Festival has risen to a major folk festival in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The Mid-Autumn Festival is the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, but it is a full-scale autumn seasonal custom. It contains the influence of festival factors and has a long origin.
Provide monthly moon worship to celebrate the harvest of the Mid-Autumn Festival
In the Tang and Song Dynasties, it was a general social and entertainment festival. The main activities of the Mid-Autumn Festival were the full moon and playing with the moon. The nature of the festival changed during the Ming and Qing dynasties; it is the same as the full moon, but the relationship between moral and economic relations seems to be more concerned about the sacred meaning of the moon, as well as the reality of society. The Mid-Autumn Festival is the harvest season, and people use the Mid-Autumn Festival to express harvest celebrations in a vulgar way. Seasonal fruits are sacrificed by both the moon and the moon, but you can also enjoy the fruits of your own labor.
On August 15th, Beijinger's Day in the Ming Dynasty, people bought a special "moonlight paper" in the market, which was a divine horse with a picture of Moonlight Bodhisattva sitting on a lotus seat and a rabbit holding a pestle. , standing ashenly next to medicines and pounds of mortar. This is the moonlight Bodhisattva Xiao Yin's tall, sparkling fine portrait. The Moonlight Bodhisattva, which is located in every Beijing home, is made of round fruits, bread and watermelon, and the watermelon is cut into lotus shapes. The moonrise party is held every month at night, and the products are removed after the moonlight paper is burned and eaten by ordinary families. In the Qing Dynasty, when the month of Beijing changed, the Taoist temple of the Moonlight Horse was titled Su Yaoyue, the government of Taiyinxing in June. On this day of June, restaurants in the city also sold more "Moonlight Horse, seventy-eight feet, two The feet are short, with two signs on the top, red, green or yellow, and moon incense is used to salute. After the ceremony, paper ingots are tied, and paper money is burned.
Festivals, due to the current customs Ming Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty Mid-Autumn Festival nationwide. There is a proverb from the Qing Dynasty: "On August 15th, children round watermelon mooncakes and offer them to the gods. "Compared with the day-to-day moon cakes in the Qing Dynasty, special sacrifice moon cakes, the moon cakes are round and large." The special moon cakes are generally enjoyed by their families after the festival, and some stay until New Year's Eve again To enjoy this kind of moon cake, it is often called as "reunion cake." For the Jiangnan vegetarian month, old pumpkins, lotus flowers, and moon cakes are placed next to a bowl of cold water dipped in a water-coated mesh in both directions for women and children to worship, Zhu Rongji said that his eyes are cool (Zhou Zuoren "Mid-Autumn Festival"). This custom comes from mid-August to Liu Chaolu Eye Wash Customization, when people give each other gifts during the Mid-Autumn Festival instead of mooncakes, but eye-clearing capsules filled with vanilla gel ( "When Jingchu was old").
Different descriptions and understandings surrounding the image of the moon god. In the month of the month, regardless of the custom in nearby Tingzhou, in the autumn, the son and daughter worship the fruit cake in the speech of the month, and the January oral divination disaster is long. Wealthy families in Zhuji City, Zhejiang Province produce large mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival, with mixed fruits piling up for months to "feast Chang'e". Every household in Suzhou puts flowers on bottles of wax, and on empty Sundays when there is no moon to break the image, small children "light up lights under the worship month which is called the Ramadan Palace". Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces have customized incense burning during the Mid-Autumn Festival. In Suzhou, the so-called Dou Xiang is made of thin incense sticks in the shape of a bucket, with red crumbs in the middle. The incense shops sell it to monks and lay people. People make it after autumn. The burning month is called "Burning Dou Incense." Dou Hong ram Zhou, papered into a bucket shape, the middle of the incense stick is about two feet high, the object of the Mid-Autumn Festival Night Festival ":" The word "heart" begins to burn, and the spirit of the incense moon wheel opens. Quantity, after all, the world is closed to the Qinhuai River in Guisu and Yangzhou, and the Mid-Autumn Festival is "related to the moon". The painting of Guanghan Qingxu Tower, known as "Moon Paper", is crowned with paper and silk statues, and the moon cakes are arranged for mourning. Women's clothes, called "Moon Palace", rituals and lotus root fruit.
It is worth noting that the worship of the previous generation was worshiped by both men and women. On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival in Song Capital, all the people in the city, whether rich or poor, children can walk to 12 years old and teenagers should wear adult clothes, go upstairs or on the court, "incense and worship the moon, everyone has their own cycle" . The boy "moon climbs up to the ghost fairy" early, which means that the moon god will bless him for his early imperial examination and the girl prays for a beautiful face, "May Day looks like Chang'e, and is as round as the clean moon." Song Zhongzhong? is a perfect match.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, major changes occurred in customs festivals for men to worship. The number of months was reduced, and women became the objects of worship exclusively for the moon god. There is a proverb in Beijing that "men do not worship the moon and women do not worship the stove". During the Mid-Autumn Festival in Beijing, during the Ming and Qing dynasties, a new seasonal object - the colorful rabbit. In the Ming Dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Festival was in the shape of a rabbit, dressed in a squatting posture, which was loved by sons and daughters to worship and worship. In the Qing Dynasty, it was nicknamed "Jade Rabbit" by Lord Rabbit, with little white rabbits in the sand, decorated with bright colors. Rabbit Master's exquisite production technology has various shapes, funny and interesting: Zhang Peng, carefully dressed up, pretending to be an official, wearing armor, holding a flag, dressed as a warrior, riding a tiger, sitting quietly. Large three feet tall, less than inches. The city is easy to understand, and the capital is gathered in Tianjieyue. "Rabbit Lord" adds a lot of fun to life in the market.
It is also common for minority shareholders to worship the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Oroqen people put a basin of water on the open space during the festival, put the sacrifice, and then kneel in the basin Bow down one month before.
A relatively typical activity of the Zhuang people in western Guangxi is to worship the moon and invite gods. Every year in mid-August of the lunar calendar, and some in autumn, people build an altar at the end of the village at the entrance of the open air to put sacrifices and incense burners. The height of the vertical root on the right side is about The one-foot branch or bamboo, which symbolizes the social tree, also serves as a ladder to the heavens for the descent of the moon god to the earth, here preserved elements of the old moon mythology. The whole event includes: the descent of the moon god to earth, by one or two women of the moon. Spokespersons of gods; antiphons between gods and men; singers of the Moon God's divination and fortune-telling mantras sang songs to send the Moon God back to heaven in four stages (see the inhabited "Chinese Nature Gods and Nature Worship"), which can be seen in a few remote areas. National cultural heritage is an ancient custom that is still far away from the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is a direct dialogue and exchange related to the cultural identity of ethnic minorities.
***Enjoy "Reunion Cake" /p>
On the Mid-Autumn Festival, the food is called "reunion cake" and moon cake among the people. The Mid-Autumn Festival is the harvest season, in which people exchange tokens and symbols of good luck by giving gifts of mooncakes to each other in order to strengthen ties between members of family and society.
The shape of moon cakes was praised in a poem by Su Dongpo in the Song Dynasty: "biscuits are like chewing the moon, crispy and sweet in the middle." From literature, I saw that, and then a section focused on new rewards, such as pomegranates, The taste of red dates, chestnuts, oranges, grape fruits, drinking new wine, "autumn flavor" refers to mooncakes that are not as important as seasonal foods. Mooncakes are custom-made specialties for the Mid-Autumn Festival. The festival may have begun in the Ming Dynasty. Fresh bread customs are available for the Mid-Autumn Festival in the early Ming Dynasty, but moon cakes are not yet mentioned. Accessing empty talk records, Nanjing Railway Crown Road Humanitarian Surgery is smart and able to predict future events. Ming was unmoved, and the summoned Taoist asked: "What do I have today?" He replied: "The prince's cake arrived in time." This day was the Mid-Autumn Festival, and Taizu Suiming Taoist locked himself in the room waiting for verification. Until the time came, the prince did not come to offer moon cakes, so the prince and his father presented moon cakes to the palace during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Civil works in urban and rural areas, as boxing feeds each other based on mooncakes.
Look at the furniture of Shishu from the Ming Dynasty in Beijing. It has a one-month survival period. The cakes vary in size, please call "Mooncakes" produced in Beijing in the late Ming Dynasty. There is a very elegant, not cheap "fruit filling" restaurant with a clever name, and the cakes are worth hundreds of dollars. In the Qing Dynasty, Beijing's Mid-Autumn Festival month-long incense lamp product was a reunion moon cake. The front door of Beijing brand moon cakes in the late Qing Dynasty Zhimizhai's mooncakes are the best in Kyoto. Generally, mooncakes with a diameter of more than a foot can be seen everywhere, with patterns of the moon, toads, and rabbits painted on them. They are eaten after the Beijing mooncake ceremony, which is a "family detoxification method." Eating mooncakes at the end of the year and New Year's Eve is called "reunion cake". The same mooncakes are used in Suzhou gardens during the Mid-Autumn Festival to feed each other. The custom of the festival was still inherited in Hangzhou during the Qing Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, eating mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival was also used as a round-eared moon cake at night festivals. double meaning.
Regional styles formed by modern mooncake production, Beijing mooncakes, Cantonese-style mooncakes, Soviet-style pastries, Ningbo mooncakes, etc., mooncake fillings, and mooncake shape processing methods all have their own characteristics. Beijing cake pastry, rock sugar filling; Cantonese-style mooncake syrup dough is mainly pastry, two types of hard-skinned seeds taste sweet and salty, lotus paste, red bean filling and meat, Soviet-style mooncake pastry pastry, commonly used pies, peach kernel, Melon seeds, pine nuts, with natural flavors of osmanthus, roses, etc.; Ningbo Yong mooncakes are also filled with moss vegetables. Traditional mooncakes with sugar and heavier oil, low-sugar mooncakes with fruit fillings have become more popular in recent years.
Small mooncakes, fed to each other, are a token of family affection that symbolizes reunion in civilian life and reaffirms kinship. There is a specific way to eat mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Generally, folk mooncakes should be cut into several parts evenly, according to the same population, and everyone enjoying the mooncakes symbolizes the reunion of family members. When people go out, they deliberately leave a copy of the symbol behind, and he also attends family reunions, leaving this mooncake for him to enjoy when he comes back on New Year's Eve. Eating for family reunion is a unique cultural habit of the Chinese.
Family Reunion
Reunion with a vulgar meaning is the centerpiece of the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Because of family life, Chinese people have strong family ethics and value kinship friendship and genetic connections, forming a folk psychology of harmonious reunion. The reunion of family members has become a major event in family life, and people often gather time for folk festivals. In the traditional New Year, people's requirements for reunion are met to varying degrees, such as "Group Year" New Year's Eve and Double Ninth Festival gatherings. The Mid-Autumn Festival is full of flowers and full moon. "The bright moon rises on the sea, and the end of the world is at this time." The full moon in the sky is considered to be a reunion of people. The Mid-Autumn Festival was considered a special "reunion" in ancient times. The awareness of reunion in the Song Dynasty has been linked to the Mid-Autumn Festival, making the above situation, family drama full moon, town residents' songs, which shows the moral considerations. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the immersion of jurisprudence and civil society strengthened the concept of rural areas and tribes. However, in secular life, people became increasingly aware of the social power of the family, so that people thought and felt more about the family. appendix. On the occasion of the Mid-Autumn Festival and the autumn harvest, it is a good opportunity to strengthen the kinship of moon cakes, the Mid-Autumn Festival folk leave, and reunite the meaning (明田如酲西湖志宇"). It is worth noting that the Mid-Autumn Festival folk customs place special emphasis on couples Reunion. A married woman is driven to reunite with her parents on the Mid-Autumn Festival. On the same day, they must return to her husband and reunite with her husband. As the saying goes: "I would rather stay with my husband." Festivals allowed in the fall.
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Pray for marriage heirs
The Mid-Autumn Festival is the autumn harvest season. Folk gods reward and pray for strong reproduction.
The ancient "men and women harvest in autumn" Later, the activity of praying for children was a standard activity in ancient Qiu society. The emergence of the Mid-Autumn Festival, when men and women meet, pray for customs gradually transferred to the customs of the Mid-Autumn Festival. Women's monthly prayers for traveling next month are mostly related to marriage heirs. One month playing was popular in the Song Dynasty, and it was also popular in the autumn in the Ming Dynasty, especially in Suzhou and Hangzhou in the south of the Yangtze River. On the top of the West Lake Su Di in Hangzhou, the side-stepping song is no different from the sky. Suzhou night tour scene, Zhang Mingdai's "Autumn in Tiger Hill", described: "Tiger Hill in August and a half, indigenous people, exiles, opinions, dependents, female musicians, Kabuki songs, courtesans play midwives, folk young women , good women, bastards, pedophiles and traveling bad young men, clearing out, hackers, west halls, empty-handed people, June sets "often called "moon walks", which women can wear for travel on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival. , go to the moon to visit relatives, or stay in a nunnery, and return to the Qing Dynasty in the middle of the night. "Going Months is a non-government women's lifting ban date that came together" has an implicit reproductive meaning behind the prayer. Tongzhi "Jiangxia County" records that in the autumn of Ziyang Bridge, Jiangxia City, especially the lively bridge Shilong, young women competed to touch objects, in order to obtain the grace of the media god, which has obvious significance. Prayer Son. The heirs of modern Nanjing hope to first visit the Confucius Temple and then make up a row to do so. In the modern Xiangtan area, during the Autumn Tour of Pagoda Pass, walking for months and praying for human reproductive health, a local folk song was sung: Visiting the Pagoda on August 15th, the King Buddha presented incense candles. The elder had green hair, and the twins were born with financial hair. After the fat baby Tang Ke has a full sister, "touching the autumn melon" or stealing the melon is a common custom of praying for children in the Mid-Autumn Festival in the evening. To "steal" melons, and then blow and beat them, and lively depict them in the shape of babies, such as winter melons or pumpkins, to give to infertile couples a few years of marriage. Home, says "provide for children". Some places grope at night like fruits, but bricks and stones. Huaining, "Xizhong, gravel blocks account for urban women's son groping rate at Songyang Gate, in front of Baizi'an, Bailu Bridge, the stones are male and female Yanwa". It is also very common in Hubei, Hunan and other provinces to go out to "steal" melons on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival. When it comes to stealing food, young men and women have their own choices. They usually "steal" to their partners in the park, stealing and laughing and playing, causing the couple to "steal" the fruit of happiness together.