The Mid-Autumn Festival (also known as: Zhongqiu, Qiuxi, August Festival, August Half,) is one of the four traditional festivals in China, dated on August 15th of the lunar calendar. Since ancient times, the Mid-Autumn Festival has included worshiping the moon, appreciating the moon, eating moon cakes, playing with lanterns, appreciating osmanthus flowers, drinking osmanthus wine and other folk customs, which have been passed down to this day and lasted for a long time. Later, people gradually combined moon appreciation with moon cakes, which symbolized family reunion and expressed their longing for each other. At the same time, mooncakes are also a gift used to connect friends during the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Traditional activities
Moon worship, moon appreciation, and moon worship
"Book of Rites" has long recorded that "Autumn Twilight Xiyue" means worshiping the moon. Gods, at this time, they will hold ceremonies to welcome the cold, worship the moon, and set up incense tables. By the Zhou Dynasty, every Mid-Autumn Festival night would be held to welcome the cold and worship the moon. Set up a large incense table and place moon cakes, watermelon, apples, dates, plums, grapes and other sacrifices. Among them, moon cakes and watermelon are absolutely indispensable, and the watermelon must be cut into lotus shapes. Under the moon, the moon statue is placed in the direction of the moon, with red candles burning high. The whole family worships the moon in turn, and then the housewife cuts the reunion moon cakes. The person who cuts the food must calculate in advance how many people are in the family. Those who are at home and those who are out of town must be counted together. They cannot cut more or less, and the sizes must be the same. Among ethnic minorities, the custom of worshiping the moon is also popular.
It is said that Wu Yan, an ugly girl from the ancient Qi State, worshiped the moon devoutly when she was a child. When she grew up, she entered the palace with outstanding moral character, but she was not favored. On August 15th of a certain year, the emperor saw her under the moonlight while admiring the moon. He thought she was beautiful and outstanding, so he made her his queen. This is how the Mid-Autumn Festival came to worship the moon. In the middle of the moon, Chang'e is famous for her beauty, so the girl worships the moon and wishes that she "looks like Chang'e and has a face like the bright moon." The Dai people of Yunnan also have a popular custom of "moon worship" on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival.
The custom of admiring the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival was very popular in the Tang Dynasty, and many poets included verses praising the moon in their famous works. In the Song Dynasty, the custom of admiring the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival became even more popular. On this day, "families would decorate their pavilions, and people would occupy restaurants to watch the moon." In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the activities of worshiping and appreciating the moon were more extensive among the court and the people. There are still many historic sites such as "Moon Worship Altar", "Moon Worship Pavilion" and "Moon Watching Tower" in various parts of China. Literati and officials were particularly fond of admiring the moon. They climbed up buildings to admire the moon or went boating to enjoy it. They drank wine and wrote poems, leaving behind many well-known masterpieces that will last through the ages. For example, Du Fu's "Moon on the Fifteenth Night of August" uses the fifteen bright moons symbolizing reunion to reflect his thoughts of wandering in a foreign land; Su Shi, a great writer in the Song Dynasty, drank till the end of the Mid-Autumn Festival and got drunk and wrote "Shui Diao Ge Tou", using the roundness and waning of the moon to represent people. The clutch. To this day, sitting together as a family and enjoying the beautiful scenery of the bright moon is still one of the essential activities during the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Tide watching
In ancient times, besides admiring the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival, tide watching was another Mid-Autumn event in Zhejiang. The custom of watching the tide during the Mid-Autumn Festival has a long history, and it was described in detail in Meicheng's "Qifa" in the Han Dynasty. After the Han Dynasty, the custom of watching tides during the Mid-Autumn Festival became even more popular. There are also records of tide watching in Zhu Tinghuan's "Supplement to the Old Wulin Stories" of the Ming Dynasty and "Mengliang Lu" written by Wu Zimu of the Song Dynasty.
Lighting lanterns
On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, there is a custom of lighting lanterns to help with the moonlight. Today, there is still a custom in Huguang area of ??stacking tiles on a tower and lighting lanterns on it. In the Jiangnan area, there is a custom of making light boats. In modern times, the custom of lighting lanterns during the Mid-Autumn Festival has become more popular. An article written by Zhou Yunjin and He Xiangfei in "Talking about Seasonal Events in Leisure" said: "Lanterns are the most popular in Guangdong. Every family uses bamboo strips to tie lanterns ten days before the festival. They make lanterns in the shape of fruits, birds, animals, fish and insects. and "Celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival" and other words, painted on colored paper in various colors. Mid-Autumn night lamps with internal burning candles are tied to bamboo poles and erected high on the eaves or terraces, or small lamps are built into glyphs or various shapes and hung. The lanterns hung high in the house are commonly known as the "Tree Mid-Autumn Festival" or "Put-up Mid-Autumn Festival". The lanterns hung in wealthy homes can be several feet high. Families gather under the lanterns to drink and have fun. Ordinary people put up a flagpole and two lanterns. It’s also fun for oneself. The lights all over the city are like a glass world.” It seems that the custom of lighting lanterns during the Mid-Autumn Festival has been second only to the Lantern Festival since ancient times.
Riddles
On the full moon night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, many lanterns are hung in public places. People gather together to guess the riddles written on the lanterns, because they are loved by most young men and women. At the same time, love stories are also spread in these activities, so Mid-Autumn Festival lantern riddle guessing has also been derived as a form of love between men and women.
Eating mooncakes
Appreciating the moon and eating mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival are essential customs for celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival in various parts of China. As the saying goes: "August and fifteenth are full, Mid-Autumn mooncakes Fragrant and sweet." The term mooncake originated from "Meng Liang Lu" written by Wu Zimu in the Southern Song Dynasty. At that time, it was just a snack food. Later, people gradually combined moon appreciation with moon cakes, which symbolized family reunion and expressed their longing for each other. At the same time, mooncakes are also an important gift used to connect friends during the Mid-Autumn Festival.
There is also the custom of betting on cakes in Xiamen, Fujian, and cake betting is listed as a national intangible cultural heritage item.
Appreciating osmanthus and drinking osmanthus wine
People often eat moon cakes to enjoy osmanthus during the Mid-Autumn Festival, and eat various foods made from osmanthus, with pastries and candies being the most common.
On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, looking up at the osmanthus in the middle of the moon, smelling the fragrance of osmanthus, drinking a glass of osmanthus honey wine, and celebrating the sweetness of the family has become a beautiful enjoyment of the festival. In modern times, people mostly use red wine instead.
Playing with lanterns
There is no large-scale lantern festival like the Lantern Festival during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Playing with lanterns is mainly done among families and children. As early as the Northern Song Dynasty, "Old Martial Arts" recorded the customs of the Mid-Autumn Festival, including the activity of "putting a "little red" lantern into the river to float and play."
People who play with lanterns during the Mid-Autumn Festival are mostly concentrated in the south. For example, at the Foshan Autumn Color Fair, there are various kinds of lanterns: sesame lanterns, eggshell lanterns, wood shaving lanterns, straw lanterns, fish scale lanterns, chaff lanterns, melon seed lanterns, bird and animal flower tree lanterns, etc.
In Guangzhou, Hong Kong and other places, Mid-Autumn Festival activities are carried out on the Mid-Autumn Festival night, and the trees are also erected, which means that the lights are put up high. With the help of their parents, children tie up rabbit lanterns, carambola lanterns or square lanterns with bamboo paper, hang them horizontally on short poles, and then erect them on high poles. When they are skilled, the colorful lights shine, adding to the Mid-Autumn Festival. A scene. Children often compete with each other to see who can erect taller, more lanterns and the most exquisite lights. There are also sky lanterns, that is, Kongming lanterns, which are made into large-shaped lanterns with paper. Candles are burned under the lanterns, and the heat rises, making the lanterns fly in the air, attracting people to laugh and chase. In addition, there are various lanterns carried by children to enjoy under the moonlight.
In Nanning, Guangxi, in addition to various lanterns tied with paper and bamboo for children to play with, there are also very simple grapefruit lanterns, pumpkin lanterns, and orange lanterns. The so-called grapefruit lamp is made by hollowing out the grapefruit, carving a simple pattern, putting it on a rope, and lighting a candle inside. The light is elegant. Pumpkin lanterns and orange lanterns are also made by removing the flesh. Although simple, it is easy to make and is very popular. Some children even float grapefruit lanterns into the pond and river as a game.
Guangxi has a simple household autumn lantern, which is made of six circles of bamboo strips tied into a lantern, with white gauze paper on the outside and candles inserted inside. Hang it next to the moon festival table to worship the moon, and it can also be played by children. Burning Tower
The game of burning tile lamps (also known as burning flower tower, burning tile tower and burning fan tower) is widely spread in the south. For example, Volume 5 of "China National Customs" records: Jiangxi "On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, ordinary children pick up tiles in the wild and pile them into a round tower shape with many holes. At dusk, they burn them in a tower of firewood under the bright moon. After the tiles are red-hot , and then pour kerosene on the fire to add fuel to the fire, and suddenly the surrounding areas are as red as daylight. Until late at night, no one is watching, and then the fire is poured. This is called burning a tile lamp. The tile-burning pagoda in Chaozhou, Guangdong is also a hollow pagoda built with bricks and tiles, filled with branches and set on fire. At the same time, smoke piles are also burned, which is to pile firewood into piles and burn them after the moon worship. The burning of Fan Pagoda in the Guangxi border area is similar to this activity, but folklore is to commemorate the heroic battle of Liu Yongfu, a famous anti-French general in the Qing Dynasty, who burned the Fan ghosts (French invaders) who fled into the tower. There is also a "tazai burning" activity in Jinjiang, Fujian.
It is said that this custom is related to the righteous act of resisting Yuan soldiers. After the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty, it carried out bloody rule over the Han people, so the Han people resisted unyieldingly. Various places organized riots on the Mid-Autumn Festival and lit fires on the top of the pagoda as a sign. Similar to the Fenghuo Tower lighting uprising, although this kind of resistance was suppressed, the custom of burning pagodas remained.