During the Mid-Autumn Festival, people’s main activities are admiring the moon and eating moon cakes.
Moon Appreciation
During the Mid-Autumn Festival, our country has had the custom of appreciating the moon since ancient times. The "Book of Rites" records that "Autumn Twilight and Evening Moon" means worshiping the moon god. 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 mooncakes, watermelons, apples, plums, grapes and other seasonal fruits. Mooncakes and watermelons are absolutely indispensable. The watermelon should also be cut into lotus shapes.
In the Tang Dynasty, admiring and playing with the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival was quite popular. In the Song Dynasty, the custom of enjoying the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival became even more popular. According to "Tokyo Menghua Lu", "On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, noble families decorated their terraces and pavilions, and people competed in restaurants to enjoy the moon." On this day, all shops and restaurants in the capital will redecorate their facades, tie up silk and hang colorful decorations on the archways, and sell fresh fruits and refined foods. The night market is bustling with people, and many people go to the balcony. Appreciate the moon in the pavilion, place food or arrange a family banquet, reunite the children, and talk to each other while admiring the moon.
After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the custom of appreciating the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival remained unchanged. In many places, special customs such as burning incense sticks, planting Mid-Autumn trees, lighting tower lanterns, releasing sky lanterns, walking on the moon, and dancing fire dragons were formed.
Eating moon cakes
People in both urban and rural areas of our country have the custom of eating moon cakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival. As the saying goes: "August and fifteenth are full, and Mid-Autumn moon cakes are fragrant and sweet." Moon cakes were originally used as sacrifices to worship the moon god. The word "moon cake" was first seen in "Meng Liang Lu" written by Wu Zimu in the Southern Song Dynasty. At that time, it was just a cake-shaped food like caltrop cake. Later, people gradually combined the Mid-Autumn moon appreciation with the tasting of mooncakes, which symbolized family reunion.
Mooncakes were originally made at home. Yuan Mei of the Qing Dynasty recorded the making of mooncakes in the "Sui Yuan Food List". In modern times, there have been workshops specializing in making mooncakes. The production of mooncakes has become more and more sophisticated, with sophisticated fillings and beautiful appearance. Various exquisite patterns are printed on the outside of the mooncakes, such as "Chang'e Flying to the Moon", "Galaxy" "Yueyue", "Three Pools Reflecting the Moon", etc. The roundness of the moon signifies people's reunion, and the roundness of cakes signifies people's eternal life. Mooncakes are used to convey the feeling of missing one's hometown and relatives, and to pray for a good harvest and happiness. These have become the wishes of people all over the world. Mooncakes are also used as gifts for relatives. Friends, contact feelings.
Other Mid-Autumn Festival customs
China has a vast territory, a large population, and different customs. The ways to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival are also diverse and have strong local characteristics.
In Pucheng, Fujian, women have to cross the Nanpu Bridge during the Mid-Autumn Festival in order to live longer. In Jianning, hanging lanterns on the Mid-Autumn Festival night is a good omen to ask for a child from the Moon Palace. People in Shanghang County celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, and most of their children ask the moon aunt when they worship the moon. When Longyan people eat moon cakes, parents will dig out a round cake with a diameter of two or three inches in the center for the elders to eat, which means that secrets cannot be known to the younger generations. This custom stems from the legend that mooncakes contain anti-Yuan messages to kill enemies. Before worshiping the moon during the Kinmen Mid-Autumn Festival, you must first worship God.
In Chaoshan, Guangdong, there is a custom of worshiping the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival, mainly for women and children. There is a common saying that "men do not worship the full moon, women do not worship the stove". In the evening, when the bright moon rises, women set up tables in the courtyard and on the balcony to pray in the air. Silver candles were burning high, incense was lingering, and the table was filled with fruits and cakes as offerings. There is also a local custom of eating taro during the Mid-Autumn Festival. There is a proverb in Chaoshan: "When the river and stream meet the mouth, the taro will be eaten." August is the taro harvest season, and farmers are accustomed to using taro to worship their ancestors. Although this is related to farming, there is also a widely circulated legend among the people: In 1279, the Mongolian nobles destroyed the Southern Song Dynasty, established the Yuan Dynasty, and brutally ruled the Han people. Ma Fa defended Chaozhou against the Yuan Dynasty. After the city was broken, the people were massacred. In order not to forget the suffering of the Hu people's rule, later generations used taro, which is homophonic with "beard head" and resembles a human head, to pay homage to their ancestors. This has been passed down from generation to generation and still exists today.
Burning pagodas on Mid-Autumn Festival is also very popular in some places. The tower height ranges from 1 to 3 meters, and is mostly built with broken tiles. Large towers are also built with bricks, accounting for about 1/4 of the tower height, and then stacked tiles, leaving a The tower mouth is used for putting fuel. On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, fires are lit, and the fuel includes wood, bamboo, chaff, etc. When the fire is strong, rosin powder is poured on it to ignite the flames, which is very spectacular. There are also folk rules for burning pagodas. Whoever burns the pagoda until the whole pagoda is red will win. The one who fails to do so or collapses during the burning process will lose. The winner will be given colorful flags, bonuses or prizes by the host. It is said that the burning of pagodas is also the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival uprising in which the Han people resisted the brutal rulers in the late Yuan Dynasty and used fire as a sign.
Folks in the Jiangnan area also have various customs during the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Nanjing people love to eat mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival, and they must eat Jinling’s famous dish, osmanthus duck. "Osmanthus duck" is on the market when osmanthus is fragrant. It is fat but not greasy and delicious. After drinking, you must eat a small amount of sugar taro and pour it with cinnamon syrup. It goes without saying that it is delicious. "Guangxi Pulp" is named after Qu Yuan's "Songs of the Chu: Shao Siming" "Help the North be closed and drink Guangxi Pulp". Guijiang, also known as sugar osmanthus, is picked around the Mid-Autumn Festival and pickled with sugar and sour plums. Jiangnan women are skillful in turning the things chanted in poems into delicacies on the table. Nanjing people call it "celebrating reunion" when they enjoy the moon with their families, "full moon" when they sit together and drink together, and "walking on the moon" when they go out to the market.
In the early Ming Dynasty, Nanjing built the Moon Tower and the Moon Bridge. In the Qing Dynasty, the Moon Tower was built under the Lion Mountain, both for people to admire the moon, and those who visited the Moon Bridge were the most popular. When the moon is high in the sky, people go to the Moon Tower and visit the Moon Bridge together, and enjoy seeing the Jade Rabbit. "Wanyue Bridge" is located in the Confucius Temple in Qinhuai, Henan. Next to the bridge is the residence of Ma Xianglan, a famous prostitute. That night, scholars gathered at the bridge to play the sheng and Xiao, reminiscing about Niuzhu playing with the moon and composing poems to the moon, so it was called the Wanyue Bridge. . After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, it gradually declined, and later generations had poems to write about it: "Fengliu Nanqu has been sold out, leaving only the West Wind Long Banqiao, but I recall the jade man sitting on the bridge, teaching me how to play the flute against the bright moon." Changbanqiao is the original Wanyue Bridge. In recent years, Nanjing Confucius Temple has been renovated, restoring some pavilions from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and dredging the river. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, you can come together to enjoy the fun of moonlighting here.
In Wuxi County, Jiangsu Province, incense sticks are burned on the Mid-Autumn Festival night. The incense cup is surrounded by gauze and silk, with scenes from the Moon Palace painted on it. There are also incense buckets made of incense threads, with Kuixing and colorful flags tied with paper inserted on them. The Shanghainese Mid-Autumn Festival feast is served with sweet-scented osmanthus honey wine.
In Ji'an County, Jiangxi Province, on the evening of the Mid-Autumn Festival, every village uses straw to burn earthen pots. After the crock is hot, add vinegar. At this time, the fragrance will fill the whole village. During the Mid-Autumn Festival in Xincheng County, grass lanterns are hung from the night of August 11th until August 17th.
On the Mid-Autumn Festival in Wuyuan, Anhui Province, children build a hollow pagoda with bricks and tiles. Decorations such as curtains and plaques are hung on the tower. A table is placed in front of the tower and various utensils for worshiping the "God of the Tower" are displayed. At night, lights are lit both inside and outside. Children in Jixi play Mid-Autumn Festival cannons. Mid-Autumn Cannon is made of straw tied into a braid, soaked and then picked up and struck on a stone to make a loud noise and a fire dragon custom. The fire dragon is a dragon made of grass with incense sticks stuck on its body. During the Fire Dragon Tour, a gong and drum team accompanied them, and they visited various villages before being sent to the river.
In addition to eating mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival, people in Sichuan Province also make cakes, kill ducks, and eat sesame cakes, honey cakes, etc. In some places, orange lanterns are also lit and hung at the door to celebrate. There are also children who put incense on the grapefruit and dance it along the street, which is called "Dancing Meteor Incense Ball". During the Mid-Autumn Festival in Jiading County, people worship the Earth God, perform dramas, vocal music and cultural relics, which is called "watching party".
In the north, farmers in Qingyun County, Shandong Province worship the God of Earth and Valley on August 15th, which is called "Qingmiao Society". In Zhucheng, Linyi, Jimo and other places, in addition to worshiping the moon, they also have to visit their graves to worship their ancestors. Landlords in Guanxian, Laiyang, Guangrao and Youcheng also entertained their tenants during the Mid-Autumn Festival. During the Jimo Mid-Autumn Festival, a festival food called "Mai Arrow" is eaten. Lu'an, Shanxi Province, hosted a banquet for their son-in-law during the Mid-Autumn Festival. In Datong County, mooncakes are called reunion cakes, and there is a custom of keeping vigil on Mid-Autumn Night.
Wanquan County in Hebei Province calls the Mid-Autumn Festival "Little New Year's Day". On the moonlight paper, there are figures of the Lunar Star King and Emperor Guan reading the Spring and Autumn Festival at night. People in Hejian County believe that the Mid-Autumn rain is bitter rain. If it rains during the Mid-Autumn Festival, the locals believe that the vegetables must taste bad.
On the Mid-Autumn Festival night in Xixiang County, Shaanxi Province, a man went boating and climbed a cliff, while the woman arranged a banquet. Regardless of whether you are rich or poor, you must eat watermelon. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, there are drummers who play drums along the door to ask for rewards. During the Mid-Autumn Festival in Luochuan County, parents led their students to bring gifts to pay homage to their husbands, and there were more lunches than on-campus dinners.
Many special Mid-Autumn Festival customs have also been formed in some places. In addition to appreciating the moon, offering sacrifices to the moon, and eating moon cakes, there are also fire dragon dances in Hong Kong, pagodas in Anhui, tree Mid-Autumn Festival in Guangzhou, burning pagodas in Jinjiang, watching the moon at Shihu Lake in Suzhou, moon worship by the Dai people, and moon dancing by the Miao people. , Dong people’s moon-stealing vegetables, Gaoshan people’s ball dance, etc.