What's the difference between the next Yuan Festival and the Mid Yuan Festival in 2020?

Different times

Xiayuanjie

Next Yuan Festival is the 15th day of the 10th lunar month every year, also known as the birthday of the next Yuan, the water official festival of the next Yuan and the Winter Festival.

Ghost Festival

The Mid-Autumn Festival is the 15th day of the seventh lunar month every year, and in some places it is the 14th day of July, which is commonly known as July and a half. The Buddha calls it the Bonin Festival.

Different customs

Xiayuanjie

The festival custom of the next Yuan Festival is mainly to sacrifice ancestors and celebrate the official birthday of Shuishui. As an important festival of Taoism, in the next Yuan Festival, Taoists need to practice fasting and set up an altar for fasting and dipping in the gods, so as to avoid disasters. People, on the other hand, pray for gods and offer sacrifices to their ancestors at home. The next Yuan Festival also has its own unique seasonal food. Take Beijing as an example. Every household should make "bean paste and bone flowers" during the next Yuan Festival. "Bean paste" is the "bean paste stuffing" made by adzuki beans. It's a Beijing snack "bean paste buns". This kind of "bean paste buns" that can be eaten all year round was already a seasonal food in October of Meng Dong in the Ming Dynasty hundreds of years ago.

Ghost Festival

The most important festival custom of the Mid-Autumn Festival is offering sacrifices. In many places, a grand Mid-Yuan Purdue will be held to eliminate the rage of the dead. What we are familiar with is the custom of offering sacrifices to ancestors and setting off river lanterns.

Different meaning

Xiayuanjie

The festive significance of the next Yuan Festival lies more in praying for blessings, overcoming disasters, pulling out hardships and apologizing. Especially for water conservancy-related activities, it is closely related to the birthday of the water official on the next Yuan Festival.

Ghost Festival

From the legends about the Mid-Autumn Festival, we can deeply realize that the sacrifice of the Mid-Autumn Festival has a dual significance, one is to show filial piety for remembering ancestors, and the other is to carry forward the righteous act of pushing others and being charitable. This is all from the perspective of compassion, which is very human. Therefore, while celebrating Zhongyuan, we should get rid of the ghost's point of view and look forward to mutual love.