Mid-Autumn Festival is the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, and there are many customs in China.

Sacrificing the Moon, Appreciating the Moon and Yue Bai:

The Book of Rites has long recorded that "the moon falls at dusk in autumn", which means to worship the moon god. At this time, it is necessary to hold a ceremony to welcome the cold and worship the moon, and set up incense tables. In the Zhou dynasty, every mid-autumn night was held to welcome the cold and offer sacrifices to the moon. Set up a big incense table, and put moon cakes, watermelons, apples, red dates, plums, grapes and other sacrifices, among which moon cakes and watermelons are absolutely indispensable, and watermelons should be cut into lotus shapes. Under the moon, put the moon statue in the direction of the moon, and the red candle burns high. The whole family worships the moon in turn, and then the housewife cuts up the reunion moon cake. Cut the people in advance to calculate the number of people in the whole family, at home and in the field, all together, can not cut more or less, the size should be the same. Among ethnic minorities, the custom of offering sacrifices to the moon is also popular.

According to legend, the ugly women in ancient Qi had no salt. When they were young, they were devout to Yue Bai. When they grew up, they entered the palace with superior moral character, but they were not favored. Seeing the moon on August 15th, the son of heaven saw her in the moonlight and thought she was beautiful and outstanding. Later, he made her the queen, from which the Mid-Autumn Festival Yue Bai came. In the middle of the moon, Chang 'e is famous for her beauty, so Yue Bai, a young girl, wishes to be "like Chang 'e, and her face is like a bright moon". On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, the Dai people in Yunnan also have the custom of "Yue Bai".

The custom of appreciating the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival is very popular in the Tang Dynasty, and many poets have poems chanting the moon in their masterpieces. By the Song Dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Festival was more popular to enjoy the moon. On this day, "your family decorated the pavilions and the people competed for the restaurant to play with the moon". The activities of enjoying the moon in Yue Bai in the Ming and Qing Dynasties were more extensive, and many historic sites such as Yue Bai Altar, Moon-worshipping Pavilion and Moon-gazing Tower remain in various parts of China. Literati and scholars have a special liking for moon viewing. They either go upstairs to get the moon or go boating to invite the moon, drink wine and write poems, leaving many famous poems. For example, Du Fu's "jathyapple on August 15th" uses the bright moon symbolizing reunion to contrast his wandering worries in a foreign land; Su Shi, a literary giant in the Song Dynasty, was drunk in the Mid-Autumn Festival and wrote "Water Tune Song Tou", which is a metaphor for people's clutch by the lack of the moon. To this day, it is still one of the essential activities of the Mid-Autumn Festival for the whole family to sit together and enjoy the beautiful scenery of the bright moon in the sky.

Tide watching:

In ancient times, in addition to enjoying the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival in Zhejiang, tide watching was another Mid-Autumn Festival event. The custom of watching tide in Mid-Autumn Festival has a long history, which was described in detail in Mei Cheng's Fu of Seven Hair in Han Dynasty. After the Han Dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Festival tide watching became more popular. There are also records of watching the tide in Zhu Tinghuan's Supplementing the Past Events of Wulin in Ming Dynasty and Meng Liang Lu by Zi Mu in Song and Wu Dynasties.

Lighting lanterns:

On Mid-Autumn Festival night, there is a custom of lighting lanterns to help the moonlight. Nowadays, there is still a custom of burning lamps on the tower with tiles stacked on it in Huguang area. There is a custom of making lantern boats in the south of the Yangtze River. The custom of burning lanterns in modern Mid-Autumn Festival is more prosperous. Today, Zhou Yunjin and He Xiangfei said in their article "Talking about Seasons in Leisure": "Guangdong has the most prosperous lanterns, and families tie lanterns with bamboo strips ten days before the festival. Make fruit, birds and animals, fish and insects and' celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival' and so on, and paint various colors on paste paper. The internal combustion candle of Mid-Autumn Night Lantern is tied to a bamboo pole with a rope, which is high on the tile eaves or terrace, or it is built into a font or various shapes with small lights and hung at the height of the house, commonly known as' Mid-Autumn Festival on a tree' or' Mid-Autumn Festival vertically'. The lamp hung by a wealthy family can be as high as tens of feet. Family members gather under the lamp to enjoy drinking, while ordinary people erect a flagpole and two lanterns to enjoy themselves. The city is full of lights and glass world. " It seems that since ancient times, the custom of burning lanterns in Mid-Autumn Festival seems to be second only to the Lantern Festival in scale.

Guessing:

There are many lanterns hanging in public places on the Mid-Autumn Festival full moon night. People gather together to guess the riddles written on the lanterns. Because they are the favorite activities of most young men and women, love stories are also heard in these activities, so solve riddles on the lanterns in the Mid-Autumn Festival is also derived from a form of love between men and women.

Eating moon cakes:

Watching the moon and eating moon cakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival is a necessary custom in all parts of China. As the saying goes, "August 15th is full, and the moon cakes are sweet and fragrant". The word moon cake originated from Wu Zimu's "Dream of Liang Lu" in the Southern Song Dynasty, when it was only a snack food. Later, people gradually associate enjoying the full moon together with the mooncakes, symbolizing family reunion and carrying their thoughts. At the same time, moon cakes are also important gifts for friends to contact their feelings during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

There is also the custom of rich cake in Xiamen, Fujian, and rich cake is listed as a national intangible cultural heritage project.

Enjoy osmanthus fragrans and drink osmanthus wine:

People often eat moon cakes to enjoy osmanthus fragrans in Mid-Autumn Festival, and eat all kinds of foods made by osmanthus fragrans, especially cakes and sweets.

On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, it has become a kind of beautiful enjoyment to look up at the osmanthus in the middle of the month, smell the Gui Xiang, drink a glass of osmanthus wine and celebrate the sweetness of the family. In modern times, people mostly take red wine instead.

Playing with lanterns:

There is no large lantern festival like the Lantern Festival in Mid-Autumn Festival. Playing with lanterns is mainly between families and children. As early as the Northern Song Dynasty, in the Old Wulin Story, it was recorded that the Mid-Autumn Festival was a custom, and there was an activity of "putting a little red lamp into the river to drift and play". Playing lanterns in the Mid-Autumn Festival is mostly concentrated in the south. For example, at the autumn festival in Foshan, there are all kinds of colored lights: sesame lights, eggshell lights, wood shavings lights, straw lights, fish scales lights, chaff lights, melon seeds lights, birds, animals, flowers and trees lights, etc.

In Guangzhou, Hong Kong and other places, Mid-Autumn Festival activities will be held on Mid-Autumn Night, and the trees will be erected, which means that the lights will be erected high. With the help of their parents, children make rabbit lanterns, carambola lanterns or square lanterns out of bamboo paper, hang them horizontally in short poles, and then erect them on high poles. They are high-tech and colorful, adding another scene to the Mid-Autumn Festival. Children often compete with each other to see who stands tall and much taller, and the lights are the most exquisite. In addition, there are sky lanterns, that is, Kongming lanterns, which are made of paper and tied into large lights. Candles are burned under the lights, and the hot air rises, making the lights fly in the air and make people laugh and chase. In addition, there are all kinds of lanterns carried by children to enjoy in the lower reaches of the moon.

In Nanning, Guangxi, besides all kinds of lanterns tied with paper and bamboo for children to play with, there are also simple grapefruit lanterns, pumpkin lanterns and orange lanterns. The so-called grapefruit lamp is to empty the grapefruit, carve a simple pattern, put on a rope, and light a candle inside, which is elegant. Pumpkin lanterns and orange lanterns are also made by removing the pulp. Although simple, it is easy to make and very popular. Some children also float grapefruit lights into the pool water for games.

There is a simple autumn lantern in Guangxi, which is made of six bamboo strips tied into a lantern, covered with white gauze paper and inserted with candles. Hang it on the moon-offering table for the moon-offering, or for children to play with.

Burning Tower:

The game of burning tile lanterns (or burning flower tower, burning tile tower and burning fan tower) is widely circulated in the south. For example, in Volume 5 of "Records of Chinese National Customs": "On Mid-Autumn Night in Jiangxi, children usually pick up tiles in the wild and pile them into a round tower with holes. At dusk, burn it in a firewood tower under the bright moon. As soon as the tiles burn red, then pour kerosene on the fire, and suddenly the fields are red and shine like day. Until late at night, when no one is watching, it begins to pour interest, which is a famous burning tile lamp. " The tile-burning tower in Chaozhou, Guangdong Province is also a hollow tower made of bricks and tiles, which is filled with branches and burned. At the same time, it also burns smoke piles, that is, piles of grass and firewood are burned after the end of Yue Bai. The Burning Fan Tower in the border area of Guangxi is similar to this kind of activity, but the folklore is to commemorate the heroic battle of Liu Yongfu, a famous anti-French fighter in Qing Dynasty, who burned the ghost (French invaders) who escaped into the tower. There is also a "burning tower boy" 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, the Han people were subjected to bloody rule, so the Han people made unyielding resistance, and all localities met for the Mid-Autumn Festival and lit a trumpet on the top floor of the pagoda. Similar to the fire at the peak platform, although this resistance was suppressed, the custom of burning pagodas remained.