In our impression, it seems that eating moon cakes and enjoying the moon have always been the tradition of Mid-Autumn Festival. Then, besides moon cakes, what are the traditional customs of Mid-Autumn Festival? Why don't you have a look

? What are the traditional customs of Mid-Autumn Festival?

? 1. Worship the Moon

In ancient times, Chinese people had the custom of "mooning at dusk in autumn". The evening moon is to worship the moon god. 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. Watermelon has to 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.

? 2. Lantern Festival

Since ancient times, Chinese people have had the custom of holding Lantern Festival in Mid-Autumn Festival. It is recorded in the Old Wulin Story of the Northern Song Dynasty that during the Mid-Autumn Festival, "Little Red" lanterns were put into the river to drift and play. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the custom of Mid-Autumn Festival has become more popular, and many places have formed customs such as planting Mid-Autumn Festival trees and putting sky lanterns.

Lantern is not only a variety, but also often decorated with paper-cutting, calligraphy and painting, poetry and other decorations, which is a display of traditional Chinese folk handicrafts. In Guangzhou, Hong Kong and other places, the activity of "Tree Mid-Autumn Festival" means to erect colored lights. The bright colored lights not only enrich the festive atmosphere, but also become a unique landscape of the city. In Nanning, Guangxi, in addition to all kinds of lanterns tied with paper and bamboo for children to play with, there are also simple sleeve lanterns, pumpkin lanterns and orange lanterns. The so-called "sky lantern", that is, Kongming lantern, is a lamp made of paper. When a candle is lit under the lamp, the hot air can make the lamp fly into the air, which makes people laugh and chase.

the light symbolizes hope. Lantern viewing is very popular in traditional festivals in China, which shows that the Chinese nation is optimistic about life and looking forward to the future.

? 3. Light the lamp

On the Mid-Autumn Festival night, the sky is as clear as water and the moon is as bright as a mirror, which is a beautiful scene. However, people are not satisfied with this, so there is a custom of lighting the lamp to help the moonlight.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is full of bright moonlight, and people will go out for a trip. At that time, lanterns were held for outing, so there was a custom of burning lanterns to help the moonlight. "Burning lanterns" originated from Taoism's "three-yuan theory": the fifteenth day of the first month is Shangyuan Festival, the fifteenth day of July is Zhongyuan Festival, and the fifteenth day of October is Xiayuan Festival. The three officials in charge of the upper, middle and lower elements are heaven, earth and man respectively. Celestial officials are happy, so lanterns should be lit on the Lantern Festival. The wind of burning lanterns and setting fires on the Lantern Festival started in the Han Dynasty. To the Tang Dynasty, it became a custom. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, people also had the custom of burning lanterns during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

? 4. Enjoy osmanthus? Drinking osmanthus wine

appreciating osmanthus in Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional custom that has existed since ancient times. The good moral behind osmanthus is not only lofty and beautiful, but also linked to the official career economy, that is, taking the kindness of "themoon to win the laurel" in order to win the exam. Appreciation of osmanthus in Mid-Autumn Festival indicates people's pursuit and praise for life is sweet. In ancient times, people regarded osmanthus fragrans and its fruit as a symbol of lofty, beautiful and auspicious. Therefore, it is also a custom for Mid-Autumn Festival to enjoy osmanthus and drink osmanthus wine, which is a beautiful scenery.

Drinking osmanthus wine Every Mid-Autumn Festival night, people look up at the osmanthus in the middle of the month, smell the Gui Xiang, drink a cup of osmanthus wine, celebrate the sweetness of the family and get together, which has become a beautiful enjoyment of the festival. Osmanthus fragrans is not only for viewing, but also has food value. In Qu Yuan's "Nine Songs", there are poems such as "Help the horse fight and drink cinnamon pulp" and "Drink cinnamon wine and drink pepper pulp". It can be seen that the age of drinking osmanthus wine in China has been quite long.

? 5, taste crabs

This is a custom in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, and the Mid-Autumn Festival is the season of "crab paste fat, rice fragrance". A full moon, a pot of sake, a few old friends and a plate of hairy crabs are fascinating. Back to the secular life: but today's hairy crabs must be expensive enough. You might as well save the moon for tomorrow.

? 6, eating snails

In the "Shunde County Records" during the Xianfeng period of Qing Dynasty, it was recorded: "Looking at the sun in August, it is still eating snails." Eating snails in the Mid-Autumn Festival is the finale food for many people in Guangdong. On the one hand, people think that eating snails can improve their eyesight. It is said that eating snails on August 15th can make their eyes "bright as autumn moon". Secondly, I think that the fatness of snails also means beauty; Third, the snail has a shell, and peeling the shell and eating meat is a sign of "eating heart (new) transport" in order to get rid of evil spirits and bad luck.

on the other hand, the word "snail" is homophonic with the word "Luo" in Cantonese. As the saying goes, "If you have no food, ask the snail (Luo)". Eating the snail in mid-autumn night means a bumper harvest, which means a bumper harvest.

? 7. burn the tower

burn the tower in mid-autumn night. Towers vary in height from 1 to 3 meters, and are made of broken tiles. Large towers are made of bricks, accounting for about 1/4 of the tower height, and then stacked with tiles, leaving a tower mouth at the top for fuel delivery. In the Mid-Autumn Festival night, it will be ignited and burned. The fuel is wood, bamboo, chaff, etc. When the fire is prosperous, rosin powder will be poured to cheer, which is very spectacular.

There are also folk regulations on burning pagodas. Whoever burns the pagodas to the full red will win, and those who fail or collapse in the burning process will lose. The winner will be awarded colorful flags, bonuses or prizes by the host. It is said that burning the tower was also the origin of the Han people's rebellion against the cruel rulers at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the Mid-Autumn Uprising.

Modern people use "burning towers" to pray for the rice to be full, the family to be prosperous and the relatives and friends to be safe. Jiangxi, Guangzhou and other places still follow this custom.

? 8. Watching the Tide

The custom of watching the Tide in Mid-Autumn Festival has a long history. Su Shi's "Watching the Tide on August 15th": "I know that the Jade Rabbit is very round, and it has been frosty and cold in September. Send a message to shut the door and close the key, and the night tide will stay in the moon. " In ancient times, in Zhejiang, besides enjoying the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival, tide watching was another Mid-Autumn Festival event. To this day, watching tide in Qiantang is still the most distinctive folk activity in Zhejiang Mid-Autumn Festival.

In addition, many special Mid-Autumn Festival customs have been formed in some places. Besides enjoying the moon, offering sacrifices to the moon and eating moon cakes, there are Hong Kong's dancing dragon, Anhui's piling pagoda, Guangzhou's Mid-Autumn Festival, Jinjiang's burning tower boy, Suzhou Shihu's watching the moon, Dai's Yue Bai, Miao's jumping on the moon, Dong's stealing moon dishes and Gaoshan's holding dance.