the origin of mid-autumn festival
mid-autumn festival is a traditional festival in China. According to historical records, the word "Mid-Autumn Festival" first appeared in the book Zhou Li. By the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there was a record of "telling Shangshu Town that cattle were confused, and mid-autumn evening and the left and right traveling incognito across the river". It was not until the early years of the Tang Dynasty that the Mid-Autumn Festival became a fixed festival. The Book of Tang Taizong records the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15th. The prevalence of Mid-Autumn Festival began in the Song Dynasty, and by the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was as famous as New Year's Day and became one of the major festivals in China. This is also the second largest traditional festival in China after the Spring Festival.
according to the Chinese calendar, the eighth month of the lunar calendar is in the middle of autumn, which is the second month of autumn, and the fifteenth day of August is in the middle of autumn, so it is called Mid-Autumn Festival. There are many nicknames for Mid-Autumn Festival: it is called "August Festival" and "August and a half" because it falls on August 15th; Because the main activities of Mid-Autumn Festival are all around the "moon", it is also commonly known as "Moon Festival" and "Moon Festival". The full moon in Mid-Autumn Festival symbolizes reunion, so it is also called "Reunion Festival". In the Tang Dynasty, Mid-Autumn Festival was also called "Correcting the Moon". The record of "Reunion Festival" was first seen in the Ming Dynasty. "Notes on the Tour of the West Lake" said: "August 15th is the Mid-Autumn Festival, and people send mooncakes as a token of reunion". "A Brief Introduction to the Scenery of Dijing" also said: "On the 15th of August, when the moon is sacrificed, the cakes will be round, the melons will be wrongly divided, and the petals will be carved like lotus flowers. ..... Those who are married and mothering will return to their in-laws' homes, saying "Reunion Festival"? quot; . On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, there is a custom of "reunion" in most parts of our country, that is, a small cake symbolizing reunion and similar to moon cakes is branded, which contains sugar, sesame, osmanthus and vegetables, and the moon, osmanthus trees and rabbits are pressed outside. After the moon festival, the elders in the family will divide the cake into pieces according to the number of people, one for each person, and if someone is not at home, leave a copy for them to show family reunion.
During the Mid-Autumn Festival, there are few clouds and fog, and the moonlight is bright and bright. In addition to a series of activities such as enjoying the moon, offering sacrifices to the moon, eating moon cakes and wishing reunion, there are also activities such as dancing grass dragons and building pagodas in some places. In addition to moon cakes, all kinds of seasonal fresh fruits and dried fruits are also delicious food on Mid-Autumn Festival.
Another explanation for the origin of Mid-Autumn Festival is that the 15th day of the eighth lunar month happens to be the time when rice is ripe, and all families worship the land god. The Mid-Autumn Festival may be the legacy of the Autumn Newspaper.
the history of lantern riddles
lantern riddles are an art form of Chinese folk literature; It is the wisdom and crystallization of the people in long-term labor practice, which originates from life and is used in life; It is also an intellectual activity game that people love to see and hear. It attracts fans from all walks of life all over the world, and makes people gain knowledge, enlighten wisdom and get wonderful enjoyment.
Lantern riddles in China have a long history, with a history of more than 3, years. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there appeared the "Ci" and "argot", which were the rudiments of lantern riddles. By the Han Dynasty, "argot" began to divide into two directions. A kind of mystery of things with descriptive characteristics as the main feature; Another kind of literary mystery mainly focuses on the form and meaning of words. In the Wei Dynasty, it was called a riddle. With the prosperity of poetry in Sui and Tang Dynasties, poetry puzzles appeared in large numbers and became the mainstream. Since the Song Dynasty, some scholars have often posted riddles on various lanterns on the Lantern Festival night to attract pedestrians to guess and shoot. This is how the "lantern riddle" came about. After the mid-Qing Dynasty, enigmas flourished and many enigmas emerged. After the Revolution of 1911, lantern riddles formed two styles of "Southern Sect and Northern Sect". In the old society, because most of the enigmas were literati, some literati pretended to be lofty, unilaterally emphasized elegance and rejected folk lantern riddles. After liberation, under the guidance of the party's literary policy of "letting a hundred flowers blossom", lantern riddles have developed more vigorously, and riddles have become increasingly perfect and rich, making great contributions to building socialist spiritual civilization and invigorating the cultural life of the masses. At present, Chinese and overseas Chinese all over the world have lantern riddle activities and lantern riddle academic exchanges.
Eating moon cakes
Qin Zaisi's Notes in Luozhong said that Tang Xizong ate moon cakes on Mid-Autumn Festival, which was very delicious. When he heard that Qujiang, a newcomer, held a wedding banquet, he ordered the imperial kitchen to wrap moon cakes in HongLing and give them to the newcomers. This is the earliest record of moon cakes that we can see. In the Song Dynasty, moon cakes were known as "lotus leaf", "golden flower" and "hibiscus", and their production methods were more clear. Su Dongpo, a poet, praised it in a poem, saying, "Small cakes are like chewing the moon, and there are crisps and fillings in them." Crisps are oil crisps and fillings are sugar, and its taste is sweet, crisp, fragrant and beautiful. After the Song Dynasty, making moon cakes not only pays attention to taste, but also designs various patterns related to the legend of the Moon Palace on the cake surface. At first, the pattern on the cake surface was probably painted on paper and then pasted on the cake surface. Later, it was simply pressed on the moon cake with a dough mold. The moon cake in the shape of a full moon symbolizes a happy reunion just like the full moon in the 15th National Day. People regard it as holiday food, use it to offer sacrifices to the moon and give it to relatives and friends. This is undoubtedly a reflection of the national psychology of the Han nationality. Legend has it that in the early years of the Yuan Dynasty, the rulers of the Yuan and Mongolia were afraid that the people would rise up and resist, and they adopted a high-pressure policy of sending one soldier to monitor every ten families, and only ten families were allowed to use a kitchen knife. The people couldn't bear it, so they took the opportunity of giving each other moon cakes on the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15th, and put a wax pill in the moon cake, wrapped in paper, with an oath written on it, and a piece of paper at the bottom of the cake as a hint, so as to call on each other to fight against the rejuvenation of Mongolia. Is this kind of moon cake called in Wenzhou, Zhejiang? quot; "Sanjin", according to the homonym of local dialect, means "kill tight". This is probably the reason why a piece of paper is often attached to the moon cake today.
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 can be described as a beautiful scene. However, people are not satisfied with this, so there is the custom of lighting the lamp to help the moonlight. In Huguang area, it is customary to stack tiles on the tower and burn lights on it. In the south of the Yangtze River, there is a custom of making lanterns. In modern Mid-Autumn Festival, the custom of burning lanterns is more prosperous. Modern people 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 sticks ten days before the festival. Make words such as fruits, birds and animals, fish and insects and celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, and paint various colors on paste paper. Mid-autumn night lights are tied to bamboo poles with ropes, and tall trees are placed on tile eaves or terraces, or small lights are used to build fonts or various shapes, which are hung at the height of the house, commonly known as the Mid-Autumn Festival in trees or vertical Mid-Autumn Festival. The lamp hung by a rich house can be as high as tens of feet. Family members gather under the lamp to enjoy drinking, while ordinary people erect a flag pole and two lanterns to enjoy themselves. The city is full of lights and glass world. "It seems that the custom of burning lanterns in the Mid-Autumn Festival from ancient times to the present seems to be second only to the Lantern Festival.
Poetic and picturesque "Moon Mystery"
On the bright canopy of China traditional culture, riddles have always been a bright star with unique charm. For thousands of years, like other forms of art in China culture, she has formed an indissoluble love affair with the moon, and numerous interesting and meaningful works involving the moon have been circulated.
Generally speaking, these "moon riddles" can be divided into two categories: those who take the moon as a riddle and those who solve the riddle for the moon. Perhaps because the beautiful image of the moon is so familiar and profound in people's minds, it is not easy to make a riddle with the moon as the answer, but it is not difficult to guess. For example: "Total solar eclipse tomorrow", type the word "month"; "Mid-autumn chrysanthemums are in full bloom", and the idiom "Spend a full moon" is used; "themoon Qu", playing the name "Moon Bend"; "Ice wheel surges", playing the movie title "The sea rises and the moon rises"; Wait a minute. Many of these "moon riddles" are really clever and impressive, but after all, due to the limitation of a single mystery in production, the output is far from as rich as the works with the moon as the mystery. In the latter, the creative space is obviously open, and the hands and feet of the puzzle maker are less bound, so the connotation of the riddle is greatly expanded, almost all-encompassing, and the works are more colorful and fascinating. In fact, this latter kind of mystery should be regarded as the mainstream of "Moon Mystery".
Many riddles with the moon as the riddle take the form of poems, and most of them quote well-known poems of Tang and Song Dynasties. For example, take Li Bai's "a slip of the moon hangs over the capital" as the character name "Qin Ming" in "Water Margin"; Take Du Fu's "how much brighter the moonlight is at home!" as an agricultural term: "light"; In the words of Jia Dao, "Monks knock on the door of the moon" and hit the foreign place name "Guam"; Take Su Shi's poem "The moon is full of rain and shine" as an economic term "self-financing"; Wait, all belong to this category. Of course, there are also many famous quotations from modern poets to create. Mao Zedong wrote a famous poem "Huanxisha and Mr. Liu Yazi" in October 195. There is a sentence in Liu's original work: "The song sings the full moon", so it is quoted as a Tang poem: "This song should only exist in the sky", with a bottom-locked riddle, steady and appropriate work and remarkable end.
The styles of many "Moon Mysteries" are simple and popular, giving off a simple and civilian flavor. For example: "February Ping", type the word "Friends"; "The moon and the stars depend on each other, and the sun and the moon * * * exist", and the word "fishy" is typed; "A pair of bright moons are intact and stand left and right at the foot of the mountain", and the word "collapse" is typed; "Holding the moon in your hand", playing the idiom "the apple of your eye"; Wait a minute. These "moon mysteries" and "silly" are fascinating, giving people a sense of intimacy and closeness. There are also some "moon mysteries", which obviously reveal a graceful and elegant scroll. Like "and never tip his golden cup empty toward the moon!", playing the Peking Opera repertoire "Night Cup" with "falling tail"; "The moon on the stone city is like a hook", and the title of "Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio" is Jinling B; "The end of the world and the moon are round", typing Marshal Ye Jianying's poem Yuanwang; "The bright moon shines on me" and hits the late Ming writer "Gui Youguang"; There is also an old mystery left by the Qing dynasty, "I will return home when I see the moon twice", and I will "look at it" in the Four Books; ……。 Guess this kind of "moon mystery", if there is no "ink three-thirds" in the stomach, I am afraid it will be like "the dog eats the moon and can't talk."
Some "Moon Mysteries" have been told for years, and people are still interested in them, so they are worthy of being called "old ladies" who are young. And more works produced in the new period undoubtedly make people feel a bright style of the times after guessing and playing. For example, "and the moon comes running up the river" refers to the second physics term: "luminescence" and "fluctuation"; "Twenty-five strings play jathyapple", playing the first form of modern literature and art: "Music evening"; "Clouds break through the moon to make a shadow", playing the mining jargon "open pit mining"; "I am worried about my heart and the bright moon", playing the scientific and technological term "optical communication"; Wait a minute. If we say that the footprints of history can be traced from the plates of every culture and art, aren't the above "moon mysteries" also a proof?
interestingly, some "moon riddles", the same riddle, can respectively allude to several riddles with completely different connotations, such as lifting the same red veil and seeing different smiling faces of several brides. For example, "till, raising my cup, I asked the bright moon" not only plays the name "Chaotian Qu", but also plays the second foreign place names: "Yangon" and "Balkan"; After playing the idiom "I am the only one"; Then hit the stamp collecting noun "top grade"; Also type the pinyin letter four: "yowv"; There are as many as five answers in total, which can be described as "shooting at a riddle". And another phenomenon is equally interesting-some riddles and answers of "Moon Mysteries" can actually "swap roles" with each other and still be correct, which is really "one of the mysteries". For example: "This song should only be in the sky", and the movie name is "Crescent Moon"; "The moon bends over Kyushu", and the seven-character Tang poem "This song should only be in the sky" is an example.
It is particularly worth mentioning that many modern "moon mysteries" come from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan compatriots and overseas Chinese. For example, Taiwan Province's "while the autumn moon is pouring full" plays the food name "longan"; "The clear stream reflects the bright moon", and the daily expression of life is "beautiful"; Hong Kong and Macao's "waning moon slanting shadows in pairs", put a word "many"; Overseas Chinese in Thailand's "When will there be a bright moon", hit the "Book of Songs" sentence: "Three or five in the east"; ……。 Chewing and pondering these "moon mysteries", can you say that there is no deep affection among the overseas sons who are eager for the reunification of the motherland and the reunion of flesh and blood? !
The topic of "Moon Mystery", like the moon like an ice mirror and jade, is graceful and touching. There is a saying: "A round is as bright as a day, and it is the Mid-Autumn Festival." On the clear night of that month, when friends and relatives were sitting and cooking tea, it was no harm to have a riddle about inviting the moon to entertain them. I believe that the colorful "Moon Mystery" will definitely make the moon in your eyes more charming and lovely than usual.
Rabbits in the moonlight and folk customs
Rabbits go to the Moon Palace:
In people's minds, rabbits are very kind and kind animals. In ancient legends, besides Chang 'e and Wu Gang, there were rabbits who first boarded the Moon Palace. This is the beautiful imagination of the ancient people.
Chang 'e boarded the Moon Palace. According to ancient books such as Huai Nan Zi, it was because she ate the elixir that her husband Yi got from the West Fifth Mother, flew into the Moon Palace, and became a toad. WU GANG boarded the Moon Palace. According to the records in Youyang Miscellany, it was because WU GANG, a western man, made a mistake in cultivating immortals that he was sent to replace the laurel tree in the moon. This osmanthus tree grows with cutting, and it will never stop cutting.
As for the rabbit's visit to the Moon Palace, it was first seen in Qu Yuan's Tian Wen, "What is it that makes you feel like a bird, while Gu and Tu are in the abdomen?" . It means that Gu and Tu are in the belly of the moon, what good is it for the moon? How did the rabbit get to the moon palace? Gu is a toad, Tu is a white rabbit. Fu Xuan's "Quasi-Heaven Question" in the Jin Dynasty also said: "What is there in the middle of the month, the white rabbit is smashing medicine." According to Mr Wen Yiduo's textual research, this "white rabbit tinkering with medicine" was changed from "toad tinkering with medicine".
In this month, Gu and Tu have changed from one thing to two things. There is also a folk legend about how they got to the moon: WU GANG left home for three years, and Sun Boling, the grandson of Emperor Yan, had an affair with his wife A Nv and gave birth to three children. After WU GANG's fall, his wife felt guilty, so she asked the youngest two children to fly to the moon to accompany their nominal father. "Shan Hai Jing-Hai Nei Jing" records: "Sun Boling, the son of Emperor Yan. Burlingtong Wu Quan's wife, A Nv's wife. A woman who has been pregnant for three years is born with a drum, delayed and died. " In the middle of the month, Gu and Rabbit were delayed and died.
Fun "male prostitute":
Because the rabbit went to the Moon Palace, people used "male prostitute" when celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival in ancient times.
Every time the Mid-Autumn Festival evening, when a bright moon is high in the sky, every household will set up an incense table in the courtyard, on which offerings such as moon cakes (also known as reunion cakes) and fruits are placed. In addition, there are Moonlight Horses and male prostitute. Women always worship the moon. After the sacrifice, the family sat around the table, drinking reunion wine and eating reunion cakes. This is the ancient custom of offering sacrifices to the moon.
What are "Moonlight Horse" and "male prostitute" in the offerings to the moon? This is the product of the ancient city of Beijing.
According to A Brief Introduction to the Scenery of the Imperial Capital: "On August 15th, it is necessary to sacrifice fruit cakes to the moon; If you divide the melon, you must carve it in the wrong way, such as lotus paper, moonlight paper, full moon statue, sitting in lotus, moonlight shines all over the bodhisattva. The moon in China hangs in the temple, and a rabbit stands with a pestle, smashing medicine in the mortar. About three inches for the youngest, three inches for the eldest, and the workers are resplendent. " The "moonlight paper" mentioned here is a paper horse, that is, "moonlight horse". "The Year of Yanjing" said: "The capital called the gods horses, and did not dare to denounce the gods". This moonlight horse, the upper part is painted with the Lunar Star King, and the lower part is painted with the Moon Palace, Gui Dian and male prostitute, who is working on drugs. The colorful paintings are dazzling.
As for male prostitute, it is also recorded in The Chronicle of Yanjing Years Old: "Every Mid-Autumn Festival, people who are clever in the city use loess to make a toad and rabbit image for sale, which is called male prostitute." In the old days, there was often a stall in male prostitute in the area of Dongsi Pailou, which sold male prostitute for the Mid-Autumn Festival. In addition, Nanzhi Store and incense sticks are also available for sale.
This male prostitute has been personalized through the bold creation of folk artists. It is the head of a rabbit, holding a jade pestle. Later, some people modeled male prostitute as a warrior with golden helmet and shining armor, some riding beasts such as lions and elephants, and some riding birds such as peacocks and cranes. In particular, male prostitute riding a tiger is a strange thing, but it is a folk artist.