One theory originated from the sacrificial activities of ancient emperors. It is recorded in the Book of Rites that "the sun rises in spring and the moon sets in autumn", and the moon is a sacrifice to the moon, indicating that as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, emperors began to offer sacrifices to the moon and Yue Bai. Later, aristocratic officials and scholars followed suit and gradually spread to the people.
Second, the origin of Mid-Autumn Festival is related to agricultural production. Autumn is the harvest season. The word "autumn" is interpreted as "autumn when crops are ripe" In the Mid-Autumn Festival in August, crops and various fruits are maturing one after another. In order to celebrate the harvest and express their joy, farmers regard the Mid-Autumn Festival as a festival. "Mid-Autumn Festival" means the middle of autumn. August in the lunar calendar is a month in autumn, and the 15th is a day in this month. Therefore, the Mid-Autumn Festival may be a custom passed down from the ancient Autumn Newspaper.
Some historians have also pointed out that the origin of Mid-Autumn Festival should be August 15th, 13th year of Tang Jun's great cause at the end of Sui Dynasty. Pei Ji and Tang Jun, with the idea of a full moon, successfully invented moon cakes and distributed them to the army as military salaries, which successfully solved the problem of military rations derived from absorbing a large number of anti-Sui rebels.
Customs and habits of Mid-Autumn Festival:
First, sacrifice the moon, enjoy the moon, and enjoy Yue Bai.
Second, watch the tide.
In ancient times, Zhejiang Mid-Autumn Festival was another Mid-Autumn Festival activity besides watching the moon. The custom of watching tide in Mid-Autumn Festival has a long history, which is described in detail in Mei Cheng's Seven Hairs Fu in Han Dynasty. After the Han Dynasty, Mid-Autumn tide watching became more popular. There are also records of watching the tide in Zhu Tinghuan's Ming Bu Wulin Past and Zi Mu's Meng Lianglu.
Third, burn the lamp.
On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, there is the custom of burning lanterns to help the moon. Nowadays, there is still the custom of piling tiles and burning lamps on towers in Huguang area. Jiangnan has the custom of making lantern boats. The custom of burning lanterns in modern Mid-Autumn Festival is more prosperous.
Fourth, guess riddles
On the Mid-Autumn Festival full moon night, many lanterns will be hung in public places. People get together to guess the riddles written on lanterns. Because they are the favorite activities of most young men and women, and love stories are also heard in these activities, solve riddles on the lanterns is also derived as a form of love between men and women in the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Five, eat moon cakes
Watching the moon and eating moon cakes is an essential custom in Mid-Autumn Festival in all parts of China. As the saying goes, "Moon cakes are sweet and fragrant when they are full on August 15th". The word moon cake originated from Liang Lumeng written by Wu in the Southern Song Dynasty, when it was just a snack. Later, people gradually associated moon viewing with moon cakes, symbolizing family reunion and bearing their thoughts. At the same time, moon cakes are also an important gift for friends to contact their feelings during the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Sixth, enjoy osmanthus and drink osmanthus wine.
People often eat moon cakes and enjoy osmanthus in Mid-Autumn Festival, and eat all kinds of foods made of osmanthus, among which cakes and sweets are the most common.
On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, looking up at osmanthus, smelling osmanthus fragrance and drinking a glass of osmanthus wine in the middle of the month to celebrate the sweetness of the family has become a wonderful enjoyment of the festival. In modern times, people mostly use red wine instead.
Seven, play with lanterns
There is no large-scale Lantern Festival in Mid-Autumn Festival, and playing with lanterns is mainly between families and children. As early as the Northern Song Dynasty, it was recorded in Old Wulin that the Mid-Autumn Festival was a custom, and there was an activity of "putting a small red light into the river to drift and play". Lantern playing in Mid-Autumn Festival is mostly concentrated in the south. For example, in 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 and animals, flowers and trees lights and so on.
Eight, combustion tower
The game of burning tile lamp (or burning flower tower, burning tile tower and burning fan tower) is widely circulated in the south. For example, Volume 5 of China Folk Customs: "On the Mid-Autumn Festival night in Jiangxi, children usually pick up tiles in the wild and pile them into round towers with holes. At dusk, it is burned in the firewood tower under the bright moon. As soon as the tiles burned red, kerosene was poured on the fire, and suddenly the fields were red and bright as day. It was not until late at night, when no one was watching, that it began to pour interest. This is the famous tile-burning lamp. " The tile-burning tower in Chaozhou, Guangdong Province is also a hollow tower made of bricks, which is filled with branches and burned to ashes. At the same time, it also burns smoke piles, that is, piles of grass and firewood burned after the end of Yue Bai. The fan-burning pagoda 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 ghosts (French invaders) who escaped into the pagoda. There is also a "tower burning boy" activity in Jinjiang, Fujian.
Legend has it that this custom is related to the righteous act of resisting the Yuan soldiers. After the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty, the Han people were subjected to bloody rule, so the Han people made unyielding resistance, held meetings in various places to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, and lit trumpets on the top floor of the pagoda. Similar to the fire on the platform at the top of the mountain, although this resistance was suppressed, the custom of burning pagodas remained.