1, eat moon cakes
Watching the moon and eating moon cakes have become the necessary customs for Mid-Autumn Festival in all parts of China. As the saying goes, "August and 15th are full, and the moon cakes in Mid-Autumn Festival are fragrant and sweet". The word moon cake originated from Wu Zimu's Dream Liang Lu in the Southern Song Dynasty, when it was only a snack. 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.
2. Sacrifice the moon
The Mid-Autumn Festival originated from the worship of the moon by the ancients. Sacrificing the moon is an activity of worshipping the "Moon God" in some places in ancient China. The "Autumn Equinox" of the 24 solar terms is an ancient "Festival of Sacrificing the Moon". Autumn Festival to the moon has a long history, which stems from the worship of celestial phenomena, praying for help to fulfill one's wish, so worship. After gradual evolution, the Mid-Autumn Festival has become an activity to admire and praise the moon for the people, and it has also become the main form of modern people's longing for reunion and pinning their good wishes for life.
3. Dance the fire dragon
Dragon dancing, commonly known as "burning dragons", is a traditional Hakka folk activity, which is mostly held on the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first month. Hakka people tied bamboo sticks and straw into the shape of "Golden Dragon", put firecrackers and incense on the "Golden Dragon", and set off dancing "Golden Dragon" with gongs and drums to pray for good weather and bumper harvests.
Dance the dragon? It is a traditional folk cultural activity on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month (Mid-Autumn Festival), and its representative places are Shima Village, Qinghu Village, Pingsha Village, Xiamao Village, Da Lang Village and Jiangcun Village in Baiyun District, Guangzhou. It is said that after dancing the dragon, you can get lucky and avoid evil, and the weather is good. In the past, rice stalks were tied into the shape of a dragon head and a dragon body, and burning incense was inserted. Young and strong boys went shirtless and waved and danced. Modern is made of rattan grass, banyan leaves, etc., and the general faucet is about 50 kg. Legend has it that dragons can spread clouds and rain, eliminate disasters and reduce happiness, symbolizing auspiciousness, so it has become a custom all over the country to pray for peace and harvest by dancing dragons.
4. solve riddles on the lanterns
The origin of lantern riddles in Mid-Autumn Festival has a long history in China, with a history of more than 3,000 years. "argot" appeared in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, which is the embryonic form 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, which has made 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.
5. Enjoy osmanthus flowers
Osmanthus fragrans, known as "Murraya", is a kind of traditional precious flowers and trees that our people love very much. Since ancient times, people have regarded osmanthus fragrans and its fruits as "spiritual reality from heaven", as a symbol of lofty, beautiful and auspicious. Therefore, people praise good children and grandchildren as "Gui Zi Lan Sun"; The "Jinshi Ji" or admitted to the top scholar, called "themoon won the laurels"; Call the Moon Palace "Guigong" and use "Guipo" as a metaphor for the moon. Moreover, the working people in our country have created many beautiful fairy tales with osmanthus flowers and the moon as their themes, and the fairy tale of "the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon and WU GANG holding out osmanthus wine" which has been handed down from generation to generation is one of the most representative ones. In the Mid-Autumn Festival, it is even more delicious to enjoy osmanthus, because osmanthus is entrusted with people's pursuit and praise for life is sweet.
6. Drink osmanthus wine
In ancient times, there was a custom of drinking osmanthus wine on Mid-Autumn Festival night. Every Mid-Autumn night, people look up at the bright moon, smell the Gui Xiang, think of WU GANG cutting osmanthus, drink a cup of osmanthus wine, celebrate the sweetness of the family and get together, which has become a holiday enjoyment. Osmanthus fragrans is not only ornamental, but also edible. In Qu Yuan's "Nine Songs", there are poems such as "Help the horse to fight and drink cinnamon pulp" and "Drink cinnamon and pepper pulp". It can be seen that the age of drinking osmanthus wine in China has been quite long.
Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional festival in China, which has been paid great attention to by people since ancient times. The essence of festival culture is constantly evolving while being passed down. But one thing has never changed, that is, the full moon reunites, the bright moon sends acacia, the warmth is not diminished, and the emotion sends the moon.