1, the meaning of the Mid-Autumn Festival
Zhongyuan Festival is a Taoist saying. In ancient China, the 15th day of January, July and October was called Shangyuan, Zhongyuan and Xiayuan respectively: Shangyuan was heavenly god blesses the people Day, Zhongyuan was the day when local officials forgave sins, and Xiayuan was the day when water officials relieved Eritrea. Therefore, in the mid-Yuan Dynasty, Purdue was a ghost.
Mid-Autumn Festival-The traditional folk festival "Mid-Autumn Festival" in China on July 15 of the lunar calendar. In the south, it is also called "Ghost Festival". It is also said that the Mid-Autumn Festival is on July 14 of the lunar calendar. On this day, people bring sacrifices to the graves to pay homage to their ancestors, similar to Tomb-Sweeping Day's visit to the graves. In feudal times, the local government also ordered monks and Taoist priests in temples to set up a lonely soul Dojo to pay homage to the dead soldiers. On the Mid-Autumn Festival, people burned a lot of paper money.
2. The origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival
In the Book of Changes, "seven" is a changing number and a number of resurrection. The Book of Changes: "Repeat the same thing, come back in seven days, and the sky will be fine." Seventh, the number of yang and the number of days. After the yang between heaven and earth is extinct, it can be revived after seven days. This is the way of heaven and earth, and the principle of the cycle of yin and yang. "Seven" also has mysterious colors, such as seven stars in the sky, seven emotions in human feelings, seven colors in colors, seven tones in music, seven rhythms in poetry, and seven orifices in human body. "Seven" is also a human life cycle. Education begins at the age of seven, puberty begins at the age of fourteen, and the body is fully mature at the age of twenty-one. Seven numbers are staged in time among the people, and "July 7th" is often taken as the final and revived game when calculating time. "July is an auspicious month and a month of filial piety, and the fourteenth (Erqi) is the number of cycles of" seven ". The ancient people's choice to worship their ancestors on July 14th (July 30) is related to the resurrection number of "Seven".
This festival originated from the early "July and a half" harvest in autumn to worship ancestors. The birth of "July and a half" can be traced back to the ancestor worship and the harvest festival in ancient times. In ancient times, people often relied on the blessing of the gods for the harvest of farming. Ancestors are worshipped in spring, summer, autumn and winter, but the "autumn taste" in early autumn is very important. Autumn is the harvest season. People hold ceremonies to offer sacrifices to the ancestors' souls, offer the best seasonal products to the gods first, and then taste the fruits of these labors themselves, and pray for a good harvest in the coming year.
"July 30" was originally a folk ancestor worship festival in ancient times, but it was called "Zhongyuan Festival", which originated from Taoism after the Eastern Han Dynasty. Taoism has a "three-yuan theory", and the name "Zhong Yuan" comes from the fact that "Heaven officials bless the Yuan Dynasty, local officials forgive sins in the Yuan Dynasty, and water officials relieve Eritrea in the Yuan Dynasty. Buddhism calls July and a half the "Bonin Festival". In the Tang Dynasty, when the rulers praised Taoism, the Taoist Mid-Yuan Festival began to flourish, and gradually fixed "Zhong Yuan" as the name of the festival, which was set on July 15 and has been going on ever since.
3. When is the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2023?
Mid-Autumn Festival in 2023: August 30th, 2023 (the 15th day of the seventh lunar month).
4, Mid-Autumn Festival folk ancestor worship custom
Folk ancestor worship activities are generally held before July 15, and are not limited to a specific day.
Through a certain ceremony, the people take the ghosts of their ancestors home at night, and provide tea and rice for three times every morning, noon and faint until they are returned. When it is returned, the paper is wrapped with money, which is called "coating", or there are rituals (or Buddha or Tao). In some places (such as Hunan), the Mid-Autumn Festival is
More important than Tomb-Sweeping Day's ancestor worship day.
5. When is the best time to burn paper on the Mid-Autumn Festival?
The time for burning paper on the Mid-Autumn Festival must be chosen after dark, usually after 9 pm and before 12 pm.
Burning paper money is the most solemn sacrificial activity during the Ghost Festival. According to different regions, the time of burning paper money is different. In some areas, paper money will be burned in advance and on July 14th. But generally speaking, the paper money burning activity on the evening of July 15th is the most grand. Legend has it that on the night of July 15th, the devil will close the door of hell, so those ghosts will take the opportunity to make trouble. In order to prevent wild "ghosts" from entering the house, every family burns paper money outside the house, lights incense and wax paper to surround their houses, and children are not allowed to go out at night, in case they are taken away by wild ghosts in the chaos.
6. Festival significance
From the legends about July and a half, we can deeply understand that the sacrifice in July and a half has a dual significance, one is to show filial piety of remembering ancestors, and the other is to carry forward the righteous act of pushing oneself and others and being charitable. This is all from the perspective of compassion, which is very human. Therefore, while celebrating Zhongyuan, we should get rid of the ghost's point of view and look forward to mutual love.
As far as its cultural connotation is concerned, July 30 is also one of the traditional festivals for ancestor worship in China, and a belief is reflected behind its culture. July 30 belongs to intangible cultural heritage, is a kind of culture, and is an ancient and modern tradition of remembering the ancestors. This tradition embodies the ancient people's thought of "being cautious in the end and pursuing the distance", and its cultural core is to respect the ancestors and be filial.
The above is an introduction to the meaning and origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival. I hope you can learn more about it ~ ~ ~