The name of "Zhongyuan" originated in the Northern Wei Dynasty, and Zhongyuan Festival is also called "Ghost Festival" or "Menglan Basin Festival". According to the five miscellaneous records: "The Daojing takes the 15th of the first month as the Shang Yuan, the 15th of July as the Zhong Yuan, and the 15th of October as the Xia Yuan." The book of practice says: "On the Mid-Yuan Day in July, the local officials descended to determine the good and evil in the world, so the Taoist priests chanted scriptures at night and the hungry prisoners were freed." On this day, Buddhism also held the transcend Dharma Meeting, which was called "Wulanmana" (in Hindi, ULLAMBANA), that is, the "Menglan Meeting". The meaning of Menglan basin is hanging upside down, and the pain of life is like a bat hanging upside down on a tree, hanging and miserable. In order to save all living beings from the suffering of hanging upside down, it is necessary to chant scriptures and give food to ghosts and ghosts. This happened to coincide with China's ghost moon worship, so the Mid-Autumn Festival and Menglan Club were handed down at the same time.
Introduction to the Mid-Autumn Festival:
The Mid-Autumn Festival is commonly known as Ghost Festival. Folk traditional festivals. It's on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, and it's also on the fourteenth of July. On this day, families offer sacrifices to their ancestors, and some even hold family dinners, and salute them like a ritual. Three rounds of wine shows that after the ancestors' feast, the family will sit together and have a holiday dinner. After the blackout, take firecrackers, paper money and incense sticks, find a quiet riverside or pond flat, and sprinkle a circle with lime to indicate the restricted area. Then pour some water and rice in the circle, burn some paper money, set off firecrackers, send our ancestors on their way and turn to the "underworld". In the past, on the seventh day of July, the people would take the ghosts of their ancestors home through a certain ceremony, and provide tea and rice for three times every morning, noon and dusk until July 15th. Now, superstition is gradually eliminated, and the form of memorial service is retained as a memory and commemoration of ancestors.
The significance of the Mid-Autumn Festival:
From the legends about the Mid-Autumn Festival, we can deeply realize that the sacrifice of the Mid-Autumn Festival has a dual significance, one is to show filial piety for remembering ancestors, and the other is to carry forward the righteous act of pushing 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.