Mid Autumn Festival customs

The Mid-Autumn Festival is the 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar every year. According to the Chinese lunar calendar, August is the second month of autumn, which was called Mid-Autumn in ancient times, so it is called Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as Autumn Festival, August Festival, August Half, Moon Night, Moon Festival, and because the moon is full on this day, symbolizing reunion, it is also called Reunion Festival. The folk Mid-Autumn Festival has a variety of customs such as eating moon cakes, admiring the moon, appreciating osmanthus flowers, and guessing lantern riddles.

The 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar is the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival in China, and it is also the second largest traditional festival in China after the Spring Festival. August 15 is in the middle of autumn, so it is called the Mid-Autumn Festival. The ancient Chinese calendar calls August, which is in the middle of autumn, "Mid-Autumn Festival", so the Mid-Autumn Festival is also called "Mid-Autumn Festival".

Around the Mid-Autumn Festival, a variety of festivals have been formed since ancient times, including popular customs that are generally accepted in various places, as well as customs rich in regional characteristics and ethnic customs.

Eat mooncakes. Eating moon cakes in the Mid-Autumn Festival is the same as eating zongzi during the Dragon Boat Festival and eating glutinous rice balls during the Lantern Festival, which is a traditional folk custom in China.

Moon. Since ancient times, China has had the custom of worshipping and admiring the moon. In the Zhou Dynasty, every Mid-Autumn Festival night was held to welcome the cold and worship the moon. The custom of admiring the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival was very popular in the Tang Dynasty, and many poets have verses of the moon in their famous poems.

In addition to admiring the moon and eating moon cakes, people in different regions also celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival according to their own regional traditions and social customs, forming different Mid-Autumn Festival customs with strong local characteristics. For example, many areas in the south are prevalent in the Mid-Autumn Festival and watching the tide, the old Beijing is popular to play with rabbits, in addition to the Mid-Autumn Festival of trees in Guangzhou, the burning tower in Anhui, the fire dragon dance in Hong Kong, etc., many ethnic minorities also have the Mid-Autumn Festival customs such as moon jumping and moon worship, and these activities have greatly enriched the traditional festival culture of our country.

What are the customs of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

In our hometown, in addition to delivering moon cakes, we also have to reunite the whole family, and there is also a special food called "glutinous rice".

There is nothing special in our Yangzhou where younger relatives will give elder gifts, such as moon cakes and ...... alcohol, cigarettes

In addition to eating moon cakes and reuniting, the ancients also worshiped the moon and prayed for peace.

Look at the moon, eat moon cakes, and sacrifice the moon with fruits after the full moon.

Eat mooncakes and enjoy the moon with your family!

In my hometown, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a very grand festival, and the married daughter has to give mooncakes to the elders of her mother's family, in addition to her parents, there are uncles, uncles, etc.; On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, after the moon comes out, every household will set up a table in the yard with melons and fruits, candy, tea and other items, and then burn some sandalwood to worship the moon.

Since ancient times, the Mid-Autumn Festival has folk customs such as worshipping the moon, admiring the moon, eating moon cakes, playing with lanterns, appreciating osmanthus flowers, drinking osmanthus wine, etc., which have been passed down to this day and endured endlessly. The Mid-Autumn Festival uses the full moon to reunite people, as a sustenance of missing hometown, missing relatives, praying for a good harvest and happiness, and becoming a colorful and precious cultural heritage.

On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, there is also a special moon-viewing activity called "walking the moon". Under the bright moonlight, people are dressed beautifully, in groups of three or five, or visiting the market, or lacking boats on the Qinhuai River, or climbing the building to watch the moonlight, talking and laughing. In the Ming Dynasty, Nanjing built the Moon Tower, played the Moon Bridge, and there was the Moon Tower under the Lion Mountain in the Qing Dynasty, all of which were the moon viewing places when the visitors "walked the moon".

Eating moon cakes is already a necessary custom for the Mid-Autumn Festival in all parts of China, and people have to eat moon cakes on the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival to show "reunion". Moon cakes, also known as moon cakes, harvest cakes, palace cakes, reunion cakes, etc., are offerings to the moon god in the ancient Mid-Autumn Festival.

Mooncakes were originally used as sacrifices to the moon god, and later people gradually used the Mid-Autumn Festival moon viewing and tasting mooncakes as a major symbol of family reunion. Mooncakes symbolize great reunion, and people use it as a holiday food to worship the moon and give gifts to relatives and friends.

Moon appreciation in the Mid-Autumn Festival, our country has the custom of moon appreciation since ancient times, and the "Book of Rites" records the "autumn twilight and sunset", that is, to worship the moon god. In the Zhou Dynasty, every Mid-Autumn Festival night was held to welcome the cold and sacrifice the moon. Set up a large incense table, put on moon cakes, watermelons, apples, plums, grapes and other seasonal fruits, among which moon cakes and watermelons are absolutely indispensable.

The watermelon should also be cut into lotus shapes.

In the Tang Dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Festival was quite popular for moon viewing and playing with the moon. In the Song Dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Festival moon appreciation wind was more prosperous, according to the "Tokyo Menghualu" record: "Mid-Autumn Festival night, the noble family knotted the pavilion, and the people competed to occupy the restaurant to play the moon."

Every day, all the shops and restaurants in the capital have to re-decorate the façade, the archway is tied with silk and hung colors, ** fresh fruits and refined food, the night market is very lively, the people go up to the platform more, some rich families enjoy the moon on their own pavilions, and put food or arrange family banquets, reunite their children, and enjoy the moon together.

After the Ming and Qing dynasties, the custom of admiring the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival is still the same, and many places have formed special customs such as burning bucket incense, tree Mid-Autumn Festival, lighting tower lamps, putting sky lanterns, walking the moon, and dancing the fire dragon.

Eating moon cakes The urban and rural masses in China have the custom of eating moon cakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival, as the saying goes: "August 15 is full, and the Mid-Autumn Festival moon cakes are fragrant and sweet." Moon cakes were originally used to worship the moon god, and the word "moon cake" was first seen in the Southern Song Dynasty Wu Zimu's "Dream Lianglu", at that time, it was just a cake-shaped food like a rhombic cake.

Later, people gradually combined the Mid-Autumn Festival moon viewing with the tasting of moon cakes, which symbolized family reunion.

Mooncakes were originally made at home, and the practice of mooncakes was recorded in the "Sui Garden Food List" by Yuan Mei of the Qing Dynasty. In modern times, there is a workshop specializing in the production of moon cakes, the production of moon cakes is more and more refined, the filling is exquisite, the appearance is beautiful, and there are various exquisite patterns printed on the outside of the moon cakes, such as "Chang'e running to the moon", "Milky Way Night Moon", "Three Pools Printing the Moon" and so on. With the full moon of the reunion of the people, with the cake of the round of the trillion people's eternal life, with the moon cake to send the hometown, miss the feelings of relatives, pray for a good harvest and happiness, have become the wishes of people all over the world, moon cakes are also used as gifts to relatives and friends, contact feelings.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional festival in China, and families of all ethnic groups will get together, so how do ethnic minorities spend the Mid-Autumn Festival? The following is the origin of the Manchu Mid-Autumn Festival culture.

Manchu Mid-Autumn Festival customs.

The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the "August Festival", is a traditional festival of the Manchu people. It is held every year on the 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar. It is prevalent among the Manchus throughout the country.

The Mid-Autumn Festival originated from the customs of the Han nationality and began to see the Zhou Dynasty. At that time, every year on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, people held activities to welcome the cold and worship the moon. This custom has taken shape in the Han Dynasty, but it was on the day of the beginning of autumn.

In the Jin Dynasty, there were beginning to be moon viewing activities, but it has not yet become a custom. It was not until the Song Dynasty that August 15 was uniformly designated as the Mid-Autumn Festival. Because August 15 is exactly half of the third autumn, it is called "Mid-Autumn Festival".

On the night of the festival, the moon is round and bright, and people reunite with their families to enjoy the moon festival, which means fulfillment. Since then, it has been popular one after another. In the Qing Dynasty, there were activities such as "worshiping the moon", "burning the Mid-Autumn Festival", "lighting tower lanterns", and "dancing the fire dragon" in various places.

The ancestors of the Manchu nationality have the custom of sacrificing the sun, the moon and the stars, because the Manchu and Han have lived together for a long time, especially after the Manchu people entered the customs and took charge, the people of the two ethnic groups influenced each other in cultural customs, infiltrated each other, and the moon worship activities of the Manchu people gradually mixed with the moon appreciation customs of the Han nationality, and then became the August Festival. Some Manchu people in the Northeast do not call the Mid-Autumn Festival moon appreciation, but call it the moon offering, which is obviously the legacy of the moon worship.

On the night of the festival, after the bright moon rises into the sky, every Manchu family sets up a table in the courtyard, puts moon cakes, apples, peaches, pears, grapes and other fruits and foods, lights up three pillars of incense, the whole family kowtows to the moon (in some places only burn incense and does not kowtow), after kowtowing, sit around the table to taste moon cakes and fruits. The custom of offering the moon has now been abandoned, but the custom of eating moon cakes and admiring the moon on the August Festival is still prevalent.

The customs of the Mid-Autumn Festival: eating moon cakes, eating fruits, and eating reunion dinners represent the virtues of a nation. Reunion, reunion, harmony, beauty.