Customs of Mid Autumn Festival:
Tidal bore watching
'I must know that the rabbit is very round. It's frosty and cold in September. The key to the door is not needed, and the tide of the night stays in the middle of the month. This is a poem written by Su Shi, a great poet of Song Dynasty. In ancient times, in Zhejiang Province, besides the Mid Autumn Festival, watching the tide was another mid autumn festival event. The custom of watching the tides in the Mid Autumn Festival has a long history. It has been described in Mei Cheng's Qifa as early as the Han Dynasty. After the Han Dynasty, the mid autumn tide is more popular. There are also some records in the supplement of the old stories of Wulin by Zhu Tinghuan of the Ming Dynasty and the dream of Liang recorded by song and Wu Zimu. These two books describe the great tide watching event, which shows that the mid autumn tide watching event reached the peak of unprecedented in the Song Dynasty.
Eat moon cakes
According to the story of Luozhong, Emperor Tang Zong ate moon cakes on the Mid Autumn Festival. He heard that a wedding banquet was set up in Qujiang, where the new science scholars lived. He ordered the royal kitchen to wrap the moon cakes in red silk and give them to the new science scholars. This is the earliest record of moon cakes that we can see. In the Song Dynasty, moon cakes were known as lotus leaf, golden flower, lotus and so on, and their making methods were more clear. Su Dongpo, a poet, praised that "small cakes are like chewing the moon, in which there are crisp and Yi". Crisp is pastry, Yi is sugar, and its taste is sweet, crisp, fragrant and beautiful.
After the Song Dynasty, moon cakes were made not only with taste, but also with various patterns related to the legend of the Moon Palace. The pattern on the cake surface was painted on paper at first and then pasted on the cake surface. Later, it was simply pressed on the moon cake with the mask. The full moon shaped moon cake also symbolizes the reunion just like the full moon of the 15th year. People regard it as a festival food, use it to sacrifice the moon and give it to relatives and friends. This is undoubtedly a reflection of the national psychology of the Han nationality.
It is said that in the early years of the Yuan Dynasty, the rulers of the yuan and Mongolia were afraid of the people's revolt and adopted the high-pressure policy of sending one soldier to watch every ten families and allowing only one kitchen knife to be used. The people couldn't bear it, so they took the opportunity of giving each other moon cakes on the Mid Autumn Festival of August 15, and put a wax pill in the moon cake. The wax pill was wrapped with paper, and the oath was written on the paper, and a piece of paper was pasted at the bottom of the cake as a hint to call on each other to fight against Mongolia Country. This kind of moon cake is called "three brocades" in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province. According to the homonym of the local dialect, it is "kill tight".
This is probably the reason why a piece of paper is often pasted on the moon cake today.
enjoy looking at the moon
Playing the moon in the Mid Autumn Festival, which is called appreciating the moon by people today, is a good pleasure for the ancients. In the form of playing with the moon, the rich usually build their own colorful buildings, the greedy often send them to the fair taverns, and the good tourists go to the mountains or the water, but they have to eat the core food and drink the syrup. The literati write poems and the common people talk about the ancient times, often staying up all night. In addition to aristocrats and folk play on the situation, there are also tours of play on.
Tang Li Shu '. It's the brightest night in the Mid Autumn Festival. Dongting Lake was last month. 'this is the evidence of climbing and playing the moon. The annals of Jiangnan in the Ming dynasty recorded that on August wangri, Changshu County, tourists were sailing to collect lakes and bridges to watch the moon. 'this is evidence of boating and playing the moon.
Of course, the ancients didn't just enjoy the mid autumn moon, but often associated the moon with other scenery in the nature, such as the famous landscape - Lugou Xiaoyue, Santan Yinyue, etc., which are undoubtedly the best places for people to enjoy the mid autumn moon.
light a lamp
On the night of the Mid Autumn Festival, the sky is as clear as water, and the moon is as bright as a mirror. However, people are not satisfied with this, so they have the custom of lighting lights to help the moon. In the area of Huguang, there is a festival custom of using tiles to stack towers and lighting lamps on them. In the south of the Yangtze River, there is a festival custom of making lightboats. In the modern Mid Autumn Festival, the custom of lighting lanterns became more popular.
Today's Zhou Yunjin and he Xiangfei said in their article "idle talk about the season": "Guangdong is the most prosperous city with lanterns. Every family uses bamboo strips to make lanterns ten days before the festival. It is used for fruit, birds and animals, fish and insects, mid autumn festival celebration and other words. It is pasted with colored paper and painted with various colors. The mid autumn night lamp is tied to a bamboo pole with a rope, which is higher than a tile eaves or a terrace, or is built into a shape or various shapes with a small lamp, which is hung on a high place in the house, commonly known as "tree mid autumn" or "vertical mid autumn";.
The lamp hung by the rich family can be measured high. The family gather under the lamp to enjoy drinking. Ordinary people set up a flagpole and two lanterns to enjoy themselves. A city full of lights is like a world of glass. 'it seems that from ancient times till now, the scale of the Mid Autumn Festival lighting seems to be second only to the Lantern Festival.
Play with a rabbit
Jin Yi and Shen Yiling, a modern man, wrote the story of a maid named rong'er. At that time, it was the year when the G8 allied forces entered Beijing. Empress Dowager Cixi escaped from Kyoto. On her way to escape, she happened to be in the Mid Autumn Festival. The Empress Dowager did not forget the old rites and customs in her panic, so she held a ceremony to sacrifice the moon in the Xinzhou Gongyuan where she lived.
The story says, 'after supper, according to the custom of the palace, the queen will sacrifice to the emperor Taiyin;. This is probably the Northeast Custom & lsquo; men don't worship rabbits, women don't sacrifice cooking stoves, right? & lsquo; Prince of the Taiyin & rsquo; is offered by housewives of every family. On the southeast corner of the courtyard, put up the offering table, please mind out the code (a big rabbit printed on a piece of paper is pounding medicine in the Moon Palace), and insert it in the incense jar. The incense altar is a square one. The one in northern Shanxi is not round, but square.
In the street, I sometimes hear northern Shanxi people sing & lsquo; round but the moon is not big, sweet but the gentle of my sister. &It can be seen that the battles in the north of Shanxi are all square. Douli is filled with new sorghum, Doukou is pasted with yellow paper, and there are four plates of fruit and four plates of moon cakes on the table. The moon cakes are half a foot high. In addition, in the middle of a large wooden plate, there is a one foot long round moon cake, which is specially made for rabbit sacrifice. There are also two new hairy beans. Four bowls of green tea is to put tea in a bowl and wash it with cold water.
In this way, the queen will take the concubine, Ge Ge Ge and all of us to finish the ceremony, even if it is finished. We are all running away, very superstitious, for fear of a little etiquette, offended the gods and ghosts, to their own disaster. So as soon as we have the chance to kowtow to the gods and ghosts, we are all competing to participate. No one dares to pull back! Juanzi and I are replacing the kowtow. 'this story is about the rules of worshiping the moon rabbit in the Qing court. Although the incense altar had to be replaced by the Fang Dou in the north of Shanxi Province, it was more revered and devout to the God from the psychological point of view because of the difficulties.
According to this story, the court of Qing Dynasty called the jade rabbit in the middle of the moon the prince of Taiyin. However, the folk are different. The common people call it yutu'er ye, which is not as solemn as Taiyin Jun, but it seems more cordial.
In the folk custom of Beijing area, the Mid Autumn Festival is not serious enough to sacrifice the rabbit and the game is more than enough. Although it seems slightly disrespectful to the God, it reflects the alienation of the folk mind of worshiping the God.
Since the Mid Autumn Festival was transformed from the ritual of sacrificing the moon to the folk festival, the color of ritual has been weakened, and the nature of sightseeing has become more and more prominent. The custom of playing rabbit is a strong evidence of this phenomenon.
Extended reading: what are the customs of Henan Mid Autumn Festival
Henan people attach great importance to the Mid Autumn Festival on August 15, which is the most bright night of the year. On this day, when Xinhe enters the forest and the wandering son Angelica returns, they will fight to get back and reunite with their families. If a family member lives in a foreign country, he / she must recite his / her words when appreciating the moon. In the family of scholarly scholars, the old people tell their children and grandchildren fairy tales such as' Chang'e rushes to the moon 'and' Wu Gang fells the laurel 'to share the happiness of the family.
The custom of Henan Mid Autumn Festival is: light the tower
Lighting tower is an important activity of Mid Autumn Festival in Kaifeng area. Kaibao temple, where the tower is located (people call it tower temple after the Ming Dynasty), is an important place for Buddhist activities and a garden for people's amusement. Lighting lanterns is a custom inherited by Kaifeng people from the Han Dynasty. The Lantern Festival and the Mid Autumn Festival are the most popular events each year.
The custom of Henan Mid Autumn Festival is: steamed moon cake
Tangyin used to steam moon cakes (put sugar in the white noodles, steam them into a round cake shape, and then use tools such as wood comb and thimble to press on several patterns). When the Mid-Autumn moon was on the top of the trees, moon cakes and fruits were used to worship the moon. Since the reform and opening up, because the people are well-off in economy and there are many kinds of mooncakes on the market, most people have stopped steaming mooncakes and offered mooncakes and fruits for purchase. After the offering, the moon cakes should be distributed to the family to eat in order to have a good reunion.
The custom of Henan Mid Autumn Festival is: setting tea fruit moon cake at night to burn incense and sacrifice the moon
In Nanyang area, tea fruits and moon cakes were set up in the courtyard on the night of the old Mid Autumn Festival to burn incense and sacrifice the moon, which was called "full moon" to show the meaning of a good harvest in autumn and family reunion. Nowadays, the custom of "sacrificing the moon" doesn't exist, but the custom of eating moon cakes on August 15 is becoming more and more popular. The saying "from the moon to the Mid Autumn Festival, people think twice about their relatives" shows that people attach great importance to this festival.
The customs of Henan Mid Autumn Festival include: making a wish facing the moon
In Gongyi, people present mooncakes to relatives and friends before the festival. The family get together: kill chickens for food. There is a custom that men don't like the moon. In the evening, we set up a case in the hospital, put moon cakes, fruits and other offerings, and make a wish facing the moon. This is called "wish the moon". In addition, in Zhumadian area, it is a custom to eat Ciba and moon cake on August 15.
Do you think the customs and habits of Henan Mid Autumn Festival are fun? In fact, there are many interesting places in the Mid Autumn Festival. When you go out, you can have a taste of the customs along the way, and you can also see other local conditions.