The Mid Autumn Festival is a traditional festival of the Chinese nation. We all know the custom of eating moon cakes. In addition to eating moon cakes, many places will eat some local products and seasonal fruits according to their actual situation and living customs. Guangdong, Beijing, Jiangsu and Zhejiang have the custom of worshipping the moon. What is the source of the custom? Let's have a look.
Detailed introduction of the custom of worshipping the moon
A detailed introduction to the custom of worshipping the moon
The following is an introduction to the customs of worshipping the moon in Guangdong, Beijing, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. In fact, for the moon worship on the Mid Autumn Festival, the supplies and worship methods of Guangdong, Beijing and Jiangsu and Zhejiang are similar.
1. Things to worship the moon.
Moon cakes and corners are the main food for worshiping the moon, as well as various fruits. The Mid Autumn Festival is a traditional festival of the Chinese nation. We all know the custom of eating moon cakes. In addition to eating moon cakes, many places will eat some local products and seasonal fruits according to their own actual situation and living customs. For example, during the Mid Autumn Festival, Cantonese eat moon cakes, along with the traditional custom of eating taro, water chestnut, snail and grapefruit. Although these traditional foods have different meanings, they all have the meaning of praying for God's blessing and eliminating evil spirits and disasters.
2. The program of worshiping the moon is mainly to play lantern, dance fire dragon and burn tower.
We seldom play lantern, fire dragon dance and pagoda burning. They can only be performed on the Mid Autumn Festival. Beijing, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong have similar preference for these activities.
3. It is said that eating water chestnut when worshiping the moonlight can make children grow smart and agile.
Most of the water chestnut is cooked with water, and then shelled as a snack; also food moon cake customs, moon worship, play lantern, dance fire dragon, Mid Autumn Festival is a traditional festival of the Chinese nation, we all know the custom of eating moon cakes, in addition to eating moon cakes, many places will eat some local products and seasonal fruits according to their actual situation and living customs. For example, during the Mid Autumn Festival, Cantonese eat moon cakes, along with the traditional custom of eating taro, water chestnut, snail and grapefruit. Although these traditional foods have different meanings, they all have the meaning of praying for God's blessing and eliminating evil spirits and disasters. It is said that eating water chestnut on the Mid Autumn Festival can make children grow smart.
The origin of custom of worshipping the moon
The custom of worshipping the moon in different places comes from the following sources:
1. Cantonese worship Moonlight:
The worship of the moon rose from the Northern Song Dynasty. As early as in the Northern Song Dynasty, "old stories of the Wulin", recorded the custom of the Mid Autumn Festival, there was a "little red" lamp floating in the river to play. In the Mid Autumn Festival, most of them are in the south. For example, at the Foshan Autumn Festival, there were various kinds of colored lights: Sesame lamp, eggshell lamp, shaving lamp, straw lamp, fish scale lamp, chaff lamp, melon seed lamp, bird, animal, flower tree lamp, etc. In Guangzhou, Hong Kong and other places, the mid autumn festival activities will be held on the Mid Autumn Festival, and the trees will also be erected, which means that the lights will be put up. With the help of their parents, children make Bunny lamps, carambola lamps or square lamps with bamboo paper, hang them horizontally in short poles, and then erect them on high poles. With high skills, they can shine with colorful light, adding another scene to the Mid Autumn Festival. The children compete with each other to see who stands tall and who stands more. The lights are the most exquisite.
2. Jiangsu and Zhejiang people worshipped the moon in Qing Dynasty.
For example, in volume 5 of the national customs records of China, it is recorded that on the night of the Mid Autumn Festival in Jiangxi Province, children usually pick up tiles in the field and pile them into a round tower with many holes. At dusk, it was burned in a firewood tower under the bright moon. As soon as the tiles are red, pour kerosene on the fire, and all the fields are red, shining like the day. Until the night, no one to watch, before the line of splashing interest, is known as the burning tile lamp '. The earthen pagodas in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces are also made of bricks and tiles, filled with branches and burned. At the same time, it also burns smoke piles, that is, the grass and firewood are piled up and burned after the end of the worship of the moon.
3. Beijingers worship the moon to follow the ancient times.
Beijing's moon cake is the first made by menzhimeizhai. Throughout the country, there have been five flavor series of Beijing, Tianjin, Suzhou, Guangzhou and Chaozhou. Around the Mid Autumn Festival, there are also many local folk customs. For example, the "Bu Zhuangyuan" in the south of the Yangtze River: cut the moon cakes into three pieces, and stack them together, with the largest one at the bottom, being the 'number one scholar'; the medium-sized one in the middle is' the eye of the table '; and the smallest one is' exploring flowers'. Then the whole family will roll dice, who has the most numbers, is the number one winner, eat large pieces; in order to be ranked first, Tanhua, play for fun.