The Mid Autumn Festival is a traditional festival of the Chinese nation. It began in the early Tang Dynasty and prevailed in the Song Dynasty. By the time of Ming and Qing Dynasties, it had become one of the Chinese traditional festivals with the same name as the Spring Festival. What are the customs of Mid Autumn Festival?
Since ancient times, the Mid Autumn Festival has the customs of offering sacrifices to the moon, appreciating the moon, worshiping the moon, eating moon cakes, appreciating osmanthus, drinking osmanthus wine and so on. It has been passed on for a long time. The Mid Autumn Festival symbolizes the reunion of people with the full moon. It is a cultural heritage with rich and colorful features. It is a place for people to miss their hometown and their relatives, and pray for a good harvest and happiness. The Mid Autumn Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Spring Festival and Qingming Festival are also known as the four traditional festivals in China.
What are the customs of Mid Autumn Festival
1. Eating mooncakes: according to the story of Luozhong, Emperor Tang Zong ate mooncakes on the Mid Autumn Festival, which tasted so beautiful that he ordered the imperial dining room to wrap them in red silk and give them to the new science scholars. This is the earliest record about mooncakes we can see. By the Song Dynasty, moon cakes had the elegant names of "lotus leaf" and "Hibiscus", and their production methods were more exquisite. After the Song Dynasty, not only pay attention to the taste of moon cakes, but also design patterns related to the legend of the Moon Palace. The patterns on the cake surface were first painted on paper and then pasted on the cake surface, and then simply pressed on the moon cake with the mask.
2. Lighting: the ancients had the custom of "lighting" to help the moonlight. In the area of Huguang, there are tile pagodas, and the festival custom of lighting lights on the pagodas. In the area of Jiangnan, there is the festival custom of making lightboats.
3. Enjoy osmanthus and drink osmanthus wine: people often eat moon cakes and enjoy osmanthus in Mid Autumn Festival, and eat various foods made of osmanthus, most of which are cakes and sweets. On the night of the Mid Autumn Festival, looking up at the mid autumn laurel, smelling the fragrance of the laurel, drinking a cup of sweet osmanthus wine and celebrating the sweetness of the family have become a kind of beautiful enjoyment of the festival. In modern times, people often use red wine instead.