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What is the Mid-Autumn Festival?
Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as Moon Eve, Autumn Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, August Festival, August Meeting, Moon Chasing Festival, Moon Playing Festival, Moon Worshiping Festival, Daughter's Day or Reunion Festival, is a long-standing tradition. In Chinese culture, the Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month every year. Because this day happens to be in the middle of the third autumn, it is called "Mid-Autumn Festival".
The Mid-Autumn Festival began in the Tang Dynasty and became popular during the Song Dynasty. By the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Mid-Autumn Festival had developed into a traditional Chinese festival that could be named after the Spring Festival. Among them, not only China celebrates the Mid-Autumn Festival, but also some people who are influenced by Chinese culture Countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia with greater influence will also celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, especially the overseas Chinese in these countries, who use it to miss their motherland's culture.
On May 20, 2006, the Mid-Autumn Festival was included in China's first batch of national intangible cultural heritage lists. In 2008, China designated the Mid-Autumn Festival as a national statutory holiday.
What are the customs of the Mid-Autumn Festival?
1. Appreciating the moon
China has had the custom of appreciating the moon since ancient times. The "Book of Rites" records that "autumn twilight and evening moon" means worshiping the moon god. By the Zhou Dynasty, every Mid-Autumn Festival night would be held to welcome the cold and worship the moon. Set up a large incense table and place mooncakes, watermelons, apples, plums, grapes and other seasonal fruits. Mooncakes and watermelons are absolutely indispensable.
2. Eat mooncakes
As the saying goes: "August and 15th are full, and the Mid-Autumn Festival mooncakes are fragrant and sweet." Moon cakes were originally used as sacrifices to worship the moon god. The word "moon cake" was first seen in "Meng Liang Lu" written by Wu Zimu in the Southern Song Dynasty. At that time, it was just a cake-shaped food like caltrop cake. Later, people gradually combined the Mid-Autumn moon appreciation with the tasting of mooncakes, which symbolized family reunion.
3. Worship the moon
Under the moon, the moon statue is placed in the direction of the moon, with red candles burning high. The whole family worships the moon in turn, and then the housewife cuts the reunion moon cakes. The person who is cutting must calculate in advance how many people in the family there are. Those who are at home and those who are out of town must be counted together. They cannot cut more or less, and the sizes must be the same.
4. Ran Deng
The Mid-Autumn night lanterns have internal burning candles tied to bamboo poles with ropes and hung high on the eaves or terraces, or small lanterns are built into Chinese characters or various shapes and hung high in the house. They are commonly known as "Tree Mid-Autumn Festival" or "Vertical Mid-Autumn Festival".
5. Watch the tide
In addition to enjoying the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival, watching the tide is another Mid-Autumn event in Zhejiang. The custom of watching the tide during the Mid-Autumn Festival has a long history. It was described in detail in Meicheng's "Qifa" in the Han Dynasty. After the Han Dynasty, the custom of watching tides during the Mid-Autumn Festival became even more popular. There are also records of tide watching in Zhu Tinghuan's "Supplement to the Old Wulin Stories" of the Ming Dynasty and "Mengliang Lu" written by Wu Zimu of the Song Dynasty.
6. Walk on the moon
Under the bright moonlight, people were dressed in gorgeous clothes, traveling in small groups, or going to the market, boating on the Qinhuai River, or climbing upstairs to watch the moonlight, chatting and laughing. In the old days, Nanjing people also had a special way of praying for "walking on the moon": any married woman who had not given birth to a son would visit the Confucius Temple and then cross a bridge. According to legend, she would have the "joy of dreaming of a bear."(meaning to give birth to a boy)
7. Play with lanterns
People who play with lanterns during the Mid-Autumn Festival are mostly concentrated in southern China. There are all kinds of lanterns: sesame lanterns, eggshell lanterns, wood shaving lanterns, straw lanterns, fish scale lanterns, chaff lanterns, melon seed lanterns, bird and animal flower tree lanterns, etc., which are amazing.
People who play with lanterns during the Mid-Autumn Festival are mostly concentrated in southern China. There are all kinds of lanterns: sesame lanterns, eggshell lanterns, wood shaving lanterns, straw lanterns, fish scale lanterns, chaff lanterns, melon seed lanterns, bird and animal flower tree lanterns, etc., which are amazing.
Mid-Autumn Festival customs witness the beautiful moment of integration of tradition and modernity. On the day when people of the full moon reunite, let us cherish the warmth of family reunion, inherit the rich cultural heritage of the motherland, and recall the history and dream of the future together. May every Mid-Autumn Festival become the most beautiful memory deep in the heart.
