What is the origin of Mid-Autumn Festival? Do all ethnic groups celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival? What's the difference between customs and habits?
During the evolution of Mid-Autumn Festival, ancient etiquette and customs combined many factors such as myths and legends in China traditional culture, and finally formed an important festival with rich connotations. Among them, the most famous is a series of myths surrounding the Moon Palace, such as the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon, Wu Gang's felling of Guangxi, and Tang's visit to the Moon Palace. These endow the Moon Palace with a mysterious and gorgeous aura like colorful neon, which makes it full of romance. The custom of enjoying the moon and feasting in the Mid-Autumn Festival in the Tang Dynasty has always been quite popular. From the numerous poems describing the Mid-Autumn Festival handed down, we can see that the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon and other myths are all related to the Mid-Autumn Festival. In the early years of the Tang Dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Festival may have become a fixed festival. However, at that time, the Mid-Autumn Festival seemed to be mainly about enjoying and playing with the moon, but it was not widely popular among the people.
The formal formation of the Mid-Autumn Festival, especially its popularity among the people, should be in the Song Dynasty. In the Northern Song Dynasty, August 15th was officially designated as the Mid-Autumn Festival, and seasonal foods such as "small cakes are like chewing the moon, with crispy glutinous rice inside" appeared, and festivals such as enjoying the moon, eating moon cakes, enjoying the moon and watching the tide became common. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Mid-Autumn Festival was as famous as New Year's Day and became the second largest traditional festival in China after the Spring Festival. Every Mid-Autumn Festival, every family should set up a "moonlight position" to prepare melon and fruit moon cakes, which must be round and cut into lotus-shaped teeth. Moonlight paper is on sale in the market, with designs such as Moon God and Jade Rabbit painted on it. After the festival, burn paper and distribute fruitcakes to every family member. Mid-Autumn Festival is a time for family reunion, and people exchange moon cakes to express their good wishes.
Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional festival in China. According to historical records, the word "Mid-Autumn Festival" first appeared in the book Zhou Li. In the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there was a record of "telling Shangshu Town about the cow's confusion, crossing the river in mid-autumn, and traveling incognito around". It was not until the early years of the Tang Dynasty that the Mid-Autumn Festival became a fixed festival. The Book of Emperor Taizong recorded the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15. The prevalence of Mid-Autumn Festival began in the Song Dynasty, and it became one of the major festivals in China in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. This is also the second largest traditional festival in China after the Spring Festival.
According to the China calendar, the eighth month of the lunar calendar is in the middle of autumn, and the second month of autumn is called "Mid-Autumn Festival", and August 15th is in the middle of it, so it is called "Mid-Autumn Festival". Mid-Autumn Festival has many nicknames: it is called "August Festival" and "August and a half" because it falls on August 15th; Because the main activities of Mid-Autumn Festival are all around the moon, it is also commonly known as "Moon Festival" and "Moonlit Night". The full moon in Mid-Autumn Festival symbolizes reunion, so it is also called "Reunion Festival". In the Tang Dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Festival was also called "correcting the moon". The record of "Reunion Festival" was first seen in the Ming Dynasty. "Journey to the West Lake" says: "August 15th is the Mid-Autumn Festival, and people send moon cakes to show their reunion". "A Brief Introduction to the Scenery of the Imperial Capital" also said: "On August 15th, the moon was sacrificed, the cakes were round, the melons were wrongly divided, and the petals were carved with lotus flowers. ..... Anyone who returns to Ning with a wife will return to her husband's family one day, which is called "Reunion Festival". On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, there is a custom of "reunion" in most parts of our country, that is, flipping a small cake symbolizing reunion, which is similar to a moon cake. The cake contains sugar, sesame, sweet-scented osmanthus and vegetables, and the moon, sweet-scented osmanthus tree and rabbit are pressed outside. After the Mid-Autumn Festival, the elders at home will divide the cake into pieces according to the number of people, and each person will have one. If someone is not at home, leave one for them to show family reunion.
Another explanation for the origin of Mid-Autumn Festival is that the 15th day of the eighth lunar month happens to be the time when rice is ripe, and all families worship the land god. Mid-Autumn Festival may be the legacy of Qiubao.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is coming. Celebrate with the whole world and have a family reunion. So, what kind of Mid-Autumn Festival customs do ethnic minorities in China have?
Tu nationality's "beating the moon"
The Tu people filled the basin with clear water and put the reflection of the moon in the basin. Then, people kept hitting the moon in the basin with pebbles, commonly known as "hitting the moon".
Tibetan custom of "searching for the moon"
The custom of Tibetan compatriots in some parts of Tibet to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival is "searching for the moon". That night, young men, women and dolls, along the river, followed the bright moon reflected in the water, took pictures of the moon shadows in the surrounding ponds, and then went home to eat moon cakes.
Mongolian custom of chasing the moon
On the Mid-Autumn Moonlight, Mongolian men, women and children rode horses and galloped on the grassland under the silver moonlight. The moon rises in the east and sets in the west, but they set their horses and galloped to the west, closely following the footsteps of the moon, not only "chasing the moon" until it fell.
The Moon Sacrifice Custom of Ewenki Nationality
Ewenki compatriots celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival with family reunion and moon worship as the main content. During the festival, they will also visit relatives and friends and entertain each other. On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, people gather around the campfire, singing and dancing until late at night.
The Custom of "Walking on the Moon" of Dong Nationality in Guangxi
On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, Song Lusheng and the dance teams from various cottages walked all the way to the nearby cottages, and spent a long night enjoying the moon, singing and dancing with the villagers.
"Sacrificing the Moon and Asking God" of Zhuang Nationality in Guangxi
Every year in the middle of August in the summer calendar, or on the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, people will set up a sacrificial platform in the open air at the end of the village for offering sacrifices and incense burners. On the right side of the table, a branch or bamboo branch about a foot high symbolizes the community tree and also serves as a ladder for the moon god to descend to earth. The activities are divided into: please ask the moon god to come down to earth; God and man sing to each other; Luna divination fortune-telling; Singers sing mantras and send the moon god back to heaven in four stages.
In addition, Zhuang people are used to using rice cakes and Yue Bai on bamboo raft houses in the river, while girls put lanterns on the water to measure the happiness of their lives, and sing beautiful folk songs of "Please look after the moon".
Buyi people steal old melons and cook glutinous rice.
Buyi people will wrap the stolen old melons in red cloth and shoot them all the way to families without children. When the owner of this family collects old melons, he must treat the delivery man to drink and have a snack. It is said that this will bring children to this family. For this stolen melon, the stolen family will not care. On the contrary, they will think it will bring them better harvest.
The custom of "string the moon" of De 'ang nationality
For the De 'ang people in Luxi, Yunnan, whenever the Mid-Autumn Moon is high and particularly bright, melodious cucurbits will ring from time to time, and young men and women will "string up the moon" together and pour out their hearts. Some also set an engagement by sending betel nuts and tea through "string month".
"August Meeting" of Li Nationality ("Adjustment")
Li people call Mid-Autumn Festival "August Festival" or "Adjustment". At this time, every market town will hold a song and dance party. Young men and women in each village are led by a "turn around" (that is, a team leader), and moon cakes, sweet cake, cookies, flower towels, colored fans and vests are presented to each other in droves. In the evening, they gather around the fire to roast game, drink rice wine and sing duets, while unmarried young people choose this opportunity to find their future partners.
Korean Mid-Autumn Festival custom
On the Mid-Autumn Festival, Koreans slaughter cows and chickens, cook delicious food, and make festive foods such as cakes and muffins with the new valley. Muffin is steamed rice flour, beaten into sticky dough, and then rolled into small pieces, or rolled rice flour into small pieces; Use adzuki beans, peas, sesame seeds, perilla seeds, chestnuts, sugar, etc. As a filling, it is wrapped in a crescent-shaped water chestnut shape and steamed in a pot. It is as big as peanuts, tastes like glutinous rice balls and has a unique flavor. In the evening, Koreans set up a "moon viewing frame" with wooden poles and pine branches. They first invited the old man to explore the moon on the shelf, then lit the moon-watching shelf, played the long drum and flute, and danced the "peasant dance" together.
Dai customs in Yue Bai
According to Dai's legend, the moon was changed by the rock tip of the emperor's third son. Jane is a brave and strong young man who led the Dai people to defeat powerful enemies and was deeply loved by the Dai people. Later, he died unfortunately, turned into the moon, rose to the sky, and continued to shine softly, bringing light to the Dai people in the dark.
Every Mid-Autumn Festival, young men go up the mountain early in the morning with gunpowder guns to shoot fire finches and pheasants to hunt holiday game. Girls and daughters-in-law are busy catching fish in lakes and ponds. They are all busy preparing holiday dinner. The old lady is busy frying glutinous rice and cooking different sizes of food. Put a glutinous rice round cake on each corner of the four tables, and insert a wick of Leng Xiang into each cake. When the moon rises from the mountains and lights up Leng Xiang, the whole family, old and young, will start the "Yue Bai". Later, gunpowder guns fired into the air to show respect for the heroic rock tip. Finally, the family sat around the small square table, enjoying delicious food, laughing and enjoying the moon.
Special customs of Achang nationality
Achang people in lianghe county never forget to feed their dogs on Mid-Autumn Festival.
According to legend, in the past, rice was grown by itself, as tall as a banana tree. As a result, people have developed the habit of being lazy and wasted all the rice they can't eat. One day, Guanyin Bodhisattva saw that people didn't value food so much. In a rage, a gust of wind blew and swept away all the millet. Soon, people shouted with hunger. When Guanyin heard the dog barking, she thought it was people who did evil, not dogs, so she threw handfuls of millet at the place where the dog barked, and people drove the dog away to grab the seeds to eat. An old man dissuaded everyone and planted some grains in the fields by the river. Generation after generation, people not only learned to grow millet, but also learned to live by hard work. In order not to forget the lessons of the past, but also to repay the kindness of dogs to get food seeds, on the morning of August 15, every household will cook rice with newly harvested rice and feed it to dogs, and then visit relatives and friends, which is very enjoyable.
The custom of Gaoshan people holding dances.
According to legend, in ancient times, there was a young couple by the Daqingxi River. The man named Dajian Ge and the woman named Huashui Jie made a living by fishing. One day, the sun and the moon suddenly disappeared, the sky was dark, the seedlings withered, the flowers and fruits were not long, and insects and birds cried. Big tip and splash decided to get the sun and moon back. Under the guidance of the white-haired old woman, they killed the male dragon that devoured the sun in the deep pool with a golden axe and the female dragon that devoured the moon with golden scissors. Then they brought palm branches and lifted the sun and the moon into the sky. In order to conquer the dragon, they stayed by the pool forever and became two mountains: the big tip and the splash. This big pool is called "Sun Moon Lake".
Therefore, every Mid-Autumn Festival, Gaoshan compatriots miss the dedication of Dajian and Huashui, and all go to Sun Moon Lake to imitate the couple holding colored balls of the sun and the moon, so as not to let the colored balls fall to the ground, in order to make the sun and the moon bright, the weather good and the crops abundant.
Miao people's custom of jumping on the moon
According to the ancient Miao legend, Moon is a loyal, honest, hardworking and brave young man. A beautiful young Shuiqing girl fell in love with the moon after rejecting 99 young men who proposed to her from Jiujiuzhou. After that, she experienced all kinds of hardships made by the sun and finally came together happily with the moon.
Therefore, in order to show the memory of their happy love, Miao parents should bathe in the moonlight, sing and dance on the Mid-Autumn Festival night and pass it on from generation to generation, and call it "jumping on the moon". Young men and women look for each other's sweetheart in the "jumping on the moon" and pour out their feelings, saying that they should be as pure and bright as water and the moon and have a good relationship forever.
In addition, the Assisi people in Yunnan also have the custom of jumping on the moon on Mid-Autumn Festival night.
Hakka Mid-Autumn Festival custom
Hakkas call Mid-Autumn Festival "August Festival" or "August and a half". During the Mid-Autumn Festival when the moon is full, Hakkas will put moon cakes, peanuts, grapefruit and other fruits in the yard, on the balcony, or where the moon rises in front of their houses to prepare for the "Yue Bai" activities.
After the worship, the whole family enjoyed the moon together and ate out. Appreciating the moon is actually a matter for adults. Children usually don't just sit there and watch, but chase and play in the bright moonlight. This is their paradise. I'm a little particular about eating. I often eat these sacrifices for the moon god first. This is the tradition of China's sacrificial culture, that is, after the gods enjoy it, the worshippers often divide up the sacrifices, thus ending the whole sacrificial ceremony. In the process of sharing food, on the one hand, we accepted the blessing of the moon god, on the other hand, we also fulfilled the traditional sacrificial culture. Hakka people in Meixian say that eating these sacrifices will be more "good", more blessed and more auspicious.
In Meizhou, in addition to the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival food with universal significance, pomelo is also an essential holiday food. There are varieties of golden pomelo (Shatian pomelo), honey pomelo or crystal pomelo. Eating grapefruit in the Mid-Autumn Festival also has certain meanings. For example, cutting grapefruit is called "killing grapefruit", which means exorcism; Some people also say that peeling grapefruit skin is "peeling ghost skin", which embodies the desire to exorcise evil spirits and eliminate disasters.
"Stealing Moon Dishes" in Dong Nationality Township of Hunan Province
According to legend, in ancient times, on the moonlit night of Mid-Autumn Festival, fairies in the moon palace came to the underworld and sprinkled nectar all over the world. This kind of nectar is selfless, and people can enjoy fruits and vegetables sprinkled with nectar together at this time. Dong Jia named this custom "stealing moon dishes".
On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, Dong girls use umbrellas to pick melons and vegetables from their beloved garden, which is not considered as "stealing". They also deliberately shouted: "Hey! I stripped all your fruits and vegetables. Come to my house to eat camellia oleifera! " It turns out that they passed the red line with the help of the Moon Palace Fairy. If you can pick a melon and fruit, it means that they can have a happy love. So the beans that grow in pairs become the objects of their picking. Sister-in-law also went to other gardens to "steal moon dishes" that night, but they hoped to get the fattest melon or a handful of fresh green edamame, because it symbolized the child's fatness and the health of the hairy head (the homonym of edamame refers to the child). Boys also have the custom of "stealing moon dishes" because they also hope that the moon fairy will give them happiness. However, they can only cook and eat in the wild and can't take them home.