How much do you know about the anecdotes of Mid-Autumn Festival?

Mid-Autumn Festival is a very old custom in China. How much do you know about the anecdotes of Mid-Autumn Festival? What are the differences in customs and habits across the country? According to historical records, as early as the Zhou Dynasty, ancient emperors had the custom of offering sacrifices to the sun at the vernal equinox, to the earth at the summer solstice, to the moon at the autumnal equinox, and to heaven at the winter solstice. Its places of worship are called Ritan, Ditan, Yuetan and Tiantan. It is located in four directions: southeast and northwest. The Moon Altar in Beijing is the place where emperors of Ming and Qing Dynasties offered sacrifices to the moon. The Book of Rites says, "The son of heaven is in spring, and the sun and moon are in autumn. The morning sun shines and the evening moon shines. " The moon here refers to offering sacrifices to the moon at night. This custom is not only pursued by the imperial court and the upper nobility, but also gradually affects the people with the development of society.

Scholars admire the moon

The custom of enjoying the moon comes from offering sacrifices to the moon, and serious sacrifices have become relaxed pleasures. Folk Mid-Autumn Festival began in Wei and Jin Dynasties, but it did not become a habit. In the Tang Dynasty, it was quite popular to enjoy and play with the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival. Many poets wrote poems about the moon in their masterpieces. In the Song Dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Festival centered on appreciating the moon was formed and officially designated as the Mid-Autumn Festival. Different from the Tang people, the Song people appreciate the moon more because they feel hurt by things, and often use the lack of rain or shine as a metaphor for human affairs. Even on the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, the bright moon can't hide the sadness of Song people. But for the Song people, there is another form of Mid-Autumn Festival, which is a secular and joyful festival: "Before the Mid-Autumn Festival, shops sold new wine, your family decorated pavilions, and the people fought for the restaurant to play the moon, and the songs were broadcast far and wide, and the play lasted until dawn" (Tokyo Dream China). The Mid-Autumn Festival in the Song Dynasty was a sleepless night. The night market is open all night, and there are endless tourists playing with the moon.

Folk Yue Bai

After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, due to the relationship of the times, the practical utilitarian factors in social life were prominent, and the secular flavor of Japan and China was rich. The lyrical and mythical literati tradition centered on "enjoying the moon" has weakened, and utilitarian worship, prayer and secular feelings and wishes constitute the main forms of the Mid-Autumn Festival custom of ordinary people. Therefore, "folk Yue Bai" has become people's yearning for reunion, entertainment and happiness; Send love by the month.

Moonlight horse

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the image of Luna changed greatly, from the Taoist Moon Palace with Chang 'e as the main image in the early days to the secular image of Moonlight Bodhisattva and Jade Rabbit. During this period, people provided moonlight paper painted with a moonlight bodhisattva, also known as "moonlight horse". Yanjing Time by Fu Cha Deng Chong (1906). It is recorded: "Moonlight riders use paper as the basis, on which they draw the Taiyin Star King, such as the Bodhisattva statue, the Moon Palace and the Medicine Rabbit. People stand up and hold the pestle, the algae are exquisite and resplendent, and they sell much in the market. Seven or eight feet old and two or three feet short, with two flags on the top, red, green, basket and yellow, all for the moon. " Burn incense and salute. After the sacrifice, burn it with a thousand pieces of gold ingots. "

Tuyel

Male prostitutes originated in the late Ming Dynasty. Ji Kun of Amin Dynasty (born around 1636) wrote in "The Legacy of Kaoting": "The Mid-Autumn Festival in Beijing is mostly in the shape of a mud rabbit, posing as a human being, and is worshipped by children." By the Qing dynasty, the function of male prostitutes had changed from offering sacrifices to the moon to children's Mid-Autumn Festival toys. It is becoming more and more exquisite, some dressed as military commanders in armor robes, some with paper flags or umbrellas on their backs, or sitting or standing. Sit down, there are Kirin, tiger leopard and so on. There are also vendors dressed as rabbit heads, or shaving masters, or sewing shoes, selling wonton and tea soup.

"Every Mid-Autumn Festival, smart people in the city make a toad and rabbit statue out of loess to sell, called a prostitute." In the old society, there were often male prostitutes' stalls around Dongsipailou, selling male prostitutes for the Mid-Autumn Festival. In addition, Nanzhi Store and incense sticks are also available for sale. This male prostitute has been personalized through the bold creation of folk artists. That's a rabbit's head with a jade pestle. Later, some people shaped male prostitutes into warriors wearing golden helmets and shining armor, some riding animals such as lions and elephants, and some riding birds such as peacocks and cranes. It is a strange thing for male prostitutes to ride a tiger, but it is a bold creation of folk artists. There is also a male prostitute who can move his elbows and jaws, commonly known as "big mouth", which is more pleasing. Although it is provided by Yue Bai, it is really a wonderful toy for children.

On the streets of Beijing decades ago, old Beijing, who was over 60 years old, can still remember it. After July 15, the stall of male prostitutes was put out. There are male prostitute stalls everywhere, big and small, high and low, and they are very lively.

Play with lanterns

There are many games in Mid-Autumn Festival, the first is playing lanterns. Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the three major Lantern Festival in China, so we should play with lanterns in festivals. Of course, the Mid-Autumn Festival does not have such a large lantern festival, and playing with lanterns is mainly between families and children.

As early as the Southern Song Dynasty, it was recorded in Old Wulin that the Mid-Autumn Festival was a custom, and there was an activity of "putting a small red light into the river to drift and play". Lantern playing in Mid-Autumn Festival is mostly concentrated in the south. For example, the autumn festival in Foshan mentioned earlier has all kinds of colorful lights: sesame lights, eggshell lights, wood shavings lights, straw lights, fish scales lights, chaff lights, melon seeds lights, birds, animals, flowers and trees lights, which are amazing.

In Guangzhou, Hong Kong and other places, Mid-Autumn Festival activities will be held on Mid-Autumn Festival night, and trees will be erected, which means that lanterns will be erected high. With the help of their parents, children make rabbit lanterns, carambola lanterns or square lanterns out of bamboo paper, hang them horizontally on short poles and then stand on high poles. They are high-tech and colorful, adding another scenery to the Mid-Autumn Festival. Children often compete with each other to see who stands tall, much taller and has the most exquisite lighting. In addition, there are sky lanterns, that is, Kongming lanterns, which are made of paper and tied into large lanterns. Light a candle under the lamp, the heat rises, let the light fly in the air, and attract people to laugh and chase. In addition, there are children carrying all kinds of lanterns to enjoy in the lower reaches of the moon.

In Nanning, Guangxi, in addition to all kinds of lanterns tied with paper and bamboo for children to play with, there are also simple lanterns, pumpkin lanterns and orange lanterns. The so-called grapefruit lamp is to hollow out the grapefruit into a simple pattern, put a rope on it, and light a candle inside, with elegant light. Pumpkin lanterns and orange lanterns are also made by removing pulp. Although simple, it is easy to make and very popular. Some children also put oil lanterns into the pool to play games.

There is a simple autumn lantern in Guangxi, which is made of six bamboo sticks, pasted with white gauze paper and inserted with candles. Hanging on the platform for offering sacrifices to the moon or for children to play with.

Now, in many areas of Guangxi and Guangdong, the Lantern Festival is arranged on the Mid-Autumn Festival night, large modern lanterns illuminated by electric lights are made, and new lanterns made of various plastics are used for children to play, but the simplicity of the old lanterns is gone.

In addition, the game of burning tile lamp (or burning flower tower, burning tile tower and burning fan tower) is widely circulated in the south, and it is circulated in Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi and other places. For example, on the Mid-Autumn Festival night in China Folk Customs (Volume 5: Jiangxi), children usually pick up tiles in the wild and pile them into a round tower with holes. At dusk, it is burned in the firewood tower under the bright moon. As soon as the tiles burned red, kerosene was poured on the fire, and suddenly the fields were red and bright as day. "It was not until late at night, when no one was watching, that interest began to fall. It's called a burning earthen lamp. The tile-burning tower in Chaozhou, Guangdong Province is also a hollow tower made of bricks, which is filled with branches and burned to ashes. At the same time, it also burns smoke piles, that is, piles of grass and firewood burned after the end of Yue Bai. The fan-burning pagoda in the border area of Guangxi is similar to this kind of activity, but the folklore is to commemorate the heroic battle of Liu Yongfu, a famous anti-French fighter in Qing Dynasty, and burn the ghost (French invader) who escaped into the pagoda to death, which is quite patriotic. There is also a "tower burning boy" activity in Jinjiang, Fujian.

Legend has it that this custom is related to the righteous act of resisting the Yuan soldiers. After the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty, the Han people were subjected to bloody rule, so the Han people made unyielding resistance, held meetings in various places to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, and lit trumpets on the top floor of the pagoda. Similar to the fire on the platform at the top of the mountain, although this resistance was suppressed, the custom of burning pagodas remained. This legend is similar to the legend of eating moon cakes in the Mid-Autumn Festival.

dragon dance

Dragon dancing is the most traditional custom of Mid-Autumn Festival in Hong Kong. From the evening of the 14th August of the lunar calendar every year, a grand dragon dance has been held in the Tai Hang area of Causeway Bay for three consecutive nights. This fire dragon is more than 70 meters long, and it is tied into 32 dragon bodies with pearl grass, which is full of longevity incense. On the night of the grand event, the streets and alleys in this area, a series of winding and undulating fire dragons danced happily under the light and dragon and drum music, which was very lively.

There is also a legend about the origin of Hong Kong Mid-Autumn Festival dancing dragon: a long time ago, after the typhoon hit Tai Hang District, a python appeared and did evil everywhere. The villagers searched everywhere and finally killed it. Unexpectedly, the python disappeared the next day. A few days later, a plague broke out in the pit. At this time, the elders in the village suddenly got a dream from the Bodhisattva, saying that as long as they jumped the fire dragon in the Mid-Autumn Festival, they could drive away the plague. Coincidentally, it did work. Since then, the dragon dance has been passed down to this day.

No matter how superstitious this legend is, China is the hometown of dragons, and it has been 100 years since the Mid-Autumn Festival in Taihang Mountain, which is worth cherishing. At present, the dragon dance activities in Dakeng District are quite large, including head coach, coach, general commander and conductor, security team and so on. More than 30,000 people take turns dancing dragons.

The custom of offering sacrifices to the moon of the ethnic minorities in Yue Bai.

The custom of offering sacrifices to the moon and Yue Bai is also popular among ethnic minorities. On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, the Dai people in Yunnan are popular with the custom of "Yue Bai". According to Dai's legend, the moon was changed by the emperor's third son. In short, he is a brave and strong young man. He led the Dai people to defeat the enemy and won the love of the Dai people. Later, after his unfortunate death, he became the moon, rose to the sky, and continued to emit soft moonlight, bringing light to the Dai people in the dark. In the Mid-Autumn Festival, young people go to the mountains 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. As soon as the moon rises above the mountains, Leng Xiang will be lit, and the whole family will begin to "Yue Bai". Then, put a gunpowder gun in the air to show respect for the hero's rock tip. Finally, the family happily sat around the small square table, enjoying delicious food and enjoying the moon.

When the Oroqen people sacrifice to the moon, they put a basin of clear water in the open space, and then kneel in front of the basin and bow to the moon; The Tu people put clear water in the basin and the reflection of the moon in the basin. Then, people kept hitting the moon with pebbles in the basin, commonly known as "hitting the moon"; The activity of "offering sacrifices to the moon and asking god" of Zhuang nationality in western Guangxi is more typical. Every year in the middle of August in the summer calendar, some are on the Mid-Autumn Festival night. People set up an altar in the open air at the end of the village to offer 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 is also a ladder for the moon god to descend to earth. There are ancient moon myth factors preserved here. The whole activity is divided into: inviting the moon god to descend to earth, with one or two women as the spokespersons of the moon god; God and man sing to each other; Luna divination fortune-telling; The singer sings a mantra song and sends the moon god back to heaven. There are four stages.