Why is "August 15" designated as the Mid-Autumn Festival?

According to the China calendar, August in the summer calendar (lunar calendar) is in the middle of autumn, which is the second month of autumn, and it is called the Mid-Autumn Festival, while August 15th is in the middle of the Mid-Autumn Festival, so it is called the 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 the Mid-Autumn Festival are all around the "moon", it is also commonly known as the "Moon Festival".

Mid-Autumn Festival is also called "Reunion Festival" and "Daughter's Day" because the moon is round, families get together and married daughters go home for reunion. In Guangfu area, Mid-Autumn Festival is commonly known as "Moonlight Birthday". During the Mid-Autumn Festival, all kinds of melons and fruits are mature and listed, which is called the "Fruit Festival".

Minority customs

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". 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 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".

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; Singers sing mantras and send the moon god back to heaven in four stages.