What is the origin of Mid-Autumn Festival? Any allusions?

First, the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival:

The name of "Central Plains" originated from the Northern Wei Dynasty, and the Central Plains Festival is also called "Ghost Festival" or "Dream Orchid Festival". According to "Five Magazine": "The Daojing takes the fifteenth day of the first month as the Shang Yuan, the fifteenth day of July as the Zhong Yuan, and the fifteenth day of October as the Xia Yuan." The Book of Practice says: "On the Mid-Yuan Day in July, the local officials condemned the good and evil in the world, so the Taoist priest came to recite the scriptures at night and the hungry people were released."

On this day, Buddhism also held a meeting to transcend the Dharma, called "Ulamana" (Hindi, ULLAMBANA), that is, "Menglan Meeting". Dream orchid basin means hanging upside down. The pain of life is like a bat hanging upside down from a tree, which is very miserable. In order to save all living beings from the suffering of hanging upside down, we must recite scriptures and give ghosts food.

This coincides with China's worship of the ghost moon, so the Mid-Autumn Festival and Menglan will be handed down at the same time.

Second, the allusions of Mid-Autumn Festival.

The Mid-Autumn Festival originated from the story of Manglietia's saving her mother: "People with Manglietia have great strength. His mother fell into the hungry ghost road, and the food mouth turned into flames. Hunger was too bitter. Unable to save his mother, Mu Lian asked the Buddha for advice. In order to talk about the Lanpen Sutra, she taught July 15th to make a Lanpen to save her mother. "

It is said that Mulian went through all kinds of hardships to meet her dead mother Liu in the underworld and found that she was tortured by a group of hungry ghosts. Manglietia tried to give her a bowl of vegetable rice, but the vegetable rice was taken away by the hungry ghost. Mu Lian had to ask the Buddha for help. The Buddha was moved by Mu Lian's filial piety and gave him the Lanjing.

According to the instructions, Manglietia arranged a vegetarian feast for her mother in a orchid pot on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month. The hungry mother finally got the food. Buddhists hold a grand "bonsai" every year to commemorate the filial piety of Manglietia, which is what we now call "Zhongyuan Festival".

Extended data:

Mid-Autumn Festival is a colorful festival with rich cultural connotations. It has both the religious belief of Buddhism and the local Taoist culture in China. Mid-Autumn Festival is a carrier of China traditional culture, which reflects people's concept of ghosts and gods and religious beliefs, as well as the essence of China culture-filial piety culture.

Buddhism believes that the origin of Mid-Autumn Festival is the story of Mu Lian saving his mother. Mu Lian couldn't bear her mother to suffer in hell. She gave ten monks to atone for her mother and finally rescued her. This story is widely circulated among the people. The story itself is a manifestation of filial piety culture, which preaches the belief of repaying parents and doing good before their death.

In addition, the custom of Mid-Autumn Festival is to offer sacrifices to ancestors. Sacrificial activities were recorded in Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and 40 ode poems in The Book of Songs were sacrificial music songs, reflecting people's most primitive ancestor worship. In addition, during the cultural evolution of our country for thousands of years, sacrificial activities were closely combined with the filial piety culture advocated by Confucianism later.

Filial piety can be simply understood as kind parents, but in a deep sense, filial piety is an ethical norm, a way to deal with clan relations and the establishment of an order. Ancestor worship expresses the thoughts and memories of ancestors and is a very important way to maintain clan relations. It can be said that ancestor worship is a reflection and a sustenance of this clan relationship.

Mid-Autumn Festival is the inheritance of filial piety culture and the carrier of people's emotions. Filial piety, as one of the cores of ancient China culture, is highly respected by Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. Even today, filial piety culture is still enduring. Paying attention to the Mid-Autumn Festival and advocating traditional filial piety are of great benefit to our social development.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Mid-Autumn Festival