What is the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival and what are the customs of the Mid-Autumn Festival?
When we talk about the Mid-Autumn Festival, we will think of stories like Chang'e flying to the moon and Diao Chan worshiping the moon, which are well-known to everyone. But this is just a myth. Do you know the real origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival? Let’s find out together. School has started, which also means it is the eighth month of the lunar calendar in 2018, and it is time to put on more clothes. Follow Mr. Shui Mo and he will spend a cool autumn with you.The Origin of Mid-Autumn FestivalThere are two theories about the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival that are closer to reality. One is that it originated from the sacrificial activities of ancient emperors. It is recorded in the Book of Rites: "The emperor worships the sun in the morning in spring and the moon in the evening in autumn." worshiping the moon means offering sacrifices to the moon, which shows that as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, the emperors had begun to offer sacrifices to the moon. Later, noble officials and scholars also followed suit, and it gradually spread to the people. Another view is that the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival is related to agricultural production. Autumn is the season of harvest. The word "autumn" is interpreted as: "autumn is the time when crops mature." During the Mid-Autumn Festival in August, crops and various fruits gradually mature. In order to celebrate the harvest and express their joy, farmers regard the Mid-Autumn Festival as a festival. "Mid-Autumn" means the middle of autumn. The eighth month of the lunar calendar is the middle month of autumn, and the fifteenth day is the middle day of this month, so the Mid-Autumn Festival may be a custom inherited from the ancients' "Autumn Report". The popularity of the Mid-Autumn Festival began in the Song Dynasty. During the Northern Song Dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Festival was officially set on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, which is the time of our modern Mid-Autumn Festival. The custom of eating mooncakes also began in the Northern Song Dynasty. At that time, the imperial palace of the Northern Song Dynasty ate palace cakes, and the people also had small cakes and round cakes similar to mooncakes. At that time, these cakes were called "lotus leaves", "hibiscus", "golden flowers", etc., which are the predecessors of our modern "mooncakes". To this day, eating mooncakes remains the most traditional custom of the Mid-Autumn Festival.What are the traditional customs of Mid-Autumn Festival?In the Song Dynasty, mooncakes had elegant names such as "lotus leaf", "golden flower" and "hibiscus", and their production methods became more refined. The poet Su Dongpo wrote a poem praising them: "The small biscuits are like chewing the moon, with crispy and sweet fillings inside." Crisp refers to oil dough, and sweet refers to sugar. You can imagine how sweet, crispy and delicious they taste. Moon-appreciating originated from moon-worshiping, and the solemn worship of the moon has turned into a relaxed entertainment. By the Tang Dynasty, appreciating and playing with the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival was quite popular, and many famous poems by poets contain verses about the moon. By the Song Dynasty, a folk festival centered on moon-watching activities was formed and it was officially designated as the Mid-Autumn Festival. On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, candles are lit in lanterns tied with ropes to bamboo poles and hung high on the eaves or terraces. Small lanterns are also used to form words or various shapes and hung high up in the house, commonly known as "Tree Mid-Autumn Festival" or "Vertical Mid-Autumn Festival". Playing with Lanterns Playing with lanterns in autumn is mostly concentrated in the south. For example, at the aforementioned Foshan Autumn Color Fair, there are all kinds of colorful lanterns: sesame lanterns, eggshell lanterns, wood shavings lanterns, straw lanterns, fish scale lanterns, husk lanterns, melon seed lanterns, as well as bird, animal, flower and tree lanterns, which are amazing. The custom of watching the tide during the Mid-Autumn Festival has a long history. As early as the Han Dynasty, there was a very detailed account in Mei Cheng's "Seven Hairs" fu. After the Han Dynasty, the custom of watching the tide during the Mid-Autumn Festival became more popular. There are also records of watching the tide in Zhu Tinghuan's "Supplement to Wulin Old Stories" in the Ming Dynasty and Wu Zimu's "Dreams of the Southern Song Dynasty" in the Song Dynasty. The grand spectacle of tide-watching described in these two books shows that the practice of tide-watching during the Mid-Autumn Festival reached its peak in the Song Dynasty. |
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