"Mid-Autumn Festival" rambling
Tian Juchang
The Mid-Autumn Festival, commonly known as "August 15th", is jointly known as the Four Greats of China along with the Spring Festival, Qingming And Dragon Boat Festival
Traditional festivals. In the eighth month of the lunar calendar, sorghum is red, cotton is white, melons and fruits are fragrant, millet is returned to the warehouse, autumn crops are ripe, and new fruits and vegetables are on the market, which is a festive season. The moon, beautiful and gentle, idyllic and lovely, has many beautiful and moving stories. At some point, people connected the two together, setting the day when the moon is the fullest in August as the Mid-Autumn Festival. In the old days, whenever this festival was held, folk activities such as moon festivals and moon viewing around the "moon" were held, so some people called it the "Festival of the Moon Festival" and the "Festival of the Moon". Because the Moon is complete and symbolizes reunion during the Mid-Autumn Festival, there are married women who must rush back to their in-laws' houses for the festival on this day, and the wandering children must also rush back to the custom of reuniting with their families, so some people also call it the "Reunion Festival".
First, the origin of the "Mid-Autumn Festival"
The Mid-Autumn Festival is a festival derived from the two festivals of China's ancestors celebrating "Moon Eve" and "Mid-Autumn Festival", and its festival activities also retain the traces of the customs of the two festivals.
【Moon Eve】 "Moon Eve" is the moon sacrifice, which originates from the ancient people's worship of the moon. In ancient times, it was believed that the two alternating objects of the moon and the sun were controlled by gods. In the minds of the ancients, "the sun, the lord of the yang", so it is called "the sun"; "the moon, the yin sect", so it is called "taiyin". The sun and the moon represent the two poles of the world, which belong to spring and autumn in seasons, day and night in time, and east and west in spatial orientation. The mutual cooperation, interdependence, and normal operation of the two are the guarantees of harmony in the universe, so the Book of Rites and Sacrifices says: "The sun comes from the east, the moon comes from the west, and the length of yin and yang always patrols each other, so that the sum of the world is." In the traditional farming society, the natural climate has a huge impact on China's agricultural activities. The ancients relied on the sky for a long time to eat, whether it was spring sowing, summer management, autumn harvest, winter hiding, completely believe in the heavens and people, so they attached great importance to the sacrifice of the sun and the moon. Ancient emperors had a ritual system of spring festival day and autumn festival moon festival. During the spring sowing, the sun god is sacrificed and the harvest is prayed, which is called "spring prayer"; when the autumn harvest is harvested, the moon god is sacrificed to thank the earth for gifts, called "autumn newspaper". Originally, the "festival month" time was set at the "autumn equinox" of the twenty-four solar terms of the lunar calendar every year, which was exactly half of the 90 days of autumn, that is, the entire autumn, so it was also known as "Mid-Autumn Festival".
【Mid-Autumn】 "Mid-Autumn" is also known as "Mid-Autumn Festival". The traditional Chinese calendar divides the year into four seasons, and each season is divided into three months: Meng, Zhong, and Ji. The seventh, eighth and ninth months of the lunar calendar are called "autumn moons" or "three autumns". The eighth month of the lunar calendar is the mid-autumn month of autumn, so it is called the mid-autumn month. August 15th is also the middle of the mid-autumn month, so it is also called "Mid-Autumn Festival". In mid-autumn, the warm and humid air in the sky recedes and the water vapor decreases. There are fewer clouds and fog, more cool weather in autumn, "the clouds harvest summer colors, and the wood leaves move in autumn." On august 15th, the night sky is like a wash, and the moon looks particularly bright. Autumn clouds are flowing, silver moonlight is full; autumn water is like a mirror, jade dew is cool; autumn is high and refreshing, dangui is fragrant; everywhere is charming, intoxicating, giving people the feeling of "the moon to the mid-autumn is bright" and "the twelve degrees of circle are beautiful, of which the round pole is mid-autumn".
When the "Moon Sunset" and "Mid-Autumn" merged into one, the historical records are not recorded. However, the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Tang and Song Dynasties had a royal ritual system for the sun and moon sacrifices, which had little to do with the general public. The Ming and Qing dynasties have fallen, although the moon festival activities have been expanded to the folk, but in modern times, with the enrichment of astronomical knowledge and the progress of the culture of the times, the mysterious color of the moon festival has gradually faded, the entertainment component has increased significantly, and the mid-autumn moon appreciation and moon playing cultural activities have become the mainstream of the Mid-Autumn Festival culture.
2. "Mid-Autumn Festival" customs
【Eat reunion dinner】 Before the 1980s, at noon on the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival, every household set up a wine banquet. Before the opening of the table, the parents first burn incense in front of the tablets of the gods with offerings, and then pray to the ancestral spirits in the courtyard to ask the gods and ancestral spirits for their protection. Then, the family sat down to eat in the order of the elder and the youngest, which is called "eating a reunion dinner".
【Neighborhood Celebration】 During the Mid-Autumn Festival, folk have the habit of exchanging gifts and celebrating the festival together. After lunch during the Mid-Autumn Festival, people first pack pastries and fresh fruits and vegetables made from new grains into small baskets, and then let the children give them to the neighbors to taste. Neighbors often take some items from the basket and put their own pastries into the basket to show mutual tasting. Children dressed in red flowers and willows and green are on the street, entering the door, staggering and running, playing the song of neighborhood harmony, and painting a beautiful picture of the Mid-Autumn Festival.
【Moon Worship】 On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, every household should set up a large incense case in the courtyard and place moon cakes, watermelons, apples, red dates, plums, grapes and other sacrifices to hold a moon sacrifice activity, commonly known as "moon worship." Worship the moon, usually prayed by housewives burning incense.
【Moon Viewing】 After the moon worship ceremony is completed, then, the whole family, young and old, sit around the table and gather together to enjoy the moonlight, taste moon cakes, melons and fruits, etc., which is called "moon appreciation".
【Send mooncakes】 On August 16, newlyweds want to go to their father-in-law's house to visit relatives, and their father-in-law often invites their relatives and friends to accompany them, one is to celebrate each other, and the other is to know each other. After the festival, there is a folk custom of going to relatives and friends, and there is a folk proverb that "relatives go to seventeen or eighteen, hissing noodles (flavored fritters) old bean sprouts". In recent years, there have been many unmarried young men who go to their girlfriends' homes to give gifts before the Festival. However, no matter what relatives are stringed, the mooncakes cannot be separated from the gifts, so the activities of stringing relatives are collectively called "sending mooncakes".
【Forecast】 Folk have the saying that the Mid-Autumn Festival weather forecasts the next year's Lantern Festival weather. Proverb: "Heavy rain on August 15, in case the snow lights up in the coming year (snow falls on the sixteenth day of the first month)".
3. The legend of the "Mid-Autumn Festival"
At some point, people created two beautiful stories around the moon in the sky and the Mid-Autumn Festival food, which were shared by each other and passed on from generation to generation.
【Men do not worship the moon】 Folk, worship of gods and ancestors are generally presided over by men in the family, except for the sacrifice of the moon god, there is a saying that "men do not worship the moon". According to legend, there was a fairy in the heavens named Chang'e, who was the niece of the Heavenly Emperor. She married a fairy named Houyi, and the two lived happily ever after. At that time, there were ten suns in the sky, all of which were the sons of the Emperor of Heaven. Usually, the sun takes turns to perform duty one by one, sprinkling warmth on the human world, but it is also pleasing to people. Later, the naughty sun played with each other and appeared at the same time, drying the crops to death, and the harmful people were not happy. The Heavenly Emperor decided to let Hou Yixiafan teach these ten trick-or-treats, and ordered Chang'e to accompany her husband to assist. Hou Yi was ordered by the Heavenly Emperor to hold the divine bow given by the Heavenly Emperor and descend to the human world with Chang'e. Houyi, who was young and vigorous, saw that the earth was thousands of miles away, desolate, and extremely angry. He left Chang'e, climbed to the top of Kunlun Mountain alone, used his full divine power, pulled open the divine bow, shot down nine suns in one breath, and strictly ordered the last sun to rise and fall on time to benefit the people. Houyi was thus respected and loved by the people. Besides, Chang'e looked up at the sky and saw that there was only one sun in the sky. I thought that the husband must have successfully completed the mission entrusted by the Emperor of Heaven, and the husband and wife would soon be able to ascend to heaven and resume their lives, and they couldn't help but dance. Unexpectedly, she wanted to dance on the clouds, but her body did not listen to the call, and she could not fly. It turned out that the Heavenly Emperor just wanted Hou Yi to teach his son a lesson, but he didn't expect hou Yi to kill his nine sons, and in one breath, he dismissed hou Yi and his wife Tengyun Shengong, degrading them to mortals, and never being able to go to heaven as immortals. After Chang'e heard about it, she thought to herself: Mortal women are going to die! Then I thought of the eerie Yan Luo Hall, a very terrible instrument of torture, and I was trembling and crying all day. Hou Yi knew that he was tired of Chang'e, so he comforted her and said that he could go to Kunlun Mountain to find the Queen Mother of the West to seek the elixir of immortality. After Chang'e listened, she stopped crying and urged Houyi to hurry up and get on the road. Hou Yi bid farewell to his wife and went through all kinds of hardships to finally come to the palace of the Queen Mother of Kunlun Mountain. The Queen Mother of the West was very sympathetic to Houyi's plight, generously took out two elixirs of immortality, and said to Houyi: "Eating one pair can be immortal, and eating two paintings can ascend to heaven and become immortal." A few months later, Hou Yi returned home,
The two paintings of the medicine were handed over to Chang'e and the efficacy function was explained. Because of the long journey, sleepy and tired, passed out. Chang'e took the two pieces of medicine in her hand and thought to herself: Only by eating two pieces of medicine can she ascend to heaven and become a god. As the saying goes, "Husband and wife are originally the same forest bird, and they fly separately when the big trouble comes." Thinking of this, I gritted my teeth and swallowed the two pieces of medicine together. Subsequently, he ascended to heaven and arrived at the South Heavenly Gate. Unexpectedly, the immortals guarding the South Heavenly Gate did not let her in, saying that the Heavenly Emperor had a will, and because of her poor supervision, she was punished to suffer in the Moon Guanghan Palace. Since then, Chang'e has become the moon god. The men of the world were very sympathetic to HouYi, and could not forgive Chang'e, the widowed woman's drug-stealing behavior, even if she became the moon god, he would not worship her.
【August 15 kill "Tartar"】 Mooncake symbolizes reunion and is an essential food for the Mid-Autumn Festival. The custom of eating mooncakes in the Mid-Autumn Festival is said to have been handed down by the end of the Yuan Dynasty. When the Mongol Yuan ruled China, they divided the common people into four classes. Officials are basically Mongolian, and the color is mainly. Only middle- and lower-level officials use Han chinese and southerners. If the Mongols killed han and nan, they could fine some money. But the Han and Nan had to pay for killing the Mongols' beasts. The broad masses of the people in the Central Plains were not willing to accept the cruel rule of the Mongols and revolted against the Yuan. In order to prevent the people from rebelling, the Mongols stipulated that the people were not allowed to hide iron tools privately, and only ten families were allowed to share a kitchen knife. One Mongol (commonly known as "Tartar") was sent to supervise every five families. The Mongols who were sent to various places did all kinds of evil, and the people hated them to the bone, but they dared not speak out. Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to unite the rebel forces to revolt, but the Yuan officers and soldiers searched tightly and suffered from the inability to pass on the news. At this time, the military master Liu Bowen came up with a brilliant plan. He ordered Wang Zhaoguang to make a lot of cakes, hide the note with the words "August 15th Night Uprising" in the bread, and then send them to the rebel armies in various places to inform them of the uprising on the night of August 15. On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, people dissatisfied with foreign rule seized kitchen knives and killed the Mongols who supervised them, and the uprising was successful. Until now, there is still a saying in the folklore: "Kill the Tartar on August 15 - the hearts of the people are united" originated from this. After Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne, in order to commemorate the success of the uprising, he ordered that August 15 of each year be designated as the "Mid-Autumn Festival" and celebrated by the whole country. And the cake that secretly conveyed information during the uprising that year was called "moon cake". Every Mid-Autumn Festival, Zhu Yuanzhang always ordered the palace to make some mooncakes to reward the courtiers. Later, officials and eunuchs also followed suit and exchanged mooncakes. In this way, the Mid-Autumn Festival mooncake spread more and more widely and became a custom.
About author:Tian Juchang, male, born in 1953, from Hualong District, Puyang City, Henan Province. He has been engaged in historical work for more than 30 years, and is a member of the Henan Folk Writers Association, the History Association and the Geographical Names Society, a researcher of the Central Plains Farming Culture Research Center of Xuchang University, a standing director of the Puyang Folk Writers Association, the Local History Association, and the Puyang Dragon Cultural Research Association, and the editor-in-chief of Puyang Fangzhipu Culture Media Co., Ltd. He has participated in the compilation of books such as "Dictionary of Geographical Names of the People's Republic of China" and "Integration of Chinese Folk Tales", and has successively edited documents such as "Puyang City Chronicle" and "Historical Events of Puyang City of the Communist Party of China", and authored "Puyang Folk Customs", "Qicheng", "Northeast Zhuang Acrobatics", "Xucun Jicun Zhi" and other books. He has published more than 100 articles in national, provincial and municipal newspapers and periodicals at the national, provincial and municipal levels such as "Central Plains Cultural Relics" and "Searching for Roots", and many of his monographs have won provincial and municipal scientific and technological achievement awards. In recent years, he has devoted himself to the study of folk family trees, village histories, stories and legends and other folk cultures. Since 2010, he has been invited to give special interviews on folk culture on CCTV, provincial and municipal television stations and radio stations.