Cultural customs:
1. Mid-Autumn Festival
The fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month is the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival in my country, and it is also the second most important festival in my country after the Spring Festival. A big traditional festival. August 15th is right in the middle of autumn, so it is called the Mid-Autumn Festival. The ancient Chinese calendar called August in the middle of autumn "Zhongqiu", so the Mid-Autumn Festival is also called "Zhongqiu Festival".
On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the moon is bright and clear. The ancients regarded the full moon as a symbol of reunion. Therefore, August 15th is also called the "Reunion Festival". Throughout the ages, people have often used the words "full moon and waning moon" to describe "joys and sorrows", and wanderers living in foreign lands use the moon to express their deep feelings.
Li Bai, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, wrote "Looking up at the bright moon, looking down at my hometown", Du Fu's "The dew is white tonight, the moon is bright in my hometown", and Wang Anshi of the Song Dynasty wrote "The spring breeze is green again on the south bank of the river, when will the bright moon shine?" Poems such as “I will return the favor” are all eternal masterpieces.
2. Sacrificing the moon and appreciating the moon
The Mid-Autumn Festival is an ancient festival, and worshiping and appreciating the moon is an important custom of the festival. Ancient emperors had a social system of worshiping the sun in spring and the moon in autumn, and people also had the custom of worshiping the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival. Later, appreciating the moon became more important than worshiping the moon, and serious sacrifices turned into relaxed entertainment.
The custom of appreciating the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival peaked in the Tang Dynasty. Many poets included poems praising the moon in their famous works. In the Song, Ming and Qing dynasties, the activities of worshiping and appreciating the moon among the court and the people became more extensive. There are many ancient monuments such as "Moon Worship Altar", "Moon Worship Pavilion" and "Moon Watching Tower" remaining in various parts of our country.
The "Altar of the Moon" in Beijing was built during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty for the royal family to worship the moon. Whenever the moon rises during the Mid-Autumn Festival, a table is set up in the open air, and moon cakes, pomegranates, dates and other fruits are offered on the table. After worshiping the moon, the whole family sits around the table, eats and talks, and enjoys the bright moon. Nowadays, moon worship activities have been replaced by large-scale and colorful mass moon-viewing recreational activities.
Although the date when the custom of worshiping the moon began cannot be determined, according to the existing written materials, "Qifa" written by Meicheng in the Han Dynasty said, "The guest said: I will communicate with the princes in the hope of August. And go watch the tide in Qujiang, Guangling." This may be the origin of today's custom of watching the tide in Qiantang after the Mid-Autumn Festival. Around the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the practice of admiring the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival began, but it did not become a custom. In the Tang Dynasty, admiring and playing with the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival was quite popular.
Ouyang Zhan said in the preface to "Chang'an Wan Yue Poem": "The eighth month is in autumn, the season begins and ends in Meng, the fifteenth day is in the night, and it is in the middle of the moon. If you look at the road, the cold and heat will be even, and the The number of months indicates that the toad will be full."
It was not until the Song Dynasty that it was officially designated as the Mid-Autumn Festival: "Before the Mid-Autumn Festival, all shops sell new wine, noble families decorate their pavilions, and private households compete for it. "Playing with the moon in a restaurant, the music and music are heard thousands of miles away, and we sit and play until dawn" ("Tokyo Menghua Lu"). Moon cakes are listed as festival delicacies. Su Dongpo once said, "Small cakes are like chewing the moon, with crispy and sweet fillings in them."
The activities of the Mid-Autumn Festival in the Southern Song Dynasty were even more colorful: Chinese people gave each other moon cakes to symbolize reunion. In the evening, people would enjoy the moon, or take a trip along the lake and sea to see the dawn. On the Su Causeway, people step and sing together, just like the daytime. Tens of thousands of "small dots of red" (lambskin lamps) were illuminated on the river, which were as bright as stars and very impressive. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the custom of "appreciating the Mid-Autumn Festival" has become more popular.
Special customs such as burning incense, walking on the moon, releasing sky lanterns, planting Mid-Autumn trees, lighting tower lanterns, dancing fire dragons, and dragging stones have also been formed in many places. To this day, during the Mid-Autumn Festival, Chinese people still have popular customs such as admiring the moon, eating moon cakes and reunion dinners, performing dragon dances, and lighting tower lanterns.
Extended information:
Moon-related legends:
1. Wu Gang defeated Gui
According to legend, the Gui in front of the Guanghan Palace on the moon The tree grew luxuriantly and was more than five hundred feet high. There was a man below who was often cutting it down, but every time he cut it down, the cut area immediately closed up again.
For thousands of years, this osmanthus tree has been cut and adapted like this, and this laurel tree will never fall. It is said that the man who cut down the tree was named Wu Gang, who was from Xihe in the Han Dynasty. He once followed the immortals to practice Taoism and reached heaven. But he made a mistake, and the immortal demoted him to the moon palace, where he did such futile and hard work every day as punishment. There is a record in Li Bai's poem "If you want to cut the laurel in the moon, you will hold on to the salary of those who are cold".
2. Yuanzhang’s Uprising
Eating mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival is said to have begun in the Yuan Dynasty.
At that time, the vast number of people in the Central Plains could not bear the cruel rule of the Yuan Dynasty's ruling class, and they revolted against the Yuan Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang united various resistance forces to prepare for the uprising.
However, the officers and soldiers of the imperial court conducted a very strict search, making it very difficult to convey the message. Military counselor Liu Bowen came up with a plan and ordered his subordinates to hide the note with "uprising on August 15th" in the cakes, and then sent people to deliver it to the insurrectionary armies in various places, informing them to respond to the uprising on the night of August 15th. . On the day of the uprising, all the rebel armies responded together, and the insurrectionary army was like a spark igniting a prairie fire.
Soon, Xu Da captured Yuan Dadu and the uprising was successful. When the news came, Zhu Yuanzhang was so happy that he quickly handed down an oral order to let all the soldiers and the people enjoy the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival, and to reward the ministers with the "mooncakes" that were used to secretly convey the message when the army was launched as seasonal cakes.
Since then, the production of "mooncakes" has become more and more sophisticated, with more varieties, and the big ones are as big as discs, which have become a good gift. From then on, the custom of eating mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival spread among the people.
3. The Tengu swallows the moon
The legend of the Tengu eating the moon: Legend has it that in ancient times, there was a young man named "Mu Lian". He is a Buddha-loving person by nature and a kind-hearted person. He was very filial to his mother, but as a queen, Mulian's mother was violent by nature and had bad habits.
One time, Mulian’s mother suddenly had a sudden whim and came up with an evil idea: the monk would recite the Buddha’s name and become a vegetarian. I want to tease them and eat dog meat. She ordered three hundred and sixty dog ??meat steamed buns to be made, saying they were vegetarian steamed buns, and she wanted to go to the temple to donate them.
Mu Lian found out about this and persuaded his mother not to listen. He quickly sent someone to notify the abbot of the temple. The abbot prepared 360 plain steamed buns. Hidden in the sleeves of every monk's cassock. Mulian's mother came to Zhai and gave each monk a dog meat bun.
When the monk was chanting Buddha's name before the meal, he changed the dog meat steamed buns with the plain steamed buns in his sleeves, and then ate them.
When Mulian’s mother saw all the monks eating her steamed buns, she clapped her hands and laughed, "Hey, hey," and said, "Today the monks are eating meat! The monks are eating dog meat steamed buns!" The abbot clasped his hands together and chanted repeatedly. : "Amitabha, sin, sin!" Afterwards, 360 dog meat buns were buried with soil behind the temple.
When the Jade Emperor found out about this, he was very angry. He sent Mulian's mother to the eighteenth level of hell and turned into a vicious dog, unable to be reincarnated forever.
Mu Lian was a filial son who learned that his mother was sent to hell. He practiced day and night and finally became Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva. In order to save his mother, he used a tin staff to open the gate of hell. Mulian's mother and all the evil spirits escaped from hell and were reborn in the mortal world to cause chaos. The Jade Emperor was so angry that he ordered Mulian to descend to the earth and join Huang Chao to collect these evil spirits who had escaped from hell.
Mu Lian's mother turned into a vicious dog. After escaping from hell, she hated the Jade Emperor very much, so she went to heaven to settle accounts with the Jade Emperor. She couldn't find the Jade Emperor in the sky, so she chased the sun and the moon, trying to devour them and turn the heaven and earth into a dark world.
This vicious dog chased and chased day and night! When she catches the moon, she swallows the moon in one gulp; when she catches the sun, she gulps down the sun in one gulp. However, the vicious dog that Mother Mulian turned into was most afraid of gongs, drums and setting off firecrackers. The vicious dog was so frightened that it had to vomit out the sun and moon that it swallowed.
After the sun and moon were rescued, they shined together again and started moving again. The evil dog was unwilling to catch up again, thus forming solar and lunar eclipses again and again in the sky. Folks call it "Tengu eats the sun" and "Tengu eats the moon". Until now, during every solar or lunar eclipse, many urban and rural people still have the custom of beating gongs, drums, and setting off firecrackers to drive away the Tengu.
4. Laurel Goddess
Daphne turned into a laurel tree and became the later Laurel Goddess.
The legend of the Laurel Goddess, Daphne (Greek Δ?φνη) (Laurel Goddess) is a very beautiful goddess who once fell in love with Apollo, the eldest son of Zeus.
Finally, one day Apollo couldn't hold back his love for the Laurel Goddess and pursued her. However, because Apollo himself was the sun god, his body accumulated a large amount of heat energy, making the laurel unbearable, and there was a danger of burning the skin if he got close. So every time Apollo chased Laurel, she would hide.
Just like this, chasing and hiding, but this is not the answer after all. Finally, Yuegui couldn't bear it anymore and she shouted for help. Her father couldn't bear the pain of his daughter, so he split a big crack in the earth.
Yuegui jumped and turned into a big tree growing out of the crack. Since then, the tree has been called laurel. Apollo didn't know the reason, thinking that Laurel would rather turn into a big tree than be with him. Until one day, he suddenly realized that it was because he was too hot that the laurel turned into a big tree.
Apollo vowed to leave a covering for Laurel forever. That is the sunspot we know, the eternal shadow left in the heart of the sun god, the shadow he left for the laurel...
5. Greek Moon God
Ancient Artemis, the moon goddess in Greek mythology. She is the sister of the sun god Apollo. She is very beautiful and a very powerful archer. She is in charge of hunting and is always accompanied by her beloved bows and hounds.
Every day she drives a silver carriage through the night sky, representing the night-cold, loneliness, and the road of the dead. She is also the patron saint of unmarried girls - she herself was never married, and there is a sad story in this.
Poseidon, the king of the sea, has a son named Orion. He likes archery very much, is a good hunter, and likes to run wildly on the sea. The moon goddess liked Orion very much. They met and fell in love with each other. They often hunted in the jungle and ran wildly on the sea together.
The goddess's brother Apollo hated Orion very much and did not like the relationship between her sister and Orion, so he decided to get rid of Oreon. One day, when Orion was flying across the sea, Apollo covered Orion with a golden light to hide him so that no one could see Orion's true face, and then encouraged him to like archery. The sister of the Moon Goddess used the golden object in the distance as a target.
Of course the Moon Goddess didn’t know that this was her brother’s conspiracy, so she shot an arrow and hit Orion in the head. Later, she learned that she had shot her sweetheart Orion, so she fell into despair and cried day and night.
In order to cherish her love for Orion forever, she asked Zeus to raise Orion to the sky, hoping that she could see him at any time while running in the sky on a silver carriage. Zeus accepted her request and turned Orion into the constellation Orion in the sky. The goddess swore never to marry, and she would always accompany Orion in the night sky.
Artemis, the moon goddess, was very fond of oak trees and always carried her oak staff with her when hunting. People also worshiped her as the goddess of the oak tree.
In ancient Greece, when people worshiped the Moon Goddess, they would light oak torches. Later, they worshiped cookies and lit candles. Finally, it evolved into a way to celebrate children’s birthdays - inserting candles on cakes at night. Blow out the candles and make a wish, and the Moon Goddess will bless your wishes to come true. To this day, people still celebrate birthdays this way.
Baidu Encyclopedia - Moon Culture
Baidu Encyclopedia - Moon Story