Complete content of handwritten newspapers for the Mid-Autumn Festival
There are several stories about the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival:
(1) Chang'e flying to the moon
It is said that more than 4,000 years ago, Hou Yi, the king of a poor country, was brave and good at shooting, but he was violent by nature and did not care about the suffering of the people, making their lives miserable. Hou Yi wanted to live forever, so he found the elixir of immortality from the Kunlun Mountains and planned to swallow it on a certain day. Chang'e learned about this. In order to show compassion for her people and avoid Hou Yi's long-term brutal rule, she took the elixir first. Suddenly, Chang'e took the elixir first. As light as a swallow, she flew into the sky towards the Moon Palace. Hou Yi found out and shot Chang'e with an arrow. Chang'e entered the Guanghan Palace and became the moon goddess, known as the "God of the Bright Moon" or "Taiyin Empress".
(2) Overthrowing the Yuan Dynasty
According to legend, at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the people of the Central Plains were unwilling to accept the brutal rule of the Yuan Dynasty. Patriots rose up one after another to resist the Yuan Dynasty. Zhu Hongwu’s military advisor Liu Bowen asked his subordinates They pretended to be Taoist priests and went to various counties to sell talismans, saying: There will be disasters this year. Those who want to avoid disasters can hang the sun and moon flags on August 15th, and the flags will be hidden in big moon cakes. On this day, people from all over the country cut large mooncakes and hung up the flags hidden in them. The uprising gained momentum and the Yuan people were greatly surprised. Zhu Hongwu succeeded in one attack and ended the rule of the Yuan Dynasty. Later, this sun and moon flag became the "Ming" flag. Another similar legend is that there is a piece of paper inside the moon cake, which says "Kill the Tatars on August 15th night". When everyone saw this piece of paper while cutting the moon cakes, they all rose up and killed the Tatars, and the Yuan Dynasty was overthrown.
The customs of the Mid-Autumn Festival include the following:
(1) Moon appreciation:
The moon on the Mid-Autumn Festival is special Brightness and perfection symbolize reunion. In ancient times, many people wanted to see the Jade Rabbit and Wu Gang cutting wood in the moon. Modern people appreciate the natural beauty of the moonlit night.
(2) Eating moon cakes:
The custom of eating moon cakes has written records that began in the Ming Dynasty. Legend has it that the festival food is magical and given patriotic significance.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated with "moon cakes", which are the same as eating rice dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival. Mooncakes celebrate reunions or commemorate resistance to foreign rule.
(3) Reunion:
Customs such as eating moon cakes, appreciating the moon, and rewarding landowners are all praying for a fulfilling and glorious life, family reunion and happiness, and community peace, showing the full moon. The ideal that people are also round.
Predecessors’ poems about the moon:
1. Chang’e
The candle shadow on the mica screen is deep, the long river gradually sets and the dawn stars sink;
Chang'e should regret stealing the elixir, and her heart will be filled with blue sea and blue sky every night.
2. Drinking Tang Li Bai alone under the moon
A pot of wine among the flowers, drinking alone without any blind date;
Raising glasses to the bright moon, facing each other to become three people.
The moon does not know how to drink, but its shadow only follows me.
The moon will be shadowed for a while, and the joy must be spring.
My song is wandering in the moon, my dancing shadows are scattered;
We make love together when we are awake, and we are separated when we are drunk;
We will travel together forever, and we will meet each other in Miao Yunhan. .
The origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival
The word Mid-Autumn Festival was first seen in "Book of Rites". "Book of Rites·Yue Ling" says: "The moon of Mid-Autumn nourishes the elderly and eats rice porridge. . ”
Origin 1: It originated from the sacrificial activities of ancient emperors. The "Book of Rites" records: "The emperor faces the sun in spring and the moon in autumn." The eclipse moon is a sacrifice to the moon, which shows that as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, emperors had begun to worship and worship the moon. Later, noble officials and literati also followed suit, and gradually spread to the people.
Origin 2: The origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival is related to agricultural production. Autumn is the harvest season. The meaning of the word "Autumn" is: "Autumn is when the crops are mature." During the Mid-Autumn Festival in August, crops and various fruits mature one after another. In order to celebrate the harvest and express their joy, farmers use the "Mid-Autumn Festival" as a festival. "Mid-Autumn Festival" means the middle of autumn. The eighth month of the lunar calendar is the middle month of autumn, and the 15th is the middle day of this month. Therefore, the Mid-Autumn Festival may be a custom inherited from the ancients' "Autumn Announcement".
Some historians have also pointed out that the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival should be the 15th day of August in the 13th year of Daye during the Tang Dynasty. Pei Ji of the Tang Dynasty successfully invented mooncakes based on the idea of ??the full moon and spread it widely in the army. Military pay successfully solved the military food problem caused by absorbing a large number of anti-Sui rebels.
Introduction to the Mid-Autumn Festival:
The Mid-Autumn Festival is also known as Moon Eve, Autumn Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, August Festival, August Meeting, Moon Chasing Festival, Moon Playing Festival, and Moon Worshiping Festival Doll's Day or Reunion Festival is a traditional cultural festival popular among many ethnic groups in China and East Asian countries. It falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. It is named because it happens to be in the middle of the third autumn. Some places also set the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 16th.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the three major lantern festivals in China. During the festival, you must play with lanterns. However, there is no large-scale lantern festival like the Lantern Festival during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Playing with lanterns is mainly done among families and children.
The Mid-Autumn Festival began in the early Tang Dynasty and became popular in the Song Dynasty. By the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was as famous as New Year's Day and became one of the major festivals in China. Influenced by Han culture, the Mid-Autumn Festival is also a traditional festival in some countries in Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia, especially for overseas Chinese living there. Since 2008, the Mid-Autumn Festival has been listed as a national statutory holiday.
The country attaches great importance to the protection of intangible cultural heritage. On May 20, 2006, the festival was approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage lists.
Myths and legends of the Mid-Autumn Festival:
Chang'e flies to the moon
In ancient times, ten suns appeared in the sky at the same time, which caused the crops to wither and the people to live in dire straits. A man named Hou Yi A hero with infinite power, he sympathized with the suffering people, drew his magic bow, and shot down more than nine suns in one go, and strictly ordered the last sun to rise and set on time to benefit the people. Hou Yi's wife's name was Chang'e. Hou Yi spent all day with his wife except passing on his skills and hunting. Many people with lofty ideals came here to learn skills from the master, and Peng Meng with evil intentions also got in.
One day, Hou Yi went to Kunlun Mountain to visit friends and seek enlightenment, and asked the Queen Mother for a packet of elixir. It is said that if you take this medicine, you can immediately ascend to heaven and become an immortal. However, Hou Yi was reluctant to leave his wife and temporarily gave the elixir to Chang'e for collection. Chang'e hid the medicine in the treasure box on the dressing table. Three days later, Hou Yi led his disciples to go hunting. Peng Meng, who had evil intentions, pretended to be sick and did not go out. Shortly after Hou Yi led everyone away, Peng Meng broke into the backyard of the inner house with a sword and forced Chang'e to hand over the elixir. Chang'e knew that she was no match for Peng Meng. When she was in danger, she turned around and opened the treasure box, took out the elixir and swallowed it in one gulp. Chang'e swallowed the medicine, and her body immediately floated off the ground, rushed out of the window, and flew to the sky. Because Chang'e cared about her husband, she flew to the moon closest to the world and became an immortal.
In the evening, Hou Yi returned home, and the maids cried about what happened during the day. Hou Yi was frightened and angry. He drew his sword to kill the villain, but Peng Meng had already escaped. Hou Yi was so angry that he beat his chest and was distraught. He looked up at the night sky and called Chang'e. Then he found that today's moon was particularly bright and bright, and there was a person. The shaking figure resembles Chang'e. Hou Yi missed his wife, so he sent people to the back garden that Chang'e loved, set up an incense table, put the sweetmeats and fresh fruits that Chang'e loved to eat, and offered sacrifices to Chang'e in the moon palace. After the people heard the news that Chang'e flew to the moon and became an immortal, they all set up incense tables under the moon and prayed to the kind-hearted Chang'e for good luck and peace. From then on, the custom of worshiping the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival spread among the people.
Wu Gang won the title
According to legend, there was a man named Wu Gang in the Moon Palace, who was from Xihe in the Han Dynasty. He once followed the immortals to practice Taoism and reached heaven. However, he made a mistake, and the immortals demoted him to The laurel tree in front of the Moon Palace was cut down every day as punishment. This osmanthus tree grows luxuriantly and is more than 500 feet high. Every time it is cut down, the cut area will immediately close up again. Li Bai wrote in the poem "Gift to Cui Sihu Wenkunji": "If you want to cut the osmanthus in the moon, you will hold on to the salary of those who are cold."
The Jade Rabbit Pounds Medicine
There is a Jade Rabbit beside Chang'e. It is said that Chang'e's body became lighter and when she began to lift into the air, she panicked and picked up the white rabbit she had been feeding. The white rabbit followed her to the moon. The Jade Rabbit has a medicine pestle in the moon palace, and he uses it to pound the elixir of immortality at night. After this myth spread to Japan, it became a jade rabbit pounding rice cakes. Contents of the handwritten newspaper
Mid-Autumn Festival Customs
Worshiping the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival is a very ancient custom in our country. According to historical records, as early as the Zhou Dynasty, ancient emperors had the custom of worshiping the sun at the spring equinox, the earth at the summer solstice, the moon at the autumnal equinox, and the sky at the winter solstice. The places where they worship are called the Temple of the Sun, the Temple of the Earth, the Temple of the Moon, and the Temple of Heaven. It is divided into four directions: southeast, northwest and northwest. The Moon Altar in Beijing is where emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties worshiped the moon. "Book of Rites" records: "The emperor rises to the sun in spring, and the moon falls to the evening in autumn. When the sun rises to the sky, the moon falls to the evening." The "Xi Yue Xi" here refers to the worship of the moon at night. This custom was not only pursued by the court and upper-class nobles, but also gradually affected the people with the development of society.
Literati appreciating the moon
The custom of appreciating the moon originated from worshiping the moon, and the serious worship turned into a relaxed entertainment. Folk activities of appreciating the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival began around the Wei and Jin Dynasties, but have not yet become a custom. In the Tang Dynasty, admiring and playing with the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival was quite popular, and many poets included verses praising the moon in their famous works. By the Song Dynasty, a Mid-Autumn folk festival centered on moon-viewing activities was formed, which was officially designated as the Mid-Autumn Festival. Different from the people in the Tang Dynasty, people in the Song Dynasty were more sentimental about the moon when appreciating the moon. They often used the waxing and waning of clouds and clear moons to describe human emotions. Even on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the clear light of the moon could not hide the sadness of the Song people. But for people in the Song Dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Festival has another form, that is, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a festival of secular joy: "Before the Mid-Autumn Festival, all shops sell new wine, noble families decorate their terraces and pavilions, and private families compete in restaurants to play in the moonlight and play music. Hearings from thousands of miles away, playing and sitting until dawn" ("Tokyo Menghua Lu"). The Mid-Autumn Festival in the Song Dynasty was a sleepless night. The night market was open all night and there were endless tourists enjoying the moon.
Folk worshiping the moon
After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, due to the relationship of the times, the practical utilitarian factors in social life became more prominent, and the secular interest in festivals became more and more intense every year. "The lyrical and mythological literati tradition centered on it has weakened, and utilitarian worship, prayer and secular emotions and wishes constitute the main form of the Mid-Autumn Festival customs of ordinary people. Therefore, "folk worshiping the moon" has become a symbol of people's desire for reunion, happiness and happiness; they use the moon to express their feelings.
Moonlight Horse
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the image of the Moon God underwent important changes. From the early pure Taoist moon palace scene with Chang'e as the main theme, it evolved into the Moonlight Bodhisattva and the Moonlight Bodhisattva that blended Buddhism and Taoism. The secular image of the Jade Rabbit and the Jade Rabbit. During this period, people worshiped moonlight paper with the Moonlight Bodhisattva painted on it, also called "Moonlight Horse". Fucha Dunchong's "Yanjing Chronicles" (1906).
Records: "The moonlight horse is made of paper, with the lunar star king like a Bodhisattva on the top, and the moon palace and a medicine-making rabbit on the bottom. The figure is standing and holding a pestle. The algae color is exquisite and resplendent. It is sold in many shops. The longer one is seven or eight feet, the shorter one is two or three feet. There are two flags on the top, made of red, green, or yellow. They burn incense and offer sacrifices to the moon. After the sacrifice, they are burned together with thousands of pieces of gold ingots. " < /p>
Rabbit Master
The origin of Rabbit Master dates back to the late Ming Dynasty. Ji Kun of the Ming Dynasty (who lived around 1636) wrote in "The Remaining Manuscript of Kao Pavilion": "On the Mid-Autumn Festival in Beijing, people usually wear rabbits in the shape of mud, with clothes and hats sitting like human figures, and children worship them." By the Qing Dynasty. , the function of Lord Rabbit has been transformed from offering sacrifices to the moon to being a Mid-Autumn Festival toy for children. The production is also becoming more and more sophisticated. Some are dressed as military commanders wearing armor and robes, some have paper flags or umbrellas on their backs, and some are sitting or standing. Sitting there are unicorns, tigers, leopards and so on. There are also vendors dressed as rabbit heads, or people who shave heads, or sew shoes, sell wontons, tea soup, and so on.
“Every Mid-Autumn Festival, some clever people in the city would use loess to make toad and rabbit statues for sale, and they were called Lord Rabbit.” In the old days, there were often stalls of Lord Rabbit in the Dongsi Archway area of ??Beijing, specializing in selling Mid-Autumn Festival gifts for the moon. Use Lord Rabbit. In addition, Nanzhi Store also sells incense candles. This Lord Rabbit has been personified through the bold creation of folk artists. It has the body of a rabbit and holds a jade pestle. Later, some people imitated opera characters and carved Lord Rabbit into warriors with golden helmets, some riding lions, elephants and other beasts, and some riding peacocks, cranes and other birds. In particular, Lord Rabbit riding a tiger is a strange thing, but it is a bold creation of folk artists. There is also a kind of rabbit with movable elbow joints and chin, commonly known as "Bada Zui", which is more lovable. Although it is an offering for worshiping the moon, it is actually a wonderful toy for children.
On the streets of Beijing decades ago, even Beijingers over sixty years old can still remember it. As soon as July 15th passes, the Rabbit Master stall is set up. In the five archways at the front door, in front of the Drum Tower at the back door, Xidan, Dongsi and other places, there are rabbit stalls everywhere, large and small, high and low, and they are extremely lively.
Playing with lanterns
During the Mid-Autumn Festival, there are many game activities, the first of which is playing with lanterns. The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the three major lantern festivals in my country, and people play with lanterns during the festival. Of course, there is no large-scale lantern festival like the Lantern Festival during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Playing with lanterns is mainly done among families and children.
As early as the Southern Song Dynasty, "Old Martial Arts" recorded the Mid-Autumn Festival customs, including the activity of "putting a "little red" lantern into the river to float and play." People who play with lanterns during the Mid-Autumn Festival are mostly concentrated in the south. For example, at the Foshan Autumn Color Fair mentioned above, there are various kinds of lanterns: sesame lanterns, eggshell lanterns, wood shaving lanterns, straw lanterns, fish scale lanterns, chaff lanterns, melon seed lanterns, bird and animal flower tree lanterns, etc. People admire.
In Guangzhou, Hong Kong and other places, Mid-Autumn Festival activities are carried out on the Mid-Autumn Festival night, and the trees are also erected, which means that the lights are put up high. With the help of their parents, children tie up rabbit lanterns, carambola lanterns or square lanterns with bamboo paper, hang them horizontally on short poles, and then erect them on high poles. When they are skilled, the colorful lights shine, adding to the Mid-Autumn Festival. A scene. Children often compete with each other to see who can erect taller, more lanterns and the most exquisite lights. There are also sky lanterns, that is, Kongming lanterns, which are made into large-shaped lanterns with paper. Candles are burned under the lanterns, and the heat rises, causing the lanterns to fly in the air, attracting people to laugh and chase them. In addition, there are various lanterns carried by children to enjoy under the moonlight.
In Nanning, Guangxi, in addition to making various lanterns tied with paper and bamboo for children to play with, there are also very simple sleeve lanterns, pumpkin lanterns, and orange lanterns. The so-called grapefruit lamp is made by hollowing out the grapefruit to create a simple pattern, putting it on a rope and lighting a candle inside. The light is elegant. Pumpkin lanterns and orange lanterns are also made by removing the flesh. Although simple, it is easy to make and very popular. Some children even float the oil lamps into the pond and river as a game.
Guangxi has a simple household autumn lantern, which is made of six circles of bamboo strips tied into a lantern, with white gauze paper on the outside and candles inserted inside. Hang it next to the moon festival table to worship the moon, and it can also be played by children.
Nowadays, many areas in Guangxi and Guangdong arrange lantern festivals on the Mid-Autumn Festival night. Large modern lanterns illuminated by electric lights are made, and there are also various new lanterns made of plastic for children to play with, but there are few A simple beauty of old-time lanterns.
In addition, the game of burning tile lamps (or burning flower towers, burning tile towers, burning fan towers) is also widely spread in the south, and is spread in Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi and other places. For example, Volume 5 of "China National Customs" records: Jiangxi "On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, ordinary children pick up tiles in the wild and pile them into a round tower shape with many holes. At dusk, they burn them in a tower of firewood under the bright moon. Once the tiles are red-hot , and then pour kerosene on the fire to add fuel to the fire, and suddenly the surrounding areas are as red as daylight. Until late at night, no one is watching, and then the fire is poured. This is called burning a tile lamp. The tile-burning pagoda in Chaozhou, Guangdong is also a hollow pagoda built with bricks and tiles, filled with branches and set on fire. At the same time, smoke piles are also burned, which is to pile firewood into piles and burn them after the moon worship. The burning of Fan Pagoda in the Guangxi border area is similar to this activity, but folklore is to commemorate the heroic battle of Liu Yongfu, a famous anti-French general in the Qing Dynasty, who burned the Fan ghosts (French invaders) who escaped into the tower. It is quite popular. Patriotic thoughts. There is also a "tazai burning" activity in Jinjiang, Fujian.
It is said that this custom is related to the righteous act of resisting Yuan soldiers. After the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty, it carried out bloody rule over the Han people, so the Han people resisted unyieldingly. Various places organized riots on the Mid-Autumn Festival and lit fires on the top of the pagoda as a sign. Similar to the Fenghuotai lighting uprising, although this kind of resistance was suppressed, the custom of burning pagodas remained.
This legend is similar to the legend of eating mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Fire dragon dance
Fire dragon dance is the most traditional custom of Hong Kong Mid-Autumn Festival. Starting from the 14th night of the eighth lunar month every year, a grand fire dragon dance event is held in the Tai Hang area of ??Causeway Bay for three consecutive nights. This fire dragon is more than 70 meters long, with a 32-section dragon body made of pearl grass and filled with longevity incense. On the night of the grand event, the streets and alleys of this district were filled with undulating fire dragons dancing joyfully under the lights and dragon drum music, making it very lively.
There is a legend about the origin of the Mid-Autumn Fire Dragon Dance in Hong Kong: a long time ago, after a typhoon hit Tai Hang District, a python appeared and did evil everywhere. The villagers went out to hunt it down and finally killed it. . Unexpectedly, the python disappeared the next day. A few days later, a plague broke out in Dakeng. At this time, the elders in the village suddenly received a dream from the Bodhisattva, saying that as long as they danced the fire dragon during the Mid-Autumn Festival, the plague could be driven away. As luck would have it, this move actually worked. Since then, the fire dragon dance has been passed down to this day.
No matter how much superstition there is in this legend, China is the homeland of dragons. The fire dragon dance has a history of more than 100 years during the Mid-Autumn Festival in Tai Hang, Hong Kong. This is worth cherishing. Nowadays, the fire dragon dance activity in Tai Hang District is quite large-scale. In addition to the head coach, coach, chief conductor and conductor, the safety team and so on. More than 30,000 people take turns dancing the dragon.
The custom of worshiping and worshiping the moon is also popular among ethnic minorities. On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Dai people of Yunnan have a popular custom of "moon worship". According to Dai legend, the moon was transformed by Yan Jian, the third son of the emperor. Yanjian is a brave and strong young man. He once led the Dai people to defeat the enemy and won the love of the Dai folks. Later, after his unfortunate death, he turned into the moon and rose into the sky, continuing to emit soft moonlight and bring light to the Dai people in the darkness. Every Mid-Autumn Festival, young men take their gunpowder guns and go up the mountain to shoot finches and pheasants early in the morning to hunt for festive game. Girls and wives are busy catching fish in lakes and ponds. They were all busy preparing the festive dinner. The old lady was busy pounding glutinous rice and making food of different sizes. She placed a round glutinous rice cake on each of the four table corners, and put a stick of cold incense on each cake. As soon as the moon rises over the mountains and forests, cold incense is lit, and the whole family begins to "worship the moon." Then, gunpowder guns are fired into the air to show respect for the hero Yanjian. Finally, the whole family sat happily around the small square table, tasting food, talking and laughing, admiring the moon, and then left happily.
When the Oroqen people worship the moon, they put a basin of water in the open space, place offerings, then kneel in front of the basin and bow to the moon; Then, people keep hitting the moon in the basin with small stones, commonly known as "beating the moon"; the Zhuang people in western Guangxi have a more typical activity of "sacrifice to the moon and invite gods". , people set up an offering table in the open air at the beginning and end of the village to place sacrifices and incense burners. On the right side of the table, there is a tree branch or bamboo branch about one foot high, which symbolizes the social tree and also serves as the ladder for the moon god to descend to earth and ascend to heaven. Here are preserved Ancient moon myth factors. The whole activity is divided into four stages: inviting the Moon God to come down to earth, with one or two women acting as the spokesperson of the Moon God; singing antiphonal songs between gods and men; fortune-telling by the Moon God; and singers singing songs to send the Moon God back to heaven.