There are many games in Mid-Autumn Festival, the first is playing lanterns. Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the three major Lantern Festival in China, so we should play with lanterns in festivals. Of course, the Mid-Autumn Festival does not have such a large lantern festival, and playing with lanterns is mainly between families and children.
As early as the Northern Song Dynasty, the Lantern Festival recorded the custom of the Mid-Autumn Festival, and there was an activity of "putting a small red light into the river to drift and play". Lantern playing in Mid-Autumn Festival is mostly concentrated in the south. For example, the autumn festival in Foshan mentioned earlier has all kinds of colorful lights: sesame lights, eggshell lights, wood shavings lights, straw lights, fish scales lights, chaff lights, melon seeds lights, birds, animals, flowers and trees lights, which are amazing.
In Guangzhou, Hong Kong and other places, Mid-Autumn Festival activities will be held on Mid-Autumn Festival night, and trees will be erected, which means that lanterns will be erected high. With the help of their parents, children make rabbit lanterns, carambola lanterns or square lanterns out of bamboo paper, hang them horizontally on short poles and then stand on high poles. They are high-tech and colorful, adding another scenery to the Mid-Autumn Festival. Children often compete with each other to see who stands tall, much taller and has the most exquisite lighting. In addition, there are sky lanterns, that is, Kongming lanterns, which are made of paper and tied into large lanterns. Burning candles under the lamp, the hot air rises, making the lamp fly in the air, making people laugh and chase. In addition, there are children carrying all kinds of lanterns to enjoy in the lower reaches of the moon.
In Nanning, Guangxi, in addition to all kinds of lanterns tied with paper and bamboo for children to play with, there are also simple grapefruit lanterns, pumpkin lanterns and orange lanterns. The so-called grapefruit lamp is to empty the grapefruit, carve a simple pattern, put on a rope and light a candle inside, which is very elegant. Pumpkin lanterns and orange lanterns are also made by removing pulp. Although simple, it is easy to make and very popular. Some children also put grapefruit lights into the pool water to play games.
There is a simple autumn lantern in Guangxi, which is made of six bamboo sticks, pasted with white gauze paper and inserted with candles. Hanging on the platform for offering sacrifices to the moon or for children to play with.
Now, in many areas of Guangxi and Guangdong, the Lantern Festival is arranged on the Mid-Autumn Festival night, large modern lanterns illuminated by electric lights are made, and new lanterns made of various plastics are used for children to play, but the simplicity of the old lanterns is gone.
In addition, the game of burning tile lamp (or burning flower tower, burning tile tower and burning fan tower) is widely circulated in the south, and it is circulated in Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi and other places. For example, Volume 5 of China Folk Customs: "On the Mid-Autumn Festival night in Jiangxi, children usually pick up tiles in the wild and pile them into round towers with holes. At dusk, it is burned in the firewood tower under the bright moon. As soon as the tiles burned red, kerosene was poured on the fire, and suddenly the fields were red and bright as day. It was not until late at night, when no one was watching, that it began to pour interest. This is the famous tile-burning lamp. " The tile-burning tower in Chaozhou, Guangdong Province is also a hollow tower made of bricks, which is filled with branches and burned to ashes. At the same time, it also burns smoke piles, that is, piles of grass and firewood burned after the end of Yue Bai. The fan-burning pagoda in the border area of Guangxi is similar to this kind of activity, but the folklore is to commemorate the heroic battle of Liu Yongfu, a famous anti-French fighter in Qing Dynasty, and burn the ghost (French invader) who escaped into the pagoda to death, which is quite patriotic. There is also a "tower burning boy" activity in Jinjiang, Fujian.
Legend has it that this custom is related to the righteous act of resisting the Yuan soldiers. After the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty, the Han people were subjected to bloody rule, so the Han people made unyielding resistance, held meetings in various places to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, and lit trumpets on the top floor of the pagoda. Similar to the fire on the platform at the top of the mountain, although this resistance was suppressed, the custom of burning pagodas remained. This legend is similar to the legend of eating moon cakes in the Mid-Autumn Festival.
dragon dance
Dragon dancing is the most traditional custom of Mid-Autumn Festival in Hong Kong. From the evening of the 14th August of the lunar calendar every year, a grand dragon dance has been held in the Tai Hang area of Causeway Bay for three consecutive nights. This fire dragon is more than 70 meters long, and it is tied into 32 dragon bodies with pearl grass, which is full of longevity incense. On the night of the grand event, the streets and alleys in this area are very lively, and the winding dragon dances with joy under the light and dragon and drum music.
There is also a legend about the origin of Hong Kong Mid-Autumn Festival dancing dragon: a long time ago, after the typhoon hit Tai Hang District, a python appeared and did evil everywhere. The villagers searched everywhere and finally killed it. Unexpectedly, the python disappeared the next day. A few days later, a plague broke out in the pit. At this time, the elders in the village suddenly got a dream from Bodhisattva, saying that as long as they jumped the fire dragon in the Mid-Autumn Festival, they could drive away the plague. Coincidentally, it did work. Since then, the dragon dance has been passed down to this day.
The rabbit went to the moon palace.
In people's minds, rabbits are very kind and kind animals. In ancient legends, besides Chang 'e and WU GANG, there were rabbits who first boarded the Moon Palace. This is the beautiful imagination of the ancients.
Chang 'e boarded the moon palace. According to the records in ancient books such as Huai Nan Zi, it is because she ate the elixir of life that her husband asked Xi Wuniang for, flew into the Moon Palace and became a toad. WU GANG boarded the moon palace. According to Youyang Miscellanies, WU GANG, a man from the Western Regions, was sent to replace the laurel tree in the middle of the month because of his error in cultivating immortals. This osmanthus tree grows with cutting, and it will never stop cutting.
As for the rabbit's visit to the Moon Palace, it was first seen in Qu Yuan's Tian Wen, "What is the sense of prestige, while Gu and Tu are in the abdomen?" . It means that Gu and Tu are in the belly of the moon. What good is it for the moon? How did the rabbit get to the moon palace? Gu is a toad and Tu is a white rabbit. Fu Xuan in the Jin Dynasty also said: "What's in the middle of the month, the white rabbit is working on medicine." According to Mr Wen Yiduo's textual research, this "white rabbit mashing medicine" was changed from "toad mashing medicine".
In this month, Gu and Tu changed from one thing to two. There is a folk legend about how they landed on the moon: Wu Gang studied immortals for three years, and Sun Boling, the grandson of Emperor Yan, had an affair with his wife A Nv and gave birth to three children. After WU GANG's death, his wife felt guilty and let the youngest two children fly to the moon to accompany their nominal father. "Shan Hai Jing-Hai Nei Jing" records: "Sun Boling, son of Emperor Yan. Wu Quan's wife, A Nv's wife. A woman who was pregnant for three years gave birth to a drum, delayed and died. " In mid-June, Gu and Rabbit were delayed and died.
Fun "male prostitute"
Because the rabbit went to the Moon Palace, in ancient times, people celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival and used "male prostitutes" when offering sacrifices to the moon.
At the dusk of Mid-Autumn Festival, when a bright moon hangs high in the sky, every household will set up an incense table in the courtyard and place offerings such as moon cakes (also known as reunion cakes) and fruits. In addition, there are moonlight horses and male prostitutes. Women always worship the moon. After the sacrifice, the family sat around the table, drinking reunion wine and eating reunion cakes. This is an ancient custom of offering sacrifices to the moon.
What are "Moonlight Horse" and "Male Prostitute" in "Sacrificing the Moon"? This is the product of the ancient city of Beijing.
According to "The Scenery of the Imperial Capital", "On August 15th, the fruit cake moon will be sacrificed; If the melon is divided, it must be carved wrong, such as lotus paper, moonlight paper and full moon statue, sitting in the lotus, the moonlight shines all over the bodhisattva. The moon in China is hanging in the temple, and a rabbit is standing with a pestle, tinkering with medicine in the mortar. The smallest is about three inches, and the largest is about three inches. The workers are resplendent. " The "moonlight paper" mentioned here is a paper horse, that is, the "moonlight horse". "Yanjing Year" said: "The capital called God Horse, but did not dare to denounce God Horse". This moonlight horse, the upper part is the king of the moon and stars, the lower part is the moon palace, the ghost hall and the male prostitute, who is taking drugs. Colorful paintings are dazzling.
As for male prostitutes, it is also recorded in Yanjing Chronicle: "Every Mid-Autumn Festival, smart people in the city make a toad and rabbit statue out of loess for sale, which is called male prostitutes." In the old society, there were often male prostitutes' stalls around Dongsipailou, selling male prostitutes for the Mid-Autumn Festival. In addition, Nanzhi Store and incense sticks are also available for sale.
This male prostitute has been personalized through the bold creation of folk artists. That's a rabbit's head with a jade pestle. Later, some people shaped male prostitutes into warriors wearing golden helmets and shining armor, some riding animals such as lions and elephants, and some riding birds such as peacocks and cranes. It is a strange thing for male prostitutes to ride a tiger, but it is a bold creation of folk artists. There is also a male prostitute whose elbow joint and mandible can move, commonly known as "big mouth", which is more pleasing. Although it is a sacrifice to the moon, it is really a great toy for children.