August 15th of the lunar calendar is the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival in China. According to the ancient calendar of China, August is the second month of autumn, which is called "Mid-Autumn Festival", and August 15th is in the middle of the Mid-Autumn Festival, so it is called "Mid-Autumn Festival". The full moon in Mid-Autumn Festival symbolizes reunion, so it is also called "Reunion Festival".
Seasonally, the Mid-Autumn Festival is the "Autumn Harvest Festival", and the grain sown in summer and spring should be harvested in autumn. Ancient people drank and danced in this season to celebrate the harvest.
China has had the custom of offering sacrifices to the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival since ancient times. The Book of Rites records that "the moon sets at dusk", that is, worshipping the moon god. According to legend, in the Zhou Dynasty, every Mid-Autumn Festival night, a ceremony was held to welcome the cold and offer sacrifices to the moon.
During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, people began to enjoy the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival, but it has not yet formed a custom. In the Tang Dynasty, it was quite popular to enjoy and play with the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival. Ouyang Zhan said in "Preface to Chang 'an Opera Moon Poetry": "August is in autumn, the season begins in Meng, and the fifteenth day is in the night and the middle of the month. The avenue of Kyrgyzstan is cold and hot, and the number of months is round. "In the early years of the Tang Dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Festival was officially designated as a festival.
Yue Bai in Mid-Autumn Festival in Tang Dynasty
The origin of Mid-Autumn Festival is closely related to the romantic legend of Xuanzong's visit to the Moon Palace in Tang Dynasty. According to legend, on the night of August 15th of a certain year, when Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty was in Yue Bai in the palace, he followed the Taoist practice and turned his crutches into a silver bridge in the air and stepped into the Moon Palace. However, when he saw the plaque on the gatehouse saying "Cold and Clear House", under the tall osmanthus tree at the door, the white rabbit was taking medicine, and the fairies in the palace were dancing with melodious music. After Xuanzong came back from the Moon Palace, he ordered people to sort out the dance music he secretly wrote down and named it "Colorful Feathers". The reason why the Moon Palace is called "Guanghan Palace" is also related to this legend.
After enjoying the moon, tasting moon cakes has gradually become a folk symbol of the Mid-Autumn Festival. Mooncakes originally originated in the Tang Dynasty, and they are food to celebrate the victory of the army. During the reign of Tang Gaozu, General Li Jing conquered the Huns and returned home in triumph on August 15. Turpan people who were doing business at that time presented cakes to the emperor of the Tang Dynasty. Holding a gorgeous cake box, taking out a round cake and smiling at the bright moon in the sky, he said, "We should invite toads with Hu cakes." After that, I shared the cake with the ministers and tasted it together. From then on, I had the custom of eating moon cakes in the Mid-Autumn Festival. At that time, a big family usually arranged a big Yue Bai on Mid-Autumn Festival, with various offerings, such as round cakes, watermelons, apples and grapes. Among them, round cakes and watermelons are absolutely indispensable. In a wealthy family, watermelons are specially cut into lotus-shaped offerings.
Reunion began in the Mid-Autumn Festival in the Northern Song Dynasty.
The formulation of "Mid-Autumn Festival" first appeared in the Dream written by Wu in the Southern Song Dynasty: "The Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15th is just half, so it is called" Mid-Autumn Festival ".
In the Song Dynasty, in addition to inheriting the custom of Mid-Autumn Festival for women in the Tang Dynasty, there was a more unique activity, "Playing with the Moon". Meng Yuan's Dream of Tokyo in the Northern Song Dynasty said: "On the Mid-Autumn Festival night, your family decorated the stage and the people competed for the restaurant to play the moon." At that time, the royal family also held a "Mid-Autumn Party". People don't go to bed early, even children don't sleep. "Children play at night. As for the night market, as for familiarity. "
During the Southern Song Dynasty, "playing the moon" was more lively than crazy. Wu once described the Mid-Autumn Festival night in Lin 'an in detail: "On this occasion, the golden wind is refreshing, the jade dew is cool, the osmanthus fragrance is fragrant, the silver toad is full, the emperor Sun Fugui is on the dangerous floor, playing in the middle of the Xuan, or opening a wide pavilion, listing banquets, clanging harps and singing wine songs to make the evening happy." Even a house with a mat is a small platform to arrange family dinners and organize children to enjoy holidays. That night, I bought and sold in the street until five drums, played with tourists on the moon and danced in the city, which never ended. "
The greatest contribution of the Song Dynasty to the Mid-Autumn Festival is to endow it with the connotation of "reunion". Later, Mid-Autumn Festival was regarded as "Reunion Festival", and its origin should be in the Northern Song Dynasty. Su Dongpo, a writer in the Northern Song Dynasty, explained the understanding of the Mid-Autumn Festival incisively and vividly in "Shuidiao Tou".
Moon cakes were born in the Southern Song Dynasty.
The origin of moon cakes is said to have originated from the victory of the Turks in the Tang Dynasty. A businessman from the Western Regions congratulated Hu Bing. Tang Gaozu sighed that "Hu Bing should be invited to Toad". This statement has no basis. Hu Bing entered the Central Plains in the Han Dynasty, similar to Nan 'an today. Tang Gaozu just said that the circle in Hu Bing is similar to the moon, and it has nothing to do with moon cakes.
In fact, the word "moon cake" didn't come into being until the Southern Song Dynasty, but it was sold in the city and had nothing to do with the Mid-Autumn Festival. It was probably steamed. This is recorded in the book Legend of Wulin in the Southern Song Dynasty. And steamed moon cakes are still circulating in Shandong, Henan and other places. The word "moon cake" has been used in Wu's book Dream in the Southern Song Dynasty. But it was not until the Ming Dynasty that there was an exact record of eating moon cakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival in the West Lake tour. Tian Rucheng, a writer in the Ming Dynasty, wrote in Notes on Visiting the West Lake: "August 15th is the Mid-Autumn Festival, and people take moon cakes as a symbol of reunion." Shen Bang, a historian of the Ming Dynasty, wrote when describing the grand occasion of Mid-Autumn moon cakes in Beijing in Wan Bu Miscellanies: "Breads vary in size. There is fruit in the cake with a different name. There is a cake worth hundreds of dollars. " The book also introduces the production process at that time, which has reached a high level. The moon cakes used for the moon in Beijing Palace are "more than feet in diameter and weigh two pounds from bottom to top".