Kaiping Mid-Autumn Festival custom

On the Mid-Autumn Festival, China has had the custom of enjoying the moon since ancient times. There is a record of "autumn twilight and the moon" in the Book of Rites, that is, worshipping the moon god. In the Zhou Dynasty, every Mid-Autumn Festival night, activities to welcome the cold and offer sacrifices to the moon were held. Put a big incense table with seasonal fruits such as moon cakes, watermelons, apples, plums and grapes, among which moon cakes and watermelons are absolutely indispensable.

Watermelon must be cut into lotus shapes. In the Tang Dynasty, it was quite popular to enjoy and play with the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival. In the Song Dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Festival was more lively. After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the custom of enjoying the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival remains the same. Many places have formed special customs such as burning incense, planting Mid-Autumn trees, lighting tower lanterns, putting sky lanterns, walking on the moon and dancing dragons.

Step 2 eat moon cakes

China has the custom of eating moon cakes on Mid-Autumn Festival. At first, moon cakes were used to worship the moon god. The word "moon cake" was first seen in Liang Lumeng by Wu in the Southern Song Dynasty. At that time, it was just a cake-shaped food like Ling Hua cake.

Later, people gradually combined the Mid-Autumn Festival with tasting moon cakes, which symbolized family reunion. In modern times, there are workshops specializing in making moon cakes, and the production of moon cakes is becoming more and more elaborate, with exquisite fillings and beautiful appearance. There are also various exquisite designs printed on the outside of the moon cakes, such as "the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon", "jathyapple of the Galaxy" and "Three Tans Reflecting the Moon".

It has become the wish of people all over the world to show people's reunion with a full moon, to show people's eternal life with a round moon cake, to pin their thoughts on their relatives in their hometown and to pray for a bumper harvest and happiness. Moon cakes are also used as gifts to send to relatives and friends and to connect feelings.