第2个回答 2010-09-20
The joyous Mid-Autumn Festival, the third and last festival for the living, was celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eighth moon, around the time of the autumn equinox. Many referred to it simply as the "Fifteenth of the Eighth Moon". In the Western calendar, the day of the festival usually occurred sometime between the second week of September and the second week ofOctober.
This day was also considered a harvest festival since fruits, vegetables and grain had been harvested by this time and food was abundant. With delinquent accounts settled prior to the festival , it was a time for relaxation and celebration. Food offerings were placed on an altar set up in the courtyard. Apples, pears, peaches, grapes, pomegranates , melons, oranges and pomelos might be seen. Special foods for the festival included moon cakes, cooked taro, edible snails from the taro patches or rice paddies cooked with sweet basil, and water caltrope, a type of water chestnut resembling black buffalo horns. Some people insisted that cooked taro be included because at the time of creation, taro was the first food discovered at night in the moonlight. Of all these foods, it could not be omitted from the Mid-Autumn Festival.
The round moon cakes, measuring about three inches in diameter and one and a half inches in thickness, resembled Western fruitcakes in taste and consistency. These cakes were made with melon seeds, lotus seeds, almonds, minced meats, bean paste, orange peels and lard. A golden yolk from a salted duck egg was placed at the center of each cake, and the golden brown crust was decorated with symbols of the festival. Traditionally, thirteen moon cakes were piled in a pyramid to symbolize the thirteen moons of a "complete year," that is, twelve moons plus one intercalary moon.
Origin
The Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional festivity for both the Han and minority nationalities. The custom of worshipping the moon (called xi yue in Chinese) can be traced back as far as the ancient Xia and Shang Dynasties (2000 B.C.-1066 B.C.). In the Zhou Dynasty(1066 B.C.-221 B.C.), people hold ceremonies to greet winter and worship the moon whenever the Mid-Autumn Festival sets in. It becomes very prevalent in the Tang Dynasty(618-907 A.D.) that people enjoy and worship the full moon. In the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279 A.D.), however, people send round moon cakes to their relatives as gifts in expression of their best wishes of family reunion. When it becomes dark, they look up at the full silver moon or go sightseeing on lakes to celebrate the festival. Since the Ming (1368-1644 A.D. ) and Qing Dynasties (1644-1911A.D.), the custom of Mid-Autumn Festival celebration becomes unprecedented popular. Together with the celebration there appear some special customs in different parts of the country, such as burning incense, planting Mid-Autumn trees, lighting lanterns on towers and fire dragon dances. However, the custom of playing under the moon is not so popular as it used to be nowadays, but it is not less popular to enjoy the bright silver moon. Whenever the festival sets in, people will look up at the full silver moon, drinking wine to celebrate their happy life or thinking of their relatives and friends far from home, and extending all of their best wishes to them.
Moon Cakes
第3个回答 2010-09-21
Mid-autumn Day is a Chinese festival. It usually comes in September or October .On that day we usually eat a big dinner and mooncakes. It is said "Hou Yi" missed his wife, so he made mooncakes. It looks like the moon. There are many kinds of mooncakes. They are small round cakes with meat, nuts or something sweet inside . eating mooncakes has been our custom. Families stay outside in the open air eat a big dinner and mooncakes. The most important thing is looking at the moon, On that day, the moon kooks brighter and rounder. We call this moon the full moon. On that day, families get together, so we call this day getting –together. This is Mid –autumn Day. I love it very much. Because on that day I can eat mooncakes. And my brother comes back home. He works outside all year. Only that day and the Spring Festival. He comes back. So that day I am especially happy. On that day my family gets together
第4个回答 2019-08-15
Wu Gang's expelling Gui.
Legend has it that there are Gui trees in the moon, and Huainanzi has said that there are Gui trees in the moon. Later legends are more specific. Wu Gang, a person who expelled Gui trees, was added beside the Gui tree.
The legend of Osmanthus in the middle of the month and Wu Gang is the most specific one contained in the first volume of the Tang Dynasty Duan Cheng-shi's Youyang Miscellaneous Figures, Tian Ji, which says, "There are laurels and toads in the old saying.
so the different book says that laurel is five hundred feet tall, and there is a person under it who is often in the middle of the book, and the tree is created with each other." My name is Wu Minggang, a native of Xihe River, who learned immortality and ordered tree cutting.
It means that Wu Gang followed the immortal to the heavenly realm, but he made a mistake and the immortal sent him to the moon and ordered him to cut down the immortal tree laurel. Laurel is as high as 500 Zhang, which is the punishment for Wu Gang.