The Mid-Autumn Festival is an official harvest festival celebrated by Chinese and Vietnamesepeoples.[1][2] The festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the lunar calendar, during a full moon, which is in late September or early October in the Gregorian calendar, close to the autumnal equinox.[1]
Meanings of the festival[edit]
The festival celebrates three fundamental concepts which are closely tied to one another:
Gathering, such as family and friends coming together, or harvesting crops
Thanksgiving, to give thanks for the harvest, or for harmonious unions
Praying (asking for conceptual or material satisfaction), such as for babies, a spouse, beauty, longevity, or for a good future
Traditions and myths surrounding the festival are formed around these three concepts,[5]although traditions have changed over time due to changes in technology, science, economy, culture, and religion.[5]
Origins and development[edit]
The Chinese have celebrated the harvest during the autumn full moon since the Shang Dynasty(c. 16th to 10th century BCE).[5] Morris Berkowitz, who studied the Hakka people during the 1960s, theorizes that the harvest celebration originally began with worshiping Mountain Gods after the harvest was completed.[6] The celebration as a festival only started to gain popularity during the early Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE).[1] One legend explains that Emperor Xuanzong of Tang started to hold formal celebrations in his palace after having explored the Moon-Palace.[5]The term mid-autumn (中秋) first appeared in Rites of Zhou, a written collection of rituals of theWestern Zhou Dynasty (1046–771 BCE).[1]
Empress Dowager Cixi (late 19th century) enjoyed celebrating Mid-Autumn Festival so much that she would spend the period between the thirteenth and seventeenth day of the eighth month staging elaborate rituals.[7]
For the Vietnamese, in its most ancient form, the evening commemorated the dragon who brought rain for the crops.[2] Celebrants would observe the moon to divine the future of the people and harvests. Eventually the celebration came to symbolize a reverence for fertility, with prayers given for bountiful harvests, increase in livestock, and human babies. Over time, the prayers for children evolved into a celebration of children.[2] Confucian scholars continued the tradition of gazing at the moon, but to sip wine and improvise poetry and song.[2] By the early twentieth century in Hanoi, the festival had begun to assume its identity as a children's festival.[2]
Modern celebration[edit]
The festival was a time to enjoy the successful reaping of rice and wheat with food offerings made in honor of the moon. Today, it is still an occasion for outdoor reunions among friends and relatives to eat mooncakes and watch the moon, a symbol of harmony and unity.[9] The festival is celebrated with many cultural or regional customs, among them:
Burning incense in reverence to deities including Chang'e.
Performance of dragon and lion dances, which is mainly practiced in southern China[1] and Vietnam.
Lanterns[edit]
A notable part of celebrating the holiday is the carrying of brightly litlanterns, lighting lanterns on towers, or floating sky lanterns.[1] One tradition involving lanterns, dēng mí(simplified Chinese:灯谜; traditional Chinese: 灯谜), is to write riddles on lanterns and have other people try to guess the answers.[10]
It is difficult to discern the original purpose of lanterns in connection to the festival, but it is certain that lanterns were not used in conjunction with moon-worship prior to the Tang Dynasty.[5] Traditionally, the lantern has been used to symbolize fertility, and functioned mainly as a toy and decoration. But today the lantern has come to symbolize the festival itself.[5] In the old days, lanterns were made in the image of natural things, myths, and local cultures.[5] Over time, a greater variety of lanterns could be found as local cultures became influenced by their neighbors.[5]
As China gradually evolved from an agrarian society to a mixed agrarian-commercial one, traditions from other festivals began to be transmitted into the Mid-Autumn Festival, such as the putting of lanterns on rivers to guide the spirits of the drowned as practiced during the Ghost Festival, which is observed a month before.[5] Hong Kong fishermen during the Qing Dynasty, for example, would put up lanterns on their boats for the Ghost Festival and keep the lanterns up until Mid-Autumn Festival.[5]
Mooncakes[edit]
Typical lotus bean-filled mooncakes eaten during the festival
Animal-shaped mooncakes in Vietnam
Main article:Mooncake
Making and sharing mooncakes is one of the hallmark traditions of this festival. In Chinese culture, a round shape symbolizes completeness and unity. Thus, the sharing of round mooncakes among family members signify the completeness and unity of families.[citation needed]In some areas of China, there is a tradition of making mooncakes during the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival.[12] The senior person in that household would cut the mooncakes into pieces and distribute them to each family member, signifying family reunion.[12] In modern times, however, making mooncakes at home has given way to the more popular custom of giving mooncakes to family members, although the meaning of maintaining familial unity remains.[citation needed]
Although typical mooncakes can be around a few inches in diameter, imperial chefs have made some as large as several feet in diameter, with its surface impressed with designs of Chang'e,cassia trees, or the Moon-Palace.[9] One tradition is to pile 13 mooncakes on top of each other to mimic a pagoda, the number 13 being chosen to represent the 13 months in a full lunar year.[9]
According to Chinese folklore, a Turpan businessman offered cakes to Emperor Taizong of Tangin his victory against the Xiongnu on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month. Taizong took the round cakes and pointed to the moon with a smile, saying, "I'd like to invite the toad to enjoy thehú (胡) cake." After sharing the cakes with his ministers, the custom of eating these hú cakes spread throughout the country.[13] Eventually these became known as mooncakes. Although the legend explains the beginnings of mooncake-giving, its popularity and ties to the festival began during the Song Dynasty (906–1279 CE).[5]
Another popular legend concerns the Han Chinese's uprising against the ruling Mongols at the end of the Yuan dynasty (1280–1368 CE), in which the Han Chinese used traditional mooncakes to conceal the message that they were to rebel on Mid-Autumn Day.[10]
Other foods and food displays[edit]
Imperial dishes served on this occasion included nine-jointed lotus roots which symbolize peace, and watermelons cut in the shape of lotus petals which symbolize reunion.[9] Teacups were placed on stone tables in the garden, where the family would pour teaand chat, waiting for the moment when the full moon's reflection appeared in the center of their cups.[9]Owing to the timing of the plant's blossoms,osmanthus wine is the traditional choice for the "reunion wine" drunk on the occasion. Also, people will celebrate by eating Osmanthus cakes and candy.[14][15][16]
Food offerings made to deities are placed on an altar set up in the courtyard, including apples, pears, peaches, grapes, pomegranates, melons, oranges, and pomelos.[17] One of the first decorations purchased for the celebration table is a clay statue of the Jade Rabbit. In Chinese folklore, the Jade Rabbit was an animal that lived on the moon and accompanied Chang'e. Offerings of yellow beans and cockscomb flowers were made to the Jade Rabbit.[9]
In Vietnam, cakes and fruits are not only consumed, but elaborately prepared as food displays. For example, glutinous rice flour and rice paste are molded into familiar animals. Pomelo sections can be fashioned into unicorns, rabbits, or dogs.[2] Villagers of Xuân La, just south ofHanoi, produce tò he, figurines made from rice paste and colored with natural food dyes.[2] Into the early decades of the twentieth century of Vietnam, daughters of wealthy families would prepare elaborate centerpieces filled with treats for their younger siblings. Well-dressed visitors could visit to observe the daughter's handiwork as an indication of her capabilities as a wife in the future. Eventually the practice of arranging centerpieces became a tradition not just limited to wealthy families.[2]
Courtship and matchmaking[edit]
The Mid-Autumn moon has traditionally been a choice occasion to celebrate marriages. Girls would pray to Chang'e to help fulfill their romantic wishes.[7]
In some parts of China, dances are held for young men and women to find partners. For example, young women are encouraged to throw their handkerchiefs to the crowd, and the young man who catches and returns the handkerchief has a chance at romance.[1] In Daguang, in northeast Guizhou Province, young men and women of the Dong people would make an appointment at a certain place. The young women would arrive early to overhear remarks made about them by the young men. The young men would praise their lovers in front of their fellows, in which finally the listening women would walk out of the thicket. Pairs of lovers would go off to a quiet place to open their hearts to each other.[3]
Into the early decades of the twentieth century Vietnam, young men and women used the festival as a chance to meet future life companions. Groups would assemble in a courtyard and exchange verses of song while gazing at the moon. Those who performed poorly were sidelined until one young man and one young woman remained, after which they would win prizes as well as entertain matrimonial prospects.[2]
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