Continuing to talk about those traditional festivals in Beijing, last time we talked about Qingming and Dragon Boat Festival, and then it was the Mid-Autumn Festival.
August 15thMid-Autumn Festival, also known as the "Reunion Festival", "Moon Cake Festival", and the old Beijingers also jokingly call it the "Rabbit Festival". The Mid-Autumn Festival in old Beijing has folk customs such as worshipping the moon (or worshiping the "Moon God Niangniang" and worshipping the "Taiyin Xingjun"), admiring the moon, walking the moon, hanging lanterns, eating moon cakes, eating reunion dinners, offering rabbits, drinking osmanthus wine, etc.
The Mid-Autumn Festival originated from the ancient worship of the "moon god". In the old Beijing, there are five altars of heaven, earth, sun, moon, Sheji, Ming Jiajing nine years (1530) built the moon altar (also known as the moon altar) outside Fuwai, by the moon altar, the palace of clothing, the god kitchen and other buildings, it is the place where the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties prayed to the god of the night and the stars in the sky. Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, Beijing's dignitaries, literati and scholars also went to the Changhe River outside the Xizhi Gate and the Second Gate outside the Dongbian Gate on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, and boarded the restaurant and tea shop on the shore, or went to the pavilions and palaces of Shichahai, Taoran Pavilion, Tianning Temple and other famous temples to admire the moon at the window, taste tea and drink, chant poems and fill in the lyrics, talk and have fun, and return at night.
The people in the courtyard also sit under the bright moonlight after worshipping the moon in the courtyard, admiring the moon and eating reunion dinner, eating moon cakes that symbolize reunion and beauty, and sharing reunion steamed cakes. As the saying goes, "men don't worship the moon, women don't sacrifice to the stove", so the courtyard worships the "moon god Niangniang" by the housewives to preside over the sacrifice, and pray for the happiness of the whole family, the birth of children, reunion, and auspiciousness on the night of the full moon. In the old days in Beijing, the folk moon worship of the Mid-Autumn Festival was to offer paper horses and "free children" to the Moon Palace. Because legend has it that there is a jade rabbit in the Moon Palace that accompanies Chang'e and makes medicine for her, it is necessary to offer the "rabbit master" during the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15, and the children also offer the "rabbit master" for fun. "Rabbit Lord" is a clay rabbit god seated statue.
After the Mid-Autumn Festival, it isChung Yeung FestivalThe Chung Yeung Festival has a history of more than 2,000 years. During the Double Ninth Festival, old Beijingers often spend this festival by climbing heights, wearing dogwoods, appreciating chrysanthemums, drinking chrysanthemum wine, flying kites, eating flower cakes, eating barbecue, shabu mutton, and reciting poems to pray for health and longevity.
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, Chongyang ascended to the top of the throne, and on the ninth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar, the emperor would personally go to Wansui Mountain (i.e., Jingshan) to climb and worship the Buddha, pray for longevity and peace and enjoy the scenery of the capital; The queens and concubines climbed the Duixiu Mountain in the imperial garden of the Forbidden City to look at it. In the people, dignitaries, literati and scholars either climbed the rockery pavilions in their own gardens, or climbed the mountains inside and outside the old capital to have a glimpse of the mountain scenery and the scenery of the capital. At that time, it was mainly to the Eight Great Places of Xishan, Xiangshan, and Wuta Temple.
Eating flower cake is a popular phoenix custom in old Beijing, and in the Yuan Dynasty, there were people who "took noodles as cakes and gave them to the Double Ninth Festival". The Ming Dynasty followed this custom, and Chongyang "used noodles as cakes, as big as plates, and spread two or three layers of jujubes." There are women who welcome back and eat together". During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, in addition to this kind of "steamed dough fruit", there was also a flower cake of "Jiang rice and yellow rice pounded", both of which "cut five-color flags as a banner", and were in the market. At the same time, the dumpling shop also began to sell flower cakes with "oil, sugar, fruit, and oven (i.e., baked)", that is, pastry-style flower cakes.
In the late Qing Dynasty, "there are two kinds of flower cakes: one is made of sugar and noodles, with fine fruits in the middle, and the two and three layers are different, which is the beauty of flower cakes: one is the star on the steamed cake and decorated with dates and chestnuts, which is the second of the cake." The first is a pastry-style flower cake, which is still available today. As for the second type of steamed cake, it has faded out of the life of Beijingers. There is also a custom in old Beijing, to welcome the daughter back to her parents' house at the ninth day of the first day of September, take a piece of cake and put it on the daughter's forehead, and bless the daughter while building: "May the child be high in everything." Therefore, the Chung Yeung Festival is also known as the "Daughter's Festival".
Folk Culture of Beijing Regional Culture Learning Excerpt - Seasonal Customs of the Year (Mid-Autumn Festival and Chongyang Festival). Invasion and deletion.
*From the web.
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