The Mid-Autumn Festival symbolizes family reunion, harvest, and prosperity. The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as Moon Night, Autumn Festival, Zhongqiu Festival, August Festival, August Meeting, Chasing the Moon Festival, Playing with the Moon Festival, Worshiping the Moon Festival, Daughter's Festival, or Reunion Festival, is a traditional cultural festival that is popular among many Chinese ethnic groups and countries in the Chinese character culture circle. It falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month.
When the fifteenth comes, people gather together, and the bright moon shines on the jade railing. When the moon rises, all people look up to it. On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, it means family reunion. In most parts of our country, there are still customs such as admiring the moon, eating mooncakes, drinking wine, and even playing with torches and eating "sugar wheel" bread, which have a sense of "ritual".
The Elegant Alternative Names of the Mid-Autumn Festival
1、Mid-Autumn Festival
The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, which is exactly halfway through the three autumns, hence its name. According to China's calendar, the eighth lunar month is the middle of autumn, the second month of autumn. The ancients liked to divide each season into Meng, Zhong, and Ji, so the Mid-Autumn Festival is also called "Zhongqiu Festival"
2、Correctness Festival
During the Tang Dynasty, the festive atmosphere of the Mid-Autumn Festival gradually reached its peak. People paid great attention to this festival in the eighth month of autumn, and it also symbolized reunion and harmony. At that time, people called the Mid-Autumn Festival "Zhengyue".
3、Moon Night
The ancients called the festival on the 15th day of the second lunar month of spring "Huazhao", so correspondingly, they called the 15th day of the eighth lunar month of autumn "Moon Night". The moon on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month of autumn is fuller and brighter than the moon of other months, so it is called "Moon Night".
The meaning of chasing the moon is not Chang'e chasing the moon. Instead, some places set the Mid-Autumn Festival on the 16th day of the eighth lunar month, such as Ningbo, Taizhou, and Zhoushan. During the Yuan Dynasty, in order to prevent the attack by Yuan soldiers and Zhu Yuanzhang, the people in Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas changed "the 14th day of the first lunar month to Lantern Festival, and the 16th day of the eighth lunar month to Mid-Autumn Festival".
5、Worshiping the Moon Festival
Xiyue, which means worshiping the moon god. According to legend, Wu Yan, a beautiful girl from the State of Qi in ancient times, once sincerely worshipped the moon as a child. After growing up, she entered the palace with her outstanding moral qualities, but was not favored. One year on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, when the emperor was admiring the moonlight in autumn, he found her very beautiful and eventually made her the empress. Thus, the custom of worshipping the moon on the Mid-Autumn Festival came about.
6、Playing with the Moon Festival
In the Northern Song Dynasty, Meng Yuanlao wrote a book called "Dreams of the Eastern Capital", which recorded the customs and people's lives of the capital city at that time, which was Kaifeng. In it, he described the Mid-Autumn Festival in autumn, writing: On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, wealthy families decorated pavilions and terraces, while common people competed to occupy teahouses to play with the moon.
