A survey of local customs during the Mid-Autumn Festival

During the Mid-Autumn Festival, there are many games and activities, the first is playing with lanterns. The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the three major lantern festivals in my country. During the festival, you should play with lanterns. Of course, there are no large-scale lantern festivals like the Lantern Festival during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Playing with lanterns is mainly only among families and children.

As early as in the Northern Song Dynasty, lanterns recorded the customs of the Mid-Autumn Festival in "Old Things in Wulin". There was an activity of 'putting a' little red 'lantern into the river to drift and play. Playing with lanterns during the Mid-Autumn Festival is mostly concentrated in the south. For example, at the above-mentioned autumn festival in Foshan, there were various kinds of colorful lights: sesame lamps, eggshell lamps, shavings lamps, straw lamps, fish scale lamps, grain shell lamps, melon seed lamps, bird, animal, flower and tree lamps, etc., which were amazing.

In Guangzhou, Hong Kong and other places, Mid-Autumn Festival activities are held on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the trees are also erected, meaning that the lanterns are erected high. With the help of their parents, children use bamboo paper to tie rabbit lanterns, carambola lanterns or square lanterns, hang them horizontally in short poles, and then erect them on high poles. With high skills, colorful lights shine, adding another scene to the Mid-Autumn Festival. Children compete with each other more to see who will stand higher and the more will have the most exquisite lanterns. In addition, there are also lanterns that place sky lanterns, namely Kongming lanterns, which are made of paper into large shapes. Candles are lit under the lamp, and the heat rises, making the lamp fly in the air, attracting laughter and chasing. In addition, there are various lanterns carried by children to play under the moon.

In Nanning, Guangxi, in addition to various lanterns made of paper and bamboo for children to play with, there are also very simple grapefruit lanterns, pumpkin lanterns, and orange lanterns. The so-called grapefruit lamp is made by hollowing out grapefruit, carving a simple pattern, putting on a rope, and lighting a candle inside. The light is elegant and elegant. Pumpkin lanterns and orange lanterns are also made by removing the flesh. Although simple, it is easy to make and very popular. Some children even float grapefruit lamps into the pond water to play games. There is a simple household autumn lamp in Guangxi, which is made of six bamboo strips tied in circles, pasted with white gauze paper on the outside, and inserted with candles inside. Hang it next to the moon sacrifice table for the moon, and can also be played by children.

Nowadays, many areas in Guangxi and Guangdong arrange lantern festivals on Mid-Autumn Festival nights, tie large modern lanterns illuminated by electric lights, and various new lanterns made of plastic for children to play with, but they lack the simplicity of the old lanterns. beauty.

In addition, the game of burning tiles lanterns, or burning flower towers, burning tiles towers, and burning fan towers, is widely circulated in the south, and is circulated in Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi and other places. For example, Volume 5 of "National Customs of China": On the Mid-Autumn Festival night in Jiangxi, ordinary children pick up tiles in the wild and pile them into a round tower shape with holes. At dusk, place it in a firewood tower under the bright moon and burn it. Wait until the tiles are hot, then pour kerosene on the fire and add oil to the fire. Instantly, the fields are red and shine like day. It was not until late at night that no one was watching, and the sound began to be poured. This is known as burning a tile lamp." The Shaowa Pagoda in Chaozhou, Guangdong is also made of bricks and tiles to make a hollow tower, filled with branches to ignite a fire. At the same time, smoke piles are also burned, which is to pile up grass and firewood and burn them after the moon worship is over. The Shaofan Pagoda in the border areas of Guangxi is similar to this kind of activity, but folklore commemorates the heroic battle of Liu Yongfu, a famous anti-French general in the Qing Dynasty, who burned to death a foreign ghost (French invaders) who escaped into the pagoda. It is quite patriotic. thinking. There is also an activity to "burn towers" in Jinjiang, Fujian.

Legend has it that this custom is related to the righteous act of resisting the Yuan soldiers. After the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty, it carried out bloody rule over the Han people, so the Han people carried out unyielding resistance, and various places made arrangements for the Mid-Autumn Festival to rise, setting fires on the top floor of the pagoda as a sign. Similar to the fire on the peak fire platform, although this resistance was suppressed, the custom of burning pagodas remained. This legend is similar to the legend of eating mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival.