The Zhuang Mid-Autumn Festival with river lanterns, moon sacrifices, and curses as a blessing

The annual Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching. This is an annual festival for Han people! In Zhuang areas deeply influenced by the Han nationality, there is also a custom of celebrating the 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar.

First of all, let me tell you about the Zhuang people's "moon sacrifice" activities. In Wuming, Zhuang Township, every Mid-Autumn Festival night, around Lingshui, the local Zhuang people will, after worshipping the moon, ride the bright moonlight, sing in groups on the Lingshui River River. They will not rest all night long, singing like loving lovers, sweet and whispering, and some will have a lasting friendship for a century. It is not so much the Mid-Autumn Festival as a "Valentine's Day under the moonlight".

Elderly people who have passed the marriageable age set tables in the courtyard with fruits and mooncakes, and grapefruit is a more common sacrifice in the Zhuang region of Guangxi. The shape of the sacrifice is mainly round, meaning reunion. Taking advantage of the moonlight, we bowed to the moon, and the family sat down and ate mooncakes, melons and fruits in peace. Guilin also enjoys drinking osmanthus wine on August 15th. Enjoy the moon, drink alcohol, and be at ease...

The children couldn't help it. After eating the mooncakes, they flocked to set off river lanterns with lanterns they had made at home. Generally, river lanterns are made at home. The inside are bundled with bamboo strips to shape, the outside is sealed with paper, and finally the spirit is drawn with a brush. Rabbit lanterns, lotus lanterns, watermelon lanterns... The children each have one, competing with which family's lanterns are more beautiful. The mighty team walked towards the river and the canal. No matter how beautiful the lanterns are, they will eventually drift away with the river. Under the moonlight, little river lanterns and candlelight twinkle, and the children's laughter and blessings are intertwined. The Mid-Autumn Festival is another happy carnival for the children in Zhuang Township. Areas rich in grapefruit will also use grapefruit to hollow out and make a grapefruit lamp. Each grapefruit lamp that exudes the fragrance of grapefruit reminds people of the "little orange lamp" written by Bing Xin.

There is also a very strange "curse custom" in the Zhuang area, also known as "curse at the Mid-Autumn Festival". It is said that in ancient times there was a beautiful girl who did not like false sweet words, but preferred sharp and spicy curses. On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, a young man publicly scolded the man who stole the girl's sugar cane. The girl fell in love with him deeply and married him. Therefore, future generations quietly entered other family gardens and orchards on Mid-Autumn Festival night, deliberately stealing onions, garlic, and fruits to annoy others and seek scold! The meaning of stealing onions is to steal other people's smart onions: Cong homophonic). The family that was stolen was secretly happy because they were "jealous" of their family's intelligence and "stole" it. Come out and "curse" a few words, it's a blessing! And this kind of curse cannot carry dirty words.

Is the Mid-Autumn Festival for Zhuang families interesting? If you have the opportunity, you might as well come and experience it for yourself!