subject: Mid-Autumn Festival History [print this page] Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as Chinese Moon Festival, takes place at the date of August 15th in Chinese lunar calendar. In modern China, the meaning of celebrating the festival is to get together with families and enjoy the happy time. In a sense, Mid-Autumn Festival is something like thanks giving day.
Mid-autumn festival has a long history. In Chinese ancient times, the emperors had the tradition of worshiping the Sun in spring, and the Moon in autumn. The word "Mid-Autumn" firstly appeared in a famous ancient book "Zhou Li" which tells the rituals in the Zhou Dynasty. However, it was not until the early Tang Dynasty that the Mid-Autumn day was officially defined as a traditional festival. And then, during the Song Dynasty, it became an established festival, and became as popular as the Spring Festival since the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
Version One: Seasons and Climate
The Mid-Autumn Festival is the moment of rice maturity. Farmers will worship the local land God, whose birthday is on that day. Mid-Autumn day is possibly an old tradition of telling the farmers that autumn is coming. The Mid-Autumn day can be named as "Harvest Day" when the crops can be reaped. In the ancient time, farmers would drink, sing and dance on harvest day, celebrating their harvest.
As what is mentioned in the Mid-Autumn Festival story of Version one, the ancient emperors had the tradition of worshiping the moon, the day was originally on the day of Autumn Equinox, not on the Mid-Autumn day. However, the Autumn Equinox is not a fixed day and the moon may not be full moon. Therefore, the day for worshipping the moon was accepted as a convention when the moon is fullest.
Version Two: Nanjing and Mid-autumn Festival
About 1,600 years ago, Nanjing which was called Jianye served as capital of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. On a Mid-autumn night, when the governor of Niuzhu who named Xie Shangyue was boating on a river he met Yuan Hong, a poor, frustrated but gifted scholar who had to earn his living by renting boats. Admired by his ability, Xie made friend with him and Yuan had a rise to fame with the help of Xie. Evermore, having heard of the story, many refined scholars came from all over the country followed suit to boat in the river, climbed up the towers, and watched the moon. Famous poets such as Ou Yangzhan and Li Bai were wrote numbers of poems about this story because of being touched. As a result, the tradition of watching the moon on Mid-Autumn Festival gradually came into being.
Mid-Autumn Festival 2010 (Chinese Moon Festival 2010) will be on September 22nd. Chinese public holiday for Mid-Autumn Festival begins from September 22nd to September 25th.
Mid-Autumn Festival History
By: John
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