The origin of the Mid-Autumn festival
According to legend, from July 1st every year, the King of Yan ordered the gates of hell to be opened wide, so that the ghosts who suffered and were imprisoned in hell all the year round could get out of hell, get a short stroll and enjoy human blood. Therefore, people call July a ghost month, and this month is regarded as an unlucky month. They neither get married nor move.
Every year, the 14th/15th day of the seventh lunar month is Magnolia Festival, also known as Mid-Autumn Festival, July 30th or Ghost Festival. In the past, people prepared some vegetables, wine, rice, gold, silver, clothes and paper at the intersection on this night to offer sacrifices to ghosts and gods.
Lunar July 14/ 15 is the biggest festival in the underworld-Ghost Festival, also known as Zhongyuan Festival or Arahara Festival, and it is one of the three major festivals in the underworld in China. There is a folk legend that the Lantern Festival is celebrated in the underworld and the Ghost Festival is celebrated in the underworld. It is said that on that day, Yan Xihui will spend the festive season with ghosts dressed in costumes. Let us living people bless them together and wish people in another world all their wishes come true and enjoy the happiness that this world has not had time to enjoy. Therefore, many local festivals in our country will hold activities such as offering sacrifices, chanting Buddha, sweeping graves, reviewing, enjoying flowers and fishing to celebrate.
Ghost Festival originated from the story of Manglietia's rescue of mother: "People with Manglietia monks have great strength. His mother fell into the hungry ghost road, and the food mouth turned into flames. Hunger was too bitter. Unable to save her mother, Manglietia asked the Buddha for advice. In order to talk about the Lanpen Sutra, he taught July 15 to be a Lanpen to save his mother. " It is said that at that time, after experiencing all kinds of hardships in the underworld, Manglietia met her dead mother Liu and found that she was tortured by a group of hungry ghosts. Manglietia tried to give her a bowl of vegetable rice, but the vegetable rice was taken away by the hungry ghost. Manglietia had to ask the Buddha for help. The Buddha was moved by Manglietia's filial piety and gave him the Lanjing. According to the instructions, Manglietia dedicated a rare fruit vegetarian meal to her mother on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month. The hungry mother finally got the food. Buddhists hold a grand "bonsai" every year to commemorate the filial piety of Manglietia, which is what we now call "Ghost Festival".
According to the book, on this day in ancient times, people would set up a magician's seat and a stone drum platform in front of Jiekou Village in advance. There is a bodhisattva in front of the master's seat, who is the treasure king who crossed the ghost of "hell". Below is a plate of peaches and rice. Shigu stood on the stage, holding three spiritual cards and evocative complex items in his hand. After noon, families put whole pigs, whole sheep, chickens, ducks and geese and various cakes, fruits and melons on the stone drum stage. The person in charge inserted a triangular paper flag of blue, red and green on each sacrifice, and wrote the words "Yulan Festival" and "Manna Gate Open". The ceremony began with solemn temple music. Then, the mage rang the bell and led the monks in the seat to recite various spells and mantras. Then feed, sprinkle a plate of peaches and rice in all directions and repeat three times. This ceremony is called "the opening of the flame". Wang Kaitai, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty, once wrote a poem: "The Dojo is full of ghosts, and the original ancient meaning of Magnolia still exists. However, it is strange that the red plaque is attached to the door, and the meat mountain wine sea celebrates the Central Plains. " It describes the Halloween customs along the southeast coast of China.
It can be seen that "Ghost Festival" is due to the filial piety of traditional virtues. Nowadays, people in northern China still burn paper money on this day to pay homage to their ancestors who died young and express their thoughts for their loved ones. Although the sacrificial way is simple, it basically retains the simple meaning of Ghost Festival. Because of the call of blood, the extension of feelings and the reminder of one's future, Ghost Festival is endowed with rich humanistic connotation. Even if the years are different and the burned gifts are different, the living will never finish reading endless grief and deep nostalgia for their distant relatives. However, "people of different ages have different feelings about this special festival, because the future festival is coming to them mercilessly, from obscurity to clarity, from missing to fear, from fear to calmness. When they miss the people of the past, they are actually thinking about their experiences, contents, ways and pursuits in today's life."
On July 14/ 15, the gate of hell opened wide. Whether it's burning paper money to send blessings, holding daisies to mourn, offering sacrifices to ancestors on the Internet, or setting off river lanterns, today's living people miss the past and send blessings to their ancestors together. This is the spontaneity of human spirit, the extension of feelings and the most basic belief. And at the same time, "the living should cherish every day, not be ashamed of society and friends, and not be ashamed of their loved ones who have left forever." Because, one day we will meet them. At that time, you can proudly say that you are a hero on earth and a ghost hero in the underworld! "
Matters needing attention in Mid-Autumn Festival
1, pay attention to your words and deeds, and don't slander ghosts and gods.
Although many people don't believe in ghosts and gods, they did in ancient times. Before and after the Mid-Autumn Festival, you can't say anything strange casually, which will easily cause others to panic and seriously affect the atmosphere.
2. Don't steal sacrifices and spend money indiscriminately.
In my family's custom, every year in July and a half, that is, a few days before the Mid-Autumn Festival, we will give out lucky money, such as paper and gold ingots. Then put it in a paper bag, write the names of the deceased ancestors on the paper bag, and then take it to their graves for burning. The money is for relatives of ancestors. We can't pick it up at the grave, or our ancestors will find you with resentment.
3. Avoid going out at night and don't turn around when walking.
The atmosphere of Mid-Autumn Festival is very strange. It feels like the road is full of dead souls at night. It's best not to walk at night on this day. When I have a little trouble, I scare myself, especially those whose birthdays are not so good. If you really have something to travel at night, you'd better take a few people with you to feel a little safe. After all, many hands make light work.
Never look in the mirror in the middle of the night and stay up late.
Around the Mid-Autumn Festival, the human body is rather yin. What if when you look in the mirror, a ghost suddenly appears in the mirror, just like in the horror movie, and then reaches out and strangles you? This is scary. In the middle of the night, the human body is weak and its vitality is weak. What if the ghost is possessed? In terms of health care, we are also told to go to bed as soon as possible.
Legend of Mid-Autumn Festival
1. Manglietia saved her mother.
The layman's name in Manglietia is Rob, a widowed mother, Mrs. Qingti, who is stingy and good at killing people. However, Rob is very kind. He always does good deeds and respects the three treasures. One day, when he was going out to do business, he told his mother that he would divide the family money into three parts, one for himself, one for his mother and one for charity at home. Unexpectedly, since Rob left home, Mrs. Qingti has killed chickens and geese every day. As soon as the monk came to the door, he ordered his servant to beat him out with a stick, and even let the dog chase the beggar.
Because of her evil deeds, she was punished for falling into nasal hell after her death and suffering day and night. Rob was very sad after his mother died. He thought that becoming a monk could repay his mother's kindness, so he became famous by worshipping Buddha as a teacher. A few years later, I became the first magical power, surpassing Lohan. Mu Lian wanted to know where his parents were born after their death, but he found his mother in a nose hell. In order to save his mother, he went to hell himself and saw the scene of hell:
Among them, people who suffer will die every day. Or sword tree, or iron plow tongue, or copper juice pouring mouth, or hot iron fire pill swallowing. Still holding a copper pillar, the body is rotten. Every day when the cow head is late, the jailer will come and handcuff it. Boiling iron pot soup is painful.
After Mulian turned to Tathagata for help, he had to rescue his mother from hell and reincarnate as a dog in the city. Forty-nine days after Mulian laid the Dojo, his mother was able to ascend to heaven.
Burning paper money
It is said that after Cai Lun invented papermaking in the Eastern Han Dynasty, his business was booming and he earned a lot of money. Brother Cai Mo and sister-in-law Hui Niang are envious. Huiniang wants Cai Mo to learn papermaking from Cai Lun. But Cai Mo's perseverance was not enough, and he hastily opened his own paper shop before he got home. As a result, the quality of the paper made is very poor, and no one cares, so the couple are worried about a room full of paper.
Finally, Huiniang came up with a clever plan, attached it to Cai Mo's ear and taught it again.
That night, the neighbor suddenly heard the voice of crying from Cai Mo's house. Everyone rushed over to ask, only to know that Huiniang died suddenly last night. The next morning, Cai Mo cried her eyes out in front of Hui Niang's coffin in front of her neighbors. Burning paper in tears. Burning and burning, I suddenly heard something in the coffin. After a while, I heard Huiniang's voice calling inside: "Open the door, open the door quickly, I'm back". Everyone was stunned and finally got up the courage to open the coffin. Huiniang jumped out and told her neighbors that she had gone to the underworld after her death, and the king of hell made her suffer. Because Cai Mo burned a lot of paper money for her, all the children scrambled to push her. She gave Yan the money again and Yan asked her to come back.
Cai Mo deliberately asked, "I didn't send you money?" Huiniang pointed to the burning fire and said, "That's money! The underworld is made of paper. " Hearing this, Cai Mo immediately went to hold two bundles of paper to burn, saying that this would make the parents in the underworld suffer less. Neighbors saw this and found that paper money was so useful, so everyone paid for paper made by Cai Mo. A few days after the news spread, all the newspapers of Cai Mohist School were sold out.
As Huiniang returns to Yang on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month, people will burn incense and paper for their ancestors on this day. This custom has been passed down to this day.
3. Sheep Festival
The fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month is also called "Sheep Festival". Xu Shen said in Shuo Wen Jie Zi: "Sheep are auspicious." In Oracle Bone Inscriptions's Oracle Bone Inscriptions, it's also called "sheep lead good luck". It can be seen that in ancient times, sheep always represented auspiciousness.
In the rural areas of old Beijing and North China, it is popular for old men to send live sheep to their little nephews on July 15th. Legend has it that this custom is related to the legend that agarwood splits the mountain to save mother. After chopping the mountain to save his mother, agarwood wanted to kill Uncle Jiro who abused his mother. In order to rebuild the friendship between brother and sister and uncle and nephew, Jiro gives a pair of live sheep to Aquilaria every July 15. It is said that this is a homonym for taking the surname of Erlang and Aquilaria's mother "Yang" to reunite the two families. From then on, the folk left the custom of sending live sheep to my uncle, and later it gradually evolved into sending a sheep to the other side.