September 9 100 Page Layout of the Double Ninth Festival Manuscript Newspaper.

Double Ninth Festival manuscript information: ancient September custom

As far as farming society is concerned

September 9 100 Page Layout of the Double Ninth Festival Manuscript Newspaper.

Double Ninth Festival manuscript information: ancient September custom

As far as farming society is concerned, farming in September of the lunar calendar is basically completed, so since ancient times, China ancestors often arranged harvest celebrations and offered sacrifices to gods and ancestors in September.

"Lu Chunqiu Ji" contains: "(September) ordered slaughter and burial, ploughing and preparation, and cited five essentials. The Tibetan emperor's book is collected in the holy warehouse, and I only respect it. " He also said: "It's the moon, it's the great emperor. I will taste the sacrifice and tell the son of heaven. " "It's the moon, and the son of heaven teaches field hunting to learn five horses." It can be seen that during the harvest of crops in autumn and September, ancestors generally had activities such as celebrating the Emperor of Heaven and offering sacrifices to ancestors, which was formalized and codified by the rulers during the Warring States period.

As this is an activity to celebrate the harvest year, the custom of the September celebration obviously has the color and characteristics of Dionysian carnival, and has a lot of entertainment content (such as "offering sacrifices to the gods", "entertaining the emperor", "hunting" and "picnicking"). It is generally believed by later generations that the customs of barbecue, drinking, singing and dancing in the Double Ninth Festival after the Han Dynasty originated from the pre-Qin September celebration. Therefore, some people regard the pre-Qin September celebration as China's bacchanalia. In addition to the Han nationality and its predecessor, the Chinese nation, the ancient Xiongnu, Gaoshan nationality and Zhuang nationality all had various September celebrations, among which the September celebrations of Amei and Zhuang nationality of Gaoshan nationality have continued to this day.

Manuscripts of Double Ninth Festival: Vulcan Death Worship in Pre-Qin Period

Since the primitive society, human beings have worshipped fire and Vulcan very much. The ancients regarded a bright star, Antares, as the embodiment of Vulcan, calling it "fire" or "morning" and "heart", and regarded it as a symbol of ancient seasonal stars. By observing the position where "fire" appeared, the seasonal changes were determined. Because of its seasonal function, it is said that in the Zhuan Xu era more than 4,000 years ago, Huozheng's office was set up to observe this star.

Because Mars retreats in September, summer is called "September fire", which means hiding, and "internal fire" means hiding from Mars, which means killing the coming of winter. Many people will freeze to death because our ancestors have limited ability to keep out the cold and lack food in winter. The temporary "death" of Vulcan means that evil is rampant and many people are about to die, so the ancients called it "the evil of Yang and Jiu". Therefore, people hold various ceremonies in September to pay tribute to Vulcan and pray for blessing.

We don't know the details of the memorial ceremony at that time today, but what is certain is that this kind of ceremony should be very common in the pre-Qin period. At present, some areas in the south of the Yangtze River still have the custom of offering sacrifices to stoves on the Double Ninth Festival, which should be the spread of the custom of "big fire" in ancient September. This worship of Vulcan's death in the pre-Qin period became the main source of customs such as seeking "longevity" and "eliminating disasters and avoiding evil spirits" on the Double Ninth Festival. Therefore, some people call the Double Ninth Festival "Death Festival" and associate it with the third day of March (Easter), and there is a corresponding relationship between them, which constitutes a specific festival system. Therefore, Xijing Miscellanies in the Eastern Jin Dynasty said: "Go to the third grade in March, the Double Ninth Festival in September, play maid-in-waiting games, and then climb the mountain." In the era of witchcraft, people are used to creating some symbolic customs to seek good fortune and avoid evil, among which the most convenient ones are worshipping and eating customs. This is the source of many dietary customs and sacrificial customs in the Double Ninth Festival in later generations.