The custom of Chaoshan Mid-Autumn Festival

Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional festival in China.

In Chaoshan area,

"Yue Bai" is an indispensable part of Mid-Autumn Festival.

So, what are the special customs of Chaoshan Yue Bai?

Moon Worship Mother

People in Chaoshan often call "Yue Bai" Moon Worship Mother.

Because the moon belongs to the Yin, it is called Taiyin Mother, and people call it Moon Mother.

There is a common saying in Chaoshan that "men don't worship the moon and women don't worship the stove". The main body of Yue Bai is women and children, and most adult men don't worship.

Yue Bai is in the open air, urban residents, on the balcony or in their own courtyard; Yue Bai, the rural people, mostly concentrated on the great wall in the village to worship.

Yue Bai's tributes mainly include pomelo, persimmon, carambola, pomegranate, yougan, pineapple, linling, taro and other fruits and vegetables, as well as moon cakes, cakes, fried piles and oil cakes. In rural areas, women often display some handicrafts on these sacrifices, such as building Tashan Mountain with glutinous rice and rice strips, sticking pomelo with paper-cuts, and making peacocks with oily gan with branches and leaves.

In addition to these, there are various forms of paper offerings, including Daikin, which is usually used for worshipping gods, and Huangjin, which can be folded into gold ingots, as well as a desk curtain printed with the pattern of the Eight Immortals crossing the sea, a bucket-like tribute, and flower baskets made of lotus, pineapple and Xiantao.

There is a ballad in Chaoshan that says:

"Mid-autumn night, the Moon Goddess. Deep worship, reunion. A good husband makes a good marriage. Reunion this year, reunion next year, and reunion every year. "

The important wish of Yue Bai, a girl to be married in Chaoshan, is to find a good husband.

Many Chaoshan children like to put new stationery and notebooks on the altar during Mid-Autumn Festival in Yue Bai, hoping that Moon Mother will bless her to be smart in reading and get excellent grades.

Sometimes adults will pinch a little incense ash, carefully wrap it on red paper, and then send it with "water from the well" (the water just pumped from the well can't touch the edge of the well), saying that it is the "elixir" given by Moon Mother, and drinking it can make people smart and healthy.

The "taro" is indispensable on the altar of Chaoshan people who worship the moon. Legend has it that in order not to forget the suffering of the Hu people's rule, the people took taro as a homonym with "Hu tou", and "taro" looked like a human head to pay homage to their ancestors, which has been passed down from generation to generation and still exists today.

Kiln-burning

Kiln-burning in mid-autumn (i.e. "ant kiln") is another custom in Chaoshan. Burning tile kiln has two meanings: one is to commemorate the signal that Chaozhou people set off fireworks to kill Yuan Bing; Second, because the tide tile is homophonic with "ant", the tile-burning tower is pronounced as "ant" burning tower, and the ants are burned to death. It is commonly known that burning the tower in Mid-Autumn Festival will burn away the ants in every household, and there will be no ants in the coming year or reduce the harm of ants.

When the "burning ant kiln" is on fire, it is also the time for adults to set up incense tables and worship the moon mother. When the fire is lit, adults sprinkle some sulfur powder into the "ant kiln", and the flame turns light blue, which is particularly beautiful, or use a sprayer spraying pesticides to pump some oil out to the "ant kiln" to increase the flame.

when the tiles turn red, the grass is almost the same, and the oil and sulfur powder are almost the same, every household will take a handful of salt and scatter it at the "ant kiln", making a pleasant noise, which is the same as the sound of fire burning termites, which means burning termites.