dragon dance
Dragon dancing is the most traditional custom in Gannan Mid-Autumn Festival. Every year on the evening of the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, some villages will hold a grand dragon dance. Fire dragons are long and short. They were tied with straw and covered with incense. On the night of the grand event, a dozen young people held high their lively dragons and gathered in Daping. After a burst of firecrackers sounded, a winding dragon danced happily and excitedly under the music of lights and gongs and drums. Legend has it that dragon dancing can also drive away the plague. It is said that the village after the dragon dance can attract wealth and avoid evil spirits, and the weather is favorable.
In some counties and cities, activities like this are more unique. For example, Nanyun Penny Fire Dragon in Luokou Town, Ningdu County, you must swim the fire tiger before swimming the fire dragon, and you must swim from the first day to the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month. At the same time, the villagers had to rush to make penny fire dragons. Penny fire dragon is a giant bamboo, about three feet long and one foot round. The upper part of bamboo is horizontally tied with layers of bamboo, and many torches are tied to each layer of bamboo. These torches are soaked in camellia oil and vegetable oil to facilitate burning. When tied, bamboo becomes the shape of a dragon.
On the evening of the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, I started Youlong. At about eight o'clock in the evening, eight dragon teams came to Daping in front of the Dragon Palace in turn. They lit every penny and held it high. These 49 bamboo dragons reflect the sky like day. The strong wind blows the flame, just like 49 huge rotating fire dragons fighting the devil. Then, according to the order stipulated in the lottery results, each fire dragon team wandered around the village in turn.
Egret burning tile tower
There is a custom of burning tile towers all over the south, but the scale is different. The Mid-Autumn Festival "Burning Tile Pagoda" in Egret Township in the northernmost part of Ganxian County is even more spectacular. This brick tower is 2 meters in diameter and 3 meters in height. It is made of red bricks and tiles, and the adobe at the bottom of the tower has a "fire door". After nightfall, the ceremony of burning the tower began. In fact, burning towers is also skillful. You need to use a small fire first, and then use a big fire when the tower is heated. You should also sprinkle sulfur on the tiles of the tower and pour gasoline on them. Every time gasoline is poured, a flame more than 5 meters high rises, accompanied by the children's amazing cheers, until dawn. Experienced villagers stirred the fire with long poles. At this time, Mars rose to a height of about 10 meter, which was beautiful in the dark night. This custom is that villagers' ancestors used the Mid-Autumn Festival to visit relatives and friends during the day to send moon cakes with uprising notices and set fire to the tower at night to show the permanent commemoration of the unified action of the uprising.
have a family reunion dinner
On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, the moon is not only bright but also round. Therefore, people regard Mid-Autumn Festival as a symbol of reunion. On this day, they will have a reunion dinner.
Reunion dinner is usually arranged in Chinese food. Before the reunion dinner, a ceremony will be held: ancestor worship. In the local dialect, support grandparents. Set a table in the hall, put the whole steamed chicken, duck, fish and some fruits on it, and sift rice wine in three large bowls. Then, the adults lit incense, candles, set off firecrackers, bowed down to heaven and earth and shrines, and expressed their wish not to forget their ancestors during the festival.
On this day, the food is more delicious than usual, and the food is also very rich. Although it is not as good as VIP banquets such as bird's nest seats and shark's fin seats, and high-end banquets such as three-phase dim sum seats, it is also full of dice, slippery fish, steamed mushrooms with cuttlefish, fried lean meat with shredded bamboo shoots, lotus seeds and soup with skin.
The whole family, old and young, raised their glasses and took food, and they were round and round, which was very lively. If someone is not at home, a pair of chopsticks must be put on the table for him, and a moon cake should be left for him to show the deep concern of the whole family for their loved ones.
Sacrifice the moon to eat cakes
On the evening of Mid-Autumn Festival, the Hakka people in southern Jiangxi held a Yue Bai ceremony. At that time, a sacrificial table will be placed in the yard. There is a big moon cake on the table, surrounded by cakes and fruits, as well as dates, pomelos, pomegranates, peanuts, melon seeds, beans and chestnuts.
Sacrificing the moon is to pray for eliminating disasters and evil spirits, and to pray for good luck and well-being.
At the beginning of Mid-Autumn Festival, just like having a reunion dinner to worship our ancestors, we still light incense, candles and bow to the moon.
After the ceremony, the family sat around and tasted the fruit. Among them, one of the most important activities is eating moon cakes.
Please take this pole.
During the Mid-Autumn Festival, Hakkas will play this kind of almost mythical custom game. The protagonist is a pair of boys and girls, each holding one end of a bamboo pole face to face. They pretended to be in a daze, and then, under the auspices of an old man, they muttered to themselves, "Please help my boys and girls solve their doubts." Then, everyone asked boys and girls questions one after another, asking why their dead relatives died or other questions. Boys and girls have to answer, sometimes they answer very accurately, and people who ask questions repeatedly boast that it is very reasonable; But sometimes it is not accurate, and the questioner will not care.