The brightest moonlight night of the year, when thousands of miles of people's hearts are appreciated. Today is September 21st, the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, and it is another Mid-Autumn Festival with cool jade dew and fragrant cinnamon. The bright moon hangs high, and the boundless clear light spreads all over the mountains and rivers, condensing into the lingering softness and purity in the hearts of all Chinese people.

The formation of traditional festivals is a process of long-term accumulation and cohesion of a country's or nation's history and culture. The Chinese nation has a tradition of valuing the moon, and many festivals are set on the day of the sun or the day of hope. Among them, the Mid-Autumn Festival is the most closely related to the moon.

Festival: The sky will wash the moon tonight

In the earliest surviving classic "Shang Shu" in China, it is recorded that the ancestors worshipped the moon god, "wantonly like God, zen in the six sects, looking at the mountains and rivers, and all over the gods." Ji Wurui, both the moon and the day, the four Yue group pastors, Ban Rui in the group behind. "We can also see from the "Book of Rites" that our country has had a ritual system of moon sacrifice since the Zhou Dynasty, "The Son of Heaven is in spring, the moon is in autumn, the sun is in the morning, and the moon is on the eve." ”

During the Qin and Han dynasties, the moon was regarded as a symbol of "god", and according to Sima Qian's "Shiji Feng Chanshu", the emperors of the Han Dynasty would also regularly worship the "sun god and moon spirit", offering sacrifices to the sun in the morning and the moon in the evening. By the time of Wei Jin, the concept of "moon viewing" slowly emerged. In the Tang Dynasty, moon viewing activities gradually became popular, and there is a record in the "Kaiyuan Tianbao Remains" that "Emperor Xuanzong went to the Tailiu Pool with the noble concubine on the night of August 15, looking at the moon by the column".

In the Song Dynasty, "moon viewing" has developed into "playing with the moon". "Tokyo Menghualu" wrote, "On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, your family knotted the stage, the people competed for the restaurant to play the moon, and the silk was boiling... Children in the Queli, playing all night. The night market is as for the knowledge. It can be seen that the Northern Song people's interest in viewing the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival is unprecedented.