Traditional Activities of the Mid Yuan Festival

The Mid Yuan Festival
According to different provinces, some places focus on sacrifice. In Botou City and Nanpi County, Hebei Province, on July 15, they carried fruits, dried meat, wine, and Chu Qian to visit their ancestors' graves, and took Magu to Tiangan, known as "Jianxin". Guangping County uses fresh food to worship ancestors, and prepares fruits and vegetables and steamed sheep to give to grandchildren, which is called "sending sheep". On July 15, Qinghe County went to the grave to pay a visit and presented her with steamed noodles as a gift.
Long Island fishermen in Shandong Province made small boats out of wooden boards, and pasted a note "For ×× Use ", or a plaque for drowning people, then put food, clothes, hats, shoes, socks and other appliances, then light candles, and the married man will put the boat into the sea.
On July 15, the Tuo people in Qujiang County, Guangdong Province offered sacrifices to their ancestors and the dog head king. They rewarded the gods with little boys and girls wearing colorful clothes, singing and dancing. The people of Guishan County took July 14 as the Mid Yuan Festival.
In Guangxi Province, the Mid Yuan Festival is also known as the "Duck Festival". It is believed that the dead can stand on the duck and travel freely between the sun and the grave by the duck. In addition, there is also the custom of "burning bags", which is to worship ancestors first, and then burn clothes for ghosts. The food and wine for ancestor worship must be placed in a flat dustpan, which means that wild ghosts cannot seize them.
People in Shaoyang, Hunan Province "pick up old customers" around the 12th day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, burn paper bags and burn incense to worship ancestors on the 15th night of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, and say "send off old customers". There is inch thick paper money in the paper package. The front of the paper package is written with the name of the ancestors. After the package is wrapped, the word "seal" must be written on the back. On the night of the Tenth Five Year Plan, the more packages were burned, the bigger the fire was, indicating that the family was more prosperous
People in Ji'an, Jiangxi Province burn paper during the Mid Yuan Festival. Pregnant women are forbidden to make paper ingots. It is said that the paper ingots made by pregnant women cannot be taken by ghosts after being incinerated, and it is no good to send them to the underworld.
The Tengyue people in Yunnan Province burned buns after ancestor worship. They also used a cucumber, which was carved into a boat, called "cucumber boat", and burned them together with the buns.
When Shanghai releases river lanterns, red and green paper lamps are decorated on the stern of the boat, which is called "Dugu".
In other regions, there are more forms of traditional activities of the festival. People in Mayi County, Shanxi Province, take wheat flour as the shape of children on the Mid Yuan Festival, named "noodle people", and give each other to relatives' children; In Mengjin County, Henan Province, we fly kites on the Mid Yuan Festival. The villagers of Dongxian County, Jiangsu Province, ate flat food this day, which is a dustpan shaped food made of flour and sugar. Jiashan County, Zhejiang Province, regards the rain on the Mid Yuan Festival as a sign of rice harvest. Tonglu County people call it "Shi Shi" by ringing gongs and scattering rice in the wild on the night of the Mid Yuan Festival.
The Chinese New Year Festival abroad
Thailand holds the Water Lantern Festival, where people put sky lanterns to pray for the dead.
The Yulan Bon Festival (the Mid Yuan Festival) was introduced to Japan from China in the Sui and Tang Dynasties during the flying bird era. It will be held in urban areas from July 13 to 16 and in rural areas from August 13 to 16. Sweep the tomb 13 days ago, pick up the ancestors' ghosts on the 13th, and send them off on the 16th. There is also the habit of giving gifts to Zhongyuan. In folk custom, people will gather to dance a dance called "Panyan". The Japanese attach great importance to the Obon Festival, which has become an important festival second only to the New Year's Day. Enterprises and companies generally have a week off, called the "pot holiday". Many Japanese who go out to work are choosing to use this holiday to return home to gather and worship their ancestors. At this time, the streets in metropolises (such as Tokyo, Osaka, etc.) are more desolate, somewhat similar to the Tomb Sweeping Day in China.
The Korean Peninsula's Zhongyuan Festival, also known as the "Hundred Chinese Festival", "Hundred Kinds Festival", "Day of the Dead", is a traditional festival in Korea. It comes from the Chinese Taoism's Zhongyuan Festival and the Buddhist Yulan Bon Festival, and then develops Korean characteristics. Compared with the Chinese and Japanese Mid Yuan Festival, which pays more attention to ancestor worship and universal transportation, the Korean Mid Yuan Festival retains the original intention of more autumn farmers to celebrate the harvest, followed by ancestor worship, ghost worship and other ceremonies.
In the Chinese areas of Singapore, in addition to the above-mentioned traditional customs such as ancestor worship and public transportation, there is also a special performance to entertain ghosts. The local Fujian people (Minnan people) call it the "July Song Platform" or "Song Platform" for short. In general, these singing stages are built on the open space, decorated with sound equipment and lights, and rows of chairs are placed in the audience under the stage. The first row of chairs are usually empty and reserved for "good brothers" (ghosts). The stage performance is usually arranged at night. The stage performance includes humorous short plays, magic, singing and dancing, and there are performances throughout the July of the lunar calendar.
In the Chinese areas of Malaysia, the festival is also called the Yulan Victory Festival or the celebration of the Chinese dollar. In addition to the traditional custom dramas of various native places, there is a special performance activity to entertain ghosts. The local people have established a Singaporean Chinese similar singing culture, which is generally similar to Singapore.