The Mid Yuan Festival is the name of Taoism. It is called the Half of July, the Fourteenth of July, and the Ancestor Worship Festival in folk customs, and the Yulan Bon Festival in Buddhism. The festival customs mainly include ancestor worship, setting off river lanterns, sacrificing the dead, burning paper ingots, sacrificing land, etc. Its birth can be traced back to the worship of ancestors in ancient times and related time sacrifices. July is the month of auspiciousness and filial piety. The half of July is a folk festival to celebrate the harvest and reward the earth in early autumn. Some crops are ripe. As a rule, people should sacrifice to ancestors and use new rice and other sacrifices to report the autumn harvest to their ancestors. This festival is a traditional cultural festival in memory of ancestors, and its cultural core is to respect ancestors and be filial.
Schedule of the Mid Autumn Festival in recent years
| particular year |
date |
lunar calendar |
the Chinese zodiac |
week |
| two thousand and twenty-four |
2024-08-18 |
July 15, Year A |
Loong |
Sunday |
| two thousand and twenty-five |
2025-09-06 |
July 15, Yisi Year |
snake |
Saturday |
| two thousand and twenty-six |
2026-08-27 |
July 15, the Year of the Third Five Year |
horse |
Thursday |
| two thousand and twenty-seven |
2027-08-16 |
July 15, Ding Weinian |
sheep |
Monday |
| two thousand and twenty-eight |
2028-09-03 |
July 15, the fifth day of the fifth lunar year |
monkey |
Sunday |
In the Book of Changes, "seven" is a number of changes and rebirth. The Book of Changes: "If you repeat the Tao, you will come back in seven days, and heaven will walk." Seven is the number of yang and the number of days. After the yang between heaven and earth is extinguished, you can revive in seven days. This is the way of heaven and earth operation, and the principle of the ebb and flow of yin and yang. The folk's choice to worship ancestors on July 14 (February 7) is related to the number of "seven". The Taoist Mid Yuan Festival and the Buddhist Yulan Pen Festival are held on July 15.
The "half of July" was originally a folk ancestor worship festival in ancient times, but it was called the "Zhongyuan Festival", which originated from the Taoism after the Eastern Han Dynasty. Buddhism calls the half of July the "Yulan Pen Festival". In a sense, the half of July Ancestor Worship Festival belongs to folk customs, the Mid Yuan Festival belongs to Taoism, and the Yulan Bon Festival belongs to Buddhism.
The 14th/15th day of July is a traditional cultural festival popular in various countries in the Chinese character cultural circle and overseas Chinese regions, and the New Year's Eve, Tomb sweeping Day and Double Ninth Festival are traditional ancestor worship festivals of the Chinese nation. In May 2010, the Ministry of Culture selected the "Mid Yuan Festival (Chaozhou Yulan Festival)" declared by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region as a national intangible cultural heritage.
