"Moonlight mountain climbing mandi capital, fragrant car bao gai pass through the qu." Idle and not to see the remnants of ZTE, shame on the townspeople Sai Zigu. This is Li Shangyin's "Watching the Lanterns", which depicts the lantern festival in Chang'an City during the Tang Dynasty.
The lights of the Spring Festival have not yet faded, and the first full moon of the Year of the Tiger is about to rise. On the occasion of the Lantern Festival, the team of Sajie wants to share some knowledge and memories about the Lantern Festival with you, and I hope that everyone can encounter a romantic scene in this festival.
01
The fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the Lantern Festival, also known as the Shangyuan Festival, the New Year's Eve, and the Lantern Festival. The first month is the first month of the lunar calendar, and the ancients called the night "supper", so the fifteenth day of the first month was called the "Lantern Festival". The formation of the Lantern Festival has a long process, rooted in the ancient custom of folk turning on lights and praying for blessings. According to general information and folklore, the fifteenth day of the first month has been valued in the Western Han Dynasty, but the lantern festival of the fifteenth day of the first month was really regarded as a national folk festival after the Han and Wei dynasties.
There are also many traditional customs related to the Lantern Festival, due to the vast territory and long history of the mainland, the customs about the Lantern Festival are not the same throughout the country, of which eating the Lantern Festival, viewing flower lanterns, dragon dances, lion dances, etc. are several important folk customs of the Lantern Festival.
Among these customs, the one that impressed me the most was the flower viewing lantern.
The custom of viewing flower lanterns in the Lantern Festival has a long process, which is rooted in the ancient custom of folk lanterns and blessings. Turning on the lamp to pray for blessings usually begins on the fourteenth night of the first month to "test the lamp", and the fifteenth night is the "main lamp", and the folk point lamp, also known as the "sending lamp lamp", is used to carry out the blessing activity of worshiping the gods.
The introduction of Buddhist culture in the Eastern Han Dynasty also has an important significance in promoting the formation of Lantern Festival customs, and during the Yongping period of the Han Ming Emperor, in order to promote Buddhism, the Han Ming Emperor ordered the fifteenth night of the first month to "burn the lamp to watch the Buddha" in the palace and the temple. Therefore, the custom of lighting the lamp on the fifteenth night of the first month gradually spread in China with the expansion of the influence of Buddhist culture and the later addition of Taoist culture. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, lanterns gradually became popular. During the Tang Dynasty, cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries were closer, Buddhism was flourishing, and the people of Shiguan generally "lit lamps for Buddhas" on the fifteenth day of the first month, and Buddhist lights were all over the people. Since the Tang Dynasty, the Lantern Festival has become a legal matter.
02
The author grew up in a small village in the Central Plains, and when he grew up, he went out to study and go to the city, but the memory of the Lantern Festival always stayed in that small village, and the most colorful thing in his memory was not the sweet and delicious Lantern Festival, not the lively dragon and lion dance, but a flickering flower lamp.
The first flower lamp in memory was pasted by Grandpa himself. Now it seems that it can't actually be a flower lamp in the strict sense, because it is just two layers of red paper on the outer packaging carton of a white wine, digging a few holes, fixing a half-cut red candle inside, and then screwing it on a bamboo pole with a wire. But for the hands that plough the ground, sow seeds, and harvest, such workmanship can already be described as "exquisite".
On the night of the fifteenth day of the first month, the author gathered with his friends with this lamp, and they would all have the same homemade flower lanterns in their hands, but they would have different shapes due to the use of different paper boxes. Everyone laughed and laughed on the road with lights, and walked through the streets, and the flames of candles would sway with the wind and footsteps, flickering.
Until the candles are about to burn out and the fun is satisfied, the flower lanterns that gather together slowly disperse to their respective homes. There are not many bright lights in the village at night, and the night is as thick as water wrapped from all sides, but I always remember that the candlelight in my hand alone is enough to illuminate the road under my feet, even if I walk alone in the alley, I will not feel afraid.
03
I can't remember after a few years, this kind of home-crafted flower lantern was no longer popular, and instead it was replaced by a modern industrial flower lantern bought from the town. These lanterns have dazzling shapes, from various flowers to zodiac signs, from mythological figures to landmarks, and even the "top" cartoon characters of the year, and then painted with colorful colors, and there will be rhythmic music and lights when the switch is turned on. Such a delicate flower lamp, whoever holds it in his hand will become the brightest star in the crowd.
Of course, the author also has a lamp, also from Grandpa. Although many years have passed, I still remember the joy of getting the lantern, the shape of the lotus flower, the alternating red and green lights when opened, really like a lotus flower in the dark. In the following years, every year during the Lantern Festival, Grandpa would buy back a lantern from the town, until the author went out to study and stopped spending the Lantern Festival in his hometown village.
There is no light without a moon that does not entertain people, and there is no light in the moon that is not a spring. Spring to the human world is like jade, and the lamp burns the moon and the next month is like silver. In Tang Yin's "Lantern Festival", "lamp" and "moon" are inseparable, just like the author's Lantern Festival memory can not lack of lanterns.
Of course, I believe that every reader also has an "exclusive memory" of the Lantern Festival in their hearts. As another year of Lantern Festival is approaching, I hope we can all keep this memory and spend another harmonious and joyful Lantern Festival in reality!