Text/Mengshan Woodman
On New Year's Eve last year, the flower market was lit up like day.
The moon is on the willow tip, and the person is about after dusk.
On New Year's Eve this year, the moon and lights are still there.
Not seeing last year's people, tears wet spring shirt sleeves.
This is a very euphemistic poem by Ouyang Xiu in the Song Dynasty, "Sheng Cha Zi Yuan Xi", the author describes the night of the Lantern Festival in beautiful words, the happiness of the lovers meeting and the sadness of not being able to meet. From the verses, we get a very clear message that the Lantern Festival in the Song Dynasty was actually Valentine's Day. There is a full moon in the sky, seven colorful lights on the ground, colorful flower lanterns, and the night is as bright as day. Whether it is everyone's boudoir or small family jasper, rural village girls, in the Lantern Festival is unrestricted, the weather is warmer, the ground is rising, and the wind sends new spring messages. In the spring air, not only the green halo of the wicker and the leaf buds of the grass sprout, but also the spring hearts of young men and women. The hearts of those closed youths were suddenly released on this night, and how many beautiful love affairs were achieved on the night of the Lantern Festival!
The annual rings of history span more than a thousand years, the times are changing, and today's young men and women no longer need to wait until the annual Lantern Night to date again, but the customs of the Lantern Festival have been passed down to this day. In the folklore of thousands of years, from the 23rd day of the Waxing Moon to the 15th of the first month, it belongs to the Spring Festival. Once the Lantern Festival has passed, the year is over. My townspeople often say: After fifteen years of hope, bend over and work hard. Chinese Lantern Festival also has many new connotations with the development of the times, Chinese many festival customs are related to eating, Lantern and Tangyuan are the exclusive food of the Lantern Festival, this Lantern and Tangyuan are smooth and sweet. Sending a Chinese to pray for a happy and sweet family reunion life, coupled with the fifteenth full moon of the first month hanging high, the moon is as bright as water, the ancients called the fifteenth of the month "hope", which shows the ancients' moon complex and yearning for a better life. In any period, the people's yearning for a better life is expressed through the festival, the fifteenth month of the first month is round, people are not addicted, in such a festival but also a big red lantern hanging high, the sky bright moon, the ground red light, this heaven and earth is really a bright.
The Southern Song Dynasty Lu You has a record of the Lantern Lantern in the "Notes of the Old Scholar's Nunnery": "Tian Dengzuo County, self-proclaimed his name, the touchers will be angry, and the officials will be flogged." So the whole state called the lamp 'fire'. Shangyuan put on the lights, and allowed people to enter the state to govern the tour. The official's book list was unveiled in the city: 'Honshu set fire to the state for three days according to the custom. The old saying: "Only the governors are allowed to set fires, and the people are not allowed to light lamps." ’”
This passage is quite interesting, whether it is an authoritarian and arbitrary local official, or a commoner, they still greet this festival according to the customs passed down by the ancestors. Lantern lantern customs, thus adding an interesting note.
The lantern is the most important symbol of the Lantern Festival. It may also be that the patriarchs have been missing lights for too long and have longed for this kind of bright night. Our hometown attaches great importance to the Lantern Festival, and every night of the Lantern Festival, every household has eaten fifteen dumplings and made a lamp. This lamp is made of carrots, the coarsest place of carrots, cut with a kitchen knife, on the cutting surface of the kitchen knife with the round edge of the coin, a circle of rotation, the carrot cutting surface will drill out a nest, with the stem of the millet wrapped in cotton to make a wick, insert the wick, pour peanut oil, this radish lamp is made. Lighting the radish lamp, the red halo of carrots, the light emits the fragrance of peanut oil, and the sweetness of carrots is really good. It can also be made into a noodle lamp, and the mother often uses thick noodles to make the appearance of a lamp, and then put it in a pot to steam it. The face lamp should be made 12 times, representing 12 months, and seeing which lamp has water indicates which month has a large amount of rain. Plug in the wick, the lamp is ready, in the courtyard patio, put a table for the table, for the table to put three lights, to the heavens and the earth, praying for a year of grain abundance. When the lamp is lit, we look forward to the lantern flower, and the adults often predict the harvest of the year according to the appearance of the lantern flower. If this lamp flowers are in the shape of sorghum grains, it is said that there must be a good harvest this autumn. If you encounter a sunny moon, the wind is quiet and the moon is bright, the lights will slowly burn out naturally, the lights will grow up, and the townspeople say that they have closed the lights this year, and the mood is particularly good, just like the golden autumn of the harvest. I don't know how much truth there is in this, but for thousands of years, the old people have been circulating such customs.
In addition to lighting up the heavens and the earth, it is also necessary to go to the woodlands to the resting place of the ancestors. At the offering table in front of the grave, put on a few lamps and put a few hanging whips, so that these deceased ancestors can also enjoy the lantern lights. I remember the first Lantern Festival in college, my father took me to Zulin to light up, and told me the story of our ancestors. I followed my father to the graves of my great-grandfather and grandfather to light lamps, burn paper, and kowtow. Two years later, during the Lantern Festival, our brothers came to light up our father. I suddenly remembered whether my father knew in his dark that his days in the world were running out, and he took me to the lamp, did he give me some explanation? It has been 30 years since my father left, and I have only understood my father's intentions, and I am really ashamed of my father!
When we were young, there were no gift flowers, and we couldn't afford to buy gift flowers, so we put the brush broom of the brush pot, dipped it in cooking oil or kerosene, lit it and threw it into the air, and flew away with a flash of fire, and the little friends were all competing to see who threw it high. Now, there are many varieties of ceremonial flowers, accompanied by the sound of ceremonial flowers flying in the air, gorgeous ceremonial flowers exploding in the air, dressing up the beautiful night sky of this Lantern Festival.
With the development of industrialization, environmental protection is also becoming more and more important. Customs that have been passed down for thousands of years also face the test of environmental protection. Before the Spring Festival, many media issued an initiative not to set off fireworks during the Spring Festival. Indeed, this year's Spring Festival firecracker salute is really much less. Our original festival customs really need to keep pace with the times and need to be changed. Before the Spring Festival, the trees on both sides of the county street are hung with strings of lanterns, and at nightfall, the switch is turned on, and the lanterns on both sides of the road are colorful streamers, which are both safe and full of festive atmosphere. It seems that if the thousand-year-old festival customs are docked with the high-tech of the new era, they will also have a new holiday connotation.
Tomorrow the day will be the Lantern Festival of the Year of Nongyin, thinking of this festival, thinking of relatives and friends from all directions, even these few lines of text, remembering the warm memories of the Lantern Festival, bringing this text to every relative and friend through the Qilu One Point platform, wishing relatives and friends all over the motherland auspicious holidays, wishing my relatives happiness and peace, and wishing relatives health and happiness!
The lights of the New Year's Eve are like day, and the lights of the New Year's Eve in the new era illuminate the beautiful days of peace and tranquility of the family and illuminate the journey of the country's progress and development.
(Respectfully, readers: the picture is from the Internet)
About the Author:
Author: Chen Kai, pen name Mengshan woodcutter, member of the Communist Party of China. He is a member of the China Essay Literature Association, a member of the Shandong Writers Association, a certified "Chinese Rural Writer" by the China Rural Talent Pool, and a contracted writer of the Qilu Evening News. He is a member of Shandong Prose Literature Association, a member of Linyi Writers Association, and a vice chairman of Pingyi County Writers Association.
One point number Mengshan woodcutter