"The first full moon of the year", the fifteenth day of the first month is the first full moon night of the new year, so it is called the Lantern Festival. For thousands of years, during the Lantern Festival every year, qingdao urban and rural people have walked with relatives and friends to enjoy the lanterns, guess the riddles of the lanterns, watch performances such as twisting rice songs, running dry boats, running donkeys, etc., pinch bean noodle lamps to apologize for the five grains, etc., and celebrate the Lantern Festival with activities with The characteristics of Qingdao's regional culture.
Lantern night flower lantern
Enjoy the lights, miscellaneous dramas and aunts
Since ancient times, qingdao urban and rural people generally attach importance to the annual Lantern Festival. The main activities of the Lantern Festival are to appreciate the lanterns, watch fireworks, eat the Lantern, pinch the bean noodle lamps, guess the lantern riddles, watch the opera and miscellaneous performances, etc., and the local chronicles have many records of this, such as the "Chronicle of Adding Jiaozhou": "Shangyuan Zhang Lantern, Chen Miscellaneous Drama, Hustle and Khotan Night"; "Jiao'ao Zhi" has: "Shangyuan steamed noodles as lamps and oil points, depending on its embers, to account for the five grains and abundance, yue lantern flower Bu, powder rice as a pill, wrapped in fruit cooking, Yue Lantern, door knot pine shed, hanging lights, flower explosions, Chen miscellaneous opera (stilts and other stilts) three days and nights"; Qing Dynasty The Customs of Re-repairing the Pingdu Prefecture Chronicle has: "Shangyuan, first burn the face lamp, see the lantern flower to account for the abundance of grain, called 'lamp flower Bu'; both the sunset, eat 'floating circle', Zhang lantern, Chen miscellaneous drama, hustle and Khotan three days and nights. "Since the fourteenth day of the first month, various businesses in Qingdao have hung pasty flower lanterns, marquee lamps and various styles of colored lanterns on their doors, and tied pine doors and built wooden shelves to hang big red lights in the street market. The lantern festival generally lasts for three days: the fourteenth day of the first month is the test lamp, the fifteenth is the positive lamp, and the sixteenth is the continuation lamp. Lantern lanterns or four or six sides, sealed with oil paper, drawn or pasted on the figures and flowers and birds. In the local dramas (Mao Cavity, Liu Cavity, etc.) performed in the Lantern Festival, "Zhao Meirong Watching the Lantern" is indispensable. On this night, the family hangs up the lamp, sacrifices the ancestors, and watches the bean noodle lantern flower bu the grain of the year. Teenagers often go out with lanterns, setting off firecrackers, flowers and "drip gold". On the fifteenth night of the first month, people eat more Lantern (Tangyuan).
During the Lantern Festival, there are many acrobatic dance teams such as rice songs, stilts, dragon lanterns, dry boats, running donkeys, etc., walking the streets and alleys for performances, which are very lively, which is the "Chen Miscellaneous Drama" and "Chen Miscellaneous Drama" recorded in local chronicles such as "Jiaozhou Zhi" and "Jimo County Chronicle". Throughout the ages, Jimo has had the custom of "stepping on the street" of the Lantern Festival and watching acrobatics on the fifteenth day of the first month. On this day, families hang up lights and set off firecrackers; people dressed in new clothes flock to the streets to watch dragon lanterns, lion dances, stilts, songs and other performances. Lantern Festival merchants' fireworks are mostly placed on the fireworks shelf five or six feet high, and when the fireworks such as "full of stars" and "heavenly women scattering flowers" are often accompanied by a loud noise, Mars splashes around, making the festive atmosphere reach a climax. Lantern Night, men and women, young and old, often along the street to enjoy the evaluation of lanterns, fireworks, etc., the flow of people, laughter and laughter, streets and alleys are often congested. Qingdao folk regard the Lantern Festival lights as "auspicious light", which can "drive away evil spirits and avoid all diseases", so in the old days, people used to illuminate each other's faces with lights and illuminate the inside and outside corners of the house.
On the fifteenth day of the first month, There is also a name for the Laixi folk; "Moving Aunts" activities.; The source of "moving aunts" is Sai Zigu of the Tang Dynasty. Sai Zi Gu, also known as Ying Zi Gu, is an ancient Lantern Festival folk activity that evolved from the folklore of Laiyang (Laixi) area. Li Shangyin's poem "Shangyuan Night Smelling Beijing Has Lights and Eager to See" has the sentence "Idle and not seeing the prosperity of zhongxing, shame on the villagers Sai Zigu", which shows the belief in the Purple Gu God of the Lantern Festival of the Tang Dynasty. Su Dongpo said in the "Zigu Shenji": Zigu Shen was originally a Tang Dynasty Laiyang person, surnamed He Mingmei, the character Li Niang, was a beautiful and kind woman, later married to Shouyang Li Jing as a concubine, because she was not allowed to marry, often enslaved to dirty things, hanged in the toilet on the fifteenth day of the first month, and later became a goddess. Since the Tang and Song dynasties, the folk in the north and south of the great river have prevailed to welcome Zigu on lantern nights. Shen Kuo said in "Mengxi Pen Talk": "The moon looks at the night to greet the toilet god, called zigu ... In recent years, there are many purple gu immortals, with a large rate of multi-functional articles and poems, and there are extreme workers, which are often seen. Later, Yingzigu gradually evolved into a kind of amusement activity, and the "moving aunt" entertainment activities of folk girls in the modern Laixi Lantern Night divined the marriage prospects of young girls in a harmonious atmosphere.
Lantern Festival bean noodle lights.
Guess the riddles, race lights and pinch lights
The most interesting festival activities of the Qingdao Folk Lantern Festival are also guessing lantern riddles, racing lights and pinching bean noodle lights. Guess the riddle is also known as the riddle of the lamp, Laixi folk called "playing one-legged tiger" and "playing the lamp tiger". Guessing lantern riddles is a folk cultural and entertainment activity unique to China that is rich in ethnic style. Every Lantern Festival, people all over Qingdao hang lanterns and set off fireworks, and later some good people write riddles on paper and paste them on colorful lanterns for people to guess. Because riddles can inspire wisdom and cater to the festive atmosphere, there are many responders, and later guessing puzzles have gradually become an indispensable program of the Lantern Festival. The lantern riddle adds to the festive atmosphere and shows the ingenuity of the people and the yearning for a better life.
Sai Lantern is a variety of different shapes, rich content and creative flower lanterns (such as lotus lamps, radish lamps, crab lights, carp lights, bird and animal lights, erlong play bead lights, eight immortals across the sea combination lights, etc.) at the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first month for people to enjoy and evaluate. Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, Jiaozhou, Jimo, Pingdu and other prefectures and counties have held lantern festivals of different scales during the Lantern Festival. There is a lyric in Liu Lu's "Zhao Beauty Viewing Lantern" that describes various flower lanterns with different shapes:
Flower boat lights, two heads up, standing on top of an old fisherman, sprinkled a plate of gold wire mesh, oh, fish, shrimp and crabs jumped vigorously. Knife fish lantern race silver leaf, skip the dragon gate carp lamp. Blackfish lamp, seven stars, sticky fish lamp of "Hello Mouth". Crab lights walking obliquely next to each other, a clam lamp. Jellyfish heads, down the current, "slippery" loach lamps... Leek lamp, horse bristle, "Bu Bu Leng" coriander lamp. The cucumber lantern is covered with thorns, the box lamp, and the purple glow. Cabbage lamp, a fluffy raw, radish lamp, Len tou qing...
Under the bright moonlight, relatives and friends admired and commented on a variety of exquisitely crafted and creative flower lanterns, and unconsciously it was dark at night.
Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, Qingdao folk have celebrated the Lantern Festival, and there is a custom of pinching bean noodle lamps. The Qing Dynasty's "Jimo County Chronicle" records: "Shangyuan Night steamed noodles to make lamps ... Door knot pine shed, hanging lights, flower bursts, Chen miscellaneous drama three days and nights; "Jiao'ao Zhi" records: "Shangyuan steamed noodles to make lamps, inject oil points, and regard their embers to account for the abundance of grains, known as lantern flowers. Qingdao proverb: "Qingming swallow, Dragon Boat Egg, pinch bean noodles on the fifteenth day of the first month". Bean noodle lamps are made of soybean dough kneaded into different shapes of lamp bowls, inserted with a wick and infused with peanut oil to light. There are many varieties of bean noodle lamps, the most common of which are zodiac lights, December lights, Fulu Jubilee lights, poultry and animal lights, etc. The zodiac lamp is a zodiac lamp according to the genus of family members, each of them pinches a zodiac lamp to bless health and longevity. After the zodiac lights are lit and placed in different positions at home, they have different meanings: such as putting the dog lamp at the gate, which can take care of the home; putting the horse lamp in the stable, can make the horse strong; putting the pig lamp in the pigsty can make the fat pig full; putting the chicken lamp on the chicken nest can make the hen lay more eggs. In addition, the Fulu Jubilee Lamp has its own meaning: the bat lamp means Fu, the deer head lamp means Lu, the Shou Peach lamp means Shou, and the magpie lamp means Jubilee. If you want to have more children and more blessings, pinch more lotus lamps.
Liu Weizhi and others painted "Running Dry Boat".
Thousand Buddha Pavilion lights and fishermen's fish and shrimp lights
Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, all prefectures and counties in Qingdao have had different characteristics of lantern viewing activities on the fifteenth lantern night of the first month, and in comparison, the Lantern Lantern of Pingdu Thousand Buddha Pavilion is quite distinctive.
Pingdu Thousand Buddha Pavilion, with a history of nearly 400 years, is located on Chengguan Avenue in the city, with a total height of more than 20 meters, and is an ancient pavilion building with heavy eaves. Because the two cornices of the Thousand Buddha Pavilion are all four corners and stretched, there is a dynamic beauty of flying in the sky, so it is also called the Thousand Buddha Flying Pavilion. The thousand buddha pavilion platform is 7 meters high, 18 meters long from north to south, and 13 meters wide from east to west, all of which are built of stone barriers, giving people a strong and solid feeling. Under the heavy eaves of the Thousand Buddha Pavilion, there are many small copper bells, and whenever the breeze blows, the small copper bells will make a clanging sound.
Pingdu Thousand Buddha Pavilion
When the Thousand Buddha Pavilion is at its peak every year, it is necessary to count the lantern lights on the fifteenth day of the first month. The Lantern Festival of The Thousand Buddhas Pavilion is not won by gorgeous large-scale flower lanterns, but by tens of thousands of bean-faced lamps with different shapes made of carefully kneaded into a major landscape. Every year, starting from the 140 million households on the first month of the first month, until the nightfall of the fifteenth day of the first month, the flow of people sending the lamps has reached its peak. At this time, a small and exquisite bean-faced lamp with different shapes was arranged from each lotus petal on the lotus seat of the Thousand Buddha Pavilion to the lintel and pillar of the Thousand Buddha Pavilion. After a bean-faced lamp is lit, the countless lamps on the lotus seat of the Buddha sway and shine, contrasting with the countless "string of lamps" on the lintel and the pillar, and decorating the entire Thousand Buddha Pavilion into a crystal clear lamp pavilion.
At this time, the lantern appreciators gathered in the upper and lower parts of the Thousand Buddha Pavilion and in the surrounding streets and alleys, laughing and laughing, and the bustle was extraordinary. Comparatively speaking, the best place to watch the lanterns is not on the Thousand Buddhas Pavilion, but at the north entrance of Wencun Lane in the west of the Thousand Buddha Pavilion. At this time, standing at the north entrance of Wencun Lane and looking east, I only saw the Thousand Buddha Pavilion flying in the sky under the clear sky and the moon, and the outline of the pavilion was faintly recognizable, like a layer of mysterious and hazy light veil; above the Lotus Throne of the Buddha in the Thousand Buddha Pavilion under the night sky, thousands of bean-faced lamps fluttered and swayed, as if floating in the blue sea and clouds, as if the Western Heavenly Buddha Kingdom had suddenly descended on Pingdu City. The Lantern Lights of Pingdu Thousand Buddha Pavilion, famous for its Jiaodong Peninsula, quickly disappeared after the Japanese army occupied Pingdu City.
Another kind of lantern with characteristics is a fish and shrimp lamp made by a fisherman's daughter, such as a yellow croaker lamp, a large shrimp lamp and a mullet lamp, and it is a special taste to light a candle in the fish and shrimp lamp and mention it in the hand. In the old days, in the coastal fishing village of Jimo, whenever the lantern night firecrackers sounded in unison, fishermen would be led by the boat boss to the fishing boat to deliver fish and shrimp lamps. Sending fish and shrimp lamps is to wish for a bumper harvest in the new year. Qingdao coastal fishermen in addition to sending fish and shrimp lamps, there is also a kind of interesting fish lamp divination activities, fishermen in the Lantern Night, will be placed in the water scoop in the water lamp steadily on the water surface, and then carefully turn the water scoop, the head of the fish lamp in the water scoop points in which direction, it indicates which direction to go fishing on the sea surface, will get a good harvest. Whether it is sending fish and shrimp lamps or divination with rotating fish lamps, they all show the flavor of unique marine fishing culture.