The last day of the Spring Festival is usually the fifteenth Lantern Festival of the first month, because the first month is also called the First Moon, and the "night" is often called "Supper" in ancient times, plus the moon on this day is the first full moon of the New Year, and the name of the "Lantern Festival" is probably derived from this. In Taoism, the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is also called "Shangyuan Festival" among the three yuan. The addition of Buddhism in the Eastern Han Dynasty made the fifteenth day of the first month an important festival of the imperial family, and the Han Ming Emperor also held a special activity for this purpose, and the custom of burning the lamp has thus become the biggest feature of the Lantern Festival. Although the main lantern viewing customs of the Lantern Festival are warm and festive, the taboo culture and food customs unique to traditional customs are also unique.
Three things to avoid
Chinese folk traditional festivals are almost inseparable from the activities of sacrifice and blessing, in order to get more blessings from the gods and Buddhas, no matter how lively and festive the festival is filled with various sayings and taboos. Legend has it that the Lantern Festival is the day when the heavenly officials descend to bless, so the first thing to avoid is crying, whether it is between adults or children playing, crying on this day means that the next year will be very unsmooth, so everything should be festive, so that the birthday of the emperor can be celebrated. The second is to avoid killing, which is also derived from the legend of the heavenly officials and mortals, who believe that seeing blood on this day will affect the fortune of the year, so it is usually prepared the meat ingredients to be used for the festival the day before. The third is that you can't wash your hair on this day, which stems from the most familiar harmonic culture in traditional culture, and has the meaning of getting rich. As the last day of the Spring Festival, the fifteenth day of the first month is the beginning of the New Year, when washing hair, people think that it is difficult to have savings in this year. In addition to these taboos, different regions have their own taboos, but today, these are nothing more than spiritual comforts under the limitations of the living environment. As an indispensable part of traditional culture, without them, there is a lot less charm.
Eat two things
All kinds of taboos always let the traditional festivals dust, and now they have long been eliminated by history. Only diet is an eternal topic for festival celebration, and what must be eaten during the Lantern Festival is the Lantern Festival and Tangyuan. Nowadays, people often think that the two things are just different in terms, but in fact, they are very different from the production to the entrance and the stomach. The saying "the north 'rolls' the Lantern, the south 'packs' the tangyuan" from this. This "rolling" is the production method of the Lantern, first filling the basket with glutinous rice flour, then putting the finished filling into it, and then by shaking the basket to let the filling roll inside, by tumbling and then dipping in water and then rolling the way to glue the layers of glutinous rice flour until the walnut is completed. This is the opposite of the tangyuan method we are familiar with, and because of this, it is not suitable for long-term preservation, so it is eaten freshly in the old days. But now it is far better than before, no matter the north and south can easily eat two kinds of delicacies at the same time, the smooth sticky tangyuan, the dry and soft Lantern, and the reunion between the lips and teeth.
Do two things
Each traditional festival has its own unique celebrations, and the most ceremonial thing on the day of the Lantern Festival is the lighting of the lamp. There are many legends about lighting lamps, but there are two kinds of general circulation. One is the Taoist "Three Yuan Theory", the Zhongyuan Festival on July 15 is well-known, but the Shangyuan Festival and the Lower Yuan Festival are little known, and these two festivals are the fifteenth day of the first month and the fifteenth of October, respectively. The upper, middle, and lower three elements correspond to the three officials of heaven and earth, and The Taoist religion says that the heavenly officials are happy, so it is necessary to burn the lamp on the day of the upper yuan tianguan to celebrate. The second is that the Han Ming Emperor advocated Buddhism, and heard that the West had the custom of paying homage to the Buddha at the fifteenth o'clock of the first month, so he ordered the imperial palace and the temples in the capital to also "burn the lamp to watch the Buddha" on this day. With the continuous expansion of Buddhism, the Buddhist rituals of this day also spread among the people. In addition, there is also the saying of Tim Ting. Because in ancient times, when farming was the mainstay, male labor was the key to the prosperity and continuation of the family. Therefore, every family hopes to have a boy, and the old saying often says that having a son is Tim Ding, and Ding and "lamp" are pronounced in many dialects, so the lantern at the Lantern Node also reflects people's good wishes for "Tim Ting". It is not difficult to see that the idea of son preference has a deep historical reason, and it still has a profound impact today.
Go a hundred sick
This activity is similar to stepping on qingqing, except that there is no special term for stepping on qingqing. The Lantern Night Outing has the meaning of eliminating disasters and maintaining health, so it is also called swimming hundred diseases, scattering hundred diseases, roasting hundreds of diseases, and walking bridges. In ancient times, women would travel in groups on this day, which was a reward for every lamp and a bridge. In the ancient times of male and female defense, women were only able to "justify" the fire tree and silver flowers under the moon on this day. Because countless women walk out of the boudoir on this day, it is often called the ancient Valentine's Day. Many areas would last until the night of the sixteenth, and the whole day would be full of costumes, and they would walk in groups to the bridge and climb the city, touching nails and begging for children, until the night when they began to go home separately.