Lantern Festivals written by cultural celebrities: our own carnival and Valentine's Day

Lantern Festival written by cultural celebrities

"The east wind blooms a thousand trees at night. More blowing down, the stars like rain. BMW carved car fragrant road. The sound of the phoenix vibrates, the jade pot turns, and the fish and dragon dance all night. The Lantern Festival written by the Southern Song Dynasty poet Xin Renjie is still illuminated after years of baptism; watching the lanterns, guessing the riddles, eating tangyuan, and setting off fireworks, etc., inscribed in everyone's memory, solidified the "exclusive memory" of the Chinese for this traditional festival.

The following are the imprints of the Lantern Festival in the works of many cultural celebrities, follow their words, let us taste the Lantern Festival in the eyes of famous artists.

01

Ouyang Xiu: People about after dusk

Ancient China has been practicing curfews in cities since ancient times, but from the Sui and Tang dynasties onwards, during the Lantern Festival, it was possible to "take a holiday and drive the night ban". Citizens in the city, both men and women, can drink during the Lantern Festival and enjoy the joyful atmosphere of the festival, and the Tang Dynasty literary scholar Su Wei left a poem in his "Fifteen Nights of the First Month" that "Jin Wu can't help the night, jade leaks can't be urged".

Because of this, the Lantern Festival is also known as the Chinese "Carnival", and in 2005, the famous poet Yu Guangzhong also called the Lantern Festival "China's Valentine's Day". Yu Guangzhong said: "In the West, people's Valentine's Day is February 14, and our Valentine's Day is today. In our poems, 'The willows on the moon, people about after dusk', how romantic! ”

The words and phrases described by the Great Scholar Ouyang Xiu of the Song Dynasty in "Sheng cha zi and New Year's Eve" that the couples of the Lantern Night met were extremely beautiful, and they could be called the best sentences of eternity. In fact, in ancient times, many literati and inkers have talked about the mood of the Lantern Festival. For example, "If you don't show Fangzun to laugh, how to get rid of this good day" is Tang Bohu's poem. When the night comes, it is the time when the sunset rests and the head is asleep, but at the time of the Lantern Festival, people have a sleepless interest. This interest is high, falling on a "music" word, and the music is about to "laugh".

In the Lantern Festival of "Fire Trees and Silver Flowers, Star Bridge Iron Lock Open" (Su Wei", "Fifteen Nights of the First Moon"), in addition to having fun, young boys and girls also took to the streets, bravely expressing their hearts and leaving a good story. Among them, the most talked about is a romantic emotion in Ouyang Xiu's "Sheng Chazi":

"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. ”

Of course, in literary works, the Lantern Festival is not all about singing and laughing. In 1075 AD, Su Shi wrote "Butterfly Love Flower Mizhou Shangyuan", recalling the Lantern Festival in Hangzhou, "the bright moon is like frost, and the people are picturesque." The grand situation of blowing incense and spitting musk at the bottom of the tent, and there is no dust with the horse", also records the cold of Mizhou's "fire cold lamp frost exposed, dim snow and clouds hanging in the wilderness".

02

Jiang Fu: The lone lamp is still selling tang yuan

In addition to watching and playing, eating the Lantern Festival is also a unique food custom of the Lantern Festival. Tangyuan, which represents reunion and beauty, is made of glutinous rice flour, and used to be called "yuanzi", "tangyuan", "sugar yuan", "dumplings", etc., and is an important food for folk celebrations of family and country reunion.

In his work "Poetry, the Lantern Contends to See the Lotus Boat", Jiang Kui wrote: "The Lantern Contends to See the Lotus Boat, the BMW Fragrant Car Picks up the Falling Tungsten; the wind and rain night is scattered, and the lone lamp still calls for the sale of Tang Yuan." "It records the custom of eating tangyuan in the folks during the Lantern Festival at that time.

In ancient Chinese folklore, the origin of the Lantern is related to King Chu Zhao in the Spring and Autumn Period. It is said that when King Chu Zhao was boating on the Yangtze River, he saw floating objects on the surface of the river, white and yellowish in color, and there was a red like rouge inside, and the taste of food was delicious. Confucius called this duckweed fruit, "the sign of the revival of the Lord." After that, King Chu Zhao ordered people to imitate hawthorn as the filling, which was the predecessor of the Lantern Festival.

So far, due to the difference in methods, fillings, eating methods, etc., the name of the Lantern in the north and south of China is tangyuan and Lantern, but no matter how geometric the difference, this food is pinned on the aspirations of residents everywhere for a complete life in the future.

03

Lao She: The whole street is like a happy event

Guan Lantern is an important folk custom of the Lantern Festival, in the literature records, the Tang Ming Emperor Lantern Festival in the Daming Palace, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang just built the capital Nanjing on the Lantern Festival on the Qinhuai River ten thousand water lamps. In Mr. Lao She's pen, the Lantern Festival in Beijing is also a joyous one:

"On the fifteenth day of the first month, there are lights everywhere, and the whole street is like a happy event, red and beautiful. The famous old shops have to hang out hundreds of lamps, all kinds of colors, some are all glass, some are all horns, some are yarn lamps, and some paint all the stories of "Dream of the Red Chamber" or "Water Margin". At that time, it was also a kind of advertising. As soon as the lights are hung, anyone can enter the shop to visit. At night, candles are lit in the lights, and there are more viewers. "Children buy all kinds of fireworks, even if they don't run to the street to be naughty, they can still play in the house." There are also lights in the house: marquee lamps, palace lamps, various colored paper lamps, and yarn lamps, which have small bells in them, and when the time comes, they will clang. (Spring Festival in Beijing)

According to the records of the "Tokyo Dream Record" and other records, since the Song Dynasty, the Lantern Festival has a special "lamp market", from the fifteenth to the nineteenth day of the first month for a total of five days, in advance to build a "Aoshan lamp shed" up to several zhang, on which tens of thousands of lights are arranged, "glass lamp" and "ten thousand eyes" are widely spread at that time.

The folk custom of lantern viewing during the Lantern Festival also expresses the beautiful wishes of the ancient Chinese people for the prosperity of people and the inheritance of life. On the one hand, this is because the lamp is often regarded as a symbol of life, on the other hand, it is also because in many local languages and folklore, "lamp" and "Ding" are harmonious, and lighting the lamp also expresses the simple pursuit of "Tim Ding".

04

Ice Heart: Has three lights, and is very energetic

Many people have read Bingxin's prose collection "Send a Little Reader", which contains a "Long Talk about the New Year", which contains her gentle and kind feelings of missing her hometown, and also has unforgettable memories of the customs of her hometown in the Lantern Festival.

"The customs of that era, from the first to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, were forbidden to slaughter. Therefore, before the New Year, my mother bought some elbows, pig's trotters, chicken, duck and other things to cook, used soy sauce, red lees and many condiments, pickled them up and stuffed them in a large jar, and also ground a lot of glutinous rice gouache to make red and white rice cakes. These are very delicious things that we all eat until the Lantern Festival! ”

"Our hometown is in Nanhou Street, Fuzhou City. The customs of Fuzhou and the lanterns played by children during the Lantern Festival were all sent by my grandmother's family. In Fuzhou dialect, 'lamp' is homophonous with 'Ding', and 'Tim Ding' is an auspicious word, so my grandmother's family gave us five lamps for the four of us! My brothers were much younger than me, and they were not very good at playing, so I took advantage of it at this time, and I hung a marquee lamp on the wall of the 'Three Heroes Battle Lü Bu', holding a goldfish lamp with moving eyes in one hand, and pulling the rabbit lamp that would walk on the ground with the other hand, feeling very angry. ”

05

Shen Congwen: The lamp of the Festival of Lights

The famous writer Shen Congwen once wrote an essay called "Lanterns of the Lantern Festival" in March 1963, which, as its name suggests, tells the history of lantern viewing during the festival.

"The Lantern festival is mainly watching the lights. Guan Lantern became a system, it seems that it was mentioned in the "Jingchu Chronicle", and the more specific records actually began in the early Tang Dynasty and developed in the Two Song Dynasties, and the source came from the Han Dynasty. Sooner or later, the lights will not be the same, some from fourteen to sixteen, and some from fifteen to nineteen. The 'Lamp City' got its name and expanded its role, also from the Song Dynasty. On the magnificent scenery of the lights, in the past, I thought that there was no Tang and Song Dynasties. Although the Tang people's notes have recorded, the official holding began with the Northern Song Dynasty, the Southern Song Dynasty Lin'an continued to develop, and the Ming Dynasty concentrated in the area of eight-sided grooves east of Donghuamen Avenue in Beijing. From the "Tokyo Dream Record" and other accounts, it is known that the Song Dynasty lamp market counted five days, from fifteen to nineteen. In advance, a 'Aoshan Lamp Shed' with a height of several inches must be built, on which various lights are arranged and tens of thousands of lights are burned. On this day, the feudal emperor sat in an open palanquin as usual, carried by several trusted eunuchs, and marched backwards, called 'Oriole Pigeon Spinning', which was convenient for people to watch the lights on all sides. Or ask a few tourists to come forward and send a little wine, which is derived from the "golden cup of wine" commonly used in the old play.

"The Notes of the Song Dynasty also recorded many names of lights, 'glass lamps' can be said to be a new variety, not only in the homes of the rich and noble, but also in the shops began to use it to attract patrons, the light is like a full moon." The 'Eye Of All Eyes' is made up of red and white sarcos. As for the style of the lamp shed and various light balls, there are "Song People Viewing Lantern Map" and "Song Ren Hundred Sons Noisy Lantern Map", which also leave us some image materials. It can be learned that since the Ming and Qing dynasties, it has been reflected in the painting formats such as various lamp scenes in the illustrations of "Jin Ping Mei", "Xuanhe Testament" and "Water Margin", and other handicrafts- especially preserved in the Ming and Qing splendid embroidery patterns, and the hundred and ten kinds of extremely exquisite and beautiful multi-sided ball lamps embellished with pearl and jade tassels are basically the styles handed down from the Song Dynasty. In addition, many kinds of fish, dragons, cranes, phoenixes, clever lamps, children's bamboo horse lamps, and rolling lamps that rotate in the ground on the canvas are also transmitted from the Song Dynasty. Song Dynasty 'glass lamp' and 'ten thousand eyes Luo', the Ming Dynasty's 'goldfish water injection lamp', and made of thousands of eggshells made of clever lamps, made of ice lamp, the style of practice has been difficult to know, as for the Ming Dynasty representative practical new varieties, 'Mingjiao lamp' and 'material filament lamp', the physical object still has remnants in the Forbidden City. ”

06

Chi Li: I ate the tangyuan and stayed at the full moon

Chi Li, a famous contemporary female writer, once wrote on Weibo:

"I did not write Weibo during the Valentine's Day Lantern Festival, but I was unremittingly pursued by several small friends, and I wrote a few words: I know that I am Chinese. I never celebrate Valentine's Day in the West. I think roses and chocolates are a pure waste of money. I chose to spend the Lantern Festival, ate the tangyuan, stayed and looked at the full moon, and some broken verses flashed in my consciousness:

I owe those

There are many people I don't love

Relieved to accept

Someone loves them more

Glad I wasn't

They are sheep of the wolf pack. ”

You see, the traditional new year culture in the Spring Festival is really innumerable and not greasy.

The child's growth process,

It's like the growth process of a tree,

The most honest, the most explicit,

What is watered, what grows.

Declaration of ingenuity

"I'm fully engaged in teaching my kids because I know,

In these short years, I will have a lifelong impact on my children.

I don't waste a minute or a second, I treat them like my own children,

And see yourself as a teacher and a parent, not just a teacher! ”