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Lantern Festival, one of the traditional festivals in China, also known as Shangyuan Festival, Xiaozheng Moon, New Year's Eve or Lantern Festival, is held on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month of the lunar calendar every year.
The first month is the first month of the lunar calendar, the ancients called "night" as "supper", and the fifteenth day of the first month is the first full moon night of the year, so the fifteenth day of the first month is called "Lantern Festival". According to the Taoist "Three Yuan", the fifteenth day of the first month is also called the "Shangyuan Festival".
The Lantern Festival mainly includes a series of traditional folk activities such as viewing flower lanterns, eating tangyuan, guessing lantern riddles, and setting off fireworks. In addition, many local Lantern Festivals have also added traditional folk performances such as dragon lanterns, lion dances, stilt walking, rowing dry boats, twisting rice songs, and playing Taiping drums. In June 2008, the Lantern Festival was selected into the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage.
In the festive atmosphere of lively gatherings and festive reunions, the long-standing traditional culture of the Chinese nation is inherited. Born in our time, you probably can't really appreciate the grand scene of the ancient Chinese Lantern Festival, it is said that at that time, "everyone walks the bridge, everyone looks at the lights", the Chinese Lantern Festival, tianya gong at this time has a definite commentary. Let's see from ancient calligraphy and painting how people spent the Lantern Festival in ancient times!
Let's take a look at a huge scroll depicting Zhu Mishen celebrating the Lantern Festival in the imperial palace on the fifteenth day of the first month.
Ming Xianzong Lantern Xingle Scroll, 37x624cm
In the picture, various programs from morning to night are present by Xian Zong, including performances, acrobatics, magic, fireworks and firecrackers, and the whole mountain lamp market. In the painting, there is also a street market in the palace, imitating the folk custom of setting off firecrackers, making flower lanterns, and watching miscellaneous scenes. In the picture, Zhu Mishen, dressed in civilian clothes, sits in a tent in front of the temple, and the attendants stand on both sides, and the hall is hung with colored lanterns, which is prosperous.
According to legend, during the Ming Dynasty, every Lantern Festival, hundreds of officials could take a ten-day holiday. But the holidays of the past were different from today, and in order to make Emperor Xianzong happy, the ministers had to go to great lengths and rack their brains to play tricks, just to amuse the emperor.
In the first section of the picture, Ming Xianzong sits under a yellow tent in front of the temple, wearing a black bean hat and a light blue embroidered golden dragon robe, watching eunuchs and children set off fireworks. In the lower right corner of the painting, a eunuch is taking firecrackers out of a large wooden box and preparing to distribute them to everyone.
The children and eunuchs on the screen have happy expressions, boldly holding fireworks in their hands, and timidly placing firecrackers on the ground and carefully lighting them. Others cover their ears and hide behind adults to watch. In a lively and festive atmosphere, Emperor Xianzong looked at everything in front of him with a smile and seemed very satisfied.
In the second paragraph of the picture, Xianzong changed into a golden dragon and yellow robe, and he stood on the right side of the stone platform in front of the temple, looking lovingly at the boys, surrounding the cargo car.
The freighter's car is full of dazzling lights, and the top cover is hung with various color lights.
Xianzong changed into a golden dragon robe, and he stood on the right side of the stone platform in front of the temple.
The car was filled with a variety of toys and snacks that children loved, and children kept coming to buy copper coins. Around the freighter's car, the children held a variety of colorful lanterns that symbolized auspiciousness, among which the pictographic lamp symbolized the taiping elephant, the horse-shaped lamp symbolized the success of the horse, the toad lamp symbolized the toad palace, and there were also beautiful crab lights, rabbit lights, crane lights and official lights.
The third paragraph depicts Ming Xianzong dressed in a pale yellow dragon robe, enjoying a costume performance and various juggling, and the team of masquerade performances, some dressed as Taoist priests carrying brushes, and some dressed as bald-headed and bulging Maitreya Buddha.
Four men armed with swords, guns and swords ride on bamboo horses, playing the drama story of "Three Heroes Fighting Lü Bu".
Behind the masquerade was a treasure-laying procession of foreign envoys, who led the beast and carried the coral, happily showing the emperor the various treasures offered. There was also a band of drummers and flute players, who walked through the front of the palace in a lively and mighty way for Emperor Xianzong to review and admire.
In the right rear of the juggling performance, there is also a lamp shed made of pine branches, which is said to be modeled on the shape of the Jade Emperor's giant ao, so it is called "Aoshan Lamp Shed", the lamp shed is hung with all kinds of beautiful lanterns, and there are "eight immortals" shuttling back and forth between the lanterns, which looks very festive.
On the other side of the picture is a juggling performance, where various acrobats show their abilities and make various thrilling moves. Some of them drill circles, some handstands, some perform magic tricks, which is dizzying. The man lying on the table held up a thin pole with only one foot, and at the top of the pole stood a bald boy, who grasped the pole with one hand and waved the flag with the other, which made people tremble with fear, while the man who held the pole at the bottom leisurely blew the flute, looking like a master of the arts. Cheering up the juggling performance was a band, beating gongs and drums, shouting cheers, and it was not lively.