The origin and taboo customs of the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first month
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Lantern Festival, lantern festival is the main traditional festival in the mainland. There are two theories about the origin of the Lantern Festival:
One: the Lantern Festival existed as early as the Western Han Dynasty more than 2,000 years ago. Lantern viewing began in the Eastern Han Dynasty Ming Emperor period, The Ming Emperor advocated Buddhism, heard that Buddhism has the fifteenth day of the first month monks to look at the Buddha relics, light the lamp to worship the Buddha, so he ordered this night in the palace and temples to light the lamp to worship the Buddha, so that the people of the clan hang lamps. Later, this Buddhist ritual festival gradually formed a grand folk festival. The festival has experienced the development process from the court to the people, from the Central Plains to the whole country.
During the reign of Emperor Wen of Han, it had been ordered that the fifteenth day of the first lunar month should be designated as the Lantern Festival. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the sacrifice of the "Taiyi God" was scheduled for the fifteenth day of the first month. (Taiyi: The god who rules over everything in the universe). When Sima Qian created the "Taichu Calendar", he had already identified the Lantern Festival as a major festival.
Second: the custom of lantern burning originated from the Taoist "Three Yuan Theory"; the fifteenth day of the first month is the Shangyuan Festival, the fifteenth day of July is the Zhongyuan Festival, and the fifteenth day of October is the Lower Yuan Festival. The three officials in charge of the upper, middle and lower elements are heaven, earth, and man, and the heavenly officials are happy, so the lanterns should be lit on the first yuan festival. The festival period and customary activities of the Lantern Festival are extended and expanded with the development of history. In terms of the length of the festival, the Han Dynasty was only one day, by the Tang Dynasty it was three days, the Song Dynasty was as long as five days, and the Ming Dynasty was even more illuminated from the beginning of the eighth month until the night of the seventeenth day of the first month, a full ten days. Coinciding with the Spring Festival, the day is the city, bustling, and the lights are lit at night, which is spectacular. In particular, the exquisite and colorful lights make it the climax of entertainment activities during the Spring Festival. In the Qing Dynasty, the content of "hundred plays" such as dragon dance, lion dance, dry boat running, stilt walking, and twisting rice songs was added, but the festival period was shortened to four to five days.
It is understood that the formation of the Lantern Festival custom has a long process, according to general information and folklore, the fifteenth day of the first month in the Western Han Dynasty has been valued, The Han Wu Emperor on the first moon of the New Year in the Ganquan Palace sacrifice "Taiyi" activities, by posterity as the fifteenth day of the first month to sacrifice the gods of the ancestors. However, the fifteenth day of the first month was really regarded as a folk festival after the Han and Wei dynasties. The introduction of Buddhist culture in the Eastern Han Dynasty has an important significance in promoting the formation of Lantern Festival customs.
The legend of the Lantern Festival
Legend of the Lantern Festival I:
According to legend, in ancient times, in order to unify the world, the Jade Emperor specially sent the God of Vesta Bodhisattva to the human world to understand the people's feelings, and returned to the heavens every three times a month. On the twenty-third day of the winter month of the summer calendar, the Bodhisattva of vesta replied to the Jade Emperor: "The people of the world eat coarse tea and light rice for three hundred and sixty-five days a year. Daily hard work, never rest, in the long run, I am worried that the common people will be exhausted by excessive fatigue, unable to produce, will inevitably affect the contribution. When the Jade Emperor heard this, he ordered his courtiers to discuss good strategies. Taibai Venus played, "The Great King can order Grandmaster Gandhara to go down to the people to give some medicine to the people, and tell them to slowly start to get sick, and they will naturally rest." "The Jade Emperor is accurate, and the mission of the ancestors of the Gongtuo ancestors will handle it accordingly."
On the morning of the eighth morning of the first month of the summer calendar, The Patriarch of Ganda secretly threw the madman's medicine in the people's rice pot, and the medicine became soybeans, peas, garlic seedlings, tofu and meat pieces, and the people ate it, and really slowly "went crazy": women sewed new clothes and embroidered shoes, and men killed pigs and slaughtered sheep, and they did not want to work in the fields. After the twenty-fourth day of the waxing moon, the madman's medicine was unleashed. People invite people to dinner at the east house, and the west house invites guests to drink. At noon on the thirtieth day of the lunar month, the people took out all kinds of delicious food and gathered around the table, and the whole family ate and drank. From the beginning of the first month, men, women and children not only eat well, but also play around wearing red and green all day. Some painted flower faces, beat gongs and drums to parade around the streets; some invited to bring gifts, and the eight parties went to visit the New Year.
On the thirteenth day of the first lunar month, the Vesta Bodhisattva went up to heaven and said, "Great King, it's not good, the people are all crazy!" Just eat and play, the same work does not do, so go on, how to get. When the Jade Emperor heard this, he was very surprised, and immediately ordered his courtiers to discuss good policies again. Taibai Venus played again: "If you want to cure the madness of the people, you can make the medicine king Bodhisattva try." "The Jade Emperor made the right to play, that is, to order the Medicine King Bodhisattva to govern."
On the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month, the Medicine King Bodhisattva turned the people's night meal into a tangyuan, which put some sesame seeds, walnuts, sugar and other sobering agents, the people ate, and the next morning the madness was all healed, and the family continued to weave the usual men and women, and resumed their usual labor.
In this way, it continues over and over again, forming the habit of the New Year.
Legend of the Lantern Festival II:
Legend has it that a long time ago, there were many fierce birds and beasts, hurting people and livestock everywhere, and people organized to fight them, and a sacred bird was trapped in a lost way and landed on the earth, but was accidentally shot by unsuspecting hunters. When the Heavenly Emperor found out, he was very angry and immediately sent a message, ordering the Heavenly Soldiers to set fire to the human world on the fifteenth day of the first month and burn all the human and animal property to death. The daughter of the Heavenly Emperor was kind-hearted and could not bear to see the innocent suffering of the people, so she risked her life and secretly drove Xiangyun to the human world and told the people the news. When the crowd heard the news, it was as if a jole sounded in their heads. After a long time, an old man came up with a method, he said: "On the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth days of the first month, every family put on lights, lit firecrackers, and set off fireworks in their homes. In this way, the Emperor of Heaven would think that people were burned to death." Everyone nodded their heads and said yes, and then they split up and prepared to go. On the night of the fifteenth day of the first month, the Emperor of Heaven looked down and found that there was a red light in the human world, and the sound was tremendous, and it was like this for three consecutive nights, thinking that it was the flame of the fire burning, and it was very fast. In this way, people saved their lives and property. In order to commemorate this success, every household hangs lanterns and sets off fireworks to commemorate this day every fifteenth day of the first month.
Taboos for lantern festivals
1. Folklore believes that this day is the birthday of the Tiangong Emperor and should be mainly festive. On the day of the Lantern Festival, husband and wife must not have conflicts, and try to avoid children crying, so as not to bring mold to the family.
2, the Lantern Festival is a festival of universal celebration, no matter how busy people must rest on this day, to avoid damage to labor tools, bring bad luck and financial losses and unfavorable things.
3. Avoid seeing a doctor on the day of the Lantern Festival, and avoid going to places with heavy yin and obscurity such as deserted areas, cemeteries, and ancient tombs. People with weak health and bad luck should be more vigilant so as not to contaminate the upper body.
4. If you lose your belongings on the day of the Lantern Festival, it means that you do not have the ability to take care of your money bag, and it is difficult to seize the opportunity for a whole year. Therefore, special attention should be paid to preventing the loss of property.
5, on the day of the Lantern Festival, it is best not to lend money to people, otherwise, this year, others will easily borrow your luck.
6, on the day of the Lantern Festival, the rice tank and the noodle tank should not see the bottom, because there is an ancient saying that the cooking is broken.
7. On the day of the Lantern Festival, attention should be paid to not to break the clothes. Otherwise, it is easy to run out of luck for a year.
8. On the day of the Lantern Festival, do not kill or see blood. Otherwise, this year is likely to cause financial ruin, disease and injury.
9. On the day of the Lantern Festival, we should avoid swearing and foul language. Otherwise, this year' disasters will come out of the mouth and inadvertently say the wrong things and bring misfortunes to the body.
10. On the day of the Lantern Festival, shampooing and cutting hair should be avoided. Because "hair" is like the hair of fortune, and on this day, shampooing and cutting hair, it is easy to wash the wealth empty, and you can't save savings for a year.
Customs of the Lantern Festival
1. Eat the Lantern Festival
Eat the Lantern on the fifteenth day of the first month, and the "Lantern" as a food has a long history in China. In the Song Dynasty, folk were popular for a novelty food eaten during the Lantern Festival. This kind of food, the earliest called "floating yuanzi" after the "Lantern", businessmen also called it "yuanbao".
The Lantern is filled with sugar, roses, sesame seeds, bean paste, yellow cinnamon, walnut kernels, nuts, date paste, etc., and wrapped in glutinous rice flour into a circle, which can be meat and vegetarian, with different flavors. It can be boiled, fried and steamed, which has the meaning of reunion and happiness. In the north, it is called Lantern, and in the south, it is called Tangyuan.
2. Watch the lights
The custom of lanterns in the Tang Dynasty developed into an unprecedented lantern market, and after the Middle Tang Dynasty, it has developed into a national carnival.
The Lantern Lanterns of the future generations will continue to develop, and the time of the Lantern Festival will become longer and longer. In the Tang Dynasty, the lantern festival was "one day before and after the Shangyuan", the Song Dynasty added two days after the sixteenth, and the Ming Dynasty extended to ten full days from the eighth to the eighteenth day of the first century.
In the Qing Dynasty, the Manchus entered the Central Plains, and the court no longer held lantern festivals, but the folk lantern festivals were still spectacular, and the date was shortened to five days.
3. Ying zigu
In ancient times, welcoming Zigu on the fifteenth day of the first month was an important folk custom. Zigu is also known as Zigu, Toilet Gu, Mao Gu, Pit Gu, etc., and is the toilet god in folklore. Legend has it that Zigu was originally a concubine of a large family, and because she was abused by the housewife, she died of anger on the fifteenth day of the first month, and the Emperor of Heaven had mercy on her and was ordered to be the god of the toilet. The people sympathized with Zigu's plight, so they sacrificed her like a figure on her death day (that is, the fifteenth day of the first month).
4. Chinese Valentine's Day
Lantern Festival is also a romantic festival, Lantern Lantern will be in the feudal traditional society, but also to unmarried men and women to meet to provide an opportunity, young girls in traditional society are not allowed to go out freely, but the festival can go out to play together;
Lantern Festival flower viewing lanterns are just an opportunity for socializing, and unmarried men and women can also find objects for themselves through flower viewing lanterns. During the Lantern Festival, it is also the time for young men and women to meet their lovers.
5. Walk a hundred diseases
In addition to the celebrations, the Lantern Festival also has activities of faith. That is, the participants of "walking hundreds of diseases", also known as "roasting hundred diseases" and "scattering hundred diseases", are mostly women, who walk together or walk by the wall, or cross the bridge to walk across the suburbs, with the purpose of driving away the disease and eliminating disasters.
6. Set off fireworks
The Lantern Festival is the most gratifying event. Lantern Festival night in the square to carry out fireworks activities, then the whole family to go to the street, to see the beautiful fireworks, fireworks become more and more beautiful, bigger and bigger, more and more technological content, more and more beautiful colors more and more gorgeous.
7. Guess the riddle
"Guess the riddle" is also called "playing the riddle", is an activity added after the Lantern Festival, the riddle was first developed from the riddle, all places have played the riddle, I hope this year can be joyful, safe and secure. Because riddles can inspire wisdom and interest, they are popular among all levels of society in the process of circulation.
8. Playing with dragon lights
Dragon Lantern, also known as Dragon Dance Lantern or Dragon Dance. Its origins can be traced back to ancient times. Legend has it that as early as the Time of the Yellow Emperor, in a large-scale song and dance of "Qingjiao", the image of the dragon head bird body played by a person appeared, and then six dragons interspersed with each other's dance scenes were choreographed.
9. Step on stilts
Stilt walking is a popular mass performance of skills in the folk. Stilts are one of the hundred plays in ancient China, which have appeared as early as the Spring and Autumn Period.
The earliest chinese introduction to stilts was the "Liezi Shuofu" section: "The Song has lanzi, and the Song and Yuan dynasties are skilled." Song Yuan summoned and made him see his skills.
10. Lion Dance
Lion dance is an excellent folk art in China, and every Lantern Festival or gathering celebration, the folk use lion dance to help entertain. This custom originated in the Three Kingdoms period and became popular during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and has a history of more than 1,000 years.
"Lion dance" began in Wei Jin, sheng Yu Tang, also known as "lion dance", "Taiping Music", generally by three people to complete, two people dressed as lions, one person as a lion head, one person as a lion body and hind feet, the other as a lion person, the dance method also has a distinction between culture and martial arts, the literary dance shows the gentleness of the lion, there are shaking hair, rolling and other actions, the martial lion shows the fierceness of the lion, there are leaps, pedaling, rolling balls and other actions.
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