On February 10, nanjing, citizens went to the Confucius Temple scenic spot to buy Qinhuai flower lanterns. This group of images is courtesy of Visual China
"The bright moon of the year is round", the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is a traditional festival on the mainland - the Lantern Festival. During the Western Han Dynasty, Emperor Liu Che of the Han Dynasty ordered Sima Qian and others to create the "Taichu Calendar", establishing the status of the "first year" of the first day of the first lunar month, and also making the fifteenth day of the first lunar month the first full moon night of the new year.
On this day, people pray to the heavens for abundant rain and harvest, women make a wish to find a good relationship on this day, and the royal family worships the heavenly emperor and the supreme god "Taiyi God" advocated by the Han Dynasty on this day. The Book of History and Music says: "The Han family often uses the Xin Ancestral Temple Taiyi Ganquan on the first lunar month, and the temple at night at dusk, and ends at dawn." This is also regarded by many as the beginning of the tradition of worshipping the gods and lighting lamps on the fifteenth day of the first month.
The last major leisure and entertainment event before the start of construction
During the Yongping period of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Emperor Ming of Han introduced Buddhism to the Central Plains, and in order to promote Buddhism, he ordered that the fifteenth night of the first month be "lit to watch the Buddha" in the palace and monasteries. With the expansion of the influence of Buddhist culture, the addition of Taoist culture and the addition of royal sacrifice ceremonies, the custom of lighting lamps on the fifteenth night of the first month gradually spread throughout the country.
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Emperor Wu of Liang was a firm believer in Buddhism, so he lit up in the palace of The Great Zhang on the fifteenth day of the first month. During the Tang Dynasty, cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries were closer, Buddhism flourished, and the people of Shiguan generally "lit lamps to offer Buddhas" on this day, and the lights were all over the people. Since then, the fifteen lights of the first month have become legal.
From the Song Dynasty onwards, the word "Lantern" began to appear in literature, such as the Southern Song Dynasty Zhou Bida's "Pingyuan Continuation" contains "Lantern Boiled Floating Yuanzi, the predecessors seem not to have given this". In the Yuan Dynasty, there were "love Lantern Three Five scenery, moon color Chan Juan, brilliant lights", the Ming Dynasty Lantern will last a long time, from the eighth to seventeenth day of the first month, a full ten days, to show the song and dance to level.
On February 9, xi'an Big Wild Goose Pagoda North Square, Tang Dynasty musical instrument modeling lanterns attracted attention, the picture shows the guqin.
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. It can be seen that the Lantern Festival, with its unique cultural heritage and natural cultural affinity, is supported by people and rooted in the hearts of the people.
Since the Lantern Festival was born at the beginning of the royal sacrifice function, the Lantern Night required an all-night worship of the Buddha, and the curfew was suspended. On this night, the people can not only perform sacrifices and prayers, but also the ancient women who have been restricted by the ritual law for a long time, especially the ancient women who are confined to their homes on weekdays, and once a year, they have a rare opportunity to go out and socialize. People go out freely and enjoy the lanterns, and it is also a good time for young men and women to take the opportunity to see the people they want, which can really be described as "seeing many talents and beautiful qualities, hand in hand and whispering" (Northern Song Dynasty Li Feng's "Female Crown (Shangyuan)"), "the crowd looked for him for a thousand hundred degrees, and looked back, but the man was there, and the lights were dimmed" (Xin Abandoned Disease, "Qingyu Case, New Year's Eve").
The Lantern Festival, which is regarded as the end of the "New Year", presents the climax and end of the Spring Festival. Folk often say "New Year", "pass" both new year and old year. From the eighth to the Chinese New Year's Eve of the first lunar month, people have crossed the old year; from the first day of the first month to the fifteenth day of the first month, they have officially stepped into the New Year. The "Lantern Festival" on the fifteenth day of the first month is the last large-scale leisure and entertainment activity for people to walk out of their family members before the official start of construction.
All the activities of the Lantern Festival take "noisy" as the core
All the activities of the Lantern Festival are centered on "noisy", people dance dragon lanterns, put up flower lanterns, step on stilts, collective sacrifices and so on. Unlike the family reunion "shou nian" across the "old year", this kind of "noisy" is closer to the collective, and it is the first large-scale collective activity in the new year to approach the "carnival" attribute. This also means that the "year" is over, and people have to carry out the production and life of the new year and return to the social order.
People who "return to society" are not stingy in their talents in creating lantern festivals, reflecting the colorful life of ancient cities on the mainland. When people worship their ancestors and pray for prosperity, they have grand and grand ceremonies, and often add some entertainment to them.
During the Sui Dynasty, the Sui Shu Liu Yu Biography records: "Eavesdropping on Jingyi, Ye and waizhou, every night with the first moon, filling the streets with strangers, gathering plays and friends." Drums beat the sky and burn on the ground. People wear animal faces, men wear women's clothes, advocate excellent acrobatics, and pretend to be alien. Taking obscenity as amusement, using contempt as laughter, and looking at each other inside and outside, they have not avoided each other. "It depicts the scene of people in Beijing and other states and cities gathering and entertaining on the fifteenth night of the first month, drumming and music, torchlighting, and masquerade parades filling the streets and alleys, quite in the style of "Halloween" and "Carnival" in modern Western society, and the lively scene of the Lantern Festival can be seen. But this was a new urban custom at the time, and was criticized by conservative officials, arguing that lantern carnival should be prohibited regardless of the difference between men and women, and did not conform to the feudal etiquette law.
On February 9, in Xiangyang City, Hubei Province, the anchor broadcast live in the Tangcheng Scenic Area, allowing tourists to experience the Lantern Festival "online".
In the Tang Dynasty, the capital city usually had a curfew, and those who smuggled themselves into the night were severely punished. However, during the Lantern Festival, the government will order permission to open the door of the shop, relax the ban for three nights, and let people party all night long. Emperor Zhongzong of Tang also brought thousands of people, such as princesses and palace women, to travel in micro-clothing, step on the moon to admire the lights, and let the palace women "dress luoqi, drag splendid embroidery, yao zhucui, and apply incense powder". Tang Liusu's "Tang New Language" records: "The capital is looking at the sun on the first moon, decorating the meeting of lights and shadows, Jin Wu is forbidden, and the night travel is allowed." Your subordinates and slang workers all travel at night. "In the Tang Dynasty, which was unprecedentedly powerful in the country, the Lantern Festivals in luoyang in the east, Yangzhou in the south, and Liangzhou in the northwest were equally lively, with colorful lanterns hanging everywhere, and people also made huge lamp wheels, lamp trees, lampposts, etc., full of fire trees and silver flowers.
In the feudal society's flaunted monarchy and people's celebration, the Song Dynasty Lantern Festival reached a new height. The Northern Song Dynasty's "Tokyo Dream Record" says: "The fifteenth yen supper of the first month ... Magic and magic, singing and dancing, scales and scales, music noise for more than ten miles, hitting pills and stomping, stepping on poles... On the seventh day of the first month, the people make the pilgrimage go out, and the lights on the mountain are colorful, the gold and blue are shooting, and the splendid embroidery is shining... There are three horizontal doors, each with a big sign of the Golden Book of Colored Knots, the middle of the 'Dumen Dao', the left and right 'Left and Right Janissary Gate', and the big sign on the top of the 'Xuanhe and The People'... Upstairs in Xuande, all hanging yellow edges, one in the curtain, is the throne... All surnames are watched under the terrace, and when they are happy, they attract the surnames of Wan. "During the Lantern Festival, people can temporarily break away from the strict ritual order, have fun, enjoy the lights of the hundred plays, and get up close and personal with the king.
During the Southern Song Dynasty, according to Wu Zimu's "Record of Mengliang", "On the eve of the new year in hangzhou (Hangzhou), starting from the fourteenth, the branch was rewarded with money and wine. Fifteen nights, the handsome man went out of the street to bounce and press, and the dance team was treated as usual. The people who buy and sell in the neighborhood, and the money is distributed in parallel. At this age, the state capital branch branch, the meaning of the imperial court and the people's happiness... More concurrently home lights, orchestra everywhere, such as Qinghefang Jiang inspection home, strange tea and soup, with the cord, light moonlight bulb lights, full of brilliance, passers-by can not stop and watch. "The singing and dancing in the flower lanterns, the government generously distributes the "starting profit", and the rich content of the festival activities contains a good color head that prays for the start of construction, the officials and the people enjoy it together, and the popularity of the festival does not decrease.
The Lantern Festival of the Ming Dynasty is the strongest festival of the city's public performance, the capital hundred officials are on holiday for ten days, forming a lamp market outside the Donghua Gate, selling lamp vendors, buying lamp customers, and tourists watching the lanterns, in an endless stream, lively and extraordinary. "The world is prosperous, and the salt is gathered here." Xun Qi's relatives went upstairs to play and watch, and they were not afraid of people. (Ming Dynasty Liu Ruoyu's "Zhi Zhongzhi")
Villagers perform a dragon dance in Confucius Temple Square, Qianyuan Town, Deqing County, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province, on Feb. 10.
In order to describe the Lantern Festival in the south, the Ming Dynasty Xie Zhaochun said: "The rich and noble houses, the qufang yan sleep, all of them are set up, thousands of them, heavy doors are opened, and people play... Tourist women, cars and horses are noisy, and the night is scattered. The Ming Dynasty Zhang Dai recorded the scene of the lantern in Hangzhou Longshan in the "Tao An Dream Memory": "There are no lights on the mountain, no lamps are seated, there is no one in the seat, and everyone sings and advocates." "It can be seen that the Lantern Festival was grand at that time.
The Lantern Market of the Qing Dynasty was still lively, and before the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the capital was on the thirteenth to sixteenth day of the first month, and the lights were lit all night for four nights, and it was still "JinWu can't help it". In the late Qing Dynasty in Beijing, the Lantern Festival was the most prosperous with the East Fourth Arch Building and di'anmen, followed by the Ministry of Works and the Army Department, and the Dong'anmen, Xinjiekou, and West Fourth Arches were "also slightly impressive"; on the first day of Tianjin, "tongqu zhang lanterns were colorful, flowers were torched, and songs and dances were sung everywhere"; before and after the Suzhou Lantern Festival, the gongs and drums of every household were knocked, "or three or five groups, each holding a device, children around the line, and the line and hit, the street was boiling, and the common call was to take the horse gong and drum".
No one doesn't love the Lantern Festival
Today, the Lantern Festival has experienced thousands of years of wind and frost, but it is still one of the most important traditional festivals in the hearts of Chinese sons and daughters, and it is also highly valued in overseas Chinese settlements. In addition to the Han nationality, manchus, Koreans, Hezhes, Mongols, Daurs, Evenks, Orunchun, Hui, Xibe, Tibetans, Bai, Naxi, Miao, Yao, She, Zhuang, Buyi, Li, And Lao, many ethnic minority compatriots will also carry out a series of unique activities during the Lantern Festival.
Among them, 27 local Lantern Festival customs, such as the Dongshan Lantern Turning Lantern in Gannan Region, the Miao Dragon Dance And Boo Flower Custom in Qiandongnan Region, the Lantern Festival of Hakka in Ganxi Province, the Dragon Frying Custom in Dejiang, Guizhou, the Yaohun Shangyuan Festival in Heihe River, Heilongjiang, the Lantern Festival in Zibo, Shandong, and the Jiuqu Yellow River Array Lantern Custom in Miyun, Beijing, have been selected into the list of representative projects of national intangible cultural heritage. From many traditional forms of folk entertainment, we can still see the shadow of ancient people wandering in the lanterns.
During the Lantern Festival, the ancient Chinese people were temporarily separated from their daily life and work, temporarily alleviating the pressure brought about by feudal etiquette and secular affairs. This grand festival transcends the boundaries of time and space, becoming a field and cultural image regardless of ethnicity and class, and also provides a superior carrier for the inheritance of mainland folk culture. This "carnival" with Chinese characteristics and cultural connotations, accompanied by warm spring lights, silver moonlight, noisy and romantic, teaches people how not to love it?
(The author is a librarian of the Comprehensive Business Department of the Gongwangfu Museum of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism)
Source: China Youth Daily client