The first grand festival after the Spring Festival is the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first month. Lantern Festival, also known as "Shangyuan Festival". Since ancient times, it is one of the most important festivals in Chinese, and the folk also regard the Lantern Festival as part of the Spring Festival, focusing on festivities and liveliness.
On this day, parents usually take their children to enjoy the lanterns, guess the riddles, eat the Lantern Festival, and visit the temple fair. However, compared with the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Lantern Festival is now less valued. In fact, before the Spring Festival, the Lantern Festival was the grandest festival in China, symbolizing the arrival of spring. So, let's take a look at the excitement of the Lantern Festival with us today!
Reunion - the first full moon night after the Spring Festival
The first month of the lunar calendar is the first month of the lunar calendar, and the ancients called the night "supper", so the first full moon night of the year, the fifteenth day of the first month, is called the Lantern Festival.
"Supper" = 宀 + small + month. The ancient character writing "", this word is very special, it is not our understanding of "宀" plus "Shaw", this is because the "moon" in "night" refers to the real moon. When is this moon? The answer is late at night. Adding "small" means "late at night", late at night the moon is high, and the moon is high and small; adding a house (宀) means not going out in the room late at night.
Chinese has been fond of the moon since ancient times, and the Lantern Festival is also very closely related to it. The fifteenth day of the month, the fifteenth of the month, that is, the day of the full moon, has a beautiful meaning in people's hearts. In particular, these four "fifteenth" are more important: the fifteenth Lantern Festival of the first month, the Mid-Autumn Festival of August 15th, people on the night of the full moon to cherish love; the Fifteenth of July, also known as the Obon Festival or ghost festival, October 15th Yuan Festival, people worship ancestors and commemorate the dead.
These four important "Tenth Five-Year" days actually show that our Chinese nation is a nation that worships the moon and pays attention to the "unity of heaven and man." For many people, the simplest meaning of the Lantern Festival is family reunion. Spend a good full moon, and people are reunited.
Grand Event - National Carnival "Lantern Festival"
The "Lantern Festival", which has been passed down for more than 2,000 years, is a national carnival formed after the Spring Festival. It is the only one of all the traditional folk festivals with "noisy" as the core content, focusing on going out of the house and having fun together. The streets are lit up all over the place: the city is bustling during the day, and the lights are lit at night, bright as day, and it is spectacular.
The traditional character for "noisy" is written as "鬧", which consists of "斗" and "City". "Fight" is the "bucket" of the battle, and from the ancient glyph of "bucket" (斗), it can be seen that it is two people wrestling together. The simplified character writes this "struggle" word as the word "door", as if there is a bustle in the city, in fact, it is still a little far from the original meaning of "lancer"; however, it is wrong to be wrong, and the "noisy" of "noisy Lantern Festival" really describes the lively and joyful atmosphere in the festival.
How did people celebrate the Lantern Festival in ancient times? Come and feel it!
Han Dynasty Lantern - Long key lamp to greet the gods
During the Han Dynasty, the religious sacrifices of the Lantern Festival were strong, and Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty used grand lights to sacrifice the "Taiyi God" all night long, and the folk also displayed lights and brightened day and night. Lamp (燈) = fire + deng, and the ancient character for "deng" "deng" is a container "bean" in the middle, and there are a pair of feet above the "bean" and a pair of hands below, indicating that the altar is held on the altar, so it also has the meaning of "ascending", which means upward and high. To light a lamp is to ask the gods of heaven to bless us.
Tang Dynasty Lantern Festival - a grand national carnival
Lu Zhaolin, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, described the grand situation of the Lantern Festival in this way: "The stars of the Han Dynasty are falling, and the building is like a moon hanging." "It shows the breadth of people's participation and the degree of revelry. Tang Xuanzong even made a lamp house as high as 150 feet and 30 rooms large. The hundred-branch lamp tree made by Yang Guifei's second sister, Lady Han, is 80 feet high, bright and dazzling, and can be seen in hundreds of miles. People broke the boundaries of identity, temporarily abandoned the rules and etiquette, and enjoyed this pleasant moment in the empty alleys and lights.
Song Dynasty Lantern - Rich Female Folklore
In the Song Dynasty, people paid more attention to the Lantern Festival, especially the women's folk culture in it developed rapidly after a long period of historical and cultural accumulation. Women can carry out various folk belief activities such as welcoming Zigu, "stealing vegetables", sending lamps and asking for children on this day, which shows that the status of women in the Song Dynasty is also relatively high.
Ming Dynasty Lantern Festival - a lively and long holiday
Can you believe it? The Lantern Festival holiday of the Ming Dynasty was as long as ten days! From the eighth to the eighteenth day of the first lunar month, this is the longest festival of lights in China since ancient times, and the Yuan Dynasty Lantern Union is also quite charming. It is said that Chengzu Zhu Di micro-service private visit met Yixiu to test his talent, shanglian "bright moon light, lamp moon long bright, daming unified." Xiu Cai said to "Junle Folk Music, Junmin Music, Yongle Ten Thousand Years." ”
With the passage of time, due to the change of modern people's lifestyle, the Lantern Festival is no longer so valued, but the activities are still diverse, many local festivals have added traditional folk performances such as playing dragon lanterns, playing lions, stepping on stilts, playing Taiping drums, etc.
Dating – The Lantern Festival is China's Valentine's Day
"The moon is on the willow tip, and the man is about after dusk." The Northern Song Dynasty scholar Ouyang Xiu's Xiao ling "Sheng Cha Zi Yuan Xi" vividly recorded the grand situation of lanterns on the night of the Lantern Festival, as well as the custom of young men and women dating on the night of New Year's Eve.
The Lantern Festival is a rare moment in ancient times when people broke through the boundaries of nobility, men and women, old and young, and "rejoiced" together. Due to the traditional Chinese concept of marriage and love and implicit character, for women, the Lantern Festival is also one of the few days they can party.
"Kingo can't help but stay at night, and jade leaks are waiting for each other." In ancient times, there was a curfew system, and only before and after the Lantern Festival could have fun, which was full of too many expectations for unmarried women who did not step through the door and could not go out of the second door. Many men and women take the opportunity to find their sweethearts, rub out the spark of love, and countless good relationships and beautiful relatives are created at the Lantern Festival.
The traditional opera Chen San and WuNiang fell in love at first sight when they met at first sight at the Lantern Festival; Princess Lechang and Xu Deyan broke the mirror on the lantern night; In "The Mystery of Spring Lanterns", Yuwen Yan and Yingniang promised to make love at the Lantern Festival; Princess Taiping in "Words of Daming Palace" met Xue Shao at the lantern festival, and the most beautiful thing was the first time they met... If there must be a festival that is Valentine's Day, it is the Lantern Festival.
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"The sound of the phoenix vibrating, the jade pot turning, the fish and dragon dance all night." The Lantern Festival is such a special and beautiful moment, the winter landscape is still there, and the New Year is still full of excitement. Men and women eat sweet Lantern Festival, step on the moon to watch the lights, laugh and talk, and have a good start to a good year of life.
On this lively and wonderful day, let us meet with family, lovers and children under the lanterns and spend a lively Lantern Festival. I wish you all a happy Lantern Festival and a smooth start to the new year!