"Spring to the human world is like jade, and the lamp burns the moon and the next month is like silver." The first night is a good night, the moon is thousands of miles, and the flowers and trees are like stars like day. As the "grand finale drama" of the Spring Festival, the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month is inseparable from a "noisy" word, all noisy and happy, praying for blessings and auspiciousness, confirming people's expectations for this festival.
The Lantern Festival is a Chinese-style "carnival"
The Lantern Festival is an important part of the Lunar New Year, also known as "New Year's Eve" and "New Year's Eve". Its status is closely related to the establishment of the "first year" of the first day of the first month. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty promulgated the "Taichu Calendar", which set the first month of the year, the first day of the first month as the yuanzheng, and the fifteenth day of the first month as the first full moon night of the new year, which exceeded the general wang day (that is, the fifteenth day of the lunar month). There are different theories about the origin of the Lantern Festival, among which there are three more influential theories: the origin of the Taiyi God Sacrifice of emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the origin of Taoism, and the origin of Buddhism.
The folk customs of the Lantern Festival correspond to the Chinese New Year's Eve, Chinese New Year's Eve Night is the closed-door reunion of the "small family", the Lantern Festival is a lively gathering of the public space of the community, and the Lantern Night has a carnival nature in the social life of the people. "Noisy" is the theme of the Lantern Festival, and the forms of "noisy" are rich and colorful, and the noise of gongs and drums, the noise of social fire, the noise of song and dance, the noise of amusement, the noise of lights, the noise of lanterns, etc. together constitute the carnival atmosphere of the Lantern Festival.
In February 2019, people and tourists gathered in Deqing County, Guangdong Province, to make a big fuss about the Lantern Festival. The picture shows the Chinese folk custom of "cannon fighting to attack the lion". Photo by China News Service reporter Suo Youwei
There are two kinds of noisy sounds of the Lantern Festival, one is the sound of gongs and drums, when there is no gong or drum or the gong and drum are not enough, people also use other utensils that can make sounds, such as Hubei Xiaogan has the proverb "Half of the first month, knock the iron can". The lantern festival is a folk song and dance performance day, in addition to the dragon dance and lion dance, there is a tradition of performing rural drama in the south and north of China, and the yangge opera in the north, the flower drum drama and the tea picking drama in the south are all often performed repertoire. In the northeast region, the villagers make up a play, called "Taiping Song", and Henan and the two lakes (Hunan, Hubei) region called "makeup story".
In February 2019, a lantern parade with great traditional characteristics was held in the streets of Changsha. Traditional folk performances such as traditional dragon lions and big-headed dolls attracted many citizens to watch. Photo by Yang Huafeng, a reporter of China News Service
The spiritual connotation of "noisy" is to pray for the prosperity of the year on the night of "a year of bright moon and round head", and it is also a concentrated embodiment of the feelings, wishes and beliefs of the people in the community. The day is the city, the lights are lit at night, and the noise of the lantern night can awaken the hibernating earth and encourage the earth to rejuvenate; people go out of their homes to integrate into the society, connect emotions and transmit warmth through joyful gatherings.
"Men and women frolicking" is a unique cultural landscape of the Lantern Festival
"The multitude looked for him a thousand times, and looked back, but the man was there, and the lights were dimmed." Through the words and phrases in Xin Zhiyi's "Qingyu Case, New Year's Eve", we can feel the romantic atmosphere of the Lantern Festival. On the night of the Lantern Festival, women are the protagonists, and even the women who hide in the deep boudoir on weekdays have a rare opportunity to travel, they go out of the house in festive costumes, climb the stairs to admire the moon, watch the drama and visit the lights, walk the bridge and touch the nails, until midnight. "Men and women frolicking" has become a unique cultural landscape of the Lantern Festival, giving young men and women a good opportunity to meet love, so the Lantern Festival is also known as the "Valentine's Day" of Chinese.
In March 2018, young Chinese and foreign tourists watched the lanterns and lantern festival in Shanghai's Yu Garden. China News Service reporter Yin Liqin photographed
The Lantern Festival is also the time when many literary and artistic works depict the love between men and women, such as the quanzhou traditional drama "Chen SanWu Niang", which depicts Chen San and Wu Niang meeting and falling in love when admiring the lanterns at the Lantern Festival; the Sichuan opera "Spring Lantern Riddle" tells the story of Yu Wenyan and Wei Wenfeng Lantern meeting and getting together; and the story of Princess Chen Guolechang and her husband Xu Deyan in the Southern Dynasty "breaking the mirror and reuniting" on the fifteenth day of the first month, etc., these drama stories are set in the Lantern Festival Lantern Festival and the Lantern Market.
The typical festival of the Lantern Festival is the Lantern Festival, so it is also called the "Lantern Festival". The prosperity of the Lantern Festival began in the Sui and Tang dynasties, and has been followed by successive generations. In the Sui and Tang dynasties, there was also the custom of wearing "noodles" to enjoy the lanterns, and young men and women wore masks to admire the lights on the street, which could easily become the beginning of a romantic story. The classic scene in the TV series "Daming Palace Words" in which Princess Taiping and Xue Shao first met and removed his Kunlun Nu mask took place at the Lantern Festival lantern festival.
Lantern Festival women also have the custom of "touching nails", "nails" and "Ding" homophonous, "touching nails" indicates that the family is prosperous. "Worshiping Zigu" is also an important part of the Lantern Festival, "Zigu" is the goddess of the girl, the girls ask her about marriage, ask for remorse, ask for the year, these customs reflect the women's desire to pray for a happy marriage, a long heir, good health and a good harvest.
Regain the traditional customs and customs to find the taste of the New Year
In the process of the development and evolution of the Lantern Festival, everyone more or less feels that the color of the Lantern Festival "noisy" has faded, the complicated festival customs have been forgotten, and everyone's deepest impression of the Lantern Festival is only the food custom of "eating the Lantern Festival". The similarities and differences between the "Tangyuan" in the south and the "Lantern Festival" in the north have become a topic of endless debate among young people on the Internet.
In March 2018, Kunming Hanfu enthusiasts wore traditional costumes at the Lantern Festival, wrapped the Lantern Festival, guessed the lantern riddle, and recreated the traditional Lantern Festival scene. The picture shows lovers dressed in Hanfu preparing to eat the Lantern Festival. Photo by Liu Ranyang, a reporter from China News Service
In recent years, with the advancement of the protection of intangible cultural heritage, the traditional traditions have been revived, and more and more young people are interested in traditional customs. However, in the past two years, the new crown epidemic has affected the people's homecoming reunion to a certain extent, which inevitably makes people lament that the atmosphere of the Spring Festival has become weaker. Thanks to the rapid development of network information technology, although people cannot face each other, they can meet in the "cloud", which also provides new ideas and new ways to revive traditional New Year customs. At present, society has been in great change, and the traditional etiquette should adapt to the new environment and be renewed in inheritance.
How can I restore and rebuild My Year's Eve customs? First of all, we must pay attention to the positive role of traditional human ethics and customs in promoting family and social harmony, as the saying goes, "one year does not rush, catch up with the Chinese New Year's Eve late", the new year home is the etiquette that most Chinese must follow, and returning home is not only a reunion of relatives, but also a process of spiritual renewal. It is also necessary to pay attention to the reconstruction of sacrificial customs, which are not feudal superstitions, but should be regarded as a way of emotional expression and a kind of spiritual sustenance, on the one hand, to strengthen the respect for ancestors and nature, on the other hand, to meet people's psychological needs for blessings and good fortune. In addition, it is also necessary to enrich the Spring Festival etiquette during the Spring Festival and inspire people to greet the new year with a high posture and spirit.
The inheritance and new changes of new customs overseas
Traditional festivals continue to strengthen the Chinese people's memory of national culture through many specific festivals and time nodes, which are the expression of cultural identity on the outside and the way of cultural identity on the inside. Chinese people live in a different cultural environment, showing their identity and culture by celebrating the Spring Festival, so as to find their place in multiculturalism, while also allowing overseas people to share the Chinese New Year.
The Lantern Festival is the climax of the Spring Festival activities. Chinese people in different countries and regions will also retain the customs of the Lantern Festival, such as the Custom of "Throwing Oranges" in The Chinese Youth in Malaysia, single women write down their contact information on the citrus and throw them into the water, men rush to pick up and look forward to getting married; in Yokohama, Japan, the Lantern Festival of the Chinese and local people will go to Chinatown to admire the lanterns; in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities in the United States, the Chinese Lantern Festival will gather together to taste tangyuan, flower lanterns, dragon and lion dances, etc.
In February 2019, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia, held the Lantern Festival "Throwing Oranges" event. "Throwing oranges" is a folk custom unique to the Chinese Lantern Festival in Malaysia, where women write down their contact information on the citrus and throw the citrus into the water, and the male salvages it. The picture shows a Malaysian girl showing her and her friends' wishes on citrus. China News Service reporter Chen Yue photographed
We see that the Chinese Spring Festival folk customs also incorporate some cultural characteristics of living in the country, which is a very natural phenomenon, if the Chinese folk culture and local culture are "unsatisfactory", it will be difficult to pass it on. In the process of development and evolution, Chinese folk culture has also promoted the open integration between different civilizations.
The rich connotation and application value of Spring Festival culture are a solid foundation for it to go global. The Spring Festival has broad significance in terms of cultural connotation, social value and life service function, and the concept of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, the adherence to family values, and the reverence for history and ancestors are all positive factors for the Spring Festival to go to the world. In addition, the auspicious new year decorations that embody family aesthetics, the Spring Festival cuisine with a wide variety of amazing taste buds, and the dynamic folk customs such as social fire, lantern viewing, dragon and lion dances are all artistic languages that are easy to communicate with overseas people.
Spring Festival folk customs going out, can not simply be understood as sending folk culture out, but to let foreign people understand the concept behind the Spring Festival, including the concept of "peace", the awareness of seeking newness, the emphasis on the family, the expectation of a better life, etc., to use small stories and sincere language to tell these cultural connotations, it is easier for foreign people to resonate.
Source: China News Service