What is the day? Reunion is the same.
Tang Guan looked for the old taste, and the stove maid was surprised by the new skill.
In the dark clouds, the beads float in the turbid water.
When he was young, he made up a miscellaneous chant, with this saying family style.
——Southern Song Dynasty Zhou Bida, "Lantern Boiled Floating Balls"
Qing Lang Shining's "Yongzheng December Order Yuanmingyuan Xingle Map" of "The Lantern viewing the first moon"
Today is February 15th, the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the Lantern Festival.
Lantern Festival, also known as Shangyuan Festival, Half Moon, New Year's Eve, Lantern Festival and so on. The name of the Lantern Festival is derived from the Taoist Shangyuan Festival. Becoming a national festival began in the Sui and Tang dynasties.
The Book of Sui records: "In the first month of each year, all nations come to the dynasty and stay until the fifteenth day." Outside the Duanmen Gate, inside the Jianguo Gate, stretching for eight miles, it is listed as a theater. Hundreds of officials have cut between the roads, from the dim to the dan, to the obscurity. ”
The group celebration of the fifteenth day of the first month of the Sui Dynasty, organized by the state and officially funded, stretches for eight miles in the theater, not only with lights to watch, but also with all-night theatrical performances.
The Old Book of Tang and the Chronicle of Xuanzong records that in November of the third year of Tianbao, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang issued an edict: "Every time it is still taken to open the gate of the city on the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth days of the first month, it is always the norm." ”
In the capital of the Tang Dynasty, the fang city system was implemented, and the fang city had to close at night. Tang Xuanzong ordered that from the fourteenth to the sixteenth day of the first month, the door should be opened and the lamp should be lit, and "always think of it as normal", which is the statutory holiday stipulated by the state.
Southern Song Dynasty Li Song "Viewing Lights"
Guangzhou people celebrate the Lantern Festival, starting from the Tang Dynasty, the official regulations for three days to burn the lanterns, the people also hold three days of celebrations. During the Southern Han Dynasty, on the night of the Lantern Festival in Guangzhou, the flower pagoda of the Six Banyan Trees Temple was lit up and down, compared with the moon, called the "Moon Lantern Festival".
In the Song Dynasty, the festival period of the Lantern Festival was extended to five days, and in the Ming Dynasty, the lights were not lit until the seventeenth night of the first month. In the Qing Dynasty, the festival period was shortened to four to five days. During the Lantern Festival in Guangzhou, during the Ming and Qing dynasties, most of them lasted from the tenth to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, during which lotus lanterns were hung on both sides of the gates of all temples and ancestral halls. The stove lord and the "bed-head woman" of every household also lit up the lamp.
The thirteenth day of the first month pilot lantern, called "test lamp". On the fourteenth day of the first month, a lantern shed was set up, tied with flowers, and the Lantern Program was rehearsed, officially entering the "Lantern Festival Mode". On the fifteenth day of the first month, large and small light markets in the city have appeared one after another, and they are very lively.
One of the most famous is Guidemen Lamp City, which is at the junction of present-day Jiefang Road and Dade Road. Every Lantern Festival, Guidemen are illuminated, and shops on both sides sell all kinds of paper lamps, competing for glory, attracting men, women and children from all over the city to come to see the lights and buy lamps. Vendors selling "Grandma Lanterns" also carry their burdens and sell along the streets.
Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes Mural "Burning Lamp Monk"
In addition to hosting the lantern market, there are various celebrations in Guangzhou. Qu Dajun said in the "Guangdong Xinyu And Sayings": "On New Year's Eve, the lights are on fire, the ten houses are set off with fireworks, and the five houses are set off with flower tubes." For those who play, they will have ivory incense sticks in their sleeves and play eighteen idle for fun. Inside and outside the city, the lion dance elephant dragon luan belongs to the hundred teams, and the children and women are the hundred teams of storytellers. For the land dragon ship, the elderly more than ten feet, with a wheel rotating, everyone is dressed in brocade hats, raising the flag and drums, and dancing treasure lamps on it. ”
Some places set off fireworks, some places put flower tubes. Amusement players are in groups of three or five, hiding incense sticks in their sleeves, and playing "eighteen idle" (that is, "eight-tone gong and drum cabinet") for fun. There are no less than 100 teams of lion dances, elephant dancers, dragon dances, and phoenix dancers inside and outside the city, and there are no less than 100 folk story performance teams played by golden children and jade girls, including "Heavenly Daughter Scattered Flowers", "Six Kingdoms Great Seal", "Nezha Noisy Sea" and so on. There is also a land dragon boat performance team, the dragon boat is ten meters long, there are rotating wheels below, and the performers above beat gongs and drums, and dance with treasure lamps.
Ming 《Shangyuan Lantern Color Map》
Although the lantern festival customs are roughly the same throughout the country,
But there are some customs in Guangzhou that are quite local,
To name a few:
1. Women "go east to pray for children". According to the "Guangdong Xinyu Shiyu" record: "On the night of the Lantern In Guangzhou, the soldiers and women prayed to the east and offered the gods with a hundred treasure lamps. At night, pray for the lamp to take the head, and those who win all three tricks are promised by God, and Xu returns with the lamp, and the lamp is paid for the old age. Those who give birth to children are served as the temple of the sake feast, which is called the lamp head. "Cantonese" "lamp" and "Ding" are harmonized, and in the old days, Guangzhou women traveled east to the temple during the Lantern Festival to pray for a son. If a child is born the following year, it will be celebrated at a feast at the temple.
2. Young people take pleasure in "stealing youth". "Stealing Green" is also known as "Picking Green", that is, stealing vegetables, which is a custom in many places in Guangdong and guangzhou. Every Lantern Festival, young people, especially young women, go together to steal vegetables, stealing lettuce is considered to be a good omen of "making money", stealing onions thinks that it will become "smart", stealing leeks means long-term. Because of this, Ni Yunjie's "Yangcheng Bamboo Branch Words" wrote: "Several teams of amazing people have passed by, and the Lantern Festival is to pick the blue sky." "But vegetable garden owners often don't stop this behavior, and sometimes even take the initiative to give vegetables to young people as a blessing."
3. Scramble for "projection lights". "Pitching lamp" means bidding for auspicious lamps, which also means "pitching", that is, getting the meaning of male Ding. The names of the lamps are various, such as "Fulu Shou Lantern", "Guanyin Sending Son Lamp", "Coach Holy Lamp", "All the Way To The Lamp", etc., the price is different, and the final price is high.
In addition, on the day of the Lantern Festival, Guangzhou people also went to the Sanyuan Palace to burn incense and pray for the blessing of the Heavenly Officials.
Qing Min Zhen's "Eight Sons Viewing The Lantern Map"
Nowadays, Guangzhou people celebrate the Lantern Festival, most of them just eat tangyuan and enjoy flower lanterns, and the folk customs of the past are only preserved in a few places. Large-scale activities are concentrated in the Canton Temple Fair. Since its inception in 2011, the Guangfu Temple Fair has both traditional style and modern atmosphere, and each session is more and more exciting.
Text: Guangzhou Daily Xinhuacheng reporter Zhong Kui
Photo: Guangzhou Daily Xinhuacheng reporter Zhong Kui (remake)
Guangzhou Daily Xinhuacheng editor Dai Yujing