The Lantern Festival, also known as shangyuan festival, small new moon, new year's eve or lantern festival, is one of the traditional festivals in China, which is held on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month every year. Since ancient times, the lantern festival customs have been dominated by the warm and festive lantern viewing customs.
Lantern Festival customs
1. Eat the Lantern
Eat the Lantern on the fifteenth day of the first month, "Lantern" as a food, in the mainland has a long history. In the Song Dynasty, a novel food eaten during the Lantern Festival was popular, and this food was first called "Floating Yuanzi" and then called "Lantern".
Lantern is "tangyuan" with sugar, roses, sesame seeds, bean paste, yellow cinnamon, walnut kernels, nuts, date paste, etc. as the filling, wrapped in glutinous rice flour into a circle, can be boiled, fried, steamed, there is a reunion and happy meaning.
2. Viewing the lights
Lantern viewing is a traditional Folk Activity of the Han People during the Lantern Festival. During the reign of Emperor Yongping of The Han Dynasty (58--75 AD), because Emperor Ming advocated Buddhism, it coincided with Cai Yan's return from India to seek the Dharma, saying that every fifteenth day of the first month of the Indian Mahama Kingdom, monks gathered to pay homage to the Buddha's relics, which was an auspicious day to visit the Buddha. In order to promote Buddhism, Emperor Hanming ordered that the fifteenth night of the first month be "lit to watch the Buddha" in the palace and monasteries. Since then, the custom of putting lanterns on the Lantern Festival has spread to the Han people from the original only held in the court. That is, every fifteenth day of the first month, both the gentry and the common people must hang up the lights, and the lights in the urban and rural areas are brilliant all night.
3. Guess the riddle
Every Lantern Festival, all places play a riddle of lights, hoping that this year can be joyful and peaceful. Because riddles can inspire wisdom and interest, they are popular among all levels of society in the process of circulation. During the Tang and Song dynasties, various juggling techniques began to appear in the lamp market. In addition to the lantern riddles and hundreds of opera songs and dances in the lantern markets of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the content of opera performances was added.
This place is lukewarm or lukewarm (play a Zhejiang place name)
—— Wenzhou
Do not rely on township support (play a Sichuan place name)
- Zigong
Lanxi March Peach Blossom Rain (Playing a Gansu Place Name)
- Tianshui
Spring is the season of the year (hit a provincial capital)
- Changchun
4. Step on stilts
Stilt societies are generally organized by the masses in spontaneous succession. On the eleventh and twelfth day of the first month, the street began to step on, which means that people will be registered this year in many folk flower fairs. The fifteenth day of the first month officially went to the street until the end of the eighteenth party.
5. Lion Dance
Lion dances, also known as "lion dances", "lion lanterns", and "lion dances", are mostly performed in New Year's festivals and festive activities. The lion is a beast in the minds of Chinese, symbolizing auspiciousness and good wishes, thus pinning the people's good wishes to eliminate disasters and seek generosity in the lion dance activities.
6. Send flower lanterns
"Sending flower lamps" is referred to as "sending lights", and its essence is to send children's lamps. That is, before the Lantern Festival, the mother's family sends flower lanterns to the newly married daughter's family, or generally relatives and friends to the newlywed infertility family, in order to add Ding Auspicious, because "lamp" and "Ding" are harmonious. Expressing the hope that the daughter will be blessed with a high star after marriage and give birth to a child early; if the daughter is pregnant, in addition to the big palace lamp, one or two pairs of small lanterns will be sent to wish the daughter a safe pregnancy.
Lantern Festival
Serve a bowl of sweet glutinous rice balls
Guangdong Windows
Good luck with that
Round and rolling happiness
Sweet life
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Editor-in-charge | Ziying
Audit | Lin Lin