Lantern Festival
Lantern Festival, one of the traditional festivals in China, also known as Shangyuan Festival, Xiaozheng Moon, New Year's Eve or Lantern Festival, is held on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month of the lunar calendar every year. The first month is the first month of the lunar calendar, the ancients called "night" as "supper", and the fifteenth day of the first month is the first full moon night of the year, so the fifteenth day of the first month is called "Lantern Festival".
The origin of the Lantern Festival
The Lantern Festival is a traditional festival in China, and the formation of the Lantern Festival custom has a long process, which is rooted in the folk custom of turning on the lanterns and praying for blessings. Turning on the lamp to pray for blessings usually begins on the fourteenth night of the first month, and the fifteenth day and night is the "main lamp", and the folk point lamp, also known as the "sending lamp lamp", is used to carry out the blessing activity of worshiping the gods. The introduction of Buddhist culture in the Eastern Han Dynasty also has an important significance in promoting the formation of Lantern Festival customs, and during the Yongping period of the Han Ming Emperor, in order to promote Buddhism, the Han Ming Emperor ordered the fifteenth night of the first month to "burn the lamp to watch the Buddha" in the palace and the temple. Therefore, the custom of lighting the lamp on the fifteenth night of the first month gradually spread in China with the expansion of the influence of Buddhist culture and the later addition of Taoist culture. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, lanterns gradually became popular. Emperor Wu of Liang was a firm believer in Buddhism, and the fifteenth day of the first month of his palace was illuminated. During the Tang Dynasty, cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries were closer, Buddhism was flourishing, and the people of Shiguan generally "lit lamps for Buddhas" on the fifteenth day of the first month, and Buddhist lights were all over the people. Since the Tang Dynasty, the Lantern Festival has become a legal matter.
Lantern Festival - National Folklore
Eat the Lantern
Eat the Lantern on the fifteenth day of the first month, and the "Lantern" as a food has a long history in the mainland. In the Song Dynasty, folk were popular for a novelty food eaten during the Lantern Festival. This kind of food, the earliest called "floating yuanzi" after the "lantern", the businessman also called it "yuanbao". Lantern is the "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 meat and vegetarian, different flavors. It can be boiled, fried and steamed, which has the meaning of reunion and happiness.
Guess the riddle
Guessing lantern riddles, also known as lantern riddles, is a traditional folk cultural and entertainment activity unique to China with rich national style, and it is a lantern festival special activity that has been circulating since ancient times. On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the traditional folk hang lanterns and set off fireworks, and later some good deeds write riddles on paper and paste them on colorful lanterns for people to guess. Because riddles can inspire wisdom and cater to the festive atmosphere, there are many people who respond, and then guessing puzzles gradually become an indispensable program for the Lantern Festival. The lantern riddle adds to the festive atmosphere and shows the ingenuity and yearning of the ancient working people for a better life.
Play with dragon lights
Dragon Lantern, also known as Dragon Dance Lantern or Dragon Dance. The dragon dance seen in the written record is Zhang Heng's "Xijing Fu" of the Han Dynasty, and the author vividly depicts the dragon dance in the exposition of hundreds of plays. According to the "Sui Book of Music", the "Yellow Dragon Change" similar to the dragon dance performance in the hundred plays during the Sui Dynasty Emperor was also very exciting, and the dragon dance was popular in many parts of China. Huaxia advocates the dragon and regards the dragon as a symbol of auspiciousness.
Lion Dance
Lion dance is an excellent folk art in China, and every Lantern Festival or gathering celebration, the folk use lion dance to help entertain. This custom originated in the Three Kingdoms period and became popular during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and has a history of more than a thousand years. "Lion dance" began in Wei Jin, sheng Yu Tang, also known as "lion dance", "Taiping Music", generally by three people to complete, two people dressed as lions, one person as a lion head, one person as a lion body and hind feet, the other as a lion person, the dance method also has a distinction between culture and martial arts, the literary dance shows the gentleness of the lion, there are shaking hair, rolling and other actions, the martial lion shows the fierceness of the lion, there are leaps, pedaling, rolling balls and other actions.
Row a dry boat
Rowing a dry boat, also known as a dry boat, is to imitate the action of the boat on land, and most of the girls who perform the dry boat are girls. The dry boat is not a real boat, more use two thin boards, sawn into a boat shape, made of bamboo and wood, and then covered with colored cloth, tied around the girl's waist, as if sitting in the boat, holding a paddle in her hand, doing a rowing posture, while running, while singing some local minor tunes, singing and dancing, this is the dry boat. Sometimes there is another man dressed as a boat passenger, partnering in the performance, most of them dressed as a clown, with a variety of funny moves to amuse the audience. Rowing boats is popular in many parts of China.
Go a hundred sick
"Walking a hundred diseases", also known as swimming hundred diseases, scattering hundred diseases, baking hundreds of diseases, walking bridges, etc., is an activity to eliminate disasters and pray for health. On the night of the Lantern Festival, women travel together, walk together, see the bridge must be crossed, and think that this can get rid of the disease and prolong the year. Walking a hundred diseases has been a custom in the north since the Ming and Qing dynasties, some in the fifteenth, but mostly on the sixteenth. On this day, the women dressed in festive costumes walked out of their homes in groups, crossed the bridge, entered the city, touched the nails and begged for children, until midnight, and returned.
Lantern Festival – local customs
Beijing
The most lively festival in old Beijing is not the Spring Festival, but the Lantern Festival. The traditional lantern festival programs of the old Beijing folk flavor, such as the annual Lantern Festival, dragon and lion dance, and old Beijing shouting, are a major reason why old Beijing citizens look forward to this festival. The traditional old Beijing Lantern Festival activities are mainly composed of three parts: flower fair, lantern festival and eating lantern festival.
Hebei Province
The more unique Lantern Festival custom in Hebei is the pulling flower of Jingxing, which is an ancient artistic wonder. Zanhuang County Lantern Festival custom - "Lalu Qiao ", Lalu Qiao is a dance that expresses the life of labor, the main activity is in the Lantern Festival, it is accompanied by percussion. There are big drums, big gongs, cymbals, water cymbals and so on. During the Lantern Festival in Yongping Province, sick women gathered under the kiln and called "pottery moxibustion". Sons and daughters stagger the bridge, called "Du Bai'er". There are also people who cut paper into nine paper ropes and tie knots with their hands to blame, called "knotted sheep intestines".
Anhui Province
In the ancient city of Fengyang County, folk customs such as swinging, picking lanterns, and torches have become the three major customs of the Lantern Festival. Fengyang folk have a saying that "the Lantern Festival swings, and the waist does not hurt for a year". Every Lantern Festival, the most touching thing for children is to "pick up lanterns". All kinds of flower lanterns have been "early" on the market a few days ago, and flower lanterns with different shapes will decorate the town at night. Torch-making is a group activity for teenagers. In the countryside of Fengyang, attentive children will consciously collect and prepare some waste brooms and brush handles early in preparation for the Lantern Festival torches.
Shanxi Province
Hanging flower lanterns is a form of necessary for the people of Shanxi to celebrate the Lantern Festival. When the Lantern Festival comes, every household hangs up all kinds of lights, from fourteen to sixteen, every night is colorful and colorful. Fireworks are the most gratifying activities of the Shanxi People's Lantern Festival. On the night of the Lantern Festival, fireworks are set off in the square, and the whole family goes to the street to see the beautiful fireworks.
Shandong Province
Carrying out entertainment activities is an important part of the Lantern Festival. There are various forms of juggling, such as lion dance, dragon lantern dance, stilts, dry boat, flower stick, rice song, donkey driving, etc., and the content is mainly opera. The villages around Qufu City play with dragon lanterns, and the dragon lanterns in each village have to be performed in Kongfuzhong. The place where the Dragon Lantern of Kong House is in front of the lobby of the Second Gate, and it is not allowed to enter the Confucius House normally, and outsiders are also allowed to enter to see the Dragon Lantern at this time. While playing with dragon lanterns, the pawns of Kong Province and the "fireworks households" set off fireworks on the side.
The significance of the Lantern Festival
Like the Spring Festival, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival, the Lantern Festival is a traditional Chinese festival, in fact, its cultural connotation and social value are far better than other festivals, and it has extraordinary significance.
The Spring Festival begins with the closing of the Chinese New Year's Eve gates and the Lantern Festival, which is a process in which people continue to expand the scope of activities and interpersonal relationships. The first year of the first year gives parents a New Year's greeting, and the second year of the first year returns to the mother's home to pay respects to the New Year. Later, the scope of the New Year's greeting was gradually expanded to general relatives and friends. During this time period, people's range of activities is limited to acquaintances. The fifth day of the first year is the fifth year, the farm work can start to work, and the shop can open. During this time, society began to function normally. On the fifteenth day of the first month, all members of society, men and women, young and old, joined the festival. Therefore, the Lantern Festival has the meaning of confirming the relationship between all members of society (including those who do not know each other).
Xiao Jin's Lantern Festival blessings
The moon is round on the fifteenth day of the first month
The flowers on the fifteenth day of the first month are bright
The tangyuan on the fifteenth day of the first month is the sweetest
The fireworks on the fifteenth day of the first month are the most brilliant
The blessings of the fifteenth day of the first month are the most fulfilling
Xiao Jin wishes everyone
Happy Lantern Festival
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Figure/Source network
Text/Qiu Weijuan
Editor/Shen Guofu
Audit/Hongbo Zhang
Yantai Golden Vocational College Rong Media Center