New Year's Day 15
Lantern Joy
The things of the 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 origin of the Lantern Festival
The formation of the Lantern Festival has a long process, which originated from the ancient custom of turning on the lanterns and praying for blessings. According to general information and folklore, the fifteenth day of the first month has been valued in the Western Han Dynasty, but the lantern festival of the fifteenth day of the first month was really regarded as a national folk festival after the Han and Wei dynasties. The rise of the custom of burning lamps on the fifteenth day of the first month is also related to the eastern transmission of Buddhism, when Buddhism was flourishing in the Tang Dynasty, the people of Shiguan generally "lit the lamp for the Buddha" on the fifteenth day of the first month, and the Buddhist lamp was spread throughout the people, and since the Tang Dynasty, the Lantern Lantern has become a legal matter.
Customs of the Lantern Festival
(1) Eating the Lantern Festival is an ancient Chinese traditional festival custom, which means reunion and peace. Mostly eaten in the Lantern Festival, there are also dim sum to eat, generally there are a variety of fillings, of which black sesame filling is the most common, Lantern In addition to the general types, there are also types of wine stuffed small dumplings and so on.
(2) Sending lanterns, also known as sending flower lanterns, traditional Chinese folklore. 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 family, in order to add Ding auspicious signs, because "lamp" and "Ding" are harmonious. This ancient traditional custom has many places, Shaanxi Xi'an area is the first month of the eighth to fifteenth period to send lamps, the first year to send a pair of palace lamps, a pair of glass lamps with colored paintings, hoping 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 palace lamp, it is also necessary to send one or two pairs of small lanterns to wish the daughter a safe pregnancy. Some areas in Xinyang, Henan Province, send lanterns to deceased ancestors during the Lantern Festival to express mourning and wishes, which is a traditional custom of local ancestors.
(3) Lion dance is an excellent folk art in China, also known as "Taiping Music" in ancient times. The lion dance is divided into north and south, and the southern lion is also known as the awakening lion. Lions are made of colored cloth strips, and each lion is generally performed by two people, one person dancing head and one person dancing tail.
(4) Guessing lantern riddles, also known as lantern riddles, is a unique form of Han folk cultural and entertainment activities with rich ethnic style in China, and it is a special activity of the Lantern Festival that has been circulating since ancient times. Every fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the folk would hang lanterns and set off fireworks, and later some good people wrote riddles on paper and pasted 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, showing the wisdom and ingenuity of the working people of the ancient Han people and the yearning for a better life.
Happy Lantern Festival!
Henan Mechanical and Electrical Vocational College New Media Operation Center
Edit: Zhao Zheng
Proofreader: Zhang Lu
Review: Su Ziliang