Narrator: Wang Jie, Professor of the Philosophy Department of the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
The fifteenth day of the first month of the lunar calendar, since ancient times, is known as the Lantern Festival, the Upper Yuan Festival, the Small New Year, the New Year's Eve or the Lantern Festival, there is an old folk saying that "the fifteenth is the year", which shows that the fifteenth day of the first month is also a very important part of the Spring Festival festival process.
Various celebrations of the Lantern Festival
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 Chinese people attach great importance to a good omen at the beginning of the year and to be able to make good luck. After the fifteenth day of the first month, spring returns to the earth, everything recovers, and people have to start a year of hard work and labor, so people also pay special attention to the celebration of various festivals of the Lantern Festival. For example, "Flower Lantern Festival", "Dragon and Lion Dance", "Guessing Lantern Riddles", "Eating Lanterns", "Stepping on Stilts", "Matsuri Gate, Matsuri Household" and other lively and interesting folk activities.
And these folk activities have a relatively common state is to highlight a "noisy" word, a large number of people involved in various folk activities and need people to wear makeup, play into various story sections and character images in folklore, such as "pig eight precepts back daughter-in-law", "Nezha noisy sea", "Qi Tian Dasheng" and so on, the scene is very lively, and has the nature of "carnival".
The Tang Dynasty poet Su Wei described in "The Fifteenth Night of the First Month" that "the fire tree and the silver flower and the star bridge are locked open." Dark dust goes with the horse, and the bright moon comes one by one. The wandering tricks are all plums, and the songs are all plums. Kingo couldn't help but be at night, and the jade leaked uncontrollably. From this poem, we can see that in the "Shangyuan Festival" of the Tang Dynasty, there was a habit of setting off flower lanterns and not curfewing in the city. The people who have worked hard for a year really need such a moment to release their feelings and celebrate the return of spring to the earth, and to adjust their physical and mental state and prepare for the new year's productive labor. The various festivals and celebrations in the fifteenth day of the first month have also become "carnivals" belonging to the Chinese people since ancient times.
The origin of the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month
Regarding the origin of the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month, there are various legends from ancient times to the present, of which three are widely circulated. One of the legends is that the Lantern Festival was set up during the reign of Emperor Wen of Han to commemorate the "Rebellion of the Pinglu Clan". According to legend, after Lü Hou's death, fearing that power would fall by the wayside, and plotting a rebellion, Liu Xiang, the King of Qi, together with Zhou Bo and other heroes, quelled the "Rebellion of Zhu Lü", and after quelling the rebellion, the ministers supported Liu Heng, the acting king, to ascend the throne and called Himself Emperor Wen of Han. Emperor Wen deeply felt that the prosperity of the Taiping Dynasty was not easy to come by, so he set the fifteenth day of the first month to quell the "Rebellion of Zhulu" as the day of rejoicing with the people, and every house in the capital was illuminated to celebrate. Since then, the fifteenth day of the first month has become a folk festival celebrated by all the world.
This second legend is the Lantern Festival, also known as the "Shangyuan Festival", which is the first full moon night of the year that people celebrate. According to the Taoist "Three Yuan Theory", the fifteenth day of the first month is the Shangyuan Festival, the fifteenth day of July is the Zhongyuan Festival, and the fifteenth day of October is the Lower Yuan Festival. The three elements in charge of the upper, middle and lower are the three officials of heaven, earth and man, and the heavenly officials are happy, and in ancient times, there was no electricity to illuminate, and the matter of "lighting the lamp" itself has a strong sense of ceremony, so people on the Yuan Festival lit up ten thousand flower lanterns, brought their relatives and friends out to enjoy the lights, set off fireworks, sang and danced, and expressed their good wishes.
The third legend is that the Lantern Festival originated from the "Torch Festival", during the Han Dynasty, the people held torches in the rural fields to drive away insects and beasts, hoping to alleviate the insect pests and pray for a good harvest. Since the Tang and Song dynasties, this activity has flourished, and the number of participants in the song and dance is sometimes tens of thousands, from the evening until the end of the day. However, with the changes of society and times, this custom has changed, and torches have gradually evolved into lanterns. In fact, to this day, people in some areas of southwest China still make torches from reeds or branches on the fifteenth day of the first month, and dance in groups holding torches high in fields or barns.
Finally, I would like to share with you a poem about the fifteenth day of the first month:
Qingyu case · New Year's Eve
Xin abandons the disease Song
The east wind blooms a thousand trees at night, blowing down, and the stars are like rain. BMW carved car fragrant road. The sound of the phoenix vibrates, the jade pot turns, and the fish and dragon dance all night.
Moth snow willow golden wisps, laughter full of dark incense. The multitudes looked for him a thousand times, and looked back, but the man was there, and the lights were dimmed.
Producer: Li Fangzhou Zhang Yuexin
Source: Guangming Network