The custom and origin of Lantern Festival

Lantern Festival, also known as Shangyuan Festival, Little Lantern Festival, Lantern Festival or Lantern Festival, is one of the traditional festivals in China, which falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month every year. The first month is the first month of the lunar calendar, and the ancients called "night". The fifteenth day of the first month is the first full moon night in a year, so it is called "Lantern Festival". According to the Taoist "Sanyuan Festival", the fifteenth day of the first month is also called "Shangyuan Festival". Since ancient times, the custom of Lantern Festival has been based on the warm and festive custom of watching lanterns.

The formation of the Lantern Festival has a long process, which is rooted in the folk custom of turning on the lights to pray. According to general data and folklore, the fifteenth day of the first month was paid attention to in the Western Han Dynasty, but the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month really became a national folk festival after the Han and Wei Dynasties. The rise of the custom of burning lanterns on the fifteenth day of the first month is also related to the spread of Buddhism to the east. In the Tang dynasty, Buddhism flourished, and officials and ordinary people generally "lit lanterns for the Buddha" on the fifteenth day of the first month, so Buddhist lanterns were spread all over the people. Since the Tang Dynasty, Lantern Festival lighting has become a legal thing.

Lantern Festival is one of the traditional festivals in China, Chinese character cultural circle and overseas Chinese. Lantern Festival mainly includes a series of traditional folk activities, such as watching lanterns, eating glutinous rice balls, solve riddles on the lanterns and setting off fireworks. In addition, traditional folk performances such as Youlong lanterns, lion dancing, walking on stilts, boating, yangko and playing Taiping drums have been added to the Lantern Festival in many places. In June 2008, the Lantern Festival was selected as the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage.

Origin of the festival

the Lantern Festival

Lantern Festival is a traditional festival in China, and the formation of Lantern Festival custom has a long process, which is rooted in the folk custom of turning on lights to pray. Generally, turning on the light for blessing begins on the 14th night of the first month, and the 15th night is "positive light". People light lamps, also known as "sending lamps", in order to pray to the gods. The introduction of Buddhist culture in the Eastern Han Dynasty also played an important role in promoting the formation of Lantern Festival customs. During the Yongping period of Emperor Hanming, in order to promote Buddhism, Emperor Hanming ordered "burning lamps to show Buddha" in palaces and temples on the fifteenth night of the first month. Therefore, the custom of burning lanterns on the 15th night of the first month was gradually spread in China with the expansion of the influence of Buddhist culture and the addition of Taoist culture. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Lantern Festival gradually became a trend. Liang Wudi believed in Buddhism, and the palace was brightly lit on the fifteenth day of the first month. During the Tang Dynasty, cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries became closer, Buddhism flourished, and officials and ordinary people generally "burned lanterns to worship Buddha" on the fifteenth day of the first month, so Buddha lanterns spread all over the people. It has been legal to set off lanterns on the Lantern Festival since the Tang Dynasty. ?

The fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the Lantern Festival, also known as Shangyuan Festival, Lantern Festival and Lantern Festival. The first month is the first month of the lunar calendar. The ancients called night "night", so they called the fifteenth day of the first month "Lantern Festival". With the changes of society and times, the custom of Lantern Festival has changed greatly, but it is still a traditional folk festival in China. Yuanxiao was only called the fifteenth day of the first month, the first half of the first month or the full moon when the early festivals were formed, and it was called Yuanxiao or Yuanxiao after Sui. Influenced by Taoism in the early Tang Dynasty, it was also called Shangyuan, but it was only in the late Tang Dynasty that it was occasionally called Yuanxiao. But since the Song Dynasty, it has also been called Dengxi. In the Qing dynasty, it was also called the Lantern Festival. In foreign countries, Lantern Festival is also called Lantern Festival. On the evening of the 15th day of the first month, people in China have a series of traditional folk activities, such as watching lanterns, eating glutinous rice balls, eating Yuanxiao, solve riddles on the lanterns and setting off fireworks.

The origin of Lantern Festival

There are different opinions about the origin of the Lantern Festival, and there are three widely circulated opinions.

Legend one

Lantern Festival is to commemorate the Pinglu of Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty. According to legend, after his death, a ministry in Lv Hou will be afraid of the complete works and plot to rebel. Liu Nang, the imperial clan, and Zhou Bo, the founding elder, put down the "chaos of all roads" together. After the rebellion, the ministers made Liu Heng, the second son of Liu Bang, the Chinese Emperor. Deeply impressed by the hard-won peace and prosperity, Emperor Wen designated the 15th day of the first month of the first month, when the "Zhu Lu Rebellion" was put down, as a day to have fun with the people, and every household in Beijing celebrated with lanterns and colorful decorations. Since then, the fifteenth day of the first month has become a popular folk festival-"Lantern Festival".

Legend 2

Lantern Festival, also known as Shangyuan Festival, is the first full moon night celebrated by people in a year. According to the "ternary theory" of Taoism, the fifteenth day of the first month is Shangyuan Festival, the fifteenth day of July is Zhongyuan Festival, and the fifteenth day of October is Xiayuan Festival. The officials in charge of the upper, middle and lower elements are heaven, earth and man respectively. The celestial officials are happy and the Lantern Festival should be lit. The custom of lighting lanterns and setting off fireworks on the Lantern Festival comes from this saying.

Legend 3

Lantern Festival originated from Torch Festival. In the Han dynasty, people held torches in rural fields to drive away insects and wild animals, hoping to reduce pests and pray for a bumper harvest. To this day, people in some areas in southwest China still use reeds or branches as torches on the 15th day of the first month, and hold high in groups to dance in fields or grain drying fields. Since the Sui, Tang and Song Dynasties, it has been in full swing. Tens of thousands of people took part in singing and dancing, from faint to dark. With the changes of society and times, the customs and habits of Lantern Festival have changed greatly, but it is still a traditional folk festival in China, and torches have gradually turned into colored lights.

Legend four

According to documents, the Lantern Festival originated on the 15th day of the first month of Buddhism, where monks watched the relics and lit lamps to worship the Buddha. During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Ming Di advocated Buddhism. According to legend, on the fifteenth day of the first month, the monks watched the relics and lit lamps to worship Buddha, so they ordered the lanterns to be lit in palaces and temples that night, so that all the gentry and ordinary people could hang lanterns, thus forming the Lantern Festival. Later, this Buddhist ceremonial festival gradually formed a grand folk festival.

Lantern Festival customs

In Han areas, Lantern Festival is the last night to celebrate the Spring Festival. There are various activities and programs in the Chenghuangmiao area during the day and lantern festivals at night. Lantern Festival is not only entertainment, but more importantly, it is difficult for women to go out at ordinary times, and it is also an important occasion for their husbands. The festive atmosphere and entertainment functions given by this festival are very strong.

Watching lanterns is the most important holiday custom of the Lantern Festival. Lantern Festival began in the period of Emperor Han Ming in eastern China. Ming Di advocated Buddhism and ordered "lighting lamps to worship Buddha" in palaces and temples on the 15th night of the first month. Since then, the custom of putting lights on the Lantern Festival has spread from the court to the people. On the fifteenth day of the first month, every household puts on lanterns to celebrate the Lantern Festival. In the Tang Dynasty, the custom of appreciating lanterns further developed into an unprecedented lantern market. The Lantern Festival in Song Dynasty is larger and more exquisite than that in Tang Dynasty. We read Song Ci, which contains many vivid descriptions of Lantern Festival and lanterns. There is a magnificent description in the Water Margin. Through words, we can imagine the bustling scene of life of Song people. Lights in the Ming Dynasty were luxurious and took a long time to watch. Watching lanterns in Qing Dynasty is also spectacular. A dream of red mansions is carefully written, and it is also a scene to enter the article. The tragic story begins with the celebration, and the rhythm and design of the novel reach the acme of China literature. Besides lighting, there is also a lantern festival. Since the Tang Dynasty, various folk art activities have gradually appeared in the Lantern Festival, such as juggling, yangko, singing opera, walking on stilts, lion dancing, beating waist drums, bamboo and horse games, storytelling and so on. Lantern Festival is also called "Lantern Festival" because it is the most important content of Lantern Festival celebrations.

Solve riddles on the lanterns, also called "playing riddles", is an activity held during the Lantern Festival. Lantern riddles will become an important part of the Lantern Festival. Speaking of riddles, we will think of Lantern Festival. Solve riddles on the lanterns first appeared in the Song Dynasty. Lantern Festival was held in the Southern Song Dynasty. Some people put riddles on colorful lanterns and let people guess while enjoying the lanterns. The story of "Double Happiness at the Door" is related to Wang Anshi's reading "Stop when the light goes" on the way to the exam. I took an exam in Beijing, and the examiner wrote "Flying Tiger Flag, Flying Tiger Flag, Tiger Flag Hidden" as a couplet, but others couldn't do it. Wang Anshi responded with the couplets he saw in the Lantern Festival and won the Jinshi. I came home in rags and married a beautiful wife. A pair of couplets, the number one scholar and wedding candles, "double happiness at the door" has become a much-told story. Lantern riddles are very popular because they are both enlightening and interesting. Solve riddles on the lanterns has become an important activity of the Lantern Festival. Lantern riddles cover a wide range of topics from astronomy to geography. They are intellectual and interesting entertainment.

Walking on stilts, during the Lantern Festival, activities will be held in various places to create social fires, and many vaudeville performances will be held one after another. Walking on stilts is a distinctive folk dance performance. One year, I went to the place where the Red Army stayed, and I also spent the Spring Festival in Jiangxi. It was tooting. Before the fifteenth day of the first month, a master led a lot of practice on stilts in the street. I talked with him for a long time and talked with the master for a long time. He introduced me to the knowledge of stilts, which really benefited me a lot. Stilts are mostly made of wood, and performances can be divided into double stilts and single stilts. Double stilts are often tied to the calf to show their skills, while single stilts hold the top of wooden stilts with both hands, which is convenient and dynamic. Its performances are divided into literary stilts and martial arts stilts. Literary stilts emphasize dressing up and teasing, while martial arts stilts emphasize personal skills and unique skills. Stilts around the country have formed a distinctive regional style and the color of Ming ancestors. In the northern stilt yangko, the characters are fishermen, matchmakers, Taoist priests and monks. In the south, stilts often play roles in traditional operas, such as Guan Gong, Zhang Fei, Lv Dongbin, He Xiangu, Zhang Sheng, matchmaker, chicken case-solving, immortals and so on. They sang as they walked, and they were deeply loved by the people.

Playing dragon lanterns is also called dragon lantern dance and dragon dance. Legend began in the period of the Yellow Emperor and evolved into a dance scene interspersed with six dragons. The earliest written record of dragon dance is Zhang Heng's "Xijing Fu" in Han Dynasty. Dragon lanterns are made of bamboo, colored paper and cloth. , into intermittent segments, the whole length of dozens of feet. Those in which dragons light candles are called "Dragon Lantern", and those who don't light candles are called "Bulong". When dancing the dragon, the leader of the dance holds the faucet, and dozens of people behind him lift the wooden stick tightly attached to the dragon body. The whole dragon danced with the drums and danced up and down, looking lifelike. Playing dragon lanterns is not only a traditional entertainment with a long history, but also implies people's beautiful expectations for the new year. When I was traveling in the ancient town, I saw the performance of painting dragon lanterns, and I was not very impressed. Later, I saw CCTV introduce the children's bench dragon lantern in the ancient town of Anhui, which was very spectacular. Although I am from Anhui, I am in northern Anhui, and I don't know much about the customs of the south of the Yangtze River. I can't think of any ancient town at the moment. The tradition of that small town is to let children participate in such traditional street lamps, which are spectacular for more than ten miles.

Lion dance, in the entertainment activities of the Lantern Festival, lion dance is a must. Lion dance has become a symbol of China people's activities abroad. On major festivals, we will also see lion dance performances. The origin of lion dance, one view is that the custom of lion dance comes from the "masked play" in Xiliang, and some people think that it originated from the army of Liu and Song Dynasties in the fifth century and was later introduced to the people. Lion dance seems simple, but it needs superb skills and tacit cooperation. In the process of the development of the custom of lion dance, the lion dance has formed two performance styles: North and South. The northern school is dominated by "Wu Shi", which generally consists of a pair of dances, one of which stands with the lion's head and the other bends down to dance with the lion's body and tail. The lion guide dressed as an ancient warrior teased the lion with a spinning hydrangea. Under the guidance of the lion guide, the lion performs various skills such as tumbling, jumping, climbing and bowing, as well as some difficult movements such as plum blossom pile, table jumping and stepping on the ball. The southern lion dance is mainly based on "Shi Wen". When performing, it pays attention to expressions, including tickling, shaking hair and licking hair, which makes people laugh. There are many schools of Southern Lion, and each place has its own characteristics and stress. The lion is the king of all animals, and the lion dance shows people's courage and strength, bringing a happy atmosphere to the festival. I saw more northern lion dances and more southern lion dances on TV, especially China's performance. There are many overseas Chinese in Fujian and Guangdong, who have inherited the traditional folk culture and customs of China.

Rowing a dry boat, also known as running a dry boat, is said to commemorate Dayu's flood control. Dry boats are mostly made of bamboo, wood or hemp stalks, covered with paper and colored silk, and the bow, stern and side of the boat are decorated with various flowers. During the dry boat performance, there is usually a girl standing on the dry boat, called "Boat Lady", imitating the rowing posture, dancing and rocking the boat from side to side, showing the ups and downs of the boat in the waves. Others dressed as clowns and boatmen around the dry boat and performed various antics, which made the audience laugh. Others were beating gongs and drums, and the atmosphere was warm. Dry boats have strong local customs and national characteristics. We often see this situation on the spot and on TV. Most of the protagonists are wearing green coats, black frills, red and green, and painted with pigments, which is very exaggerated. They brought great joy to the public in the past when folk entertainment was limited.

Yangko dancing is an important part of the Lantern Festival celebrations. Yangko is mainly popular in the northern region, and it is a dance form with national characteristics. Different regions have different forms. There are mainly Northeast Yangko, Shanxi Yangko, Hebei Yangko, Shandong Yangko and so on. However, the * * * of yangko performance has four characteristics. Generally, a collective yangko team consists of more than 10 to 100 people. Performers dress up as historical stories, myths and legends and people in real life, holding fans, handkerchiefs, colored silk, paper umbrellas and so on. , with suona, drums and gongs and other musical instruments, while walking and jumping, while changing various formations, lively and unrestrained. Northerners are very common. In the early days, Zhang Yimou also filmed the magnificent scene of Yangko by the Yellow River. Those young farmers with dull expressions off the field are full of vitality when they arrive at the Yangko field. generate shows his spiritual vitality and makes him very emotional. The publicity of human nature fully bloomed at that time.

Set off fireworks. On the Lantern Festival, there is a tradition of setting off fireworks everywhere. All kinds of fireworks are colorful and dazzling. Nowadays, fireworks are high in technology, and the annual welcome fireworks in Sydney, Australia have become a gorgeous symbol. We held the Olympic Games and the 70th anniversary celebration, and also put the fireworks display to the extreme, which was very spectacular. But I have seen fireworks, and the most impressive thing is a fireworks show in my hometown in middle school. At that time, there was a square in the city center, which became a venue for major festivals. Later, it was sold by the famous Wang Huaizhong for 8 million pounds to a businessman for development. Impressed, there was a stampede when fireworks were set off that year, killing and injuring many people. The next morning, my neighbors and I went to see the scene. There were shoes of a football field scattered on the ground, which was amazing. Now it is forbidden to set off firecrackers in my hometown, and setting off fireworks has become history. When I went back this year, I was surprised that I didn't hear the sound of fireworks on New Year's Eve. Beijing has been banned for many years, but people still steal it. Comparatively speaking, hometown is really not easy.

Lantern tower fire, in the northwest, Lantern Festival held a social fire and lantern show, lit lantern tower fire. Tower fire is the shape of a tower made of mud or bricks synthesized from loess, about 1.5 meters high, and the tower is filled with charcoal. After installation and ignition, the burning flame is ejected from the surrounding round hole. The fire was very big and spectacular. I have never seen such a scene with my own eyes, but I have seen it many times on TV and there are illustrations in the book. The creation of ancient working people surprised me, and the sense of scene should be very shocking!

Playing steel flowers is a unique Lantern Festival activity in Hebei and Northwest China. I didn't know there was such a project until I went to take pictures of the warm spring in Yuxian County, Hebei Province. More than 3000 degrees of molten steel, surrounded by people, stood in the center of the venue, spilling boiling molten steel into the sky, forming a beautiful tempering. Shooting tempering has become a project that photographers who go to Yuxian talk about. I never thought there would be such a dangerous game, but it was really beautiful, thrilling and beautiful.