Why are there toad lights?

Toad Festival is a popular traditional folk festival in northern Sichuan. On the 14th night of the first month of every year, everyone lights homemade toad lanterns, dances with torches, carries colorful dragons, and holds a grand ceremony with gongs and drums. However, due to its long history, there is no historical record about the origin of Toad Festival. According to the memory of the rural elderly, this is a tradition handed down from generation to generation. Some people say that it has a history of decades, while others say that it originated in the late Qing Dynasty, and the oldest legend is the late Ming Dynasty. According to legend, Zhang, a peasant uprising army, was besieged by officers and men when he led troops to station troops in northern Sichuan at the end of Ming Dynasty. The rebels fought bloody battles many times. There were countless casualties on both sides, bodies everywhere, rivers of blood and lack of soldiers for years.

The activities of Toad Festival are mainly to send toad lights. Because children's physical resistance is weak, they are most likely to suffer from "toad plague". Therefore, as long as every family has children, regardless of their size, every child must put on a "toad light" on that day. In people's minds, "toad lamp" is a symbol of plague. According to the custom, the tied "toad lamp" cannot be placed indoors, so as not to bring the plague into the house, and it can only be inserted in the outdoor soil to dry.