What are the customs of Lantern Festival?

The fifteenth day of the first month is the Lantern Festival, which is a traditional folk festival in China. Lantern Festival has no special feeling for modern people, but it has very important significance in ancient times. In Taoist culture, Lantern Festival is the first of the three festivals and has special significance. So what are the customs of Lantern Festival? Here are some customs and habits carefully recommended by Bian Xiao, hoping to help you.

First, customs and habits

Lantern Festival is the main traditional festival in China, also called Lantern Festival and Shangyuan Festival, because it is the first full moon night of the New Year. Because this festival has the custom of watching lanterns in past dynasties, it is also called Lantern Festival. The formation of Lantern Festival custom has a long process. According to general data and China folklore, the Western Han Dynasty paid attention to the 15th day of the first month, and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty offered sacrifices in Ganquan Palace on the night of the first month? Taiyi? This activity was regarded by later generations as the first sound of offering sacrifices to the gods on the fifteenth day of the first month. Buddhism was introduced in the Eastern Han Dynasty. In order to expand its local influence, traditional culture attaches the Lantern Festival as an auspicious day and participates in Buddhism. During the Yongping period of Emperor Han Ming (AD 58? 75), because Ming Taizu advocated Buddhism, and coincided with Cai _ seeking the return of Buddhism from India, it was said that on the fifteenth day of the first month in India, monks gathered to pay tribute to relics, which was an auspicious day to participate in Buddhism. In order to promote Buddhism, Emperor Hanming ordered the fifteenth night of the first month to be in the palace and temple? Burning a lamp to show Buddha? . Scholars believe that this view is untenable, and Buddhism only uses people's holiday atmosphere to expand its influence on this day.

The custom of putting lights on the Lantern Festival developed into an unprecedented lantern market in the Tang Dynasty, and after the middle Tang Dynasty, it developed into a national carnival. Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty (AD 685? In 762), the lantern market in Chang 'an was very large, with 50,000 lanterns and all kinds of lanterns. The emperor ordered 20 giant lantern buildings, which were 150 feet high, resplendent and magnificent. Since then, the Lantern Festival has continued to develop and the time of the Lantern Festival has become longer and longer. What is the Lantern Festival in the Tang Dynasty? The day before and after Shangyuan? In the Song Dynasty, two days were added after the sixteenth, and in the Ming Dynasty, it was extended from the eighth day to the eighteenth day to ten days.

The Manchu people occupied the Central Plains in Qing Dynasty, and the imperial court no longer held lantern festivals, but the folk lantern festivals in China were still spectacular. The date was shortened to five days and continues to this day.

During the Tang and Song Dynasties, various acrobatic skills began to appear in the lantern market. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, besides riddles and hundreds of operas, there were also opera performances.

Second, whether to eat glutinous rice balls

People not only visit the lantern market during the Lantern Festival, but also have the custom of welcoming children to Ce Shen, crossing the bridge to touch nails and walking away from all diseases, and playing games such as Taiping Drum, Yangko, stilts, dragon dance and lion dance. At the same time, we should also eat some festive foods: in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, we ate bean porridge or rice porridge boiled with meat and animal oil in the Lantern Festival, and in the Tang Dynasty, we ate a kind of porridge called? Cocoon? Pasta and baked cakes (that is, scones) existed in the Song Dynasty, as well as soup made of salted black beans and mung bean powder. Mariko? Since then, eating Lantern Festival has become a habit in the north and south.

Third, unpopular customs.

Send a children's lamp.

Abbreviation? Send a light? , also called what? Send lanterns? Wait, just before the Lantern Festival, the bride's family sends lanterns to the newly-married daughter's family, or ordinary relatives and friends send them to the newly-married infertile family, in order to increase good luck, because? Lights? With what? Ding? Homophonic. This custom exists in many places. In Xi city, Shaanxi province, lanterns are put on from the eighth to the fifteenth day of the first month. In the first year, a pair of palace lanterns and a pair of stained glass lamps were presented. I hope my daughter will be lucky after marriage and have children early. If the daughter is pregnant, in addition to the big palace lantern, she should also send one or two small lanterns to wish her a safe pregnancy.

Yingzigu

Daughter-in-law is also called Qi (seventh) aunt, and in the north it is called toilet aunt and pit aunt. The ancient folk custom is to offer sacrifices to Ce Shen Zigu on the 15th day of the first month, and to offer sacrifices to silkworm and mulberry, which shows many things. Legend has it that Zi Guyuan was a concubine and was envied by her eldest daughter. On the fifteenth day of the first month, he was killed in the toilet and became Ce Shen. So most people make their daughter-in-law into the shape of a woman and greet her in the pigsty in the toilet at night. This custom is popular in the north and south, and it was recorded as early as the Northern and Southern Dynasties.

Walking sickness

Also known as "Wandering All Diseases", "Eliminating All Diseases" and "Walking on the Bridge", it is an activity to eliminate disasters and pray for blessings. On the Lantern Festival night, women meet and go out together. When they see the bridge, they will cross it, thinking that this can cure diseases and prolong life.