What are the customs of Lantern Festival in my hometown?

Lantern Festival is a traditional festival in China, so it is celebrated all over the country. The customs in most areas are similar, but each area still has its own characteristics.

eat yuanxiao

Eating Yuanxiao on the fifteenth day of the first month, as a kind of food, has a long history in China. In the Song Dynasty, a novel Lantern Festival food was popular among the people. This kind of food was originally called "Floating Zi Yuan", later called "Yuanxiao", and merchants also called it "Yuanbao". Yuanxiao, or "jiaozi", is filled with white sugar, rose, sesame, bean paste, cinnamon bark, walnut kernel, nuts and jujube paste, and wrapped in glutinous rice flour into a round shape, which can be meat or vegetarian, with different flavors. It can be boiled, fried and steamed, which means happy reunion. Jiaozi, Shaanxi is not wrapped, but "rolled" in glutinous rice flour, or boiled or fried, warm and round.

Sightseeing lamp

During the reign of Emperor Yongping of the Han Dynasty (58-75 AD), when Ming Di advocated Buddhism, it coincided with Cai Cheng's refuge from India, saying that it was the fifteenth day of the first month in Mohato, India, and the monks gathered to pay tribute to the relics, which was an auspicious day to participate in Buddhism. In order to carry forward Buddhism, Emperor Han Ming ordered "burning lamps to show Buddha" in the palace temple on the 15th night of the first month. Since then, the custom of putting lights on the Lantern Festival has spread from being held only in the court to the people. That is, on the fifteenth day of the first month, both the gentry and the people hang up lights, and the urban and rural areas are brightly lit all night.

The custom of setting off lanterns during the Lantern Festival developed into an unprecedented lantern market in the Tang Dynasty. Chang 'an, the capital at that time, was already the largest city with a population of one million in the world, and its society was rich. Under the personal initiative of the emperor, the Lantern Festival became more and more luxurious. After the middle Tang Dynasty, it has developed into a national carnival. During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty (685-762 AD), 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 with a height of 150 feet, resplendent and magnificent.

The Lantern Festival in Song Dynasty is superior to that in Tang Dynasty in scale and dreamy lighting, with more folk activities and stronger national characteristics. Since then, the Lantern Festival has continued to develop and the time of the Lantern Festival has become longer and longer. The Lantern Festival in Tang Dynasty is "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.

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

In Taiwan Province Province, lanterns have the meaning of light and elegance, and lighting them means lighting up the future. The homonym of Taiwan Province Lantern and En stands for having a boy. So in the past, women would deliberately wander under lanterns, hoping to "drill under lanterns to lay eggs" (that is, swim under lanterns to give birth to boys).

Different customs of Lantern Festival in different provinces

The customs of Lantern Festival are different all over the country.

During the Lantern Festival in Yongping Prefecture, Hebei Province, sick women gathered under the kiln and called it "pottery moxibustion". Children crossing the bridge are called "Du Bai Goose". Some people cut the paper into nine paper ropes and tied them with their hands to make up for their mistakes. This is called "knotting sheep intestines". Use twelve cups to store oil, put it in a pot and steam it. According to the amount of water in the cups, predict the sunny and rainy days this month. The Shangyuan Festival in Jinghai County takes big steamed bread as its diet. Qingyun County, Lantern Festival, the man asked five ancestors to teach boxing sticks, and the woman asked Zi Gubu to take the blame.

People in Zichuan County, Shandong Province will put more river lanterns on the water during the Lantern Festival. Ningyang county sends lanterns to ancestral graves during the Lantern Festival. Boxing township has the custom of lighting lanterns on the Lantern Festival. Boys carry lanterns, walk around the jujube tree six times and say "Du Lao Du Lao, blossom and bear jujube" six times, which can make the jujube tree harvest. Men, women and children in Ju (jǔ) county go for an outing in the wild on the 16th day of the first month, which is called "walking the old face". It is said that walking once a year can keep them young forever.

In Xiangcheng county, Henan province, Yuanxiao eats wonton, which is called "reunion tea". The bride's family took her married daughter home for the holidays. When the Lantern Festival was celebrated in the county, the old and the young were sick and disabled, and they all used fire to moxibustion stone turtles. If there is a river bridge in the area, cross it at the same speed. If there is no bridge, build an "overpass" with wooden boards several feet high, which is called "walking all diseases"

Fengxiang County, Shaanxi Province hosted a banquet for his daughter and son-in-law in the Lantern Festival, which was called "Eating Fifteen". And sending lights to send oil is called "adding oil".

In Wujin County, Jiangsu Province, on the first day of last week, people tied a reed into a torch of Zhang Xu and planted it in the ground, which was called "Zhao Tiancai" to predict the morning and evening. White fire is water, and Rise of the Legend is drought. On the Lantern Festival in Yixing, children wear ghost masks, bend their feet and jump around with their shoulders shaking, which is called "jumping ghosts".

According to the folklore in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, the 15th day of the first month is the birthday of Shangyuan people. God bless Shangyuan people and they often worship in Wu Shan. The most famous Lantern Festival in Haining is the exquisite chrysanthemum lantern. Shangyu County will compete in martial arts on the platform before the Lantern Festival. In Jiande County, if someone has a new wife, a wine sacrifice bed will be set on the Lantern Festival.

People in Xinjian County, Jiangxi Province, sweep graves during the Lantern Festival and put bamboo as lanterns. Every town in wanan county worships Shenzhou on the Lantern Festival.

An old farmer in Yunmeng County (now Jianghan), Hubei Province, held a torch to shine on Pu Tian at midnight, which was called "Shining on the Jedi Silkworm". Children greet God with drums and fields and predict the future. Wuchang's "dragon making" will last for three days. All the men, women and children in the village follow the dragon lantern to the neighboring village for dinner, which is called "Dragon for Wine".

In Shangyuan County, Changde City, Hunan Province, it is called "time soup" to make soup with Chili peppers and add leeks and fruits to entertain guests. After swimming in the dragon lantern in Xintian County, the dragon lantern was lit, which is called "sending disaster".

Sichuan Lantern Festival in Sichuan Province has the custom of "four steals": "one steals jiaozi, the other steals green, the third steals eaves lamp and the fourth steals red." Except for stealing youth and strengthening the body, the rest are customs of seeking children. There is a custom of "cursing" in Kaixian County. On the Lantern Festival, people move the benches outdoors and scold all the grievances at ordinary times. Those who are scolded are not allowed to scold them back.

Quanzhou Lantern Festival in Fujian Province has its own characteristics, including incense lanterns, paper folding lotus lanterns, silk palace lanterns, eight-knot lanterns and so on. Temples in Shaowu County welcome incense around the border at midnight snack, which is called "Clean Street". In southern Fujian, there is a custom that children in two villages throw stones at each other for fun at the Lantern Festival. It is said that there will be a plague in that village if stones are not thrown.

Last year, boys were born in Xin 'an County, Guangdong Province, and they were all celebrated by playing lanterns at midnight. When Nanxiong lit the lamp, parents took down the dragon beard thread from the dragon lantern and tied it for the children. It is said that children can be protected from diseases. He still took the candle left in the dragon lantern and shone it under the bed. It is said that he can give birth to your son. When people steal midnight snacks in Wenchang county, it is a good omen for the thief to be scolded, and for those who can't steal, it is a good omen not to be scolded.

In Yunlong County, Yunnan Province, the Three Gods were greeted before the Lantern Festival, and a shed was set up along the street to offer sacrifices. Burning incense on the bridge on the second day of the Maitreya Lantern Festival, throwing stones into the water, and then washing your eyes with water, it is said that you can get rid of the disease.

Eating Lantern Festival is the same custom all over the country. This kind of food first appeared in the Song Dynasty. The poet Jiang Baishi wrote in the poem Ode to the Lantern Festival: "Guests look at the Imperial Street with a hook curtain, and the treasures in the city come at once." This "city treasure" refers to the Lantern Festival. Zhou Bida, a poet in the Song Dynasty, once wrote a poem "Boiling and Floating Zi Yuan in the Lantern Festival": What is the evening? So is reunion. Tang officials patrol the old flavor, and the kitchen service makes new contributions. Stars in dark clouds, beads floating in turbid water. 18-year-old miscellaneous poems, there is this sentence about family style. References:

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