How did the Lantern Festival come about? What's the custom?

The Origin and Customs of Lantern Festival

The fifteenth day of the first lunar month is a traditional festival that China people attach great importance to, the Lantern Festival. Lantern Festival, also known as "Shangyuan Festival" and Spring Festival, is a festival for many families to get together. The fifteenth day of the first month is the first full moon night in a year, and with the custom of eating Yuanxiao, this festival is closely linked with the word reunion. Lantern Festival is the first important festival after the Spring Festival. Both the North and the South attach great importance to this festival and hold many activities to celebrate it. Everyone must be curious about the origin and customs of the Lantern Festival. Now China Food Network Bian Xiao will tell you how the Lantern Festival came about and what customs it has.

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

Legend of the origin of Lantern Festival 1

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 of the origin of Lantern Festival II

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 of the origin of Lantern Festival III

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.

Since the middle Tang Dynasty, the Lantern Festival has developed into a national carnival in China, so it is the most thorough and typical traditional festival.

In most places, Lantern Festival customs include eating Yuanxiao, watching lanterns and solving riddles on lanterns, as well as drumming, dragon dancing and lion dancing, but there are also unique customs in the north and south.

Eat zongzi; eat rice dumplings; eat glutinous rice balls

Eating "glutinous rice balls" is an important custom of the Lantern Festival. Tangyuan, also known as "Tangtuan" and "Yuanxiao", was eaten in the Song Dynasty. At that time, glutinous rice balls were called "floating Zi Yuan", also known as "glutinous rice balls", "lactose Zi Yuan", "soup bowls" and "glutinous rice balls", and merchants were called "Yuanbao". At the beginning of Song, Yuan and Yuan Dynasties, sweet dumplings have become a response to the Lantern Festival.

Today it's called Yuanxiao in the north and Tangyuan in the south. According to the theory of stuffing, Yuanxiao can be divided into two types: stuffing and stuffing, salty, sweet, meat and vegetarian. According to the production methods, there are many kinds, such as hand rubbing, Yuanxiao mechanism, bamboo plaque roll and so on. According to different milling, there are glutinous rice flour and sorghum rice flour.

Solve riddles; solve lantern riddles; guess riddles on hanging lanterns

Playing with lanterns is an important item in the Lantern Festival. Lantern riddle is a word game originated from Lantern Festival, also called Lantern Tiger. Putting riddles on lanterns for people to guess and shoot, the answers are mainly word meanings, and there are 24 kinds of riddles such as roller blinds, swings and phoenix-seeking, which form a unique folk culture. The biggest Lantern Festival in China is/kloc-0 "Nine Cities Lantern Festival" held in Nanjing in 979. There are tens of thousands of riddles, and more than 20 thousand people participated in three days.

Enjoy holiday lanterns

During the Yong Ping period of Han Dynasty (AD 58-75), when Ming Chengzu advocated Buddhism, it happened that Cai Cheng returned from India to seek Buddhism, saying that it was the fifteenth day of the first month of Mohato, India, and the monks gathered to pay tribute to the relics, which was an auspicious day to participate in Buddhism. 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. Since then, the custom of putting lanterns on the Lantern Festival has spread from the original palace 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. In the prosperous period of the Tang Xuanzong Kaiyuan (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).

walk on stilts

Walking on stilts is a popular folk performance. Stilts originally belonged to one of the hundred ancient operas in China, which appeared as early as the Spring and Autumn Period. In China, stilts first appeared in Liezi Fu Shuo: "Those who had orchids in the Song Dynasty used their skills to dry the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Summoned in the Song and Yuan Dynasties to see their skills. There are two branches twice as long as its body, belonging to its shin, which go hand in hand, making the seven swords overlap and jump. The five swords were always in the air, and Yuan Jun was frightened and gave them gold and silk. " As can be seen from the article, stilts have been popular as early as 500 BC.

Performers can not only walk with long wood tied to their feet, but also jump and dance swords. Stilts are divided into three types: stilts, middle stilts and running stilts, with the highest being more than ten feet. According to ancient records, ancient stilts were all made of wood. Make a support point in the middle of the planed wooden stick to put your feet, and then tie it to your legs with a rope.

Performers can dance swords, splits, stools, cross tables and yangko when walking on stilts. In the northern stilt yangko, there are fishermen, matchmakers, silly sons, second brothers, Taoist priests and monks.

The performer's funny performance can arouse the audience's great interest. In the south, stilts play the role of traditional operas, including Guan Gong, Zhang Fei, Lv Dongbin, He Xiangu, Zhang Sheng, matchmaker, Jigong, immortal and clown. They sang while performing, making fun and entertaining themselves.

It is said that this form of walking on stilts was originally developed by ancient people in order to collect wild fruits from trees for food and tie two long sticks to their legs.

lion dance

Lion dance is an excellent folk art in China. Whenever the Lantern Festival or the celebration of the General Assembly, people always come to the lion dance to entertain. This custom originated in the Three Kingdoms period and was popular in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. It has a history of 1000 years. According to legend, it was first introduced from the western regions, and the lion was the mount of Manjusri Bodhisattva. As Buddhism was introduced into China, lion dance was also introduced into China. The lion is a tribute brought back with the peacock after Emperor Wu of Han sent Zhang Qian to the Western Regions. However, the skill of lion dance originated from Xiliang's "masked play". Some people think that lion dance originated from the army in the fifth century and was later introduced to the people. Both statements have their own basis, and it is difficult to judge whether they are right or wrong today.

However, in the Tang Dynasty, lion dance has become a popular activity in the court, the army and the people. Tang Duanan Festival "Yuefu Miscellaneous Search" said: "There are five lions in the play, more than ten feet high, each with five colors. Each lion has 12 people, wearing red stripes, wearing clothes and painting clothes, and holding red pens. They are called lion lang and dance Taiping music. " The poet Bai Juyi described it vividly in his poem "West Cool Geisha": "West Cool Geisha, West Cool Geisha, Masked Hu Ren, False Lion. Wood carvings at the head and tail, gold-plated eyes and silver teeth. Fenxun sweaters have ears, such as coming to Wan Li from quicksand. " This poem describes the scene of lion dance at that time.

In the development of 1000 years, lion dance has formed two performance styles, north and south. The lion dance of the Northern School mainly performed the "Wushi", that is, the "Ruishi" appointed by Wei Wudi in the Northern Wei Dynasty. The little lion jumps alone, and the big lions jump in pairs, one standing and jumping at the lion's head, and the other bending down and jumping at the lion's body and tail.

The lion dancer is covered with a lion quilt, wearing green lion pants and golden claw boots of the same color as the lion's body. People can't recognize the lion dancer's body, and its shape is very similar to that of a real lion.

The lion guide dressed as an ancient warrior, holding a spinning hydrangea with Beijing gongs, drums and cymbals to tease the lion. Under the guidance of "Lion Lang", lions perform somersaults, jumps, climbs, bows down and other techniques, as well as some difficult movements such as walking plum blossom piles, jumping on tables and stepping on bowling balls.

Shi Wen is the main performance of the Southern Lion Dance. When performing, it pays attention to expressions, such as scratching, shaking hair, licking hair and so on. Vivid and lovely, but also have difficult skills such as spitting the ball. South Lion, centered in Guangdong, is popular in Hong Kong, Macao and Southeast Asia. Although the Southern Lion is also a duet, the lion dancers are all dressed in knickerbockers, and only a colorful lion is danced. Different from the lions in the north, "Lion Lang" wears a big head Buddha mask, a cassock, a ribbon around his waist and a sunflower fan in his hand to tease the lions, thus dancing all kinds of beautiful movements, which is ridiculous. There are many schools of southern lions, such as the lion with the head of a dog in Qingyuan and Yingde, the lion with a big head in Guangzhou and Foshan, the duck-billed lion in Gaohe and Zhongshan, and the unicorn lion in Dongguan.

In addition to their different shapes, heather also has different personalities. The white beard lion dance method is not wide, and there are not many varieties of colors, but it is calm and powerful. Folk call it "Liu Beishi". The black-bearded red-faced lion, known as "Guan Gong Lion", is brave and majestic, with extraordinary verve. Gray bearded lion, rough and belligerent, commonly known as "Zhang". The lion is the statue of all animals, and its image is majestic and martial, giving people a sense of majesty and bravery.

The ancients regarded it as a symbol of courage and strength, and thought it could ward off evil spirits and keep people and animals safe. Therefore, people gradually formed the custom of dancing lions during the Lantern Festival and other major events, hoping for good luck and peace of life.