What is the origin, significance and custom of Lantern Festival?

Lantern Festival, also known as Shangyuan Festival, Lantern Festival and Lantern Festival. A traditional festival in China, which falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month every year. According to the tradition of the Han nationality, people light thousands of lanterns to celebrate on this bright night. Going out to enjoy the moon, lighting and setting fires, enjoying lantern riddles, eating Yuanxiao, family reunion and celebrating festivals are all enjoyment. According to legend, Emperor Wendi (179- 157) celebrated the 15th day of the first month to investigate the Zhu Lu rebellion. Every night, he goes to the palace to play with people. In ancient times, night was the same as night, and the first month was also called January. Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty designated the fifteenth day of the first month as the Lantern Festival, and this night was called Yuanxiao. Sima Qian founded the taichu calendar, which listed the Lantern Festival as a major festival. In the Sui, Tang and Song Dynasties, the festival became more prosperous. "Sui Shu Music Record" Day: "Every first month, all nations come to the DPRK and live outside the Duanmen Gate, which lasts for eight miles until the 15th." Tens of thousands of people participated in singing and dancing, from faint to dark. With the changes of society and times, the customs of Lantern Festival have changed greatly, but it is still a traditional festival of Han nationality. Xiangfan people have always had the custom of putting lanterns on the Lantern Festival.

"Eating Yuanxiao on the fifteenth day of the first month", as a special food of the festival, has a long history in China. It was originally called "Tangyuan", but it is also called "Yuanxiao" because it is often eaten during the Lantern Festival, and merchants also call it "Yuanbao". The common Yuanxiao is wrapped in glutinous rice flour, with rich and varied fillings, including sugar, rose, sesame, bean paste, cinnamon bark, walnut kernel, nuts, jujube paste and so on. Can be vegetarian or have different flavors. It can be boiled, fried and steamed, symbolizing prosperity and reunion.

Meaning:

Lantern Festival is also a romantic festival among the traditional festivals in China.

Lantern Festival provides an opportunity for unmarried men and women in feudal traditional society to get to know each other. Young girls in traditional society are not allowed to go out for free activities, but they can go out to play together on holidays. Lantern Festival lanterns are just an opportunity to make friends, and unmarried men and women can also find their own partners by the way.

During the Lantern Festival, it is also the time for young men and women to meet their lovers.

Customs:

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. 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.

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 Han folk lantern festivals 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.

In addition to visiting the lantern market, people in the past dynasties also had customs such as welcoming children to visit Ce Shen, crossing the bridge and touching nails to walk 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 Northern and Southern Dynasties, we ate bean porridge or rice porridge boiled with meat and animal oil during the Lantern Festival; In the Tang dynasty, we ate a kind of pasta called "cocoon" and baked cakes; In the Song Dynasty, a spoon made of salted black bean soup and mung bean powder appeared, and the "jiaozi" appeared. From then on, we ate Yuanxiao in the north and south.

During the Lantern Festival, it is the time for young men and women to meet their lovers, so the Lantern Festival has become the "Valentine's Day" in China.

Lantern Festival in traditional society is an important folk festival of Han nationality in urban and rural areas, especially in cities, which embodies the unique carnival spirit of China people. The traditional Lantern Festival's function of festival customs has been dispelled by daily life, and people have gradually lost their spiritual interest. The complicated holiday custom is simplified to the eating custom of "eating Yuanxiao".