When is the Lantern Festival this year?

202 1 Lunar Lantern Festival is on February 26th in Gregorian calendar.

202 1 Lantern Festival

Lunar Lantern Festival is the15th day of the first month of the Year of the Ox. Gregorian calendar 202 1 February 26th.

The fifteenth day of the first month is the first holiday after the Spring Festival and the first full moon day in a year. In ancient times, people thought it was a day of great prosperity. The first month is also called "January" and the night is also called "Xiao" in ancient times, hence the name "Yuanxiao".

Legend has it that the Lantern Festival began in the Han Dynasty. After the death of Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang, Lv Hou usurped power and seized power. After the death of Lv Hou, General Zhou Bo and Prime Minister Chen Pingping decided the "Zhu Lu Rebellion" and made Liu Heng, the son of Liu Bang, the emperor of China. Since the day when the rebellion was put down happened to be the fifteenth day of the first month, every night after that, Emperor Wen of Han would go out to play incognito and have fun with the people as a souvenir.

Therefore, this day was designated as "Lantern Festival" by Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty, also known as "Yuanxiao" or "Yuanxiao".

Lantern Festival customs

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.

eat yuanxiao

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 Lantern Festival

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.

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.