What is the custom of Lantern Festival?

Lantern Festival, also known as the first lunar month, Lantern Festival or Lantern Festival, is the first important festival after the Spring Festival. China has a vast territory and a long history, so there are different customs about Lantern Festival all over the country, among which eating Yuanxiao, watching lanterns, dancing dragons, lions and solve riddles on the lanterns are several important folk customs.

First, 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". There are white sugar, roses, sesame seeds, red bean paste, cinnamon bark, walnut kernel, nuts, jujube paste and so on in Yuanxiao. After the stuffing ball is formed, it is rolled into glutinous rice flour, and the glutinous rice flour is made from jiaozi and then wrapped in jiaozi, which is completely different. Yuanxiao can be meat or vegetarian, with different tastes. It can be boiled, fried and steamed, which means happy reunion.

Second, burn the lamp.

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 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.

Third, dragon dancing.

Dragon dancing in Lantern Festival originated from people's worship of dragons. In ancient times, people prayed for the blessing of dragons in the form of dragon dancing, in order to have a good weather and a bumper harvest in the coming year. The custom of dragon dancing has also been carried forward by overseas Chinese. Whenever people in China have traditional festivals or major celebrations, they will dance and play with dragon lanterns, showing a strong oriental atmosphere.

In dragon dance, accompanied by music, through the changes of human body movements and postures, dragon movements and routines such as wearing, flying, jumping, turning, rolling, beating, winding and group painting can be completed, which can fully show the essence, spirit, rhyme and spirit of the dragon.

Fourth, lion dance.

Lion dance is the most traditional custom of the Lantern Festival. According to textual research, it was popular in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. It is said that at that time, monsters would come out at the end of each year to "harm crops and human beings". In order to drive away the monsters, three people would dress up as lions and then dance. When the monsters saw the lions, they would run away.

Therefore, the lion dance in Lantern Festival has the function of exorcising and killing evil spirits. With the progress of the times, lion dances are still being performed in many places. I hope that lions can drive away the bad luck in the world and that every household can spend a whole year safely and happily in the new year.

Verb (abbreviation for verb) solves the riddle on the lantern.

"Lantern riddle", also known as "playing riddles", is an added activity after the Lantern Festival. Lantern Festival is decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations. On lanterns, solve riddles on the lanterns adds a lot of elegance to the festival. Some people write riddles on paper, stick them on colorful lanterns for people to guess, and hang them up, so they are called "riddles".

In addition to the above five well-known customs, traditional folk performances such as Youlong lanterns, walking on stilts, rowing dry boats, chasing mice, scattering lanterns, yangko dancing and playing Taiping drums have been added to the Lantern Festival in many places.

Do you know which customs of Lantern Festival can leave a message in the comment area?