What are the traditional festivals in ancient times?

March 5th is the 15th day of the first month. In ancient times, it was Shangyuan Festival and Lantern Festival.

Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month is an important traditional festival in China. This day was called Shangyuan in ancient times, and its night was called Yuanye, Yuanxi or Yuanxiao. In ancient China, there was a close relationship between the calendar and the moon phases. There is a full moon on 15 every month, which is called "full moon". The full moon symbolizes a happy reunion. On the fifteenth day of the first month, people ushered in the first full moon night of the year, which is naturally regarded as an auspicious day. According to the historical book Le Shu, as early as the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, there was a ceremony of offering sacrifices to Taiyi God in the court on the fifteenth day of the first month, praying for Taiyi God's blessing.

Lantern Festival is closely related to lanterns. Turning on the lights and watching the lights are the most important activities of the Lantern Festival, so it is also called "Lantern Festival". Lantern Festival is said to have originated in the period of Emperor Han Ming in the East. In the 10th year of Yongping (AD 67), Cai Cheng ([Yin] was sent by Emperor Han Ming to seek Buddha from India and returned to Luoyang, Kyoto, accompanied by western monks Mo Teng and Zhu Falan. Ming Di personally went out of the palace to greet him, burned lanterns to worship Buddha, and built the White Horse Temple in the west of Yong Men to promote Buddhism. This caused strong opposition from Taoism. In the 14th year of Yongping (AD 7 1 year), on the first day of the first month, Taoist priests proposed to the court to resist Buddhism. /kloc-On October 5th, Ming Di organized a competition between Buddhism and Taoism in Baima Temple. Buddhism won as a result. Ming Di is a Buddhist, and the official ordered that every year, no matter the common people and nobles, they should put on lanterns and make decorations at night on the 15th day of the first month to show their respect for Buddhism. After that, Lantern Festival lighting became a routine, especially in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. In the Southern Dynasties, Emperor Liang Jian-wen wrote an article entitled "Li Edeng Fu", which specifically described the grand occasion of enjoying lanterns in the Lantern Festival. In the Tang Dynasty, the Lantern Festival and the day before and after it officially became a fixed festival, and all the yamen were closed. Moreover, this three-night "Xu Jinwu forbidden to watch the lights" ("New Records of Two Beijing"), that is, the law prohibiting night walking was suspended, so that the citizens of the whole city could enjoy themselves. In the second year of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty (AD 7 13), the palace gate was wide open. Outside the palace gate, "Lantern wheel (lantern tree) was 20 feet high ... 50,000 lanterns were clustered like flower trees", and more than 1,000 ladies-in-waiting and young women in Chang 'an were ordered to "step on the lantern wheel for three days and three nights" ("Ruling in and Out"). Since then, emperors of all dynasties have watched lanterns at the Lantern Festival, which has become a grand festival for feudal emperors to show off the ruling order of the country and the people and to show that the son of heaven and the people have fun together. The Lantern Festival in the Song Dynasty lasted from three nights to five nights (the five-year imperial decree of Gande). In order to encourage people to go to the Imperial Street to see the lanterns, the court also stipulated that "whoever comes to see the lanterns will be given a glass of wine", so the spectators were crowded with people and the noise was very lively. In the seventh year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1409), the imperial edict set the Lantern Festival holiday as 10, which became the longest holiday at that time (at that time, officials had five days off during the Spring Festival and three days off from winter to Sunday). It can be seen that the Lantern Festival has been highly valued throughout the ages.

Watching lanterns on the Lantern Festival is the most attractive festival activity for ancient women in a year. According to the feudal ethics, ladies can only live in boudoir at ordinary times, even a small jasper can't show her face casually and lead a claustrophobic life. But every Lantern Festival, they don't have to worry about boudoir etiquette, so they can go out and watch the lights at night. Some young men and women who love each other but are not easy to contact at ordinary times also have the opportunity to fall in love. Therefore, in the Song Dynasty, Li Qingzhao said: "Zhongzhou is at its peak, and the boudoir is more idle. Remember to focus on three or five. " (Yong Yule) "March 5th" is the 15th day of the first month, indicating that women pay special attention to the Lantern Festival. Under the suppression of feudal ethics, ancient women didn't have a little freedom to move in the streets until the Lantern Festival, so "women are particularly good" for the Lantern Festival outing. In the Lantern Festival poem written by Liu Shiqi in the Ming Dynasty, there are two lines: "Laughter and joy are frequent, and a thousand children make a scene", which is a portrayal of this grand occasion. It can even be said that only in the Lantern Festival can ancient women get rid of the shackles of feudal ethics temporarily, revealing a little human color.

As for Yuanxiao food, since the Song Dynasty, every household has to eat Yuanxiao. Yuanxiao is also called Zi Yuan, Tuanzi or Tangyuan. Eating Yuanxiao on the Lantern Festival is a symbol of wishing the whole family harmony and happiness, which has been a basic content of celebrating the festival for more than 1000 years and continues to this day.