Why do you hang red lanterns during the Spring Festival?

Hanging lanterns in the New Year, around the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month every year, people hang red lanterns symbolizing reunion to create a festive atmosphere.

1. The custom of playing lanterns on the Lantern Festival began in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Emperor Liu Zhuang of the Eastern Han Dynasty advocated Buddhism. He heard that on the fifteenth day of the first month, there was a custom for Buddhist monks to watch sarira light lamps and worship Buddha, and ordered all palaces and temples to light lamps that night, so that all gentry and people could hang them. Later, this Buddhist ceremonial festival gradually formed a grand folk festival. This festival has experienced the development process from the court to the people, and from the Central Plains to the whole country. During the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, in order to celebrate the country's prosperity and people's peace, people tied lanterns and used flashing lights to symbolize "lucky dragons, rich people and strong country".

Besides lighting, lanterns have other meanings. Every year when a private school (an ancient school) starts in the first month, parents will prepare a lantern for their children, which will be lit by the teacher, symbolizing the bright future of the students. It's called "turning on the light". Later, it evolved into the custom of carrying lanterns on the Lantern Festival.

There is another interesting saying among the people. Legend has it that a long time ago, a god bird got lost and landed on the earth, but was shot by an unsuspecting hunter. When the Emperor of Heaven found out, he was very angry. He ordered the heavenly soldiers to set fire to the ground on the fifteenth day of the first month, burning all the property of people and animals. The daughter of the Emperor of Heaven was kind-hearted, and could not bear to see the innocent suffering of the people, so she secretly came to the world and told the people the news.

A wise man came up with an idea. He asked everyone to decorate their homes, set off firecrackers and set off fireworks on the 14th, 15th and 16th of the first month, so that the Emperor of Heaven would think that it was the heavenly soldiers who set the fire. On the night of the fifteenth day of the first month, the emperor looked down and found that for three consecutive nights, the world was red and the noise was deafening, thinking it was the flame of fire. In order to commemorate this success, from now on, every household will hang lanterns on the fifteenth day of the first month to commemorate this day.