Folk activities of Lantern Festival

Folk activities of the Lantern Festival include walking on stilts, playing with dragon lanterns, boating, viewing lanterns and solve riddles on the lanterns.

First, walk on stilts.

Walking on stilts is a popular folk performance. Stilts appeared as early as the Spring and Autumn Period. Performers can walk, jump and dance swords with long wood tied to their legs. The tallest stilts are more than ten feet high. They sang while performing, lively and laughing, as if walking on the ground.

Second, play with dragon lanterns.

Playing dragon lanterns, also known as dragon dancing and dragon dancing, has a history of more than two thousand years. We in China have been advocating dragons since ancient times and regard them as auspicious symbols. In the eyes of the ancients, dragons have the ability to call the wind and call the rain, which is of great significance to the good weather, production and life, so the festival custom of dancing dragons in the Lantern Festival has gradually formed.

Third, row a dry boat.

Rowing a dry boat, also known as running a dry boat, is to put a float made of bamboo and wood on your body, imitate the action of rowing on land, sing some local tunes and dance while singing. This is rowing a dry boat. This custom is said to commemorate Dayu's flood control.

Fourth, the flower viewing lamp

During the Yongping period of Emperor Hanming, in order to promote Buddhism, Emperor Hanming ordered "burning lamps for Buddha" in palaces and temples on the 15th night of the first month. Since then, the custom of putting lights on the Lantern Festival has spread to the people. On the fifteenth day of the first month, no matter the gentry or the people, they will be decorated with lanterns, and the whole city will be brightly lit all night.

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

Solve riddles on the lanterns, also called playing riddles, is a word game originated from the Lantern Festival. It first appeared in the Song Dynasty, and the busybodies wrote riddles on paper and pasted them on colorful lanterns to make people guess. So it's called "lantern riddle".