What is the festival tradition of watching lanterns?

Watching lanterns is a tradition of the Lantern Festival.

Lantern Festival is one of the traditional festivals in China, also known as Shangyuan Festival, Lantern Festival, Lantern Festival or Lantern Festival, which falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month every year. Since ancient times, the custom of Lantern Festival has been based on the warm and festive custom of watching lanterns.

There are many kinds of Lantern Festival lanterns, or image lanterns made by imitating the image of things, such as dragon lanterns, tiger lanterns and rabbit lanterns. Or lanterns adapted from folk stories, such as Cowherd and Weaver Girl, Twenty-four Filial Pieties, etc. It shows the national spirit of loyalty, filial piety and righteousness. Various lanterns are skillfully made, which shows the wisdom and skill of craftsmen.

With the development of the times, the Lantern Festival has become more and more grand, with more and more national characteristics and longer time. The Lantern Festival in the Tang Dynasty is one day and three days before and after Shangyuan. In the Song Dynasty, two days were added after the 16th National Congress, making it five days. The Ming dynasty extended from the eighth day to the eighteenth day to ten days. Because of the different lighting periods, the first day of lighting is called "trial lighting", the fifteenth day is called "positive lighting", and the last day is called "residual lighting" and "stop lighting". Also known as "magic lamp", "human lamp" and "ghost lamp". Fourteen nights is a "magic lamp", which is placed in front of shrines and ancestral halls at home to worship the ancestors of the Ming Dynasty. Fifteen nights are called "human lanterns", which are placed on doors and windows, mattresses, several cases and so on. Avoid scorpions and insects; Sixteen nights are "ghost lights", which are placed in the tombs of Qiu and Yuan Nights to remove ghosts. Pray for God's will, protect Shu Ren, ghosts and beasts, and do everything.