The custom of the lantern festival

As the saying goes, "it's all New Year's Eve". When the festive atmosphere of the Spring Festival has not dissipated, another lively traditional festival is coming: the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month. Lantern Festival, also known as Shangyuan Festival or Lantern Festival, is the first important festival after the Spring Festival. Then do you know what customs there are in the Lantern Festival?

1. Eating Yuanxiao on the 15th day of the first month is a long-standing custom in China. Its ingredients and tastes are different, but eating Yuanxiao represents the same meaning: it represents harmony and beauty, and the days are getting more and more prosperous. As the saying goes, harmony and family reunion are very important factors in a complete family. Therefore, we must eat "Yuanxiao" with our families during the Lantern Festival. Tangyuan, also known as "Tangtuan" and "Yuanxiao". Today it's called Yuanxiao in the north and Tangyuan in the south. Whether it's dumplings or Yuanxiao, the products are "fragrant and sweet" and the pictures are "round and round". Don't forget to eat dumplings on this day!

2. Lantern riddles, also known as playing riddles, are the special activities of the Lantern Festival. On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, traditional folks hang lanterns and set off fireworks. Later, some busybodies wrote riddles on paper and posted them on colorful lanterns for people to guess.

Because solve riddles on the lanterns can enlighten wisdom and cater to the festive atmosphere, many people responded. Later, solve riddles on the lanterns gradually became an indispensable program for the Lantern Festival. Lantern riddles add to the festive atmosphere, showing the intelligence and wisdom of ancient working people and their yearning for a better life.

3, playing dragon lanterns, also known as dragon lanterns or dragon dances. Legend has it that there was a dance scene with six dragons interspersed as early as the Yellow Emperor.

The earliest recorded dragon dance is Zhang Heng's "Xijing Fu" in Han Dynasty. According to Sui Shu Le, Huanglongbian, which is similar to the dragon dance performance in Yang Di's hundred operas, is also very wonderful, and dragon dance is popular in many places in China. The Chinese people worship dragons and regard them as auspicious symbols, so there is a custom of playing dragon lanterns on the Lantern Festival.

Walking on stilts is a popular mass performance in Lantern Festival. Stilts, originally one of the hundred plays in ancient China, appeared as early as the Spring and Autumn Period. People who walk on stilts often dress up as opera passbook, wear costumes, make up heavily and sing and dance. The figures on stilts have different shapes and heights because of their different identities. Very ornamental. Because the homonym of "stilts" is "looking up", which means that after the new year and spring, people must be farsighted, so the longer they step on stilts, it indicates whether this person can be farsighted for a long time, so the mass base of the Lantern Festival is very extensive.

5, lion dance, also known as "Taiping Music". Generally, it is done by three people. One person acts as the lion's head, the other acts as the lion's body and hind feet, and the other leads the lion, which is an excellent folk art in China. Whenever the Lantern Festival or the celebration of the General Assembly, people always come to the lion dance to add to the fun, symbolizing the arrival of blessing and good luck. This custom originated in the Three Kingdoms period and was popular in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. It has a history of 1000 years. There are also folk and military dances. The dance of literature and art shows the gentleness of the lion, with movements such as shaking hair and rolling. Wushi shows the ferocity of the lion, including prancing, pushing high and rolling colored balls.

I know so much about the customs of the Lantern Festival. What else do you know?