Is the New Year really over after the Lantern Festival?

Lantern Festival, also known as Shangyuan Festival, Little Lantern Festival, Lantern Festival or Lantern Festival, is one of the traditional festivals in China on the 15th day of the first lunar month. The first month is the first month of the lunar calendar, and the ancients called "night". The fifteenth day of the first month is the first full moon night in a year, so it is called "Lantern Festival". According to the Taoist "Sanyuan Festival", the fifteenth day of the first month is also called "Shangyuan Festival".

The formation of Lantern Festival custom has a long process. According to general data and folklore, the fifteenth day of the first month was paid attention to in the Western Han Dynasty. On the night of the first month, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty offered sacrifices to "Taiyi" in Ganquan Palace, which was regarded by later generations as the first sacrifice to the gods on the fifteenth day of the first month. However, the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month is indeed a folk festival after the Han and Wei Dynasties. The custom of burning lanterns on the fifteenth day of the first month is related to the eastward spread of Buddhism.

During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Ming Di advocated Buddhism. According to legend, on the fifteenth day of the first month, the monks watched the relics and lit lamps to worship Buddha, so they ordered the lanterns to be lit in palaces and temples that night, so that all the gentry and ordinary people could hang lanterns, thus forming the Lantern Festival. 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.