How did the custom of enjoying lanterns in Xingning come from? What is the significance of the custom?

The custom of enjoying lanterns in Xingning originated from the Lantern Festival in Ming Dynasty (Nanjing Confucius Temple Lantern Festival). Hakka people keep the traditional lighting and heating lamps, among which lighting is the basic custom in Hakka areas, but lighting in Xingning is the most lively (the ninth to fifteenth day), and the lights are closed on the seventh day. There are more than twenty lanterns in Longtian, Xingning, and the whole Lantern Festival lasts for half a month.

Lantern lighting, gongs and drums, dragon and lion dances, fireworks and firecrackers are the most lively time. In the evening, put on lanterns, guess horses, drink old wine and set off fireworks.

Among them, the lanterns in Heyuan, Li Anping and Xingning are the most beautiful. To put it simply, the Ming dynasty asked the people to hang up the lights before the fifteenth day of the first month and put them down after the fifteenth. This is to turn on the light to keep warm. Turning on the light is the most lively, and warming the light is more lively.

Xingning people are used to calling the Lantern Festival "watching lanterns", and its date is generally from the ninth day of the first month to the sixteenth day of the first month. Every village has its own house, and the eleventh and twelfth days are the most concentrated. Xingning values "appreciating lanterns" over "celebrating the New Year", which can be said to be "appreciating lanterns" and "celebrating the New Year".

When the Hakkas first moved to Xingning, they were few in number and weak, which led to the psychology of more men and fewer women. Ding and Yuanxiao are homophonic. When they are born, they hold a banquet at the Lantern Festival to invite friends and relatives to celebrate.

Therefore, appreciating lanterns has dual meanings, one is to watch the colors of lanterns, and the other is to celebrate achievements. A few years later, with a large population, it is inevitable that several families will have men. If they all enjoy lanterns (Ding) on the 15th day of the first month, they can't leave each other's home to celebrate, and there will be conflicts. In order to solve this contradiction, the Lantern Festival was separated.

Extended data:

Xingning sees Yuanxiao with a long history. For a long time, after Luo Jizu settled in Xingning, he spread his surname to other places, and at the same time brought the custom of Lantern Festival to the local area, forming one of the important traditional festivals of Xingning Hakka, which will be passed down from generation to generation and will never die.

Lantern Festival viewing lasts from the eighth day of the first lunar month to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month every year, plus "warm lights", * * * lasts for 9 days. During this period, there are lantern-watching activities every day, and the 10th to 14th day of the first month is the most prosperous, colorful and climactic.

Founded at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty (1 127- 1279), it is located in the well-known Luoshi Dawei House in Dongfeng Village, Xindong Town, Xingning County. There are more than 80 households with more than 250 people (not including those who moved out), with an average of 2-3 new boys, and the most is 13. Xiao Jiugong, the ancestor of Luo, married nine wives and gave birth to 18 children, so he was named Jiuting Eighteen Wells.

The hall number is "Mu Zong Hall". With the efficacy of his ancestors, the main generation is prosperous, the moral demeanor is good, and no criminal cases have occurred, which has won the admiration of several generations and the praise of the society. Every year on the 13th day of the first lunar month, the traditional Lantern Festival is a gathering of friends and relatives, which has an influence all over the neighborhood.

In order to make the activities orderly, from beginning to end, several generations insisted on Xin Dinghu, who gave birth to the first boy that year, as the head of the group, under the supervision of the matron (one of them was the elder Luo Yutang, who was enthusiastic about the holy things during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, and was praised and missed by the uncles in the house).

Before the festival, we should do a good job in public cleaning, decorate the hall, set up lights, invite the dragon and lion teams to entertain each other during the festival, buy and set off fireworks, make and raise the lanterns of Kongming, arrange the lantern guessers, entertain them with enough old wine bottles and fruits, and do a good job in handling the lanterns of the Lantern Festival. The cost of the activity is shared equally by the newly established families.

If Ding Shao or Ding Hu is in financial difficulties, they will mobilize the whole house to donate money to solve the problem. Although I spent a lot of money, I still took pains and swallowed my words. After liberation, the old rules were changed and Ding Shou was replaced by the lamp appreciation committee. Every year on New Year's Eve, the housemaster presides over a meeting of householders. Seven honest and kind old people and young people who are enthusiastic about public welfare are selected to form a lamp appreciation Committee.

Director Luo Foqing and Deputy Director Luo presided over the whole work process. Its function is basically the same as that of Ding's control, but the difference is that the way of raising funds is changed to donate more to the rich households in this house, and the insufficient part is appropriately collected from the new households and the masses, thus greatly reducing the economic pressure of the new households. In the arrangement of financial revenue and expenditure, it is necessary to manage money democratically, and the income of the current year will be spent in the current year, leaving no balance, and it will be announced after the festival to win the trust of the people.