The Origin of Lantern Festival Tradition in Yixi Village

Lantern Festival is one of the traditional festivals in China, which existed in the Western Han Dynasty more than 2,000 years ago. Lantern Festival viewing began in the period of Emperor Han Ming in the East. Ming Di advocates Buddhism. He heard that on the fifteenth day of the first month, monks watched the Buddhist relics and lit lanterns to worship the Buddha, so that all the gentry and ordinary people hung lanterns. Later, this Buddhist ceremonial festival gradually formed a grand folk festival. The festival has experienced a development process from the court to the people, and from the Central Plains to all parts of the country. During the reign of Emperor Wendi, the fifteenth day of the first month was named Lantern Festival. During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the sacrificial activities of "Taiyi God" were scheduled for the 15th day of the first month. Taiyi: the God who rules the universe. When Sima Qian created the taichu calendar Law, he already recognized the Lantern Festival as a kind of heavy Yuanxiao food-Yuanxiao.

Big festival. Another way of saying it is that the custom of burning lanterns in Lantern Festival originated from the "ternary theory" of Taoism; The fifteenth day of the first month is Shangyuan Festival, the fifteenth day of July is Zhongyuan Festival, and the fifteenth day of October is Xiayuan Festival. The officials in charge of the upper, middle and lower elements are heaven, earth and man respectively. The celestial officials are happy and the Lantern Festival should be lit. The festivals and customs of Lantern Festival have been extended and expanded with the development of history. As far as the length of festivals is concerned, there is only one day in Han Dynasty, three days in Tang Dynasty and five days in Song Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, lights were lit from the eighth day of August until the seventeenth night of the first month, a total of ten days. Connected with the Spring Festival, it is a city during the day, full of excitement, and brightly lit at night, which is spectacular. Especially the exquisite and colorful lights make it the climax of entertainment activities during the Spring Festival. In the Qing Dynasty, there were more "hundred operas" such as dragon dancing, lion dancing, dry boating, walking on stilts and yangko dancing, but the festival period was shortened to four to five days. Shangyuan means the first full moon night of the New Year. The origin of Shangyuan Festival is recorded as years old in Miscellaneous Notes, which is a Taoist stereotype. Taoism once called the 15th day of the first month the Shangyuan Festival, the 15th day of July the Zhongyuan Festival and the 15th day of October the Xiayuan Festival, which were collectively called the "Sanyuan Festival". The gods worshipped by Wudou Midao, an important school of Taoism in the late Han Dynasty, were celestial officials, local officials and water officials. They said that God bless the people, the local officials forgive sins, and the water officials relieve Eritrea. They used three yuan to match the three officials, saying that Shangyuan Tianguan was born on the fifteenth day of the first month, Zhongyuan was born on the fifteenth day of July, and Xiayuan Shuiguan was born on the fifteenth day of October. In this way, the fifteenth day of the first month is called Shangyuan Festival. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Wu said in a dream: "The fifteenth day of the first month is the day when God bless the people." It is said that God bless the people and local officials make atonement, but the real motivation of the Lantern Festival custom is that it is at a new time point, and people make full use of this special time stage to express their wishes for life.