What are the customs of Quanzhou Lantern Festival?

Lantern Festival, also known as Shangyuan Festival and Lantern Festival, is a traditional festival of the Chinese nation. According to legend, the Western Han Dynasty pacified Zhu Lu, and Emperor China began to lay the foundation stone on 1 month 15, which was designated as the Lantern Festival. "Deng" and "Ding" in Quanzhou dialect are homophonic, and "Deng" means "Ding", which means that people are prosperous. Quanzhou Lantern Festival is dominated by lanterns, including Lantern Festival, literature and art stepping on the street, Yuanxiao Pills and other local customs.

Quanzhou Lantern Festival originated in the Central Plains and flourished in the Tang and Song Dynasties. Folk lighting is the first in Taoyuan, Fengzhou, Nan 'an. In the first year of Tang Xizong Guangming (880), Fu Shi, a native of Gushi, Henan, led troops from Chang 'an to Fujian to guard Quanzhou, and hired Huang Shougong, the fifth granddaughter of Ziyun, as his wife. Before the Lantern Festival the following year, the Huang family sent a pair of red and white lanterns to wish an early birth. Since then, this is the first time that her family sent lanterns in Shangyuan, South China. After that, Fu moved to Fengzhou, Nan 'an (now Fu's Grand Ancestral Hall) and built the Tang Palace (namely Taoyuan Palace). Lantern Festival is held in accordance with the lantern ceremony in Chang 'an, and it will become a custom in the future to have fun with the people. The customs of Quanzhou Lantern Festival in ancient times included hanging lanterns, sending lanterns, watching lanterns (appreciating lanterns), lighting lanterns, swimming lanterns and grabbing lanterns. On the eve of Lantern Festival, every household hangs lanterns in the hall or at the door. Families with newly married women send red and white lotus lanterns and Guanyin lanterns to their in-laws. At midnight, men, women and children flocked to the street to enjoy the lanterns. Children are playing in the street with lanterns and candles. When you light a lamp, you accidentally light it, which is "outside the lamp". In ancient times, grabbing a lamp was also "the lamp went out". The man who was robbed was in high spirits. Later, robbing the lamp was regarded as uncivilized behavior. There will also be a solve riddles on the lanterns on the Lantern Festival, and the winners will receive prizes.

Quanzhou Lantern Festival is called "makeup artist" because it walks through the streets. "Ming Shi Min" says: "From the end of Yuan Dynasty to the beginning of spring, there was a struggle between gods, stories about clothes, jewelry, bells and drums, and the whole country was crazy." Ming Wanli's "Quanzhou Fuzhi" contains: "Inside and outside Shangyuan, ... decorative statues, extremely poor and precious shells, reading winding paths leading to a secluded place." In the Chronicle of Wenling in the Qing Dynasty, it was said: "On the night around Shangyuan, there were busybodies who collected poems or legends, decorated children, dressed up stories, preached with torches and marched in the market with firecrackers, which was called pretending to be people."

With the development of customs, Quanzhou Lantern Festival has array heads, lanterns, floats, makeup people, various cultural performances and South Shaolin martial arts performances. There is also a small street walking team, wandering in the streets and lanes, called singing and walking. If someone sets off firecrackers to welcome the marching team, they should stop performing to show their gratitude.

Yuanxiao is a festive food of Quanzhou Lantern Festival, and its production method is unique. Peel and mash the fried peanuts, add sugar, sesame seeds, honey wax gourd and kumquat sauce and mix in? Boiled lard with scallion and banana oil (spice) are kneaded into pill stuffing, which is made by rolling it repeatedly in a plate filled with dry glutinous rice flour after wetting. When cooked, it is sweet but not greasy.

Quanzhou Lantern Festival is a concentrated display of southern Fujian customs, which is deeply rooted in the people and passed down from generation to generation, with wide influence.