What are the customs of Henan Lantern Festival?

The customs of Henan Lantern Festival include solve riddles on the lanterns, sending lanterns and making lanterns.

1, solve the riddle on the lantern

Solve riddles on the lanterns, also known as playing riddles, originated in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Is to hang riddles in lanterns and let others guess. Now there are such activities in many places, not just in Henan. Of course, the moral of solve riddles on the lanterns is to hope for peace and happiness this year.

Step 2 send lights

Every year on the 15th night of the first month, every family will send lights to the graves of their dead ancestors, both old and new, to express their feelings of remembrance, so that their ancestors will not be dark and lonely in another world. Sending a lamp is to light a candle at the grave. The candle is covered with a simple lampshade, which can keep out the wind. When sending lights, there will be shooting, fireworks and incense lamps. Lampshades are generally made by themselves, made of colored paper of various colors.

Step 3 make lanterns

The most unique custom of Henan people is that on the night of the Lantern Festival, every household must tie lanterns with bamboo and red paper in front of the ancestral graves and light the candles in the middle to burn out. The general customs of the Lantern Festival are watching lanterns, solve riddles on the lanterns, eating glutinous rice balls and dancing lions. Even people in Henan seldom light lanterns in front of ancestral graves.

Eating habits of Henan people during Lantern Festival;

Eat dumplings, this day is the Lantern Festival. People all over the world have the tradition of eating dumplings and Yuanxiao, especially the local people in Henan, who like to make some sweet dumplings themselves. Besides eating jiaozi, they also like to eat noodles and things like that. Anyway, the fifteenth day of the first month is mainly a day to eat jiaozi.

Eating Yuanxiao on the fifteenth day of the first month, as a kind of food, has a long history in China. In the Song Dynasty, a novel Lantern Festival food was popular among the people. This kind of food was originally called "Floating Zi Yuan", later called "Yuanxiao", and merchants also called it "Yuanbao". Yuanxiao, or "Tangyuan", contains sugar, roses, sesame seeds, red bean paste, cinnamon bark, walnut kernel, nuts, jujube paste and so on. And wrapped in glutinous rice flour into a circle, you can be vegetarian and have different flavors.