Shanxi Lantern Festival custom is what

The Lantern Festival customs since ancient times have been dominated by the warm and festive custom of watching lanterns. It mainly has a series of traditional folk activities such as viewing lanterns, eating dumplings, guessing lantern riddles, fireworks and so on. This time, I have organized the Shanxi Lantern Festival customs for you to read for reference.

Contents

Shanxi Lantern Festival Customs

The origin of the Lantern Festival

How Shanghai people celebrate the Lantern Festival

Shanxi Lantern Festival Customs

The Lantern Festival is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month of the lunar calendar, and is also known as the Shangyuan Festival. Lantern Festival is the oldest night festival in China. According to legend, the Western Han Dynasty pacified the "Zhu Lu", Han Wendi, the 15th day of the first month of the foundation, designated as the Lantern Festival. The whole country was decorated with lanterns and colors to celebrate the festival. The palace royal family, the ladies can also go to the street to see the lanterns to play.

Lunar New Year's Lantern Festival, every family makes its own Lantern (today there are professionals specializing in selling). Lantern ancient name "floating Yuanzi", is a kind of elegant and vulgar **** taste, sweet but not greasy, popular folk snacks, popular throughout the country. "Stars in the dark clouds, beads floating in murky water". "Light round absolutely better than chicken head meat, surging greasy prefer crab eye soup". Ancient poets so describe the Lantern Festival round, no wonder this thing through the millennium, the popularity is not bad.

Hanging lanterns is a necessary form of celebrating the Lantern Festival in Shanxi. Whenever the Lantern Festival comes, families are hanging up all kinds of lights, from fourteen to sixteen, open every night, as far as the eye can see, the buildings are colorful, the whole city dressed up rich and brilliant, the units also scramble to make a variety of lanterns, hanging up on the street for people to enjoy, lanterns in many styles, countless, there are animals, there are Chinese zodiac signs, there are riddles, there is a lantern, there are modern There are many styles of lanterns, including animals, Chinese zodiac signs, riddles, palace lanterns, modern electrical appliances, airplanes, rockets, spaceships, drum lanterns, cake lanterns, fish, shrimp, chicken, duck and goose lanterns, orange, banana and pineapple lanterns, palace lanterns, Ruyi lanterns, silk lanterns, glass lanterns, horse lanterns, and so on. The lanterns come in all shapes and sizes and are very colorful.

Fireworks, for the people of Shanxi Lantern Festival the most delightful activities. Lantern Festival night in the square are going to fireworks activities, when the whole family went to the street, to see the beautiful fireworks, fireworks become more and more beautiful, more and more big, more and more high technology, more and more beautiful color more and more colorful.

Literary Street Stomping, known as the folk culture makeup parade. "Dress up the story, full of jewelry, bells and drums, a country as crazy." (Ming Dynasty Qiao Yuan "Min Shu").

From fourteen to sixteen, three consecutive days of the counties and districts are organizing various cultural performances large and small to the city, there are folk art, there are modern art displays, there are traditional arts and crafts, there are ancient music, there are the eight sound will be, there are costume plays, the pattern of the many, countless.

Organize a large-scale light show. Each unit would like to sound, light, color all the large light show on the street. There are representative of auspicious, there are representative of happiness, there are representative of ancient legends, there are with the meaning of enlightenment.

Pingding Lantern Festival Pagoda Fire

Pingding Lantern Festival Pagoda Fire, also known as "Mallet Fire", is a unique custom in Pingding County, Shanxi Province, the Lantern Festival Pagoda Fire, often attracting thousands of people to watch.

The Lantern Festival is directly related to the Lantern Festival. It is called "Pagoda Fire" to burn up the flame, and it is built in the shape of a pagoda.

Pingding Pagoda Fire is usually prepared and carried out three days before the Lantern Festival after the Spring Festival every year. Whenever this time of the year, Pingding County, inside and outside the city on the street, store in front of the front, in front of the inn, all the street towards the industrial, commercial, military, academic and other industries in front of the door, are to disk up a tower fire. Is the market next to the households are no exception. In Pingding County townships, towns, villages, most of the people also want to build a tower fire. This tower fire, using coal as fuel, burning time is long, burning red charcoal bright red flame, the atmosphere is warm.

The tower fire is made of loess and synthetic mud and bricks built about one meter and a half high, with a diameter of generally 50 centimeters of the wooden mallet pasted into the shape of the round holes, and thus called "mallet fire". This kind of pagoda fire requires 150 to 200 pounds of charcoal to be loaded in one fire. And it is loaded once a day. After it is loaded and lit, the burning embers come out from the countless round holes. Pagoda fire top, with the twelve zodiac years, with yellow clay made of rabbit, monkey, tiger, horse and other zodiac signs. Some also use pig iron cast into lions, tigers, pagodas, treasures and other shapes.

The tower fire is lit, generally after the Spring Festival in the first month of each year, 14, 15, 16 of the three days with the first month of the fifteenth of the red fire of the street cultural activities and lanterns on display of the activities of the ignition, with each other, reflecting each other. Pingding also sometimes spread another folk proverb: "play seventeen, haunted eighteen, nineteen up gray collapse" said.

Pingding's Lantern Festival tower fire continues for many years, so far, it is not bad, and Pingding has excellent quality anthracite coal for the Lantern Festival tower fire burning, but also with the folk on the 15th of the first month of the custom of the fire is closely linked to the fire is lit tower fire is a part of the fire in the red. But more people worshiped as a god, is the local legend of "female snail mending the sky", the local people see this activity of lighting the tower fire as "Nuwa mending the sky" a kind of refining stone mending the complement of the sky.

<<<Back to contents

The origin of Lantern Festival

Lantern Festival is a traditional Chinese festival, as early as 2000 years ago in the Western Han Dynasty, Lantern Festival began in the Eastern Han Dynasty during the period of Emperor Mingdi, who was a proponent of Buddhism, and when he heard of the Buddhist practice of observing Buddha's relics on the 15th day of the first lunar month by the Buddhist monks and honoring the Buddha by lighting the lamps, he ordered that this night be dedicated to the Buddha by lighting lamps in the imperial palace and temples. Lighting lamps to honor the Buddha, so that the common people are hanging lamps. Later, this Buddhist ceremonial festival gradually formed a grand folk festival. The festival has gone through the development process from the palace to the folk, from the Central Plains to the whole country.

During the reign of Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty, the 15th day of the first month was designated as the Lantern Festival. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the festival of "Taiyi God" was set on the 15th day of the first month of the lunar calendar. (Taiyi: the god who dominates everything in the universe). When Sima Qian created the "Taichu Calendar", the Lantern Festival was already recognized as a major festival.

Another theory is that the custom of burning lanterns at the Lantern Festival originated from the Taoist "Three Elements"; the 15th day of the first month of the year is the Upper Elements Festival, the 15th day of the seventh month is the Middle Elements Festival, and the 15th day of the tenth month is the Lower Elements Festival. In charge of the upper, middle and lower three yuan respectively for the sky, earth, human three officials, the heavenly officials happy, so the festival to light.

The Lantern Festival festival period and festival activities, is with the development of history and extend, expand. In terms of the length of the festival, the Han Dynasty only one day, to the Tang Dynasty has been three days, the Song Dynasty is up to five days, the Ming Dynasty is from the eighth light, until the night of the seventeenth day of the first month of the lights, the whole ten days. With the Spring Festival, the day for the city, bustling, night lights, spectacular. Especially the delicate, colorful lights, making it the climax of the entertainment activities during the Spring Festival. To the Qing Dynasty, and added a dragon dance, lion dance, running boats, stilt walkers, twisting rice-planting songs and other "hundred theater" content, just shortened the festival period of four to five days.

<<<Back to contents

How do Shanghainese people celebrate the Lantern Festival

The first step is to go to an old shop to eat authentic dumplings

The name of the soup dumplings in the south differs from that of the Lantern Festival in the north, and the practice is different. Soup dumplings are rolled out, while yuanxiao are rolled out. The key to long-cooked soup dumplings on Old Street lies in the blending of the glutinous rice points; too wet, it can't be molded, and too dry, it cracks as soon as it's cooked. Pull a ball of snow-white glutinous rice, pinched into a concave shape, into the pre-rolled black Yang pastry ball; and then the ball rolled together, into the dry glutinous rice flour in a circle, so as not to contact with the surface of the soup dough air and collect dry. In this way, a fat and bulging old street soup dumplings are completed. When cooked, the soft glutinous rice wrapped in the gushing black sesame paste makes it hard to stop eating.

It's important to note that when you buy raw soup dumplings and cook them at home, they must be boiled for a longer period of time to cook the skin of the dumplings completely through. In addition, bean paste and fresh meat filling have a shorter shelf life and are recommended to be eaten on the same day; while the black bean paste ones are relatively longer and can be kept in the freezer for a while.

The second step to the City God Temple Yu Garden to see the Lantern Festival Lantern Festival

"Thirty of the fire, fifteen of the lamp", the beauty of the Lantern Festival Lantern Festival has been close to the immediate future, you may want to go to the city of Shencheng with a taste of the Chinese New Year Yuyuan Mall crowded with popularity, dabbed in the joy of the blessing of a year of well-being and good luck. Ancient flying eaves and corners, colorful sea of folk lights, Yuyuan Spring Folk Art Lantern will give you a taste of the Lantern Festival.

The third step is to pull the rabbit lamp in the alley

The rabbit lamp originated in Ningdu County during the North and South Dynasties. The rabbit lantern is one of the most colorful and varied lanterns in Ningdu. Lighting the "rabbit lamp" is a large-scale activity that every household has to participate in once a year. The "rabbit lamp" is made of colored paper in the shape of mother and child rabbits, which are lit in the village, The lanterns are lit and parade around the village, the ancestral hall and each household.

The folk custom of "crossing the lanterns" began in the Tang Dynasty, when the rabbit was regarded as a good-luck object, and wherever the rabbit lanterns went, it meant that good luck and good fortune were sent there. People follow this auspicious object to welcome the gods to receive blessings, which implies that people are praying for the blessing of the gods, looking forward to the next year, a good harvest, people and livestock prosperity of the good wishes.

<<< < Return to catalog