What is the significance of Jinling Lantern Festival?

Nanjing Confucius Temple Lantern Festival is a characteristic folk cultural activity circulating in Nanjing, also known as "Jinling Lantern Festival", which is mainly held during the Spring Festival to the Lantern Festival every year.

Nanjing Confucius Temple Lantern Festival has a long history. According to documents, as early as the Southern Dynasties, the traditional Lantern Festival was held in Nanjing, the capital, and its grand occasion was the highest in the country.

After Zhu Yuanzhang advocated the Lantern Festival in Nanjing in the early Ming Dynasty, Nanjing gradually began to enjoy the reputation of "the first lantern in the world". The original boat hanging lanterns on the river, also known as the "lantern boat", is famous all over the country.

After that, the Lantern Festival was further expanded, and the mounting skills of lanterns were constantly improved, which promoted the development of folk arts such as paper-cutting, diabolo, knot, sculpture, shadow play, animal dance, yangko and stilt walking in Nanjing.

Historically, the Nanjing Confucius Temple Lantern Festival was mainly distributed in the Nanjing River Valley, and later it was mainly developed in the Confucius Temple area, extending to the Wuli section on the east side of the "Shili", covering a very wide range.

As an important folk cultural activity, Nanjing Confucius Temple Lantern Festival is an important space for Nanjing people to continue and inherit folk culture, and has long been an important part of culture. Nanjing local and foreign cultures and arts run through the Lantern Festival, which constitutes its unique and compatible artistic connotation.

Every year, Nanjing Confucius Temple Lantern Festival attracts many people. While enjoying the Lantern Festival in Nanjing Confucius Temple and feeling the folk culture of Jinling, it also promoted the economic development of the region.

Nanjing Confucius Temple Lantern Festival has important historical significance, humanistic value, economic value and social influence. As a characteristic cultural space of Nanjing, it has been further developed and passed down.