What is the festival tradition of watching lanterns?

Watching lanterns is a tradition of the Lantern Festival.

Lantern Festival originated from Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty who set up an altar in the palace on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month to worship the most distinguished Taiyi God at that time. Because it is held all night, it is necessary to light all night, which is the beginning of Lantern Festival lighting. After Buddhism was introduced into China from India, Taoist immortal art combined with the piety of burning lamps to worship Buddha.

On the fifteenth night of the first lunar month, urban and rural areas are brightly lit, and all gentry and ordinary people hang up lights, forming a unique custom of combining Chinese and western.

Festivals and customs

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, the lights were on from the eighth day to the seventeenth night, which was the longest Lantern Festival in the history of China.

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.