What are the traditional customs of the Lantern Festival?

Lantern Festival yuán xiāo jié (Lantern Festival)

Every year on the 15th day of the first lunar month, just after the Spring Festival, the traditional Chinese festival - Lantern Festival is ushered in.

The first month of the first lunar month is the first month of the lunar calendar. The ancients called night "Xiao", so the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is called the "Lantern Festival". The 15th day of the first lunar month is the first full-moon night of the year. It is also the night when the Yuan Dynasty begins and the earth returns to spring. People celebrate this and it is also the continuation of celebrating the New Year. The Lantern Festival is also called the "Shangyuan Festival".

According to Chinese folk tradition, on this night when the bright moon hangs high in the sky, people light up thousands of colorful lanterns to celebrate. They go out to enjoy the moon, light lanterns and set off flames, guess lantern riddles, and eat Yuanxiao. The family reunites and celebrates the festival together, and it is a joyful time.

The history of the Lantern Festival

The Lantern Festival is also called the Festival of Lanterns. The custom of lighting lanterns during the Lantern Festival began in the Han Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, lantern viewing activities became more prosperous, and people celebrated them everywhere in the palace and on the streets. To hang lanterns, tall lantern wheels, lantern towers and lantern trees must also be built. Lu Zhaolin, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, once described the grand occasion of lighting lanterns during the Lantern Festival in "Watching Lanterns on the Fifteenth Night": "The stars are falling after the Han Dynasty, and the moon hangs against the building." "

The Song Dynasty paid more attention to the Lantern Festival, and the lantern viewing activities became more lively. The lantern viewing activities lasted for five days, and the styles of lanterns were more abundant. In the Ming Dynasty, lantern viewing lasted for 10 consecutive days, making this the longest lantern festival in China. Although the lantern viewing event in the Qing Dynasty only lasted for three days, it was very large-scale and unprecedentedly grand. In addition to lighting lanterns, fireworks were also set off to add to the fun.

"Guessing lantern riddles", also called "playing lantern riddles", is an activity added after the Lantern Festival and appeared in the Song Dynasty. During the Southern Song Dynasty, Lin'an, the capital, made riddles during the Lantern Festival, and many people guessed riddles. In the beginning, the good guys wrote riddles on slips of paper and pasted them on colorful lanterns for people to guess. Because riddles can inspire wisdom and are interesting, they are very popular among all walks of life in the process of spreading.

It is a folk custom to eat Yuanxiao during the Lantern Festival. Yuanxiao is made of glutinous rice, either solid or stuffed. The fillings include bean paste, sugar, hawthorn, various fruit ingredients, etc. It can be boiled, fried, steamed or fried. At first, people called this food "Fuyuanzi", and later called it "Tangtuan" or "Tangyuan". These names have similar pronunciations to the word "Tuanyuan", which means reunion, symbolizing the reunion, harmony and happiness of the whole family. People also call it "Tuanyuan". This memory of the departed relatives expresses good wishes for future life.

The Lantern Festival in some places also has the custom of "walking all diseases", also known as "roasting all diseases" and "scattering all diseases". Most of the participants are women, and they walk together or along the wall. Or cross the bridge or walk in the suburbs, the purpose is to drive away diseases and eliminate disasters.

As time goes by, more and more activities are held during the Lantern Festival. Many local festivals include traditional folk performances such as dragon lantern dancing, lion dancing, stilt walking, land boat rowing, Yangko dancing, and peace drum playing. This traditional festival, which has been passed down for more than 2,000 years, is not only popular on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, but also celebrated year after year in overseas Chinese communities.

The origin and legend of the Lantern Festival

The Lantern Festival is a traditional festival in China. It existed as early as more than 2,000 years ago in the Western Han Dynasty. Lantern viewing began in the Eastern Han Dynasty during the Ming Dynasty. Emperor Ming advocated In Buddhism, I heard that on the 15th day of the first lunar month, monks observe the Buddha's relics and light lamps to worship the Buddha. So they ordered that on this night, lamps should be lit in the palaces and temples to worship the Buddha, and all the nobles and common people hung lamps. Later, this kind of Buddhist ritual festival gradually became a grand folk festival. This festival has experienced the development process from the palace to the folk, and from the Central Plains to the whole country.

During the reign of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, the fifteenth day of the first lunar month was designated as the Lantern Festival. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the sacrificial activities for "Taiyi God" were held on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. (Taiyi: God who controls everything in the universe). When Sima Qian created the "Taichu Calendar", he had already identified the Lantern Festival as a major festival.

Another theory is that the custom of lighting lanterns during the Lantern Festival originated from the Taoist "Three Yuan Theory"; the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the Shangyuan Festival, the fifteenth day of July is the Zhongyuan Festival, and the fifteenth day of October is the Zhongyuan Festival. For the Xiayuan Festival. The three officials in charge of the upper, middle and lower elements are heaven, earth and man respectively. The heavenly officials are happy, so lamps must be lit on the Lantern Festival.

The festival period and customary activities of the Lantern Festival have been extended and expanded with the development of history. In terms of the length of the festival, it was only one day in the Han Dynasty, three days in the Tang Dynasty, and five days in the Song Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, the lights were lit from the eighth day of the lunar month until the lights were turned off on the night of the seventeenth day of the first lunar month, a full ten days. Connecting with the Spring Festival, the city is bustling during the day, and the lights are 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, dragon dance, lion dance, land boat racing, stilt walking, Yangko dancing and other "hundred operas" were added, but the festival period was shortened to four to five days.