When should we decorate our traditional festivals?

Lantern Festival is one of the traditional festivals in China, also known as Shangyuan Festival, Lantern Festival, Lantern Festival or Lantern Festival, which falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month every year.

The first month is the first month of the lunar calendar, and the ancients called "night". The fifteenth day of the first month is the first full moon night in a year, so it is called "Lantern Festival". According to the Taoist "Sanyuan Festival", the fifteenth day of the first month is also called "Shangyuan Festival". Since ancient times, the custom of Lantern Festival has been based on the warm and festive custom of watching lanterns.

Festival legend

There is a custom of putting lanterns on the Lantern Festival every year in our country. Why is the Lantern Festival lit? In Buddhist teachings, fire is compared to the divine power of the Buddha, and the so-called "infinite flame shines endlessly." Light has two wonderful uses: one is to break the darkness of the world; The second is to show the Buddha's light and destroy all the troubles of all beings.

Therefore, in Buddhist ceremonies, lamps are regarded as one of the offerings before the Buddha. Buddhists encourage believers to put lanterns, and repeatedly publicize "Hundred Lights Repentance" and "The Best Light in the World" in the classics. Therefore, those who often go to the mountains to pray for Buddha always offer lamp oil to show their extensive cultivation of Buddha land; The Buddhist pageant needs bright lights to illuminate the king.

According to Buddhist legend, the Buddha Sakyamuni appeared on February 30, 65438, that is, on the fifteenth day of the first month in Dongtu. In order to commemorate the change of Buddha, it is necessary to hold a lighting ceremony on this day. With the spread of Buddhism to the east, the wind of burning lanterns on the fifteenth day of the first month followed. Now Tibetan calls Lantern Festival "Ju 'aquba", which means offering sacrifices to Buddha on the 15th day of the first month. This is the hard evidence that the Lantern Festival originated from Buddhism.