About Fuzhou's Folkways and Customs.

The Lantern Festival is a big and important traditional festival in Fuzhou. The name of Lantern Festival is derived from the fact that the festival is held on the 15th day and night of the first month of the year (Yuan). The Lantern Festival is also known as the "Lantern Festival", "Lantern Festival", and "Shangyuan Festival" (China's year is divided into three elements, namely, Shangyuan, Zhongyuan and Xiayuan. The first yuan is the fifteenth day of the first month of the lunar calendar, the middle yuan is the fifteenth day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, and the second yuan is the fifteenth day of the tenth month of the lunar calendar) - because the main activity of this festival is the release of lanterns at night.

This is the first full moon of the new year. There are many historical accounts of the formation of the Lantern Festival custom, but it is generally believed to have taken shape in the Han Dynasty. According to legend, after the death of Han Gaozu Liu Bang, Empress Lu was in power, and then the meritorious ministers pacified and exterminated the power of Lu. After Liu Heng, the Emperor of the Han Dynasty, ascended the throne, he decided to take the day of the 15th day of the first month of the year when he won the throne as the day he went out of the palace and celebrated with the people***, and called this night outing the Lantern Festival. Another emperor of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Mingdi of Han, ordered the lanterns to be lit at the Lantern Festival. Since then this festival has spread to the folk, year after year on the night of the New Year's Eve, lights and colors, all night long, which is the origin of the Lantern Festival, also known as the Festival of Lights.

During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the Lantern Festival in Fuzhou added the contents of the sacrifice of the gateway, sacrificing silkworms, and welcoming the purple aunt. However, the Lantern Festival began to flourish in the Sui and Tang dynasties. During the reign of Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty (581-601 AD), the capital Chang'an and all the counties, whenever the Lantern Festival came, people were bustling in the streets and alleys, some holding torches, some beating drums, some wearing animal masks, and some men dressed in women's clothes. During the Tang Dynasty, almost all emperors issued edicts about lantern watching. At that time, Ben had a strict curfew system, but was extraordinarily tolerant of the Lantern Festival, allowing the people to set off lanterns for three nights. In Chang'an at that time, "the lamp wheel in the western region has a thousand shadow trees, and the golden queens in the eastern China are opened ten thousand times". In Luoyang at that time, "there were many touring riders under the moon, watching people around in front of the lanterns, the joy was endless, singing and dancing up to tomorrow morning". The Lantern Festival of the Song Dynasty was a grand festival, and the festivities lasted from the fifteenth day of the first month to the eighteenth day. The capital city of Kaifeng for the night of the Lantern Festival and all the lights, the most spectacular is the countless lantern knot mouth tied into a forest-shaped "lights mountain", painted on the lights of the legends of the gods, Buddhist stories. The most attractive lanterns are the various Bodhisattva lanterns. The Bodhisattva's arm moves freely, and his fingers produce five streams of water like a waterfall, which may be the earliest artificial fountain in China. The Southern Song Dynasty lyricist Xin Qiji wrote in his poem "The Case of the Green Jade - New Year's Eve", "The east wind releases thousands of flowers at night, and even blows them down, the stars are like rain. BMWs and carvings filled the road with fragrance, the phoenix piper sounded, the jade pot light turned, and the fish and dragons danced all night long." Visible, then enjoy the lantern scene how magnificent! Most of these customs of the Song Dynasty were passed down to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and from the Ming and Qing Dynasties to today.

The Lantern Festival in Fuzhou is both lively and joyful, and full of poetry. In cities and towns all over the country, people hold mass entertainment activities such as playing with dragon lanterns, lion dances and guessing lantern riddles in a joyful mood at the Lantern Festival, bringing the whole festival to a climax. The custom of enjoying and playing with lanterns varies from place to place. The countryside to race lights, playing the ground flower drums and other forms of entertainment Lantern Festival, towns and cities are held more lanterns, twisting rice-planting lanterns and dances, guessing lantern riddles and other amusement activities. In the northeast of China, also held ice lanterns to observe and appreciate. There are also some places where special customs, such as the Central Plains around some places, during the Lantern Festival, the new daughter-in-law avoid watching the lights of her mother's home; some other places, the Lantern Festival day the new daughter-in-law must go back to her mother's home to live, said the "dodge lights".

The Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first month, according to legend, has a history of more than 1200 years. Lantern Festival at first for a "white porridge pan paste" form, and later made of glutinous rice flour stuffed dumplings, shaped like a full moon, sweet taste, therefore, the Lantern Festival to eat Lantern Festival, both the reunion of the meaning and taste the sweet flavor, eat Lantern wind, popular throughout the country. Jiang Kui, a famous lyricist of the Southern Song Dynasty, once made a vivid description of the Lantern Festival more than 700 years ago: "Lantern Festival to see the Cailian boat, BMW car pick up the falling tin; wind and rain late at night, people scattered, the lone lamp is still calling for the sale of dumplings." Interestingly, there are a number of local food customs to eat the Lantern Festival: some places in Yunnan are popular to eat soybean dough, some places in Henan are concerned about eating jujube cake, Shaanxi people love to eat this day, "Lantern Festival Tea", is to add a variety of vegetables and fruits in the noodle soup, very flavorful.

Lantern riddles, is a unique literary art form in Fuzhou art. During major festivals, especially the Lantern Festival, riddles are the most popular. All over the garden party, cultural palace, clubs are less guessing riddles this amusement program. "A moment of joy and a moment of sorrow, thinking of a thousand wrong things. If you think of a thousand good things, you will be able to solve your own worries." This poem is a riddle, and its answer is the word "riddle".

Lantern riddles have a long tradition in Fuzhou. It originated from folk oral riddles, and later became riddles after the literati processing, generally to a certain thing or a certain words, idioms, sayings or words for the riddle, with a metaphor, similarity, implying the description of the method of making riddles, for people to guess.

During the Southern Song Dynasty, when lanterns were released at the Lantern Festival in Fuzhou, some good people tied the riddles to the colorful lanterns for people to guess, and then the riddles became "lantern riddles". Guessing riddles first in the rise of the official class, and then gradually popularized to the people. Every Lantern Festival, riddle making riddles unusually large number of guessers, the content is also quite vivid and lively. From the Southern Song Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, the riddles have been popular for more than 700 years.

After the founding of New China, Fuzhou lantern riddles in a wider range of forms, the general public is also actively involved in the production of lantern riddles. The makers of Lantern Riddles have made great efforts to innovate and make them more viable. Every major festival, there are generally riddle activities. Riddles have become China's unique rich in national color and style of a form of literature and art.

The Lantern Festival has become a custom. Fuzhou people are generally in this night to carry out some meaningful competition. For example, the south has a lion dance competition "grab color" activities. Nowadays, many places hold colored lantern exhibitions and lantern festivals during the Lantern Festival. In addition, people have also summarized many proverbs, such as "lanterns are doused by rain, early rice a bunch of Penny", "August 15 clouds cover the moon, the first month of the 15th snow hit lanterns". Overseas, there are still many Chinese associations retaining the ancient tradition of playing dragon lanterns.