Lantern Festival small encyclopedia!

Introduction to the Festival

The Lantern Festival, also known as the Shangyuan Festival, Xiaozhengyue, Yuanxi, or the Lantern Festival, is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month of the lunar calendar every year.

The first month is the first month of the lunar calendar, the ancients called "night" for "night", the first month of the fifteenth is the first full-moon night of the year, so the first month of the fifteenth for the "Lantern Festival". The Lantern Festival is characterized by a series of traditional folk activities, such as lanterns, dumplings, riddles, fireworks, etc. In addition, in many places, the Lantern Festival is also celebrated as the "Lunar New Year's Day". In addition, in many places, the Lantern Festival has added traditional folk performances such as dragon lanterns, lion dances, stilt walkers, etc. In June 2008, the Lantern Festival was selected as one of the second batch of national intangible cultural heritages.

Origin

The introduction of Buddhist culture in the Eastern Han Dynasty was an important impetus to the formation of the Lantern Festival. During the Yongping period of Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty, in order to promote Buddhism, ordered that the night of the 15th day of the first lunar month be "lit up to show Buddha's face" in the palaces and monasteries. Therefore, the custom of burning lanterns on the 15th night of the first lunar month gradually expanded in China with the expansion of the influence of Buddhist culture and the later addition of Taoist culture. Tang Dynasty, closer cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries, Buddhism flourished, officials and people generally in the first month of the fifteenth day of "burning lamps for Buddha", the Buddhist lamps and lanterns were spread throughout the people. From the Tang Dynasty, the Lantern Festival has become a legal thing.

Festival period

The Lantern Festival period and festive activities, is with the development of history and extend, expand. In terms of the length of the festival, the Han Dynasty only one day, to the Tang Dynasty has been three days, the Song Dynasty is up to five days, the Ming Dynasty is from the eighth light, until the night of the seventeenth day of the first month before the lights, is the longest in Chinese history, and the Chinese New Year, and the Spring Festival, the daytime for the city, bustling, burning lights at night, a magnificent sight. Especially the delicate, colorful lights, making it the climax of the entertainment activities during the Spring Festival. To the Qing Dynasty, and added a dragon dance, lion dance, running boats, stilt walkers, twisting rice-planting songs and other "hundreds of theater" content, just shortened the festival period of four to five days.

Lanterns and lanterns

Folk in the New Year's Eve to worship God to set up the "heaven and earth hall". People in the yard set up a small shed, shed inside the small table stood "heaven and earth, three worlds, ten square ten thousand souls of the true ruler" of the god; god in front of the incense burner, offerings, but also hung a lantern, the lantern on behalf of the seat of Jiang Taigong. In ancient times, in order to expel the fear of darkness, so the lantern is derived from the meaning of exorcism and pray for light. In Minnan language, "lantern" and "ding" have similar pronunciations, so lanterns are also used to seek children, to seek success, and to protect oneself from evil spirits and peace.

Eating Lanterns

Eating Lanterns on the 15th day of the first month of the lunar calendar, "Lanterns" as a food, has a long history in China. Song Dynasty, the folk that is popular a Lantern Festival to eat the novelty of food. This food, the earliest called "floating yuanzi" later called "Lantern", the businessman also beautifully called "Yuanbao". Shaanxi dumplings are not wrapped, but "rolled" in glutinous rice flour, or boiled or deep-fried, hot and fiery, reunion. In ancient times, the price of "Lantern Festival" was relatively expensive, and there is a poem that says: "Your guests hooked the curtain to see the Royal Street, the treasures in the market for a while. The flower racks in front of the curtains have no way to travel, no money shall not return."

Lantern

Lantern is the Lantern Festival traditional holiday customs, began in the Western Han Dynasty, flourished in the Sui and Tang dynasties. After the Sui and Tang dynasties, the wind of lanterns prevailed, and inherited in later generations. And the first month of the 15th, and is the annual lantern fireworks climax. So the Lantern Festival is also known as the "Festival of Lights" in Shanxi, the first level of the county city outline and even townships, towns, these residents are concentrated, busy and lively area, before the arrival of the first month of the fifteenth, the streets are full of lanterns, flowers everywhere, the lights are swaying, to the first month of the fifteenth night to reach a climax.

Guessing riddles

Guessing riddles, also known as lantern riddles, is China's unique rich national style of a traditional form of folk entertainment, from the ancient

generation began to circulate the Lantern Festival activities. On the fifteenth day of the first month of the lunar calendar, the traditional folk should hang up colored lanterns, fireworks, and then there are good people to write riddles on paper strips, pasted on the colorful lanterns for people to guess. Because riddles can enlighten wisdom and cater to the festive atmosphere, so the response of many people, and then riddles gradually become an indispensable program of the Lantern Festival. The riddles add to the festive atmosphere and show the ingenuity of the ancient working people and their desire for a better life.

Festival Proverbs

August 15 clouds cover the moon, the first month of the fifteenth snow hit the lamp

Rain hit the lantern, the clouds cover the mid-autumn moon

August 15 clouds cover the moon, the next year's Lantern Festival rain hit the lamp

The moon is bright, thousands of show, the lamps and lanterns of ten thousand households spring

Dissolving moonlight even the lamp market, the misty spring is full of the city at night

New year's 16th tour! Spring, all year round, no harm

The 15th day of the first month is red-hot

The Lantern Festival, go away all the diseases

The 15th day of the first month, the snow hits the lanterns, the rain at the time of the clearing of the Ming Festival

Stealing and pulling onions, marrying a good weng; Stealing and pulling vegetables, marrying a good son-in-law

Poetry Accumulation

Watching the Lanterns in the Fifteenth Night

Tang Lu Zhaoliu

The jinli opened the Fang Banquet and the orchids are red and colorful in the early years.

Adorned colors are far away from the ground, and bright lights are far away from the sky.

The stars are falling from the sky, and the moon is hanging from the building.

Some other kind of smile, to reflect the nine branches of the front.

The Night Lights on the Fifteenth Day of the First Moon

Tang Zhang Hu

Thousands of doors were opened and ten thousand lamps were lit, and in the middle of the first month, the earth's capital was moved.

Three hundred people in the house danced with their sleeves, and the sound of words was heard in the sky at one time.