How did the Lantern Festival come about? It is because of this maid-in-waiting around Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.

Spring Festival is the most traditional grand festival in China. From the first day to the fifteenth day, there are various activities to celebrate this festival every day. So how did the Lantern Festival come about on the fifteenth day of the first month? It is said that it has something to do with Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was a famous and talented emperor in the Western Han Dynasty. At that time, there was a beautiful and kind little girl named Yuanxiao in Beijing. She, her parents and her sister make a living by selling jiaozi. Because her jiaozi is delicious and beautiful, it is very famous in Beijing. When Emperor Wu discovered it, he forced her into the palace to give the emperor jiaozi. The girl of Lantern Festival stayed in the palace for three years. She misses her parents and relatives very much and often cries. Yuanxiao can't go home. He is desperate. During the Spring Festival this year, he tried to commit suicide by jumping into a well, but Dong Fangshuo saved him. After listening to the Lantern Festival, Dong Fangshuo decided to find a way to help her realize her wish to visit relatives.

Dong Fangshuo found Yuanxiao's parents and sister and told them a clever plan. Dong Fangshuo pretended to tell fortune, and then told the fortune teller that there was a fire on the fifteenth day of the first month. Only on the 13th day of the first month, I went to the northwest of Chang 'an and asked for a woman in red, Vulcan. Indeed, on the thirteenth day of the first month, a woman in red appeared and people begged her. She said that the jade emperor's will cannot be violated, and only the jade emperor can help everyone.

When Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty learned about this incident, the Minister of Civil and Military Affairs was at a loss. Dong Fangshuo said that there is a saying: First, let Yuanxiao go out of the city to pack jiaozi to worship Vulcan; Second, in the first month 14 and 15, let the lights in the whole city deceive the jade emperor, indicating that there is fire; Third, on the fifteenth day of the first month, ministers and ladies-in-waiting all went out to watch the lights, so that the disaster could be solved.

In this way, Yuanxiao went home to see relatives. It turns out that the woman in red is her sister, and everything is Dong Fangshuo's brilliant plan. On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, there are all kinds of lights hanging in Beijing, so there is no disaster. The emperor was very happy, so he wrote a letter to hang lanterns to eat jiaozi on the fifteenth day of the first month every year. This has been passed down to this day.