What are the customs of the Lantern Festival? Say a little more

Lantern Festival, also known as Shangyuan Festival and Spring Festival, is a traditional folk festival in China. In ancient China, the customs of Lantern Festival included putting lanterns, worshipping invitations, solve riddles on the lanterns and stealing vegetables. The new life channel in China. Com specially arranged different customs about the Lantern Festival for netizens. Dragon dancing, lion dancing, walking on stilts, eating Yuanxiao, solve riddles on the lanterns, watching lanterns and boating are the most important folk activities in the Lantern Festival.

Three Legends of Lantern Festival

"There are three interesting legends about the Lantern Festival." Legend has it that a god bird was shot dead by an unsuspecting hunter a long time ago. The Emperor of Heaven was so angry that the heavenly soldiers set fire to the ground on the fifteenth day of the first month. In order not to be burned to death, an old man suggested that everyone hang red lanterns, light firecrackers and set off fireworks. On the night of the fifteenth day of the first month, the heavenly soldiers looked down and found that the world was red, thinking it was a fire, so people saved their lives and property.

Another legend is related to the custom of eating Yuanxiao. In order to help a maid-in-waiting named Yuanxiao reunite with her relatives, Dong Fangshuo designed to cook glutinous rice balls in the palace on the fifteenth day of the first month, and put the words "Yuanxiao" on the lanterns hanging in the market. Friends and relatives who came to watch the lanterns shouted "Yuanxiao" when they saw it, so that Yuanxiao could meet friends and relatives.

There is also a legend related to Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty. After Lv Hou's death, Zhou Bo, Chen Ping and others eliminated the influence of Lv Hou and established Liu Heng as the emperor of China. Because the day to quell Zhu Lu is the fifteenth day of the first month, after that, every year on the fifteenth night of the first month, Emperor Wen of Han will go out of the palace to celebrate with the people incognito and set the fifteenth day of the first month as the Lantern Festival.

China Ancient Lantern Festival Customs

firecracker

"Nerve" says that there is shame in Xishan Mountain, and it is hot and cold to commit it. But it is afraid of bamboo bursting. So people burn bamboo to drive it away. A poet in the Tang Dynasty wrote a poem: "The new calendar is only half open, and the small court is still bursting." Wang Anshi's poem in the Song Dynasty: "The firecrackers are one year old, and the spring breeze sends warmth into Tu Su." After the invention of gunpowder, people still set off firecrackers during the Spring Festival.

Full-size paper with someone's name on it.

In the Song Dynasty, visiting New Year with business cards was called "flying posts". A red paper bag with the word "Fu Fu" written on it is posted in front of every house just for flying.

In the Qing Dynasty, the moon order in Yantai also described Beijing as "the moon shadow flies and the car goes empty." Modern greeting cards and greeting cards can be said to be its heritage.

A riddle written on a lantern

"Old Wulin Stories" and other articles: "The rich people make poems with silk lanterns, laugh at them, draw characters, use hidden words, and tease pedestrians with old Beijing slang. On the Lantern Festival, the imperial capital stayed up all night. The Lantern Festival in the Spring Festival Evening is full of various performances. Poems and riddles are reflected on lights and candles and juxtaposed on the avenue for anyone to guess; So it's called a lantern riddle. " Puzzle experts organize puzzle clubs.

Mystery clubs were also popular in the Qing Dynasty. For example, during the Guangxu period, lantern riddle organizations such as Zhuxi Houshe, Shehu and Ping She appeared. In the meantime, solve riddles on the lanterns people gathered, and every teahouse or restaurant or private house was used as a place for solve riddles on the lanterns. Or study and discuss; Or hang a riddle to attract speculation and entertain the people. Lantern riddles have four sides, three of which are labeled and one is attached to the wall. This kind of lamp is also called wall lamp. Whoever guesses correctly will be given a small gift as a souvenir.

steal vegetables

According to folklore experts, in ancient China, the Lantern Festival was once a romantic festival in which amorous men and women met under the lamp. In some areas, there is still the custom of "stealing vegetables to convey their feelings".

Ancient Han people also had the custom of stealing food for their children and husbands during the Lantern Festival. Up to now, among the Miao people in Ping Huang, Guizhou Province, there is still the custom of stealing vegetables on the fifteenth day of the first month every year to express their feelings. On this day, girls will go to non-local houses of the opposite sex to steal vegetables, hoping to "steal" a good marriage.

douse the glim

The fifteenth day of the first month is the first full moon night in a year, so it is called "January snack". Taoism takes the fifteenth day of the first month as Shangyuan Festival. As early as the Han Dynasty, there was the custom of Lantern Festival, and it was even more grand in the Tang Dynasty.

In Tang Ruizong, when the lantern tree was 20 feet high, it lit 50,000 lanterns. This number is the "fire tree". "Jin Wu can't help it at night" means that the capital has made an exception to lift the curfew at night and allowed citizens to walk around the lights for three nights, also known as "lighting up".

Walking sickness

"Walking all diseases" is also called "baking all diseases", "walking all diseases" and "dispersing all diseases". In the old society, on the fifteenth day of the first month of the Lantern Festival, especially on the eleventh day of the first month, women would go out in groups of three and five, enjoying the lights and taking a walk while "walking" to drive away all diseases. This is an activity to eliminate disasters and pray for blessings. In Bing Yin's Ci of Tianjin Zhi Zhu, Feng Wenzhong has "Bu Bujiao with narrow bow shoes, and the silver fire tree crosses the Lantern Festival;" Don't go out to find relatives and friends. If you go, you can get rid of all diseases. On this day, women can not only go back to their parents' home, but also visit relatives and friends everywhere, chat and play.

Touch the doornail

It is generally believed that when "away from all diseases", we should "touch a doornail" in order to get good luck and eliminate diseases. "Touching the doornail" is also called "hitting the nail". Because "nail" and "ding" are homophonic, and "ding" symbolizes men. Therefore, on the fifteenth night of the first month, when a woman goes out to "touch the doornail" at the gate, she needs to grope in the dark, and there must be no lighting equipment. People who touch them once are considered as a good sign of having children. Those who don't touch the nail at the city gate should burn incense in front of the temple and touch the doornail at the temple gate with their hands to pray for prosperity at home.

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