Why is the Lantern Festival the most grand, grand and lively festival in the Song Dynasty?

For people living in the Song Dynasty, the biggest, grandest and most lively festival is not the Spring Festival, but the Lantern Festival.

"The first month, the fifteenth day of the first month." Speaking of the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month, you will definitely think of lanterns. The custom of putting lanterns on the Lantern Festival prevailed in the Tang Dynasty and flourished in the Song Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, lanterns were kept for three days. Following Song Zhao and Li Guo, Song Taizu issued an imperial edict in the first month of the fifth year of Gande: "Lantern Festival lasts for three nights at the end of Yuan Dynasty. Today, the imperial court has nothing to do, the region is safe, the valley is prosperous, and the people should be happy. Let Kaifeng House turn on the night light for seventeen or eighteen nights. Take this as an example. " Extend the Lantern Festival lighting time to five days. During the Spring Period of the Southern Song Dynasty, it was increased to six nights, and the lights were lit on 1 month 13.

The festive atmosphere of the Lantern Festival has been brewing for a long time. Just after the solstice of winter, on the Imperial Street in front of Bianjing Xuande, Kaifeng House has already set up a shed for lighting with bamboo and wood, which is decorated with flowers, colorful flags, brocade, silk and cloth paintings. "Everyone paints fairy tales, or sells medicine and divination." This shed is called "Mountain shed".

Since the year before last, artists of all colors have performed various entertainment programs in the two corridors of Bianjing Royal Street every day: magic, acrobatics, rap, song and dance, zaju, monkey show and lantern riddles, which is "a wonderful experience and refreshing". The program must be much richer and more exciting than CCTV Spring Festival Evening. The most popular programs and artists at that time were: Zhang Jiuge who swallowed the iron sword; Puppet performer Li Waining; A small athlete who performs magic; Children playing zaju; Playing the piano with big heads and grass; A thousand flute players; Twelve kings of drama; Performing a variety of Zou Yu in a wide range of fields; Su Shi and Meng Xuan are in Zhu Qiu; Yin Chang, a storyteller, sells books; Liu Baiqin, an insect ant; Wenxiu Yang can play drums and flute.

As the Lantern Festival approaches, two colorful statues of Manjusri Bodhisattva and Samantabhadra are erected on the left and right sides of Yujie Mountain shed. They rode lions and white elephants, and five streams of water gushed from the fingers of the Bodhisattva. This is the earliest artificial fountain device. From the mountain shed to Xuande Gate in the imperial city, there is a big square, and the government forms a big circle with thorns, which is about 100 feet long and is called "thorn basin". A music shed was built in Thorn Basin, where artists from teaching workshops performed music and hundreds of plays. Tourists stood outside the thorns to watch.

When the lights are lit, all the lights in the mountain shed are on. "Golden, golden, brilliant." Standing on it is a graceful geisha beauty, dancing in the wind in a dress, like a fairy. There is also an artificial waterfall in the shed. The water was winched at the top of the shed and put in a huge wooden cabinet. Then regularly open the outlet of the wooden cabinet to let the water flow down, forming a spectacular waterfall. In the light, the ending is beautiful. Xuande Gate Tower has two towers, each with an Eden ball, about the length of Fiona Fang, and an internal combustion rafter. "There are all kinds of lanterns and candles in all kinds of alleys, horse shops, fragrant houses, teahouses and restaurants." "There are lanterns, lanterns, moon and sun lanterns, poem lanterns, mirror lamps, word lamps, riding lamps, phoenix lamps, water lamps, sulfur glass lamps and shadow lamps" and so on, which make people shine at the moment.

The Lantern Festival in Lin 'an Prefecture of the Southern Song Dynasty also kicked off early. Only in winter do all kinds of beautiful lanterns begin to be sold in the market. Tianjie tea shop has listed lanterns and flower balls for sale one after another, which is called' lantern market'. "As soon as I entered the new school, the lights became brighter and brighter." Citizens have tried to turn off the lights before the official lighting time.

Many song and dance troupes appeared in the market and performed "Puppets and Folk Songs".

In a blink of an eye, it's time for Lantern Festival. Every night, from ouchi to the countryside, various lanterns compete with each other. The lanterns in the palace are undoubtedly the most luxurious. One year, the "glazed lamp mountain" made by the Forbidden City was five feet high and was written with various characters. It is controlled by the authorities and can move freely. In the middle of the night, "music is everywhere" and "more than a hundred fireworks" are set off.

Folk songs are also "lights in every house, strings everywhere", "lightest" and "exquisite". Riding a lamp, "A horse rides a map and rotates like a fly"; Bead lanterns, "hanging tassels with five-color beads as a net, or telling stories about dragon boats and phoenix towers"; Pastry lights, "finely crafted and dyed in five colors, such as the method of shadow play"; Luo Dian silk lamp, "or flowers, or fine eyes, between red and white, counting' ten thousand eyes Luo', this is the most strange." There is a kind of "boneless lamp", like a big glass ball, which is very clever; There is also a giant lamp called "big screen", which is driven by water to rotate. "There is also a beautiful house in the quiet alley, with more colored glazed bulbs, which is more elegant and clean", such as a flower girl, "the makeup is beautiful, smiling like a flower, like a fairy".

Among the West Lake monasteries, Tianzhu, Tianzhu and Xiatianzhu on Lingyin Mountain are "the most prosperous monasteries", "often given by the palace, but left by the nobles", and "everyone is curious to see them". The Song people said, "If you don't reward anyone, it rains at night in Tianzhu Hall." . In the Qing Dynasty, the wealthy businessmen in Jianghe and Zhangfu not only decorated their houses with lanterns, but also set off fireworks and sang elegant songs "competing in the same field". These private Lin Yuan are open to the public, and tourists can come in and watch. "Look around and drink at the door." Host families in Lin Yuan will also provide guests with "exotic teas and different soups, which can be provided on demand". No wonder "tourists can't bear to give up". Major restaurants in Hangzhou also lit lanterns, "Shouting propaganda, rewarding, prostitutes sitting in a noisy crowd, seducing happy children to buy, laughing and chasing."

Song people's midnight snack is like what Xin Qiji said in Hua Meng, Tokyo: "Thousands of trees bloom in the easterly night. The wind is strong and the stars are like rain. BMW carved cars all over the road. Yuhu declared that arowana danced all night. "