How did the Lantern Festival come about?

Lantern Festival: It is a big festival among the traditional festivals in China, which is quite prominent. Lantern Festival is named because its festival activities are held on the fifteenth night of the first month of each year. Lantern Festival is also called "Lantern Festival" and "Lantern Festival", because the main activity of this festival is to light lights at night, hence the name. In addition, the Lantern Festival is also called "Shangyuan" and "Shangyuan Festival", which is borrowed from Taoism.

There are different opinions about the formation of the Lantern Festival custom, but it was roughly formed in the Han Dynasty. In the history of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty offered sacrifices to a god named Taiyi. It is said that Taiyi was a very prominent god at that time, ranking above the five emperors and owing to the Han emperor, so he was greatly worshipped. According to legend, another Emperor Wendi of the Han Dynasty was also related to the Lantern Festival.

Emperor Wen of Han acceded to the throne when the "Zhulu Rebellion" was put down, and the day of putting it down was the fifteenth day of the first month. So, every night after that, Emperor Wen of Han would go out to play and have fun with the people, and determined this day as the Lantern Festival. But there is no record of lighting or setting fire on the fifteenth night of the first month, which is related to these two Han emperors. Another Han Emperor, Emperor Hanming, ordered the Lantern Festival to be lit, thus forming the custom of lighting and watching lanterns in later generations.

There are several interesting legends about the origin of the Lantern Festival:

Legend of lamp

Legend has it that a long time ago, there were many fierce birds and beasts everywhere that hurt people and livestock, so people organized to defeat them. A god bird was trapped and landed on the earth, but was accidentally shot by an unsuspecting hunter. The Emperor of Heaven was very angry when he learned that. He immediately issued a decree, ordering the heavenly soldiers to set fire to the land on the fifteenth day of the first month, burning all the people, livestock and property. The daughter of the Emperor of Heaven is kind-hearted. She couldn't bear to see the innocent suffering of the people, so she risked her life and secretly rushed Xiangyun to the world to tell people the news. When people heard the news, it was like a blow to the head. I'm so scared that I don't know what to do. After a long time, an old man came up with an idea. He said: "On the 14th, 15th and 16th of the first month, every family decorated their houses, set off firecrackers and set off fireworks. In this way, the emperor will think that people have been burned to death. "

Everyone nodded and said yes, and they were ready to go separately. On the night of the fifteenth day of the first month, the emperor looked down and found that for three consecutive nights, the world was red and the noise was deafening. He thought it was the flame of a big fire, and soon. In this way, people saved their lives and property. In order to commemorate this success, every household hangs lanterns and sets off fireworks on the fifteenth day of the first month to commemorate this day.

Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty set it up to commemorate Pinglu.

Another legend is that the Lantern Festival was established by Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty to commemorate Pinglu. After the death of Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang, Lv Hou's son Liu Ying became Emperor Hui of Han Dynasty. Hui Di was born weak and indecisive, and power gradually fell into the hands of Lv Hou. After Hui Di's death, he monopolized state affairs and turned Liu's world into Lu's. The old courtiers and Liu's imperial clan were deeply indignant, but they were afraid of cruelty and dared not speak out.

After Lv Hou's death, Zhu Lu has been in a state of anxiety, afraid of being hurt and excluded. So, in the general's home, they secretly assembled and plotted to make trouble in order to completely seize Liu's country.

This incident reached the ears of Liu Nang, the king of Qi in the Liu clan. In order to protect Liu's country, Liu Nang decided to fight Zhu Lu. Then, he contacted the founding fathers Zhou Bo and Chen Ping, and planned to get rid of Lv Lu. Finally, the "Zhu Lu Rebellion" was completely put down.

After the rebellion, the ministers made Liu Heng, the second son of Liu Bang, emperor and called him Emperor Wen. Impressed by the hard-won peace and prosperity, Emperor Wen designated the 15th day of the first month of the first month to quell the "Zhu-Lu Rebellion" as a day to have fun with the people, and every household in Beijing celebrated with lanterns and colorful decorations. Since then, the fifteenth day of the first month has become a popular folk festival-"Lantern Festival".

Dong Fangshuo and Yuanxiao Girl

This legend is related to the custom of eating Yuanxiao: According to legend, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty had a favorite named Dong Fangshuo, who was kind and funny. One winter, it snowed heavily for several days, and Dong Fangshuo went to the Imperial Garden to fold plum blossoms for Emperor Wu. As soon as I entered the garden gate, I found a maid-in-waiting in tears ready to throw herself into the well. Dong Fangshuo rushed forward to help and asked her why she committed suicide. It turns out that this maid-in-waiting is named Yuanxiao, and there are parents and a sister at home. She has never seen her family since she entered the palace. Every spring comes, I miss my family more than usual. I think in front of my parents, I would rather die than be filial. Dong Fangshuo expressed deep sympathy for her suffering and assured her that she would try her best to reunite with her family.

One day, Dong Fangshuo left the palace and set up a divination pavilion on Chang 'an Avenue. Many people are scrambling to find him for divination. Unexpectedly, what everyone wants is the signature of "burning us on the 16th day of the first month". Suddenly, there was a panic in Chang 'an. People are looking for a solution to the disaster. Dong Fangshuo said, "On the 13th night of the first month, Vulcan will send a goddess in red to visit the earth. She is the messenger who ordered the burning of Chang 'an. I'll give you the copied poem and let the emperor do something. " Say that finish, then dropped a red pillar and roared off. The people picked up the red post and quickly sent it to the palace to report to the emperor.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty took it and read: "Chang 'an is robbing, and the imperial palace is being burned. It has been burning for fifteen days, and the midnight snack is red." He was so scared that he hurriedly invited resourceful Dong Fangshuo. Dong Fangshuo thought for a moment and said, "I heard that Vulcan likes to eat dumplings. Don't Yuanxiao in the palace often make dumplings for you? Let Yuanxiao package jiaozi on 15th night. Long live the incense and offerings, and order every family in Kyoto to pack jiaozi and worship Vulcan together. Then tell the subjects to hang lights together on the fifteenth night and set off firecrackers and fireworks all over the city, as if the whole city were on fire, so that the jade emperor could be fooled. In addition, the people outside the city were informed that they would go to the city to watch the lights on the fifteenth night, and they would eliminate disasters and solve problems in the crowd. Liang Wudi was very happy after hearing this, so he ordered him to do it according to Dong Fangshuo's method.

On the fifteenth day of the first month, Chang 'an City was decorated with colorful lights, crowded with tourists and very lively. The parents of the maid-in-waiting Yuanxiao also took their sister to the city to see the lights. When they saw the big palace lantern with the words "Yuanxiao" written on it, they shouted in surprise: "Yuanxiao! Lantern Festival! " When Yuanxiao heard the shouts, she was finally reunited with her relatives at home.

After such a busy night, Chang 'an was safe. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was overjoyed and ordered that glutinous rice balls should be made for Vulcan every year on the fifteenth day of the first month. On the fifteenth day of the first month, the whole city was decorated with lanterns and set off fireworks. Because jiaozi cooked by Yuanxiao is the best, people call it Yuanxiao, and this day is called Lantern Festival.

The Origin of the Spring Festival

In modern folk customs, celebrating the Spring Festival is also called Chinese New Year. In fact, the origin of Chinese New Year and Spring Festival is very different.

So how did the year come from? There are mainly two kinds of folk sayings: one is that there was a fierce monster called Nian in ancient times, which went door to door on the thirtieth day of the twelfth lunar month, foraging for human flesh and killing creatures. On the night of the thirtieth day of the twelfth lunar month, Nian came to a village. It happened that two cowboys were fighting for a bullwhip. Nian suddenly heard the sound of a whip in mid-air and ran away in fear. It fled to another village and saw a bright red dress drying in front of the door. It didn't know what it was, so it turned around and ran away. Later, he came to a village, looked into the door of a family, and saw that the lights were brightly lit and dizzy, so he had to slip away again, with his tail between his legs. As a result, people realized the weakness of Nian's fear of noise, red and light, and tried many ways to resist it, which gradually evolved into the custom of celebrating the New Year today.

Another way of saying this is that China ancient calligraphy books put the word "Nian" in the Grain Department, indicating that the weather is good and the crops are abundant. Because cereal crops are usually harvested once a year. "Year" is extended to the name of the year.

Although there was a custom of Spring Festival in ancient China, it was not called Spring Festival at that time. Because the Spring Festival referred to at that time refers to the "beginning of spring" among the 24 solar terms.

The Northern and Southern Dynasties generally referred to the Spring Festival as the whole spring. It is said that the Lunar New Year was officially named Spring Festival after the Revolution of 1911. Because the solar calendar was used at that time, the first day of the first lunar month had to be renamed as "Spring Festival" in order to distinguish between farmers and farmers.

History of Spring Festival

Among the traditional folk festivals in China, the Spring Festival is the most important one. In the twelfth lunar month, the weather is cold, farm work is relatively idle, and people have more time, so the celebrations during the Spring Festival are more colorful than other festivals, and these activities have special holiday characteristics.

In the past, in the vast urban and rural towns, people selling New Year pictures, people hanging money and window grilles, people hanging lights and firecrackers, people hanging Facebook, and people hanging Spring Festival couplets were all red, green and green, and the annual stalls were next to each other, beaming and full of festive atmosphere.

On the thirtieth day of the twelfth lunar month, the hour hand moved past midnight, and firecrackers sounded immediately, ushering in the first morning of the New Year.

The Spring Festival was called "New Year's Day" in ancient times. Yuan is the beginning, Dan is the morning, and New Year's Day is the first morning of the year. The annotation to "Nian" in Er Ya is: "Summer is called Nian, Shang is called Si, and Zhou is called Nian." Since the Shang dynasty, the full moon has been missing once in January, the first day is the new moon, and the fifteenth day is the hope. The beginning of each year starts at midnight on the first day of the first month and is called "New Year's Day" or "January Day". By the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Sima Qian had more and more rich experience in observing elephant numbers and timing, so he created the taichu calendar, and determined that the first month of the first month was the beginning of the year and the first day of the first month was the New Year. Since then, the custom of the Lunar New Year has been handed down.

The Book of Songs records that during the Lunar New Year, farmers drink "spring wine" and wish "changing the year" to enjoy themselves and celebrate the bumper harvest of the year. There were also programs of setting off firecrackers in Jin Dynasty, that is, lighting piles of fires, burning bamboo in the fire and making crackling firecrackers, which made the festive atmosphere more intense. In the Qing Dynasty, the activities of setting off firecrackers, decorating lanterns and celebrating the New Year became more lively. In the Qing Dynasty, Pan's "Jingdi Shengsui" recorded: "On New Year's Eve, friends are made at the beginning of the night, and treasures and torches outside the door strive for glory and jade strives for profit. ..... I heard firecrackers like thunder, which spread all over the ruling and opposition parties and didn't stop all night. "

In different historical periods in ancient China, the Spring Festival had different meanings. In the Han Dynasty, people designated "beginning of spring" as the Spring Festival among the 24 solar terms. In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, people called the whole spring Spring Festival. 19 1 1 year, the Revolution of 1911 overthrew the rule of the Qing Dynasty. In order to "according to the summer calendar, so according to the agricultural season, so making statistics", representatives of provincial governors met in Nanjing and decided to use the Gregorian calendar. In this way, the first day of the first lunar month is designated as the Spring Festival. Until now, people still use the customary title of the Spring Festival.

There are many beautiful legends about the Spring Festival. Although these legends are unfounded, they add a layer of myth to the origin of the Spring Festival.

The Spring Festival is a symbol of unity and prosperity, symbolizing the hope of the new year.