Who knows the custom of celebrating the fifteenth day of the first month in Tuoketuo County, Hohhot?

Lantern Festival is the main traditional festival in China, also called Yuanxiao and Yuanxiao, and Shangyuan Festival, because it is the first full moon night of the New Year. Because this festival has the custom of watching lanterns in past dynasties, it is also called Lantern Festival. The formation of Lantern Festival custom has a long process. According to general data and folklore, the fifteenth day of the first month was paid attention to in the Western Han Dynasty. On the night of the first month, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty offered sacrifices to "Taiyi" in Ganquan Palace, which was regarded by later generations as the first sacrifice to the gods on the fifteenth day of the first month. However, the fifteenth day of the first month is indeed a folk festival after the Han and Wei Dynasties. The introduction of Buddhist culture in the Eastern Han Dynasty is of great significance to the formation of Lantern Festival customs.

During the Yong Ping period of Han Dynasty (AD 58-75), when Ming Chengzu advocated Buddhism, it coincided with Cai Cheng's return from India to seek Buddhism, saying that it was the fifteenth day of the first month of Mohato, India, and monks gathered to pay tribute to the relics, which was an auspicious day to participate in Buddhism. In order to carry forward Buddhism, Emperor Han Ming ordered "burning lamps to show Buddha" in the palace temple on the 15th night of the first month. Therefore, the custom of burning lanterns on the fifteenth night of the first month, with the expansion of the influence of Buddhist culture and the addition of Taoist culture, gradually spread in China. The real motivation of the Lantern Festival custom is that it is at a new time point, and people make full use of this special time stage to express their wishes for life.

The custom of putting lights on the Lantern Festival developed into an unprecedented lantern market in the Tang Dynasty, and after the middle Tang Dynasty, it developed into a national carnival. In the prosperous period of the Tang Xuanzong Kaiyuan (685-762 AD), the lantern market in Chang 'an was very large, with 50,000 lanterns and all kinds of lanterns. The emperor ordered 20 giant lantern buildings with a height of 150 feet, resplendent and magnificent.

Since then, the Lantern Festival has continued to develop and the time of the Lantern Festival has become longer and longer. The Lantern Festival in Tang Dynasty is "the day before and after Shangyuan". In the Song Dynasty, two days were added after the sixteenth, and in the Ming Dynasty, it was extended from the eighth day to the eighteenth day to ten days.

In the Qing Dynasty, Manchu entered the Central Plains, and the court no longer held lantern festivals, but the folk lantern festivals were still spectacular. The date was shortened to five days and continues to this day.

"Lantern riddle", also known as "playing riddles", is an activity added after the Lantern Festival, which appeared in the Song Dynasty. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Lin 'an, the capital, made riddles every Lantern Festival, and there were many people in solve riddles on the lanterns. At the beginning, it was a busybody who wrote riddles on paper and posted them on colorful lanterns for people to guess. Because riddles are enlightening and interesting, they are welcomed by all walks of life in the process of communication.

During the Tang and Song Dynasties, various acrobatic skills began to appear in the lantern market. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, besides riddles and hundreds of operas, there were also opera performances.

In addition to visiting the lantern market, people in the past dynasties also had customs such as welcoming children to visit Ce Shen, crossing the bridge and touching nails to walk away from all diseases, and playing games such as Taiping Drum, Yangko, stilts, dragon dance and lion dance. At the same time, we should also eat some festive foods: in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, we ate bean porridge or rice porridge boiled with meat and animal oil during the Lantern Festival; In the Tang dynasty, we ate a kind of pasta called "cocoon" and baked cakes; In the Song Dynasty, a spoon made of salted black bean soup and mung bean powder appeared, and the "jiaozi" appeared. From then on, we ate Yuanxiao in the north and south.

During the Lantern Festival, it is an opportunity for young men and women to meet their lovers, so the Lantern Festival has become the "Valentine's Day" in China.

Lantern Festival in traditional society is a folk festival that both urban and rural areas attach importance to. It is particularly lively in the city, which embodies the unique carnival spirit of China people. The traditional Lantern Festival's function of festival customs has been dispelled by daily life, and people have gradually lost their spiritual interest. The complicated holiday custom is simplified to the eating custom of "eating Yuanxiao".

Send a children's lamp.

Short for "sending lanterns", it is also called "sending lanterns", that is, before the Lantern Festival, the bride's family sends lanterns to the newly married daughter's house, or ordinary relatives and friends give them to the newly married infertile family to add auspiciousness, because "lamp" is homophonic with "Ding". This custom exists in many places. In Xi city, Shaanxi province, lanterns are put on from the eighth to the fifteenth day of the first month. In the first year, a pair of palace lanterns and a pair of stained glass lamps were presented. I hope my daughter will be lucky after marriage and have children early. If the daughter is pregnant, in addition to the big palace lantern, she should also send one or two small lanterns to wish her a safe pregnancy.

Yingzigu

Daughter-in-law is also called Qi (seventh) aunt, and in the north it is called toilet aunt and pit aunt. The ancient folk custom is to offer sacrifices to Ce Shen Zigu on the 15th day of the first month, and to offer sacrifices to silkworm and mulberry, which shows many things. Legend has it that Zi Guyuan was a concubine and was envied by her eldest daughter. On the fifteenth day of the first month, he was killed in the toilet and became Ce Shen. So most people make their daughter-in-law into the shape of a woman and greet her in the pigsty in the toilet at night. This custom is popular in the north and south, and it was recorded as early as the Northern and Southern Dynasties.

Walking sickness

Also known as "Wandering All Diseases", "Eliminating All Diseases" and "Walking on the Bridge", it is an activity to eliminate disasters and pray for blessings. On the Lantern Festival night, women meet and go out together. When they see the bridge, they will cross it, thinking that this can cure diseases and prolong life.

Stealing vegetables festival

The Miao People's Vegetable Stealing Festival, which is popular in Ping Huang, Guizhou, is also held on the 15th day of the first lunar month. On this day of the festival, girls will steal other people's food in droves. It is forbidden to steal from your family or friends of the same sex, because stealing is related to their marriage. So his food is limited to cabbage, and the quantity is enough for everyone to eat a meal. Stealing vegetables is not afraid of being discovered, and people who are caught are not strange. Everyone put together delicious dishes and made a cabbage feast. It is said that whoever eats more will get the right person early. At the same time, the silkworms they raise are also the strongest and the silks they spit out are the best.

Bawu Festival

Bawu Festival is a traditional festival of Yi people, which falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month. "Eighth Five-Year Plan" means "coming back from hunting". Found in Heihu residential area, a branch of Yi nationality in Heqing, Yunnan. At that time, this festival was originally a custom to celebrate the return from hunting, and there was no fixed festival. In the past, when people came back from hunting to clean up their prey, the animal's head was given to the hunting commander, the skin was given to the hunter and the meat was barbecued. In the meantime, the hunting action is reproduced around the fire. When the meat is cooked, share it with everyone. Later it gradually evolved into a fixed festival. During the festival, Bawu Dance is accompanied by a band consisting of twelve wooden drums, twelve thallium gongs and twelve suona (thirteen in leap years). Thirty-six young women were dressed in furs of tigers, leopards, bears, deer, tigers, rabbits and foxes, or with golden pheasants and feathers of various birds in their heads. Dressed as birds and beasts, they pushed around the fire and danced, showing the gestures of various animals and imitating the sounds of various animals. The hunter holds a crossbow or a steel fork to surround the "prey" and carries out various hideous hunting actions in the opposite direction of the "prey" rotation. During the festival, there will be dragon lanterns, lion lanterns and crane lanterns.