On the composition of the Spring Festival

The original intention of the two concepts of Spring Festival and New Year comes from agriculture. In ancient times, people called the growth cycle of the valley "year", and Shuowen said that "year is also the maturity of the valley." The summer calendar appeared in Xia and Shang Dynasties. The period of the full moon is one month, and the year is divided into twelve months. Every month, the day when the moon disappears is the new moon, and the first day of the first month is the beginning of the year. It continues to this day. But in ancient times, the first day of the first month was called "New Year". Until the victory of the Revolution of 1911 in China, in order to adapt to the farming season and facilitate statistics, the Nanjing Provisional Government stipulated that the people should use the summer calendar and implement the Gregorian calendar in institutions, factories, mines, schools, organizations and other units, with Gregorian calendar 1 month 1 day as New Year's Day and the first lunar month 1 day as the Spring Festival.

1949 On September 27th, New China was founded. At the first plenary session of the China People's Political Consultative Conference, the international use of the Gregorian calendar era was adopted, and the Gregorian calendar 1 month 1 day was designated as New Year's Day, commonly known as the Gregorian calendar year. The first day of the first lunar month is usually around beginning of spring, so the first day of the first lunar month is designated as the Spring Festival, commonly known as the Lunar New Year. In the traditional sense, the Spring Festival refers to the La Worship offering sacrifices to stoves from the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, with New Year's Eve and the first day of the first lunar month as the climax. During the traditional Spring Festival, the Han nationality and most ethnic minorities in China hold various celebrations, most of which are offering sacrifices to the gods and buddhas, ancestors, saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new.

One of the legends of the Spring Festival: staying up late for the New Year.

Keeping the old age is the custom of staying up late to welcome the new year on the last night of the old year. New Year's Eve is also called Shounian, and its common name is "Enduring the Year". Exploring the origin of this custom, there is an interesting story among the people:

In Archaean, there was a fierce monster scattered in the deep mountains and forests, which people called "Nian". Its appearance is ferocious, its nature is ferocious, it only eats birds and animals, and its taste changes every day, from kowtowing insects to living people, which makes people talk about "Nian". Later, people gradually mastered the activity law of Nian, and it was at dawn that crows returned to the mountains. After calculating the date when the New Year's Eve raged, people took this terrible night as a gateway, called the "New Year's Eve", and came up with a whole set of methods for celebrating the New Year: every family cooked dinner in advance on this night, turned off the stove, tied up all the chicken coops and cowsheds, sealed the front and rear doors of the house and hid in the house. Therefore, it is very rich. In addition to having dinner with the whole family to show harmonious reunion, it is also necessary to make sacrifices to ancestors before eating and pray for the blessing of ancestors' gods to spend the night safely. After dinner, no one dared to sleep, so they huddled together to chat and be brave. Gradually formed the habit of staying up late on New Year's Eve. The trend of observing the age rose in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and many scholars in the Liang Dynasty had poems about observing the age.

Legend of the Spring Festival 2: On Calendar Making in Ten Thousand Years

According to legend, there was a young man named Wannian in ancient times. When he saw that the festivals at that time were chaotic, he had a plan to set the festivals accurately. But he couldn't find a way to calculate the time. One day, he was tired of chopping wood on the mountain and sat in the shade. The movement of the shadow inspired him. He designed a sundial to measure the time of the day. Later, on the cliff, he found that every 360 days, the four seasons cycle once, and the length of the weather is repeated. At that time, the monarch named Zu Ti was often troubled by sudden weather. After ten thousand years of knowledge, he went to see the emperor with a sundial and a clepsydra, and explained to Zu Ti the reason why the sun and the moon run. Zu Ti felt very happy and reasonable after hearing this. So he left Wan Yi and built a Sun and Moon Pavilion in front of the Temple of Heaven. Calculate the exact time in the morning and evening, create a calendar, and benefit all people in the world. On one occasion, Zu Ti went to learn about the progress of the perpetual calendar. When he boarded the altar of the sun and the moon, he saw a poem engraved on the stone wall next to the Temple of Heaven:

Sunrise and sunset 360, start all over again.

There are four seasons and twelve circles in a year.

Knowing that the calendar has been established for 10 thousand years, I personally boarded the Sun Moon Pavilion to visit for 10 thousand years. Ten thousand years pointed to the astronomical phenomena and said to Zu Ti, "Now twelve months are full, the old year has passed and the new year has passed. Please make a festival. " Zu Ti said, "Spring is the first year, so it is called the Spring Festival." It is said that this is the origin of the Spring Festival. Winter goes and spring comes, year after year, after long-term observation. His face is covered with silver whiskers. The monarch was deeply moved. In order to commemorate the achievements of ten thousand years, he named the solar calendar "the perpetual calendar" and named the perpetual birthday star. Later, people hung up the Shou Xingtu in China New Year, which is said to commemorate the venerable ten thousand years.

The Third Legend of Spring Festival: Sticking Spring Festival couplets and Door Gods

It is said that the custom of pasting Spring Festival couplets began in the post-Shu period about 1000 years ago, which is proved by history. In addition, according to the records of Jade Candle Collection and Yanjing Year, the original form of Spring Festival couplets is what people call "Taofu". In the ancient mythology of China, it is said that there is a ghost world, including a mountain and a big peach tree covering 3,000 miles at the top of the tree. Ghosts wandering at night will rush back to the ghost domain. The gate of the Ghost Domain is located in the northeast of Taoshu District. There are two gods standing by the gate. Their names are Shen Tu and Lei Yu. If the ghost does something unnatural at night, Shen Tu and Lei Yu will immediately find it, catch it, tie it up with a rope made of mang reed and give it to the tiger. Therefore, ghosts all over the world are afraid of Shen Tu and Lei Yu. So people carved it into their own shape with peach wood and let it go. People simply carved the names of Shen Tu and Lei Yu on the mahogany board, thinking that this would also ward off evil spirits. This kind of red board was later called "Fu Tao". In Song Dynasty, people began to write couplets on mahogany boards, one is to express good wishes, the other is to decorate the portal for beauty. They also wrote couplets symbolizing happiness and auspiciousness on red paper and posted them on both sides of doors and windows during the Spring Festival. It is used to express people's good wishes for good luck in the coming year. In order to pray for family happiness, people in some places still keep the habit of sticking to the door. It is said that there are two door gods on the gate, and all monsters will be frightened. In the folk, the door god is a symbol of justice and strength. The ancients thought that people with strange looks often had magical temperament and extraordinary skills. They are honest and kind, and it is their nature and responsibility to catch ghosts. Zhong Kui, a ghost hunter who is highly regarded by people, is such a grotesque figure. Therefore, the folk door gods are always glaring and ferocious in appearance, holding all kinds of traditional weapons in their hands, ready to fight ghosts who dare to come to the door at any time. Because the doors of China's house are usually two opposite doors, the door gods are always paired. After the Tang Dynasty, apart from He, people called Qin and Weichi Gong two military commanders in the Tang Dynasty. Emperor Taizong was ill, and when he heard the ghostly cry outside, he was restless all night. So he asked the two generals to stand by with weapons, and there was no ghostly harassment the next night. Later, Emperor Taizong had the portraits of the two generals painted and pasted on the door, and this custom began to spread widely among the people.

Spring Festival is an ancient festival in China, and it is also the most important festival in a year. In the course of thousands of years of historical development, some relatively fixed customs and habits have been formed, and many of them have been passed down to this day.

sweep the dust

On the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, dust sweeps the house. According to "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals", there was a custom of sweeping dust during the Spring Festival in the Yao and Shun Dynasties in China. According to folk sayings, as "dust" and "Chen" are homophonic, sweeping dust in the Spring Festival means "getting rid of the old and replacing the new", and its original intention is to sweep away all unlucky things. This custom endows people with the desire to break the old and create the new.

paste up Spring Festival couplets

Spring Festival couplets are also called door couplets, spring stickers, couplets, couplets and peach symbols. It depicts the background of the times and expresses good wishes with neat, dual, concise and exquisite words, which is a unique literary form in China. Every Spring Festival, whether in urban or rural areas, every household should choose a pair of red Spring Festival couplets and stick them on the door to add festive atmosphere to the festival. This custom began in the Song Dynasty and was popular in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

There are many kinds of Spring Festival couplets, which can be divided into door hearts, frame pairs, horizontal stripes, spring stripes and bucket squares. According to their use places, the "door heart" is attached to the center of the upper end of the door panel; The "frame pair" is attached to the left and right door frames; "Cross-dressing" is attached to the crossbar of the goalkeeper; "Spring strips" are posted in corresponding places according to different contents; "Dou Jin", also known as "door leaf", is a square diamond, often attached to furniture and screen walls.

Stick the window grilles and the word "fu" upside down.

In the folk, people also like to stick various paper-cuts on the windows. Paper-cutting not only sets off the festive atmosphere, but also integrates decoration, appreciation and practicality. Paper-cutting is a very popular folk art in China, which has been loved by people for thousands of years. Because it is often pasted on the window, it is also called "window grilles". Window grilles express auspicious things and good wishes with their unique generalization and exaggeration. Decorate the festival with splendor. Some people stick the word "Fu" on doors, walls and lintels when posting Spring Festival couplets. Sticking the word "Fu" during the Spring Festival is a long-standing folk custom in China. The word "Fu" symbolizes good luck and wishes for a happy life and a bright future. In order to fully reflect this yearning and desire, some people

New Year picture

Hanging New Year pictures during the Spring Festival is also very common in urban and rural areas. Thick black and colorful New Year pictures add a lot of prosperous and happy holiday atmosphere to thousands of families. New Year pictures are an ancient folk art in China, which reflects people's simple customs and beliefs and places their hopes on the future. New Year pictures, like Spring Festival couplets, originated from "door gods". With the rise of block printing, the content of New Year pictures has become rich and colorful. Some New Year pictures workshops have produced classic color New Year pictures, such as Fu Lushou's Samsung, God bless the people, abundant crops, prosperous livestock and welcoming the New Year, to meet people's good wishes of celebrating and praying for the New Year. There are three important producing areas of New Year pictures in China: Taohuawu in Suzhou, Yangliuqing in Tianjin and Weifang in Shandong. Three schools of New Year pictures have been formed, each with its own characteristics. At present, the earliest New Year pictures in China are woodcut New Year pictures of the Southern Song Dynasty, depicting four ancient beauties, namely Wang Zhaojun, Zhao, Ban Ji and Lvzhu. The most popular among the people is a picture of the Year of Marrying a Rat, which depicts an interesting scene in which a mouse marries a bride according to human customs.

stay up late or all night on New Year's Eve

Keeping the Lunar New Year's Eve is one of the most important activities, and the custom of keeping the Lunar New Year's Eve has a long history. It was first seen in the local chronicles of the Western Jin Dynasty: on New Year's Eve, all parties gave gifts to each other, which was called "giving the New Year"; Wine and food are invited, which is called "not old"; When young people and old people get together to drink and celebrate the perfection, it is called "age division"; Everyone stays up all night, waiting for dawn, so it's called "keeping watch". "One night is two years old, and the five shifts are divided into two days." On New Year's Eve, the whole family get together, eat New Year's Eve, light candles or oil lamps, sit around the stove and chat, wait for the time to bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new year, and keep vigil all night, which symbolizes driving away all evil diseases and epidemics and looking forward to good luck and happiness in the New Year. This custom gradually became popular. Warmth brings spring breeze. " To this day, people are still used to keeping watch on New Year's Eve to welcome the New Year. In ancient times, observing the age has two meanings: the old man keeps the age, which means cherishing time; Young people are concerned about their parents' lives. Since the Han Dynasty, it is usually midnight that the old and new years alternate.

firecracker

There is a saying in China that "set off firecrackers", which means that when the New Year comes, the first thing for every household to open the door is to set off firecrackers. This is a specialty of China, also called "firecrackers", "firecrackers" and "firecrackers". It has a long history of more than 2000 years. Setting off firecrackers can create a festive atmosphere. Firecrackers are more and more widely used, and their varieties and colors are more and more diverse. Every major festival, happy celebration, wedding, building, opening, etc., firecrackers should be set off to show good luck. At present, Liuyang, Foshan, Guangdong, Dongyao, Yichun, Jiangxi, Pingxiang, Wenzhou, Zhejiang and other regions are the famous towns of fireworks in China. The firecrackers produced have many colors and high quality, which are not only sold well all over the country, but also exported to all parts of the world.

Pay new year's call

On the first day of the new year, people get up early, put on the most beautiful clothes, dress neatly, go out to visit relatives and friends, and wish each other good luck in the coming year. There are many ways to pay New Year's greetings, some of which are led by the same patriarch from door to door. Some colleagues invited several people to pay New Year greetings; Others get together to congratulate each other. This is called "group worship". Because it was time-consuming and laborious to pay New Year greetings at home, some upper-class people and scholar-officials later congratulated each other with various stickers, thus developing the later "New Year cards". When paying New Year greetings during the Spring Festival, the younger generation should first pay New Year greetings to their elders and wish them health and longevity. The elders can distribute the lucky money prepared in advance to the younger generation. It is said that lucky money can suppress evil spirits, because "old" and "expensive" are homophonic. The other is the most common, that is, parents wrap the money distributed to their children in red paper. The lucky money can be given to the younger generation in public after the New Year, or it can be secretly placed under the child's pillow while the child is asleep on New Year's Eve. It is still popular for elders to give lucky money to younger generations.

Eating custom in Spring Festival

In ancient agricultural society, housewives began to prepare food for the New Year from the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. Because curing bacon takes a long time, it must be prepared as soon as possible. Many provinces in China have the custom of curing bacon, among which Guangdong bacon is the most famous. Steamed rice cakes and rice cakes, because of their homophonic "high year" and diverse tastes, have almost become essential foods for every household. It symbolizes gold and silver, which means making a fortune in the new year. The taste of rice cakes varies from place to place. Beijingers like to eat red dates, hundred fruits and white rice cakes made of rice or yellow rice. People in Hebei like to add jujube, red beans and mung beans to rice cakes and steam them together. In Inner Mongolia and northwestern Shanxi, they are used to eating fried rice cakes with yellow rice flour during the Spring Festival, and some of them will also be stuffed with red bean paste and jujube paste, while Shandong people use yellow rice. Some people simply eat with sugar. There are sweet and salty rice cakes in the south, such as those in Suzhou and Ningbo, which are made of japonica rice and have a light taste. In addition to steaming and frying, you can also slice and fry or cook soup. Sweet rice cake is made of glutinous rice flour with white sugar, lard, roses, osmanthus, mint, vegetarian dishes and other ingredients. It is fine in workmanship and can be steamed directly or fried with egg white. The night before the real Chinese New Year is called Reunion Night. During the Spring Festival, the whole family should sit around and wrap up jiaozi. Jiaozi's practice is to use dough to make dumpling wrappers first, and then use leather bags. The contents of fillings are varied, such as meat, eggs, seafood, seasonal vegetables and so on. Can be filled. The orthodox practice in jiaozi is to cook it with clear water, and then mix it with soy sauce, vinegar, minced garlic and sesame oil to eat. There are fried jiaozi and fried jiaozi (fried dumpling). Jiaozi's "jiao" and "glue" are homophonic, and "harmony" and "glue" have the meaning of reunion, so jiaozi is used to symbolize the reunion of acacia; It is very auspicious to make friends with older people; In addition, jiaozi, because it looks like an ingot, eats jiaozi in the New Year, which also has the auspicious meaning of "the way to make money". All the families get together to wrap jiaozi to celebrate the Spring Festival.

Spring Festival is the first day of the first lunar month, also known as Lunar New Year, commonly known as "Chinese New Year". It is the most grand and lively traditional festival in China. It originated from the activities of offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors at the end of the first year of Yin and Shang Dynasties. According to the China lunar calendar, the first day of the first month is called Yuanri, Chen Yuan, Jacky, Yuanshuo and New Year's Day. , commonly known as the first day of the first lunar month. In the Republic of China, it was changed to Gregorian calendar, Gregorian calendar 1 month 1 day.

Spring Festival is coming, which means that spring is coming, Vientiane is renewed, vegetation is renewed, and a new sowing and harvesting season is about to begin. People have just spent a long winter in which vegetation is dying in the ice and snow, and have long been looking forward to the day when spring blooms. When the Spring Festival comes, it is natural to greet this festival with joy and singing.

For thousands of years, people have made the annual custom celebration extremely colorful. Every year, from the 23rd to 30th of the twelfth lunar month, people call this period "Spring Festival" or "Dust Day". Cleaning before the Spring Festival is a traditional habit of our people. Then, every household prepares new year's goods. About ten days before the festival, people were busy shopping, including chicken, duck, fish, tea, oil, sauce, roasted seeds and nuts. We should also prepare some gifts for visiting relatives and friends during the Spring Festival, and children should buy new clothes and hats for the Spring Festival. Before the festival, we should stick a New Year message in red paper and yellow characters on the front door of the house, that is, Spring Festival couplets written in red paper. There are brightly colored auspicious New Year pictures in the house, and ingenious girls cut out beautiful window grilles and stick them on the windows. Red lanterns are hung in front of the door, or auspicious figures, gods of wealth, door gods, etc. And lucky words can also be posted backwards by passers-by.

Another name for the Spring Festival is China New Year. In the past legend, "Nian" is a fictional animal, which will bring bad luck to people. The year is coming, and the trees are barren. After the New Year, everything grows and flowers are everywhere. How to spend the New Year? We need firecrackers, so we have the custom of setting off firecrackers, which is actually another way to set off a lively scene.

The Spring Festival is a happy and peaceful festival, and it is also a day for family reunion. Children who leave home will go home for reunion during the Spring Festival. The night before the Spring Festival is the thirtieth night of the twelfth lunar month, also called New Year's Eve, also called reunion night. At this time when the old and the new turn, observing the old is one of the most important annual activities. On New Year's Eve, the whole family will stay up late to celebrate their old age, get together for a good drink and enjoy family happiness. Jiaozi's jiaozi homonym means to get together and make friends at a young age. South China has the habit of eating rice cakes, which are sweet and sticky, symbolizing the sweetness of life in the new year, step by step. When the first cock crow rings, or the New Year bell rings, firecrackers are ringing in the street, and noise comes and goes. Everyone is beaming, and the new year has begun. Men, women and children wear holiday clothes. After eating the New Year's Eve, I began to visit relatives and friends on the second and third day of the New Year's Day, congratulating each other, saying congratulations on making a fortune, making a fortune, celebrating the New Year, and offering sacrifices to ancestors. The warm atmosphere of the festival permeates not only every household, but also the streets and alleys all over the country. In some places, there are customs such as lion dancing, playing dragon lanterns, performing social fires, visiting flower markets and temple fairs.

The Spring Festival is the most important festival of the Han nationality, but more than a dozen ethnic minorities, such as Manchu, Mongolian, Yao, Zhuang, Bai, Gaoshan, Hezhe, Hani, Daur, Dong and Li, have also had the custom of the Spring Festival, but the form of the festival has its own national characteristics and is more meaningful.

The origin of Lantern Festival

On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, just after the Spring Festival, the traditional festival Lantern Festival in China was ushered in.

The first month is the first month of the lunar calendar. The ancients called the night "dawn", so the fifteenth day of the first month is called the Lantern Festival. The fifteenth day of the first month is the night of the first full moon in a year, and it is also the night of spring reunion of Yuan Zaju. People celebrate it and celebrate the continuation of the Spring Festival. Lantern Festival is also called "Shangyuan Festival".

According to the folk tradition in China, on this bright night, people light thousands of lanterns to celebrate. Going out to enjoy the moon, lighting and setting fires, solve riddles on the lanterns, Lantern Festival, family reunion and celebrating festivals are all pleasant.

The Lantern Festival, also known as the Lantern Festival, began in the Han Dynasty, and in the Tang Dynasty, lantern viewing became more prosperous. Lights are hung everywhere in palaces and streets, and tall light wheels, light buildings and light trees have been built. Lu Zeng, a great poet in the Tang Dynasty, described the grand occasion of lighting in "Watching Lights at Fifteen Nights": "The stars in the Han Dynasty fell, just like the moon hanging on the floor."

In the Song Dynasty, more attention was paid to the Lantern Festival, and lantern viewing activities became more lively. The lantern viewing activity lasted for five days, and the styles of lanterns were more abundant. In the Ming Dynasty, lantern viewing lasted for 65,438+00 days, which was the longest Lantern Festival in China. Although the activities of appreciating lanterns in Qing Dynasty lasted only three days, the scale of the activities was unprecedented. Besides lighting lanterns, fireworks are also used to entertain guests.

"Lantern riddle", also known as "playing riddles", was an activity added after the Lantern Festival and 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, good people wrote riddles on paper and posted them on colorful lanterns for people to guess. Because riddles can inspire wisdom and interest, they are very popular in all walks of life.

Folk custom of eating Yuanxiao on Lantern Festival. Yuanxiao is made of glutinous rice, either solid or stuffed. The fillings are red bean paste, sugar, hawthorn and various fruit materials. You can cook, stir-fry, steam and fry when eating. At first, people called this food "Floating Zi Yuan", and later it was called "Tangtuan" or "Tangyuan". These names sound similar.

In some places, the Lantern Festival also has the custom of "walking away from all diseases", which is also called "roasting all diseases" and "dispersing all diseases". Most of the participants are women. They walk together or against the wall, or across the bridge in the suburbs, in order to drive away diseases and eliminate disasters.

As time goes by, there are more and more activities for the Lantern Festival. In many places, traditional folk performances such as playing dragon lanterns, playing lions, walking on stilts, boating, yangko dancing and playing Taiping drums have been added. This traditional festival, which has been passed down for more than 2,000 years, is not only popular on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, but also celebrated every year in areas where overseas Chinese live in concentrated communities.

Lantern Festival is a traditional festival in China, which began in the Western Han Dynasty more than 2,000 years ago. Lantern Festival began in the period of Emperor Han Ming in the East. Ming Di advocates Buddhism. He heard that on the fifteenth day of the first month, monks watched Buddhist relics and lit lanterns to worship Buddha, so all the gentry and ordinary people hung lanterns that night. Later, this Buddhist ceremonial festival gradually formed a grand folk festival. This festival has experienced the development from the court to the people, and from the Central Plains to the whole country.

During the reign of Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty, the fifteenth day of the first month was designated as the Lantern Festival. During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the sacrificial activities of "Taiyi God" were scheduled for the 15th day of the first month. When Sima Qian founded "taichu calendar", it was already designated as a major festival.

Another way of saying it is that the custom of burning lanterns in Lantern Festival originated from the "ternary theory" of Taoism; The fifteenth day of the first month is Shangyuan Festival, the fifteenth day of July is Zhongyuan Festival, and the fifteenth day of October is Xiayuan Festival. The three elements in charge are heaven, earth, people and heavenly officials' music, so Lantern Festival is important.

The festivals and customs of Lantern Festival continue and expand with the development of history. As far as the length of festivals is concerned, there is only one day in the Han Dynasty, three days in the Tang Dynasty and five days in the Song Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, lighting began on the eighth day and lasted for ten days until the seventeenth night of the first month. When it is associated with the Spring Festival, it is a city during the day, which is very lively, and it lights up at night, which is spectacular, especially the exquisite and colorful lights.

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 animals that harmed people and animals everywhere. People organized themselves against them. A god bird got lost and landed in the world, but was accidentally shot by an unsuspecting hunter. When the Emperor of Heaven knew this, he was very angry and immediately ordered the mountain soldiers to set fire to the world on the fifteenth day of the first month, burning up all human and livestock property. The daughter of Emperor Tiandi is kind-hearted, because she can't bear to see the innocent suffering of the people and risks her life. He secretly drove Xiangyun to the world and told people the news. When people heard the news, it was like a blow to the head. They are very scared and 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 of Heaven will think that everyone has 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, so 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 set up in the period of Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty to commemorate Pinglu. After the death of Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang, Lv Hou's son Liu Ying became Hui Di. Hui Di was weak and indecisive, and power gradually fell into the hands of Lv Hou. After Hui Di's death, he monopolized Liu's state affairs and became the world of Lu. 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 he secretly gathered in the general's home and plotted an uprising in an attempt 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 attack Zhu Lu. Later, he contacted Zhou Bo and Chen Ping, founding fathers, and designed to dissolve Lv Lu. The "Zhu-Lu Rebellion" was finally completely put down.

After the rebellion, ministers announced that Liu Heng, the second son of Liu Bang, was the Chinese Emperor. Deeply aware of the hard-won peace and prosperity, Emperor Wen designated the 15th day 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 folk festival celebrated all over the world-"Lantern Festival".

Dong Fangshuo and Yuanxiao Girl

This legend is related to the custom of eating Yuanxiao. It is said that 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 she entered the garden gate, she found a maid-in-waiting with tears on her face ready to throw herself into the well. Dong Fangshuo rushed forward to save her and asked her why she committed suicide. It turns out that this maid-in-waiting is named Yuanxiao, with parents and a sister at home. I will never see my family again. Every spring, I miss my family more than usual I feel that I can't be filial in front of my parents. I might as well die. 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, all we want is the sign "Burn us on the 16th of the first month". Suddenly, there was a panic in Chang 'an. People are asking about the solution to the disaster. Dong Fangshuo said, "On the 13th night of the first month, Vulcan will send a red goddess to visit and she will serve us.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty took a look and saw that it read: "Chang 'an is robbing, burning the palace for fifteen days, flaming snacks". He was so frightened that he hurriedly asked the resourceful Dong Fangshuo Dong Fangshuo to think about it and said, "I heard that Vulcan people like to eat glutinous rice balls. Isn't it common that the palace lantern will make dumplings for you on the fifteenth night? Long live the incense, present it. Worship the Vulcan king together. Then he told his subjects to hang lights, light firecrackers and set off fireworks all over the city on the fifteenth night, as if the whole city were on fire, so as to deceive the Jade Emperor. In addition, inform the people outside the city to go to the city to see the lights on the fifteenth night to eliminate disasters and solve problems in the crowd. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was very happy and ordered to do as Dong Fangshuo said.

On the fifteenth day of the first month, Chang 'an City was decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations, and the tourists were bustling and lively. The parents of the maid-in-waiting Yuanxiao also took their sister to the city to see the lanterns. 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 lively night, Chang 'an is really safe. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was overjoyed, so he ordered to make dumplings for Vulcan on the fifteenth day of the first month, and the whole city was decorated with lanterns and set off fireworks on the fifteenth day of the first month. Because the dumplings made by Yuanxiao are the best, people call them Yuanxiao, and this day is called Lantern Festival.

Lantern Festival is a traditional festival in China, so it is celebrated all over the country. The customs in most areas are similar, but each area still has its own characteristics.

eat yuanxiao

Yuanxiao is eaten on the 15th day of the first month, which has a long history in China. In the Song Dynasty, a novel Lantern Festival food was popular among the people. This kind of food was originally called "Floating Zi Yuan", later called "Yuanxiao", and merchants also called it "Yuanbao". Yuanxiao, or "sweet dumplings", consists of white sugar, rose, sesame, red bean paste, yellow cinnamon and yellow cinnamon.