What are the customs of Manchu Lantern Festival?

Lantern Festival, also known as Lantern Festival, is the main content of this festival.

The custom of the Central Plains is mainly to put lanterns, that is, to make lanterns out of paper. Because there are many forests in Manchuria history, the eastern part is grassland, and fire prevention is the first, so the ancient Manchu people did not put lanterns.

The custom of Manchu people not putting lanterns continued until the Qing Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty. But the Qing court didn't light a lamp.

The Ming dynasty stipulated that lanterns should be put on for ten days, but the Qing dynasty did not ban lanterns among Han people, but shortened the time to five days. "From 13th to 17th, it is called the Lantern Festival, and on 15th, it is called Zhengdeng Ear". It is required to put lights on the fifteenth day of the first month as far as possible to achieve the purpose of fire prevention.

In Qing Dynasty, activities related to lights were reduced as much as possible, but many new recreational activities were added. From New Year's Day to Lantern Festival, there are lion dances, dragon dances, building social fires, walking on stilts, roller boating, yangko, drumming and other activities, so the festival is also very lively.

Manchu people do not put lanterns, but they have their own lanterns.

1, ice lamp

The most distinctive feature of Manchu is the ice lantern. Jurchen had the custom of making ice lanterns since Liao and Jin Dynasties. At present, some parts of the world are holding ice and snow art festivals, and the ice and snow art of different countries and nationalities is different. Snow sculpture, the main ethnic group, has developed from a simple snowman to making various works of art with snow. Only Manchuria's ice and snow art is different from theirs. It is an ice sculpture, developed from the original Manchu ice lantern. At present, the annual ice and snow art festival held in Harbin is dominated by Manchu ice sculptures.

2. Steamed noodles lamp

Steamed noodle lamp is a special food invented by Manchu people. It is to knead soybeans into oil lamps, with a lamp bowl at the top. The lamp body is slightly thinner, with the same caliber as the lamp bowl and the same caliber as the ancient pottery beans.

This custom also has the function of divining the situation for one year. Because it takes twelve months a year, it is made into twelve, and the mouth edge of each lamp bowl has twelve different numbers of small serrations. After kneading, put it in a pot and steam it. When boiling, predict the cold, warm, drought and waterlogging in each month according to the dryness and wetness of the lamp bowl and the water quantity in each month. After the lamp is taken out, cooled and hardened, pour the turpentine or sesame oil into the lamp bowl and light it with a cotton core. If you find out which moon the wick is in, it means that there are festive things this month.

3. Mud lamp

According to Zhao Shu, a Manchu folklorist, the Beijing flag bearer went to the temple to watch the stake. The so-called "judge" is the legendary judge of the underworld. The "judge" here is hollow and made of clay, which is about the height of a person. At night, a fire rose in the judge's stomach, which made the five senses breathe fire, and the fire was radiant and spectacular. According to Mr. Zhao Shu, it should be regarded as a kind of clay lamp, which is more fire-resistant than the paper lamp of the Han nationality.

4. Glass lamp

In the Qing Dynasty, Manchu introduced western glass-making technology and began to make glass. There are two kinds of glass used by Manchu nobles: imported and domestic. Manchu people first made glass lamps out of glass.

Second, Manchu characteristic riddles

A major feature of the Lantern Festival is solve riddles on the lanterns. It says that a major feature of the Lantern Festival is to make all kinds of lanterns for everyone to see. There are riddles on these lights. Let's guess, and the right person will get a prize.

Manchu people also wrote many riddles with their own national characteristics. Here are a few examples:

Puzzle: Manchu princess refuses to enter the house (to use an idiom)

Answer: Not appropriate.

Puzzle: Finally, you will wear heavy leather clothes and be silent when you see them (as Manchu ancestors used to call it)

Answer: cymbals

Puzzle: Ambition (Manchu surname)

A: Tong, the Tong family, is one of the eight surnames in Manchuria.

Puzzle: Xuli (Manchu costume)

Answer: national flag dress

Puzzle: Random hair award (Manchu Festival) is not desirable.

Answer: Golden Festival.

The above examples are riddles related to Manchu written by modern Manchu people in Chinese. If there are pure Manchu riddles, please refer to Wu Xuejuan's "Manchu Studies"No. 1994 Introduction to Expired Manchu riddles. Articles are riddles in Manchu, and only people with certain knowledge of Manchu can guess correctly.

Third, to commemorate the goddess Aunt Li Fen.

On the 15th day of the first month, Manchu people have a traditional game "Invite Aunt Li Fen". In the past, hedges were all made of thin wicker peeling. When playing, wrap the filter with white paper, draw beautiful girls on it, draw eyes and eyebrows, insert some flowers and tie ribbons. The girl is holding a fence with a painted face in her hand, and some Manchu teenagers or teenagers nearby are singing and dancing behind the girl, imitating the girl's movements and having fun. During the Lantern Festival, Manchu people also have the custom of dancing "Aunt Li Fen Dance".

These all come from legends related to the old man Wang. It is said that the old king Han was chased by the enemy and walked to a river. A woman was washing vegetables by the river. She tied a red rope to the hedge and used it as a boat to ferry Lao Han Wang across the river. Manchu people think it is the goddess of Aunt Li Fen. Since then, on the 15th day of the first month of each year, Manchu people have commemorated the goddess of Aunt Li Fen in various forms.

Fourth, stay away from disease.

Manchu people have always regarded the fifteenth and sixteenth days of the first lunar month as auspicious days. So people will go for a walk outside (or in the wild) in these two days, which is the so-called "walking all diseases"

People believe that this kind of walking can get rid of illness and bad luck. /kloc-On the evening of 0/5, people can watch the lights in groups. /kloc-On the evening of 0/6, Manchu youths, especially Manchu girls, will lie down and roll on the ice beside a nearby river, pond or well platform, which is called "ice rolling". Its purpose is to get rid of bad luck and some problems. Some parents of older young men and women are interested in asking them to move meat bottles, which is called moving marriage (meat), in the hope that they will have a happy marriage in the new year.

At present, when Manchu people hold their own sports activity "Mole Town", there is an essential sport called "Walking in the Snow". Its origin is also the Lantern Festival. Manchu women wear flowerpot shoes to walk on snow or ice, in order to stay away from all diseases, that is to say, they will not get sick for a year.

Some places in the north also have the custom of walking away from all diseases, but there is no such custom in the south, which shows that some places in the north are probably influenced by Manchu customs. Because ancient women in the Central Plains were all small feet, it was inconvenient to stay away from all diseases. If the Manchu people's unique "ice rolling" and walking in the snow, it is estimated that they will be shocked.