I want to know some information about the Lantern Festival.
eat yuanxiao
Eating Yuanxiao on the fifteenth day of the first month, as a kind of food, 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 "Tangyuan", contains sugar, roses, sesame seeds, red bean paste, cinnamon bark, walnut kernel, nuts, jujube paste and so on. And wrapped in glutinous rice flour into a circle, you can be vegetarian and have different flavors. It can be boiled, fried and steamed, which means happy reunion. Jiaozi, Shaanxi is not wrapped, but "rolled" in glutinous rice flour, or boiled or fried, warm and round.
Look at the lights.
During the Yong Ping period of Han Dynasty (AD 58-75), when Ming Chengzu advocated Buddhism, it happened that Cai Cheng returned from India to seek Buddhism, saying that it was the fifteenth day of the first month of Mohato, India, and the monks gathered to pay tribute to the relics, which was an auspicious day to participate in Buddhism. In order to promote Buddhism, Emperor Hanming ordered "burning lamps to show Buddha" in palaces and temples on the fifteenth night of the first month. Since then, the custom of putting lights on the Lantern Festival has spread from being held only in the court to the people. That is, on the fifteenth day of the first month, both the gentry and the people hang up lights, and the urban and rural areas are brightly lit all night.
The custom of setting off lanterns during the Lantern Festival developed into an unprecedented lantern market in the Tang Dynasty. Chang 'an, the capital at that time, was already the largest city with a population of one million in the world, and its society was rich. Under the personal initiative of the emperor, the Lantern Festival became more and more luxurious. After the middle Tang Dynasty, it has 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.
The Lantern Festival in Song Dynasty is superior to that in Tang Dynasty in scale and dreamy lighting, with more folk activities and stronger national characteristics. 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 16th, and in the Ming Dynasty, it was extended from the 8th to 18th 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.
In Taiwan Province Province, lanterns have the meaning of light and elegance, and lighting them means lighting up the future. The homonym of Taiwan Province Lantern and En stands for having a boy. So in the past, women would deliberately wander under lanterns, hoping to "drill under lanterns to lay eggs" (that is, swim under lanterns to give birth to boys).
Valentine's Day in China (enter 2 14 Valentine's Day romantic dinner reservation here)
Lantern Festival is also a romantic festival. In the feudal traditional society, Lantern Festival also provides unmarried men and women with opportunities to get to know each other. In traditional society, young girls are not allowed to go out freely, but they can go out to play together on holidays. Lantern Festival lanterns are just an opportunity to make friends, and unmarried men and women can also find their own partners by the way. During the Lantern Festival, it is also the time for young men and women to meet their lovers.
In Taiwan Province Province, there is also a traditional custom that unmarried women who steal onions or vegetables at midnight will marry a good husband, commonly known as "stealing onions and marrying a good wife" and "stealing vegetables and marrying a good husband". I hope that a girl with a happy marriage will steal onions or vegetables in the garden at midnight snack, hoping to have a happy family in the future. There are hundreds of dances and performances in the Lantern Festival in the Tang Dynasty, and there are thousands of maids.
Ouyang Xiu (health inspector) said: Last year's Lantern Festival, the flower market was lit like a book; The moon rose to the willow tree, and he met me at dusk. Xin Qiji (jade case) wrote: Many people looked for it and suddenly looked back, and that person was in the dim light. It is a scene describing midnight snack, while the traditional opera Chen San and Wu Niang met at the Lantern Festival and fell in love at first sight. Lechang Guanwen had sex with Xu Deyan at the second Lantern Festival supper, and in Spring Lantern Enigma, Yu had sex with ying niang at the Lantern Festival. So the Lantern Festival is also China's "Valentine's Day".
Walking sickness
Besides celebrating the Lantern Festival, there are also religious activities. That is to say, most of the participants in "taking all kinds of diseases", also known as "baking all kinds of diseases" and "spreading all kinds of diseases" are women. They walk together or against the wall, or cross the bridge through 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, activities such as playing dragon lanterns, playing lions, walking on stilts, rowing dry boats, dancing yangko and playing Taiping drums were also added during the festival.
On the fifteenth day of the first month of the Lantern Festival, some little-known folk activities have been lost. Here are two or three.
In ancient times, there were "seven sacrifices" at the sacrificial gate and the sacrificial households, which were two of them. The method of sacrifice is very simple. Put poplar branches above the door, put a pair of chopsticks in a bowl filled with bean porridge, or put wine and meat directly in front of the door.
Mouse chase
This activity is mainly aimed at sericulture families. Because mice often eat silkworms in large areas at night, it is said that they can stop eating silkworms by feeding them rice porridge on the fifteenth day of the first month. As a result, these people cooked a large pot of sticky porridge on the fifteenth day of the first month, and some even covered it with a layer of meat. They put porridge in a bowl and put it on the ceiling, corner and mouth where mice haunt, cursing that mice will not die a natural death if they eat silkworm babies again.
Yingzigu
Zi Gu is a kind and poor girl in folklore. On the fifteenth day of the first month, Zi Gu died of poverty. People sympathize with her and miss her. In some places, it is convenient to have the custom of "welcoming the daughter-in-law on the fifteenth day of the first month". Every night, people tie a life-size portrait of purple aunt with straw and cloth heads. Women have stood beside the toilet, pigsty and kitchen where Zigu often works to meet her, holding her hand like sisters, telling her sweet words and comforting her with tears. This scene is very vivid and truly reflects the thoughts and feelings of the working people who are kind, honest and sympathetic to the weak.
Lantern Festival is the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, also known as Shangyuan Festival. Lantern Festival is the oldest night festival in China. According to legend, the Western Han Dynasty pacified Zhu Lu, and Emperor China began to lay the foundation stone on 1 month 15, which was designated as the Lantern Festival. The whole country celebrates festivals with lanterns and colorful decorations. The royal family, ladies and gentlemen in the deep palace can also go to the streets to watch the lights.
On the Lantern Festival, every household makes Yuanxiao (now monopolized by professional households). Yuanxiao Yuanxiao, known as "floating Zi Yuan" in ancient times, is a kind of folk snack that tastes both refined and popular, sweet but not greasy, and is popular all over the country. The stars are in the dark clouds and the beads are floating in the turbid water. "Light circles are more delicious than chicken head meat, and crab eye soup is better when you are bored." No wonder ancient poets described the Lantern Festival so much that it has been popular for thousands of years.
Hang lanterns and set off fireworks. It is the most gratifying activity of Quanzhou Lantern Festival. "There are many lanterns, and Su and Fu are crowned" (see Song's "Old Wulin Stories"). "There is more money in the world, and lamps and candles are no better than those in Fujian" (see Xie Wuza). Quanzhou is the city of lanterns, known as "ancient lanterns". Lanterns are pasted by families, spread and sold by shops, and specially made by professional artists. There are drum lights, cake-moistening lights, fish and shrimp, chicken, duck and goose lights, orange lights, banana lights, pineapple lights, palace lights, wishful lights, silk lights, glazed lights and lanterns ... all kinds of colors. The bride's family sends lotus-seed lanterns to her husband's family, and the newly-married man hangs lanterns to the ancestral hall (lotus gives birth to a noble child, and lanterns are homophonic with Ding, praying for more). Lights are hung on streets, halls and porches. The "Aoshan" is set on the thoroughfare avenue, with movable organs, landscape figures, flowers, birds, fish and insects, which is dazzling. There is also a light show, and the exquisite lamps for large-scale activities are dazzling. Kaiyuan Temple and Chengtian Temple are good places to watch the lantern show. Cultural people held a Spring Lantern Poetry Meeting, and Nanyin Society set up a "pavilion" in the street and sang on stage. Couplets in front of Tang Palace in Fengzhou, Nan 'an: "Orchestral strings ring, people come and go to Jinwu night;" Snuff everywhere, Xi Nanxi North Yuyuanchun ". The grand occasion of the Lantern Festival is all in it.
Literature and art stepping on the street can be called a folk culture makeup parade. Dress up stories, adorn jewelry, bells and drums are loud, and a country is crazy. (Qiao Ming Yuan's Min Shu). Make-up, Quanzhou is commonly known as "makeup artist" and "makeup booth". Dress up the characters in various plays beautifully, such as walking on stilts, centipede pavilions, horseback riding teams and floats. The parade was accompanied by various bands, such as Nanyin, Ten Tones, Car Drum, Cage Blow and Western Band. Accompanied by kicking the ball, patting the chest, burning the tripod, dancing the sword, dancing the fan, playing the lion, playing the dragon and other dances full of Minnan customs. Tourists look along the street and the city is empty.
The Lantern Festival has attracted overseas tourists to visit relatives in Quan Quan. Various activities have been held, such as Nanyin Concert, Puppet Festival and Shaolin Wushu Festival, commodity fairs, cordial meetings and conferences, which have promoted the economic, trade and cultural development of the whole state. Lantern Festival is the highest peak of Spring Festival celebrations.