20 17 the lantern festival is coming. What are the customs of Lantern Festival?
Yuanxiao is a kind of holiday food, just like rice cakes in the Spring Festival and zongzi in the Dragon Boat Festival. Eating Yuanxiao, like a full moon, symbolizes family reunion and entrusts people with good wishes for their future life. Yuanxiao is known as "Tangyuan", "Zi Yuan", "Shui Yuan", "Soup Bowl", "Gone with the Wind Zi Yuan" and "Lactose Zi Yuan". Merchants call it "glutinous rice as stuffing", which is solid or filled. With bean paste, sugar and hawthorn as stuffing, it can be boiled, fried, steamed and fried.
No matter in the north or the south, on the fifteenth day of the first month, the whole family will get together to eat Yuanxiao. It is said that the name of the food "Yuanxiao" appeared in the late Song Dynasty and early Yuan Dynasty, because people used to eat it on the night of the Lantern Festival.
Shangyuan Night is the first full moon night of the New Year. "The full moon begins with a circle", and a full moon shines in the sky. People get together to eat Yuanxiao, which is shaped like a full moon and has a very subtle corresponding relationship with natural phenomena. "The sun, the moon and the stars burn in the sky, and there are two Yuanxiao on earth", which expresses people's happy mood of family reunion.
Speaking of jiaozi, there is another anecdote in modern history. It is said that Yuan Shikai's claim to be emperor was opposed by the whole country, and his flatterers quoted Baling County Records as saying that "Yuan and Yuan languages are the same and have done their best", "Yuanxiao" is homophonic, and "Yuan Xiao" is a curse. Yuan listened to his words and ordered to change "Yuanxiao" into glutinous rice balls. But this legend has never seen a written basis. After the fall of Yuan Shikai, the name of "Yuanxiao" was restored in most areas.
The custom of Lantern Festival is solve riddles on the lanterns.
Solve riddles on the lanterns is an interesting entertainment. Lantern riddles originated from the code words of the Western Han Dynasty and later developed into folk riddles, also known as "playing riddles".
According to records, in the Southern Song Dynasty, solve riddles on the lanterns has become a game mode of the Lantern Festival. Zhou Mi in the Southern Song Dynasty said in "Old Wulin Stories": "Some people cut poems with silk lanterns, sometimes satirize them, draw characters, hide their heads and slang, and tease pedestrians." This "hidden code word" is a mystery. At the beginning, people write riddles on paper and stick them on colorful lanterns for people to guess, which is called lantern riddles. Riddles are very popular because they are both enlightening and interesting.
The riddles made by China people are vast and ever-changing. People sometimes use "shooting is as difficult as a tiger" to describe riddles that are difficult to guess, so "lantern riddles" are also called "lantern tigers", in which "Hu Wen" takes sentences as riddles, "Shi Hu" takes poems as riddles, and guessing riddles is called "shooting tigers" or "shooting tigers".
Putting riddles on lanterns for people to guess and shoot, the answers are mainly word meanings, and there are 24 kinds of riddles such as roller blinds, swings and phoenix-seeking, which form a unique folk culture.
Lantern riddle culture is still full of charm, especially during the Lantern Festival. In many places, riddles are hung on the busy streets to make people guess, which makes the festive atmosphere more enthusiastic. Nowadays, folk solve riddles on the lanterns is not limited to the Lantern Festival. Some local folks and friends will guess riddles when they get together. Guessing has become a form of people's daily cultural entertainment.
The custom of Lantern Festival is to walk on stilts.
Walking on stilts is a popular folk performance. Stilts originally belonged to one of the hundred ancient operas in China, which appeared as early as the Spring and Autumn Period. In China, stilts first appeared in Liezi Fu Shuo: "Those who had orchids in the Song Dynasty used their skills to dry the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Summoned in the Song and Yuan Dynasties to see their skills. There are two branches twice as long as its body, belonging to its shin, which go hand in hand, making the seven swords overlap and jump. The five swords were always in the air, and Yuan Jun was frightened and gave them gold and silk. " As can be seen from the article, stilts have been popular as early as 500 BC.
Performers can not only walk with long wood tied to their feet, but also jump and dance swords. Stilts are divided into three types: stilts, middle stilts and running stilts, with the highest being more than ten feet. According to ancient records, ancient stilts were all made of wood. Make a support point in the middle of the planed wooden stick to put your feet, and then tie it to your legs with a rope. Performers can dance swords, splits, stools, cross tables and yangko when walking on stilts.
In the northern stilt yangko, there are fishermen, matchmakers, silly sons, second brothers, Taoist priests and monks. The performer's funny performance can arouse the audience's great interest. In the south, stilts play the role of traditional operas, including Guan Gong, Zhang Fei, Lv Dongbin, He Xiangu, Zhang Sheng, matchmaker, Jigong, immortal and clown. They sang while performing, making fun and entertaining themselves.
It is said that this form of walking on stilts was originally developed by ancient people in order to collect wild fruits from trees for food and tie two long sticks to their legs.
The custom of Lantern Festival is all diseases.
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.
The custom of Lantern Festival is to chase mice.
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.
The custom of Lantern Festival is to welcome Zi Gu.
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.
The custom of watching lights on Lantern Festival
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).
The custom of Lantern Festival: lion dance
Lion dance is an excellent folk art in China. Whenever the Lantern Festival or the celebration of the General Assembly, people always come to the lion dance to entertain. This custom originated in the Three Kingdoms period and was popular in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. It has a history of 1000 years. According to legend, it was first introduced from the western regions, and the lion was the mount of Manjusri Bodhisattva. As Buddhism was introduced into China, lion dance was also introduced into China. The lion is a tribute brought back with the peacock after Emperor Wu of Han sent Zhang Qian to the Western Regions.
However, the skill of lion dance originated from Xiliang's "masked play". Some people think that lion dance originated from the army in the fifth century and was later introduced to the people. Both statements have their own basis, and it is difficult to judge whether they are right or wrong today. However, in the Tang Dynasty, lion dance has become a popular activity in the court, the army and the people.
Tang Duanan Festival "Yuefu Miscellaneous Search" said: "There are five lions in the play, more than ten feet high, each with five colors. Each lion has 12 people, wearing red stripes, wearing clothes and painting clothes, and holding red pens. They are called lion lang and dance Taiping music. " The poet Bai Juyi described it vividly in his poem "West Cool Geisha": "West Cool Geisha, West Cool Geisha, Masked Hu Ren, False Lion. Wood carvings at the head and tail, gold-plated eyes and silver teeth. Fenxun sweaters have ears, such as coming to Wan Li from quicksand. " This poem describes the scene of lion dance at that time.
The custom of Lantern Festival is to play with dragon lanterns.
Playing with dragon lanterns is also called "dragon dance" and "dragon dance". It is a unique traditional folk entertainment activity in China. "Playing with Dragon Lantern" has been quite common in Han Dynasty in China. In the performances of "Shehuo" and "Dance Team" in the Tang and Song Dynasties, "playing with dragon lanterns" has become a common form of performance. There are two kinds of performances of "playing dragon lantern": "single dragon playing pearl" and "double dragon playing pearl". In terms of gameplay, local styles are different and each has its own characteristics.
In artistic creation, through the continuous processing and creation of folk artists, "Playing Dragon Lantern" has developed into a romantic folk dance art with perfect form, equivalent performance skills and is deeply loved by the masses.