New Year's Eve to eat Lantern Festival, "Lantern Festival" as a food, in our country has a long history. Song Dynasty, the folk that is popular a Lantern Festival to eat novelty food. This food, the earliest called "floating yuanzi" after the "Lantern", the businessman also beautifully called "Yuanbao". Lanterns to sugar, rose, sesame, bean paste, yellow cinnamon, walnuts, nuts, jujube paste, etc. for the filling, the filling will be shaped into a ball in the glutinous rice flour rolled into the dumplings are first made of glutinous rice flour skin, and then wrapped in the filling and become, the practice is completely different. Lanterns can be meat or vegetarian, with different flavors. Can be boiled in soup, fried, steamed, with the meaning of reunion.
2, the lantern
Han Mingdi Yongping years (A.D. 58-75), because Emperor Ming advocate Buddhism, coinciding with the return of Cai _ from India to seek the Buddha, said India's Moghul country on the 15th of the first month, the monks gathered to worship the Buddha's relics, is to participate in the Buddha's auspicious day and good time. Han Mingdi in order to promote Buddhism, ordered the first night of the first month of the 15th in the palace and the temple burning lamp table Buddha. Since then, the Lantern Lantern custom by the original only held in the palace and spread to the people. That is, every first month of the fifteenth, regardless of the scholarly or common people to hang lights, urban and rural all-night lights.
The custom of releasing lanterns on the first night of the new year developed into an unprecedented lantern market in the Tang Dynasty, when Chang'an, the capital, was already the world's largest metropolis with a population of one million people and an affluent society. Under the personal advocacy of the emperor, the Lantern Festival was held more and more luxurious. After the Middle Tang Dynasty, it became a national carnival. Tang Xuanzong (A.D. 685 - 762), the beginning of the heyday, Chang'an lamp market is very large, burning lamps 50,000, lanterns, lanterns, the emperor ordered to do giant lamp building, as wide as 20 rooms, 150 feet high, bright gold, extremely spectacular.
Song Dynasty, Lantern Festival Lantern Festival both in scale and the fantasy of the lights are better than the Tang Dynasty, and the activities of the more folkloric, stronger national characteristics. Later generations of Lantern Festival continues to develop, the festival of lights is also getting longer and longer,. Tang Dynasty lantern will be on the Yuan before and after one day, the Song Dynasty and after the sixteen added two days, the Ming Dynasty was extended to the eight to eighteen by the whole ten days.
To the Qing Dynasty, the Manchus dominated the Central Plains, the court no longer run the lanterns, but the folk lanterns are still spectacular. The date was shortened to five days, and continues to this day.
Lanterns have the meaning of light and add a child to the Taiwanese folklore, lighting the lanterns has the meaning of illuminating the future, and the Taiwanese language lamps and ding resonate with the representation of the birth of a boy, so in the past, the Lantern Festival, women will deliberately swim under the lanterns in the hope of "drilling lamp feet to give birth to eggs" (that is, drilling under the lamps, so as to give birth to a boy).
3, guessing riddles
Guessing riddles, also known as riddles, is a traditional activity of the Lantern Festival, riddles are the earliest from the development of riddles, originated in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period. Riddles hanging in the lamp, for people to guess shot, began in the Southern Song Dynasty. Southern Song Dynasty Zhou Mi, "Wulin old things lamps" recorded: "to silk lamps cut and write poetry, sometimes with ridicule, and painting characters, hidden hidden words, and the old capital gags, teasing pedestrians." Lantern Festival, the Imperial City is not night, the Spring Lantern Festival lanterns, the people mixed, the riddles book in the lamp, reflected in the candle, listed in the thoroughfare, anyone guess, so called "lantern riddles".
4, Valentine's Day
Lantern Festival is also a romantic festival, Lantern Festival in the traditional feudal society, but also to the unmarried men and women to know each other to provide an opportunity, the traditional society of young girls are not allowed to go out to free time, but the festival can be accompanied by a trip, Lantern Festival lanterns is just an opportunity to fellowship, unmarried men and women through the Lantern Festival can also be by the way to enjoy for themselves! The Lantern Festival is an opportunity to make friends. During the Lantern Festival, it is also a time for young men and women to meet their lovers.
In Taiwan, there are unmarried women in the Lantern Festival night to steal picking onions or vegetables will be married to a good husband of the traditional custom, commonly known as: "Stealing onions, marrying a good _," "Stealing vegetables, marrying a good son-in-law," hope that the marriage of the girl to the night of the Lantern Festival to vegetable garden Stealing green onions or vegetables, looking forward to the future of family happiness, the lantern market in the Tang Dynasty also appeared in the music and dance performance, thousands of courtesans, folk girls singing and dancing under the lights, called the line song, step song.
Ouyang Xiu (Sheng Chazi) cloud: last year's New Year's Eve, the flower market lights like day; the moon on the top of the willow, people after dusk. Xin Qiji (Qingyu case) wrote: the crowd looking for it a thousand degrees, the twilight look back, that person is in the lights of the end of the place. It is to describe the situation on the night of the Lantern Festival, and the traditional opera Chen San and Wu Niang are in the Lantern Festival to enjoy the lanterns into the encounter and love at first sight, Lechang Gongwen and Xu Deyan in the Lantern Festival to break the mirror to reunite, the Spring Lanterns Riddle Yuwen Yan and Shadow Niang in the Lantern Festival to engage in love. So the Lantern Festival is also China's "Valentine's Day".
5, walk a hundred diseases
The Lantern Festival in addition to the celebration, there are faith-based activities. That is to go a hundred diseases, also known as baked hundred diseases scattered hundred disease participants are mostly women, they walk in pairs or walk the wall, or across the bridge to walk the countryside, the purpose is to drive away the disease in addition to the disaster.
With the passage of time, the activities of the Lantern Festival more and more, many local festivals added to the play dragon lanterns, playing lions, stilt walkers, rowing the dry boat twisting rice-planting songs, playing the Taiping drums and other activities.
6, Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first month, there are some little-known folk activities have been lost, here are two or three. Sacrifice door, sacrificing households in ancient times, there are "seven sacrifices", this is one of the two. The method of sacrifice is very simple, put a branch of poplar tree above the portal, put a pair of chopsticks in a bowl with bean porridge, or put wine and meat directly in front of the door.
7. Rats
This activity is mainly said to people who raise silkworms. Because the rats often eat the silkworms in the night, people heard that on the fifteenth day of the first month with rice porridge to feed the rats, it can not eat the silkworms. So, these people in the first month of the fifteenth simmering on a big pot of sticky porridge, some also covered with a layer of meat on the top, the porridge with a bowl, put the porridge into the rat-infested roofs, corners, the side of the mouth also read the words, cursing the rats to eat silkworms again on the baby will not be good to die.
8, welcome purple aunt
Purple aunt is a good, poor girl in folklore. On the 15th day of the first month, Zigu died of poverty. The people sympathize with her, miss her, and in some places there is a custom of "welcoming the purple nun on the 15th day of the first month". Every night on this day and night, people use straw, cloth, etc. tied into a life-size portrait of the purple nun. Women have to stand to the purple nun often do the work of the toilet, pigsty and kitchen next to meet her, like treating her as a sister, pulling her hand, and she said sweet words, tears to comfort her, the scene is very vivid, a true reflection of the hard working people, kind, loyal, sympathetic to the feelings of the weak.