The two lines of the ancient poem describing the Lantern Festival are Moon on the Willow Tops, People after Dusk. From Ouyang Xiu Shengcha Zi - Yuanxiao. The Lantern Festival is the fifteenth day of the first month, the first full moon after the New Year.

Introduction of Lantern Festival

Lantern Festival is a traditional Chinese festival, the formation of the Lantern Festival custom has a long process, rooted in the ancient folk custom of turning on the lanterns to pray for blessings. Lights to pray for blessings usually in the first month of the fourteenth night began to "test lights", the fifteenth night for the "lights", the folk want to point lamps, also known as "send lamps", in order to carry out sacrifices to the gods to pray for blessings. The introduction of Buddhist culture in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

For the formation of the Lantern Festival custom also has an important significance to promote the Han Mingdi Yongping years, the Han Mingdi in order to promote Buddhism, ordered the night of the 15th day of the first month of the palace and the temple "lighted table Buddha.

So the custom of burning lanterns on the 15th night of the first month of the lunar calendar expanded gradually in China with the expansion of the influence of Buddhist culture and the later addition of Taoist culture. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Lantern Festival became a trend. Emperor Wu of Liang believed in Buddhism, his palace on the fifteenth day of the first month of the big lights.

The 15th day of the first month of the lunar calendar is the Lantern Festival, also known as the Shangyuan Festival, the night of the first yuan, the Festival of Lights. The first month is the first month of the lunar calendar, the ancients called the night for "night", so the first month of the fifteenth for the "Lantern Festival". With the changes of society and time, the customs of the Lantern Festival have long been changed, but it is still a traditional Chinese folk festival. Lantern Festival in the early process of formation of the festival, only known as the first month of the fifteenth, the first half of the first month or the moon.