Do you eat Yuanxiao in the morning or in the evening on the fifteenth day of the first month?
In the past, the custom was to eat Yuanxiao at six or seven in the evening, which was also called Zhongyuan Festival in ancient times. In the evening, the whole city sends out lanterns and guesses riddles on them. Tangyuan is made of glutinous rice flour and difficult to digest. Ancient people only ate two meals a day. In order not to be hungry when watching lights at night, they will choose to eat glutinous rice balls at night. In this way, you can go out and watch the lights for a longer time, and you can digest food. Not so concerned now. I can eat whenever I like, but from a health point of view, I still don't eat Yuanxiao for breakfast.
What are the customs on the fifteenth day of the first month?
1, decorated with lanterns
Since the custom of decorating lanterns on the Lantern Festival came into being, it is a great event to watch lanterns on the fifteenth day of the first month in all dynasties. Emperor Wen of Liang Jian once wrote a poem "Li Edeng Fu": "The south is full of oil, and the west is full of paint. Su Zheng is resting in peace, and wax comes out of Longchuan. Oblique light reflection, clear reflection. " It depicts the grand occasion of the court decorating lanterns during the Lantern Festival. During the reign of Yang Di, a grand banquet was held every year on the 15th day of the first month to entertain guests and envoys from all over the world. According to the Records of Music in Sui Shu, the Lantern Festival is very grand, with lanterns and colorful decorations everywhere, singing and dancing day and night, with more than 30,000 performers and more than 0.8 million musicians. The stage is eight miles long, and countless people are watching lanterns, staying up all night, enjoying themselves and being very lively. In the Tang dynasty, it developed into an unprecedented lantern market, and after the middle Tang dynasty, it has developed into a national carnival. During the prosperous period of Kaiyuan in 685-762, the lantern market in Chang 'an was very large, with 50,000 lanterns of all kinds. The emperor ordered 20 giant lantern buildings with a height of 150 feet, resplendent and magnificent. In the Tang dynasty, a curfew was imposed, and it was forbidden to travel when drums were banned at night. Those who committed crimes at night were punished. Only on the Lantern Festival did the emperor grant a three-day ban, which was called "letting the night go". In the Song Dynasty, lanterns were extended from three nights to five nights. In addition to lanterns, fireworks were set off, and various juggling performances were held, making the scene more lively. "Tokyo Dream" records that during the Lantern Festival, on the Imperial Street in Kaifeng, 10,000 lanterns piled up into a lantern mountain, and the lanterns were fireworks, resplendent and magnificent. Girls in Kyoto are singing and dancing, and everyone is watching. "Tourists gather under the two corridors of Yujie Street, where there are strange skills, songs and dances, tangency of scales and noisy music for more than ten miles." In the streets, teahouses and restaurants light candles, gongs and drums are loud, firecrackers are ringing, and hundreds of miles of lights are lit. After Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne in Jinling in the Ming Dynasty, in order to make the capital prosperous and lively, it was also stipulated that the lights were turned off on the eighth day of the first month, and the lights were turned off on the seventeenth and ten nights. Every household is hung with colored lights, on which all kinds of people are dancing and birds are flying. Longteng fish jump lanterns and fireworks shine all night. Drum music is very interesting. Noisy is the longest Lantern Festival in China. 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.
2. Solve the riddle on the lantern
"Lantern riddle", also known as "playing riddles", is an added activity after the Lantern Festival. Lantern riddles first developed from riddles and originated in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. This is a literary game full of ridicule, discipline, humor and banter. Lantern riddles hung on lanterns for people to guess and shoot began in the Southern Song Dynasty. "Old Things in Wulin: Lights" records: "Poetry with silk lanterns means teasing, while painting characters, hiding hidden words and old Beijing slang, teasing pedestrians." On the Lantern Festival, the imperial city never sleeps, and the lanterns will be enjoyed in the spring night, and the people are mixed. Poems and riddles are written on lanterns, reflected on candles and listed on the road, so they are called "riddles". Now every Lantern Festival, playing riddles is everywhere, hoping to celebrate and be safe. Because riddles are enlightening and interesting, they are welcomed by all walks of life in the process of communication. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, various acrobatic skills began to appear in the lantern market. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, besides riddles and hundreds of operas, there were also opera performances. In addition to visiting the lantern market, people in the past dynasties also had customs such as welcoming children to visit Ce Shen, crossing the bridge and touching nails to walk away from all diseases, and playing games such as Taiping Drum, Yangko, stilts, dragon dance and lion dance.
Step 3 play with dragon lanterns
Also known as dragon lantern or dragon dance. Its origin can be traced back to ancient times. Legend has it that as early as the Yellow Emperor, in a large-scale song and dance in the suburbs of Qing Dynasty, there was a leading bird image played by a man, and then a dance scene with six dragons interspersed with each other was arranged. The dragon dance recorded in writing is Zhang Heng's Xijing Fu in Han Dynasty. The author vividly described the dragon dance in the descriptions of hundreds of plays. According to Sui Shu Le, Huanglongbian, which is similar to the dragon dance performance in Yang Di's hundred operas, is also very wonderful, and dragon dance is popular in many places in China. The Chinese nation advocates dragons and regards them as auspicious symbols.
Step 4 walk on stilts
Walking on stilts is a popular folk performance. Stilts, originally one of the hundred plays in ancient China, appeared as early as the Spring and Autumn Period. China first introduced stilts in Liezi Fu Shuo: "In the Song Dynasty, Zilan people used their skills to dry the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Summoned in the Song and Yuan Dynasties to see their skills.
5, 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. "Lion Dance" began in Wei and Jin Dynasties and flourished in Tang Dynasty. Also known as "lion dance" and "peace music". It is usually done by three people. Two people dressed as lions, one as the lion's head, one as the lion's body and hind feet, and one as the lion's head. Dance is divided into civilian and military. The dance shows the gentleness of the lion, shaking his hair and rolling. The military lion shows the ferocity of the lion.
Step 6 row a dry boat
Rowing a dry boat, folklore is to commemorate Dayu who has made great contributions to water control. Rowing a dry boat, also known as running a dry boat, is an imitation of a boat on land, and the performers are mostly girls. Dry boat is not a real boat. It is made of two thin wooden boards, sawed into a boat shape, tied with bamboo and wood, covered with colored cloth and tied around the girl's waist, just like sitting on a boat, rowing with paddles in hand, singing and jumping while running. This is a dry ship. Sometimes, another man dressed as a boatman performs with his partners, mostly dressed as a clown, and amuses the audience with all kinds of funny actions. Dry boats are very popular in many areas of China.
7. Eat Yuanxiao
As a kind of food, Yuanxiao 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". In ancient times, "Yuanxiao" was more expensive, and a poem said: "Guests look at the Imperial Street with a hook curtain, and the treasures in the city come for a while. There is no way to go before the curtain, and the money can't be returned. " Yuanxiao is rolled in the north and Tangyuan is wrapped in the south, which are two foods with different practices and tastes. 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.
8, offering doors, offering households
There were "seven sacrifices" in ancient times, which were two of them. The method of sacrifice is to insert poplar branches above the door, insert a pair of chopsticks in a bowl filled with bean porridge, or put wine and meat directly in front of the door.
9. A mouse.
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. According to the Chronicle of Jingchu, on the fifteenth day of the first month, a fairy descended to a family named Chen and said to them: If you can sacrifice to me, let your silkworms have a good harvest. Later, a custom was formed.
10, send children's lights
Short for "sending lanterns", it is also called "sending lanterns", that is, before the Lantern Festival, the bride's family sends lanterns to the newly married daughter's house, or ordinary relatives and friends give them to the newly married infertile family to add auspiciousness, because "lamp" is homophonic with "Ding". This custom exists in many places. In Xi city, Shaanxi province, lanterns are put on from the eighth to the fifteenth day of the first month. In the first year, a pair of palace lanterns and a pair of stained glass lamps were presented. I hope my daughter will be lucky after marriage and have children early. If the daughter is pregnant, in addition to the big palace lantern, one or two pairs of small lanterns should be sent to wish her a safe pregnancy.
1 1, Yingzigu
Zigu is also called Gucci, and in the north she is called toilet aunt and pit aunt. The ancient folk custom is to offer sacrifices to Ce Shen Zigu on the 15th day of the first month, and to offer sacrifices to silkworm and mulberry, which shows many things. Legend has it that Zi Guyuan was a concubine and was envied by her eldest daughter. On the fifteenth day of the first month, he was killed in the toilet and turned into Ce Shen. On the night of welcoming the daughter-in-law, people tie the portrait of the daughter-in-law with straw and cloth, and greet her in the toilet with pigsty at night. It truly reflects the thoughts and feelings of kind, loyal and sympathetic working people. This custom is popular in the north and south, and it was recorded as early as the Northern and Southern Dynasties.
12, walking all diseases
"Walk through all the diseases" is also called swimming through all the diseases, dispelling all the diseases, baking all the diseases, crossing the bridge and so on. It is an activity to eliminate disasters and pray for blessings. On the Lantern Festival night, women meet and go out together. When they see the bridge, they will cross it, thinking that this can cure diseases and prolong life. Walking away from all diseases has been a custom in the north since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, some of which were carried out in the fifteenth, but most of them were carried out in the sixteenth. On this day, women dressed in festive costumes went out of their homes in droves, crossed the bridge for danger, went into the city, and knelt down to beg for their children until midnight.
13, men and women engaged
China's Valentine's Day 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 Lantern Festival is 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". A girl who wants a happy marriage should steal onions or vegetables from the garden at midnight and look forward to a happy family in the future.
What does it mean to eat Yuanxiao on the fifteenth day of the first month?
The custom of eating Yuanxiao on Lantern Festival was formed in Song Dynasty. According to records, in the Tang Dynasty, people ate "cocoons" and "circles don't fall into corners" on the Lantern Festival. "Lactose dumplings" appeared in the Southern Song Dynasty, which should be the predecessor of glutinous rice balls. In the Song Dynasty, Zhou Bida wrote a poem "Cooking a Floating Zi Yuan on the Lantern Festival", including the poem "There are stars in dark clouds and pearls in turbid water". By the Ming Dynasty, "Yuanxiao" had more names. It means celebration and family reunion. It can also warm the spleen and stomach, regulate qi and resist the cold in spring. Yuanxiao was originally called "Tangyuan" because it floats on the water after boiling, which is beautiful and reminds people of a bright moon hanging on the clouds. There is a bright moon in the sky, jiaozi in the bowl, and every family is round and round, symbolizing reunion and good luck. Therefore, eating Yuanxiao expresses people's love for family reunion.
Yuanxiao is not suitable for breakfast.
Yuanxiao is a high-calorie and high-sugar food, but it lacks nutrition. Not suitable for breakfast, not easy to digest. When people get up early, the gastrointestinal function is the weakest. Yuanxiao is mostly glutinous rice, which is sticky and difficult to digest. Eating Yuanxiao for breakfast is prone to pantothenic acid and heartburn, which affects the work and life of the day.