According to legend, soup dumplings originated in the Song Dynasty. At that time, Mingzhou (now Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province) rose to eat a novelty food, that is, with black sesame seeds, lard filling, adding a little sugar, the outside of the glutinous rice flour rolled into a ball, cooked, eat sweet and savory, interesting. Because this glutinous rice ball cooked in the pot and floating and sinking, so it was first called "floating Yuanzi", and later some areas of the "floating Yuanzi" renamed Lantern.

1. Lantern appreciation began in the Eastern Han Dynasty, Emperor Mingdi period, Emperor Mingdi advocated Buddhism, heard that the Buddhist monks on the fifteenth day of the first month to see the Buddha's relics, lighted lamps to honor the Buddha's practice, the night of the order in the palace and temples lighted lamps to honor the Buddha, so that the common people of the clan are hanging lamps.

Later this Buddhist ceremonial festival gradually formed a grand folk festival. The festival has gone through a process of development from the palace to the folk, from the Central Plains to the whole country.

2.

In the time of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, the 15th day of the first lunar month had already been ordered to be designated as the Lantern Festival. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the sacrifice of the "Taichi God" was scheduled for the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.

(Taiyi: the god who dominates everything in the universe). When Sima Qian created the "Taichu Calendar", the Lantern Festival was already recognized as a major festival.

Another theory is that the custom of burning lanterns at the Lantern Festival originated from the Taoist "Three Elements"; the 15th day of the first month is the Upper Elements Festival, the 15th day of the seventh month is the Middle Elements Festival, and the 15th day of the tenth month is the Lower Elements Festival.

Supervisor of the upper, middle and lower three yuan respectively for the sky, earth, human three officials, the heavenly officials happy, so the lanterns should be lit on the first yuan festival.

3.

The period of the Lantern Festival and its festivals and activities were prolonged and expanded with the development of history.

In terms of the length of the festival, the Han Dynasty is only one day, to the Tang Dynasty has been three days, the Song Dynasty is up to five days, the Ming Dynasty is from the eighth light, until the night of the seventeenth day of the first month of the lights, the whole ten days.

With the Spring Festival, the daytime for the city, bustling, night lighting, spectacular. Especially the delicate, colorful lights, making it the climax of the entertainment activities during the Spring Festival.

To the Qing Dynasty, and increased the dragon dance, lion dance, running boats, stilt walkers, twisting rice-planting songs and other "hundreds of theater" content, just shorten the festival period of four to five days.