The Lantern Festival is one of the grandest festivals in China, and the "Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first month" has a long history in China. The word "haunted" summarizes its distinctive folklore characteristics.
Eating the Lantern Festival symbolizes the meaning of reunion. Originally, the Lantern Festival was called "Tangyuan" because it floated in a bowl and looked like a bright moon hanging in the sky. The moon is full in the sky, the bowl is full of dumplings, the whole family is reunited, and the scene is just like the Taiwanese folk song "Selling Dumplings", which says: "A bowl of dumplings is full and full, and eating dumplings is a good reunion." Eating dumplings, reunion, great luck, and then people will directly call it the Lantern.
Shangyuan, containing the meaning of the first full moon of the new year. According to the book Miscellaneous Records of the Year, this is due to the stereotypes of Taoism. Taoism used to call the 15th day of the first month of the year the Shangyuan Festival, while the rest of the year, the 15th day of the 7th month was the Zhongyuan Festival and the 15th day of the 10th month was the Xiayuan Festival.
The most interesting is the Festival of Lights. On the fifteenth day of the first month, the custom of opening lanterns for viewing is popular among the people, and thus it is also called the Festival of Lights. According to folklore, the first day of the first month of the fifteenth lights originated in ancient times in the farmhouse "shine field silkworms" custom. The so-called light field silkworms, refers to the night of the Lantern Festival, farmers in the long bamboo pole hanging a lamp inserted in the field, to observe the color of the fire in order to predict the drought and flood situation. Later, when the time to shine silkworms, people will be a variety of colorful lamps more and more sophisticated, shine silkworms have lost the original meaning, evolved into a kind of entertainment Lanterns.
Since the formation of the custom of the lights, the dynasties have been to the first month of the fifteenth lights as a great event to see the lights. From Han to Sui, every year on the fifteenth day of the first month to hold a grand party. Through the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, this activity has been very prosperous.
The capital is the capital of all generations, every year on the fifteenth day of the first month is the most lively. Especially haunted lanterns, but also unique. Why? Because there is a street called "Dengshikou Street" in the east side of the city. You can tell from the name that this place is a market for selling lanterns. When I was a child, I lived in the neighborhood of Dengshikou, and I often listened to the stories of this street from the adults.
Dengshikou Street, is a street running east to west. The west mouth of Wangfujing Street, the east mouth of Dongdan North Street. From the first day of the year to the 15th day of the first month of the lunar calendar, this street is filled with stalls selling lanterns. The lanterns come in a variety of colors, styles and shapes. The colorful lanterns depict a variety of designs, or dancing, or birds flying flowers, or dragons and fish leaping.
In terms of variety, there are many, hanging lanterns, rolling dragon lanterns, welcome sedan chair lamps, horse lanterns, water lanterns, show ice lanterns ...... are all available. Lanterns of various colors flutter in the wind during the day, and at night they are all lit up. Men and women, young and old, bustling, people are there to watch lanterns, buy lanterns. Children are so happy that they buy a lantern and light it up, then carry it through the crowd and play with it, which is a great sight to see.
The Lantern Festival is also accompanied by riddle-guessing activities. Lantern riddles are various riddles written on the lanterns. People look at the riddles and guess the riddles while watching the lanterns. Riddles have a long history in our country and reflect the excellent traditional culture. People are cultured while guessing riddles.
The fifteenth day of the first lunar month is a rather unique traditional festival. In this festival, there are many activities throughout: from the natural scenery, it is a full moon, a full moon hanging in the air, people can enjoy the moon; from the human activities, there are eating Lanterns, lanterns, riddles, dragon dance, stilt walking and so on. These touchable activities will make this festival lively and lively. Although now has entered the modern life, but the traditional festival folklore is still "live" in people's hearts.