Lantern Festival, also known as Shangyuan Festival, Little Lantern Festival, Lantern Festival or Lantern Festival, is one of the traditional festivals in China on the 15th day of the first lunar month.
The first month is the first month of the lunar calendar, and the ancients called "night". The fifteenth day of the first month is the first full moon night in a year, so it is called "Lantern Festival". According to the Taoist "Sanyuan Festival", the fifteenth day of the first month is also called "Shangyuan Festival".
Since ancient times, the custom of Lantern Festival has been based on the warm and festive custom of watching lanterns.
The formation of Lantern Festival custom has a long process. According to general data and folklore, the fifteenth day of the first month was paid attention to in the Western Han Dynasty. On the night of the first month, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty offered sacrifices to "Taiyi" in Ganquan Palace, which was regarded by later generations as the first sacrifice to the gods on the fifteenth day of the first month.
However, the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month is indeed a folk festival after the Han and Wei Dynasties. The custom of burning lanterns on the fifteenth day of the first month is related to the eastward spread of Buddhism.
During the Tang dynasty, Buddhism flourished, and officials and ordinary people generally "lit lanterns for the Buddha" on the fifteenth day of the first month, so Buddha lanterns spread all over the people. Since the Tang Dynasty, the Lantern Festival has become a legal thing and has gradually become a folk custom.
Lantern Festival is one of the traditional festivals in China, Chinese character cultural circle and overseas Chinese. Lantern Festival mainly includes a series of traditional folk activities, such as watching lanterns, eating glutinous rice balls, solve riddles on the lanterns and setting off fireworks.
In addition, in many places, traditional folk performances, such as playing dragon lanterns, playing lions, walking on stilts, boating, yangko dancing and playing Taiping drums, have all joined the Lantern Festival. In June 2008, the Lantern Festival was selected as the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage.