Lantern Festival: It is a big festival in Chinese traditional festivals, which is quite prominent. The Lantern Festival got its name because its festival activities were held on the fifteenth night of the first month of the year. Lantern Festival is also called "Lantern Festival" and "Lantern Festival", because the main activity of this festival is to put on lights at night, hence the name. In addition, the Lantern Festival is also called "Shangyuan" and "Shangyuan Festival", which is borrowed from Taoism. There are many opinions about the formation of the Lantern Festival custom, but it generally took shape in the Han Dynasty. In the history of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty offered sacrifices to a god named Taiyi. It is said that Taiyi was a very prominent deity at that time, ranking above the Five Emperors and being indebted to the Han Emperor, so he was greatly worshipped. According to legend, another Han emperor, Emperor Wendi, was also related to the Lantern Festival. The Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty acceded to the throne as the emperor when the general zhou bo leveled the "Zhulv Rebellion", and the day when the rebellion was leveled was the fifteenth day of the first month. Therefore, every night after that, the Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty went out to play in the palace to enjoy the people, and this day was determined as the Lantern Festival. However, there is no record of lighting or setting fire on the fifteenth night of the first lunar month, which is related to these two Han emperors. Another Han emperor, Emperor Han Ming, ordered Lantern Festival to light, thus forming the custom of lighting and watching lanterns in later generations. There are several interesting legends about the origin of the Lantern Festival among the people: Legends about lanterns. Long ago, there were many fierce birds and beasts, which harmed people and livestock everywhere. People organized themselves to beat them. A god bird got lost and landed on earth, but was accidentally shot dead by an unsuspecting hunter. The Emperor of Heaven was very angry when he learned about it. He immediately sent a decree and ordered the heavenly soldiers to set fire to the earth on the 15th day of the first month, and burned all the human and animal property. The daughter of Emperor Tiandi was kind-hearted. She couldn't bear to see the innocent suffering of the people, so she risked her life and secretly drove Xiangyun to the world to tell people the news. When people heard the news, it was like a thunderclap on their heads. I was so scared that I didn't know what to do. It was a long time before an old man came up with an idea. He said, "On the 14th, 15th and 16th of the first month, every family decorated their houses, lit firecrackers and set off fireworks. In this way, the emperor of heaven will think that people have been burned to death. " Everyone nodded and said yes, so they were ready to go separately. On the night of the fifteenth day of the first month, the Emperor looked down and found that the world was red and the noise was deafening for three consecutive nights. He thought it was the flame of a big fire, and it was fast. In this way, people saved their lives and property. In order to commemorate this success, every household hangs lanterns and sets off fireworks to commemorate this day on the fifteenth day of the first month. Another legend is that the Lantern Festival was set up in memory of Pinglu when Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty was in memory of Pinglu. After the death of Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang, Lv Hou's son Liu Ying became Emperor Hui of Han Dynasty. Huidi was born weak and indecisive, and the power gradually fell into the hands of Lv Hou. After Emperor Huidi died, Lv Hou monopolized the state affairs and turned Liu's world into Lu's world. The old minister in the DPRK and Liu's imperial clan were deeply indignant, but they were all afraid of Lv Hou's cruelty and dared not speak out. After Lv Hou died, Zhu Lu was afraid of being hurt and excluded. So, in the home of the general Lv Lu, they secretly assembled and conspired for the insurrection, so as to completely seize Liu Jiangshan. The matter reached the ears of Liu Nang, the king of the Liu clan. Liu Nang decided to attack Zhu Lv in order to protect Liu Jiangshan. Later, he got in touch with zhou bo and Chen Ping, the founding elders, and designed to remove Lv Lu. After the rebellion, all the ministers established Liu Bang's second son, Liu Heng, to reign, calling him Emperor Wen. Deeply impressed by the hard-won peace and prosperity, Wen Di put an end to the "Zhu Lv Rebellion". Since then, the fifteenth day of the first month has become a popular folk festival-"Lantern Festival". The legend of Dong Fangshuo and Yuanxiao Girl is related to the custom of eating Yuanxiao: According to legend, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty had a favorite named Dong Fangshuo, who was kind and funny. One winter, it snowed heavily for several days, and Dong Fangshuo went to the Imperial Garden to fold plum blossoms for Emperor Wu. As soon as I entered the garden gate, I found a maid-in-waiting in tears ready to throw herself into the well. Dong Fangshuo rushed forward to help and asked why she wanted to commit suicide. It turns out that this maid-in-waiting is named Yuanxiao, and there are parents and a sister at home. Since she entered the palace, she has never seen her family again. Every year when spring comes, I miss my family more than usual. I think it is better to die than to be filial in front of my parents. Dong Fangshuo was deeply sympathetic to what happened to her and assured her that she would try to reunite her with her family. One day, Dong Fangshuo left the palace and set up a divination booth on Chang 'an Avenue. Many people are vying to ask him for divination. Unexpectedly, what everyone wants is the signature of "the sixteenth day of the first month burns us". Suddenly, there was a great panic in Chang 'an. People are asking for solutions to the disaster. Dong Fangshuo said, "On the evening of the 13th day of the first month, Vulcan will send a goddess in red to visit the earth. She is the messenger who ordered the burning of Chang 'an. I will give you the transcribed poems, so that the emperor can do something." Say that finish, then dropped a red post and roared off. The common people picked up the red post and quickly sent it to the palace to report to the emperor. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty took it and saw that it said, "Chang 'an is robbing, the imperial palace is being burned by fire, and the fire is burning for fifteen days, and the midnight snack is red." He was so frightened that he quickly invited Dong Fangshuo, who was resourceful. Dong Fangshuo thought for a while, and said, "I heard that Vulcan loves to eat glutinous rice balls. Doesn't Yuanxiao in the palace often make glutinous rice balls for you? Let Yuanxiao make dumplings on 15th night. Long live the incense and offerings, and command every family in Kyoto to make dumplings and worship Vulcan together. Then tell the subjects to hang lights together on the fifteenth night, light firecrackers and set off fireworks all over the city, which seems to be a fire all over the city, so that the jade emperor can be fooled. In addition, inform the people outside the city that they will go to the city to watch the lights on the fifteenth night, and they will eliminate disasters and solve problems in the crowd. " Upon hearing this, Emperor Wudi was very happy, so he ordered him to do it according to Dong Fangshuo's way. On the fifteenth day of the first month, Chang 'an city was decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations, and tourists were bustling and lively. The parents of the maid-in-waiting Yuanxiao also took their sister to the city to watch the lights. When they saw the big palace lantern with the words "Yuanxiao" written on it, they shouted in surprise: "Yuanxiao! Lantern Festival! " When Yuanxiao heard the shouts, she was finally reunited with her relatives at home. After such a busy night, Chang 'an was safe. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was overjoyed, so he ordered that glutinous rice balls should be made for Vulcan every fifteenth day of the first month, and the whole city would hang lights and set off fireworks on the fifteenth day of the first month. Because Yuanxiao makes the best dumplings, people call them Yuanxiao, and this day is called Lantern Festival. The origin of the Spring Festival Modern folk customs call it the Spring Festival. In fact, the origin of Chinese New Year and Spring Festival is very different. So how did the year come from? There are mainly two kinds of folk sayings: one is that in ancient times, there was a fierce monster called Nian, which went from house to house on the thirtieth day of the twelfth lunar month, foraging for human flesh and killing creatures. On the thirtieth night of the twelfth lunar month, Nian arrived in a village, and it happened that two cowboys were competing for a bullwhip. "Nian" suddenly heard the sound of a whip in mid-air, and ran away in fear. It fled to another village, and saw a bright red dress drying in front of a door. It didn't know what it was, so it turned around and ran away. Later, he came to a village, looked into the door of a family, and saw the bright lights inside, which made him dizzy and had to slip away again, with his tail between his legs. From this, people realized the weakness of "Nian", which is afraid of noise, red and light, and thought of many ways to resist it, so it gradually evolved into the custom of celebrating the New Year today. Another way of saying this is that ancient Chinese calligraphy books put the word "nian" in the grain department to show that the weather is good and the crops are abundant. Because cereal crops are usually harvested once a year. The "year" was extended to the name of the year. Although there was a custom of celebrating the Spring Festival in ancient China, it was not called the Spring Festival at that time. Because the Spring Festival mentioned at that time refers to the "beginning of spring" in the 24 solar terms. The Northern and Southern Dynasties generally referred to the Spring Festival as the whole spring. It is said that it was after the Revolution of 1911 that the Lunar New Year was officially named Spring Festival. Because the solar calendar was to be used at that time, in order to distinguish between agriculture and yang, the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar had to be renamed "Spring Festival". Origin of the Spring Festival Among the traditional folk festivals in China, the Spring Festival is the most important one. In the twelfth lunar month, the weather is freezing, farm work is relatively idle, and people have more time, so the celebrations during the Spring Festival are more colorful than other festivals, and these activities have special festive characteristics. In the past, in the vast urban and rural towns, people selling New Year pictures, hanging money and window grilles, lamps and firecrackers, Facebook and Spring Festival couplets were all red, green and green, and the annual stalls were next to each other, beaming and full of festive atmosphere. On the thirtieth day of the twelfth lunar month, when the hour hand moved past midnight (midnight), firecrackers immediately rang and ushered in the first morning of the New Year. The Spring Festival was called "New Year's Day" in ancient times. "Yuan" is the beginning, "Dan" is the morning, and "New Year's Day" is the first morning of the year. In Erya, the annotation of "Nian" is: "Summer is called Nian, Shang is called Si, and Zhou is called Nian." Since the Shang Dynasty, the full moon has been missing once for January, the first day for the new moon, and the fifteenth day for hope. The beginning of each year starts at midnight on the first day of the first month and is called "New Year's Day" or "January Day". By the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Sima Qian had more and more rich experience in observing images and timing, so he created taichu calendar, and determined the first month as the beginning of the year, and the first day of the first month as the New Year. Since then, the custom of the Lunar New Year has been handed down. According to the Book of Songs, every Lunar New Year, farmers drink "spring wine", wish "changing the year", enjoy themselves and celebrate the bumper harvest of the year. In the Jin Dynasty, there was also a program of setting off firecrackers, that is, igniting piles of fires, burning bamboo in the fire and making crackling firecrackers, which made the festive atmosphere stronger. In the Qing Dynasty, the activities of setting off firecrackers, decorating lanterns and celebrating the new year became more lively. In the Qing Dynasty, Pan Rongsheng's "Victory at the Age of Emperor Jing" recorded: "On New Year's Eve, the night is the first time to make friends, and the treasure torch outside the door is competing for glory, and the jade is competing. ..... I heard the sound of firecrackers like thunder and thunder, all over the ruling and opposition parties, and didn't stop all night. " In different historical periods of ancient China, the Spring Festival has different meanings. In the Han Dynasty, people designated "beginning of spring" as the Spring Festival among the 24 solar terms. In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, people called the whole spring Spring Festival. In 1911, the Revolution of 1911 overthrew the rule of the Qing Dynasty. In order to "follow the summer calendar, so follow the agricultural calendar, so make statistics", representatives of provincial governors held a meeting in Nanjing and decided to use the Gregorian calendar. In this way, the first day of the first lunar month is designated as the Spring Festival. Up to now, people still use the customary title of Spring Festival. There are many beautiful legends about the Spring Festival. Although these legends are not well-founded, they add a mythical color to the origin of the Spring Festival. Spring Festival is a symbol of unity and prosperity, with the hope of a new year.

It is said that there was a maid-in-waiting named "Yuanxiao" in the palace during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, who spent many years in seclusion in the palace, missing her parents and spending all her time in Lacrimosa. Dong Fangshuo, the minister, was determined to help her, so she lied to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty that Vulcan was ordered by the Jade Emperor to burn Chang 'an on the fifteenth day of the first month. The only way to escape the hardship was to let the "Lantern Festival Girl" make many dumplings that Vulcan loved to eat on the fifteenth day of the first month, and all the subjects decorated them with lanterns. With the help of Emperor Wu, the "Lantern Festival Girl" finally met her family. Since then, the Lantern Festival has been formed. There are many opinions about the formation of the Lantern Festival custom, but it generally took shape in the Han Dynasty. In the history of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty offered sacrifices to a god named Taiyi. It is said that Taiyi was a very prominent deity at that time, ranking above the Five Emperors and being indebted to the Han Emperor, so he was greatly worshipped. According to legend, another Han emperor, Emperor Wendi, was also related to the Lantern Festival. Yuanxiao, also known as Tangyuan, has many nicknames in history, such as "Mian Cocoon, Fenguo, Yuanbao, Soup Cake, and Yuanbujiao", etc. It was not officially named Yuanxiao until the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty. Yuanxiao can be divided into two types: stuffed and unfilled. The one without stuffing is small and sweet, with white sugar, longan, sweet-scented osmanthus, diced lotus root and candied fruit as seasoning, also known as "pearl dumplings", and the one with stuffing is big and shaped like walnuts. Yuanxiao in the north is mostly sweet, including white sugar, bean paste, sesame and hawthorn, while those in the south are sweet, salty, meaty and vegetarian, especially Ningbo glutinous rice balls and Guiyang Wujia glutinous rice balls. "Sweet-scented osmanthus stuffing is wrapped in walnuts, and the rice is like a pearl well water. See that Ma's family is good at dropping powder, and try to sell Yuanxiao in the wind. " This Qing Dynasty poem "On the Bamboo Branch of Shangyuan" reflects the habit of eating glutinous rice balls on the Lantern Festival in Beijing long ago, and at that time there was already a font name famous for selling glutinous rice balls.