What are the traditional cultures of Lantern Festival?
1, eat Yuanxiao
Eating Yuanxiao on the fifteenth day of the first month, as a food, has a long history in China. In the Song Dynasty, a novel food for the Lantern Festival was popular among the people. This kind of food was first called "Floating Yuanzi" and later called "Yuanxiao", and businessmen also called it "Yuanbao". Yuanxiao, or "Tangyuan", is filled with white sugar, roses, sesame seeds, red bean paste, yellow cinnamon, walnut kernels, nuts and jujube paste, and wrapped in glutinous rice flour into a round shape, which can be both meat and vegetarian and has different flavors. It can be boiled in soup, fried and steamed, which means a happy reunion. Shaanxi dumplings are not wrapped, but "rolled" in glutinous rice flour, or boiled or fried, hot and round.
2. Lantern
The fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the Lantern Festival, which is also called Lantern Festival because there are customs such as hanging lanterns, lighting lanterns and watching lanterns.
3. solve riddles on the lanterns
Solve riddles on the lanterns, also known as playing riddles, is a unique form of traditional folk entertainment with rich national style in China. It is a characteristic activity of Lantern Festival that has been circulating since ancient times. On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, traditional folks hang lanterns and set off fireworks. Later, some busybodies wrote riddles on paper and posted them on colorful lanterns for people to guess. Because riddles can enlighten wisdom and cater to the festive atmosphere, so many people responded, and then guessing riddles gradually became an indispensable program of the Lantern Festival. Lantern riddles add to the festive atmosphere, showing the intelligence and wisdom of ancient working people and their yearning for a better life.
4. Play with dragon lanterns
Playing dragon lantern, also known as dragon lantern or dragon dance. The dragon dance recorded in writing is Zhang Heng's "Xijing Fu" in the Han Dynasty. The author vividly describes the dragon dance in the description of hundreds of plays. According to the Records of Sui Shu Music, Huanglongbian, which was similar to the dragon dance performance in one hundred plays during Emperor Yangdi's reign, was also very wonderful, and dragon dance was popular in many places in China. China worships dragons and regards them as auspicious symbols.
5. Walking on stilts
Walking on stilts is a popular folk mass performance. Stilts, originally one of the hundreds of ancient plays in China, appeared as early as the Spring and Autumn Period.
6, lion dance
Lion dance is an excellent folk art in China. Every Lantern Festival or assembly celebration, people always come to entertain with lion dance. This custom originated in the Three Kingdoms period and became popular in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. It has a history of more than 1000 years.
7. Row a dry boat
Rowing a dry boat, also known as running a dry boat, is to imitate the boat on land, and most of the performers are girls. A dry boat is not a real boat. It is made of two thin sheets, sawed into a boat shape, tied with bamboo and wood, covered with colored cloth, tied around the girl's waist, just like sitting in a boat, rowing with paddles in hand, singing and dancing while running. This is a dry boat. Sometimes, another man dressed as a boatman and performing with a partner, mostly dressed as a clown, amused the audience with all kinds of funny actions. Dry boating is popular in many areas of China.
8, offering doors, offering households
In ancient times, there were "seven sacrifices", 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. Rat by rat
Rat-chasing is a traditional folk activity during the Lantern Festival, which began in Wei and Jin Dynasties. Mainly for sericulture families. Because mice often eat silkworms in large areas at night, it is said that mice can stop eating silkworms by feeding them rice porridge on the fifteenth day of the first month.
10, send children's lights
Referred to as "sending lanterns" for short, it is also called "sending lanterns", that is, before the Lantern Festival, the bride's family sends lanterns to her newly married daughter's home, or ordinary relatives and friends give them to the newly married infertile home in order to add good luck, because "lamp" is homophonic with "Ding". This custom is found in many places. In Xi 'an, Shaanxi Province, lanterns are given during the eighth to fifteenth day of the first month. In the first year, a pair of palace lanterns and a pair of glass lamps with colorful paintings are given. I hope that my daughter will be lucky and have children early after marriage. 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 Qigu, and in the north, it 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 divine silkworm and mulberry, which accounts for many things. Legend has it that Zigu was originally a concubine and was envied by the eldest woman. She was killed in the toilet on the fifteenth day of the first month and became Ce Shen. On the night of greeting Zigu, people tie up a portrait of Zigu with straw and cloth heads, and greet it with a pigsty in the toilet at night. This custom is popular all over the north and south, and it was recorded as early as the Northern and Southern Dynasties.
12, walking all diseases
"Walking through all diseases", also known as swimming through all diseases, dispersing all diseases, baking all diseases, walking across the bridge, etc., is an activity to eliminate disasters and pray for health. On the night of Lantern Festival, women meet and travel together, and when they see a bridge, they must cross it, thinking that this can cure diseases and prolong life.
The origin of the lantern festival
The fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the Lantern Festival, also known as Shangyuan Festival, Lantern Festival and Lantern Festival. The first month is the first month of the lunar calendar. The ancients called the night "Xiao", so they called the fifteenth day of the first month the Lantern Festival. The 15th day of the first month is the night of the first full moon in a year, and it is also the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty. On the night in spring returns, people celebrate this and celebrate the continuation of the Spring Festival. The formation of Lantern Festival custom has a long process. According to general data and folklore, the fifteenth day of the first month has been paid attention to in the Western Han Dynasty. The activities of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to sacrifice "Taiyi" in Ganquan Palace on the night of the first month are regarded by later generations as the first sound of offering sacrifices to the gods on the fifteenth day of the first month. The introduction of Buddhist culture in the Eastern Han Dynasty is of great significance to the formation of the Lantern Festival custom.
Yuanxiao originally meant "the night of Shangyuan Festival", because the main activity of Shangyuan Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month was to eat glutinous rice balls and enjoy the moon at night, and later the name of the festival evolved into "Lantern Festival". On the night of Lantern Festival, the streets are decorated with lanterns, and people enjoy lanterns, solve riddles on the lanterns and eat Lantern Festival, which will push the celebration activities that began on New Year's Eve to another climax and become a custom that lasts for generations.