Lantern Festival and Spring Festival are one of the important festivals in China. As the saying goes, Lantern Festival is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month, which will push the celebration from New Year's Eve to another climax. The following is "the origin of Lantern Festival and Spring Festival", I hope I can help you!
The Origin of Lantern Festival: When did the Lantern Festival originate?
Lantern Festival, the Lantern Festival is the main traditional festival in China, also called Yuanxiao, Yuanxiao, and Shangyuan Festival, because it is the first full moon night of the New Year. Because this festival has the custom of watching lanterns in past dynasties, it is also called Lantern Festival. The Origin and Legend of the Spring Festival (Analysis of the Origin and Legend of the Spring Festival)
The main custom of the Lantern Festival is to eat Yuanxiao, and the earliest record of eating Yuanxiao can be found in the Song Dynasty. At that time, Yuanxiao was called "floating dumplings", "dumplings", "lactose dumplings" and "sugar dumplings". According to historical records such as Pingyuan Xu, Guangji Four Years Old and Ode to Daming, Yuanxiao, as a timely food to celebrate the Lantern Festival, began in the Song Dynasty. Because we must eat "Zi Yuan" during the Lantern Festival, people named it Yuanxiao.
There are two theories about the origin of Lantern Festival.
First, Lantern Festival is a traditional festival in China, which began in the Western Han Dynasty more than 2,000 years ago. Lantern Festival viewing began in the period of Emperor Han Ming in the East. Ming Di advocates Buddhism. He heard that in Buddhism, there was a custom of monks watching the relics light up to worship Buddha on the fifteenth day of the first month, so he ordered them to light up to worship Buddha in palaces and temples that night, so that all the cremation and ordinary people could hang up lights. Later, this Buddhist ceremonial festival gradually formed a grand folk festival. This festival has experienced the development process from the court to the people, and from the Central Plains to the whole country.
Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty ordered the 15th day of the first month to be designated as the Lantern Festival. During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the sacrificial activities of "Taiyi God" were scheduled for the 15th day of the first month. Taiyi: the God who rules the universe. When Sima Qian created the taichu calendar Law, he had already identified the Lantern Festival as a major festival.
Secondly, the custom of burning lanterns in the Lantern Festival originated from the "ternary theory" of Taoism; The fifteenth day of the first month is Shangyuan Festival, the fifteenth day of July is Zhongyuan Festival, and the fifteenth day of October is Xiayuan Festival. The officials in charge of the upper, middle and lower elements are heaven, earth and man respectively. The celestial officials are happy and the Lantern Festival should be lit. The festivals and customs of Lantern Festival have been extended and expanded with the development of history. As far as the length of festivals is concerned, there is only one day in Han Dynasty, three days in Tang Dynasty and five days in Song Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, lights were lit from the eighth day of August until the seventeenth night of the first month, a total of ten days. Connected with the Spring Festival, it is a city during the day, full of excitement, and brightly lit at night, which is spectacular. Especially the exquisite and colorful lights make it the climax of entertainment activities during the Spring Festival. In the Qing Dynasty, there were more "hundred operas" such as dragon dancing, lion dancing, dry boating, walking on stilts and yangko dancing, but the festival period was shortened to four to five days.
It is understood that the formation of the 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. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sacrificed "Taiyi" in Ganquan Palace on the moonlit night, which was regarded by later generations as the "first sound" of offering sacrifices to the gods on the fifteenth day of the first month. However, the fifteenth day of the first month is indeed a folk festival after the Han and Wei Dynasties. The introduction of Buddhist culture in the Eastern Han Dynasty is of great significance to the formation of Lantern Festival customs.
So, what about the legend of the Lantern Festival?
There are two legends about Lantern Festival, which are completely different. Some people say that the legend of Lantern Festival is that the Jade Emperor wants to unify the human world, while others say that the emperor's desire to kill mankind is different. What is the legend of Lantern Festival? Why are there these two diametrically opposite legends? See below.
Legend of Lantern Festival 1:
According to legend, in ancient times, in order to unify the whole country, the Jade Emperor sent the Kitchen God Bodhisattva to stay on earth to understand the people's feelings and report back every Wednesday. On the 23rd of the winter month in the summer calendar, the Kitchen God Bodhisattva reported back to the Jade Emperor: "People on earth eat only meager food for 365 days a year. Work hard every day and never rest. If this continues, I am worried that the common people will be exhausted and unable to produce because of excessive fatigue, which will definitely affect their contribution. " When the Jade Emperor heard this, he ordered his ministers to discuss a good plan. Taibai Jinxing said: "Your Majesty can order the founder of Heng Tuo to come down to earth and give people some medicine so that they can get sick slowly and rest naturally." The jade emperor allowed it to play, and the task was handled accordingly.
On the morning of the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, Father Heng Tuo secretly put crazy drugs in people's rice cookers. When the medicine is put into the pot, it becomes soybeans, peas, garlic sprouts, tofu and meat. After eating it, the people are really "crazy" slowly: women sew new clothes and embroidered shoes, and men kill pigs and sheep, unwilling to work in the fields. After the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, crazy people became very valuable for medicine. People invite people to eat at their host's house and drink at their home. At noon on the thirtieth day of the twelfth lunar month, the people took out all kinds of delicious food and sat around the table, and the family ate and drank. From the first day of the first month, men, women and children not only eat well, but also play around all day. Some painted painted faces, beating gongs and drums, wandering around; Some people invite people to pay a New Year call with gifts.
On the thirteenth day of the first month, the kitchen god bodhisattva said to heaven, "Your Majesty, no, the people are crazy! Eat and play, live and do nothing. At this rate, how can you get it? " The Jade Emperor was very surprised when he heard that, so he ordered his ministers to discuss the best plan again. Taibai Venus also said, "If you want to cure crazy people, you can make the drug king Bodhisattva try." The Jade Emperor allowed the medicine king Bodhisattva to descend to the earth to govern.
On the 14th night of the first month, Bodhisattva, the King of Medicine, made the people's supper into glutinous rice balls, and put sesame seeds, walnuts, sugar and other anti-hangover agents into them. People ate them, and all the madness recovered the next morning, and the family went back to work as usual.
In this way, the cycle continues, forming the habit of Chinese New Year.
Legend of Lantern Festival 2:
Legend has it that a long time ago, there were many fierce birds and beasts everywhere that hurt people and livestock, so people organized to defeat them. A god bird was trapped and landed on the earth, but was accidentally shot by an unsuspecting hunter. The Emperor of Heaven was very angry when he learned that. He immediately issued a decree, ordering the heavenly soldiers to set fire to the land on the fifteenth day of the first month, burning all the people, livestock and property. The daughter of the Emperor of Heaven is kind-hearted. She couldn't bear to see the innocent suffering of the people, so she risked her life and secretly rushed Xiangyun to the world to tell people the news. When people heard the news, it was like a blow to the head. I was so scared that I didn't know what to do. After a long time, 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, set off firecrackers and set off fireworks. In this way, the emperor will think that people have been burned to death. " Everyone nodded and said yes, and they were ready to go separately. On the night of the fifteenth day of the first month, the emperor looked down and found that for three consecutive nights, the world was red and the noise was deafening. He thought it was the flame of a big fire, and soon. In this way, people saved their lives and property. In order to commemorate this success, every household hangs lanterns and sets off fireworks on the fifteenth day of the first month to commemorate this day.
The Origin of the Spring Festival
The Spring Festival originated in the Shang Dynasty.
It is said that "Spring Festival" originated from the activities of offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors in the early and late Shang Dynasty in China (La Worship). In the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, there was an annual custom of celebrating harvest and offering sacrifices to ancestors at the turn of the new year, which can be regarded as the embryonic form of the year. However, the name of "Nian" appeared late, and the name of Nian began in the Zhou Dynasty. When the ancient emperors inherited the throne, they often stood on their own calendars in order to show the authority of the "son of heaven".
It was not until the Western Han Dynasty that the year 2000 was officially set, and it has continued to this day. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (140 ~ 87 BC) succeeded to the throne and decided to rebuild the calendar unification. Sima Qian suggested the establishment of taichu calendar, and the Spring Festival was held in the first month of Meng Chun. The calendar we adopt today has been revised by many dynasties since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, but the first day of the first lunar month, as the most solemn festival of the Chinese nation, has been inherited as a fixed day.
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