This legend 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.
Introduction to Lantern Festival:
Lantern Festival is a traditional festival in China, which existed as early as the Western Han Dynasty more than two thousand years ago.
Lantern Festival began in the period of Emperor Han Ming in the East. Because Emperor Han Ming advocated Buddhism, it coincided with Cai Cheng's return from India for Buddhism. Cai Cheng said that on the 15th day of the first month in India, monks gathered to pay homage to Buddhist relics, which was an auspicious day to participate in Buddhism. Cai Cheng said that on the 15th day of the first month in India, monks gathered to pay tribute to Buddhist relics, which was an auspicious day to participate in Buddhism.
In order to promote Buddhism, Emperor Hanming ordered "burning lamps to show Buddha" in palaces and monasteries on the fifteenth night of the first month. Therefore, the custom of burning lanterns on the fifteenth night of the first month, with the expansion of the influence of Buddhist culture and the addition of Taoist culture, gradually passed down in China.
To this day, people in some areas of southwest China still make torches out of reeds or branches on the fifteenth day of the first month, and hold them high in groups and dance in fields or grain drying fields. With the changes of society and times, the customs and habits of Lantern Festival have changed greatly, but it is still a traditional folk festival in China.