Lantern Festival, one of the traditional festivals in China, also known as Shangyuan Festival, Little First Moon, Yuanxi or Lantern Festival, takes place on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month every year.
The Lantern Festival is one of the traditional festivals in China. The Lantern Festival mainly includes a series of traditional folk activities such as viewing lanterns, eating glutinous rice balls, guessing lantern riddles, and setting off fireworks. In addition, many local Lantern Festivals also add traditional folk performances such as dragon lanterns, lion dances, stilt walking, dry boat rowing, Yangko twisting, and Taiping drums. In June 2008, the Lantern Festival was selected into the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage.
The first month is the first month of the lunar calendar. The ancients called "night" as "xiao". The fifteenth day of the first month is the first full moon night in the year. According to Taoism "Sanyuan", the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is also called "Shangyuan Festival". The Lantern Festival custom has been dominated by the warm and festive lantern viewing custom since ancient times.The formation of the Lantern Festival has a long process, which is rooted in the folk custom of turning on the lights and praying for blessings. According to general materials and folklore, the fifteenth day of the first lunar month has been taken seriously in the Western Han Dynasty, but the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month was truly regarded as a national folk festival after the Han and Wei Dynasties. The rise of the custom of lighting lanterns on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is also related to the spread of Buddhism to the east. Buddhism flourished in the Tang Dynasty, and officials and people generally "lit lanterns to worship Buddha" on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, and Buddhist lights spread throughout the people. statutory matter.
festival food
During the Lantern Festival, every family makes their own Lantern Festival. Lantern Festival, called "Fu Yuanzi" in ancient times, is a popular folk snack that is sweet but not greasy, and is popular throughout the country. Lantern Festival is eaten on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. As a food, "Yuanxiao" has a long history in China. In the Song Dynasty, a novel food for the Lantern Festival was popular among the people. This food is mainly used for sacrifices, and it is not even a festival food. It was only recorded in Zheng Wangzhi's "Shan Fu Lu" of the Song Dynasty: "Bianzhong dieting, Shangyuan oil hammer". The method of making the oil hammer is similar to the fried Lantern Festival of later generations, according to a record of "Shangshi Order" in "Lu Shizao" in "Taiping Guangji". Some people euphemistically called it "Pearl of Oil Painting". The Lantern Festival in the Tang Dynasty was the silkworm. Wang Renyu's (880-956) "Kaiyuan Tianbao Legacy" records: "Every year in the Yuan Dynasty, the custom of making flour silkworms is still left in the Song Dynasty, but different festival foods are more abundant than those in the Tang Dynasty. ". Lv Yuanming's "Sui Shi Za Ji" mentioned: "Beijing people use mung bean powder as Kedou soup, boiled glutinous rice as balls, and sugar as glutinous rice, which is called Yuanzi Salted Soy Sauce. It is also like how people make silkworms every day, and they all go on a diet in the Yuan Dynasty.” In the Southern Song Dynasty, the so-called "lactose balls" appeared, which should be the predecessor of Tangyuan.