What are the folk customs of the Lantern Festival
What are the folk customs of the Lantern Festival? The Lantern Festival is one of the traditional festivals, which is also known as the 15th day of the first month, and it has always been celebrated with the eating of dumplings or Lantern Festival. This traditional custom has a history of more than two thousand years. Here to see what folk customs of the Lantern Festival?
What are the folk customs of the Lantern Festival1First, stilt-walking
The stilt-walking is a very old folk skills performance, as early as in the Spring and Autumn period has appeared. In the Lantern Festival, many places are even more prevalent in this folk activities on stilts. The stilts are usually made of wood, with a support point made in a planed wooden stick to put the feet, and then tied to the legs with a rope. Performers stepping on stilts, not only can walk freely, but also do the split, jumping stool, twisting rice-planting songs, dancing sword and gun and other difficult actions.
Second, the lion dance
The lion dance is an excellent folk art in China. Whenever the Lantern Festival or other gatherings and festivals, the folk will be in the form of lion dance to cheer. This custom originated in the Three Kingdoms period, popular in the North and South Dynasties, and has a history of more than a thousand years.
Three, lanterns
The Lantern Festival lanterns custom, originated in the period of Han Mingdi. Yongping years, the Han Ming emperor vigorously promote Buddhism, ordered the first month of the fifteenth night in the palace and the temple "burning lamps for Buddha". Later, the custom of releasing lanterns at the Lantern Festival was spread from the court to the people, and every Lantern Festival, no matter whether it is a scholar or a commoner, every household will hang up colorful lanterns, and the streets and alleys will be brilliantly illuminated.
Four, play dragon lantern
Juggling dragon lanterns, also known as "dragon dance", has a history of more than two thousand years. In ancient times, people used to pray for the blessing of the dragon by dancing the dragon, in order to have good weather and good harvests in the coming year. The custom of dragon dance has also been carried forward and flourished by overseas Chinese. Whenever the Chinese celebrate traditional festivals or major celebrations, they will dance lions and juggle dragon lanterns, presenting a strong oriental weather.
Fifth, twisting rice-planting songs
In the Lantern Festival, the simple northern people like to use the form of twisting rice-planting songs to express the celebration. The style of rice-planting varies from place to place, and there are Shanbei rice-planting, Northeast rice-planting, Hebei rice-planting, Shandong rice-planting and so on. Among them, the northeast rice-planting song has the widest circulation, the highest level of art.
Six, guess the riddle
"Guess the riddle", also known as "playing riddles", is the Lantern Festival later added an activity. Lantern Festival in the lanterns, riddles to the celebration of the day added a lot of fun. Some people write riddles on paper strips, pasted on the colorful lamps for people to guess, to lamp hanging riddles, so called "lantern riddles".
Seven, rowing dry boat
Folklore, rowing dry boat is to commemorate the Great Yu water. Rowing dry boat, also known as running dry boat, is on land to imitate the action of the boat, the performer is usually a girl, the fake boat set on the body, do the rowing posture, one side running and singing some local ditties, singing and dancing, which is rowing dry boat.
Eight, welcome the purple nun
Purple nun is a poor, kind-hearted girl in folklore, according to legend, she is a concubine of a large family, because the housewife jealousy, in the first month of the fifteenth day of the day in the toilet was killed. The people sympathized with her and missed her, and in some places the custom of "welcoming the purple nun on the 15th day of the first month" emerged.
Nine, walk a hundred diseases
Lantern Festival in addition to celebrations, there are some faith-based activities, that is, "walk a hundred diseases", also known as the "scattered disease", "Bake a hundred diseases", "remove a hundred diseases". Participants are mainly women who walk in groups, either across bridges, along walls or in the countryside, with the aim of driving away illnesses and disasters.
Ten, eat the Lantern Festival
"Lantern Festival" is the name of the northern people, the southern people called "dumplings", "soup dumpling ". According to the traditional habits of our folk, every year to the first month of the fifteenth, every family should eat soup dumplings. Because these names and "reunion" pronunciation is similar, so go to the meaning of reunion, by the fifteenth night of the full moon, I hope the whole family reunion, harmony and happiness.
What are the folk customs of the Lantern Festival 2Origin of the Lantern Festival
The 15th day of the first month of the lunar calendar is the Lantern Festival. It is also known as the Shangyuan Festival, the Night of the Yuan, and the Festival of Lights. According to legend, Han Wendi (179 - 157 years ago) to celebrate Zhou Bo in the first month of the fifteenth to survey the leveling of the chaos of the Zhulü, every night, will be out of the palace to play, and the people with the people, in ancient times, the night with the night, the first month is also known as the month of yuan, the Han Wendi the first month of the fifteenth as the Lantern Festival, the night is called the night of the yuan. Sima Qian created the Taichu Calendar, which listed the Lantern Festival as a major festival. Since the Sui, Tang and Song dynasties, it has been even more prevalent. "Sui book - music Zhi" day: "Whenever the first month, all the countries to the court, stay until the 15th in the Duanmen outside the Jianguo Gate, stretching eight miles, the play for the theater," to participate in the songs and dances up to tens of thousands of people, from the dusk to the end of the day, to the obscurity of the end. When with the changes in society and the times, the Lantern Festival customs and habits have long had a greater change, but is still a traditional Chinese folk festival.
Lantern Festival is a traditional Chinese festival, as early as 2000 years ago in the Qin Dynasty. According to the data and folklore, the 15th day of the first month in the Western Han Dynasty has been attached importance to the activities of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty on the night of the first month in the Ganquan Palace to sacrifice "too one" (too one: the master of the universe all the God), by later generations as the first day of the first month of the 15th day of the festival of the God of the first voice of the sky.
Lantern Festival, the original meaning of "the night of the Shangyuan Festival", because the first day of the first month of the "Shangyuan Festival" is the main activity of the evening of eating dumplings and enjoying the moon, and then the name of the festival evolved into the "Lantern Festival". Later, the name of the festival evolved to "Lantern Festival". On the night of the Lantern Festival, the streets and alleys were decorated with lanterns, people enjoyed the lanterns, guessed the riddles, and ate the Lantern Festival, which pushed the celebrations from the New Year's Eve to another climax, and became a custom that has been followed for generations. Lantern Festival in the early festivals in the process of formation, only known as the 15th day of the first month, the first half of the first month or the moonrise, after Sui called the first night or the first night. The beginning of the Tang Dynasty was influenced by Taoism, also known as the first year, the end of the Tang Dynasty only occasionally called the Lantern Festival. But since the Song Dynasty, it was also called Lantern Festival. In the Qing Dynasty, it was also known as the Festival of Lights. In foreign countries, the Lantern Festival is also known as the Lantern Festival.
The Lantern Festival is a lively festival with many activities, the most important of which are as follows:
I. Praying for blessings on the first day of the year
Folks divided the natural world into three realms, namely, the heavenly realm, the earthly realm and the watery realm, and to personify. Therefore, it is known as the heavenly, earthly and water officials collectively known as the three officials Da Di. The 15th day of the first month of the lunar calendar is the birthday of Tian Guan Da Di. The main responsibility of the heavenly officials is to give blessings, so the folk in the early morning to prepare sacrificial wine, worship the heavenly officials great emperor, pray for blessings.
Second, Lantern Festival ancestor
The Lantern Festival eating Lantern Festival may have begun in the Song Dynasty, but at that time, called the "floating round son", to the Ming Dynasty was renamed "Lantern" every family to do the Lantern Festival, boiled Lantern. In ancient times, the dumplings were eaten to symbolize the good fortune of the family. Lanterns cooked first to honor the ancestors, and then the family reunion, eat Lanterns, has been a happy reunion.
Three, welcome lanterns
The Lantern Festival is also known as the Festival of Lights, so lanterns are the center of the Lantern Festival activities. The Lantern Festival is also known as the Lantern Festival, so lanterns are the centerpiece of the Lantern Festival. Folks call lanterns "drum lanterns" because the lanterns mentioned by children in the past looked like drums and gongs. There are many types of lanterns for the Lantern Festival, such as colored lanterns for temples, horse lanterns for stores and drum lanterns for children. There are many types of lanterns, basically can be divided into two categories: one is the image of lanterns, such as the lanterns of the sword, rabbit lanterns, fruit lanterns, half-lanterns, etc.; the other is the activity of the lanterns, is based on the compilation of folklore, and is now mostly motorized lanterns, such as the Scholar parade, the Eight Immortals congratulate the birthday of the eight Immortals, the Peach Garden Jieyi, etc., to express the loyalty of filial piety and righteousness of the national tradition.
Fourth, guess the riddles
In the past, riddles were held in the temple, because the temple is a place where the people gather in their leisure time, and there are lantern competitions and displays, so once upon a time in the lanterns under the list of riddles, to the night of the Lantern Festival hosted by the temple related personnel to guess the riddles, the scene is lively and cozy, because it can be a prize to go home, it is a little bit of an auspicious sign of the New Year. It was a lively and cozy scene, because you could get a prize to take home, which was a small auspicious omen for the New Year. Modern riddle-guessing style has been unveiled in newspapers and magazines, there is a temple riddle assembly televised, but also in some programs interspersed with the lights. a
What are the folk customs of the Lantern Festival 3The symbolism of the Lantern Festival
The Lantern Festival, also known as the Festival of Lanterns, Lantern Festival, on the Yuan Festival, the iconic time in the year's first full moon - the fifteenth day of the first month. It originated with the Wendi period of the Han Dynasty and has a history of more than 2,000 years. In terms of the traditional Chinese Spring Festival culture, the Lantern Festival is again just one of the important parts of the Spring Festival. In ancient China, the Spring Festival lasted for a month and a half, and the long Spring Festival went through three stages: preparing for the New Year, celebrating the New Year, and celebrating the New Year. The Spring Festival begins on the twenty-third day of the Lunar New Year on the lunar calendar, and it is not until the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month of the lunar year that it is considered to be the big New Year. If you take the trilogy of music to compare, at the end of the New Year's celebration stage of the Lantern Festival, is the climax of the Chinese New Year trilogy of colorful music. The Lantern Festival is regarded as the final climax of the Spring Festival, because after this day, people will really enter the new year of live, so people in the Lantern Festival celebrations, in order to pray to God to bless the next year of wind and rain.
The reason why the Lantern Festival has been inherited, because the cultural significance of this festival: reunion, harmony, the pursuit of freedom, these are what we aspire to, but also our beautiful expectations, the reason why each festival can be inherited is that it contains the people's prayers, the desire for a better life, the Lantern Festival cultural connotation of the rich, its cultural history, in the world of folk culture. Unique, when the world of folk festivals is increasingly fierce, we must be well protected, well inherited.
Legend of the Lantern Festival:
Legend has it that, in ancient times, the Jade Emperor in order to unite the world, sent the God of the kitchen stove bodhisattva long stationed on the earth to understand the situation of the people, and every month on the third day of the day back to the report. One year, on the 23rd day of the winter month of the summer calendar, the God of the kitchen stove reported back to the Jade Emperor, "The people on earth are fed on a simple diet for 365 days a year. They work hard every day and never rest. If this goes on, I am worried that the common people will be exhausted by overwork and will not be able to produce, which will definitely affect their contribution." The Jade Emperor heard this and immediately ordered his ministers to ****discuss a good plan. Taibai Jinxing sang, "The Great King may order the Diamond Ancestor to come down to the earth and give the people some medicine, telling them to slowly initiate their illnesses and naturally take a rest." The Jade Emperor approved of this, and missioned the diamond-topped ancestor to descend to earth to do so.
In the morning of the eighth day of the lunar month of the summer calendar, the cassock ancestor secretly in the people's rice pots dropped the crazy medicine, medicine a pot into soybeans, peas, garlic, tofu, and meat, the people ate, and really slowly "crazy" up: women sewing new clothes, embroidered shoes, men killing pigs, slaughtering goats, do not want to work on the ground. Do not want to work on the ground. After the twenty-fourth day of the Lunar New Year, the madman drug is very big. People invited people from the east to eat and from the west to drink. At noon on the 30th day of the Lunar New Year, the people took out all kinds of delicious food, gathered around the table, and the whole family ate and drank. From the first day of the first month, men, women and children not only eat well, but also wear red and green all day to play around. Some painted with a flower face, beat the gongs and drums around the streets; some invited to invite about with gifts, eight to pay tribute to the New Year.
On the thirteenth day of the first month, the God of the stove Bodhisattva went up to heaven and said: "King, not good, the people are crazy! The people are all crazy! They just eat and play, and they don't do any work, so how can we continue like this?" The Jade Emperor was very surprised to hear this, and ordered his ministers to discuss the best way to solve the problem. Tai Bai Jin Xing also said, "If we want to cure the people's madness, we can ask the Medicine King Bodhisattva to do something." The Jade Emperor approved, that is, the medicine king Bodhisattva down to manage.
On the night of the 14th day of the first month, the Medicine King Bodhisattva will turn the people's night meal into dumplings, which put some sesame seeds, walnuts, sugar and other sobering agents, the people ate, the next morning, the madness of the disease all cured, as usual, the family men plowing and women weaving, and resumed the usual labor.
And so it continues week after week, forming the habit of the New Year.
Legend of the Lantern Festival II:
Legend has it that a long time ago, there were a lot of ferocious birds and beasts, hurting people and livestock all over the place, and people organized to fight them, and there was a bird of prey trapped in a lost and landed on the earth, but accidentally killed by an unknowing hunter to shoot. When the emperor knew it, he was very angry, and immediately sent a decree, ordering the heavenly soldiers to come to the earth on the 15th day of the first month to set fire to the human and animal properties on the earth to be burnt to death. The emperor's daughter is kind-hearted, can't bear to see the people suffer innocently, so she risked her life and secretly drove the auspicious clouds to the earth, and told the news to the people. When the people heard the news, it was as if a thunderbolt had rung over their heads. They were so scared that they didn't know what to do. After a long time, an old man came up with a method, saying: "On the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth day of the first month, every family will put up lanterns, light up firecrackers and set off fireworks in their homes on these three days. In this way, the Heavenly Emperor will think that people have been burned to death." Everyone nodded their heads in agreement and went off in separate directions to get ready. On the night of the fifteenth day of the first month, the Heavenly Emperor looked down and found a red light and loud noise on the earth, for three consecutive nights, and thought it was the flames of a great fire burning to the middle of the great speed. The people thus preserved their lives and their property. In order to commemorate this success, from then on every first month of the fifteenth, every family hangs lanterns, fireworks to commemorate this day.