The Lantern Festival, also known as the "Lantern Festival" and "Lantern Festival", is a time when every household opens its lanterns, and every house is decorated with colorful lanterns. The Quan language "lamp", "Ding" resonates with the meaning of praying for the prosperity of the people and welcoming the meaning of light.
The earliest historical records of the Lantern Festival began with Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty in the pacification of the "Chu Lü's chaos" after the title of Emperor, the title of the Emperor happened to be the fifteenth day of the first month of the lunar calendar, the worship of the "Taiyi" (then believed in the illustrious gods) when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty went out of the palace to play, just happened to be the folk release of the lights. So the 15th day of the first month for the "Festival of Lights", with the people with the meaning of fun.
Tang Xuanzong Kaiyuan years (713--741 years), every on the first day of the year to release lights for three nights (thirteen to fifteen). Since all the activities were held at night, the festival was called "Yuanyuan", "Yuanshi" and "Yuanshao". The main attraction of the festival is the "Shangyuan lanterns", which is why it is also called "Lantern Festival".
The "Lantern Festival" in Quanzhou began in the Tang Dynasty. During the Tang Dynasty, the scholars came down to the south and brought the custom of Lantern Festival to Quanzhou.
Quanzhou's "Lantern Festival" in the Song Dynasty to the peak of the development of the lanterns, lanterns of the world's best, the formation of the "top quality lanterns", there is a "spring light Jie Sheng Hundred Flowers Fang, Yuanshi Divided Hua Sheng Quan Tang It is said that "Spring light is better than a hundred flowers, and Yuanxi-Sheng Hua-Quan-Tang". Especially in the Southern Song Dynasty, set up in Quanzhou South outside the Zongzheng Division, management of more than 3,000 to settle in Quanzhou, the royal clan. They modeled after Lin'an and released lanterns, and the activities of Shangyuan were lively and spectacular. Song - "five miscellaneous chopping block" acclaimed: "the world on the yuan, the lantern burns of the feast, no more than in Minzhong." Even the capital city of Hangzhou lights are entrusted to the governor of Quanzhou, Nan'an county governor hired craftsmen refined.
Quanzhou lanterns content, to landscape scenery, historical figures, birds and animals, pavilions and pavilions. The main categories are horse lanterns, lotus lanterns, lotus lanterns and so on. The most characteristic of Quanzhou is "boneless lamp" and "material silk lamp". One of the "boneless lamp" for Quanzhou original, directly connected to the hard paper and become, and the general lamp with bamboo skeleton practice is different. And "material silk lamp" is transparent on all sides, to take the practice of hollowing out, light up the lamp after the whole lamp is transparent.
The end of the Qing Dynasty - Chen De Shang "Wenling Yearly Record": "Shangyuan: ...... Shangyuan lamps - the city people make lamps out of the sale, or to five-color paper, or to material silk, or tie through the grass, made of flowers and plants, figures, insects and fish, lit with a torch, and the ancient Chinese name for the lamps, the most beautiful and vivid, commonly known as the ancient Chinese name for the lamps. Vivid, commonly known as the ancient lamp. Constantly in the west side of the House in front of the double door for the lights market. ...... The former Tongyin Ginshi Qiu Jiashu "on the Yuan Lantern" words: a year of Lantern Festival a change, strange to hear the sound of the sale of ancient lamps."
The end of the Qing Dynasty - Chen De Shang "Wenling Yearly Record": "on the Yuan: ...... get dragon - store good people, is the night to green yarn several zhang, system for the golden dragon lamp, burning wax torch, dozens of people to execute and dance, curved stretching and circling, scales and armor. The scales and armor are all moving. Leading a ball, followed by up and down. And also beat the drums and sound the gold flute, and children with bamboo horses, group shoes kicking the ball, miscellaneous tour of the city on the Yan."
Hanging lanterns:
On the eve of the Lantern Festival, most people hang lanterns or red lanterns in front of their homes and stores to create a festive atmosphere. The family of a boy, make or buy lanterns, hanging to the temple, ancestral temple, in order to show that "add Ding"; Dehua also slaughter a rooster, plus a basket of white kuey teow to honor their ancestors.
Sending lamps:
Daughters married within the year, the mother's family before the festival to buy a pair of hydrangea lamps or lotus lamps sent boys to the son-in-law's home, praying for an early "out of the ding"; on the marriage of a boy has not yet given birth to the mother's family customary gift "Guanyin send child lamps", called "send the child", and "send".
The family of the bride used to give the "Guanyin child delivery lamp" to the boy who was not born after the marriage.
The end of the Qing Dynasty - Chen De Shang "Wenling Yearly Record": "on the yuan: ...... on the yuan lamp ...... newly married woman, the woman's family must buy white hibiscus lamps a pair of son-in-law, sent in the son-in-law's home, the cloud is suitable for men's omen. ...... Zhang Bingwen Yun: most of the female family busy sending guests, auspicious scramble to buy white lotus lamp."
Lantern Appreciation:
On the night of the Lantern Festival, men and women of all ages go out in groups to enjoy the lanterns.
Touring lanterns:
On the night of the Lantern Festival, children carry lanterns, light candles, and walk from door to door to form a touring lantern team and tour lanterns.
Out of the lamp (grab lamp):
Quan language "lamp", "Ding" homophonic, "out of the lamp" that is "out of the Ding! "It is a symbol of the prosperity of the people.
Children accidentally burned the lamp when swimming in the lamp, that is, "out of the lamp". If you burn a red lamp, it means a girl; if you burn a white lamp, it means a boy.
The lamp was robbed is also "out of the lamp". Ancient Lantern Festival, the rich formed a "light tour", can not afford to buy lights to do the lights of the poor formed a "light grabbing family". In the tour of the street, empty-handed poor people with songs mocking the rich lamps: "plum blossom lamps, point not fragrant; official knife lamps, churning outhouse ......" and then swarmed up to snatch the lamps of the rich, the rich not only do not annoyed but also cheerfully robbed.
Guessing riddles:
Guessing riddles is another fun thing to do at the Lantern Festival. The riddles are attached to the lanterns for people to enjoy while guessing, and the successful guesser receives a prize from the host.
Nan'an Taoyuan Lantern Festival:
Tang - Wu Zetian Jiusi first year (700 years), Quanzhou began to build the city, when the city limits are small, the Lantern Festival can not be compared with the northern cities. As for the long history of spontaneous folk lanterns and continue to this day, in Fujian should be the first Nan'an Fengzhou Taoyuan.
The Taoyuan Lantern Festival is famous all over the world. Tang Xizong Guangming yuan year (880), Fu Shi (see "Quanzhou people directory - Fu Shi") to Weiwu army section of the expedition from Chang'an to bring troops into the Fujian town of Quanzhou. Because of his political achievements, Fu Shi was given a silver seal with green ribbons, and the title of silver-green Guanglu Daifu was equivalent to the prime minister, who was the left servant of the school of Shangshu. Fu Shi originally built the mansion in quanzhou east gate outside the fengshan southern foot, hired purple cloud huang shougong (see "quanzhou people directory - huang shougong") fifth granddaughter as a wife. Xizong Guangqi first year (885 years), Fu Shi sheds the first construction of Guan Gongde Yuan (i.e., Quanzhou East Zen Shaolin Temple), with troops stationed in Nan'an Fengzhou rebuild the mansion (now Wu Rong Fu's Grand Ancestral Hall). In order to show allegiance to the court and built the Tang King Palace (i.e., Taoyuan Palace), which has statues of Tang Emperor Li Shimin, Xu Maogong, Cheng Biaojin, Yuchigong, and Qin Shubao. Every morning according to the ritual pilgrimage, never stop. Shangyuan also follow the Chang'an lantern ceremony, wishing the Son of Heaven ten thousand years, with the people. This is the beginning of the Taoyuan Shangyuan Lantern Lighting.
Fu Shi married Mrs. Huang, the next year before the New Year's Day, Huang's parents love this daughter, especially to send a pair of red and white lotus lamps, wishing an early birth, family happiness. From then on, the opening of the Quannan sent the lamps of the precedent.
Future, every time on the first day of the month, the Fu clan in the Tang Wang Palace and the Grand Ancestral Temple lights, customary, year after year.
Ming Shizong Jiajing twenty-nine years (1550), Fu Xiaqi (see "Quanzhou people directory - Fu Xiaqi") to participate in the Kyoto examination in high school Huayuan (first place in the jinshi), authorized by the system of the main government, for the Quanzhou Prefecture, Nan'an County, and the Fu family name to compete in the light. Wu Wending, the governor of Nan'an County, gave an ode to Fu: "There is no double of the name of Quanshan Mountain; the first family of articles in Nan'yi." The next year on the Yuan, Fu clan rejoiced in a large lantern fair, more than ten nearby villages, thousands of people actively involved in the Fu ancestral hall and Tang Wang Palace inside and outside and on both sides of the street, hanging thousands of various types of lanterns, lights and moonlight, lively and incomparable.
Ming Shenzong Wanli years, the court astrologer reported to the emperor: "the heavenly white ape star will be on the night of the New Year's Eve reincarnation, position in the direction of the south." There is no impervious wall in the world. Fu Xiaqi then discussed with his relatives to attract the White Ape Star to reincarnate on the night of the New Year's Lantern Festival. The Yellow Clan of Yanshan also coincidentally participated in this competition, giving each other their all to do what they could. But see the Taoyuan Fu ancestral hall and Tang Wang Palace, and along the eaves of the street are hung with bucket lights, orange lamps, hundreds of lanterns, pagoda lamps, Ruyi lamps, jade hairpin lamps, hydrangea lamps, material silk lamps, lobster lamps, horseback lanterns, Runcie lamps, rabbit lamps, rooster lamps, Yearly Luck lamps, carp spit beads lamps, double dragons snatch beads lamps, dragons and phoenixes show good luck lamps, nymphs Lotus Lanterns, Chang'e Moon Lanterns, it is really colorful, a thousand shapes and sizes, all kinds of things. The lights are so colorful and varied that there are so many of them that you can't take them all in.
Tang Wang Palace in front of the dragon pillar flashes a red couplet: "twenty pass, the king bright ministers loyal to say that the world; three hundred loads of the past, the state of peace and security of the people to celebrate the ascension of peace." Inside the palace, there are a hundred palace lanterns of different sizes, exquisite and splendid. The dazzling couplet in front of the main gate of the Fu Clan's Grand Ancestral Hall reads, "The pipes and strings make a racket in the sky, and people come and go on the night of Jingo; the lanterns and flowers turn to the ground, and the spring of the Jade Garden in the south and north of the streams and streams." The pillar couplet in the hall reads, "In the prosperous times, living and working in peace and contentment, it is a fairyland of Taoyuan; celebrating the Lantern Festival, with its far-reaching origins and long-lasting history, it has become the folk custom of Liuyi." In the main hall, there are four clusters of lanterns, mainly palace lanterns, wrapped around red and white lotus flowers.
Three treasures are placed on the ceremonial table: one is a Shang Dynasty interjection (a thing that is easily overturned and can be placed on the right side of the seat as a warning) that was given to County Horseman Fu Zha by Empress Xuan Ren of the Sung Dynasty (see Directory of the People of Quanzhou-Fu Zha), the second is a jade wish held by the oar of Sung Dynasty Fu Shao Shi at the court, and the third is a jade mandarin duck. The cage under the hall is blown with joy. In the square in front of the Grand Patriarchal Hall, there are Liyuan performances, Nanyin concerts, lion dances and kickballs. Ao Shan is surrounded by brocade and decorated with tassels; drums sound inside, bells should be outside, and the lights are three-tiered and glowing. There are pavilions on the Ao Shan, and there are hidden organs and clockwork theater characters, who can perform some actions under the lights. Visible at that time haunted lanterns regulation magnificent skill.
It is worth mentioning that the Shangyuan unprecedented Lantern Festival night You time, the host carefully arranged for the Fu surname daughter-in-law "drilling foot". Taoyuan Shipan a newlywed woman was reincarnated by the White Ape Star and gave birth to Fu Wenlong. He was awarded a bachelor's degree in the second year of the Ming Tianqi (1622), and was authorized to be the royal historian of Henan Province and the governor of Shaanxi Province. This is the origin of "drilling the foot of the lantern" in the Shangyuan Lantern Festival in southern Fujian.
Nan'an Yindu Plucked Lanterns (String Lanterns):
The Lantern Festival is a unique activity in Yindu Township, Nan'an County, and has been held since the ninth day of the first month of the Lunar New Year.
Yingdu "pulling lanterns" has a long history. Song and Yuan dynasties, with Quanzhou port as the starting point of the "Maritime Silk Road" rise, every year, summer and winter rainy season, Quanzhou county magistrate and the Hublot Division officials led by foreign merchants emissary, in the Jiuzhishan Zhaohui Temple under the grand prayers for the wind ceremony, to worship the god of the sea for a period of time. Quanzhou coastal ports, inland waterways and ferry terminals have built sea god temples, Yingdu Zhaohui Temple is one of them. The water of Yingxi has nine curves and eighteen bends, and the boatmen use barges to transport grain, silk, charcoal, tea, dried bamboo shoots, etc. from Yingdu to Quanzhou. In order to pray for smooth transportation, the boatmen went to the dock of Yingdu to worship. Usually against the water need to pull the fiber, commonly known as "pulling the boat". Yindu Zhaohui Temple every Lantern Festival, the townspeople to the backwater boat pulling fiber and festivities to welcome the combination of lights, resulting in "pulling lights" folkloric amusement activities.
Prepared in advance the special several thick long cable hemp rope, each family brings a variety of lanterns, each lantern interval of about two feet, hanging on the rope, each can be hung dozens of even more than a hundred, known as "a burst". Several of them were connected into several formations, and a man with a swarthy body was chosen as the leader, and two big torches were played in front of him, marching side by side as the dominant one. Behind dozens of people holding tightly to the light rope shouting fast pace to follow, vividly reproducing the year Yingxi boatmen pulling the fiber against the water when the spectacular scenes of hard work.
Usually, there are more than ten "arrays", more than twenty "arrays" or so, between the "arrays", "big drum blowing ", "flower drums sing", "car drum dance", "Nanyin string pipe", masquerade theater arts mixed in between, to the door of every house, firecrackers, sparklers, Fireworks continue, the festival atmosphere of joy to a climax.
"Plucked lights" team from the Ying Hui Street Zhaohui Temple, through the back store, saddle back alleys, along the north side of Rongshan mountain gradually climbed high. Lantern array line to the ridge between the two leading dazzling torch, sometimes high, sometimes down, behind the lanterns along the mountain into a circle of lanterns array, reflected in the five ancestral hall East Xuan, West Xuan door of the two large pools, the water and sky, the lights flashing, colorful, brilliant and extraordinary.
Jinjiang Dongshi number of lanterns:
Jinjiang Dongshi Town, the Lantern Festival every year, where the newlywed young people, are required to hang the bride's dowry of lanterns to the Jiaying Temple (also known as Nine Dragons Three Gong Gong) built in the Ming Dynasty to go. From the 13th night of the first month of the last three nights, men, women and children gathered in the temple, to enjoy the colorful, colorful lanterns, or guess the lantern riddle, or listen to the southern song singing. While enjoying the lanterns, people count the number of pairs of lanterns in the year and calculate how much the local population has increased. Minnan language "light", "Ding" homophonic, most of the men in Dongshi year-round sea out, through the number of lanterns, so that those who go home for the Spring Festival seafarers to understand the situation of the hometown of the people.
Dongshi people who came to Taiwan in the early years also brought this custom of their hometown to the mouth of the Taiwan bag. There is also the Sankong Palace in Taiwan, and every Lantern Festival, local residents also carry and hang palace lanterns in the palace. Not only that, before the Lantern Festival every year, the folks over there in Taiwan are specially rushed back to "will light", informing the number of pairs of lanterns in Taiwan that year, and bring home the number back to report to each other the development of the children and grandchildren of Fujian and Taiwan. This custom has been maintained until the establishment of New China.
Anxi Lantian Tour Dragon
Every year on the fifteenth day of the first month, Anxi County Lantian village after the Qing village to "Tour Dragon". The custom originated in the Yuan Dynasty in southern Fujian area of the folk stage "centipede play" (has been lost), set the village manpower and material resources together to celebrate the festival, become the best way to resolve conflicts in the folk, and enhance neighborly relations and harmony.
Swimming lantern dragon from 8:00 p.m. that night, the village prepared the dragon head and tail, the village men, women and children each prepared a lantern composed of the dragon body, with the increase in the number of participants, lanterns gradually converge into a "dragon". There is only one dragon in the whole village, and the longer the dragon is, the more prosperous the village is. The event usually lasts for an hour and a half, and after walking from house to house, the villagers will come together to watch the Gaojia opera in front of a temporary theater set up in the open space of the village.