This depicts the Lantern Festival.
The Lantern Festival is also like this. Ancient legend has it that the Chinese people felt that fire could assist them in expelling snakes and insects, and that fire was a key component of Buddhist culture and art. Therefore, after the spread of Buddhism to China, the fire-related Lantern Festival also gained a corresponding development trend. Especially in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Emperor Han Mingdi, who respected Buddhism, in order to better publicize and plan Buddhism, ordered the Chinese people to "honor the Buddha with lanterns" on the fifteenth day of the first month according to Buddhist culture and art. This is the origin of the custom of Lantern Appreciation at the Lantern Festival.
With the help of Emperor Ming of Han Dynasty, the Lantern Festival gradually changed to a national festival. Until the Sui and Tang dynasties, the ancient people on the Lantern Festival of the high level of attention has long been far more than before, the Lantern Festival holiday from the Han Dynasty era of one day changed to three days. Further back in the development trend to the Song Dynasty, the Lantern Festival holiday further extended to five days. Sui Dynasty Song Dynasty these three stages of the Lantern Festival, the level of prosperity and bustle slowly rising. The Song Dynasty stage of the Lantern Festival in addition to meetings burning lanterns, hanging colorful lanterns, the government offices will continue to issue the Lantern Festival red envelope, the monarch will also be with the people **** music.
Southern Song poet Xin Qiji once read a poem like "car winds release flowers at night, more blowing off, stars like rain", which depicts the content of the Lantern Festival's bustling scenery. In the Song Dynasty, the Lantern Festival developed and designed other celebration methods above the original Lantern Festival customs, which included riddles. In addition, the Song Dynasty Lantern Festival also added a scary color, the relevant prison units will be used in this festival lighting or pattern design to publicize the planning of the prison family short story.
In addition to the increase in entertainment, the people of the Song Dynasty also created and invented a seasonal ingredient to better celebrate the Lantern Festival. This kind of food was first called "floating Yuanzi", and then slowly changed its name to "Yuanxiao" through the development trend of time. The custom of eating Yuanxiao on the Lantern Festival was also introduced, and has been preserved to this day. In addition to the usual Lantern Festival customs of eating Lanterns, enjoying lanterns and guessing lantern riddles, there are also some major customs in some areas, such as sticker painting in Hebei and stilt walking in Hubei.