As we all know, Lantern Festival is the "Shangyuan Festival" and the first important festival after the Spring Festival. So how much do you know about the history of the Lantern Festival? Let's look at the history of the Lantern Festival, hoping to help friends in need.
What is the history of Lantern Festival? Lantern Festival originated in Han Dynasty. It is said that it was set up by Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty to commemorate Pinglu. After the death of Emperor Liu Ying of the Han Dynasty, Lv Hou usurped power, and the Lushi family dominated the state affairs. After Lv Hou's death, Zhou Bo, Chen Ping and others eliminated the influence of Lv Hou and established Liu Heng as the emperor of China. Because the day to calm Zhu Lu is the fifteenth day of the first month, after that, every year on the fifteenth night of the first month, Wendi will go out of the palace in disguise and have fun with the people as a souvenir. The fifteenth day of the first month is designated as the Lantern Festival. During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the sacrificial activities of "Taiyi God" were held on the 15th day of the first month. Sima Qian listed the Lantern Festival as a major festival in taichu calendar law.
There is a folk custom of eating Yuanxiao on the Lantern Festival in China. According to folklore, Yuanxiao originated from King Zhao of Chu in the Spring and Autumn Period. On the fifteenth day of the first month, King Chu Zhao crossed the Yangtze River and saw floating objects on the river, which were sweets with white outside and red inside. King Zhao of Chu asked Confucius, and Confucius said, "This duckweed fruit is also a sign of the Lord's revival." Yuanxiao is a kind of holiday food, just like rice cakes in the Spring Festival and zongzi in the Dragon Boat Festival. Eating Yuanxiao, like a full moon, symbolizes family reunion and entrusts people with good wishes for their future life. Yuanxiao is called "Tangyuan", "Zi Yuan", "Floating Zi Yuan" and "Shui Yuan" in the south. It is made of glutinous rice, solid or stuffed with bean paste, sugar and hawthorn, and can be boiled, fried, steamed and fried.
The custom of burning lanterns in the Lantern Festival originated from Taoism's "ternary theory"
The fifteenth day of the first month is Shangyuan Festival, the fifteenth day of July is Zhongyuan Festival, and the fifteenth day of October is Xiayuan Festival. The three officials in charge of the upper, middle and lower elements are heaven, earth and man, respectively. Heaven officials are happy, and lanterns are lit on the Lantern Festival.
Since the Han Dynasty, it is a custom to light lanterns and set fire to the Lantern Festival. In the Tang Dynasty, people paid more attention to the Lantern Festival. It has become a custom to light lanterns on the Lantern Festival. Lu Zeng, a great poet in the Tang Dynasty, described the grand occasion of lighting the Lantern Festival in "Watching Lights at Fifteen Nights": "The stars set in the Han Dynasty, like a moon hanging from a building". The custom of burning lanterns in the Lantern Festival has been passed down from generation to generation, and there are more and more festive lanterns, including mirror lanterns, phoenix lanterns and glazed lanterns. XX City, Sichuan Province, the hometown of dinosaurs, is famous for making all kinds of exquisite lanterns with various materials and holding the "Dinosaur Lantern Festival".
What is the history of Lantern Festival? Lantern Festival, also known as Shangyuan Festival and Spring Lantern Festival, is a traditional folk festival of Han nationality in China. The first month is the first month of the lunar calendar. The ancients called it "Xiao", and the fifteenth day is the first full moon night in a year, so the fifteenth day of the first month is called the Lantern Festival. Lantern Festival is also a reunion of Yuan Zaju, celebrated on the night of Spring Festival, and also a continuation of celebrating the Spring Festival. Lantern Festival, also known as the first lunar month, Yuanxi or Lantern Festival, is the first important festival after the Spring Festival. When people celebrate the Lantern Festival, besides eating Yuanxiao and watching fireworks, what they expect most is to see lanterns and solve riddles on them.
According to the folk tradition in China, on this bright night, people light thousands of lanterns to celebrate. Go out to enjoy the moon, put on lights, solve riddles on the lanterns, celebrate the Lantern Festival, have family reunion and celebrate the festival. Speaking of it, the custom of lighting lanterns at night on the Lantern Festival originated in the Han Dynasty, but the custom of watching lanterns in solve riddles on the lanterns was popular in the Song Dynasty and lasted until the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and it is not bad so far. Solve riddles on the lanterns is also called playing riddles. During the Southern Song Dynasty, there were many people doing riddles and solve riddles on the lanterns at the Lantern Festival in Lin 'an, the capital. At first, it was a busybody who wrote riddles on paper and posted them on colorful lanterns for people to guess. Because riddles are enlightening and interesting, they are welcomed by all walks of life in the process of communication.
According to "Old Wulin Stories: Lights", "When writing poems with silk lanterns, people will laugh, draw characters, hide their heads and curse people, and tease pedestrians." Among them, "argot" refers to riddle. At that time, the so-called "roller blinds" and "harmonic sounds" that have been passed down to this day have solved 24 puzzles. On the Lantern Festival, the imperial city stays up all night, and the people enjoy the Lantern Festival in spring. Poems and riddles are written on lanterns, reflected on candles and listed on the road, which is called "lantern riddles".
The Lantern Festival in the Song Dynasty usually lasts for five days, but in the Ming Dynasty, it lasts longer to show social peace. Lantern Festival usually starts from the eighth day of the first month and lasts for ten days until the seventeenth night of the first month. Connecting with the Spring Festival, Japan is the city, and it is very lively; It's spectacular to light the lights at night. Ming Dynasty is the longest Lantern Festival in the history of China.
During the Qing Dynasty, Manchu entered the Central Plains. Although the imperial court no longer holds lantern festivals, the folk lantern festivals are still spectacular. In the last Qing Dynasty, the Lantern Festival lasted only three days, but it was not only bright, but also as bright as day. Moreover, the design of the lamp is more exquisite, dreamy and amazing. On this Lantern Festival, people still see lanterns and solve riddles on the lanterns as a beautiful scenery on the night of the Lantern Festival. Cao Xueqin, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty, described the Jiafu lantern riddle in A Dream of Red Mansions, which is a vivid portrayal of the Lantern Festival in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
Among Cao Xueqin's works, A Dream of Red Mansions has many descriptions about the Lantern Festival. In the first chapter of this novel, "Zhen is a psychic in a dream and has a beautiful family", and there are two places to write the Lantern Festival. First place: "Yin Shi is very happy to see her daughter getting richer and richer. She reached out and held it in her arms, fought with her for a while, and took it to the street to watch the fun. " "Later" in this article is one of the activities of the Lantern Festival. Second place: "It was really easy when I was at leisure, and suddenly it was the Lantern Festival. Yin Shi asked his family, Hodge, to embrace a win-win situation and go to see the Shehuo Lantern. In this article, "Shehuo Lantern" refers to drum music, singing and dancing, acrobatics, lantern display and other entertainment activities on the streets of the Lantern Festival. It can also be seen that the people watched the grand occasion of the social fire lamp at that time. Of course, these two descriptions of the Lantern Festival only pave the way for the Jia family to celebrate the Lantern Festival twice in the future.
In A Dream of Red Mansions, Jia's two Lantern Festival celebrations are described in detail. It was Yuan Fei who visited her mother for the first time. At that time, it was the heyday of Jiafu, and the whole Guo Rongfu was beautifully dressed and brightly lit, showing that Jiafu's wealth was very comparable. The second description of the Lantern Festival Jiafu coincided with the rise and fall. Although it is magnificent, magnificent and extremely luxurious, it has lost its former elegance. Ordinary people can go out to watch fireworks and social fires on the Lantern Festival, while official families like Jia naturally don't have to entertain themselves in the deep house compound and enjoy the joy of the festival.
The Lantern Festival in Jiafu began in the 18th chapter of A Dream of Red Mansions, when "Lin Daiyu cut the sachet belt by mistake, and Jia Yuanchun returned to the province for the Lantern Festival". In the Yuan and Spring Jin Dynasties, a virtuous princess was awarded, and it was the Lantern Festival when she went home to visit relatives. During this period, the author showed Jia Fu's extravagance and wealth with Yuan Chun's eyes: "It is said that Jia Fei sat in a sedan chair and looked at the luxury inside and outside the park, because she silently sighed that luxury was too expensive ... I saw Liu Qing, and the situation was just like Youlong. On both sides of the stone fence, all lanterns are made of crystal glass, and the lights are like silver snow waves; Although there are no flowers and leaves on willow and apricot trees, they are all made of corduroy silk, silk, silk and silk, which are glued to branches, and each plant has several chandeliers; It is also a genus of lotus heron in the pond, and it is also made of snail feathers and the like. Lights strive for glory, really a glass world, jewelry dry goods. Needless to say, the boat is also equipped with various exquisite bonsai lights, bead curtains and embroidered curtains. "
Playing riddles's solution to riddles on lanterns is the climax of Jia Qingzhu's Lantern Festival. In the 22nd chapter of A Dream of Red Mansions, "Listening to Qu Wenbao's meditation machine and using Jia Zheng's sad words to talk about playing riddles", Yuan Chun's mother made a lantern riddle for the eunuch to send after returning to the palace, so as to have fun with her family. Therefore, the sisters were also asked to make a riddle and send it in. This was repeated several times, and the Jia family set off a guessing craze for a while. There are eight riddles in this Lantern Festival, written by Jia Mu, Jia Zheng, their children and future daughter-in-law Xue Baochai. Although these riddles are colorful and dazzling, they are mysterious and predictable, which is a vivid portrayal of the characters' character and cultural self-restraint in the book. Here, let's take the riddles of Yuan Chun, Yingchun, Tanchun and Xichun as an example:
First, Yuan Chun's lantern riddle: "It can make the demon's guts go out, and the body is like a bundle of silk and thunder. An earthquake made people frightened, and looking back has turned to dust. "
The answer to this riddle is "firecrackers". The ancients believed that firecrackers could drive away monsters. Firecrackers are made by adding gunpowder to wrapped silk, so "bundled silk" refers to firecrackers. However, Cao Xueqin also used "bundles of silks" to describe Yuan Chun, that is, Yuan Fei's slim figure in silk and silk. The firecrackers themselves, while making a loud noise and shocking the fields like thunder, have turned into fly ash and gone away. It is predicted that Yuan Fei, the "plaything" of the emperor, died quietly soon after his mother visited the province where "fire boiled oil and flowers blossomed", so the thunderous momentum and the power of terror vanished. The loss of Jiafu's backer accelerated its decline. This prediction is only suitable for Yuan Fei, and it has a distinct personality.