Editor's note: The 15th day of the first month is the biggest entertainment festival during the New Year Festival. Because all people light lanterns, it is called the Lantern Festival. And because every family has to eat Yuanxiao, it is also called Lantern Festival.
The city's light shows are colorful and spectacular, which are generally divided into traditional craft lights and modern craft lights.
Traditional craft lamps are mostly made of paper and yarn. Exquisite people belong to the category of lanterns. Most of the rotating pictures are stories about Eight Immortals crossing the sea, Tang Priest learning from the scriptures, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Heroes of the Water Margin and so on. , are all adapted from traditional Chinese opera. Older people tend to forget to pay back. What is lively is fireworks lights made of all kinds of fireworks. Such as pigs urinating, old hens laying eggs, monkeys climbing telephone poles, girls scattering flowers, setting fire to camps, guns hitting Liancheng and so on. When it is lit, it will ring, explode, be colorful and full of movement, which attracts children's admiration. The most common lamps are grains, livestock, vegetables, melons and fruits, flowers, birds and animals, fish and insects, and there are many riddles for people to guess. This kind of lamp symbolizes the bumper harvest of grain, the prosperity of six livestock, the political integrity and harmony, and the peace of the country and the people.
Modern craft lamps use new materials to make all kinds of luxurious and charming lanterns, which have a sense of the times such as novelty and technology, and are most loved by young men and women. In recent years, many counties are popular in decorating flower trees, that is, in the harvest season, the trees along the road are dressed as pear trees, and the fruits are made of various light bulbs. Electricity is on, green leaves are in full bloom, and fruits are numerous, which looks very realistic.
Shanxi is rich in coal, so-called coal city. On the Lantern Festival, all government agencies and units must make a fire in front of the door. One is lighting, the other is heating and the third is prosperity. Wanghuo has its own characteristics and tastes.
The fifteenth day of the first month is booming. Yangko and Shehuo teams in rural areas should concentrate on performing in county towns or important market towns. During the day, it is mostly held in the square, and the teams take turns to play, and the competition is fierce. Most of the forms are dragon lanterns, lions, stilts, pavilions, dry boats, motorcades, running donkeys, big-headed dolls and so on. Show along the street at night, and pay attention to dancing when you see the fire. The performance team performs stunts and drums. The onlookers cheered constantly.
On the 16th day of the first month, people are used to traveling abroad, which is called "getting rid of all diseases", especially women. Legend has it that "you can swim in the spring on the 16th day of the first month, and you won't get sick all year round".