When is the Lantern Festival in 2021? Are there any traditional activities?

When is the Lantern Festival in 2021? Are there any traditional activities?
When we Chinese talk about the Chinese New Year, we usually consider it complete only after the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. There is a saying among the people that "a half month is longer than a year", which shows its importance. So, when is the Lantern Festival in 2021? Are there any traditional activities? After the Spring Festival, the various festivals in the first month of the lunar calendar will soon follow. Following the 2021 first month special topic of Shuimoxiansheng.com, let’s count how many important traditional festivals and customs there are in this month.

When is the Lantern Festival in 2021?

Lunar calendar query:
February 26, 2021, Friday, the 15th day of the first lunar month
Month name: Gengyin
Phenology: Grass and trees sprout
Moon phase: Full moon
Daily fortune: Mao life mutual fortune Bing, Wu Jin fortune

Are there any traditional activities?

1. Beijing
Although Beijing is the cultural center of our country, if you want to come to Beijing to feel the festive atmosphere and want to have a lively Lantern Festival, then you have basically come to the wrong place.
When you come to Beijing, you won't see flying sky lanterns, guessing lantern riddles, lion dances, or dragon dances. You probably can only enjoy the moon with a bowl of Yuanxiao in hand.
2. Henan
In the Heluo area (which is the "center of the world" with Luoyang as its center), there is a custom of "praying for dolls".
During every Lantern Festival, people can see devout pilgrims kneeling and burning incense before the Goddess of Childbirth, and taking home lively and cute clay dolls of various shapes.
The custom of praying for a baby is actually the parents' hope that the newlyweds will give birth to a baby soon and that the family will prosper. It is also a kind of supervision and reminder to their sons and daughters-in-law.
3. Shandong
Rongcheng, Shandong, makes zodiac animals during the Lantern Festival. The zodiac animals are usually made of fine soybean flour. Each animal carries a lamp bowl on its back with a light on it. On the night of the Lantern Festival, the bowls are placed on a plate and lit together.
The bigger the zodiac lantern's flower, the more auspicious it is. Whoever's zodiac lantern burns the longest will have good luck, health and safety in the new year.
4. Shanxi
In the Shanxi, Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia regions, people burn big fires on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. In areas such as Daning and Jixian in Shanxi and Yan'an Prefecture in Shaanxi, which are located in the Jin-Shaanxi Grand Canyon area, there is a custom of burning a big fire in the countryside on the fifteenth night of the first lunar month.
The firewood for the blazing fire was locally sourced; in some areas, pine branches were burned, in some areas bamboo branches were burned, and in some areas coal was burned.
The old people said that the purpose of burning a strong fire is mainly to drive away evil spirits and pray for blessings, and it also means welcoming gods and receiving blessings.
5. Shaanxi
The tradition in Xi'an, Shaanxi is "sending lanterns". Due to the homophony of “lantern” and “ding” in Chinese, before the Lantern Festival, the daughter’s family would send lanterns to her newly married daughter’s family, or ordinary relatives and friends would send lanterns to the newly married family of an infertile couple, in the hope of a good omen for the birth of a child.
In the first year of marriage, a pair of large palace lanterns and a pair of painted glass lanterns are given as gifts; if a daughter is pregnant, in addition to the regular large palace lanterns, one or two pairs of small lanterns should be given as gifts, wishing the daughter a safe pregnancy. 6. Anhui
In the ancient city of Fengyang County in Anhui Province, there are folk customs such as swinging on swings, carrying lanterns, and lighting torches on the Lantern Festival. There is even a saying among the people of Fengyang that "Swinging on the Lantern Festival will keep your back free from pain for the whole year."
In the rural areas of Fengyang, attentive children will consciously collect and prepare some old brooms and brush handles early in the morning in preparation for the "lighting torches" during the Lantern Festival.
What children are most excited about is "carrying lanterns". On this day, children will use lanterns of various shapes to decorate the Fucheng town at night.
7. Jiangsu
There are five major Lantern Festival customs in Taizhou, Jiangsu, namely eating Lantern Festival dumplings, celebrating the Lantern Festival, guessing lantern riddles, setting off fireworks, and sending good luck. Sending good luck is a unique custom in some towns and villages in Taizhou.
On the Lantern Festival, relatives and friends will give the new bride bridge piles, fertility Guanyin and other gifts to wish her a quick birth of a son.
8. Zhejiang
Wenzhou people have a very special way of celebrating the Lantern Festival. They have a custom called "beating the big cat". "Fighting the big cat" means fighting a tiger. Two people put on carefully made tiger skins and dress up as tigers.
Other villagers dressed up as many people and gods, including the "Seven Stars and Seven Evils", and performed as they walked along a fixed route, touring nearby villages.
9. Fujian
In some places in southern Fujian, there is a custom called "wearing lantern feet" during the Lantern Festival.
On the night of the Lantern Festival, the newly married brides and the wives who gave birth to boys that year in the village must wear red and green and dress up brand new.
Accompanied by their mother-in-law or other elderly women, they walk under the lantern shed of the ancestral hall, holding lucky charms in their hands and saying auspicious words.
The purpose of doing this is to introduce the new daughter-in-law to the ancestors and the villagers.
10. Guangdong
What is certain is that in some areas of Guangdong there is a custom of "stealing love" during the Lantern Festival.
If a boy likes a girl, he will go to her vegetable garden and steal some vegetables. This way, he can win the girl's love and let the girl know that the boy has a crush on her.
The young man would take the stolen vegetables home and tell his mother whose family they belonged to. His mother would then make a bowl of noodles for her son, hoping that everything would go smoothly when the matchmaker went to the girl's home to propose marriage.

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