What is the meaning of the Lantern Festival? What is the historical development of the Lantern Festival?

What is the meaning of the Lantern Festival? What is the historical development of the Lantern Festival?
The Lantern Festival, also known as the Shangyuan Festival, the Little New Year, the Lantern Festival or the Lantern Festival, is held on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month every year. It is the last important festival in the Chinese New Year customs. Every day has its good and bad days. If you want to know more about the good and bad days in the first month of 2019, please pay attention to the special articles on the first month of the lunar calendar in 2019 on Shuimoxiansheng.com!

What does the Lantern Festival mean?

The Lantern Festival is one of the traditional festivals in China, the Chinese character cultural circle and overseas Chinese. The first month of the lunar calendar is the first month of the year. The ancients called "night" "xiao", so the fifteenth day of the first full moon night of the year is called the Lantern Festival. In ancient Chinese customs, the Shangyuan Festival (Tianguan Festival), the Zhongyuan Festival (Diguan Festival, Yulan Festival), and the Xiayuan Festival (Shuiguan Festival) are collectively known as the Three Yuans. The formation of the Lantern Festival customs took a long process. According to general information and folk legends, the fifteenth day of the first lunar month was already taken seriously in the Western Han Dynasty. The activity of Emperor Wu of Han worshipping "Taiyi" in Ganquan Palace on the first night of the first lunar month was regarded by later generations as a precursor to the worship of gods on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. However, the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month truly became a folk festival after the Han and Wei dynasties.

The Historical Development of the Lantern Festival

The period and customs of the Lantern Festival have been extended and expanded with the development of history. In terms of the length of the festival, it was only one day in the Han Dynasty, three days in the Tang Dynasty, five days in the Song Dynasty, and in the Ming Dynasty, the lights were lit from the eighth day to the seventeenth night of the first lunar month. It is the longest Lantern Festival in Chinese history. It connects with the Spring Festival. It is bustling during the day and spectacular with lights lit at night. Especially the exquisite and colorful lights make it the climax of entertainment activities during the Spring Festival. In the Qing Dynasty, dragon and lion dances, land boat racing, stilt walking, and yangko dance were added, but the festival period was shortened to four to five days.

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