What customs are there during the Lantern Festival across the country, and what are the common customs?
my country has a vast territory and transportation was inconvenient in ancient times. Traditional culture places special emphasis on customs, which leads to different customs and habits in different places during the same festival. What are the customs of the Lantern Festival in various parts of the country? What are the common customs? The Fortune Teller website provides you with more information related to the first month of the lunar calendar in 2018. You are welcome to learn more about it!Lantern Festival Customs in Various Parts of ChinaDuring the Lantern Festival in Yongping Prefecture, Hebei Province , sick women gathered under the kiln, which was called "Taojiu". Children cross the bridge in an alternating manner, which is called "overcoming a hundred disasters". Some people also cut paper into nine paper ropes and tie them into knots at random to predict good or bad luck, which is called "tying sheep intestines". Twelve dough bowls are filled with oil and steamed in a pot. The amount of water in the bowls is used to predict whether it will be sunny or rainy that month. The Lantern Festival in Jinghai County is celebrated with big steamed buns. During the Lantern Festival in Qingyun County, men ask the Fifth Patriarch to teach them boxing and martial arts, while women ask Zi Gu to predict good and bad luck. During the Lantern Festival in Xiangcheng County, Henan Province , people eat wonton soup, which is called "reunion tea". The daughter's parents will invite her home to celebrate the festival. During the Lantern Festival in the county, all the sick people, young and old, will apply moxibustion on stone turtles. If there is a river bridge in the local area, everyone will cross it. If there is no bridge, a "sky bridge" several meters high is built with wooden planks, which is called "walking away all diseases." During the Lantern Festival, many people living near the water in Zichuan District, Zibo City, Shandong Province release river lanterns. During the Lantern Festival, people in Ningyang County, Tai'an City, send lanterns to their ancestral graves. There is a custom of lighting lanterns during the Lantern Festival in Boxing County, Binzhou City. If a boy holds a lantern and walks around the jujube tree six times, chanting "Du Lao Du Lao, bloom and bear jujubes" six times, the jujube tree will have a good harvest. Men, women, old and young in Ju County of Rizhao City go out for an outing on the 16th day of the first lunar month. They call it "walking for an old look" and it is said that walking once a year can keep one young forever. Fengxiang County, Shaanxi Province invites daughters and sons-in-law to a banquet on the Lantern Festival, which is called "eating the fifteenth". Sending lamps and oil is called "adding oil". In Wujin District of Jiangsu Province , on the Lantern Festival, people tie reeds into torches about ten feet long and stick them in the fields. This is called "lighting up the wealth in the fields" and is used to predict early floods. The white color of fire represents water, and the red color represents drought. On the Lantern Festival in Yixing, children wear ghost masks, bend their legs and shake their shoulders and dance, which is called "jumping ghosts." According to folk tradition in Hangzhou , Zhejiang Province , the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the day when the Heavenly Official bestows blessings. Many people fast and recite scriptures, then crawl to Mount Wu to worship. The most famous Lantern Festival in Haining County is the exquisite chrysanthemum lanterns. Young men from Shangyu County went to the Kanshi platform to compete in martial arts on the night of the Lantern Festival. In Jiande County, families who have a newly married daughter-in-law will set up wine and offer sacrifices to the bed on the Lantern Festival. Residents of Xinjian County, Jiangxi Province , place bamboo lanterns when visiting graves during the Lantern Festival. All the villages in Wan'an County worship the Shangyuan Shenzhou on the Lantern Festival. Old farmers in Yunmeng County, Hubei Province (now Jianghan) would hold torches and shine them on their fields on the night of the Lantern Festival, which was called "lighting up the silkworms in the wild." Children welcome the gods with field drums and predict events of the coming year. The "dragon-playing" activity in Wuchang lasts for three days. Men, women, old and young from the whole village follow the dragon lantern to the neighboring village for a banquet, which is called "dragon exchanging wine". In Putian, Fujian , the Lantern Festival is more grand than the Spring Festival. During the past month, different villages and different surnames celebrated the Lantern Festival in different ways every day, and the activities were rich and colorful. When a village celebrates the Lantern Festival, there will be a temple and a shrine setting out vegetarian dishes, a "banquet table", stacking cakes and fruits, and building orange towers, and the villagers will carry statues of Bodhisattvas and perform Nuo rituals. Every household sets up an incense table in the hall, burns incense and firecrackers, burns "tribute silver", and burns firewood, praying for a better life in the coming year. At night, there are lantern parades, palm-leaf bridges, Nuo fire dances, dragon and lion dances, and operas, which keep people awake all night long.During the Lantern Festival in Putian, the 14th, 15th and 16th days are the most lively and are known as the "Lantern Festival Heart". At the same time, Putian also has the customs of "Zong Yuanxiao" and "Mazu Yuanxiao". The Lantern Festival is actually a literary and artistic "outing". The "outing" team includes a horse team, a dressing room, a colorful flag team, ten kinds of music and eight kinds of dances, dragon and lion dances, etc. We swam from 8 am to 12 pm before returning to the temple. The custom of Mazu Lantern Festival usually takes place on the coastal islands of Putian, especially on Meizhou Island. The actual day of Mazu Lantern Festival is on the tenth day of the first lunar month. There is also a custom of setting up a "candle mountain" during the Lantern Festival at the Mazu Temple. The Mazu Lantern Festival lasts until the 29th day of the first lunar month, because the dragon lanterns used in dragon dances in various parts of Putian must be cremated. According to folklore, if the dragon lantern is not cremated, the dragon will turn into a spirit and harm the people. Since the dragon was a symbol of the ancient emperor, most palaces and temples were of low level and could not perform the duty of “transforming into a dragon”, so Mazu, the dragon girl who came down to earth, had to take on this task. After the Lantern Festival activities in various towns and villages are over, all the dragon lanterns will be gathered together and "transformed into dragons" during the Mazu Lantern Festival on the 29th day of the first lunar month. [1] According to Wang Yingshan’s Min Da Ji, in Fuzhou, Fujian , “lanterns are hung along the doors and people enjoy the sights all night long, which is called the Lantern Market.” This custom also originated in the Song Dynasty. At that time, every household hung lanterns on their doors, and the ten-mile-long street was illuminated by red lights. During the Lantern Festival, officials from prefectures and counties would encourage a grand display of lanterns so that “officials and common people could have fun together.” During the Yuanfeng period of the Northern Song Dynasty (1078-1085), Liu Jin was the prefect of Fuzhou. In order to enjoy the lanterns, he ordered every household to donate ten lanterns. Chen Lie, a poet from Langguan Lane, angrily hung a lantern with a poem on it on the Drum Tower: "A lamp in a rich family is like a grain of rice in the granary; a lamp in a poor family is like a father and son crying to each other. Does the romantic prefect know this? He still hates that there is no wonderful music in the music." From then on, the government no longer forced the people to donate lanterns. The time of lantern festivals has also changed over the dynasties: in the Tang and Song dynasties, they were mostly held from the 14th to the 18th day of the first lunar month; the Yuan Dynasty court did not encourage large-scale lantern festivals; in the Ming Dynasty, they were held from the 13th to the 22nd day; and in the Qing Dynasty, they were held from the 13th to the 17th day. There are no fixed rules after the Republic of China. Fuzhou’s Lantern Festival is not only a splendid lantern market, but also features Aoshan displays for people to enjoy. "Spring lanterns are more fragrant than hundreds of flowers, the Lantern Festival is prosperous and splendor is flourishing in Futang; silver candles burn in the sky to create a beautiful scene, and auspicious light appears on the towering Aoshan Mountain." This poem describes the grand scene of the Lantern Festival and Aoshan Mountain in the old days in Fujian Province. During the Lantern Festival, the city gates are opened, Aoshan Mountain faces outward, and people from the suburbs come into the city to watch. It is crowded with people and very lively. Common Lantern Festival CustomsEating Yuanxiao <br /> Eating Yuanxiao on the 15th day of the first lunar month is a traditional food in China. In the Song Dynasty, a novel food for the Lantern Festival became popular among the people. This kind of food was first called "Fuyuanzi" and later called "Yuanxiao". Businessmen also called it "Yuanbao". Yuanxiao, also known as "tangyuan", is filled with sugar, rose, sesame, bean paste, osmanthus, walnut kernels, nuts, jujube paste, etc. It is wrapped in glutinous rice flour into a round shape. It can be meat or vegetarian, with different flavors. It can be cooked in soup, fried, or steamed, symbolizing reunion and happiness. The glutinous rice balls in Shaanxi are not wrapped but "rolled" in glutinous rice flour and then boiled or fried. They are hot and round.Viewing Lanterns <br /> During the Yongping reign of Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty (58-75 AD), Emperor Ming promoted Buddhism. It happened that Cai Yin returned from India after learning Buddhism. He said that on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, monks in the Indian kingdom of Magadha gathered to view the Buddha's relics. It was an auspicious day to visit the Buddha. In order to promote Buddhism, Emperor Ming of Han ordered that "lights be lit to show respect to Buddha" in the palace and temples on the fifteenth night of the first lunar month. From then on, the custom of lighting lanterns during the Lantern Festival spread from being only held in the palace to the common people. That is, every fifteenth day of the first lunar month, both nobles and common people would hang lanterns, and cities and towns would be brightly lit all night long. The custom of lighting lanterns during the Lantern Festival developed into an unprecedented lantern fair in the Tang Dynasty. At that time, the capital Chang'an was already the largest city in the world with a population of one million and a prosperous society. Under the emperor's personal advocacy, the Lantern Festival became more and more luxurious. After the middle Tang Dynasty, it has developed into a carnival for the whole nation. During the Kaiyuan Period (685-762 AD) of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, the Lantern Festival in Chang'an was very grand, with 50,000 lanterns lit and a wide variety of lanterns. The emperor ordered people to build a giant lantern tower, which was 20 rooms wide and 150 feet high. It was dazzling with golden light and extremely spectacular. In the Song Dynasty, the Lantern Festival surpassed that of the Tang Dynasty in terms of scale and the fantasy and exquisiteness of the lanterns. The activities were more folk-oriented and had stronger national characteristics. In the following generations, the Lantern Festival continued to develop and the duration of the festival became longer and longer. The Lantern Festival in the Tang Dynasty was "one day before and after the Lantern Festival". In the Song Dynasty, two days were added after the 16th. In the Ming Dynasty, it was extended to a full ten days from the 8th to the 18th. In the Qing Dynasty, the Manchus took control of the Central Plains and the palace no longer held lantern festivals, but folk lantern festivals were still spectacular. The date was shortened to five days and continues to this day. In Taiwan, lanterns represent brightness and the birth of a new child. Lighting a lantern means illuminating the future. In Taiwanese, the homophones of "lantern" and "ding" represent the birth of a boy. Therefore, women in the past would deliberately walk under the lanterns during the Lantern Festival, hoping to "drill under the foot of the lantern to give birth to an egg". Valentine's Day <br /> The Lantern Festival is also a romantic festival. In the feudal traditional society, the Lantern Festival also provides an opportunity for unmarried men and women to get to know each other. In traditional society, young girls are not allowed to go out freely, but they can go out to play together during the festival. Watching the lanterns during the Lantern Festival is a good opportunity for socializing. Unmarried men and women can also look for their partners while watching the lanterns. During the Lantern Festival, it is an opportunity for young men and women to meet their lovers. In Taiwan, there is a traditional custom that unmarried women who steal onions or vegetables on the night of the Lantern Festival will marry a good husband. The custom is commonly known as "steal onions and marry a good husband" or "steal vegetables and marry a good son-in-law." Girls who hope to have a happy marriage must steal onions or vegetables from the vegetable garden on the night of the Lantern Festival, looking forward to a happy family in the future. In the Tang Dynasty, there were also music and dance performances at the Lantern Festival, with thousands of palace maids and folk girls singing and dancing under the lanterns, which was called walking songs and stepping songs. Ouyang Xiu (Shengchazi) said: During the Lantern Festival last year, the lights in the flower market were as bright as day; the moon was above the treetops, and people made appointments after dusk. Xin Qiji (Qingyu'an) wrote: I searched for him among the crowd for hundreds of times, and when I turned around, he was standing in the dim light. It describes the situation on the Lantern Festival night. In the traditional opera, Chen San and Wu Niang met and fell in love at first sight while watching lanterns on the Lantern Festival. Lechang Gongwen and Xu Deyan reunited on the Lantern Festival night. In "Spring Lantern Riddles", Yuwen Yan and Ying Niang got engaged on the Lantern Festival. Therefore, the Lantern Festival is also China's "Valentine's Day". Get rid of all diseases <br /> In addition to the celebrations, there are also religious activities during the Lantern Festival. That is "walking away from all diseases", also known as "roasting away all diseases" and "dispersing all diseases". Most of the participants are women. They walk in groups, either walking along the wall, crossing the bridge or walking in the suburbs, with the purpose of driving away diseases and disasters. As time goes by, there are more and more activities on the Lantern Festival. Many places have added activities such as dragon lantern and lion dances, stilt walking, land boat dances, yangko dance, and Taiping drums to the festival. There are some little-known and lost folk activities during the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month. Here are a few of them. There were "seven sacrifices" in ancient times, namely sacrifices to doors and sacrifices to households, and these are two of them. The method of sacrifice is very simple. Insert a poplar branch above the door, insert a pair of chopsticks in a bowl of bean porridge, or directly place wine and meat in front of the door. Chasing rats <br /> This activity is mainly for silkworm farmers. Because mice often eat large numbers of silkworms at night, people heard that if you feed mice with rice porridge on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, they will stop eating silkworms. Therefore, these families would cook a big pot of sticky porridge on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. Some would even cover it with a layer of meat. They would put the porridge in bowls and place them on the ceilings and corners where mice were active. They would mutter something while putting the porridge in their mouths, cursing the mice that they would not have a good death if they ate silkworms again. Welcoming Zi Gu <br /> Zi Gu is a kind, poor girl in folklore. On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Zi Gu died of poverty. The people sympathized with her and missed her, and in some places the custom of "welcoming Zi Gu on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month" emerged. Every night on this day, people make a life-size portrait of Zi Gu out of straw and cloth. The women stood by the toilet, pigpen and kitchen where Zi Gu often worked to welcome her. They held her hands, spoke kind words to her and comforted her with tears, just like they would their own sister. The scene was very vivid and truly reflected the working people's thoughts and feelings of kindness, loyalty and sympathy for the weak. |
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