Lantern Festival Carnival What are the customs of the Lantern Festival in Suzhou?
Introduction: As the old saying goes, there is heaven above and Suzhou and Hangzhou below. It can be seen how intoxicating the scenery of Suzhou is. So, how do people in Suzhou celebrate the Lantern Festival? What are the traditional customs for celebrating the Lantern Festival in Suzhou? Next, let’s learn about it together! The first month of the lunar calendar is an important month. Let us pay attention to the traditional festivals and solar terms in the first month and have a good start of the month. The Lantern Festival is a traditional festival that Suzhou people attach great importance to. They hold lantern fairs and celebrate the Lantern Festival, and the city of Suzhou becomes a sea of joy on this day. "The lights in the South Hao and the North Hao are colorful, and the city gates are crowded with people." According to records, there has been a tradition of testing the lights on the 13th and setting them off on the 18th since the Southern Song Dynasty, and the most prosperous place for the lantern market is the area around Changmen. However, in addition to the customs of hanging and watching lanterns during the Lantern Festival, Suzhou also has some unique local customs and some little-known and lost folk activities before and after the Lantern Festival.Suzhou Lantern Festival: Offering sacrifices to brave generals and praying for a good harvestSince ancient times, many customs and activities related to farming have been popular in Suzhou around the Lantern Festival, among which offering sacrifices to brave generals is an important activity. It is reported that there used to be a Mengjiang Hall in Songxianzhou Lane in Suzhou City, also known as Jixiang Temple, which enshrined the guardian god of agriculture believed in by Suzhou farmers. Legend has it that Meng Jiang was born into a poor family and was always abused by "Man Niang" (Wu dialect, meaning stepmother or stepmother). "Man Niang" even tried to sow discord between Meng Jiang and his son. His father believed what "Man Niang" said and drove Meng Jiang out of the house. The brave general was wandering outside and found locusts eating the crops. He drove the locusts to the seaside, but accidentally fell into the water and drowned. The people worshipped him as a god. Legend has it that the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the general's birthday. On this day, common people in the old city of Suzhou would go to the General's Hall to watch large candles weighing fifty or sixty kilograms being lit in the temple. Farmers from nearby villages would also go to the temple to burn incense and pray for no locust plagues and a good harvest throughout the year. Professor Ge Chunyuan of Suzhou University of Science and Technology said: "Every year on the 13th day of the first lunar month, people from all over the country carry the statue of the brave general out to parade through the streets, praying for good weather and good harvests." In addition, around the Lantern Festival, Suzhou also has the customs of "setting up water meters" and "looking at the wealth in the fields". The so-called "water meter" is to insert a stick one foot and five inches long into the ground. At midnight on the night of the Lantern Festival, you watch it under the moon. If the shadow of the stick is half the length of the stick, it means there will be good weather and good harvests this year; if the shadow of the stick is less than half the length of the stick, it means there will be a drought; if the shadow exceeds half the length of the stick, it means there will be a flood. "Zhao Tian Cai" means inserting a pole in the field and hanging a lantern on the pole.Suzhou Lantern Festival: Welcoming Zigu and offering sacrifices to the Silkworm God"Zi Gu is actually a legendary toilet god." Ge Chunyuan introduced that in the past, there was a custom of "receiving the three girls from the pit" among the people of Suzhou during the Lantern Festival. There is also a legend about these "three girls from the pit". It is reported that Liu Jingshu of the Liu Song period in the Southern Dynasties recorded a story about the "Zi Gu God" in his "Yi Yuan". Legend has it that Zi Gu was originally a sympathetic concubine. Because of the jealousy of the eldest wife, she was often asked to do dirty work. On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, she was killed by the eldest wife. It is said that after her death, the Emperor of Heaven took pity on her and made her the toilet god because she often did dirty work in her lifetime. Suzhou people used to call toilets "fenkeng" and going to the toilet "squatting pit", so the Zi Gu Goddess was commonly known as "the third lady of the pit", and some people even called her "the goddess of the fenkeng". According to folklore, she was very good at divination, so on the fifteenth night of the first lunar month, the common people would make a "Zi Gu sedan chair" to pick her up and ask her to show her fortune. In the past, similar divination activities in Suzhou were mostly evolved from "Jie Zi Gu". Legend has it that Zi Gu was very good at predicting the silkworm and mulberry harvests. Suzhou is the hometown of silk, and many local people make a living by raising silkworms and planting mulberry trees. So every year on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, silkworm farmers in Suzhou would invite Zi Gu home to pray for a good silkworm and mulberry harvest. In addition, on the night of the Lantern Festival, there is a custom in Suzhou countryside of offering white porridge to the Silkworm God, praying that the silkworms they raise can produce high-quality silk that can be sold at a good price.Suzhou Lantern Festival: Walking across three bridges to get rid of all diseasesCelebrating the Lantern Festival is not only a matter for men and children. For women who have been confined at home for a long time, the Lantern Festival is simply a day of liberation. On this night, women can gather in groups of three or five, wearing new clothes and watching the lanterns under the bright moon. There is even an activity exclusively for women during the Lantern Festival - "Walking on Three Bridges". According to the chronicles of Changzhou, Yuanhe and other places, women in Suzhou have long had the custom of "walking across three bridges" on the night of the Lantern Festival. Women who usually stay at home all year round would walk in groups on the night of the Lantern Festival and return after walking across three bridges. Generally speaking, they would choose bridges with auspicious names to walk on, such as Shouxing Bridge, Jili Bridge, Taiping Bridge, etc. It is said that walking on the three bridges can eliminate all diseases, so it is also called "walking away all diseases". Crossing a bridge and a river was considered by the ancients to be a symbol of "overcoming disasters". By walking across three bridges, one could overcome the many disasters of the year and be free from illness for the whole year. The word "cross the river" is homophonic with "cross the disaster" in the South, so crossing the bridge has the connotation of overcoming disasters. In feudal society, cities often imposed curfews and prohibited people from traveling at night, but the Lantern Festival was an exception. For women who had long been imprisoned by feudal ethics, they only had a rare freedom on this night. According to records, because of this one night of freedom, all men and women went out for night walks. The roads were blocked by carriages and horses, and some people had to walk for dozens of steps without touching the ground. There were so many people that people couldn't even touch the ground, which shows how grand the Lantern Festival is in traditional cities.Summary: After reading the introduction in the above article, do you have a preliminary understanding of Suzhou’s Lantern Festival customs? If you want to know more, please visit Mr. Shui Mo! After reading this article, there are more exciting contents in the special topic of the first month of the lunar calendar. Let’s take a look! |
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