The Lantern Festival is a traditional Chinese festival, also known as the Lantern Festival or the Spring Lantern Festival. The fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the first full moon night in the month, so in addition to being called the Lantern Festival, this time is also called the “Festival of Lanterns”, symbolizing reunion and beauty. The Lantern Festival has profound historical and cultural connotations. Let us learn more about the origins and customs of the Lantern Festival.
There are many different opinions about the origin of the Lantern Festival. One theory is that Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty established the Lantern Festival to commemorate the “Ping Lu” Rebellion. According to legend, in order to celebrate the quelling of the “Zhu Lu Rebellion”, Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty decided to designate the fifteenth day of the first lunar month as a universal folk festival, and ordered people to decorate every household on this day to commemorate this grand victory.
Another theory is that the Lantern Festival originated from the “Torch Festival”. Folks in the Han Dynasty used torches to drive away insects and beasts on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month and pray for a good harvest. Some areas still retain the custom of making torches out of reeds or tree branches, and holding the torches high in groups to dance in fields or grain drying fields. In addition, there is also a saying that the Lantern Festival comes from the Taoist “Three Yuan Theory”, that is, the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the Shangyuan Festival. On this day, people celebrate the first full moon night of the year. The three organs in charge of the upper, middle and lower elements are heaven, earth and man respectively, so they light lanterns to celebrate.
The customs of the Lantern Festival are also very colorful. Among them, eating glutinous rice balls is an important custom during the Lantern Festival.The custom of glutinous rice balls began in the Song Dynasty, so during the Lantern Festival
Post time: Feb-22-2024