Now the 15th day of the first lunar month is the Lantern Festival. The Lantern Festival is a traditional festival in ancient China, but the Lantern Festival was called Shangyuan festival in ancient times, which was the biggest festival at that time. Later, the Lantern Festival was also called 'Valentine's Day' and 'Carnival'. Why? This article will tell you why the Lantern Festival is called Carnival and Valentine's day. Let's have a look.
The curfew was suspended on the Lantern Festival, making it a 'Carnival' and 'Valentine's Day' for ordinary people
In ancient times, only a few days before and after the Lantern Festival could ordinary people move freely in the streets at night
Lantern Festival, also known as Shangyuan Festival, new year's Eve Festival and Lantern Festival, has been controversial in academic circles. It is generally believed that the 15th day of the first month is the first 'day of the year' (that is, the night of the full moon), which was valued by the ancients. In the Western Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu offered sacrifices to the 'Taiyi God' on this day, with large lights; Since then, Taoism has designated the fifteenth day of the first month as the "shangyuanri", and Buddhism has mapped the fifteenth day of the first month to the "great God changing the moon" in the Indian calendar. Some religious activities have gradually become common customs of the Lantern Festival in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. ①
Compared with other festivals, the ancients paid more attention to the Lantern Festival. In addition to the common accidents such as praying for blessings and ward off evil spirits, the main reason is that during the Lantern Festival, the imperial court lifted the curfew and allowed people to go out at night to celebrate. In peacetime, people living in cities, except for funeral, medical treatment and marriage, are prohibited from traveling at night for no reason, and violators will be flogged. Therefore, the romance novel can only set the night story on the Lantern Festival. For example, the water margin describes the Lantern Festival in Qingfeng town, Daming Prefecture and Tokyo.
During the Lantern Festival 'Carnival', women who are usually bound can also go to the streets to play and meet young men
For the emperor and the court, the Lantern Festival is an important opportunity to show "peace and prosperity" and "enjoy with the people". In order to enable the people to fully "burn up", the "Lantern Festival holiday" without curfew has been extended again and again. Tang Xuanzong stipulated that there would be three consecutive days off from the 14th to the 16th of the first month; Song Taizu added 17 and 18 days, and the holiday was up to 5 days; The emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty also stipulated that from the eighth to the seventeenth day of the first month, the lights would be put on for ten days. However, in the Qing Dynasty, 'Lantern Festival holiday' returned to five days.
During the Lantern Festival, people who go to the streets to watch lanterns and play break through the boundaries of high and low, men and women, old and young, and 'revel' together. ② A story quite illustrates the situation at that time. During the Lantern Festival in Luoyang in the Northern Song Dynasty, Sima Guang's wife wanted to go out to see the lights. Sima Guang asked, 'why go out to see the lights at home?' The lady replied, 'I also want to see tourists.' Sima Guang had to ask, "is it a ghost?" It is precisely because there are few scruples on the Lantern Festival night that women also go out to participate in activities such as "walking all diseases", "walking three bridges" and "inviting purple Gu gods", making it a festival convenient for young men and women to meet and meet. Therefore, some people jokingly call the Lantern Festival an ancient "Valentine's Day".
notes
① Li Man: historical investigation of Shangyuan festival customs in Tang Dynasty, Shaanxi Normal University, 2014; ② Peng Hengli: Carnival Lantern Festival -- a cultural study of the Lantern Festival in the Song Dynasty, Journal of Kaifeng University, issue 3, 2006;