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Why not have a holiday on Lantern Festival? Is the Lantern Festival a national holiday

Why doesn't the Lantern Festival have a holiday? The Lantern Festival is a very important festival in China. Many people will question why such an important festival doesn't have a holiday? What's the matter? Let's see what the official saying is.

Why does the Lantern Festival not have a holiday

Because the Lantern Festival is not a national legal holiday, so it is not a holiday!

On January 1, 1912, the provisional government of the Republic of China was established. In order to keep pace with the world and to facilitate the formulation of budget, Sun Yat-sen changed the Western calendar (solar calendar) in the second day of the Republic of China

The Republic of China changed to the Gregorian calendar, with November 13, 469 as the new year's day of the Republic of China.

January 1 is the new year's day in the Gregorian calendar.

However, the old Chinese New Year is also called "New Year's Day" or "New Year's Day". In order to distinguish the new year and the new year, Yuan Shikai approved the petition of the Ministry of internal affairs of Beijing in 1914, changing the old Chinese new year to "Spring Festival":

It is proposed that the Lunar New Year's Day is the Spring Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival is the summer festival, the Mid Autumn Festival is the autumn festival and the winter solstice is the winter festival. All our citizens are entitled to rest, and public officers are also allowed one day off.

It also has the so-called four traditional Chinese festivals: Spring Festival, summer festival (Dragon Boat Festival), Autumn Festival (Mid Autumn Festival) and winter festival (winter solstice). There is no Lantern Festival, nor the current legal holiday Qingming.

Official saying that the Lantern Festival does not have a holiday:

First of all, Lantern Festival is entitled to become a legal holiday. In recent years, the state has paid more attention to traditional festivals, taking many traditional festivals as holidays, such as Mid Autumn Festival, Qingming Festival, Spring Festival, etc. from this point of view, the Lantern Festival, as an important festival, is certainly qualified to be a legal holiday.

Secondly, the reason why it is excluded from the legal holidays also reflects the principle of combining work and rest in the national legal holidays. Holidays should have certain interval, too close distance, affect work, and also make people easily feel that work is not suitable.

Although the Lantern Festival is very important, it is regrettable that it is too close to the Spring Festival. If people stop to rest after the long Spring Festival holiday, and change with the weekend, it will cause a waste of holiday time and is not conducive to people's working condition.

Why is Lantern Festival also called Lantern Festival

According to legend, the Lantern Festival had already existed in the Han Dynasty. At that time, it was not called the Lantern Festival, because Buddhism was prevalent at that time. Every 15th day of the first month, Buddhist disciples would have the custom of monks watching Buddhist relics and lighting lamps in temples to worship Buddha.

Because the emperor of that dynasty believed in Buddhism, so the emperor ordered every family to light a lamp and observe Buddhism on that day, which gradually formed this custom. Later, people called this day the Lantern Festival.

It is reported that the Lantern Festival is a traditional Chinese festival, as early as 2000 years ago in the Qin Dynasty.

During the reign of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, the 15th day of the first month was designated as the Lantern Festival.

During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the sacrifice of Taiyi God was set on the 15th day of the first month. (1) the God who rules everything in the universe. When Sima Qian founded the "Taichu calendar", he had identified the Lantern Festival as a major festival.

The introduction of Buddhism in the Eastern Han Dynasty made the Lantern Festival a auspicious day for Buddhist participation in order to expand its influence in China.

On the night of the Lantern Festival, thousands of lanterns were lit in the streets and alleys. People went out with their friends and relatives to enjoy the lanterns, visit the flower market, set off fireworks, and celebrate the Lantern Festival with songs and dances.

The real motive force of the Lantern Festival custom is that it is at a new time point, and people make full use of this special time stage to express their wishes for life. The main traditional folk activities of the Lantern Festival include dragon dance, lion dance, roller boat running, stilts walking, Yangko dancing, etc.