There are two or three days left for the Lantern Festival, which is an important festival in China. In this year's Lantern Festival is coming, let's pick up some stories about the origin and legends of the Lantern Festival. Do you know the origin of Lantern Festival?
the lantern festival
Lantern Festival, originally meant 'the night of the last Yuan Festival', because the main activity of the 15th day of the first month 'the last Yuan Festival' is to eat the Lantern Festival at night and enjoy the moon. Later, the name of the festival also evolved into 'the Lantern Festival'. The Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month will bring another climax to the celebration which starts from New Year's Eve. On the night of the Lantern Festival, the streets are decorated with lanterns. People enjoy the lanterns, guess the riddles and eat the Lantern Festival, which has become a custom for generations. As early as during the reign of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, the 15th day of the first month had been 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. When Sima Qian founded the "Taichu calendar", he had identified the Lantern Festival as a major festival.
Legend of the origin of Lantern Festival
According to legend, Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty (179-157 BC) in order to celebrate Zhou Bo's exploration of the chaos of zhulv on the 15th day of the first month, he would go out of the palace every night to have fun with the people. In ancient times, the night was the same night and the first month was also called Yuanyue. Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty designated the 15th day of the first month as the Lantern Festival, which was called yuanxiao.
Legend of Lantern Festival
Legend: after the death of Liu Bang, Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty, Liu Ying, the son of empress LV, became emperor Hui of the Han Dynasty. Huidi was born cowardly and indecisive, and his power gradually fell into the hands of empress Lv. After the death of Huidi in the Han Dynasty, empress LV took charge of the imperial government and turned Liu's world into Lu's world. The senior officials of the court and Liu's clan were deeply indignant, but they were afraid of empress Lv's cruelty and dared not speak up.
After the death of empress LV, Zhu LV was afraid of being hurt and excluded. Therefore, they gathered secretly in the family of Lu Lu, the general of the upper Kingdom, and conspired to make trouble, so as to seize Liu's mountains and rivers completely.
This matter spread to Liu Xiang, the king of Qi in Liu's clan. In order to protect Liu's mountains and rivers, Liu Xiang decided to launch a military campaign against Zhu LV, and then contacted Zhou Bo and Chen Ping, the old ministers of the founding of the state, to design and remove Lu Lu. Finally, the 'chaos of Zhu LV' was completely pacified.
After the peace and uprising, Liu Heng, Liu Bang's second son, was enthroned by all the officials, who called him Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty. Deeply aware of the hard won peace and prosperity, Emperor Wen designated the 15th day of the first month to quell the "chaos of zhulv" as a day of happiness with the people. The families in the capital were decorated with lights to celebrate. Since then, the 15th day of the first month has become a folk festival - "Lantern Festival".
The history of eating Lantern Festival
Eat Lantern Festival
Tangyuan is a necessary holiday food, of course, poetry. People in Song Dynasty also wrote poems about Tang yuan. Zhu Shuzhen, a female poet of the Southern Song Dynasty, has a poem "Yuanzi", which reads: "light round meat is better than chicken head meat, and greasy soup is better than crab eye soup. Even if there is no place to say, has lost the soup cake try he Lang. The so-called "chicken head meat" describes its tenderness. Li Longji, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, once praised Yang Guifei's milk as "newly peeled chicken head meat".
Zhou Bida, a litterateur of the Southern Song Dynasty, also had a poem "boiled Yuanxiao and floating Yuanzi": "today's Eve is He Xi, and everything is the same for reunion.". Tangguan looks for the flavor, and the kitchen maid is surprised by the new skill. The stars are rotten in the dark clouds, and the beads float in the muddy water. When I was old, I made miscellaneous chants and attached them to my family style. '
The Zhuzhi Ci of Shangyuan written by Fu Zeng, a representative poet of Zhejiang School in the Qing Dynasty, is a poem chanting the Lantern Festival: 'sweet scented osmanthus is wrapped in walnuts, and jiangmi is like a pearl well. See say Ma family drops powder good, try to sell Lantern Festival in the wind. '
It is said that the story of Yuan Shikai and Yuanxiao was also spread in the late Qing Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty. It is said that Yuan Shikai was still reluctant to be a president and wanted to be an emperor, because his dream could not come true and he was worried all day long. One day his aunt said she would eat the Lantern Festival. As soon as she spoke, Yuan Shikai slapped her on the face. Because of the homophony of "Lantern Festival" and "Yuan Xiao", Yuan Shikai gave an order to his subordinates. In the future, he would not say "Lantern Festival", but "Tangyuan". Later, someone wrote a doggerel poem on this matter: 'the poem chants the round son and goes back to the previous dynasty. When cooking, the water floats. In those days, Hong Xian passed a ban on shouting Lantern Festival along the street.