After the Lantern Festival, the year is really over. In my childhood memory, Lantern Festival is my mother's Lantern Festival and all kinds of dragon and lion dances, temple fairs, and flower lanterns. These are the most beautiful memories of my childhood. Why do I put flower lanterns on Lantern Festival? What's the special meaning of putting flower lanterns on Lantern Festival?
The "heaven and earth hall" should be set up when people worship the God on New Year's Eve. People set up a small shed in the courtyard. On the small table in the shed stands the shrine of "three realms of heaven and earth, ten realms of spirits and true slaughter". In front of the shrine are incense burners, offerings and a lantern, which represents the seat of Jiang Taigong. It is said that when Jiang Taigong became a God, everyone else was sealed, but he forgot to seal himself. He had no seat but to sit with God.
The lantern is related to God, so it also gives a lot of symbolic meaning.
In ancient times, people in order to drive out the fear of darkness, so the lantern derived from the meaning of exorcism and blessing, praying for light.
In Southern Fujian, the sound of "lantern" is similar to that of "Ding". Therefore, lanterns are also used to seek children, gain fame, and avoid evil.
There is a kind of "light lamp". At the end of the year and the beginning of the year, the lantern is placed in the temple, and the Buddha's magic power is used to achieve a safe and smooth year.
There are also farmers who set up long bamboo poles in the fields and hang a lamp to 'light the silkworms in the fields' to observe the color of the fire so as to predict the situation of flood and drought in a year, with a view to a good year.
In the past, people used to set off the sky lamp as a signal of mutual peace after escaping from bandits. Since the day of taking refuge and returning home is the Lantern Festival, from then on, every year, people celebrate it with the ceremony of putting on the sky lamp, so it is also called "blessing lamp" or "safety lamp". After that, it gradually evolved into a folk activity of praying to heaven. The lantern is full of all kinds of wishes in my heart. I hope the lantern can reach heaven and bring infinite hope and light to people.
It is said that Li Shimin, the Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, encouraged reading, and all the people sent their children to school. The first program of enrollment is called "turn on the lights". It is to take the lanterns that have been made in advance to the school, and ask an old learned gentleman to light them up to symbolize a bright future. Most of the old private schools opened later on the 15th day of the first month, so the lantern became the ornament of Shangyuan Festival.
There are many kinds of lantern festival lanterns, such as dragon lanterns, tiger lanterns, rabbit lanterns and so on, or activity lanterns based on folk stories, such as cowherd, Weaver Girl, twenty four filial piety and so on, which show the national spirit of loyalty, filial piety and righteousness. All kinds of lanterns are made skillfully, which shows the wisdom and skills of craftsmen.
With the development of the times, the Lantern Festival is becoming more and more grand, with more and more national characteristics and longer time. In the Tang Dynasty, the lantern festival lasted one day and three days respectively around the Shang and Yuan Dynasties; in the Song Dynasty, two days were added after the 16th, which was five days; in the Ming Dynasty, it was extended to ten days from the 8th to the 18th. Because of different lamp periods, the first day of lighting is called "test lamp", the 15th day is called "positive lamp", and the last day is called "residual lamp" and "appendix lamp". It is also called "god lamp", "man lamp" and "ghost lamp". On the fourteenth day and night, it's called "divine lamp", which is placed in front of the family's throne and ancestral hall to sacrifice the ancestors of the gods; on the fifteenth day and night, it's called "human lamp", which is placed in doors and windows, beds, cases, etc. to avoid scorpions and insects; on the sixteenth day and night, it's called "ghost lamp", which is placed in the churchyard and wilderness, so that the wandering soul can get out of the ghost kingdom. Pray for the heaven, protect the people, gods, ghosts and animals.