[Network China Festival Lantern Festival] Reading the customs of Lantern Festival in ancient and modern masterpieces

　　Today is the fifteenth day of the first month of the year of Jihai, which coincides with the traditional Chinese Lantern Festival. The first month is the first month of the lunar calendar. The ancients called "night" "night", so the fifteenth day of the first full moon in a year is called the Lantern Festival. Since ancient times, the Lantern Festival has become a favorite theme of literati because of its important cultural connotation, and the folk culture about the festival can also be seen in various excellent works.

　　Watching the moon and lanterns

　　Cui Ye, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, said in a poem: "Who can sit around when he sees the moon, but he can’t smell the lights." Tang Bohu, a gifted scholar in the Ming Dynasty, once said: "A moon without lights is not entertaining, and a moon without lights is not spring." It can be seen that watching the moon and lanterns is an important custom of the Lantern Festival, so the Lantern Festival is also called the Lantern Festival.

　　The writer Shen Congwen once explained the history of watching lanterns during the Lantern Festival in the article "Lights of the Lantern Festival": "Lantern Festival is mainly about watching lanterns. Watching lanterns has become a system, which seems to have been mentioned in "Jing Chu Sui Ji". The more specific records actually began in the early Tang Dynasty and developed in the Song Dynasty, and the source came from the Han Dynasty. " The custom of "hanging lanterns" on the Lantern Festival has been passed down to this day.

　　"wahoo silver flowers, star bridge iron lock open. Dark dust goes with the horse, and the bright moon comes one by one. " Su Weidao, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote the widely circulated fifteenth night of the first month, which vividly depicts the charming picture of the bright lights of midnight snack and people enjoying the moon and traveling happily. "Jin Li Fang Yan, Lan Hongyan in his early years. The color is far away, and the light is far away. After the Chinese suspect that the stars are falling, the building is like a moon hanging. Don’t have a thousand golden smiles, to reflect the nine branches. "Lu Zhaolin, one of the four outstanding figures in the early Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem" Watching Lights at Fifteen Nights ",which made the colorful Lantern Festival lights unique and brought people into an intoxicated fairyland.

　　"Lantern Festival is decorated with lanterns everywhere, and the whole street is like a wedding, blazing and beautiful. Hundreds of lamps are hung in famous old shops, some of which are all glass, some are all horns, and some are gauze lamps. Some are of various colors, and some are all painted with all the stories of A Dream of Red Mansions or Water Margin. Put up sky lanterns in the park and fly to the sky like a superstar. Men and women come out to step on the moon, watch lights and watch fireworks. " Writer Lao She described the jubilant scene of the Beijing Lantern Festival after the founding of New China in the article Spring Festival in Beijing.

trotting horse lamp

　　The lantern is just a kind of lantern. The appearance is mostly palace lantern-shaped, because many pictures of ancient military commanders riding horses are drawn on all sides of the lamp, and when the lamp rotates, it looks like several people are chasing each other, so it is named the lantern. The merry-go-round is especially popular with the people. In the chapter "The Problem between Father and Son" in My Autobiography of Mind, the writer Zhou Guoping once said: "When I was in primary school, my father was only in his thirties, and he still had a lot of fun in life. Every year on the Lantern Festival, he will personally make an exquisite lantern, draw different watercolors on all sides of the paper screen and hang them in the house. As soon as the electric light is on, the paper screen rotates, which surprises me. "

　　Dance dragon lantern

　　Dragon lantern dance is also one of the important folk customs of the Lantern Festival celebration. The earliest recorded dragon dance was Zhang Heng’s "Xijing Fu" in the Han Dynasty. The author vividly described the dragon dance in the description of hundreds of plays. According to the Records of Music in Sui Shu, Huanglongbian, which was similar to the dragon dance performance in hundreds of plays during Emperor Yangdi’s reign, was also very wonderful, and the dragon dance was popular in many places in China. The Chinese nation advocates dragons and regards them as auspicious symbols.

　　"My hometown is a small county town with less than 10,000 residents on the edge of Xiangxi, but the lion dragon lantern fireworks were very famous in various counties in Xiangxi half a century ago." Shen Congwen wrote in Shen Congwen’s Collected Works that "the first day to the twelfth day is called" sending lights ",but the whole city is playing with gongs and drums everywhere. During the day, there are many gongs and drums to perform water games on the bridge head, or to hover up and down on eight or nine square tables; In the evening, I play clam shell essence under the lights and accompany it with fine music. Thirteen to fifteen are called "burning lanterns", and the main competition turns to the other hand to see who has outstanding fireworks. "

　　"Burning dragons with steel" is a large-scale folk activity of Lantern Festival in western Hunan, and it is an important ritual and celebration to pray for good weather and good harvests. The so-called "steel fire dragon", that is, the steel fireman lit the steel flower, raised the long bamboo clip over his head and violently sprayed it at the dragon body. In the night sky, the orange-red steel flowers rush out, and the stronger the sparks, the happier the dragon dancers are.

　　Ba Jin also described in his work Home that the hero mentioned "burning dragon lanterns" during the Lantern Festival: "On the night of the Lantern Festival, the weather is very good. There are several shining stars and a few white clouds in the sky, and a full moon is embedded in the blue sky like a jade plate. That night, as usual, everyone worshipped God and finished the ceremony quickly. Chueh-ying took Chueh-qun to the street to watch people burn dragon lanterns. "

　　solve lantern riddles; guess riddles on hanging lanterns

　　Solve riddles on the lanterns, also known as playing riddles, is a traditional activity of the Lantern Festival. Lantern riddles originated from riddles in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. The riddle hung on the lamp for people to guess and shoot, which began in the Southern Song Dynasty.

　　In the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhou Mi’s "Old Wulin Lamps" recorded: "When writing poems with silk lanterns, it contains ridicule, painting characters, hiding argot and old Beijing slang, teasing pedestrians." On the Lantern Festival, the emperor city stays up all night, and the people enjoy the lantern festival in spring night. Poems and riddles are written on lanterns, reflected in candles, and listed in the thoroughfare, which is called "lantern riddle".

　　Nowadays, because the production of lanterns is time-consuming and laborious, riddles are mostly written on hanging notes. Every Lantern Festival, riddles are played everywhere, hoping to be happy and safe.

　　"solve riddles on the lanterns is quite painstaking and interesting." Liang Yusheng, a writer, once wrote in his anthology that he especially talked about two riddles: one was "Japanese surrender" in the early days of the liberation of the mainland, and guessing ancient celebrities, the answer was originally "Su Wu", but many people guessed "Qu Yuan". The "original" is also the atomic bomb. Some people guess "Li Shimin" with a hat box, which means that Japanese surrender is the strength of the people of the world. This is an "old joke". The other is a lantern riddle during the Cultural Revolution. The riddle is "It’s impossible to steal when you hear the first step", and Zhuge Liang used the Romance of the Three Kingdoms to discourage Zhou Yu from taking the story of giving up to Mao Zedong’s poems, marking "bending over the waist". The answer is "Ask WU GANG what he owns", and the word "Gang" is changed to "Ask Wu what he owns", which means asking Wu how he has the power to go in and take Xichuan. This riddle was originally well done, but at that time it was criticized for committing the crime of "irreverence" on the grounds that how could Chairman Mao "bend his back"? It’s ridiculous.

　　Send a child lamp

　　Sending children’s lanterns, also known as sending lanterns for short, means that before the Lantern Festival, the bride’s family sends lanterns to her newly married daughter’s home, or ordinary relatives and friends give them to the newly married infertile home, in order to add good luck, because "lamp" is homophonic with "Ding".

　　"Our hometown is in Nanhou Street, Fuzhou. The customs of Fuzhou and the lanterns played by children during the Lantern Festival are all given by my grandmother. " Bing Xin, a writer, mentioned this custom in his article "Talking about the New Year". Bing Xin also expressed her pride in owning Three Lamps District in the article: "My grandmother gave us four brothers and sisters five lamps! My younger brothers are much younger than me, and they are not good at playing, so I took advantage of them at this moment. The one hanging on my wall is ‘ Three British wars Lu Bu ’ My lantern, with a goldfish lamp with moving eyes in one hand and a rabbit lamp that can walk on the ground in the other, feels very proud. "

　　Men and women are engaged

　　"Find him thousands of baidu in the crowd. Suddenly looking back, the man was there, and the lights were dim. " Xin Qiji, a poet in the Southern Song Dynasty, is well-known for his "Jade Case Yuan Xi". At midnight snack, among the lights, young men and women meet by surprise after hard pursuit. In ancient times, Lantern Festival provided an opportunity for unmarried men and women to get to know each other, and it was also a good opportunity for young men and women to meet their lovers. It can be seen that the Lantern Festival is a festival full of romance.

　　Ouyang Xiu, a poet in the Northern Song Dynasty, vividly described the beautiful meeting of couples at midnight snack: "At last year’s Lantern Festival, the flower market was lit like a day. When the moon arrives at the end of the willow tree, people will be around dusk. "

　　For this reason, in the contemporary era, many scholars also call the Lantern Festival "Valentine’s Day". Yu Guangzhong, a famous poet, said at the Lantern Festival in 2005: "In the West, Valentine’s Day is February 14th, and our Valentine’s Day is today." When the writer Yu Qiuyu talked about the Lantern Festival, he also wrote: "I always thought it was just the end of the year, but I didn’t know there were so many meanings. This is a carnival festival, a release festival, and also a ‘ Valentine’s Day ’ 。”

　　Eat Yuanxiao (sweet dumplings)

　　On the Lantern Festival, eating Yuanxiao is definitely an important custom. Eating Yuanxiao on the Lantern Festival was quite popular in the Song Dynasty. The earliest Yuanxiao was called "Floating Yuanzi", and later it was called "Yuanxiao". Businessmen also called it "Yuanbao".

　　"Most provinces in China eat Yuanxiao, but the names and practices are different from each other. It is called Yuanxiao in the north, Tangyuan in some places in the south, and Tangtuan and Yuanzi. The names of the north and south are different, and the methods are different. " Mr. Tang Lusun, a self-styled "greedy person", introduced the differences in the production and sale of Yuanxiao in the north and Tangyuan in the south in his essay collection "Sweet, Bitter, Spicy and Salty": "Unlike Shanghai, Nanjing and Hankou, there are shops specializing in Yuanxiao in Beiping, and night snack snacks are attached. Beiping Yuanxiao is a cake shop and a tea soup shop, which are temporarily set up in front of the shops and are now sold. There are several kinds of stuffing, such as hawthorn, jujube paste, red bean paste and black-and-white sesame. First, freeze the stuffing, cut it into big dice pieces, dip it in the water with a big strainer, shake it in a big sieve filled with glutinous rice flour, and then pour it into the strainer and shake it three or two times. Different dumplings are marked with red dots, plum blossoms, and just words, and you’re done. The advantage of this kind of Yuanxiao is that it doesn’t crack when eaten in the mouth, but the disadvantage is that the stuffing is coarse and rough, because it is dry powder, and it is still a little sticky when cooked. The southern Lantern Festival is made by rolling the skin first, filling it with stuffing and then wrapping it up to make it round, so it is called Yaoyuanxiao in the north and Baoyuanxiao in the south. This is the reason. In the south, not only the stuffing is exquisite and smooth, but also the glutinous rice flour is smooth and moist. In addition, there is only one kind of sweet in the north, while in the south, it is sweet and salty, with complete dishes and meat. During the Anti-Japanese War, everyone who had been to the rear area probably ate Lai Tangyuan.It is much better than the hand-cranked Lantern Festival in Lanyingzhai and Minmeizhai in Beiping. "

　　Whether it is Yuanxiao or Tangyuan, people are pinning their good expectations for the country, people’s safety and family reunion.