On February 16th, all kinds of festive Lantern with distinctive features on the streets of Suzhou were deeply favored by people. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Wang Jianzhong)
Xinhuanet Tianjin, February 20th (Reporter Zhou Runjian, Cai Yugao) On the 21st, the 15th day of the first month is the traditional Lantern Festival in China. According to experts, many customs of the Lantern Festival, which has a history of more than 2,000 years, have unique origins.
Zhao Zhi Heng, director of Tianjin Astronomical Society, said that the Lantern Festival began in the Western Han Dynasty. After putting down the "Zhulu Rebellion", Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty deeply felt that peace and prosperity were hard-won, and designated the 15th day of the first lunar month, the day of quelling the rebellion, as a day of having fun with the people. In ancient times, the first month was also called "January" and the night was also called "Xiao", so the Chinese Emperor designated the fifteenth day of the first month as the Lantern Festival. Later, Sima Qian created the taichu calendar, and listed the Lantern Festival as a major festival.
Zhao Zhi Heng said that solve riddles on the lanterns is a unique literary form with national style in China. It originated from folk riddles, which prevailed in the Three Kingdoms period. In the Southern Song Dynasty, riddles became a way of playing in the Lantern Festival. People tie riddles to colorful lanterns for people to guess and shoot, which is called "lantern riddles". After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, lantern riddles have developed into an indispensable form of recreational activities for urban and rural people in the New Year Festival, especially the Lantern Festival.
On the fifteenth day of the first month, in addition to lanterns and solve riddles on the lanterns, there are also folk customs such as playing with dragon lanterns, dancing lions and walking on stilts.
Zhao Zhi Heng introduced that "playing dragon lantern", also known as "dragon dance" and "dragon lantern dance", is a unique traditional folk entertainment activity in China, which was quite common in the Han Dynasty and more common in the Tang and Song Dynasties. Through the continuous processing and creation of folk artists, "playing with dragon lanterns" has now developed into a folk dance art with perfect form, considerable performance skills and romanticism.
Lion dance is a traditional folk sports activity, which originated in the Three Kingdoms and prevailed in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Lion dance can be divided into "northern lion dance" and "southern lion dance" in China. Nowadays, lion dance not only appears in festive festivals, but also enters the stage. As an acrobatic festival, lion dance is deeply appreciated by Chinese and foreign audiences.
"Walking on stilts" was originally an ancient folk dance in China. Performers in disguise step on wooden stilts three or four feet high and hold fans in their hands for rhythmic dancing. There is a record of stilts in Liezi Shuofu, which was very popular in Tang and Song Dynasties.
Editor: Liu Li