The Lantern Festival, also known as Shangyuan Festival, Little New Year’s Day, New Year’s Eve or Lantern Festival, is one of the traditional Chinese festivals. The first lunar month is the first month of the lunar calendar. The ancients called “night” as “xiao”. The fifteenth of the first lunar month is the first full moon night of the year, so the fifteenth of the first lunar month is called the “Lantern Festival”. According to the Taoist “Sanyuan”, the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is also called the “Shangyuan Festival”. Since ancient times, its custom has been dominated by the warm and festive custom of viewing lanterns.
The formation of the Lantern Festival takes a long time, rooted in the ancient customs of people turning on lanterns to pray for blessings. According to general information and folklore legends, the fifteenth day of the first lunar month has been valued in the Western Han Dynasty, but the fifteenth day of the first lunar month and the Lantern Festival as a national folk festival came after the Han and Wei Dynasty. The rise of the custom of burning lanterns on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is also related to the east spread of Buddhism. During the Tang Dynasty, Buddhism flourished. Officials and people generally “burned lanterns for Buddha” on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. Buddhism lights spread throughout the people. Statutory matter.
The Lantern Festival is one of the traditional festivals between China and the Chinese character cultural circle and overseas Chinese. There are a series of traditional folk activities such as viewing lanterns, eating glutinous rice balls, guessing lantern riddles, and setting off fireworks. In addition, many local Lantern Festivals also added traditional folk performances such as dragon lanterns, lion dances, walking on stilts, paddling boats, twisting yangko, and playing Taiping drums. In June 2008, the Lantern Festival was selected as the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage.
