China News Service Client, Beijing, February 15 (Reporter Shangguan Yun) "The east wind blooms a thousand trees at night. It blows down and stars like rain." The Lantern Festival is an important traditional festival. People admire lanterns and guess lantern riddles. Very lively.
Data map: People celebrate the Lantern Festival with dragon dances.
Photo by Yang Huafeng
It is said that the Lantern Festival is the ancient Chinese version of "Valentine's Day".
The liveliness of the Lantern Festival has given women the opportunity to travel at night.
They can go to the market to watch the lanterns and have fun, and others will not criticize them too much.
An Deming, deputy director of the Institute of Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that in ancient times, the Lantern Festival had a function similar to a "carnival", which may have provided young men and women with an opportunity to meet. " and the like.
But in terms of the main custom, it has little to do with "Valentine's Day".
In fact, in addition to the Lantern Festival, there are also views that the Qixi Festival or the Shangsi Festival is the ancient Valentine's Day.
Data map: Qixi Festival series activities.
Photo by Wang Jian
An Deming analyzed that, regarding the Qixi Festival, in terms of folk activities, there was basically no meaning of "Valentine's Day" in the past, let alone such a clear name, "It is also called Qiqiao Festival, Girls' Festival, etc., girls On this day, beg the Weaver Girl for ingenuity."
"However, in the legends related to Qixi Festival, the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl is widely circulated. This touching love story provides an important basis for people to call Qixi Festival an ancient Valentine's Day today. This statement also has some truth." He said .
In addition, some people mentioned that the Shangsi Festival can be regarded as the "Valentine's Day" in ancient China.
Men and women can meet at this time to express their love.
In this regard, some scholars have pointed out that in general, the ancient Shangsi Festival should be a day when people go to the waterside to eat and ward off evil spirits, hoping to wash away the bad luck of the year and have a clean new year.
From this point of view, it cannot simply be identified as the ancient "Valentine's Day".
"When spring comes, everyone goes to the water to bathe with the intention of praying for blessings. Since then, customs such as spring tours in the suburbs have been added, which may provide people with opportunities to meet, but this is not the main function of the festival. It is a bit far-fetched to say that Shangsi Festival is Valentine's Day. ." Andermin said.
Data map: An event was staged to reproduce the custom of the "Shangsi Festival" during the Spring and Autumn Period in ancient China.
Photo by Tang Juan
In response to the discussion on which day is Valentine's Day in ancient China, An Deming believes that from the perspective of folklore, the functions or connotations of many traditional festivals are constantly enriched and developed.
As the times change, people find that certain functions of a particular festival can be explored and expanded, or, in other words, some functions have been recognized by the public at the moment, so we might as well give it some more tolerant space for this phenomenon of cultural creation.
"There is a set of important concepts in folklore, namely 'inheritance' and 'variation'. For example, a festival, its cultural core is relatively stable after it is formed and will be passed down continuously. However, in terms of the manifestation and function of specific customs , may evolve, adapt and be recreated as people's needs change. That's where the vitality of culture lies," Anderming said.
(Finish)