Poetic Lantern Festival: Continuing "Chinese Romance", on the first full moon night of the Year of the Tiger
New Year's Eve Spring Festival Gala's "One Dance Blue and Green" and "One Step to the South of the Yangtze River", the countdown to the twenty-four solar terms of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics on the beginning of spring... This early spring, we were swept away by "Chinese-style romance".
Today is the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. It is the first full moon night of the Year of the Tiger. Let us "travel" back to ancient times. From the brushstrokes of literati and writers, "Chinese-style romance" will be integrated into this very poetic tradition. The festival continues.
Meeting at a distance: the willow head on the moon, people about after dusk
In order to adapt to the habit of working and resting at sunrise and resting at sunset, the ancients gradually formed the tradition of resting at home behind closed doors at dusk and keeping the city behind closed doors. Later, it evolved into a strict curfew system.
During the Wu Zetian period of the Tang Dynasty, in order to celebrate the Shangyuan Festival, there was no curfew on the fifteenth and sixteenth days of the first lunar month.
During the Northern Song Dynasty, Song Taizong announced a further curfew. "On the night of the Yuan Dynasty, let all the cities and square cities light up lanterns, and Jinwu does not have to ban the night."
Therefore, young men and women often travel to meet on the first full moon night of this new year, looking forward to finding a good match.
Ouyang Xiu wrote, "Last year on the night of the new year, the lights of the flower market were like day. The willows were on the top of the moon, and the people made an appointment after dusk."
Xin Qiji also has a word cloud, "the crowd searched for him thousands of times, and when I looked back, the man was there, where the lights were dim."
He Zhu also recalled in his dream the time when he walked with him on the long street of Beijing's Shengge all night long. The lights are dim."
The Lantern Festival in the countryside is also very lively.
Tang Yinshi said, "The streets are full of pearls and greens, and the village girls are full of sang songs and the gods of the society. How can I get rid of this good time without showing my respectful smile." Under the light of the moonlight, the women were rejuvenated, laughed heartily, and became more beautiful.
Flower-viewing lanterns: fire trees and silver flowers close together, star bridge iron locks open
Since it is already about "after dusk", viewing the lanterns at night has become the best choice for traveling together during the Lantern Festival.
As early as the Liang-Chen period of the Southern Dynasties, the custom of "burning lanterns" on the 15th night of the first lunar month already existed, but it still had some religious nature at that time.
In the Sui and Tang dynasties, lighting the lanterns and enjoying the lanterns really became the custom of the Lantern Festival.
"Taiping Guangji" even records that when Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, Shangyuan opened lanterns for three nights, Jinwu lifted the ban, opened the market and lit the lanterns, and it was forever set.
At that time, the city was brightly lit and crowded with tourists.
"The moonlight is full of the capital of the emperor, and the fragrant car and treasures pass through the pass." Li Shangyin used the word "full" to describe the brilliance of the capital's festival night.
Su Weiwei also wrote, "The fire tree and the silver flowers are combined, and the star bridge is locked." The dark city gate and the deep city river are also dotted with countless bright lights on the night of the festival.
The Lantern Festival also made foreign embassies fascinated.
The Korean literati Li Haiying recorded in Jishan Jicheng that he watched the lantern festival in the ninth year of Jiaqing. Dozens of layers of lamps. The legs of the lamps are swaying in the wind, and there is a sound of hunting... The fire is bright and white, and the wells are lined up. Its ingenious shape is sincere and unpredictable."
Setting off fireworks: lantern brocade behind the moon curtain, with phoenix feathers written brightly in every word
In the Song Dynasty, with the development and application of gunpowder technology, on the Lantern Festival, in addition to relatively static lanterns, people would also set off fireworks and firecrackers to add to the joy of the festival.
"Qian Chun Sui Ji" once recorded, "The palace leakage was deep, and more than a hundred fireworks were announced, so the music was everywhere, the candle shadows were vertical and horizontal, and the driving began to return."
One after another, a wide variety of fireworks make people dizzying.
Xin Qiji's words cloud, "The east wind blooms thousands of trees at night, and it blows down even more, the stars are like rain. The BMW carved car is full of fragrance, the phoenix flute moves, the jade pot turns light, and the fish and dragon dance all night." The fireworks burst into the sky, After being scattered, it fell like raindrops in the wind.
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the variety of fireworks became more and more abundant.
Gao Shiqi wrote, "The fire tree and silver flowers are hundreds of feet high, and the scaffolding crosses the street with sand wormwood. Behind the moon curtain, the lanterns are brocade, and the words are brilliant and phoenix feathers are written." In the annotations of the poem, it can be seen that the "moon curtain" and "lantern brocade" are both It was fireworks released from different boxes, and in the end, it even sprayed out Du Fu's poem "Five Nights Leaked Sounds Reaching Dawn Arrows", and "the whole first character is as big as a bucket, the flames are shining, and it will be extinguished after a long time."
Watching the performance: flexing and practicing obliqueness with each other, the golden snake moves in the shadow of spring lanterns
When viewing the lanterns, all kinds of entertainment performances are not inferior.
During the Lantern Festival, the palace and the people often perform lantern dance performances.
Among them, the forms of fish lanterns and dragon lanterns are the most familiar to the audience.
In addition, dragon and lion dances are also very lively.
Li Shengzhen's "Bending and squatting with people, and the golden snake moves in the spring lantern shadow" and Wang Zhengyi's "Shangyuan lanterns and lions dance, gongs, drums and firecrackers follow" are all about the fiery atmosphere at that time.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Lantern Festival activities were more colorful.
Zhang Dai recorded the scene of the Lantern Festival at that time in "Tao'an Dream Recollection", "More fighting lion lanterns on the ground, advocating playing and singing, setting off fireworks, crowding crowds, streets and alleys, dancing big head monks when there is space, gongs and drums are wrong. , and there are people everywhere to watch.”
In the Qing Dynasty, a large number of new contents were added to the folk entertainment activities.
During the festival, there will be constant fires and gongs and drums every day.
Nalan Xingde also wrote, "Chang'an is full of reunion, and only yangko is well known." It can be seen that there were also yangko singing celebrations at that time.
Delicious food: walnuts wrapped in sweet-scented sweet-scented osmanthus stuffing
Tired of shopping, tired of watching, it is also very good to taste the special food of the Lantern Festival together.
In the Song Dynasty, the festive food "Yuanxiao" became popular.
Chen Yuanliang's "Sui Shi Guang Ji" once quoted "Sui Shi Za Ji" saying: "Beijing people use mung bean powder as Kedou soup, boiled glutinous rice as balls, and sugar as glutinous rice. It can be seen that at that time, there was already a modern and popular way to eat Yuanxiao in boiling water.
Zhu Shuzhen's poem "Yuanzi" says, "Light and round is better than chicken head meat, and crab eye soup is more suitable for smoothness." It seems that the sweet and soft "Yuanzi" can conquer her taste buds more than big fish and big meat.
Jiang Kui also wrote, "Lantern Festival competes to see the lotus-picking boat, BMW incense carts are falling; in the middle of the stormy night, the lone lantern is still calling for the sale of soup yuan." Tang Yuan" shouted.
In the Qing Dynasty, the Lantern Festival elaborately made by Ma Siyuan's family was famous for a while.
Fu Zeng was full of praise for this, "The sweet-scented sweet-scented osmanthus is stuffed with walnuts, and the rice is like a pearl in the water. Seeing that the Majia dripping powder is good, try the lights and sell the Lantern Festival." (Author: Wei Yanxing)