China News Online, Shanghai, February 5th: Why is there such a "noisy" Lantern Festival?
Small customs inherit millennium memory
Author Xie Mengyuan
"Why are there so many patterns on this rabbit? And it's still bright, so beautiful!" 6-year-old Xiaoqiu curiously asked her mother beside her, pointing to the hanging colorful rabbit lights.
On the 5th, Lantern Festival activities such as viewing lanterns, guessing lantern riddles, and making glutinous rice balls were held at the Mass Culture and Art Museum in Pudong New Area, Shanghai. Hundreds of lanterns of various shapes formed a bright lantern corridor, attracting many parents with children Stop to take pictures.
On the lantern riddle rack beside it, pieces of red paper fluttered in the wind. Lantern riddles were written on the paper, supplemented by the pattern of bright red lanterns as decoration.
A pole nearly one meter protrudes from the top of the shelf at regular intervals, and two solid-color paper lanterns and a rabbit lamp are hung on each pole in turn.
The naive appearance of Rabbit Lantern attracted children to look up and stare.
Why do you have to watch lanterns during the Lantern Festival?
"After the primitive society used fire to bring cooked food and light, people worshiped fire, and then the ancients began to worship the stars in the sky. Therefore, the oldest Lantern Festival is the primitive worship of fire and stars." According to Chen Qinjian, a tenured professor at East China Normal University and deputy director of the Shanghai Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Committee, folks in Chu have long had the custom of offering sacrifices to the "Taitian God".
The primitive worship of fire formed a trend of folklore and socialization in the Han Dynasty.
The society of the Han Dynasty was greatly influenced by the Chu culture, and the phenomenon of offering sacrifices to the "Taitian God" was also widespread among the people.
Later, this national custom evolved into a social celebration.
During the Sui and Tang dynasties, some rulers advocated the custom of watching lanterns, especially the ruling class of the Tang and Song dynasties, and even issued holiday policies.
Up and down, at least in the Southern Song Dynasty, the Lantern Festival has become a grand, carnival event for the whole people.
In the cultural square of the Mass Culture and Art Museum in Pudong New Area, Shanghai, a child is playing with a rabbit lamp that can be dragged. Photo by Xie Mengyuan
After a long history of evolution, the northern and southern lanterns have also formed their own different styles.
The shape and style of the northern lanterns are more formal and rough, while the southern lanterns are more diverse and free, with more complicated craftsmanship and a stronger atmosphere of life.
Taking the coast of Zhejiang as an example, most of the local Lantern Festival lanterns are "fish lanterns", with lampshades inspired by various fish.
In Shanghai, it is mostly "rabbit lamp", which means that rabbits are gentle and have strong reproductive ability, and they look forward to a prosperous population.
Lantern Festival lanterns are just one form of lantern development, and big red round lanterns are indispensable for festive occasions.
In addition to hanging round lanterns to enhance the atmosphere during the Lantern Festival, eating glutinous rice balls is also a "reserved item" of the Lantern Festival.
The 68-year-old grandma took her 9-year-old granddaughter Yuanyuan to sign up for the activity of making glutinous rice balls. There were two ingredients in front of the grandparent and grandson--Bai Shengsheng's glutinous rice dough balls and black lard and sesame stuffing.
This is the first time in Yuanyuan's life that she made glutinous rice balls by herself. She was at a loss, but the grandmother beside her was obviously a veteran of glutinous rice balls. Add an appropriate amount of sesame stuffing, add some flour, wrap it with "wowotou", and finally rub it in the palm of your hand a few times, a round glutinous rice ball is ready!
The grandmother told the reporter while instructing her granddaughter to make glutinous rice balls: "I have eaten glutinous rice balls every year during the Lantern Festival since I was a child, and I make them myself. Now I want to bring my granddaughter to experience it."
Whether it is round lanterns or spherical glutinous rice balls, the roots can be traced back to the ancient Chinese worship of the sun, birds and egg-laying myths.
Chen Qinjian believes that the worship of "circle" contains people's deep recognition of life. "Circle things have a reproductive meaning, giving 'prosperity' or the continuation of life. In fact, we are unconsciously inheriting the ancient pair of offspring. The reverence for life is a kind of collective unconscious inheritance.”
In his opinion, these customs of the Lantern Festival are an extremely important sense of festival ritual, "the sense of festival ritual goes deep, the existence of this culture represents a cultural identity, and furthermore, it means that you are Chinese. The cultural personality and cultural humanity of the Chinese people are combined by countless such cultural activities or folk activities with Chinese characteristics." (End)