The Lantern Festival, also known as Shangyuan Festival, Little First Moon, Yuanxi, or Lantern Festival, takes place on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month every year.
The first month is the first month of the lunar calendar. The ancients called "Ye" "Xiao". According to the Taoist "Sanyuan", the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is also called the "Shangyuan Festival". The custom of the Lantern Festival has been dominated by the warm and festive lantern-watching custom since ancient times.
The formation of the Lantern Festival has a long process, rooted in the ancient folk custom of turning on lights to pray for blessings. According to general information and folk legends, the 15th day of the first lunar month has been valued in the Western Han Dynasty, but the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month really became a national folk festival after the Han and Wei dynasties.
The rise of the custom of lighting lanterns on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is also related to the spread of Buddhism to the east. During the Tang Dynasty, Buddhism flourished. Officials and ordinary people generally "lit lanterns to worship Buddha" on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. Buddhist lights spread all over the people. Statutory matter.
The Lantern Festival is one of the traditional festivals in China. The Lantern Festival mainly includes a series of conventional folk activities such as viewing lanterns, eating glutinous rice balls, guessing lantern riddles, and setting off fireworks. In addition, many local Lantern Festivals have also added traditional folk performances such as dragon lantern tours, lion dances, stilt walking, dry boat rowing, Yangko twisting, and Taiping drum beating. In June 2008, the Lantern Festival was selected for the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage.