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The Spring Festival has met its end, while another Chinese festival, the
Lantern Festival, comes as appointed. The first full moon will appear on the
first day of Chinese first lunar month. People will hold colorful activities for
the first full moon, and call the day “the Lantern Festival”. The Lantern
Festival is also named “Yuan Xiao Jie” or “Shang Yuan Jie” in Chinese, and it is
the first traditional Chinese holiday after the Spring
Festival. The holiday has a long history in China. 2000 years ago, an Emperor of Han
Dynasty ruled the first day of the first lunar month as a festival, called “Yuan
Xia Jie”. In the period of Wu Emperor of Han Dynasty, a grand ceremony for the
Taiyi-God (who is a god to dominate the universe in China) started to be held on
the day, which made the influence of the festival far-reaching. Then, in Eastern
Han Dynasty, Ming Emperor of the dynasty loved to promote Buddhism, and he heard
that Buddhists had a special tradition on the first day of the first lunar
month, to pay homage to Buddhist relics and light lanterns for Buddha
respecting. Therefore, he ordered to make all the lamps of palaces and temples
on through the night, and his people must light lamps on the night. As a result,
the custom came to spread to the whole country; lantern lighting became to be
the tradition of the Lantern
Festival. Yuan Xiao Jie has developed from Chinese royal court to the folk, and it
appeared in central plains area and spread in the whole China in the long
history. It is a festival celebrated by the whole Chinese nations. The full moon
of the night may indicate the end of the previous Spring Festival, while the
clear moonlight also lightens the hope of all the Chinese for the whole
year. |
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