The Origin and Traditional Customs of the Lantern Festival Carry an Agrarian Culture of Blessing
The Lantern Festival, also known as the Shangyuan Festival or the Festival of Lights, falls on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month and is the first full-moon night of the new year. As for its origin, a widely circulated view holds that the custom of admiring lanterns had already begun to take shape in the Han Dynasty, and afterwards it absorbed various cultural elements such as sacrificial rites for blessings, the burning of lanterns as an offering to the Buddha, and the Taoist Shangyuan Festival, gradually becoming fixed as a traditional major festival celebrated by all the people.
The customs of the Lantern Festival are very rich; admiring decorative lanterns, guessing lantern riddles, and dragon and lion dances are all important parts of the day. A family sitting around together to share yuanxiao or tangyuan carries the auspicious wish for reunion and completeness. The forms differ from place to place, and some regions still keep activities such as lantern-carrying parades and the custom of walking to ward off illness, yet festivity and blessing remain the unchanging theme.
When it comes to the food, yuanxiao and tangyuan are often lumped together, but in fact their methods of preparation differ. In the north, the filling is mostly dipped in water and rolled in glutinous rice flour, while in the south, wet glutinous rice dough is usually wrapped around the filling and rolled into balls; the texture differs slightly, but the meaning of reunion is the same.
From the perspective of agrarian culture, the Lantern Festival is closely related to the rhythms of farming. It mostly falls around the Beginning of Spring and Rain Water solar terms, when the New Year period draws to a close, and farming households successively sort out their farm tools, select seeds, and prepare for cultivation, shifting into the production arrangements of the new year. The various colored lanterns and dragon dances at lantern fairs also express people's simple hopes for favorable weather and a bountiful harvest.
Today the Lantern Festival is still the liveliest point after the Spring Festival, and lantern fairs and temple fairs push the festive atmosphere to its climax. Understanding the origin and evolution of the Lantern Festival is also a window into the time concepts and life wisdom of traditional agrarian society.
