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Celebrating Lantern Festival: Merriment Galore
Lantern
Festival falls on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. This is the
first full moon of the new year, symbolizing unity and perfection. Lantern
Festival is an important part of Spring
Festival, and marks the official end of the long holiday.
5-1 Story
5-1-1 Origins and legends
There are many legends concerning the origins of Lantern Festival.
According to one legend, once in ancient times, a celestial swan came into
the mortal world where it was shot down by a hunter. The Jade
Emperor, the highest god in Heaven, vowed to avenge the swan. He started
making plans to send a troop of celestial soldiers and generals to Earth on the
fifteenth day of the first lunar month, with orders to incinerate all humans and
animals. But the other celestial beings disagreed with this course of action,
and risked their lives to warn the people of Earth. As a result, before and
after the fifteenth day of the first month, every family hung red lanterns
outside their doors and set off firecrackers and fireworks, giving the
impression that their homes were already burning. By successfully tricking the
Jade
Emperor in this way, humanity was saved from extermination.
According to another legend, during the time of Emperor Han
Wudi of the Han
Dynasty , a palace woman named Yuanxiao was prevented from carrying out her
filial duty of visiting her parents on the fifteenth day of the first lunar
month. Distraught, she said she would kill herself by jumping into a well. In
order to help Yuanxiao fulfill her duty as a filial daughter, the scholar
Dongfang Shuo came up with a scheme. He told Emperor Han Wudi that the Jade
Emperor, the highest god in Heaven, had ordered the Fire God to burn down the
capital city of Chang'an on the sixteenth day of the first lunar month. Anxious
to find a way to save his city, the emperor asked Dongfang Shuo what he should
do. Dongfang Shuo replied that the Fire God loved red lanterns more than
anything. He advised that the streets be hung with red lanterns, and the
emperor, empress, concubines, and court officials come out of the palace to see
them. In this way, the Fire God would be distracted and disaster averted. The
emperor followed Dongfang Shuo's advice, and while everyone was out viewing the
lanterns, Yuanxiao was able to sneak out of the palace and be reunited with her
parents.
Although the above stories are quite fantastical, it is sure that the origins
of Lantern Festival are related to ancient humanity's use of fire to celebrate
festivals and avert disaster. Since Lantern Festival involves making offerings
to the deities and is celebrated at night, it is natural that fire would play an
important role. Over time, Lantern Festival gradually evolved into its present
form. When Buddhism
was introduced to China during the Eastern
Han Dynasty, the emperor decreed that on the night of the full moon of the
first lunar month, lanterns should be lit to honor Buddha, adding yet another
level of significance to Lantern Festival. And according to Daoism, Lantern
Festival is associated with the primordial deities of Heaven and Fire, who were
born on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.
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