Lantern Festival
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.
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.
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