Chaozhou Lantern Festival customs

Chaoshan Lantern Festival Customs

Families in Chaoshan area, like those who gave birth to boys, would hang up lanterns in Dazong Ci Hall in the township starting from the 11th day of the lunar calendar. Rich people's houses have four to five floors of light screens, while ordinary people's houses have one to two floors. The contents of the lantern screen are mostly myths, legends and historical stories, such as "The Fairy Sends Off Her Son", "Guo Ziyi's Birthday Celebration", "The Peach Fair", "Feng Yi Pavilion" and so on. The various figures on the lantern screen are all made of clay sculptures and fabrics of various colors, with different shapes and lifelike shapes. The name of the household is written on the red paper attached under each lantern screen for people to view and compare. From the day when the lanterns are hung up on the 11th, it is called "lighting up", but in fact it is "lighting up". It means the ceremony for a new born boy (male) to enter the clan, and it also means wishing a bright and prosperous future. All families who light up the lanterns must go to the ancestral hall to light the lanterns every night from the day they light up the lanterns until the 18th. Until then.

During the Lantern Festival, red lanterns are hung in front of every house to express good fortune. The village organizes a lantern competition and participates in various lanterns with different shapes and beautiful shapes. , carp lanterns, revolving lanterns, landscape calligraphy and painting lanterns and palace lanterns of various styles, merge into a fire dragon, as brilliant as the day. Just as the Northern Song Dynasty writer Ouyang Xiu described the Lantern Festival at that time, "On the Lantern Festival last year, the flower market lights were like day". Wearing costumes and walking on stilts, Chaozhou plays the Lantern Festival with gongs and drums, which is extremely lively.

On the Lantern Festival night on the 15th day of the first lunar month, there is also the custom of "the bride goes to the ancestral hall" in various places in Chaoshan; In the evening, the bride goes to the ancestral hall to watch the lanterns. The bride is dressed in red coat, long skirt, and a phoenix crown on her head. Ordinary families wear a "civilized hat" (tied with dyed feathers and colored velvet). (formed into a half-moon shape), and then use a piece of red silk more than two feet long with a ball of large flowers tied in the middle to tie it to the "civilized hat". The red silk ribbon hangs from the temples to the feet. She is wearing a red flowered gown, which is graceful and graceful. Like a fairy. Then the bridesmaids (one or two people) will accompany them to the ancestral hall to watch the lanterns.

Inside the ancestral hall, the lights are bright, and people are bustling, vying to watch the lanterns to see the bride. When the bride comes to the ancestral hall, first The bridesmaid lights three candles of incense and asks the bride to hold the incense and kneel down to worship her ancestors and pray for a child next year. After worshiping her ancestors, the bridesmaid and the bride walk around the hall and watch the lanterns one by one. ), for people to watch. At this time, people flocked to watch, especially young men, pushing and shoving, eager to get in front of the bride and feast their eyes on it. The bride's viewing of the show was just a formality and did not last long. The bride was escorted back by the bridesmaid. This custom is called "the bride leaves the Tongtang Hall". The next day, the family who hangs the lanterns holds a banquet and celebrates it with relatives and friends, which is commonly known as "eating Dingjiu". p>

On the 18th, the lantern-hanging ceremony ends. People who light up the lanterns take the lanterns home from the temple in order to have children next year, which is called "thanking the lanterns"