The Lantern Festival is a Chinese festival celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month in the Chinese Calender. The festival marks the final day of the traditional Chinese New Year celebrations. During the Lantern Festival, children go out at night carrying paper lantern and solve riddles on the lanterns.
Lanterns Symbolises: The lanterns symbolise the people letting go of their past and celebrate new ones, which they will let go of the next year. The lanterns are in red to symbolise good fortune.
Stories of the Festival :
The Lantern Festival trace back to more than 2000 years ago and is popularly linked to the reign of Emperor Ming of Han who was follower of Buddhism. Emperor noticed that Buddhist monks would light lantern in temples on 15th day of first Lunar month. Emperor Ming ordered all households, temples and the imperial palace to light lanterns on that evening. From there it developed into a folk custom.
Another legend is the celebration of “the declining darkness of winter“ and community’s ability to “move about at night with human-made light,” that are lanterns.
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Another legend associates the Lantern Festival with Taoism. Tianguan is the Taoist God responsible for good fortune. His birthday falls on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. It is said that Tianguan likes all types of entertainment, so followers prepare various kinds of activities during which they pray for good fortune.
Another legend speaks of a beautiful crane that flew down to earth from heaven. After it landed on earth it was hunted and killed by some villagers. This angered the Jade Emperor in heaven because the crane was his favourite. So, he planned a storm of fire to destroy the village on the fifteenth lunar day. The Jade Emperor’s daughter warned the villagers of her father’s plan to destroy their village.
A wise man suggested that every family should hang red lanterns around their houses, set up bonfires on the streets, and explode firecrackers on the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth lunar days. So when troops were sent down from heaven to destroy the village saw that the village was already ablaze, and returned to heaven to report to the Jade Emperor. Satisfied, the Jade Emperor decided not to burn down the village.
Lantern Festival is celebrated in many countries other than China like Malaysia,Indonesia,Japan and Korea etc.
Monica Saxena
