The History of Cantonese New Year Lantern Festival
Discover the legendary origins of the lantern festival that is celebrated during the Chinese New Year.
One of the vital symbol of the Chinese New Year is the lantern. During the time of New Year, there is a festival celebrated known as the Chinese lantern festival. The Chinese people refer it to as Yuan Xiao festival. The word Yuan comes from the starting month in a lunar year and the second comes from the word that is referred to by the Chinese people as the night.
The exact timing of the celebration of the lantern festival is after the fifteenth day of entering into the New Year when the full moon is observed for the first time. The environment becomes happy as the full moon gleams in the blue sky and huge groups of Chinese people aggregate at the festival location and hold up colorful lanterns, completely lighting up the whole area.
Chinese lanterns are designed with great detailing. Often you would find riddles featuring on them that would get you rather involved in solving them and they are hardly, normal lanterns! The lantern festival is accompanied by eating rice balls which are shared with closed ones during this season.
The beginings of the lantern tradition
As is the case with many other traditional practices of China you will find a number of myths concerning the lantern New Year tradition. The most popular legend is associated with the worship of a God known as Taiyi who was supposedly the ruler over the heavens in ancient times.
Being the god of heaven it was believed that he controlled the entire luck of the human world. The authority to impose punishment through natural disasters or medical epidemics was attributed to this god. The emperor who first started the tradition of holding a ceremony to please Taiyi was Qinshihuang. There ceremonies were held in order to gain the good pleasure of Taiyi and avoid the risk of natural disasters.
As time went, the Han dynasty patronized the festival to please lord Taiyi to very great extent and with time the ceremony became popular. It was during the reign of the ruler Wudi that this event became the most significant in China and revelry went on for the entire night.
The story behind the lantern festival however had a different explanation too that said the Taoists influenced these celebrations. The fortune of the Chinese people was in the hands of the Taoist lord Tianguan, apparently, and he seemed to have taste for Chinese entertainment. Hence, the Chinese took to pleasing him by, celebrating on the streets and executing various performances to keep him happy.
There is yet another tell tale about the origins of the lantern festival that give the credit of the discovery to Emperor Mingdi. Under this story the emperor was influenced by Buddhism and a dream that he had which eventually led him to select the 15th day of the Chinese New Year as a day of lighting lanterns.
There might have been various sides to the historical story behind the reason to celebrate the lantern festival but nonetheless this event is a major celebration of the New Year season. The lanterns are specially decorated with traditional designs on them.
Chinese new year street parades are a not to be missed experience. If you are interested in crafting your own Chinese new year paper lanterns click on the hyperlink herein.
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