The Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is a festival for the common people to eat the Lantern Festival and watch the dragon dance and enjoy the lanterns, and to the lovers it is a wonderful moment of "the willow tops on the moon, and the people are about after dusk". The Lantern Festival is also a day for lovers to go on a date, and countless love stories are interpreted. For example, in "Daming Palace Ci", Princess Taiping and Xue Shao met for the first time in the market of the Lantern Festival, and Xue Shao wore the mask of Kunlun Nu, which became the "classic story of the Lantern Festival" in the hearts of many people. Another example is the meeting between Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu on the night of the Lantern Festival in "Dream of Red Mansions", which is full of strong love.
In ancient China, the Lantern Festival was a festival full of romance. The Lantern Festival, also known as the "Festival of Lights", is the last important festival in the Chinese New Year customs. On this day, people take to the streets one after another to enjoy the lanterns, guess the lantern riddles, eat the Lantern Festival, set off fireworks, and celebrate the festival together. During this period, it is also an opportunity for young men and women to meet their lovers. Therefore, the Lantern Festival can be said to be an authentic Chinese Valentine's Day, because the Lantern Festival is a rare time in ancient times when the two sexes can come into contact.
The ancients practiced a curfew system, and at the same time, women in ancient times were subject to rituals. The carnival of the Lantern Festival gave the deep boudoir women the opportunity to travel at night. It also provides an opportunity for unmarried men and women to meet and play together, and the Lantern Festival is just an opportunity to socialize. In ancient times, due to strict religious restraints and curfews, young men and women rarely had the opportunity to socialize freely. On the special day of the Lantern Festival, the woman in the boudoir can go out of the house and meet the man she likes to enjoy the lanterns. The street market is brightly lit and weaving, providing a great meeting place for lovers. They may secretly exchange a glance in the bustling crowd, whisper a few words of love under the bright lanterns, or hug each other tightly in the lively fireworks.
The willow tops on the moon, people about after dusk. This popular poem depicts the scene of lovers meeting to enjoy the lanterns during the Lantern Festival.
The special cultural landscape of the Lantern Festival is that men and women can go to the street together. According to the "Book of Sui: The Biography of Liu Yu", "Every New Year's moon looks at the night, fills the streets, and gathers friends to play." The drums are beating the sky, the torch is shining on the ground, people are wearing animal faces, men are women's clothes, advocating excellent acrobatics, and strange shapes. "It's a masquerade ball in the modern West.
Ancient Chinese literati used beautiful poems to record the mentality and scene of a valentine's date on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. For example, the Northern Song Dynasty writer Ouyang Xiu wrote "Shengchazi Yuan Xi", two of which have been handed down to this day:
The willow tops on the moon, people about after dusk. I didn't see last year's people, and my tears wet the sleeves of my spring shirt.
The Southern Song Dynasty lyricist Xin Qiji's "Qingyu Case Yuan Xi" also circulated a famous sentence:
The crowd looked for him thousands, and suddenly looked back, but the man was there, and the lights were dim.
Time flies, time flies. With the changes of the times and the development of society, the Lantern Festival as a tradition of Chinese Valentine's Day is still preserved. This special day carries a rich cultural connotation and a beautiful love story. Both ancient and modern people are interpreting this unique romance in their own way.
Let lovers all over the world feel this ancient and beautiful emotion on the romantic night of the Lantern Festival!