Saturday, September 29, 2007
Lantern Festival
Lantern festival as it is well-known to us has already ended for this year at least. During the night, went to the nearby field to observe many people celebrating the festival in their own ways. Lighting up firecrackers, walking around with the lantern and arranging candles in a particular manner. Ever wondered about the origin of this yearly ordeal? Information taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lantern_festival.
The story behind it
The origin of Lantern Festival dates back in the early Han Dynasty during Emperor Wu of Han's reign. Legend has it that Emperor Wu of Han had a dream of his palace being burned downed and felt that the dream was a bad omen, so he asked his subjects in his imperial court for advice the next day. Some of the subjects took the opportunity to perform a good deed for the thousands of concubines and female servants in the imperial palace who were prohibited from going home by telling the emperor that the dream was indeed a bad omen and the palace would be burnt down to the ground by deities. In order to avoid impending disaster, each female resident in the imperial palace must carry a lantern and go home, thus fooling the deities in believing there was already a fire in palace and people were fleeing, and every one would return to the palace afterwards. The emperor agreed and of course, there was no fire at the palace and the emperor credited the supposedly successful aversion of the disastrous fire with what was done, and hence he decreed the event to become a regular festival. As a result, the festival eventually became a family reunion day when it merged with other Chinese traditions of various regions in China over time, such as eating sweet glutinous rice dumpling served in a sugary soup, symbolizing family reunion.
Lantern tree
Glow us
What would they come up with next?
Having fun
Trio
Let there be light
The story behind it
The origin of Lantern Festival dates back in the early Han Dynasty during Emperor Wu of Han's reign. Legend has it that Emperor Wu of Han had a dream of his palace being burned downed and felt that the dream was a bad omen, so he asked his subjects in his imperial court for advice the next day. Some of the subjects took the opportunity to perform a good deed for the thousands of concubines and female servants in the imperial palace who were prohibited from going home by telling the emperor that the dream was indeed a bad omen and the palace would be burnt down to the ground by deities. In order to avoid impending disaster, each female resident in the imperial palace must carry a lantern and go home, thus fooling the deities in believing there was already a fire in palace and people were fleeing, and every one would return to the palace afterwards. The emperor agreed and of course, there was no fire at the palace and the emperor credited the supposedly successful aversion of the disastrous fire with what was done, and hence he decreed the event to become a regular festival. As a result, the festival eventually became a family reunion day when it merged with other Chinese traditions of various regions in China over time, such as eating sweet glutinous rice dumpling served in a sugary soup, symbolizing family reunion.
Had the motive of taking some shots that night. However, I met a few familar faces too. All of them who were my former schoolmates. Nice to meet you guys/girls again. Below are some scenes during the celebration! Hope you enjoy them.
Lantern tree
Glow us
What would they come up with next?
Having fun
Trio
Let there be light
# posted by zerowindez : 9:07 PM
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]