When did the custom of guessing lantern riddles during the Lantern Festival originate?

The Lantern Festival riddles originated in the Southern Song Dynasty.

"Guess the lantern riddle", also known as "playing the lantern riddle", is a unique form of entertainment rich in national style in our country, and it is a characteristic activity of the Lantern Festival that has been circulated since ancient times. On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, every household will hang up lanterns and set off fireworks. Because riddles can enlighten wisdom and cater to the festive atmosphere, many people responded, and then riddles gradually became an indispensable program for the Lantern Festival.

Guessing lantern riddles is a fun and fun activity. Lantern riddles originated from the hidden language of the Western Han Dynasty, and later developed into folk riddles, also known as "playing lantern riddles". According to records, in the Southern Song Dynasty, guessing lantern riddles has become a game method of the Lantern Festival.

Zhou Mi of the Southern Song Dynasty said in "Old Things of Wulin": "Write poems with silk lanterns, ridicule and laugh, and draw characters, hide their heads and hide words, and old Beijing proverbs, and tease pedestrians." This "hidden word" is a riddle.

Lantern Festival, the imperial city never sleeps, the spring festival lantern appreciation meeting, the people are miscellaneous, the poetry riddle book is in the lamp, reflected in the candle, listed in the thoroughfare, let people guess the degree, so it is called the lantern riddle.

It originated in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

"Guessing lantern riddles", also known as "playing lantern riddles", is an activity of the Lantern Festival, and lantern riddles were first developed from riddles. It is a kind of literary game full of ridicule, discipline, humor, and laughter.

A lantern riddle is a type of riddle that is simply written on a lantern, hence the name.

Lantern riddles are also called lantern tigers, so guessing lantern riddles is also called "guessing lantern tigers". Riddles first appeared in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and are a kind of oral creation, also known as "hidden words" or "thin words".

During the Qin and Han dynasties, folk oral riddles developed into a written creation. By the time of the Three Kingdoms, guessing had already become popular. As for the lantern riddle, it appeared in the Song Dynasty, and people tied the riddle to the colorful lantern for people to guess. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, guessing lantern riddles was very popular among the people.

Lantern riddles are generally composed of three parts, namely the riddle, the riddle and the riddle, also known as the three elements of the riddle. Lantern riddles use the characteristics of Chinese words with multiple meanings, and do not interpret the riddle as the original meaning, so as to get a different meaning. In the riddle, all the words on the riddle can not appear again in the riddle, otherwise it is called "Lu Chun", which is the taboo of the riddle.

The dragon is like alive, and the folk use this custom to seek good weather and abundant grains. Guessing lantern riddles, also known as "playing lantern riddles", is a special activity of the Lantern Festival that has been spread since ancient times. On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, every household must be hung.

Lantern Festival customs guess lantern riddles.

"Guessing lantern riddles", also known as "playing lantern riddles", is an activity added after the Lantern Festival, which appeared in the Song Dynasty. During the Southern Song Dynasty, the capital Lin'an was fascinated during the Lantern Festival, and there were many people guessing riddles. In the beginning, it was the good deeds who wrote riddles on slips of paper and pasted them on colorful lanterns for people to guess.

Because riddles can enlighten wisdom and are very interesting, they are popular with all walks of life in the process of circulation.

The Lantern Festival is a kind of festival that began to form slowly in the third century, and developed into a fixed festival in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, but the lanterns and operas that became the main festivals of the Lantern Festival in later generations did not begin until Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, who was also an emperor who made the Lantern Festival celebration official.

Since the beginning of the Song Dynasty, on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, people put up lanterns. In order to increase the festive atmosphere, they glued riddles on the lamps, or hid their poems, and let others speculate, which is called guessing the lamp. In this way, the lamp and the riddle were combined, and they became accustomed to each other in the Ming Dynasty.

Hence the name "lantern riddle". It is also used as a special noun that focuses on the mystery of the meaning of the text. At the beginning, the riddle was glued to the lamp, and there would be a mystery of things sandwiched in it, but a large number of riddles were just literary riddles.

Since then, the literal riddle has developed rapidly, and the text of the riddle allows for changes in sound, shape, meaning, and position, thus giving rise to the riddle. After the riddle is generated, the boundary between the riddle and the riddle is clearer. Because the meaning of the text is a riddle, it is possible to produce a riddle.

At this point, lantern riddles have become a unique literary form with body and character.

Spring and Autumn Warring States. The Lantern Festival, also known as the Shangyuan Festival, the Little New Year, the Yuan Xi Festival or the Lantern Festival, is the first major festival after the Spring Festival and is one of the traditional festivals of the Chinese people in China and the Chinese diaspora. The first lunar month is the first month of the lunar calendar, and the ancients called the night "xiao", so the fifteenth day of the first full moon night of the year is called the Lantern Festival.

In ancient Chinese customs, the Shangyuan Festival (Tianguan Festival, Lantern Festival), Zhongyuan Festival (Diguan Festival, Obon Festival) and Xiayuan Festival (Shuiguan Festival) are collectively called Sanyuan. The Lantern Festival began more than 2,000 years ago in the Han Dynasty. Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty ordered the fifteenth day of the first month to be the Lantern Festival.

During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the "Taiyi God" sacrifice was set on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month (Taiyi: the god who ruled over all the universe). When Sima Qian created the "Taichu Calendar", he had already identified the Lantern Festival as a major festival.

Traditional customs go out to admire the moon, light lamps and set off flames, guess lantern riddles in the spring of the wedding draft, eat Lantern Festival together, pull rabbit lanterns, etc. In addition, the Lantern Festival in many places has also added traditional folk performances such as dragon lanterns, lion playing, stilt walking, rowing boats, twisting Yangge, and playing Taiping drums.

In June 2008, the Lantern Festival was selected as the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage.

There are several chapters in "Dream of Red Mansions" that depict the scene of Qing Renzhi guessing lantern riddles. The lantern riddle activity has been passed down to this day. The spring lantern riddle, although it belongs to the art and literature trail, is from astronomy, down to geography, historical rhetoric, modern knowledge, all-encompassing, without a certain cultural literacy, not easy to guess; And its mystery and whimsy are enough to express the fun, exercise the mind, inspire the soul, and it is a kind of intellectual entertainment.