Full moon in January why called the Lunar New Year?

For Vietnamese, January full moon, also known as Tet Nguyen Tieu, is a sacred holiday on the occasion of the new year. This is one of the very important days of the Asian lunar calendar. There are even places where the concept of "Whole year is not equal to January full moon". In China, this day people hold a Lantern Festival to officially end the Lunar New Year.

The first legend says: "Once upon a time a swan flew down from the heavens to the lower world and was shot and killed by a hunter.

To avenge the swan, Ngoc Hoang sent a Heavenly army on January 15 to cremate all humans and animals under the earth.

Fortunately for humans, there are some gods in Heaven who disagree with the somewhat heavy-handed decision of the Jade Emperor. They risked their lives down to the world to make offerings to sentient beings. So on that day, the house hung lanterns and fired fireworks so that Thien could think that their houses had been fired. Thanks to that, the human race will escape the destruction. '

There are many places Lantern Festival is also called Yuanxiao Cake Festival.

The second legend says: "In the Han dynasty, there was a young girl named Yuanxiao who lived in a palace forbidden to visit her parents on January 15, intending to plunge into the well to commit suicide. The filial piety of the girl, a courtier named Dongfang Shuo, came up with a plan to help her, he told Han Wuyi that, on January 16, Thien would send Fire God down to Kinh. city.

In order to avoid that disaster, people had to hang lanterns in front of their houses and on the street on the 15th. Under the orders of Han Wudang, that day every house hung lanterns, while people were busy looking at beautiful lamps. By the way, the young girl escaped home to visit her parents without anyone knowing. "

However, both stories are only legends, but according to Chinese scholars, the lantern festival comes from the tradition of using fire to celebrate the festival day and dispel the unfortunate things of the people this.

But since Buddhism was introduced to China in the Han Dynasty, the Lantern Festival has worn different religious colors. Buddhists use this day to commemorate the Buddha, while Taoists use this day to celebrate the fire god's birthday.

Not only lanterns, but people also made Yuanxiao cakes on this day (like Vietnamese floating cakes). So there are many lantern festival places also known as Yuanxiao cake festival .

However, whatever the name is, it is considered a very important holiday for Chinese people, an important part of the Lunar New Year. It is an official festival that closes the days of the Lunar New Year.