The Spring Festival is getting closer and closer, and all parts of the country are beginning to decorate urban and rural areas in a festive manner. As the famous ancient capital of the Six Dynasties in our country, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province is also full of lights and Qinhuai is full of brilliance. The most beautiful thing is the longest history in the world. The Qinhuai Lantern Festival has also quietly lit up, attracting the attention of tourists from all over the world.

The Nanjing Qinhuai Lantern Festival, also known as the Jinling Lantern Festival, dates back to 1700 years. It is one of the first batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage. It is known as the "World's No. 1 Lantern Festival" and "Qinhuai Lantern Festival is the best in the world". It is the only one in China that integrates a lantern show, lantern festival and lantern market. It is also the longest-lasting folk lantern festival in China, with the largest number of participants and largest scale.

As early as the Han Dynasty, people would hang colorful lanterns on traditional festivals, which were later called "lanterns". Legend has it that Lu Ban, the founder of the carpentry industry, created lanterns when building the palace. By the early Western Han Dynasty, giant lanterns seven and a half feet tall had appeared in the court. But for a long time, lanterns were only for the royal family's enjoyment. It was not until the Northern and Southern Dynasties, with the promotion of the custom of viewing lanterns on the Lantern Festival, that lanterns left the palace and flew into the homes of ordinary people.

According to local friends, the Qinhuai Lantern Festival was already popular as early as the Southern Dynasties. At that time, Nanjing, the capital, would hold a traditional lantern festival every time the Lantern Festival. Its grand occasion was not only the highest in the country, but also the highest in the world. The Nanjing Lantern Festival in history was basically held along the Qinhuai River, Nanjing's mother river, so it was called the Qinhuai Lantern Festival.

According to local friends, the scenery of lantern festivals held in Jiankang (Nanjing) 1700 years ago was as follows: traditional festivals, Taichu Palace and Zhaoming Palace in Dongwu, and later Jiankang Palace in Eastern Jin Dynasty hung various colorful lights, and residences on both sides of the Qinhuai River also followed suit and hung various lanterns. "The bright and idle night lights are bright among the trees. The lights wither with the wind, and the wind and the lights rise and fall "(poem written in the Eastern Jin Dynasty). The dusk mist is in all directions, the lanterns are shining, and the fire on the Qinhuai River is reflected like daytime.

In the eyes of the ancients, the lantern festival was not only lively, but also very meaningful, so that Xiao Gang, Emperor Jianwen of the Liang Dynasty, also wrote poems about the lantern festival such as "Lantern Fu" and "Lantern Burning on the 8th of the First Month". One of them was like this: "Falling ashes burn brimbles, hanging oil and painting peaks. If you see it in the celestial palace, the lantern king will meet it ", recording the scene of the prosperous lantern festival at that time.

The Nanjing Qinhuai Lantern Festival, which originated 1700 years ago, has gone through historical dynasties such as the Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, Song and Yuan Dynasties, and always "blooms" around the Spring Festival every year. According to historical records, the first Lantern Festival was only one day. In the Tang Dynasty, the Lantern Festival was changed to the 14th day of the first month to the 16th day of the first month, lasting for three days; in the Song Dynasty, the Lantern Festival was extended again. From the 14th day of the first month to the 18th day of the first month, the carnival of watching and enjoying the lanterns lasted for five days, but now it is advanced to New Year's Eve. After the Lantern Festival, the lighting time can even reach 40 to 50 days, allowing citizens to have more time to enjoy the lanterns.

There have been many allusions in history about the Qinhuai Lantern Festival. For example, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, had an interesting story with the Qinhuai Lantern Festival: In the fifth year of Hongwu (1372), he ordered the placement of 10,000 water lanterns on the Qinhuai River, filling the river with bright lights and shining brightly; On the night of the Lantern Festival, Zhu Yuanzhang was not satisfied with the magnificent lanterns hanging in the palace. He often visited in disguise and went to the market to admire the lanterns made by the people. Therefore, in Nanjing in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, every traditional festival was celebrated, colorful buildings stretched throughout the city, lanterns and fireworks shone all night, and drums and music were noisy throughout the day. Many women who never left home on weekdays also traveled all night to enjoy the lanterns together. It was extremely grand.

After Zhu Yuanzhang, his son Zhu Di was also an avid "lantern enthusiast." Relevant historical records show that when Zhu Di ascended the throne, he ordered officials to have a ten-day holiday around the Lantern Festival (which is probably the earliest long Spring Festival holiday) to spend the Lantern Festival with their families. In the tenth year of Yongle, Zhu Di gathered skilled craftsmen to build the beautiful "Long Live Lantern of Aoshan" outside the noon gate of the palace. The Aoshan Lantern shines brilliantly, as bright as stars, which is amazing. It can be said that "under the bright moon in the shadow of the silver candle, all we meet are people stepping on the lantern."

After the Ming Dynasty, although Nanjing in the Qing Dynasty was no longer the capital, we can still find the popularity and grand occasion of the Qinhuai Lantern Festival at that time from poems such as "Who can sit idle when they see the moon, and where can they smell the lanterns?","A hundred flowers are suspicious of spitting out the night, and the four shines like spring","The first test of the bright lights hangs nine slightly, and the Yao Pavilion returns in spring without night","Red lights on both sides of the Taiwan Strait shine on the blue waves, and an orchid paddle swings the Milky Way"...

After the reform and opening up, the Qinhuai Lantern Festival, which had been suspended for many years, was resumed in 1986. Ten miles of Qinhuai water once again reflected the red lanterns. It has been held for thirty-four consecutive years, with a cumulative number of visitors exceeding hundreds of millions. It has a greater impact all over the world. Now the Qinhuai Lantern Festival is larger in scale and richer in content. It has become a very beautiful cultural business card for Nanjing and makes Nanjing more festive during the Spring Festival.