The real traditional Valentine's Day in China is Shangyuan Festival. That is, the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.
Before the Song Dynasty, curfews were imposed in all dynasties, that is, people were not allowed to go out at night. However, there is a demand for the Lantern Festival from all sides, so the Lantern Festival, which was lifted at night, is getting more and more grand, and people who seldom go out at night also have the opportunity to travel at night, watch the lights and make friends.
"Dijing Scenery Lamp City" contains: "The three-night lantern in Shangyuan started in the Tang Dynasty, and the second night around the fifteenth day of the first month of Xuanzong, Jinwu Akasaka, opened the market and lit the lamp, which was always the same." "Dunhuang Bianwen" contains: "(Kaiyuan) to fourteen years (Year), the emperor granted amnesty to the world, and the people lit lamps to support them. Officials are happy to look at the lights. There is also a law that people should light their lights every time and don't ban the night. " Shangyuan Festival was guaranteed by law and politics, which made it institutionalized and later generations attacked it. "Retirement from the DPRK in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Ming Dynasty" contains: "There is a story about going to the Yuan Dynasty to run lights, or the clouds along the Han Temple from fainting to daytime. Emperor Liang Jianwen has Li Edeng Fu. Chen Houzhu has a poem "Guangbi Temple sings mountains and lights are far away".
In the Ming Dynasty, the Lantern Festival in Shangyuan was particularly prosperous. 10, Zhu Yuanzhang celebrated the Lantern Festival in Shangyuan, and thousands of lanterns were lit on the Qinhuai River in Beijing. From the eighth day of the first month to the seventeenth day of the first month, Judy, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, lit lanterns every night until all night, and drum music and juggling were noisy.
It is through such a national carnival that girls who can't usually go out can go out to play openly, and unmarried men and women have the opportunity to get to know each other and see each other by watching lights.
Ouyang Xiu "Last January night, the flower market was full of lights. On the moon, the willows shoot at the top, and people meet at dusk "is the scene of dating men and women in the Lantern Festival." "