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Lantern Festival – A Brief Introduction
Chinese New Year celebration has three parts: Preparatory Week, New Year’s Eve, and Lantern Festival.
The Preparatory Week, also known as the “Small Year” (xiao nian), begins on the 23th day of the twelfth lunar month. During this week, every family would do a ceiling-to-floor cleanup to make their house look new.
New Year’s Eve falls on the 30th day of the twelfth lunar month. All family members must get together and stay past midnight to collectively witness the arrival of the first day of the first month of the new year. People in the northern provinces would eat dumplings (jiao zi) and in the south, sweet pastry (nian gao) -- both symbols of good fortune.
The Lantern Festival falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month. This is the first time a full moon occurs in the new year. In Chinese culture, roundness symbolizes harmony and good luck. People would eat round rice dumplings (tang yuan) to mirror the round moon high above. At nighttime, they would put on their best costumes, parade the street with their lanterns, do lion dance, play the boisterous “lantern riddle’ game, make loud music, and sing and dance till mid-night. The Lantern Festival is traditionally the day where festival customs and rites are performed with no inhibitions. It was started more than 2000 years ago during the Han Dynasty by Emperor Wen (Wen Di). His successor Emperor Wu (Wu Di) decreed that it shall be celebrated jointly by the royal court and the commoners. This tradition was carried on through the ensuing dynasties to this day.
The guzheng solo piece “Lantern Festival” performed by Weishan Liu is a typical Henan-style folk melody. She learned to play this at age 13 under the tutelage of the great guzheng master Cao Zheng. It was composed by Cao Dongfu (1898 – 1969) in 1956. This piece mixes traditional, down-to-earth techniques such as sweeping left-handed string bending with the more modern bimanual harmonizing to express the gaiety of the festivities.
古箏獨奏曲“鬧元宵”簡介
慶祝中國新年分三個步驟﹕小年、除夕、元宵節。
第一，小年。為農歷12月23，家家戶戶大掃除，從房頂到地板，居民、商家煥然一新。
第二，除夕。為農歷12月30，全家必須團聚，守夜到一月初一，北方吃餃子，南方吃年糕，是吉祥如意的好兆頭。
第三，元宵節。為農歷一月15，為一年之內第一個月圓之日。天上明月圓圓高挂，人間吃湯園表示圓圓滿滿吉祥如意。這一天夜晚，人們盛裝出遊，大街小巷燃燈放花，耍獅子、舞龍燈、猜燈迷，吹吹打打、載歌載舞，直到深夜，是把節日習俗體現得最為徹底的傳統日。
此元宵節起源於2000多年漢代“文”帝，後由“武”帝定此節日為宮廷與百姓同樂日。經唐、宋、元、明、清諸代流傳至今。
劉維姍演奏的古箏獨奏曲“鬧元宵”是她13歲師從中國古箏泰斗曹正時學習的典型河南民間風格樂曲。
作曲﹕曹東扶（1898---1969）作品時間﹕1956
此曲采用地道傳統技巧，富有濃郁的鄉土氣息的大幅度的左手上下滑音，配合雙手和弦新技巧的運用，喧染了節慶的歡快。是一首難得的傳統精華箏曲。