Lantern Festival (Lantern Festival custom in Fengting)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Lantern Festival

Applicant: Xianyou County, Fujian Province

Item No.: 978

Project No.: Ⅹ - 71

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: folk customs

Region: Fujian Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Xianyou County, Fujian Province

Protection unit: folk custom society of Lantern Festival in Fengting, Xianyou County

Lantern Festival (Lantern Festival custom in Fengting)

Applicant: Xianyou County, Fujian Province

Lantern Festival, also known as "Shangyuan Festival", "Yuanxi Festival" and "Lantern Festival", is a traditional Chinese festival, which is popular all over the country. In China, the first month of the lunar calendar is Yuanyue, which is called "Xiao" in ancient times. Therefore, the 15th day of the first full moon in a year is called "Yuanxiao Festival".

Since the Han Dynasty, China has been lighting lanterns on the Lantern Festival, which has gradually developed into a custom. In the Tang Dynasty, this custom became more popular. The sentence "fire trees and silver flowers, star bridges and iron locks open" describes the grand occasion of the Lantern Festival in Chang'an. In the Ming Dynasty, the Lantern Festival has become an important part of people's life, and it will enjoy lanterns continuously for 10 days. In the Qing Dynasty, the Lantern Festival is a folk festival enjoyed by all the people, Fireworks and firecrackers will be set off during the lantern watching activities.

There are also some traditional activities in the Lantern Festival: one is "guessing lantern riddles", also known as "playing lantern riddles", which first appeared in the Song Dynasty. The riddles are to be guessed and the winner will be awarded; the other is to eat yuanxiao, which was originally known as "fuyuanzi", also known as "tangtuan" or "Tangyuan", a spherical food made of glutinous rice flour. It is filled with stuffing and eaten after being cooked in water, Eating Lantern Festival symbolizes the family reunion, harmony and happiness. The Lantern Festival in some places also has the custom of "walking through all kinds of diseases", also known as "baking all kinds of diseases" and "dispersing all kinds of diseases". People walk together on the Lantern Festival, or cross the bridge with each other, or go to the suburbs, symbolizing the elimination of diseases and disasters, peace and prosperity. Since modern times, traditional performances such as playing dragon lantern, playing lion, walking on stilts, rowing dry boat, twisting Yangko, playing Taiping drum and so on have been added to the Lantern Festival activities, which makes the Lantern Festival have a new development in the inheritance.

The Lantern Festival, which has a history of more than 2000 years, is not only popular on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, but also highly valued in overseas Chinese communities. In addition to the Han nationality, Manchu, Korean, Hezhe, Mongolian, Daur, Ewenki, Oroqen, Hui, Xibo, Tibetan, Bai, Naxi, Miao, Yao, she, Zhuang, Buyi, Li, Gelao and other ethnic minorities also celebrate the Lantern Festival, with their own characteristics.

Located at the intersection of Putian and Quanzhou in Fujian Province, Fengting is a millennium cultural town integrating natural landscape, historical sites, ecological gardens, mountains, seas, rivers and rivers. The custom of Lantern Festival in Fengting began in Song Dynasty, and it was unprecedented in Ming Dynasty. It has a history of more than 900 years.

From the 13th to the 17th day of the first lunar month, lantern touring activities are held in Xiaqiao, xiajie, Lanyou, Xueshi community and xiajie Beimen natural village in Fengting Town, with more than 4000 participants. The guard of honor is surrounded by the decorated main plaque, while the car drum team, the shiyinba band and the women's waist drum team are interspersed with all kinds of Lantern parades. The lamp rack team is composed of centipede lamp, pine tree lamp, umbrella lamp, aquarium lamp, lotus lamp, basket lamp, butterfly lamp, pigeon lamp, dragonfly lamp, Phoenix lamp, vegetable lamp, etc. The colorful lanterns of all operas are combined with the skills of drama, acrobatics and lantern art, which is extremely wonderful and amazing. The simple and elegant Brown sedan chair dance, zaoli dance and children's body dance have their own characteristics and become a unique folk culture in Fujian. Dragon dance and lion dance make the Lantern Festival more beautiful.

The Lantern Festival Lantern Festival in Fengting is a collection of bonfire, Shehuo, Fangdeng, Youshen, guwu, Wuwu and other classical culture and folk culture. It integrates Folk Lantern Art, quyi, dance, shiyinbayue, drama, acrobatics and other arts to form the unique folk custom of the millennium old town. It has ten advantages in the study of Fujian regional traditional culture, folk culture and folk art evolution It has important reference value. Among the Chinese in the southeast coast and Southeast Asia, the festival custom of Lantern Festival in Fengting is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. It has a strong affinity and attraction, and has become an important cultural medium to unite the compatriots at home and abroad.