Lantern Festival (reed lantern array)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Lantern Festival (reed lantern array)

Applicant: Handan City, Hebei Province

Item No.: 988

Project No.: Ⅹ - 81

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: folk customs

Region: Hebei Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Handan City, Hebei Province

Protection unit: cultural center of Fengfeng mining area, Handan City

Brief introduction to the Lantern Festival (reed lantern array)

Applicant: Handan City, Hebei Province

Lantern Festival is a traditional mass festival in China. It is popular all over the country and in overseas Chinese communities. Lantern Festival often occurs during the Lantern Festival, and some places hold Lantern Festival on the 15th of the seventh month of the lunar calendar. The characteristics of Lantern Festival are different in different regions.

"Lantern Festival" is also known as "Lantern Festival". The custom of lighting lantern festival began in Han Dynasty, further developed in Tang and Song Dynasties, and reached its peak in Ming and Qing Dynasties. According to the traditional custom, on the night of the full moon on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, people should hang and light all kinds of colored lights, and hold lantern watching, lantern watching, lantern racing and other celebration activities to pray for family reunion and longevity. Taking the Lantern Festival as the center, a series of distinctive Lantern Festival customs, such as guessing lantern riddles, eating Lantern Festival and walking through all kinds of diseases, have been formed all over the country.

With the passage of time, lantern festival activities become more and more abundant. In many places, traditional folk performances such as playing dragon lantern, playing lion, walking on stilts, rowing dry boat, twisting Yangko, playing Taiping drum and raising pavilion are added to Lantern Festival, which makes Lantern Festival more prosperous.

Weizi lantern array is a folk art form that combines craft production and dance performance. It is popular in dongwangkan village, Yijing Town, west of Fengfeng mining area, Handan City, Hebei Province. It is said that in the Warring States period around Jiabi village, yuanci County, there was a fashion of performing reed lanterns every Spring Festival. In the Ming Dynasty, villagers from dongwangkan village nearby learned lamp art when they went to Jiabi village to watch the performance. Since then, the reed lamp has become popular in dongwangkan village, but the reed lamp performance in Jiabi village has been lost.

Reed lamp is made of sorghum, bamboo and wood. The inner and outer layers of the lamp are decorated with cotton paper and colored paper. The candle is made of mutton oil. The lamp has 24 poles, symbolizing 24 solar terms a year. Most of the reed lantern arrays are performed during the Spring Festival. Every year, as soon as December comes, the villagers of dongwangkan village begin to purchase lamp oil, red and green paper, cut, paste and hinge, and meticulously make lantern array props to integrate the harvest mood into art.

The Lantern Festival is the peak time for performing reed lantern array. At that time, the villagers of Dongwang village will go out to watch the lantern array with great joy. The reed lantern array is performed by 32 young and strong young men at night. Among them, 24 hold the reed lantern and 8 carry small lanterns. Through the flow of lamps, various patterns or words are formed. The scene is very spectacular. During the performance, 9 small lanterns, 24 reed lamps and other props are needed, as well as percussion instruments such as drum, cymbal, cymbal and Gong. Traditional reed lantern array programs include "running round", "four horses throwing into Tang", "eight gateways and nine stars", "inverted rolling curtain", "two dragons coming out of water", etc. performers can also combine a variety of words such as "peace under heaven".

Reed lamp array with gorgeous decoration, rough performance to create a festive atmosphere of the festival, vividly show the simple style of popular folk culture and people's aesthetic consciousness, has important folklore research value.