Lantern Festival

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

Applicant: Yantai City, Shandong Province

Item No.: 988

Project No.: Ⅹ - 81

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: folk customs

Region: Shandong Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Yantai City, Shandong Province

Protection unit: cultural center of Yantai Economic and Technological Development Zone

Brief introduction of Lantern Festival

Applicant: Yantai City, Shandong 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.

Yudeng Festival is a unique traditional folk festival for fishermen along the coast of Yantai City, Shandong Province. It has been spread in more than ten fishing villages in Yantai area, such as Shanhou chujia, Luyang, Bajiao and so on. It has a history of more than 500 years. At first, Yantai coastal fishermen could not completely get rid of the dependence on farming culture, and moved the land customs to the ship. With the change of history and the continuous development of fishermen's culture, the rudiment of Yudeng Festival has been formed in Yantai area. Later, the festival gradually differentiated from the traditional Lantern Festival and became a special festival for fishermen. On the afternoon of the 13th and 14th day of the first lunar month, Yantai coastal fishermen set out from their homes, carrying sacrifices, holding high colored flags and setting off firecrackers all the way. They first went to the Dragon King temple or the goddess of the sea temple to deliver lights and offer sacrifices to gods, then went to fishing boats to sacrifice boats and the sea, and finally went to the seaside to set off lights.

Yudeng Festival is a typical representative of fishermen's culture in Jiaodong coastal area. It has distinctive fishermen's characteristics and rich cultural connotation. In the long-term development process, it gradually integrates into fishermen's life and becomes an indispensable part of fishermen's customs in Jiaodong.