Lantern Festival

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

Applicant: Yuxian County, Hebei Province

Item No.: 978

Project No.: Ⅹ - 71

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: folk customs

Region: Hebei Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Yuxian County, Hebei Province

Protection unit: Yuxian Cultural Center

Lantern Festival (custom of worshiping lantern mountain in Yuxian County)

Applicant: Yuxian County, Hebei 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.

The custom of worshiping Dengshan in Yuxian County is a kind of folk social fire activities, which spreads in shangsuzhuang village, Songjiazhuang Town, Yuxian County, Hebei Province. The custom of worshiping Dengshan in Yuxian County appeared in Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty, and entered the formative period in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasty. It was combined with folk fire opera in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, and its content and form were more rich and perfect.

Every year on the twelfth day of the first lunar month, people in shangsuzhuang village of Songjiazhuang town begin to prepare for the activities of worshiping Dengshan. On the one hand, they clean Dengshan buildings and temples in the village and decorate them with lanterns; on the other hand, they prepare offerings for sacrifice and lamp twists, lamps and sesame oil for lighting Dengshan. On the morning of the fourteenth day of the first lunar month, a lamp post was erected at the crossroad between Dengshan tower and Sanyi temple, and the memorial tablet of the God of fire was placed on the lamp post. From outside the gate to the main street inside the fort, wooden frames, paper pasted rectangular lights and colorful Street paper are hung, on which auspicious phrases are written. Row lamp for ten road, take perfect meaning; across the street paper hang twelve road throughout the year, leap month hanging thirteen Road, meaning the month safe, smooth weather.

On the evening of the 15th of the first month, the custom of worshiping Dengshan officially began. The main content is divided into four parts: lighting lamp mountain, worshiping lamp mountain, playing social fire and singing drama. As night falls, people use candles to light the lanterns with patterns, showing the calligraphy and painting of lights. When worshiping Dengshan, a boy with both parents was chosen to be the Dengguan. Four young villagers dressed as yamen servants carried a single sedan chair for the Dengguan. The actors in the village troupe were accompanied by the actors in heavy makeup and came into the castle from the gate of the castle. The villagers and tourists all the way played gongs and drums to worship in front of Dengshan tower. After the end of Baideng mountain, they began to play social fire and sing big operas. The lights in front of the theater were brilliant, the firecrackers were loud, and the drums were singing together. The actors of the village troupe appeared in disguise and performed operas with historical stories and myths and legends as the theme.

The custom of Baideng mountain in Yuxian County is unique in form and rich in cultural connotation, which is of great folklore research value. To protect and make good use of this folk resources is conducive to promoting the effective inheritance of traditional folk culture in Hebei region and playing a positive role in the construction of a harmonious society.

Chinese PinYin : Yuan Xiao Jie Wei Xian Bai Deng Shan Xi Su