Lantern Festival (feidongyang snake lantern)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Lantern Festival (feidongyang snake lantern)

Applicant: Feidong County, Anhui Province

Item No.: 988

Project No.: Ⅹ - 81

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: folk customs

Region: Anhui Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Feidong County, Anhui Province

Protected by: Feidong County Cultural Center

Brief introduction of Lantern Festival (feidongyang snake lantern)

Applicant: Feidong County, Anhui 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.

The foreign snake lantern was produced in Dashao village, Baogong Town, Feidong County, Hefei City, Anhui Province. It is said that Shao's mother-in-law and daughter-in-law hid in the cave to avoid Yuanbing at the intersection of yuan and Ming Dynasties. Yuanbing discovered that they were trying to commit a crime. At this time, a white python with a length of several feet flew down the cliff to disperse Yuanbing, and her mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were saved. The Shao family identified the python as the "snake god of the East China Sea". In order to express their gratitude for saving lives, the villagers tied up a snake lamp and named it "ocean snake", which means that the python is the snake god of the sea. From then on, the foreign snake lantern was handed down from generation to generation among the Shao people in Dashao village.

There are a whole set of methods of binding, binding, chiseling, hooking, warping, pressing and lining, which are passed down by the old artists. The snake's body is made of bamboo strips and covered with white cloth. At night, the candle light in the snake's belly shines, and scales appear on the white cloth. Snake eyes are also lit with candles. They are vivid and full of spirit. In Dashao village, every 18 years, the lamp will be taken out to enjoy. Every time you enjoy it, you have to add one section, each section is 1.6 meters long. At present, the length of the foreign snake lamp has reached 104 meters.

In the performance of the foreign snake lantern, there are dance movements such as "long snake going out to sea", "walking path folding", "shaking cart", "four boa turning over", "Pan pagoda", etc., accompanied by gongs and drums and folk salute "three eye blunderbuss", and the main music includes "long mallet", "ten times", etc. Now, the foreign snake lantern has become an important activity for Dashao village residents to celebrate the Lantern Festival. The unique snake dance performance has unique charm and is deeply loved by urban and rural people.

Chinese PinYin : Deng Hui Fei Dong Yang She Deng