Lantern Festival

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

Applicant: Nan'an City, Fujian Province

Item No.: 988

Project No.: Ⅹ - 81

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: folk customs

Region: Fujian Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Nan'an City, Fujian Province

Protected by: Nan'an Cultural Center

Brief introduction to the Lantern Festival

Applicant: Nan'an City, Fujian 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.

Yingdu town is located in the west of Nan'an City, Fujian Province, surrounded by mountains and closed traffic. In this closed environment, it has formed a unique Spring Festival folk activities. The Spring Festival custom in Yingdu is composed of three parts: ancestor worship on the second day of the first lunar month, plucking Lantern Festival on the ninth day of the first lunar month and "cutting incense" on the eleventh day of the first lunar month.

The rise of Quanzhou Maritime Silk Road in Song Dynasty promoted the prosperity of Yingxi inland river post transportation. During the Chunyou period of Southern Song Dynasty, in order to pray for good weather, the boatman surnamed Chen changed the Lantern Festival of Shangyuan into a more festive "birthday" Lantern Festival. The lanterns of the group are tied with a large rope. The leader of the group shoulders a large rope bow to pull the group forward. It vividly represents the spectacular scene of Yingxi's trackers sailing against the current and fighting against the nature. Later, the Yingxi shipping industry declined. The boatman surnamed Chen moved to other places. Zhaohui temple was worshipped by the villagers surnamed Hong. The Lantern Festival became an annual blessing ceremony for local farmers. It has been passed on from generation to generation for more than 700 years. In addition, folk literature and art forms such as "car drum dance" and "flower drum singing" have been handed down from Baba Lantern Festival, which has become an important part of the Lantern Festival, showing strong local style and strong artistic appeal.

The Lantern Festival reappeared the scene of Yingxi's boating, which reflected the prosperity of inland river ferry transportation on Quanzhou Maritime Silk Road from a special angle, and had high historical and cultural research value. Nowadays, Nan'an villagers at home and abroad are eager to go back to their hometown almost every year to pull out and watch the lanterns. The pull out Lantern Festival has become a bond for gathering relatives and ethnic ties, and has played a great role in uniting Chinese at home and abroad to participate in the construction of their hometown.