Spring Festival
01 · Historical Records
The Huairen area is rich in coal resources, and the folk custom of burning coal bonfires to pray for blessings and welcome spring had already taken shape in the Qing dynasty. The Datong Prefecture Gazetteer, compiled in the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty, records: "On New Year's Day, glowing coals are piled up at the door, shaped like a small stupa; this is called the 'flourishing fire' (wanghuo)."
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Huairen wanghuo (flourishing fire), commonly known as the "gathered fire dragon" and also called the "great flourishing fire," is a kind of shehuo folk performance custom popular in Huairen County, Shanxi Province, during the Spring Festival and the Lantern Festival. Its main form is to stack large blocks of coal into a tower, called the wanghuo (flourishing fire), to seek good fortune and to celebrate prosperity throughout the year. Firewood is placed inside, and red paper strips are pasted on the outside bearing words such as "flourishing energy soaring to the sky." Once the fire has formed, flames shoot out from countless small holes, resembling a stupa in shape; the spectacle is magnificent. The wanghuo is grand in scale and refined in form, and is built by craftsmen of superb skill. Crowds surge in from a hundred li around to watch, and people circle the largest bonfire, praying for "flourishing fortune."
Stacking the coal tower
Large lumps of coal are laid in receding tiers with vents left between them; the wall must stand unsupported, and the shape of the flame is judged.
Pasting red wishes and lighting
Red strips carrying auspicious words are pasted on the outside, brushwood is packed inside, and the flame escapes through a thousand vents.
Circling the fire for good fortune
Crowds from far and near walk circles round the largest fire, offering incense and asking it to carry away the year’s misfortunes.
Keeping the fire alive at the Lantern Festival
The fire is fed in smaller quantities through the Lantern Festival while yangge and other shehuo troupes parade from village to village.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The wanghuo is first of all a product of the coal-mining region. In the Huairen area on the southern edge of the Datong Basin, the coal seams underground are thick and lie close to the surface; although the winter wind bites sharply, every household keeps coal in store, so both kindling and fuel are easy to come by. Coal here serves both as a means of warmth and as material for the festival pile. The firework of the tower is undertaken by the furnace-keeping craftsmen of the village: the coal blocks must be stacked in layers with ventilation passages left open, the body of the tower tapering inward as it rises and converging at the top, so that the flames leap out of the small holes on all four sides, shaped like a small stupa without collapsing or cracking. Red paper is often pasted on the four sides of the finished tower, inscribed with words such as "flourishing energy soaring to the sky"; the largest few towers are built by the combined effort of one or several villages, and men, women, and children circle the tower, burning the incense and candles in their hands at its mouth as they go. Beyond the festival days themselves, the New Year season in the Huairen area is almost entirely filled with shehuo: the yangge dance, the dry-boat dance, the bawangbian rattle dance, and the dry dragon boat go from village to village between the first and fifteenth days of the first month, and the wanghuo piles serve as natural lantern altars and resting places. Villages often compete over the height of their wanghuo and the color of the flames; one built especially well is called a great wanghuo, and neighboring villages must be invited to view it. On the night of the Lantern Festival the fire is not extinguished but fed in small portions, a practice known as "continuing the fire," and it burns on until around the second day of the second month. Local gazetteers of the Qing dynasty already recorded the piling of coal into a tower on New Year's Day, which shows that this practice in Huairen is not a novelty of recent decades but an old custom handed down from generation to generation. In recent years, with the closure of coal pits and changes in heating methods, both the fuel and the sites for the wanghuo have been affected; nevertheless, the tower-building craftsmen are still invited by each village to tend the fire, and the wanghuo has become the public scene that draws the largest crowds of the Huairen New Year season.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Spring Festival · Spring Festival · Spring Festival · Spring Festival · Spring Festival.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Huairen wanghuo is a survival of the ancient combination of nuo exorcistic rites and shehuo performance, and it has important value for the study of folklore. Owing to economic and social transformation, some accomplished senior artists are advanced in years and there is a shortage of successors; the custom faces difficulties in transmission and urgently needs strong protective measures.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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