Lantern Festival

Ⅹ-71Folk CustomsMinistry of CultureBatch 2 (2008)Newly Added Item

01 · Historical Records

China began lighting lanterns during the Lantern Festival as early as the Han dynasty, and this gradually developed into a popular custom. By the Tang dynasty the custom was even more widespread: the lines 'Fire trees and silver blossoms merge; the star bridge opens, its iron locks undone' describe the splendor of the Lantern Festival in Chang'an. In the Ming dynasty the Lantern Festival had already become an important part of the people's lives, with ten consecutive days of lantern-viewing. In the Qing dynasty it was a folk festival shared in merriment by the whole population, and setting off firecrackers and fireworks added to the excitement of the lantern-viewing activities. A number of traditional activities are also carried out at the Lantern Festival. The first is guessing lantern riddles, also called 'beating lantern riddles', which first appeared in the Song dynasty: riddles are hung up for people to guess, and those who guess correctly receive a prize. The second is eating yuanxiao (sweet rice dumplings). Yuanxiao was originally called 'fuyuanzi' (floating round balls) and is also known as 'tangtuan' or 'tangyuan'; it is a ball-shaped food made of glutinous rice flour, usually with a filling, boiled in water before eating, and remarkably sweet and delicious. Eating yuanxiao symbolizes that the whole family is reunited, harmonious, and happy. Besides the Han, many ethnic minorities also celebrate the Lantern Festival, including the Manchu, Korean, Hezhe, Mongolian, Daur, Evenki, Oroqen, Hui, Xibe, Tibetan, Bai, Naxi, Miao, Yao, She, Zhuang, Buyi, Li, and Gelao peoples, and their festival activities each have their own distinctive features.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The Lantern Festival, also called the 'Shangyuan Festival', the 'Yuanxi Festival', or the 'Festival of Lanterns', is a traditional Chinese festival, widely observed throughout the country. In China the first month of the lunar calendar is the yuan (first) month, and in ancient times night was known as 'xiao'; therefore the night of the fifteenth day of the first month, when the year's first full moon appears, is named the 'Yuanxiao Festival'. In some places the Lantern Festival also includes the custom of 'walking off a hundred ailments', also called 'roasting away a hundred ailments' or 'dispersing a hundred ailments'. On the day of the festival people walk in groups, crossing bridges together or heading out into the countryside, symbolizing the dispelling of illness and disaster and the attainment of peace and good health. Since modern times, traditional performance items such as dragon-lantern dances, lion dances, stilt walking, land-boat rowing, yangge (rice-sprout) dances, and Taiping drum playing have been added to Lantern Festival activities in various places, giving the festival new development in the course of its transmission. The Lantern Festival, with a history of more than two thousand years, is not only widely celebrated on both sides of the Taiwan Strait but is also highly valued in overseas Chinese communities.

Lighting lamps on the fifteenth

The lamp-lighting custom begun in the Han reached metropolitan scale in the Tang and lasted ten days in the Ming.

Riddle guessing

Riddles hung under lamps since the Song turned the street into a common hall of wit and learning.

Eating the floating dumplings

Glutinous rice balls boiled and shared by the family express reunion and domestic harmony.

Walking away illness

Women walk out in pairs over bridges and into the countryside to cast off illness for the year.

Dragon and lion performances

Stilts, land boats, yangge and the big drum joined the dragon and lion to make the festival a show.

Lamp festivals of the ethnic groups

Nearly twenty ethnic groups keep the festival, each with its own distinctive activities.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The Lantern Festival has no fixed form nationwide; different regions have developed different emphases according to local conditions. In the north there is more lantern-making, yangge dancing, and stilt walking, while in the south street fairs, 'caiqing' (plucking the green) performances, and dragon-boat races prevail. In coastal areas and in places that are the ancestral homes of overseas Chinese, lantern fairs are often combined with temple fairs. The Manchu, Mongolian, Hui, Tibetan, Miao, Yao, She, Zhuang, and Dong peoples likewise set separate lantern periods in accordance with their own calendars and traditional sacrificial precedents. Thus a single fifteenth day of the first month presents a coexistence of dozens of different ways of celebrating across the country, and overseas Chinese communities also set up altars and celebrate according to their native dialects and customs.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

With a single night of lanterns, the Lantern Festival gathers lineages that are otherwise dispersed in daily life back into a neighborhood: hanging lanterns begins as each family's own affair, but by nightfall it becomes the affair of the whole lane. Guessing riddles and eating round dumplings in turn give people of different ages a shared topic. In modern times dragon-lantern dances, lion dances, stilt walking, land-boat rowing, yangge dancing, and Taiping drum playing have entered the festival one after another, adding an aspect of spectacle and amusement to what was once a more ritual-oriented occasion. Festival customs thereby adjust themselves between preservation and renewal, which is why they can be followed for so long without becoming rigid.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Lantern Festival (Ministry of Culture) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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