Lantern Festival

Ⅹ-71Folk CustomsLiulin, ShanxiBatch 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. According to reports, during the Republican period (1912-1949) Liulin had no fewer than fifty panzi. At present there are more than two hundred panzi in Liulin; the oldest one preserved is the wood-carved panzi of Jiangqu in Mucun, dating from the twenty-sixth year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty (1900).

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. The activities take place every year from the thirteenth to the twenty-sixth day of the first lunar month, reaching their climax at the Lantern Festival. During this period the streets and lanes take turns by section, hanging lanterns and colored silks and erecting high decorated panzi, with shehuo (festive folk performances) lit everywhere, accompanied either by yangge dances and ballad singing or by 'turning the nine bends' and 'dancing the live dragon'. People gather together to celebrate the festival and pray for favorable weather in the coming year. The Panzi Fair centers on the panzi. A panzi is a combined, pavilion-style model of ancient architecture, in effect an enlarged spirit shrine; it is exquisitely made, generally three to four meters high, and comes in several styles — four-cornered or six-cornered, single- or double-tiered — mostly built from fine, dense, hard, high-quality timber. This small wooden pavilion contains from a few to a dozen or so niches, enshrining such deities as the Heavenly Official, the God of Wealth, the Goddess of Child Delivery, and Guanyin Bodhisattva. The Liulin Panzi Fair has a history of more than five hundred years to date and is generally run by investment pooled from neighbors in the street.

Carving the wooden pavilion

The pavilion is carved three to four metres high in fine dense timber, modelled on a household shrine.

Arranging the shrine niches

Several or a dozen niches inside hold the gods, one deity to one station.

Painting the pavilion

Painting is the craft's heart, with temples, figures and landscapes laid in layer upon layer of colour.

Street by street in turn

From the thirteenth to the twenty-sixth each street takes its own turn to raise lamps and fire社火.

The nine-turn maze and the live dragon duel

Yangge and storytelling are joined by a nine-turn maze and rival live dragons, each worth the whole night.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The Liulin Panzi Fair, also called the 'Heavenly Official Fair' and the 'Young Men's Fair', is a folk-culture activity popular in Liulin county town and the surrounding Mucun area of Shanxi Province.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Bai Youhou (linked inheritor, official archive record): As the head (sheishou) of a panzi society, he has mastered the complete ritual and festival observances, holds distinctive views on the cultural connotations of various folk matters, and for many years has been engaged in the decorative painting of the panzi, having painted more than thirty of them in succession. His representative works include the Dragon King Temple panzi in Liulin, the Mucun railway station panzi, the Houshanyuan panzi, and the painted decoration of the Qingshan Temple in Xuecun. Through practice he taught both by word and example, devoting himself to training apprentices, and passed on the skills accumulated over many years to young people without reservation. Male, Han ethnicity, born June 1946, died March 2015, native of Liulin County, Shanxi Province. Representative inheritor of the Lantern Festival (Liulin Panzi Fair), a fourth-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage project. Jia Fengyue (linked inheritor, official archive record): Male, Han ethnicity, born September 1958, native of Liulin County, Shanxi Province. He was born into a family of craftsmen and from childhood loved ancient architecture and the art of decorative painting. At the age of sixteen he studied drawing and wooden pattern-making under Jia Yujin, and later entered an ironworks, where he worked on the structural design of wooden patterns. In the 1980s he learned woodworking carving, panzi making, and decorative painting from his father Jia Guozhen and from Dang Wanwan and Liu Peizhang. He is able to design and make folk objects in a variety of specifications on his own. As a well-known head (jiushou) of the local community's panzi fair, he is familiar with all the folk procedures. His representative works include more than thirty panzi, such as the Nanping panzi, the Cultural Center panzi, and the Chugou Red Building panzi; local people praise him as a 'little Lu Ban' (a master carpenter). For many years he has organized panzi fair activities, earning the praise of the broad local public. Through teaching by word and example, he has passed on the skills accumulated over many years to young people without reservation. Representative inheritor of the Lantern Festival (Liulin Panzi Fair), a fifth-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage project.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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