Lantern Festival

Ⅹ-71Folk CustomsWei, HebeiBatch 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. The Yuxian lantern-mountain worship custom appeared during the Jiajing reign of the Ming dynasty, entered a formative stage by the late Ming and early Qing, and in the late Qing and early Republican period it combined with folk shehuo and opera, its content and form becoming richer and more refined.

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 Yuxian lantern-mountain worship custom is a type of folk shehuo activity, transmitted in Shangsuzhuang Village, Songjiazhuang Town, Yuxian County, Hebei Province. On the twelfth day of the first lunar month each year, the people of Shangsuzhuang Village begin preparing to hold the lantern-mountain worship activity: on the one hand they clean the lantern-mountain tower and the village's temples large and small, hanging lanterns and colored decorations; on the other they prepare the offerings for the sacrifice and the lamp wicks, lamp cups, hemp oil, and other materials for lighting the lantern mountain. On the morning of the fourteenth, a lamp pole is erected at the crossroads between the lantern-mountain tower and the Sanyi Temple, and the spirit tablet of the God of Fire is placed atop the pole. From outside the fort gate to the main street inside the fort, rectangular row lanterns — wooden frames pasted over with paper — and multicolored 'street-crossing papers' are also hung, bearing auspicious phrases. The row lanterns are arranged in ten rows, signifying perfection in every respect; the street-crossing papers number twelve rows in ordinary years and thirteen in leap-month years, meaning peace in every month and favorable weather for the crops. On the evening of the fifteenth, the lantern-mountain worship custom formally begins. When night falls, people light the lamps arranged in patterns with candles, producing pictures and characters made of lamplight. During the worship, a boy whose parents are both living is chosen to play the 'lantern official', while four young and middle-aged villagers dress as yamen runners and carry a single-pole sedan chair in which the lantern official rides. Actors from the village opera troupe, heavily made up, accompany him, entering the fort from outside the gate, while the villagers and sightseers beat gongs and drums along the way and worship in front of the lantern-mountain tower. After the worship ends, shehuo performances and grand opera begin. In front of the opera stage the lanterns and decorations shine brilliantly, firecrackers thunder, drums and music sound together, and the village troupe's actors appear in costume, performing operas on themes drawn from historical stories and from myths and legends.

Ten ranks of lanterns

Ten ranks of papered wooden lanterns line the road from the outer gate into the main street.

Paper banners across the street

Coloured motto banners cross the street: twelve in a common year, thirteen in a leap month.

Lighting the lantern mountain

Candles are set alight to spell out characters on the mountain, tended through the night.

The lantern officer in his sedan

A boy is chosen as the lantern officer, carried in a sedan by four young men with the troupe in full paint.

社火 performances and opera

After the worship come the fire-troupe and opera, telling history and legend until morning.

Lantern patterns of a full harvest

Lantern shapes spell auspicious wishes, their hazy light now prized by the lantern makers.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The main content is divided into four parts: lighting the lantern mountain, worshiping the lantern mountain, performing shehuo, and singing grand opera.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The Yuxian lantern-mountain worship custom has a unique form and rich cultural connotations, and is of great value for folkloristic research. Protecting and making good use of this folk resource will help promote the effective transmission of traditional ethnic and folk culture in the Hebei region and play a positive role in building a harmonious society. Guo Jianming (linked inheritor, official archive record): Male, Han ethnicity, born July 1967, native of Yuxian County, Hebei Province. Influenced by his family environment, he came into contact with lantern-mountain worship from an early age. His family has transmitted it from generation to generation. After graduating from middle school he returned to the village to farm and formally studied under his uncle Guo Miao, quickly mastering all the skills. As the older artists advanced in years, he began organizing young and middle-aged people to carry out the making of the lantern mountain and the worship-performance activities. In recent years, the lantern-mountain folk shehuo works he has produced, such as 'Abundant Harvest of the Five Grains', 'Auspiciousness as You Wish', and 'Peace Under Heaven', have astonished visitors with their hazy, shadowy beauty, giving this ancient folk activity new vitality. Representative inheritor of the Lantern Festival (Yuxian Lantern-Mountain Worship Custom), 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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