Lantern Festival

Ⅹ-71Folk CustomsHuangpu, ShanghaiBatch 3 (2011)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

The lantern custom of the Lantern Festival arose in the Han dynasty, when King Wu Liu Bi brought the Yangzhou lantern fair to Songjiang. After the Ming dynasty, the Lantern Festival lantern fairs of the present Shanghai area were already very common, and the liveliest and most splendid venues were around the City God Temple and Yuyuan Garden in Shanghai County, Songjiang Prefecture. Yuyuan Garden lies in the northwest corner of the City God Temple within the Shanghai walled city; it is the only surviving Ming-dynasty garden in the old city, and it is the central venue of the Shanghai Lantern Festival lantern fair, a tradition that has continued to the present. The shift of the fair's center of gravity from Songjiang toward the City God Temple area was the joint result of the old city's commerce and its popular religious customs: worship of the gods in the temple, scenery built in the garden, and lanterns sold in the market streets all piled together during the few days of the Lantern Festival, so that the lantern viewer was at once the incense burner, the sightseer and the lantern buyer. As the only surviving Ming-dynasty garden in the old city, Yuyuan could hold the focus of all eyes precisely because of its layout in which garden and temple market adjoin; what the lantern fair relied upon was never a single tower, but a whole street running from the temple gate to the garden entrance.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The Yuyuan Garden lantern fair is a traditional Lantern Festival folk activity of the Songjiang area of Shanghai. The fair takes the thirteenth day of the first lunar month as the day for raising lanterns, and is divided into 'releasing the lanterns', 'gathering the lanterns', 'street processions' (dancing while moving along), 'welcoming the lanterns', 'competing with lanterns' and 'thanking the lanterns'; the eighteenth day is the day for taking the lanterns down. During this period, 'civil lantern' and 'martial lantern' performances are held in the main streets. 'Walking the three bridges' refers to crossing, during the Lantern Festival, Yiqing Bridge by the Little East Gate, Changsheng Bridge south of the Celestial Official Archway, and Ruyi Bridge east of the city temple, taking up the wishes of 'celebration, long life, good fortune and auspiciousness'; it is especially favored by female visitors.

The six stages from lighting to closing

Six named stages run between the opening and closing days, each with its own place and manner.

Civil and martial lamps

Refined musical lamps and martial displays face each other across the street.

Walking the three bridges

Three bridges named for good fortune are walked in turn, a route especially popular among women.

A lamp in every home

Hanging a lamp at home is the local custom, so everyone shares in what is seen.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Hanging lanterns inside the house on the day of raising lanterns has already become a custom of the local residents. The lantern viewers are mainly local residents of Shanghai, though there are also guests from neighboring counties, towns and other places; the flower lanterns in the garden are renewed year by year, with their styles chosen between old pattern books and new paintings, and lantern makers and lantern watchers succeed one another across generations. Stallholders, snacks and storytelling houses line up along the garden entrance, so the fair is not merely a spectacle to watch but also a rare place for townspeople to meet friends through the year.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The rules of the Yuyuan Garden lantern fair run from the thirteenth to the eighteenth day, with the six stages of releasing, gathering, parading through the streets, welcoming, competing and thanking the lanterns each having its own place; a single lantern hung in a house brings the order of the festival into thousands of households. Civil and martial lanterns proceed side by side, and scholars and townsfolk enjoy themselves together; the route of walking the three bridges is set aside especially for female visitors, so that both sexes get their share of pleasure, which is why this festival was especially remembered in Shanghai in the late Qing and early Republican period. Today the garden administration and the commercial complex run it together; the order of the festival remains, while the lantern colors and new-style performances are replaced year by year, the old regulations never constraining the new forms.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Lantern Festival (Huangpu, Shanghai) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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