Lantern Festival

Ⅹ-71Folk CustomsMentougou, BeijingBatch 4 (2014)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

The Qianjuntai Zhuanghu Banner Fair began in the Ming dynasty, flourished in the Qing dynasty, once received an imperial patent, and has been handed down for several hundred years to the present. On the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month, all the villagers go to the ancient Longquan Nunnery to pay homage to the ancestral tablets of their various surnames, and offer grand memorials (dabiao) before the temple, sincerely inviting all the gods and immortals to celebrate the Lantern Festival together.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The Qianjuntai Zhuanghu Banner Fair is a folk custom whose core content is inviting the gods, sacrificing to the gods and sending off the gods, with incense processions and banner gatherings as its form of activity; it is mainly current within the Datai Subdistrict jurisdiction of Mentougou District, Beijing, and its influence extends over the whole of Mentougou District. Through performances by artists, it spreads the people's fine wish of praying for blessings and welcoming auspiciousness, and has built an important space for the transmission of traditional folk culture. It is a product of the old mountain-village temple fairs; every year on the fifteenth and sixteenth days of the first lunar month, Qianjuntai Village and Zhuanghu Village hold banner-fair procession activities, praying for favorable weather and good harvests, and villagers living away from home must hurry back to the village. From May each year until the first month of the following year, the villagers of Qianjuntai and Zhuanghu carry out preparations for the banner-fair processions, such as airing the banners, repairing the banners and running training classes in ancient music, laying a solid foundation for the normal conduct of the banner-fair activities. On the morning of the fifteenth day of the first month, the various banner-fair sections, such as the big drum society, the music society and the yangge dance society, all assemble at the ancient temple. At the start of the activities, the music class first gives a wind performance, after which the Chaozi (criers') class gives a percussion performance. After each venue has completed its performance in turn, the banner fair officially opens. There is a rich variety of banners, including the Lingguan flag, place-name banners, Horse King banners, Kiln God banners and Zhenwu banners, which are lined up in a row according to the size of the banner positions. The wind music class stands before the Dongyue banner, the percussion class before the Guanyin banner, the yangge dance team follows behind the place-name banners, and the big drum is placed before the Zhenwu banner at the end of the procession. The processions are divided into host village and guest village: Zhuanghu Village first comes to Qianjuntai Village, with Qianjuntai as the host; on the afternoon of the sixteenth day of the first month, Qianjuntai Village then returns the visit to Zhuanghu Village, and the roles of host and guest are exchanged. At three o'clock in the afternoon of the fifteenth day of the first month, Zhuanghu Village's banner procession goes to the entrance of Qianjuntai Village to join that village's banner fair. At this point the banner-fair sections of the two villages interweave with one another, the scene is grand and the momentum spectacular. The whole procession stretches like a single-line snake for a full li, with performances taking place along the way. The host village's procession returns to its own village, leaning the banners against both sides of the street, while the music classes and Chaozi classes of both villages go to the temple hall to perform. At eight in the evening, the guest village's amateur troupe performs a program in the host village. A spirit shed is also set up, in which various grand memorials and images of the gods are placed for use in sacrifices. After the performances end, the banner fair sets out again, and the host village sees the guest village out to the village entrance, then returns to the village.

Drying and repairing the banners

From May onwards the banners are aired, washed and patched through the summer before the new year.

Inviting the gods at Longquan hermitage

Villagers of many surnames worship their ancestral tablets and invite the gods to share the festival.

Banner ranks and seating

Each musical group takes its place behind a named banner, from the spirit officer to the true warrior.

Host village and guest village

The villages exchange host and guest roles so that the bond between them is renewed by rule, not favour.

Interweaving the processions

The two processions interleave into a mile-long line, performing as they walk.

Seeing the guests off and the spirit tent

After the performances the host village sees the guests out, with a spirit tent standing ready throughout.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

As a folk spectacle of western Beijing, the Qianjuntai Zhuanghu Banner Fair deeply reflects the popular beliefs of the local people. The Qianjuntai and Zhuanghu banners already have a history of several hundred years; the banner fair is large in scale and rich in content, has advanced the building of local spiritual civilization, contributed to harmonious interpersonal and inter-village relations, strengthened cultural exchange and the building of a harmonious society, and also provides a useful reference for investigating and studying Beijing folk customs.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The reason the banner fair can endure is that preparations begin as early as May: airing the banners, repairing them and running ancient-music training classes, so that most of the year is spent preparing for the two days of the first month. The sections are many and the division of labor fine, each with its banner position and place in the order — the wind class relies on the Dongyue banner, the percussion class on the Guanyin banner, the yangge team on the place-name banners, and the big drum is placed before the Zhenwu banner at the end of the procession; if the positions fall into disorder it is a breach of etiquette. The host village and guest village take turns playing host, so inter-village exchange needs no separate festival; the three stages of inviting, sacrificing to and sending off the gods divide the procession time into two nights and one day, with rite and music each in its proper place.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Lantern Festival (Mentougou, Beijing) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回英文名录。