Lantern Festival

Ⅹ-71Folk CustomsNinghai, ZhejiangBatch 4 (2014)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

According to the Tashan Tong Family Genealogy, the Qiantong Lantern Festival procession began in the middle of the Ming dynasty and reached its height in the late Ming and early Qing.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The Qiantong Lantern Festival procession is a traditional folk activity held every year during the Lantern Festival by the Tashan Tong clan of Qiantong, Ninghai County, Zhejiang Province, aimed at welcoming the gods and sacrificing to ancestors and joyfully celebrating the festival. The activity takes processions of drum pavilions, raised platforms and swings as its main form of expression, and among the people it is habitually called a 'procession gathering' (xinghui). The purpose of the Qiantong Lantern Festival procession is to commemorate the merit of the ancestor Tong Hao in leading the clan to cut channels, chisel weirs and irrigate the farmland, to unite the people's hearts, undertake water conservancy, and pray for a bumper harvest. Its main activities are as follows. First, the clan meeting: at noon on the tenth day of the first month, the elders of each branch gather at the Tong grand ancestral hall to hold a clan meeting and jointly discuss matters relating to the procession activities. Afterwards, they instruct the weir-field households (the households responsible for maintaining the water-conservancy facilities that year) to post 'urging-the-men' notices (that is, notices of the procession activities), and to beat gongs to tell the clan members to arrange production and daily life properly and make preparations in advance. Second, ancestor sacrifice: in the early hours of the fourteenth day, the weir-field households lay out offerings such as the three sacrificial animals and five grains, fruits and pastries at the Tong grand ancestral hall, the Tashan Temple and the seedling-field head, thereby sacrificing to the ancestors. And every household the procession passes by also performs an ancestor-sacrifice rite at its door. Third, the procession: on the afternoon of the fourteenth day, the descendants of the Tong clan all assemble at the seedling-field head. Then the placards, dragon flags, decorated boats, drum pavilions, raised platforms, swings, dragon dances and lion dances proceed in order to the sound of drums, music and firecrackers, passing through the villages of Qiantong. Next, the ancestral deity 'Lord Hao' is invited out of the Tashan Temple and paraded through the fields and the lanes. Fourth, the New Year visit: on the evening of the fourteenth day, the procession escorts the image of Lord Hao to the uncle (mother's brother) at the Nangong Temple to pay a New Year visit. The image of Lord Hao rests here, while the procession returns to the seedling-field head. At noon on the fifteenth day, the image of Lord Hao is welcomed back to the Tashan Temple. Fifth, the lantern fair: on the evening of the fourteenth day, every household as well as the drum pavilions, raised platforms and swings light their lanterns and set off gun-fireworks (chonghua), and the procession activities continue deep into the night. On the evening of the fifteenth day, the procession activities continue and reach their climax. In addition, during the activity there are customs such as lion dances to enliven rooms and presenting firework-gun tubes. The Tong clan members make traditional foods such as soup dumplings, wheat dumpling rolls and wheat cakes to entertain the guests who come to take part in the activities. The Qiantong Lantern Festival procession is organized and run by the descendants of the Tong clan, and has continued to the present in the form of group transmission. The eighteen branches of the Tong family have set up a general folk-customs office; each branch elects one elder, and together they preside over and manage the Lantern Festival procession, with all descendants of the Tong family taking part in the procession — a demonstration of the strong cohesion of this family village.

The clan meeting and the call ticket

Heads of the eighteen branches meet at the ancestral hall, and a posted ticket and gong summon the clan.

Ancestor offerings

Before dawn offerings are set at hall, temple and field head, and again at every door along the route.

The palanquin procession

Banners, boats, drums, pavilions and swings move in order from the field head to every village.

Inviting the ancestor god

The god is brought from the temple and carried along the very ditches the ancestor dug.

Paying the New Year visit

The god visits the maternal kin and is escorted back to the temple the following day.

Firework tubes and lion dancing at doors

Lanterns and firework tubes fill the night, with lions dancing at doorways besides.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The territory of the Qiantong procession lies among the eighteen branches of the Tashan Tong clan, and the five stages of clan meeting, ancestor sacrifice, procession, New Year visit and lantern fair are all completed within the clan, with no need to rely on other clans. Each branch elects an elder and a general folk-customs office is established; which household supplies a sedan chair, which prepares the sacrifice, and which sets out a table at its door are all assigned by the elders; when the procession passes through the villages of Qiantong, every household first sacrifices and then welcomes, so that village and family are not separated at this moment. Spectators from around eastern Zhejiang also often bring their own cameras along, so the procession additionally has an outward-facing identity.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The Qiantong Lantern Festival procession is a relatively influential festival folk event in eastern Zhejiang, and has a certain research value in history, folklore and art. It has a broad mass base, expressing a rich sense of the joy of life and the people's pursuit of family and village harmony and happiness, and plays a positive role in promoting the transmission and spread of local culture and in enriching the cultural life of the masses. Tong Quancan (recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in August 1939, a native of Ninghai County, Zhejiang Province. He was born in the old village of Qiantong Town, took part in various folk activities from childhood, and is familiar with the various rituals and folk arts of the Lantern Festival lantern fair. In 1995 he took the lead in reviving the Lantern Festival lantern fair and fully presided over the procession activities, enjoying high prestige in Qiantong Village. He is a representative inheritor of the Lantern Festival (Qiantong Lantern Festival Procession) project of national-level intangible cultural heritage, in the fifth batch. He has collected and participated in protecting part of the precious drum pavilions and platforms. He has presided over the collection of many traditional folk music tune patterns with local characteristics from the Qiantong Lantern Festival procession, cooperated with primary and secondary schools to carry out transmission teaching, cultivated a younger generation of inheritors, and done his utmost to strengthen the protection team for the Qiantong procession.

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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