Lantern Festival

Ⅹ-71Folk CustomsGannanzangzuzizhizhouzhouqu, GansuBatch 5 (2021)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

The Dongshan Turning Lantern has been handed down for more than a thousand years since the Tang dynasty. It began as a torch-and-lantern turning sacrificial rite that the local populace adopted to ward off locust plagues and other natural disasters, and through development in successive eras it gradually evolved into a folk cultural activity integrating many different art forms.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The Dongshan Turning Lantern is a folk activity that combines folk ritual protocol, sacrificial rites, lantern-making, paper-cutting, and firework-making with the arts of literature, calligraphy, painting, music, and dance. It is mainly practiced in the Longxi Corridor region, the transition zone from the northeastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau toward the Qinling Mountains and the Sichuan Basin, including parts of the countryside of Wudu District of Longnan City, Kang County, Cheng County, Wen County, and Zhouqu County of the Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture; its core area is concentrated in the administrative villages of Hangou, Shijiashan, Zhenjie, Pingli, Dianziwan, Wanli, Luojia, and Lujia in Dongshan Town, Zhouqu County. The event runs from the start of the twelfth lunar month each year until the seventeenth day of the first lunar month. Its content consists of six successive segments: convening the association, welcoming the spirit banners and raising the lanterns, turning the lanterns, receiving the lanterns, treading the field path, and holding council. The activity is characterized by large numbers of participants, grand scale, long duration, and diverse cultural forms. The procedure is as follows. In the twelfth lunar month the association heads raise funds according to the number of men in each household and organize the pouring of wax, the brewing of wine, and the preparation of offerings; each family makes lanterns according to its number of male members. On the evening of the fourteenth of the first month the spirit banners are received, and after the master of recitation reads prayers for blessing, the lanterns are formally raised. On the evening of the fifteenth the lantern-turners assemble, wearing long gowns and carrying lanterns of various kinds on their backs, and begin turning the lanterns once the three-eye cannon has sounded. The procession is led by the association head, followed by the gunners, the first lantern, the second lantern, the master of recitation, the head walkers, the percussion players, and the lantern-carriers; upon entering the village, each household burns incense and paper horse effigies and offers wine to welcome the lanterns. Late at night the first lantern leads the way into the fields, and within the standing positions of the lantern-blockers the marchers tread out, following specific mnemonic formulas and footwork patterns, characters in clerical or seal script such as 'Guotai Min'an' (the country prosperous and the people at peace) several hundred meters square; this is called treading the field path. On the seventeenth the association heads, the first lantern, the lantern-blockers, and village officials hold council to review what has been gained and lost and to select the six association heads for the coming year. The Dongshan Turning Lantern rite is complete in form, grand in scale, and tightly organized. The association heads, the first lantern, and the head walkers are the principal organizers, and the skills involved -- lantern-making, paper-cutting, wax-pouring, painting, music and dance, and the mnemonic formulas and footwork of the field-treading -- are all transmitted from master to apprentice by oral instruction and personal transmission, generation after generation. The festival is held on a 'three-times-in-five-years' cycle: three consecutive years of celebration followed by two years of rest, making one cycle every five years. The purpose is to allow the populace periods of rest and recovery so that the activity can continue for a long time. The characteristics of the Dongshan Turning Lantern are expressed in four aspects: first, it has a solemn and complete lantern-turning ritual; second, it uses unique mnemonic formulas and footwork to tread out special characters; third, it has an organizational process with a clear division of labor and strict procedure; fourth, it has complete methods and craft requirements for lantern-making, paper-cutting, painting, wax-pouring, and the manufacture of three-eye cannon. The Dongshan Turning Lantern folk activity stands as historical witness to the courage and inventiveness of the people of Dongshan in the course of transforming and adapting to nature.

Organizing and raising funds

Levies are set per able-bodied male, and each household then makes its own lamps and offerings.

Welcoming the banners and raising the lamps

On the fourteenth night the banners arrive, prayers are read, and only then are the lamps lit.

The lantern procession

Lantern bearers in long gowns assemble, and three cannon shots release the procession in ordered ranks.

Burning incense and paper horses

Households burn incense, paper horses and wine to greet the passing lantern bearers.

Tracing characters in the field

Lanterns enter the field at night and trace huge seal-script blessings according to taught steps.

The closing council

The council reviews the year and elects six officers to lead the next turn of the lamp.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The center of gravity of the Dongshan Turning Lantern lies in the villages of Hangou, Shijiashan, Zhenjie, Pingli, Dianziwan, Wanli, Luojia, and Lujia in Dongshan Town, Zhouqu. Each village contributes lanterns, money, and labor in proportion to its male members, so the rotation on the 'three-times-in-five-years' cycle is scheduled very tightly. During the festival period the association heads, the first lantern, the head walkers, the gunners, and the master of recitation each have their own post; the field-treading segment in particular requires the lantern-blockers to stand in the fields holding blocking devices, and the characters several hundred meters square are formed entirely through these footsteps and the blocking of light. The Wudu, Kang County, Cheng County, and Wen County area of Longnan belongs to the same Longxi Corridor, and in former years people from there often came to watch the lanterns.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Protecting and promoting the folk culture of the Dongshan Turning Lantern has positive and beneficial significance for advancing ethnic integration, promoting economic growth, improving rural governance capacity, strengthening cultural confidence, and building a harmonious and stable social environment.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Lantern Festival (Gannanzangzuzizhizhouzhouqu, Gansu) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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