Lantern Fair
01 · Historical Records
The Lantern Festival is also known as the Festival of Lights. The custom of lighting lanterns at Yuanxiao (the fifteenth night of the first lunar month) originated in the Han dynasty, developed further during the Tang and Song dynasties, and by the Ming and Qing periods lantern fairs across the country had reached their peak. Legend has it that in the area of Jiabi Village, formerly in Ci County, the custom of performing reed lantern shows at festivals already existed as far back as the Warring States period. By the Ming dynasty, villagers of the neighboring Dongwangkan Village had learned the lantern craft when they went to Jiabi Village to watch the performance.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The lantern fair is a traditional popular festive celebration of the Chinese people. It is widespread throughout the country and is also quite prevalent in overseas Chinese communities. Lantern fairs are mostly held during the Lantern Festival period, though some places hold them on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month; the character of the fairs differs from region to region. According to traditional custom, on the night of the full moon on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, people hang and light colorful lanterns of every kind, while holding celebrations such as viewing, admiring and competing with lanterns, in prayers for family reunion, longevity and abundant harvests. Centered on the lantern fair, localities have developed a series of distinctive Yuanxiao Festival customs, such as guessing lantern riddles, eating yuanxiao (sweet rice dumplings) and walking off the hundred ailments. Over time, Lantern Festival activities have grown ever richer, and in many places traditional folk performances such as dragon lantern dances, lion dances, stilt walking, land-boat dancing and yangge (rice-sprout song) dancing, Taiping drum playing and taige (carried platforms) have been added to the festivities, making the lantern fairs still more lively and exuberant. The reed lantern array is a folk art form that organically combines craft production with dance performance; it is handed down in Dongwangkan Village, Yijing Town, west of Fengfeng Mining District, Handan City, Hebei Province. From then on the reed lantern began to flourish in Dongwangkan Village, while the reed lantern performance of Jiabi Village was gradually lost. The making of the reed lanterns is highly refined. The lamp stands are assembled from reed stalks made of sorghum stems, bamboo poles or wooden poles; the inner and outer layers of each lamp are decorated with cotton paper and colored paper, and the candles are specially made from sheep fat. There are 24 lantern poles, symbolizing smooth weather for the 24 solar terms of the year. The reed lantern array is mostly performed during the Spring Festival period. Every year as soon as the twelfth lunar month arrives, the villagers of Dongwangkan Village begin purchasing lamp oil, red and green paper and other materials, cutting, pasting, hinging and assembling them, and carefully making the props for the lantern array, infusing the joy of harvest into the art. The Lantern Festival is the peak season for the reed lantern array, when the villagers of Dongwangkan Village, dressed in red and colorful finery, go out in high spirits to watch, and the scene is extraordinarily lively. The reed lantern array is performed at night by 32 young and sturdy men, of whom 24 carry reed lanterns and 8 hold small lanterns; through the flowing movement of the lanterns they form various patterns or characters, creating a magnificent spectacle. The performance requires props such as 9 small lanterns and 24 reed lantern poles, as well as percussion instruments including the dun drum, small cymbals, large cymbals and small gongs. The traditional programs of the reed lantern array include 'Running the Circle' (Pao Yuanchang), 'Four Horses Joining Tang' (Sima Toutang), 'Eight Gates Enclosing Nine Stars' (Bamen Tao Jiuxing), 'Rolling Down the Curtain' (Dao Juanlian) and 'Two Dragons Emerging from Water' (Erlong Chushui); the performers can also combine the lanterns into characters such as 'Tianxia Taiping' (Peace Under Heaven). With its brilliant decorations and bold performance, the reed lantern array creates the festive atmosphere of the holiday, vividly displaying the plain style of folk culture and the aesthetic sense of the people in the places where it circulates; it has important value for the study of folklore.
The reed-lantern craft reaches Dongwangkan
Reed-lantern performance was already practised near Jiabi in the Warring States; in the Ming, villagers from nearby Dongwangkan learned it there, and the tradition survived only in the latter village.
Twenty-four lanterns for the twenty-four solar terms
The set has twenty-four reed lanterns, one for each solar term, plus nine small lanterns; the frames are built from sorghum stalks or bamboo, covered in cotton and coloured paper, and lit with tallow candles.
The circle run
One of the set pieces, twenty-four lantern bearers circulate and cross at speed, with the frame drum and cymbals driving the pace.
Four horses against the Tang
A set piece in which four groups of lights are arranged as opposing lines, its title drawn from a historical tale shared with other patterns on the programme.
Eight gates enclosing nine stars and two dragons emerging from water
Nine lights enclose eight directions, and two lines of lanterns are cast out one after another like dragons leaving the water; the patterns come from positioning, not from elaborate props.
The rolled-up blind and the pattern of peace
The lanterns draw inwards like a rolling blind, and the closing image spells out characters meaning peace throughout the land.
Making the lanterns from the twelfth month
From the twelfth lunar month the village buys lamp oil and coloured paper and cuts, glues and assembles the props, so that the lantern array reaches its height on the fifteenth of the first month.
Lin Wenyi as drum head and teacher
Born in 1947, Lin Wenyi organises the performance each year as drum head, coordinating each event and training successors in a lantern array whose backbone is young men.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The core transmission site of the reed lantern array is Dongwangkan Village, Yijing Town, west of Fengfeng Mining District, Handan City, Hebei Province. The lantern craft was learned from the area of Jiabi Village, formerly in Ci County: the Jiabi area already had the custom of performing reed lanterns at festivals in the Warring States period, and by the Ming dynasty villagers of the neighboring Dongwangkan Village acquired the craft when they went to watch. Thereafter the two places rose and fell in turn — the performance in Jiabi Village was gradually lost, and Dongwangkan Village instead became its sole home. This relocation determined the material conditions of the lantern array: sorghum stalks and reeds are available everywhere in the Fengfeng Mining District area, and peasant households cut and dry them themselves to form the lamp-stand frames; the terrain of the village, moreover, is flat and level, so the lantern array can flow through it without obstruction, which suits the arrangement of lamps into characters and pictures. The scale of the lantern array matches a fixed number of performers: the 24 reed lantern poles symbolize the 24 solar terms, supplemented by 9 small lanterns; at night 32 young men hold the lamps, 24 carrying the main lanterns and 8 following with small lanterns, and without enough people the patterns cannot be formed. The instrumental ensemble likewise forms an integrated whole: the dun drum, small cymbals, large cymbals, medium cymbals, bronze gong and sheng mouth organ play together, with the drumbeat setting the tempo and the cymbals and gong sustaining the momentum, so that sound and the movement of the lamps are mutually expressive. Transmission is carried out mainly by young and middle-aged men, and since the lantern array requires mobilizing the whole village and preparing materials, cutting, pasting and hinging from the twelfth lunar month onward, once large numbers of young men leave to work elsewhere, the array cannot be sustained.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Lin Wenyi (related inheritor; from official archival records): Male, Han ethnicity, born in March 1947, from Handan City, Hebei Province. The main instruments of the reed lantern array include the dun drum, large cymbals, small cymbals, medium cymbals, bronze gong and sheng mouth organ. Every year at the Lantern Festival he actively organizes reed lantern array performances, serving as lead drummer and coordinating each event. He is a representative inheritor of the Lantern Fair (Reed Lantern Array), a third-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage item. He attaches importance to the transmission of the craft and has trained a number of apprentices, ensuring that the reed lantern array has successors.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Lin Wenyi 03-1474
- Shao Chuanfu 03-1475
- Kuang Huofa
- Niujunqi
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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