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. The rise of Quanzhou's maritime Silk Road in the Song dynasty promoted the prosperity of inland river post-ferry transport on the Ying River. During the Chunyou era of the Southern Song (1241-1252), a boatman of the Chen family, praying for favorable weather, divided the spirit (fenling) from the imperially founded Zhaohui Temple on Jiuri Mountain in Fengzhou to be worshipped in Yingdu, and creatively changed the Upper Yuan lantern viewing of the fifteenth of the first month into the more festive 'Birthday of Heaven' lantern procession. Later, shipping on the Ying River declined and the Chen boatmen moved elsewhere, while the Zhaohui Temple was tended by the Hong family villagers. The baba (pull-pull) lantern fair became an annual blessing ceremony for the local farmers, handed down from generation to generation for more than seven hundred years to this day.
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. Yingdu Town is located in the west of Nan'an City, Fujian Province, surrounded by mountains with poor transport; in this closed environment a distinctive set of Spring Festival folk activities took shape. The Yingdu Spring Festival customs consist of three main parts: the ancestral sacrifice on the second day of the first month, the baba lantern fair on the ninth day, and the 'gexiang' (incense-sharing) rite on the eleventh day, of which the baba lantern fair is the climax of the whole New Year sequence. The lanterns of the procession are tied to a great rope; the leader carries the rope on his shoulder and bends forward to pull the procession along, vividly recreating the magnificent scene of the Ying River trackers poling upstream against the current and struggling with nature — a truly unique sight. Other folk artistic forms such as the 'cart-drum dance' and 'flower-drum singing' have been passed down in dependence on the baba lantern fair; they have now become important components of the fair, displaying a strong local style and powerful artistic appeal.
The Baba lantern meeting on the ninth day
Yingdu's new year runs from ancestor worship on the second to the lantern meeting on the ninth and the incense-cutting rite on the eleventh, with the lantern meeting at its height.
The barge-hauler's pull on the rope
Lanterns are towed on a heavy rope by a bending leader, reproducing barge haulers of the Yingxi river pulling upstream; the whole column's order depends on that one man.
Drum cart and flower-drum singing
Drum-cart dance and flower-drum singing grew up alongside the lantern meeting and now form part of it, moving along village lanes wherever the gathering stops.
A spirit brought from Jiuri Mountain
In the Chunyou era of the Southern Song, Chen boatmen brought a spirit from Jiuri Mountain to Yingdu and turned lantern-viewing into a festive temple-day procession; later the Hong family took over the shrine.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The baba lantern fair is practiced in Yingdu Town in the mountainous west of Nan'an City, Fujian Province. The geography — surrounded by mountains with poor transport — makes the Spring Festival folk customs here self-contained: the ancestral sacrifice on the second of the first month, the baba lantern fair on the ninth, and the gexiang rite on the eleventh follow one after another, with the baba lantern fair at the climax, while the gaps between the three segments leave room for each household to make preparations and visit relatives. The formation of the lantern procession is taken from the transport scenes of old times: the lanterns are tied to a great rope, the leader carries the rope on his shoulder and bends forward to pull the procession along, and walking along the mountain paths is just like the Ying River trackers of yore poling upstream; lantern-bearers must first learn to listen to the drumbeat and watch the hand signals of the person in front. Beyond the fair itself, folk artistic forms such as the cart-drum dance and flower-drum singing have been passed down in dependence on it, and today they have in turn become components of the fair, showing that once the main festival shrinks, the batch of dependent skills also loses its support. The participants are mostly villages where clans of the Shao, Chen and other surnames live together; the object of worship is the incense of the Zhaohui Temple, whose divided spirit was brought from Jiuri Mountain by the Chen boatman and which the Hong villagers later took over tending — the surnames changed but the worship never stopped, an instance of how the continuity of belief here runs stronger than clan boundaries. Today many Nan'an villagers do business away from home or live overseas, and pulling and viewing the lanterns have become the reason to return home once a year; though the fair is in a mountain valley, its reach extends far overseas.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The baba lantern fair reenacts the scene of the Ying River trackers hauling boats in former times; from a special angle it reflects the prosperity of the inland river post-ferry transport of Quanzhou's maritime Silk Road, and has high value for historical and cultural research. Today fellow villagers of Nan'an at home and abroad return eagerly almost every year to pull and view the lanterns. The baba lantern fair has become a bond gathering together kinship and clan ties, and has played an enormous role in uniting Chinese people at home and abroad to participate in the building of their homeland.
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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