Lantern Fair
01 · Historical Records
The Lantern Festival is also called the "Festival of Lights." The custom of lighting lanterns on the night of the full moon of the first lunar month began in the Han dynasty, developed further during the Tang and Song periods, and by the Ming and Qing dynasties lantern-fair activities across the country had reached their height. Between 1964 and the Spring Festival of 2006, Zigong had successfully held nineteen editions of its lantern fair.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Lantern fairs are a traditional Chinese folk celebration, a mass festive event popular throughout the country and also widely observed in overseas Chinese communities. Lantern fairs are usually held during the Lantern Festival, though some places hold them on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month; fairs in different regions each have their own character. According to traditional custom, on the night of the full moon of the fifteenth day of the first month, people hang and light all kinds of coloured lanterns while holding viewing, admiring and lantern-competing festivities, praying for family reunion and for long life and abundant harvests. Centred on the lantern fair, various regions have developed a series of distinctive Lantern Festival customs, including guessing lantern riddles, eating yuanxiao sweet dumplings, and "walking off the hundred ailments." As time passed, Lantern Festival activities grew ever richer, and many places added traditional folk performances to the celebrations — dragon lanterns, lion dances, stilt-walking, dry-boat dancing, yangge dancing, peace-drum playing and carried pavilions — making the lantern fairs livelier and more festive. The Zigong lantern fair has a long history: as early as the Tang and Song dynasties the custom of lighting lanterns at New Year was already practised here. Since the mid-Qing, Zigong's festival events — the "lion-lantern market," the "lantern-pole festival," the "lamp-carrying gathering," "Mantian Guohai" (a fair named for hiding the sky and crossing the sea) and the "ox-lantern fair" — have continued one after another, displaying a strong local character. With social change and the development of science and technology, the modern Zigong lantern fair has become more prosperous than in any earlier period. Of the Zigong lantern fairs, the Lantern Festival fair is the best known, with grand scale and an exceptional abundance of coloured lanterns. By type, the Lantern Festival coloured lanterns of Zigong mainly include craft lanterns, pedestal lanterns and grouped lantern sets. Of these, the grouped lantern sets are the most distinctive. They mainly depict themes drawn from fine folk traditions, classical novels and mythological tales, and are marked by their large scale, group composition and linked movement, making them a remarkable achievement within China's coloured-lantern culture. Zigong's coloured lanterns are ingeniously conceived, finely made and unusual in their materials: porcelain tableware, glass bottles, silkworm cocoons, fine bamboo strips, tie-dyed cloth and silk can all serve as raw materials. Combining traditional craft with modern science and technology, the resulting lanterns are dazzling in colour and variety, presenting a brilliant range of forms and raising the Zigong lantern fair to a higher artistic level.
Lion-lantern markets and the lantern-pole festival
A series of distinct local lantern events — lion-lantern markets, pole festivals, lamp-carrying gatherings — has run continuously since the mid-Qing in Zigong.
Grouped lanterns in large linked sets
Of the several lantern types, grouped sets depicting folk tradition, classic novels and myth are the largest, acting together in linked formations that give the fair its scale.
Tableware and bottles turned into lanterns
Porcelain, glass bottles, silkworm cocoons, fine bamboo, tie-dyed cloth and silk all serve as lantern materials, so the craft rests on form and internal lighting rather than costly stock.
The old fair called deceiving heaven and earth
One of the old fair names, its precise method now largely unrecorded, linking early New Year lamp-lighting to today's large lantern displays.
Nineteen editions of the fair
Nineteen consecutive editions between 1964 and 2006 turned the fair into a regularly staged urban event with standardised build-up and lighting.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Zigong lies in the southern part of the Sichuan Basin, on the bank of the Juxi River in the Tuo River valley.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Lantern Fair · Lantern Fair · Lantern Fair · Lantern Fair · Lantern Fair · Lantern Fair · Lantern Fair · Lantern Fair · Lantern Fair.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The local character of the Zigong lantern fair shows first of all in the names of its festival events: lion-lantern markets, lantern-pole festivals, lamp-carrying gatherings, "Mantian Guohai" and ox-lantern fairs have followed one another in an unbroken line, showing that the way lanterns were lit here long consisted of separate trades and gatherings of their own rather than one-off official celebrations; and it was the unbroken succession of these events from the mid-Qing onward that gradually accumulated the New Year atmosphere into the later scale. By type, the Lantern Festival coloured lanterns fall mainly into craft lanterns, pedestal lanterns and grouped sets, of which the grouped sets most often take folk tradition, classical novels and mythological stories as their themes and are marked by large scale, group composition and linked movement — a single display is a whole play made up of several lanterns — which is why they best express the grandeur of the Zigong fair. The sheer variety of materials is another feature: anything produced by the local kiln industry or handicraft workshops can go into a lantern, and ordinary objects become lamps once they are dressed up. This openness in materials is precisely the material foundation that allowed Zigong to mount fairs of such great size. After traditional craft was combined with modern science and technology, the colour and scale of the lanterns could no longer be compared with former times. The organisation of the fair rose accordingly: from 1964 to the Spring Festival of 2006, nineteen editions were held in succession, and the management of sites, construction and lighting-safety grew increasingly standardised. At the same time, those who had mastered design through oral instruction and hands-on demonstration by their masters gradually parted company with those versed in modern electrical and mechanical installations, and the value of the former was for a time underestimated once the fair had grown so large. In recent years the fair has been joined with the tourism operations of the coloured-lantern museum and lantern park, so that the boundary between making and displaying has blurred; old artists rarely produce new work, while the mass-produced lantern groups find it hard to settle into a stable style.
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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