Customs of Lantern Festival in Jieyang City

1. The custom of burning dragons

has a history of 3 years. On the tenth day of the first month of each year, just after dark, the square of Qiaoxi Village, Pandong, Dongshan District, Jieyang City is surrounded by villagers coming from all directions. According to a village cadre, "Dragon burning has been here for more than 3 years, and it is held in the year of bumper harvest or happy events in the village, all on the evening of the tenth day of the first month. In recent years, the days have become more and more prosperous and are done every year. "

2. Make a colorful bridge

On the eve of Lantern Festival, there is a custom of "making a colorful bridge" in Jieyang area of Chaoshan. The "Hangtou Bridge on the 11th day of the first month" is a traditional folk activity for citizens to spend the Lantern Festival, which is recorded in the old local chronicles. The "Jieyang County Chronicle" by Qing Qianlong states: "(Shangyuan) women cross the bridge and throw blocks, which is called" Due "."

During the Lantern Festival every year, colorful bridges in Jieyang area are like rainbows and pedestrians are like tides; The lanterns are like the sea, and the night sky is like day. Before the festival, the large and small bridges in Rongcheng city were all decorated with colored lights and flags. Men, women and children jostled shoulder to shoulder and prayed for blessings, which was very lively. Hundreds of colorful banners embroidered with the words "Peace in the Surrounding Area", "Bamboo Buns and Pine Grows", "Prosperity and Auspiciousness", "Peace in the Country" and "Happiness in the People" are hung around the colorful bridge, expressing people's applause for a happy life and yearning for a better future.

3. An Zai lamp

can be compared with "clay figurine Zhang". Rongcheng's "breaking the door" and "hanging An Zai lanterns" on the eleventh day of the first month are also a unique folk custom. Because the word "Deng" and "Ding" are homophonic in Chaoshan dialect, the word "chandelier" means "hanging Ding". In the old days, An Zai lanterns were hung mainly to worship ancestors and pray for prosperity and future generations of wealth. However, it is of great significance to carry forward folk traditions in modern times. The "Mud An Zai" in the An Zai Lantern comes from the floating ocean in Chaozhou. It is a mass of mud. After being rubbed and painted by folk artists, it is put in a carved wooden cabinet, and it becomes a vivid and familiar historical costume clay sculpture drama.

4. Making Ding wine

There is a village called "Xinhe" in Dongshan District of this city. Anyone who gave birth to a boy last year will hold a banquet at the ancestral temple at midnight snack to celebrate "making Ding wine", commonly known as "making Ding wine". The banquet style of the banquet is called "walking on a horse's mat", that is, no matter how close friends or relatives are, people you know or don't know can come in and eat, and then leave after eating, and the host will put on the dishes again to entertain another group of guests. In the old society, in order to lose face, the host borrowed money everywhere, causing heavy debts, or reluctantly sold his brother's money to meet his brother's heavy banquet expenses. This is the origin of the saying "Give birth to a brother and sell a brother". After liberation, although the village still has the custom of "making Ding wine" on Lantern Festival, it is mostly held at home or in hotels, and it is only limited to banquets for relatives and good friends, and people are rich and frugal, and no one cares.

Lantern Festival, also known as Shangyuan Festival, Xiaoyuanyian Festival, Yuanxi Festival or Lantern Festival, is the 15th day of the first lunar month every year, and it is the last important festival in China Spring Festival. ? Lantern Festival is one of the traditional festivals in China, Chinese character cultural circle and overseas Chinese. The first month is the first month of the lunar calendar. The ancients called "night" "night", so the fifteenth day of the first full moon in a year is called the Lantern Festival.

in the ancient customs of China, Shangyuan Festival (Tianguan Festival), Zhongyuan Festival (Diguan Festival, Yuban Festival) and Xiayuan Festival (Shuiguan Festival) are collectively called Sanyuan. The formation of Lantern Festival custom has a long process. According to general data and folklore, the fifteenth day of the first month has been paid attention to in the Western Han Dynasty. The activities of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to sacrifice "Taiyi" in Ganquan Palace on the night of the first month are regarded by later generations as the first sound of offering sacrifices to the gods on the fifteenth day of the first month. However, the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month was really a folk festival after the Han and Wei Dynasties.

since ancient times, the Lantern Festival custom has been dominated by the warm and festive custom of watching lanterns. ? Traditional customs include going out to enjoy the moon, burning lanterns and setting off flames, enjoying solve riddles on the lanterns, eating Lantern Festival and pulling rabbit lanterns. In addition, in many places, traditional folk performances such as playing with dragon lanterns, playing with lions, walking on stilts, rowing on dry boats, dancing yangko and playing Taiping drums have been added to the Lantern Festival.