A 450-word essay on Linyi’s unique festival customs

Music and Dance

Yimeng area has a splendid music and dance culture. From the "Music of Yi and Di" in the Spring and Autumn Period, "Hundred Operas" in the Han Dynasty, "Music and Dance" in the Tang Dynasty, "Dance Team" in the Song Dynasty, to "Yangko" in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, folk dances of different forms and styles have experienced dozens of dynasties. After washing and sifting, what has been preserved has become the essence of traditional folk dance. Among them, the Dragon Lantern Carrying Pavilion is unique in the country. As early as more than 150 years ago, dragon lanterns and carrying pavilions were popular in Sanguanmiao Village, Jiuqu Town, Hedong District. It is a square dance that combines folk dragon dance and carrying pavilions. It is rough, unrestrained and magnificent. In the past, it was used for offering sacrifices and praying for rain. During the Anti-Japanese War and the Liberation War, the dragon lantern carried the pavilion to participate in activities to welcome the Eighth Route Army and the People's Liberation Army and celebrate victory, and became an indispensable entertainment item in festive festivals. The dragon lantern and pavilion-carrying dragon dancers are young adults. There are two groups taking turns to perform. Each group has 10 people (or 14 people). One person holds the bead, and 9 people hold the dragon head, dragon tail, and dragon body. 8 people carry the pavilion. There are 16 people performing (8 adults as "lower bearers" and 4 children as "upper bearers"), most of whom dress up as characters from mythological stories such as "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea".

Flapping butterflies is another unique square dance in Yimeng area. Among them, the performance in Li Jieqian Village, Hancun Town, Linshu County is famous far and wide. The village has a huge performing troupe. Every Spring Festival to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, they not only perform in their own village, but also often perform performances in neighboring villages and counties. The performances ranged from more than a hundred to dozens of people, with men and women dancing in teams, expressing the young people's yearning for a better life and their admiration for their hometown. During the war years, Butterflies played a great role in promoting the party's principles and policies, promoting "rent and interest reductions", "land reform", "mobilization to join the army", and "delivering public grain to support the front line" and other tasks. effect. The lantern show in Cross Road Town and the bamboo horse dance in Ezhuang are also famous.

Opera

The operas in Yimeng area have strong regional characteristics, among which Liuqin Opera is the most famous. At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, a number of outstanding Liuqin actors emerged, such as Li Chunsheng and Zhang Jinlan, who sang Huadan in Tsing Yi. Liuqin Opera, formerly known as Lahun Opera, has popular and lively lyrics and is good at elaboration. It is especially good at narrative and expressing the psychological activities of the characters. The singing music of Liuqin Opera is derived from Linyi's popular girl tune and Huagu tune, and is influenced by Liuzi Opera. Its singing style is mainly colorful coloratura and unique drawl. The repertoire is mostly based on historical stories and folklore, and the performances are simple and life-like. Especially the clown's performance is humorous but not vulgar.

There are many village theater troupes in the Yimeng area. The Zhuweicun Theater Troupe in Gaozhuang Town, Yishui was established in 1941. The people have changed one after another, but their passion for drama has not diminished. They use oxcarts every year , the carriage pulled the actors and opera boxes, and the performance was performed in eight neighboring villages. There is no need for a high platform or a large courtyard, and there is no need to worry about complicated management. A shelf is set up in the fenced courtyard, and an earthen platform is set up in the wilderness at the end of the village. When the gongs and drums sound, a coarse cotton-padded jacket is tossed, a tall voice is raised, and the stage is stepped on stage. At the opening and closing of the red curtain, the characters in the play have fluttering sleeves and flowing eyes, and they interpret the joys and sorrows in the play in a clear and precise manner.

Yimeng area is the famous hometown of paper-cutting. No matter which village you go to or which house you pass by the window, you will almost always find auspicious and fiery red window grilles dotting the days of farmhouses. On the kang, in front of the stove, in snowy nights, and under the old trees, pairs of dexterous hands and flying scissors cut out the ever-changing farm life into infinite scenery and a rich sense of poetry and painting.

Paper-cutting is the carrier of folk customs. Mr. Wang Bin of Linyi Art Museum has made representative achievements in the field of paper-cutting. In the 1970s, the folk artists who lived in the cold and damp basement of the art museum deeply rooted the roots of their artistic creation in the fertile soil of ancestral culture, extracting the inspiring vitality from folk art to embody the spirit of the times. The large-scale paper-cuts created by him and his student Tian Guihong, such as "Lotus Born Takako", "Peach Child", "Wang Xiang Crouching Fish", etc., won three awards in the national paper-cut exhibition celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Gold medal and two silver medals; the paper-cut comic "Wang Xiang Crouching Fish" was collected by the School of Arts and Crafts of Tsinghua University.

The granite in Zhucang Township at the foot of Cangma Mountain in Linshu County is of pure color and quality and is the best material for stone carvings. The carved lions and tigers are also of high artistic taste.

Xiaoguodong Village in Cangshan County is hailed as the "Hometown of Chinese Clay Sculpture" by the Ministry of Culture. It has a history of making clay toys for more than 130 years. These clay toys are made from clay molds, focusing on exaggerating their shapes. The clay is painted with white powder as the base color, and then colors such as bright red, peach red, yellow-green, purple, etc. are applied, and finally black is used to outline it to achieve a diverse and unified effect. Some backs and bottoms still reveal the true nature of mud, which is unpretentious. Linyi clay toys use pink and green as the main tones. They are warm, bright and lively. The shapes of various opera characters and animals are lifelike, showing the extraordinary wisdom of the working people. Chuzhuang's "Niu-head Whistle" can play several monotonous tunes. The "Five Silk Whistle" is tied with a pottery whistle with five colored threads of red, yellow, blue, white and black, which is taken from the auspiciousness of the "Long Live Thread" worn by the people during the Dragon Boat Festival. These toys, which are full of local flavor and rich interest, have participated in folk art exhibitions abroad many times, and some have been sent to the Soong Ching Ling Former Residence Memorial Hall for display. It is worth mentioning that dough-making people, a folk craft closely related to clay toys, are often seen on the streets in Yimeng area. Several kinds of dyed glutinous rice dough are shaped and kneaded by craftsmen, and within a few minutes they become the shapes of various mythical characters such as Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie, which the children can't put down. In 2001, CCTV filmed "Dream Theater" in Linshu County, and the mask-maker was on camera.

Tancheng’s wood-carved toys have a long history and come in a wide variety of styles, including swords, guns, swords and halberds, chariots and horses, birds and beasts, various figures, and hanging lamps, with more than 500 varieties in 7 categories. Those tiger-head clocks, plum-blossom spears, and Longquan swords; those walnut men, horse-drawn carts, and flower baskets carrying eight immortals carry beautiful fairy tales, folk songs, and countless magical legends, creaking through the alleys of the years, passing through generations. human childhood. In recent years, with the improvement of people's lives and the improvement of art appreciation level, many inconspicuous things in the past have also appeared in the hall of elegance. Willow weaving crafts are blooming everywhere in Linshu and Junan areas; root carvings using tree roots from Yimeng Mountain and Cangma Mountain are also beginning to show their style.