In Hainan, people decorate the Spring Festival by hand painting

Craftsmen in Huangliu Square are making lanterns for the Year of the Snake. Provided by respondents.

During the Spring Festival, whether it is a busy business door, or a warm home of the people, all kinds of Spring Festival decoration competition, from the traditional paper-cut window decoration to the cultural charm of the couplets, and then to all kinds of lantern float production, every detail reveals the good wish for the New Year and the inheritance of traditional culture. Each town in Ledong will actively carry out a variety of folk experience activities every year, and the local people will fully participate in the creation of couplets, paper cuttings and lanterns, experience the charm of traditional culture in the laughter and laughter, and celebrate the New Year of the Snake.

Huangliu Town lantern

The lanterns reflect brightly the ancient city

Huangliu Town's reputation is far and wide, and its intangible lanterns have been passed down for thousands of years. Huangliu Lantern Parade in Huangliu town has a long history, spontaneous organization by the masses, in the town for the lantern parade.

Huangliu Town has a wide variety of lanterns in different forms, including palace lanterns, tower lanterns, dragon lanterns, running horse lanterns, lotus lanterns, etc., all of which have their unique charm and cultural connotation, and embody the efforts and wisdom of local people. "With the increasing level of people making lanterns, we are not satisfied with hanging lanterns in a single house. This led to the creation of Lantern Festival lanterns and lanterns, which were first made by families, and now by each community. Lin Baohua, president of Huangliu Lantern Culture Association, said.

"The Huangliu Town Lantern is a cultural treasure of Ledong, which embodies the deep feelings and memories of countless people." Lin Chitong, a member of the town committee responsible for cultural work in Huangliu Town, told the Hainan Daily All Media reporter that in 2023 and 2024, the Lantern Festival tour in Huangliu Town attracted more than 200,000 people to watch, driving consumption of nearly 20 million yuan, which greatly enhanced the popularity of Ledong. Ledong government departments attach great importance to the inheritance and development of Huangliu Town lanterns, and allocate special funds to support the Huangliu Town Lantern Culture Association to arrange the production of inheritors to further their studies outside the island and improve their lantern production skills.

Lin Baohua said that Huangliu Town a total of seven workshops (east square, central north square, central south square, right central south square, northwest square, west square, southwest square) to make lanterns. The annual Lantern Festival tour is a time for creativity and artistry. From design to production, the craftsmen poured a lot of effort and emotion.

On the eve of the Lantern Festival of the Year of the Snake, the villagers of Huangliu Town are enthusiastic about making lanterns. As soon as posters for this year's Lantern tour were put up in various places, villagers rushed to sign up. "According to the budget of each workshop lantern production in previous years, each workshop lantern production needs about 100,000 yuan, which is all civil organizations, civil sponsorship and folk production. Since ancient times, every family will sponsor the lantern fair, many thousands, as little as one hundred or two hundred." Introduction by Lin Baohua.

The work of making lanterns is divided into electrician, woodworker, carving, etc., because all are handmade, usually the fourth day of the New Year begins to prepare. "We convened a meeting in advance to discuss the types and characteristics of each lantern car, and strive to give you the most wonderful presentation in the Lantern Festival." Lin Baohua said.

Huangliu town couplets

The spring breeze of culture pervades every family

"Flowers bloom and wealth, spring full of the world to add wealth" "auspicious gathering at the door, spring brings good luck." In the first month, in every household in Huangliu Town, you can see all kinds of couplets posted and engraved at the doors of residential houses almost everywhere. These couplets express people's simple aspirations, expectations and pursuits.

Huangliu Town, Ledong Li Autonomous County, is located in the main traffic road, southwest of the sea, since ancient times, has a strong cultural heritage and tradition, but also the important town of business exchanges, has been selected "Hainan Province ten famous cultural towns (villages)". "As a folk culture, couplets in Huangliu Town have a long history and wide popular base." Lin Chitong introduced, legend moved to the yellow flow of Li ancestor Li Kelang. They came to Qiongnan from the Central Plains in the Song Dynasty, bringing local culture, but also brought the customs of the Central Plains, including couplets, the couplets in the temple is the best witness of his spread of the Central Plains culture in Qiongnan, but also the beginning of Huangliu Town couplets culture.

In 1990, Huangliu Town Calligraphy Association was established. For more than 30 years, Huangliu Town Calligraphy Association has held exhibitions, competitions and other activities every year without interruption. After years of hard work, Huangliu Town Calligraphy Association has cultivated a group of outstanding talents. Due to the value of the local couplet culture, Huangliu Town set up a couplet association in 2014. On the one hand, they are committed to collecting and organizing the ancient couplets that are gradually disappearing, and on the other hand, they organize couplets fans to actively create, so that the local couplet culture can be better inherited and developed in contemporary times.

On the eve of the Spring Festival, walking in Huangliu Town, in order to celebrate the arrival of the New Year, local calligraphy enthusiasts create a large number of couplets on the street every day, highlighting the thick flavor of the New Year.

"In the past, hanging couplets were very popular in Huangliu area. There were couplets in colleges, ancestral halls, Guangong temples and other places." Lin Zhitong introduced that the good tradition in Huangliu town has been inherited so far, and on the occasion of annual festivals and happy events, people use red paper with thick ink to write couplets left by their ancestors. These couplets are close to life, convey the truth, goodness and beauty, and ground the atmosphere. For hundreds of years, they have played a subtle role in education, encouraging people to work hard, harmonize their neighbors, and give back to society.

Da'an paper-cut

"Cut" the spring scene of the village

On the eve of the Spring Festival, the relevant departments of Ledong launched the "paper-cut to send happiness" activity. The paper-cutting artists are skilled, the scissors in the hand like flowing clouds shuttle in the colored paper, after a while, lifelike patterns will jump on the paper.

Among the works created, there are auspicious dragon and phoenix auspicious, a symbol of reunion and a happy flower full moon, as well as farming drawings and tapestry drawings showing the working life of the Li people. Each piece of work seems to tell a moving story, conveying the Li people's good wishes for the New Year and their love for life.

Da'an Town is located in the northeast of Ledong County. It is said that hundreds of years ago, the Li people went up the mountain to cut firewood and hunt, worried that they would get lost on the way back and forth, so they carved a shape with a knife on a tree in a prominent place as a sign. After a long time, the signs carved on the trees formed different patterns, and after a long time of accumulation, gradually evolved into today's Li paper-cut patterns.

Lin Wensheng, provincial inheritor of Ledong intangible cultural Heritage Li paper-cut project, introduced that Da'an Li paper-cut is rooted in local folk art, with distinct Li characteristics, and the works express the life scenes, thoughts and feelings of Li people and aesthetic taste.

On New Year's Eve every year, in many residents' homes in Da'an Town, villagers will use red paper cut into patterns and paste on the doors of houses, cow stalls, chicken houses, barns, etc., or rice tanks, water tanks, fruit trees in front of houses and behind houses, implying family peace and prosperity of people and animals.

Lin Wensheng said that he and the vast number of Da'an paper-cut lovers in the creation of advocating nature, random combination, transformation of the image. They use romantic imaginative techniques, exaggerated forms of expression, full composition, distinctive features, so that paper-cut with a strong decorative interest.

On the eve of the Spring Festival this year, Ledong Li Paper-cut Association held a "Snake take-off Ledong prosperous times, with Li paper-cut to welcome spring" exhibition, a total of 63 (group) Ledong Li paper-cut works and domestic paper-cut works. Each work contains the exquisite skills and deep emotions of the craftsman, and tells the yearning and pursuit of the Li people for a better life with rich colors and far-reaching patterns.

The Spring Festival decoration of Intangible Heritage

Couplets: Couplets custom originated from the duality phenomenon of ancient Chinese, with "adverb" as the quantifier and text as the content, through the concise and rich meaning of the text to convey people's yearning for a better life. In 2006, the couplets custom was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage representative items list.

Paper-cutting: The paper-cutting art of Li nationality in Da'an Town of Ledong, Hainan Province is famous both inside and outside the province. The paper cutting of Li nationality and the "carving" of Li ancestors in the early period, can be traced back to thousands of years ago, is an ancient art. Da'an paper-cutting technique has been selected into the representative list of intangible cultural heritage of Hainan Province.

Lantern: In Hainan dialect, the pronunciation of "deng" and "ding" is the same, which has beautiful connotations such as "increasing population" and "thriving population". Therefore, people attach great importance to the use of lamp elements during the Spring Festival. On the fifteenth and sixteenth nights of the first lunar month, the Lantern Festival is a well-known festival activity in Hainan. Ledong Huangliu Town lantern technique has been selected into the representative list of intangible cultural heritage in Ledong Li Autonomous County. (Reporter Liu Cao)