The Lantern Festival is coming, many places in our province have been lit

Haikou city Qiongtai fortune traditional lantern exhibition. Photo by Hainan Daily reporter Zhang Mao.

Walking in Haikou Wanlu Garden, the deeper the night, the more dazzling the lights. In this year's "Wanchun Temple Fair", 41 groups of colored lights make people dizzying. From the traditional lantern of the Year of the Snake to the modern city magic color, the flowing light is colorful, which not only embellishes the city, but also decorates the mood of the general public tourists.

Viewing lanterns is an important traditional activity during the Spring Festival, symbolizing the festival's happiness and reunion. At present, many places in Hainan have been lit up, creating a thick festive atmosphere. In the bright lights, people pursue bright and beautiful, and pass the blessings and hopes of the New Year.

First, time flies, auspicious lights

In Hainan dialect, the pronunciation of "deng" and "ding" is the same, with "good luck" and "prosperous people" and other beautiful connotations, so people attach great importance to the use of lamp elements during the Spring Festival.

Ledong Li Autonomous County Huangliu town lantern famous Qiongzhou. On the fifteenth and sixteenth nights of the first lunar month, the Lantern Festival is a well-known festival activity throughout the ages. Huangliu is "the hometown of Chinese folk art", and Huangliu lanterns were also selected into the book "The Hometown of Chinese Folk Art Overview" compiled by the former Ministry of Culture.

The lantern seems simple, but the steps to make it are complicated. Lantern craftsmen often have eighteen skills, from painting, calligraphy to bricking, carving, paperhanging, paper-cutting, and so on, each process is very particular. They poured a lot of effort and emotion into the long history of the local culture engraved into the lantern.

"Compared with other lantern fairs in other places, Huangliu lantern Fair has a significant feature, which is that it is all civil organizations, sponsored by the people, and made by the people." Since ancient times, every family will sponsor the lantern fair, many thousands, as little as one hundred or two hundred." Huangliu Lantern Culture Association responsible person Chen Cong said.

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. In order to avoid the theme of making lanterns in various workshops, people also need to focus on meeting in advance to discuss, which can be described as painstaking.

In the history of Huangliu lanterns, the famous is a "dragon lantern" in the 1940s. According to legend, this "dragon lamp" was jointly produced by the old artist Chen Yuehua and other Chen brothers in Huangliu Town's Huangxi Village, which is more than 30 meters long. It is made of bamboo, red silk cloth and 100 lanterns, especially the bright lanterns fixed on the scales of the dragon, under the red silk cloth draped all over the dragon, it is very beautiful.

Coincidentally, "sending lights" is also a traditional folk custom for the Spring Festival in rural areas of Wenchang. Between the third and fifteenth day of the first lunar month every year, almost every temple has a fixed date to hold the "lantern" activity. Lively, festive and full of ceremony, they carry people's wishes and expectations for a better life.

"When I was a child, as long as the family was not busy, we followed the adults to make accessories for lanterns. If we don't have colored paper, we'll find paper and dye it ourselves. As soon as we enter the lunar month, we have to rush to make lanterns in large quantities, and we have to work until late at night almost every day." Wenchang city Huiwen town villager Wang Pulin recall.

Haikou Fucheng Triangle Park traditional light exhibition. Photo by Hainan Daily reporter Zhang Mao.

Second, the lanterns are bright and have a long history

In the past few days, Haikou Wanlu Garden is buzzing. When people walk into the light exhibition area, they are greeted by a group of huge "snake year blessing" colored lights. The spirit snake is covered with colorful scales and spits out a string of golden blessing characters, attracting tourists to stop to watch and take photos.

"How beautiful! I come to see the lantern show every year, and this year's lantern show is more colorful and rich. The atmosphere here is very good and full of New Year's flavor, which is perfect for wearing Hanfu to take photos and punch time." People living near Wang Ying with a young and old came to visit the exhibition lights, he could not help but praise.

Lanterns are also called "colored lights". The Lantern Festival especially reaches its climax on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. Tracing back, this activity has a history of thousands of years in our country.

According to the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, in order to promote Buddhism, Emperor Ming ordered the court and the people to light lanterns on the fifteenth night of the first month to worship Buddha, which became the beginning of the custom of lanterns. Since then, with the combination of Buddhism and folk culture, the Lantern Festival has gradually evolved from a religious ceremony to a festival activity.

In the Sui and Tang dynasties, the lanterns developed into a national celebration. During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, the "Shangyuan Lantern Fair" was on an unprecedented scale, and the lanterns and decorations in Chang 'an City attracted countless people to participate. The Song Dynasty further pushed the Lantern Festival to the people, the streets and alleys were brightly lit, and various lantern riddles and performance activities were colorful.

The Han Dynasty developed nine counties, the intellectuals moved south, and Hainan began to integrate into the Central Plains culture. The order and customs are basically consistent with the mainland, and the custom of "burning lanterns" and "watching lanterns" in the Lantern Festival has gradually spread.

Feng Gengguang, a poet from Hainan in the Qing Dynasty, wrote a poem, "A poem written by chance in the Lantern Festival to Pan Zhuanxian." "Fire dragons dance wildly under the night sky, Distant watchtowers faintly toll the second hour. Ten miles of lanterns dim the moon’s glow. Six streets resound with music and revelry in spring’s song."It vividly presents the lantern scene of the Lantern Festival of Qiongzhou Prefecture (now Haikou Fucheng Area).

Lanterns are in various shapes, including palace lanterns, tower lanterns, dragon lanterns, running lanterns, lotus lanterns and so on. According to the "Fucheng Spring and Autumn" records: in the dazzling world of lanterns, there is a kind of lanterns called "cat lights", which is particularly eye-catching and is loved by children.

During the Spring Festival, children often hold the cat lamp high with one hand and gently pull the string attached to the mouth of the lamp with the other hand. As the string pulls, the mouth of the "cat lamp" opens and closes, indicating that all the bad luck in the coming year will be swallowed up. Various types of lanterns have their unique charm and cultural connotation, which embodies the ingenuity of local people.

Third, innovative design, beauty and shared

With the development of technology and the improvement of technology, lanterns continue to innovate and upgrade.

In the view of Chen Dimao, a lantern lover, the production of lanterns has made a qualitative leap from materials, technology to craft. Paper workers, woodworkers, electricians, decoration, inkjet and other traditional crafts and modern technology perfect combination, set sound, light, electricity, shape, look, color in one of the lantern, has become a veritable comprehensive art.

In the interactive area of the lantern exhibition in Wanlu Garden, a group of interactive lanterns named "gongs and drums" are particularly eye-catching. At the scene, a citizen held a drumstick and struck a large drum in front of him. With the sound of drums, the auspicious tree on the side suddenly lit up with bright lights.

The louder the drum, the brighter the lights. The festive atmosphere attracts citizens and tourists to line up and try to experience this unique interactive way. A number of food stalls and handicrafts display areas were also set up at the lantern show. While enjoying the lantern show, you can also taste a variety of authentic Hainan food and buy exquisite handicrafts.

It can be seen that "Wanchun Temple Fair", by inheriting the characteristics of traditional lanterns, using modern technology and contemporary technology, organically combines traditional customs with festival entertainment, and organically combines ancient lighting art with modern corporate culture and commercial culture, making the traditional festival structure beautiful and showing the cultural style of the new era.

"From the small palace lanterns in the past to the big lanterns today, candles and oil lamps have become electric lights and colored lanterns, and paper and cloth used for pasting have become silk and embroidery, and the process has become more complicated." Wang Pulin said that the "small workshop" type of production of lanterns of the parents has been unable to keep up with the social trend, but they are not willing to lose this craft.

Wang Pulin said that there are more and more innovations in the shape of lanterns, but at the same time, technological progress must also keep the soul of the tradition. In addition to pondering new technologies, he now insists on making handmade lanterns every year to explore more possibilities of traditional lanterns. Open bamboo, open strips, tie frame, tie frame, do hand climbing. In many processes, he tries to incorporate traditional cultural elements such as calligraphy, painting, paper-cutting and embroidery.

At present, the Lantern Festival is approaching, and many places in Hainan have been lit. In the rich form of the Lantern Festival, light and shadow show the wisdom and aesthetics of the Chinese people. Today, although the form of the lantern is constantly innovative, the reunion, blessing and pursuit of beauty are always the same.

According to the "Fucheng Spring and Autumn Annals" records: in the dazzling world of lanterns, there is a kind of lanterns called "cat lights" especially eye-catching, much loved by children.

"Cat lamp" looks unique, naive, mouth like a simple and honest dog, full of pure and simple; Its body is like a smart and playful fish, light and lively; The tail is like the majestic unicorn tail, showing majesty and arrogance; On its feet, with five claws on each side, it was majestically majestically decorated; What's even more amazing is that its mouth can also open and close. (Reporter Qiu Jianghua)