The longest Lantern Festival is here! Let you experience the Lantern Festival customs in Putian
Introduction: Do you know where is the place in my country where the Lantern Festival lasts the longest? It is located in Putian City, Fujian Province, on the southeast coast of our country. The Lantern Festival in Putian starts on the sixth day of the first lunar month and ends on the twenty-ninth day of the first lunar month. It is definitely the longest Lantern Festival in the country. Let’s take a look at the specific content below! The first month of the lunar calendar is about to begin with various festivals. Let us count the important traditional festivals and customs of this month. A good year starts with spring.Putian Lantern Festival: The Longest Lantern FestivalIn many places, the Lantern Festival only lasts a few days. When the festive atmosphere fades away, people go out to work. But in Putian, their Lantern Festival is only halfway through. The Lantern Festival in Putian starts on the sixth day of the first lunar month and ends on the twenty-ninth day of the first lunar month. It is definitely the longest Lantern Festival in the country.Putian Lantern Festival: Villagers stay up all night celebrating the Lantern FestivalIn Putian, the Lantern Festival is more grand than the Spring Festival. Over the past month, different villages and different surnames have celebrated the Lantern Festival in different ways every day, and the activities are rich and colorful. When a village celebrates the Lantern Festival, there will be a temple and a shrine setting out vegetarian dishes, a "banquet table", stacking cakes and fruits, and building orange towers, and the villagers will carry statues of Bodhisattvas and perform Nuo rituals. Every household sets up an incense table in the hall, burns incense and firecrackers, burns "tribute silver", and burns firewood, praying for a better life in the coming year. At night, there are lantern parades, palm-leaf bridges, Nuo fire dances, dragon and lion dances, and operas, which keep people awake all night long. As early as the Tang Dynasty, Putian had the custom of celebrating the Lantern Festival. Lin Chengbin, deputy director of the Putian Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center and folk expert, said that the Putian Lantern Festival lasts for one month, which is related to the invasion of Japanese pirates. After the Japanese pirates were defeated, the people who had fled returned to the city to celebrate the Lantern Festival. Some villagers celebrate the Lantern Festival early in order to free up time for spring ploughing. People celebrated the festival at different times, and it lasted for a month.Putian Lantern Festival: The last day of the festival is dedicated to the “transformation into a dragon”During the Lantern Festival in Putian, the 14th, 15th and 16th days are the most lively and are known as the "Lantern Festival Heart". At the same time, Putian also has the customs of "Zong Yuanxiao" and "Mazu Yuanxiao". The Lantern Festival is actually a literary and artistic "outing". The "outing" team includes a horse team, a dressing room, a colorful flag team, ten kinds of music and eight kinds of dances, dragon and lion dances, etc. We swam from 8 am to 12 pm before returning to the temple. The custom of Mazu Lantern Festival usually takes place on the coastal islands of Putian, especially on Meizhou Island. The actual day of Mazu Lantern Festival is on the tenth day of the first lunar month. The Lantern Festival at the Mazu Temple also has the custom of "candle mountain". The Mazu Lantern Festival lasts until the 29th day of the first lunar month, because the dragon lanterns used in dragon dances in various parts of Putian must be cremated. According to folklore, if the dragon lantern is not cremated, the dragon will turn into a spirit and harm the people. Since the dragon was a symbol of the ancient emperor, most palaces and temples were of low level and could not perform the duty of “transforming into a dragon”, so Mazu, the dragon girl who came down to earth, had to take on this task. After the Lantern Festival activities in various towns and villages are over, all the dragon lanterns will be gathered together and "transformed into dragons" during the Mazu Lantern Festival on the 29th day of the first lunar month.Putian Lantern Festival: Many Lantern Festival customs are listed as intangible cultural heritageIt is worth mentioning that many of Putian’s folk Lantern Festival customs have been included in the intangible cultural heritage protection projects. The Lantern Festival custom in Fengting, Xianyou is on the national intangible cultural heritage protection list. The Fengting Lantern Festival Lantern Parade began in the Song Dynasty. The lanterns include revolving lanterns, riddle lanterns, tower lanterns, hexagonal lanterns, colorful basket lanterns, etc. Among them is a kind of lantern made of white radish, which has been passed down from the Song Dynasty to the present and is the most unique lantern. During the Lantern Festival every year, Hanjiang Yannian Palace stacks 5-meter-high sugarcane towers, which is a spectacular sight. This technology has been included in the provincial intangible cultural heritage protection list. The Lantern Festival at Chongsheng Temple in Hanjiang is a unique cultural custom in the mountainous area and has been listed in the city's intangible cultural heritage protection list.Summary: After reading the introduction in the above article, we know that the place with the longest Lantern Festival in my country is Putian City. We also know how the people of Putian celebrate the Lantern Festival. You can learn about it. I wish you all the best and good luck in the new year! After reading this article, there are more exciting contents in the special topic of the first month of the lunar calendar. Let’s take a look! |
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