Infographic: Chongli area famous intangible cultural heritage "hit the willow". Photo by Dong Yu
(Winter Olympics asked "Ji") How much do you know about the Chongli folk custom of "playing willows"?
Zhongxin Network Shijiazhuang, January 26, 2019 Gongs and drums are noisy, and lions and dragons are dancing. In the lively crowd, an elderly man dressed in a sheepskin jacket, a turtle on his head, holding a wicker, a roar, a group of girls and boys with dragonfly lamps, cabbage lamps, watermelon lamps on their heads, flocked up... This is the famous intangible cultural heritage of the Chongli area, "Playing Willow Seeds".
"Playing Willows" is the only project in Chongli District to enter the Zhangjiakou municipal intangible cultural heritage, originating from the local Village of Qiao Lai Temple, originally named for relying on the beating of willow sticks for performance accompaniment, and has a history of more than 300 years. According to the "Chronicle of Chongli County", in the fifty-first year of the Kangxi Dynasty, the Guandi Temple was built in the village of Qiao Laimiao, and the peasants worshiped the three officials by "beating willow seeds", that is, holding ceremonies to sacrifice heaven, earth and water. Later generations have passed down, mostly held in front of temples, generally arranged on the twelfth to sixteenth day of the first lunar month, and within three days, they also worship each other, and the neighboring villages worship each other, with the purpose of praying to the "gods" to bless the family with joy and abundance of grain. Therefore, there is a local saying that "the fifteenth day of the first month makes a flower lantern, and the sixteenth day of the first month slips away from a hundred diseases".
Infographic: Chongli area famous intangible cultural heritage "hit the willow". Photo by Dong Yu
According to the local propaganda department, in the years that have passed, the Yangge and Kangbao duos in Zhangjiakou Wei County are almost well-known, and only Chongli"," like a girl hiding in a deep boudoir, only appears in the deep mountain villages in Chongli Territory.
Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics is about to be held at the doorstep, in recent years, Chongli District has consciously excavated, protected and inherited the local traditional folk culture and intangible cultural heritage, and strives to display the unique culture of Chongli in front of the world, so that the local folk customs of Chongli will become the "Winter Olympic memory" of the people of the world. (Arranged by Hao Ye)