Cover news reporter Zhou Hongpan
In two days, it will be the Spring Festival of the Year of the Tiger in the lunar calendar. In Beichuan County, Mianyang City, Sichuan Province, the Spring Festival has the custom of dancing dragon lanterns, putting poles, holding eggs, and meeting the head of the pilgrimage. "Three days and three nights of dragon fighting lights are endless, very lively." On January 28, Yang Huawu, a non-hereditary inheritor of Qiang folk customs, introduced the Spring Festival culture of Beichuan Qiang folk customs.
During the Spring Festival, the street dragon dance lantern length of tens of meters is very spectacular
Yang Huawu said that in Beichuan, there are two Spring Festivals. One is the Qiang Calendar New Year, a traditional New Year. In the traditional New Year, on the first day of the New Year, the communities of Beichuan County and the nearby townships carry the dragon lanterns and gather in Banacha Commercial Street, Yuwang Bridge and Xinsheng Square.
"100 dragons come together and think about it all spectacularly." Yang Huawu said that the dragon lanterns pierced by the Beichuan masses are singular, each section is 3.5 meters, each dragon lamp is divided into 7, 9, 17, and 19 sections, and the longest dragon lamp reaches 21 sections. In the evening, visitors can also enjoy the dragon show.
Yang Huawu said that in addition to the dragon dance performance, the Beichuan Spring Festival event will also include riddle guessing, storytelling, and sports activities of the Qiang people, such as putting poles and holding eggs.
"In the festival activities, add these interactive contents to let people feel the Qiang culture of Beichuan." Yang Huawu said that for example, the activity of holding eggs is to put three white stones under the stomach of the activist, and the rest of the people go to grab it, and the activist needs to keep the white stone under his stomach. The first activity shows strength, inherited from how the Qiang people in history protected their compatriots and protected the weak around them when they encountered invasion.
In addition to the daytime performances, Beichuan's New Year activities will also light piles of bonfires and dance the Qiang sarang when night falls. Tourists and locals hold hands and sing and dance to the beat of the dance.
Firecrackers were set off in the countryside for the first three days and three nights
Yang Huawu is a native of Zhenghe Village, Qingpiao Township, Beichuan, and although he has settled in beichuan new county, he still will not forget the matter of the Dragon Fighting Lantern in his hometown for the Spring Festival.
"I was also the head of a meeting." Yang Huawu said that in his hometown, when the Spring Festival was celebrated, firecrackers could also be set off, and the highlight was the head of the dynasty and the dragon fighting lamp. In Zhenghe Village, the locals tie up the dragon lantern before the Spring Festival, and then select the head of the meeting through the way of bu gua. The meaning of the head of the meeting is equivalent to the organizer of the event.
Next, there are three days and three nights of dragon fighting lights. On the fifth day of the Chinese New Year, the men of the village gathered at the house of the head of the meeting, and everyone guarded the New Year together. The next day, the lights began to start, and two dragon lantern teams entered the villages for a tour. During the tour, the two dragon lantern teams swing at each other, let each other break the line, until the break of the line and then enter the back link.
According to Yang Huawu, in the three-day and three-night dragon lantern fighting activities, the head of the meeting will also arrange sports competition activities such as twisting poles, putting poles, and tug-of-war, so that all the men, women and children in the village can participate.
"This year, due to the epidemic, these folk activities have not been done for the time being." Yang Huawu said that he hopes that in the new year, the epidemic can pass quickly, so that these traditional cultural activities can continue, and the Qiang folk Spring Festival culture will return as soon as possible.
(Photo courtesy of respondents)