May 1 (the twenty-third day of the third month of the lunar calendar) is the annual "Niang Ma Festival" in Tanshan Village, Hualong Town, Panyu. It coincides with the first day of the "May Day" holiday. Tanshan Village, Hualong Town, Panyu District, held the 2024 Tanshan Floating Color Parade of "Colorful, Fun Tanshan Niangma's Day", so that the public can feel the charm of Tanshan folk culture at close range, create a peaceful and festive atmosphere, and attract a large number of citizens to come to watch.
Floating color parade
At 1 o'clock in the afternoon, with the sound of the loud leading gong, the parade officially began. The parade of more than 270 people set off from the cultural comprehensive community of Tanshan Village, passing through the Ring Road, Tanshan Avenue, Tanshan Archway, Niangma Temple, and various squares in the village. The parade team took turns to display 16 boards of unique floating colors such as "Three Immortals Celebrating Birthday", "Dominating the Leader", "Mu Guiying in Charge", "Fish Leaping Dragon Gate", "Hongyan Biography", etc., as well as "Fairy Xia Yu Mountain", "Yangmen Female General", "Monkey King Borrowing Fan" and other 6 exquisite begging works, and there are wonderful performances such as colorful dragons and lion dances, and the atmosphere is quite lively.
A display of Qiqiao's works
Colorful dragon show
The streets and alleys are full of citizens watching the floating colors
Although the weather was not beautiful and there were showers from time to time, it did not hinder the enthusiasm of the public to watch the floating colors. The streets and alleys along the parade route are full of villagers and surrounding citizens watching the floating colors, and some villagers are "carrying stools" to watch the parade performance at the door of their homes. Whenever the "color boys" and "color girls" with different shapes and volleys pass by, they will attract bursts of applause from citizens along the road. Many neighbors took out their mobile phones to take pictures of the cute appearance of "perverts" and "perverts", and all kinds of long guns and short cannons flashed non-stop at the scene. Everyone shared the videos and photos they took to the circle of friends, and the scene was like a grand "carnival".
"I have swiped a short video of floating colors on the video platform before, this is the first time I have seen the floating colors of Tanshan on the spot, and I was really amazed, especially the children's various volley shapes are very special, really shocking!" Mr. Yang, whose ancestral home is Shandong, told reporters that he brought his family to watch it early this morning, just to have a glimpse of the floating colors of Tanshan, so that children can feel the charm of traditional folk culture up close.
"The 'Niang Ma Festival' Parade is an annual event in Tanshan Village, so today we have called relatives and friends to watch the parade performance. Ms. Lei, a villager, said that she specially prepared a three-way banquet to greet relatives and friends, so that everyone could feel the lively atmosphere of the Tanshan Parade.
Makeup for "perverts" and "perverts".
Do a good job in ensuring the safety of the floating color cruise
As a famous historical and cultural village in Guangdong Province and the hometown of ethnic and folk art in Guangdong Province, Tanshan Village has a profound cultural heritage and rich folk culture. In addition to the folk culture and art such as floating color and begging skill, Tanshan Village is famous at home and abroad, and folk culture and art such as dragon boat, dragon lion and quyi have also endured here. Among them, "Tanshan Drifting Color" is said to have been introduced from Putian, Fujian Province in the Ming Dynasty. Since 1986, Tanshan Village has regularly held a parade every year during the "Mother's Day" on the 23rd day of the third lunar month.
After years of continuous production, reform and innovation, Hualong Zhentan Mountain floating color in the floating color art has its own style, forming a unique "new" (novel theme), "strange" (peculiar shape), "fine" (color stem forging and character modeling production exquisite), "Ming" (bright color) four characteristics. The works are mainly based on historical stories, creating many historical figures, so that more people can understand Chinese culture and folk customs through floating colors. In 2006, the large-scale floating color "Striving for Glory and Abandoning Shame" and "Seven Sisters Descending to Yu Mountain" created by the Hualongtan Mountain Floating Color Team participated in the 8th China Folk Literature and Art Mountain Flower Award's first national floating color (lifting pavilion) art exhibition, and won the Chinese Folk Literature and Art Mountain Flower Award.
Text/photo: Panyu financial media reporter Huang Zhuopeng, Huang Guohong, Ruan Hanbiao