Tofu Festival

112.Tofu Festival

Nominating Unit: Fogang County, City of Qingyuan

The Tofu Festival is a unique folk activity of the Lin clan in Shegangxia Village, Gaogang Town, Fogang County of Qingyuan. It is held during the Lantern Festival.

According to the elders of the Lin clan, Tofu Festival originated from the year of 1609. On Jan. 13th of the lunar calendar,1609, when the Lin clan was having dinner in the ancestral hall, a villager slipped a piece of tofu on another villager inadvertently, which gave rise to a tofu battle. The second year the man who involved in the tofu battle last year happened to have a newly-born son, which made the villagers believe that the tofu battle could bring a flourishing of population of their family. Therefore, from then on a tofu battle would be organized every year on Jan. 13th of the lunar calendar at the dinner in the ancestral hall. Now it has been developed into the Tofu Festival participated by all the villagers.

The Tofu Festival is organized by “Xin Ding (newcomer) Committee”, with “Ding Tou” (The first born boy of the year is called the “Tou Ding”, and his father is called “Ding Tou”) as the person in charge. The festival is held on Jan. 8th or Jan. 9th of the lunar calendar every year. “Ding Tou” is responsible for the fund raising and the arrangement of related matters for the Tofu Festival.(https://www.daowen.com)

The main activity of the Tofu Festival is hanging lanterns for ancestor worshipping on the Lantern Festival. There’re four lanterns needed for the Tofu festival each year, which are kept and arranged by“Ding Tou”. The lanterns are hung on the three ancestral halls and the private incense hall respectively on Jan. 13th ,14th and 15th of the lunar calendar. At about 12:00 of Jan. 13th, all the families which have new born boys gather in Ding Tou’s house to welcome the lanterns, which are hung on at 14:00 to 15:00 that day. One of the lanterns should be first hung on the ancestral hall, and then the rests are hung on the private incense halls respectively. It is when the lanterns are “welcomed” that the tofu are ready for the tofu battle at15:00 .

Tofu battle is the most exciting activity in the Tofu Festival. As the firecrackers are burnt, people start to pick up tofu for the battle. You can throw at anyone in the tofu battle and the one being hit is regarded as a lucky one. When the people who have “Tian Ding” (new born boys )come out of the ancestral hall, people waiting outside will start throwing tofu at them, and a fierce battle begins. People tend to besiege the ones who have just “Tian Ding”, throwing at them from a distance or smear tofu on them. In such a circumstance, laughter, sound of gongs and drums, all together makes a hilarious carnival. After the battle, the “Tian Ding” people, accompanied by the Drums and Gongs band, keep going ahead for hanging lanterns on different private incense halls, leaving the rest people continuing the tofu battle until tofu are used up.

With tofu as the main prop, the Tofu Festival wins wide participation from people and have enjoyed a history of hundreds of years for its unique way of entertaining and giving blessings to people. It’s a vivid record of the customs of Gaogang, Fogang County and precious information for the study of the economic and social development, as well as the national migration of Fogang. In addition, the Tofu Festival is not only a record and inheritance of the hundreds of years’ tofu-making technique, but also a contribution for the inheritance of the age-old Cantonese Opera Qupai (the names of the tunes) “Zhuang Dian Tou”. Therefore it is also of great value for academic researches.

However, nowadays the cost for holding the Tofu Festival is too much, and there’s no fixed people in charge. It’s likely to discontinue in any year. Therefore, there’s an urgent need for effective protection and support.