*Lantern Fair of Pan Village
*Lantern Fair of Pan Village
Nominating Unit: Kaiping Municipality, City of Jiangmen
There is a unique folk lantern fair parade in Pan Village, Shuikou Town, Kaiping, Jiangmen –the Lantern Fair of Pan Village. The Lantern Fair of Pan Village, originated in the Ming Dynasty, was first held on lunar January 13th in 1464 when Yingzong was the emperor. So far, it has a history of over 540 years. According to the legend, due to the successive disasters, a man surnamed Kuang XIII Shisanshizu Jianzhai once visited a famous scholar called Chen Baisha in Lingnan to seek a way to prevent calamities. In Chen Baisha’s opinion, there were five dark stone beast hills in Pan Village to guard it---the lion hill, the tiger hill, the elephant hill, the horse hill, and the cattle hill. However, the lion king didn’t wake from trance, so the other four beasts rose in revolt and caused disaster on disaster. He suggested that villagers hang lanterns, play fi recrackers, beat drums and strike gongs to wake up the lion king to insure the village’s safety, which later evolved into a local custom. The Lantern Fair of Pan Village was started in the year of Jia Shen, which coincided with the grand celebration of the construction of the ancestral shrine after Guangxu had been the emperor for ten years in the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, the local people made it a custom that a grand celebration was to be held every 60 years (in the year of Jia Shen).
Every lunar January 13th, there are colored flags all over the village, with firecrackers played. Every house is festooned with lights, which creates a lively atmosphere. The local people, accompanied by the dragon and lion dance, cluster round the festival lanterns, using the Chinese indigo root or herb to carve out a way and touring through the village. There is a set of relatively fixed rituals at the Lantern Fair of Pan village, including making the lantern, sending off the lantern, moving the lantern, waving the lantern, and lighting the lantern. According to the tradition, three big festival lanterns are made, with the lantern wick 16 feet long, 9 feet wide, the middle of the lantern 5 feet in diameter, and the foot of the lantern 3.2 feet wide. The task of making them is completed by three villages——Longtian, Tangchun, Shuxia. Every village is responsible for one lantern and must complete the task before 12:00 a.m. on lunar January 12th. That afternoon, the lanterns made are sent to Tingquan Ancestral Shrine by the convoy from Shuxia village. Besides, the ceremony of worshipping the God and ancestors with livestock and wine is held.(https://www.daowen.com)
On the morning of lunar January 13th, people will move away the lanterns. The village heading the team must be selected and then people will worship their ancestors with golden pigs, live pigs, live sheep, salted chicken, and fruit. The places for moving away the lanterns are Pan Village, Datang, and one of such villages as Tangchun, Longtian and Shuxia. After moving away the lanterns, people tour around over 40 villages in different directions. As soon as the festival lantern arrives at a village, the villagers will take over and wave it. After the lantern tours around the village for three times, it moves forward to another village. In the process of waving the lantern, the most eye-catching types of dances are “Tang shui jin cun”(to swim to get into the village), “Pa qiang ru zhai” (to climb up walls to get into the house), “Yi zhi du xiu” (to outshine all the others). After touring through all the villages, the three festival lanterns are taken to the fixed places and the ceremony of striking the lanterns is held, during which the lanterns are punctured. At this moment, all the villagers will rush to grab the paper and the bamboo strips of the lanterns and take them home, which they regard as mascots that can bless them with thriving domestic animals and a safe trip wherever they go. It’s said that there are three eidolons in Pan Village---the tortoise, the carp, and the dragon. People take the eyes of these three eidolons as festival lanterns, so the ceremony of puncturing the lanterns is held in Tanjiang village near the Tortoise Hill, Shuxia village near the Liyu (carp) Mountain, and Chaojin village with the sand dragon in it, which means returning the eyes of the three eidolons.
The Lantern Fair of Pan Village is highly characteristic of dances, art, traditional manual arts, and folk art cruise. The Fair is held according to the tradition and rituals, of which every part is endowed with unique and rich cultural meaning. As a folk custom highly characteristic of the regional culture, the Lantern Fair of Pan village has a huge influence in Lingnan area. In 2008, it was listed into the list of the second batch of state-level intangible cultural Heritage.
Unfortunately, there are only a few elderly handicraftsmen that can make the festival lanterns. In addition, most young people take little interest in it. Therefore, the workmanship of the festival lanterns will face the danger of extinction unless measures are taken to rescue and protect it.