Crossing the Colored Bridge

139.Crossing the Colored Bridge

Nominating Unit: City of Jieyang

Crossing the colored bridge is a unique local activity of praying for good luck on the Lantern Festival in Jieyang with a long history. According to The Record of Jieyang County, during the reign of Emperor Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty, on lunar January 15th which is called Shangyuan, with tress decorated with lanterns and fireworks played, the lion dance was performed; women and children crossed the bridge, throwing stones and tiles into the river to prevent calamities; sometimes they plucked bamboos and collected bottle mouths home to bring good luck. According to a local legend, Jieyang in ancient times often suffered from floods, which put the people in the depth of misery. One year, when people were celebrating the Lantern Festival, it suddenly started to rain so hard that the Rongjiang River rose immediately. At this moment, a fairy turned the colored ribbons in her hand into a colored bridge to help people out of the flood. From then on, people started to cross the colored bridge to prevent calamities every Lantern Festival, which later evolved into a custom. Nowadays, the custom of crossing the colored bridge is quite popular in the outskirts of the town, Quxi in the east of Jieyang, Hongyang in Puning, especially in Rongcheng where this custom is most famous.

The custom of crossing the colored bridge goes from lunar January 10th to 16th. As soon as the Spring Festival is over, people will chop the twigs off the banyan trees, pluck bamboo leaves, make festival lanterns, shadow lanterns as well as auspicious red couplets, and decorate the nearby bridges. The activity of crossing the colored bridge on lunar January 11th is called “Crossing the first bridge”. In ancient times, people had to cross the Taiping Bridge in front of the County Government Office before they crossed the colored bridge. The Taiping Bridge was then the first bridge in town, so came the saying of “crossing the first bridge.” However, the Taiping Bridge was later demolished, so “crossing the first bridge” evolved into “the first time of crossing the bridge”. Crossing the colored bridge on lunar January 15th is called “the second time of crossing the bridge”. Therefore, crossing the bridge on lunar January 16th is called “the last time of crossing the bridge”.(https://www.daowen.com)

People who cross the colored bridge are mainly women and children. Sometimes, the newly-married couples also participate in this activity. Whoever crosses the bridge must hold such objects as stones and tiles and throw them into the river at will, giving some good speeches, depending on his age and gender. An umarried young man will say, “I throw them into the middle of the river so that I can marry a beautiful wife”. An ummarried woman will murmur, “I throw them into the river so that I can marry a handsome husband”. A newlymarried couple will whisper, “We touch the ear of the bridge so that we will have a son”. An old woman will say, “I touch the bamboo chariot so that I will have more sons and more daughtersin-law”. A married woman will murmur, “I shake the canebrake so that our marriage will go smoothly.” If one wants to make a fortune, he will whisper, “I throw them into the shoal area of the river so that the pigs I raise will be even stronger than the cattle.” or “I throw them into the middle of the river so that I will have bags of silver and gold.” When crossing the bridge, women will pluck bamboo leaves or banyans leaves at will and put them on their hair on the temples, or take them home to put them at the door head to pray for good luck. Sometimes, they collect bottle mouths home to bring good luck to their husband.

With the diversification of the social culture, people have become more and more interested in the western festivals, which make such traditional customs as crossing the colored bridge gradually change. Such activities as throwing stones or tiles into the river and giving good speeches have been omitted and replaced by such forms of folk art as showing movies, performing paper shadow plays, playing folk music, and performing the lion dance, etc. Therefore, with the transformation of the social environment, how to inherit and develop the traditional custom of crossing the colored bridge has become an problem which needs people’s due attention.