The history of lanterns in Wuhu, Anhui Province

"Lantern Festival" is a folk Nuo ceremony to drive away epidemic ghosts during the Lantern Festival in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Its origin can be traced back to the "sacrificial ceremony" recorded in the Book of Songs, that is, the "sacrificial ceremony" to pray for victory before leaving school. According to the lantern master who taught lanterns, during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom War in the Qing Dynasty, when the injured sergeant lived in seclusion in the countryside, he taught lanterns to the local people to drive out the plague. There are many kinds of lanterns in Wuhu County. Generally, the horse's head and body are tied with bamboo and wrapped with cloth. "Horse neck" is about 1 m long, made of silk and stuffed with cotton; Bamboo and horse lights are made into "lanterns". During the performance, the bamboo horse is tied to the waist of the lantern, and the horse neck is pinned to the waist. Holding the horse's head in one hand, holding a knife and gun in the other, wearing an embroidered lantern suit similar to a costume, but the long straps should cover the tail of the bamboo horse. Lantern performers need 17 or 19 people, usually unmarried young men. The lantern performances in Wang 'ao Village of baimashan are mainly array and martial arts. The characters he plays are heroes in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Yang Jiajiang's stories, especially Guan Gong. During the exorcism, Guan Gong entered the villagers' homes and waved dragon sword to "sweep the hall" to remove filth. Lantern performers are not allowed to talk during the performance. They performed Eight Lanterns, Double Shame, Lobster Playing in the Water and Five Plum Blossoms. Dance forms include "Four Horses Kiss", "Eight Horses Kiss", "Sixteen Horses Kiss" and "Oolong Panjin". During the performance, with the cooperation of gongs and drums, I saw the lantern actor Pegasus whipping, dust flying, knives and guns hitting and flags flying. Although it is only a social drama of a folk country, it is also beautiful and spectacular [Figure 1]. The most wonderful performance is Zhao Zilong's "The Lone Ranger", which fully demonstrates his gun and stick skills and martial arts skills, as well as his "Five Horses Break Cao", which is crowded and rich in story. In the lantern show, there are also eight children around the age of 10 interspersed among the dancers, which is called "Bajiayun". After the opening ceremony, they held "clouds" to create momentum for the heavenly soldiers and generals [Figure 2], and successively formed glyphs such as "Peace for the population" and "Peace for the world" in the course of marching on the field, with unique artistic conception. Fig.2 In Wang 'ao Village, baimashan, the traditional sacrificial ceremonies such as "Xing Deng", "Fa Lan" and "Yuan Deng" before the Lantern Festival are still intact, except for driving away epidemic ghosts during the Lantern Festival. "Xing Deng" is a ceremony in which young people beat gongs and drums, went to the land temple to kill chickens and set up the memorial tablet of "Ma Ming Wang". After the elders in the village announced the establishment of the "Lantern Festival", they asked the lantern master to start tutoring lantern routines. "Hairpin" means that before the official "Lantern Festival", Taoist priests are invited to set up an altar to make hairpins, recite scriptures, invite gods and summon generals; Look at Shuowen and down-to-earth practices, and look at the sparse articles with the names of village heads and lantern lanterns, killing chickens and rewarding gods. And attach gods to the performers of lanterns, so that the lantern team has the power to exorcise demons and epidemics. "Round Lantern" means closing the altar, chanting and practicing, and rewarding God. After the ceremony, Taoist priests led lantern players to burn cards outside the village to show that they had sent the gods to heaven. After the lantern players returned to the village, the whole village set off wine and fireworks to celebrate the victory of the epidemic.