Composition "Ancient Meetings and News"

The Ancient Fair in Daokou

Shortly after the Spring Festival every year, on the 28th and 29th of the first lunar month, the ancient fair in Huaxian County, Henan is the busiest time. We go back to watch the ancient fair almost every year, because my grandma’s home is at Daokou, and she participates in the Yangko dance performance every year.

Last year’s ancient fair happened to be on the weekend, and our family of three went back to watch the ancient fair again. This time, my grandma and mother both participated in the ancient fair performance.

On the morning of the 29th, just after dawn, my grandma and mother began to prepare to dress up. Grandma put on a green Yangko costume with a red ribbon tied around her waist, and held a beautiful fan in one hand. My grandma and mother and I went to Dadongguan Fire Shrine after breakfast, because grandma and Mom is going to do her makeup there. Grandma wore light makeup, while mom wore the same makeup she wore for singing. I started to put makeup on my mother. I watched carefully. The makeup artist first applied a layer of white powder on my mother's face. It looked really scary! But after a while, the makeup artist drew a red circle on my mother's face. My mother said that was the base color. Finally, my mother’s face was painted. It’s so beautiful! Mom also put on performance clothes and prepared to go out with grandma. Grandma started to do the Yangko dance. She was very fat, but her body was very flexible when she danced the Yangko dance. Grandma was very happy. I also helped my grandma’s yangko team play the drums, and I could also beat the rhythm.

The ancient fair in Daokou started at around 11 o'clock in the morning. At this time, every street in Daokou was full of people. Everyone came to see the ancient fair in Daokou from different places. There are many types of performances performed in the ancient festival, including back pavilion, Zhao Pavilion, stilts, fire dragon, martial arts, flower boat, bamboo horse, Baguaqiu, etc. My favorites are Grandma’s Yangko and Baguaqiu. In the evening, there were more people attending the party. As soon as we came out, we watched the lion dance performance. Later, we went to the stilt performance, and several people could jump on the table while standing on stilts. After the stilt performance, another grandpa started telling jokes, which made us all laugh!

The ancient meeting at Daokou is so beautiful! It’s just that this year it wasn’t held on a weekend, so I didn’t make it. I want to go see the ancient fair again next year!