What kind of entertainment programs are available among the people?

Folk Entertainment

Community Opera, Song, Dance and Vaudeville

Community Opera is performed once or several times a year in large villages and towns, mostly before and after the Spring and Autumn Period or during the Spring Festival. The temple consecration plays the consecration drama, and the temple fair plays the venue drama. The main types of opera are Dongyang Opera (now called Wu Opera). Funds are raised by clan members, regular expenses, or private individuals. Consecration plays and venue plays usually involve several troupes competing on stage. As soon as the Pioneer Horn sounded, the audience gathered, and the suonas, gongs and drums, and voices could be heard for miles. Singing, dancing and juggling, a few to dozens of people perform in lively streets, singing and dancing, or dancing to the music, mostly in a lively, rough, comical and humorous way, regardless of the graceful and elegant ones. Accompanying the Qin Dynasty are usually gongs, drums, cymbals, Huihu, bamboo flutes, etc. The music is mainly folk songs and is short and melodious. The most popular forms are Lotus Dance, Big Head Dance, Seven Flowers, Eight-hole Immortal, Autumn Chetai Pavilion, Thirty-Six Lines, Shield Dance, Layered Arhat, Dragon Tiao, Revolving Lantern, Stilts, Lion Rolling Ball, etc. In some villages and towns, stages may be set up for performances, dragon dances, and lion dances at fairs and during the Spring Festival. Street singing and dancing are now rare.

Lantern Festival

The Lantern Festival lasts from the 10th to the 24th day of the first lunar month, especially from the 14th to the 16th day of the lunar month. Men, women, old and young, watch the lanterns together, and the lively atmosphere is better than the Spring Festival. It was abandoned for a time after 1950, but became popular again in the 1980s.

Hang lanterns. Lanterns are hung in the halls, gatehouses and cornices of every house. Colorful sheds and more than a thousand lanterns were erected on the streets. The production of lamps is divided into glass, wood carving, bamboo silk, bead string, bright horn, sheepskin, damask and paper-cut needlework. The shapes are pagoda type, ball type, square type, polygonal type, connecting ball type, animal type, etc. There are books, paintings, and poems on the lamp surface, as well as landscapes, flowers, birds, and people. There are also lantern riddles and zodiac signs, which add to the excitement. Glazed lanterns, bead lanterns, and gauze lanterns are solemn and elegant, and are generally hung in halls. The hanging lanterns in Suyong Hall are the most representative.

The Dragon Lantern Festival is the most grand event of the Lantern Festival. The dragon lantern is divided into three parts: the dragon head, the bridge lantern and the dragon tail. The dragon's head is a flexing dragon mounted on paper, holding a dragon ball in its mouth, holding various colored lanterns in its claws, and several flags on its back. It is exquisitely crafted. There are also pavilion-style lamp holders instead of faucets. The bridge light is supported by a long bridge light board with a light holder on it. There are round holes at both ends of the bridge board. A round stick can be used to hinge the front and rear bridge lights. Bridge lanterns are divided into dragon lanterns and flower lanterns. Dragon lanterns, each bridge is an arched "dragon body" painted with dragon scales. Hundreds of bridge lanterns are connected to welcome people, looking like a shining golden dragon. There are two lantern stands on each bridge, and the lantern covers are in various shapes, including flowers, birds, insects, fish, pavilions, utensils, objects, immortals, figures, etc. The dragon's tail is connected behind the bridge light. The lantern welcoming ceremony includes: raising the head, urging the lantern, handing over the lantern, spreading the lantern, running the lantern, scattering the lantern, setting up the lantern, etc. "Deng" in Dongyang dialect has the same pronunciation as "ding". In the old days, every household was required to have a bridge of lights and every young man to have a bridge of lights. "When you see a Ding, you see a stove" to show that people are prosperous. Each row of dragon lanterns often has hundreds or even more than a thousand bridges, stretching for four or five miles. Generally, people do not leave the village to welcome the lanterns on the first night, which is called "the first night in the village". The next night we went out of the village to welcome the competition. Two or more rows of dragon lanterns were running around in circles, rolling or circling, swaying left and right, shouting in front and supporting each other, each showing their skills; Build a great momentum and the dragon lantern welcoming activity reaches its climax. On the third night, the dragon lantern goes out to welcome the countryside, hangs on hills, turns around field ridges, circles streams, and circles ponds to pray for the god of plague to be driven away, good weather, and a prosperous life.

Baizi lantern Baizi lantern, commonly known as zizi lantern shed, has zizi lamp shells mounted on the back with colored paper-cuts and densely packed with needle-cone patterns to transmit light and breathability. They are home-made and commercially available. During the greetings, a few branches and leaves of moso bamboo are left, and colorful lanterns of different shapes are hung on the branches, ranging from seven or eight to as many as twenty or thirty lanterns per shed. The whole village has hundreds of sheds and hundreds of lanterns gathered together, creating a " The sight of thousands of trees blooming with flowers in the east wind at night. The Baizi Lantern Festival on the first day of October in Baitan Village is the most spectacular.

Lotus lanterns are commonly known as water lanterns. The design of the lamp is in the shape of an aquatic animal, set off by a lotus lamp. A turtle is tied under the lamp. The turtle swims in the water, and the lamp floats on the water. It shuttles back and forth, sometimes still and sometimes moving, and the light and water shadows complement each other. In recent years, electric appliances have been installed under the lights. Li Zhai's lotus lantern is always the best water lantern in Dongyang. In 1984, the 35th anniversary of the National Day, Lizhai Town Lotus Lanterns were invited to participate in the West Lake Lantern Festival and won praise from Chinese and foreign people.

The revolving lantern can be divided into "horse" and "car". Both are made of wooden strips and bamboo strips as bones, and are decorated with colored paper and silk.

The wheels touch the ground and the actor runs as if riding a horse. The "car" is followed by a clown, with a "horse" pulling it in front and a "yellow umbrella" beside it for shade. Programs such as "Liu Bei Seeking a Marriage", "Guan Yu Sending His Sister-in-law", "Zhao Kuangyin Sending His Lady A Thousand Miles Away" were performed. Or it can be used as a marching array, with orderly advance and retreat, changeable opening and closing, singing and dancing.

The "Four Major" Folk Entertainments

The Weishan Dragon Body is commonly known as the Banbi Dragon Body. The skeleton is made of moso bamboo and fir trees. The dragon body follows the dragon head and has more than a hundred or even hundreds of sections. The sections are connected with thick ropes and is taller than a four-story building. Wheels are installed at the bottom of each section of the dragon, which requires more than 20 people to pull and support it. The rungs inside are like ladders so that candlelighters can get up and down. Each round requires 30 kilograms of candles. The body of the big dragon is like a building illuminated by lanterns, moving slowly and making a rumbling sound.

The large candle in Guo Zhai is more than ten feet tall, has a cross-section diameter of about a foot, and weighs four to five hundred kilograms. The candle is painted with vermilion and painted with dragons and phoenixes. ***Two. On the eighteenth day of the first lunar month every year, the Guozhai Anqing Temple (commonly known as the back hall) welcomes the temple fair. At that time, each candle will be carried by eight strong men, with fire blunderbuss and dozens of large gongs in front, and hundreds of flags behind. After the ceremony is completed, it is placed in the temple and burned all year round except in the sixth month of the lunar calendar.

Hengdian Big Paper Horse is made of bamboo strips, paper paste and colorful decorations. It is installed on a wooden frame, and 4 wooden wheels are installed under the wooden frame. At that time, many horses will be pushed, lifted, or lifted, and it will be a spectacular sight. A paper horse requires more than 100 kilograms of bamboo and a ream of tissue paper. The exhibition is held on the 13th day of the first lunar month every year. It is popular in Renhutian, Huangshanzhuang, Qiantian, Shanghutian and other villages.

The Yushan Flag is held at the Yushan Teahouse and Temple Fair on October 16th every year. The big flag is made of 120-180 feet (three original feet) silk, with red, yellow and green silk as the edges. It is made of 36 pieces of white silk and painted with dragons, tigers, lions and leopards. The main pole is a large fir with a top diameter of 24 cm. A very large moso bamboo weighing nearly 200 kilograms. To decorate the banner. A rope is tied at the intersection of the wooden pole and the bamboo pole and stretched in all directions. A fir lifting pole is inserted into the lower end of the main pole at shoulder level, and two fir lifting poles are inserted at right angles to the lifting pole. The upper end is tied with 24-35 moso bamboo roots. At that time, more than a hundred people quickly raised the flag amidst the sound of gongs and drums, and then marched cross-country. The sound of the flag flying could be heard for miles. In the Ming Dynasty, there were 50-60 flags, and in the Republic of China, there were generally 37 flags. Each large flag will be reduced by 20-30 pounds once it is displayed.

Folk entertainment

Excerpted from: "Pumi Ethnic Chronicles"

At the beginning of the Spring Festival, people in each village gathered on nearby lawns, danced Guozhuang, and held Archery, sprinting, wrestling and other competitions. In addition to large-scale entertainment activities such as "Zuca" (Guozhuang dance), horse racing, sheep fighting, bullfighting, and singing folk songs at festival gatherings, in daily life, there are storytelling, telling jokes, playing four-stringed strings, hide-and-seek and other entertainment activities. .

In the old society, after a day's work, in the evening, families of all ages would sit around the firepit and listen to the old man telling stories about the formation of the ancient world, battles, migrations, and heroes. Among them, the enduring ones include the story of the strong man "Shi Zhuan Luo Dazu", the story of "killing a red deer" and the heaven and earth were created, the story of "the dog saves its master", etc. Sometimes he also tells jokes to make the family laugh and relieve their fatigue. During the day, the children met together and took turns telling everyone stories and jokes they had heard. They communicated with each other and learned to tell more stories and jokes. Some nights, people who are close to each other visit each other and tell jokes and stories together to add fun to life.

Sometimes, when there are only a few people in the family, the old man takes out his ukulele, tunes it well, and plays Pumi ethnic dance music one after another. The people next to him listen quietly, lost in thought. middle. Some nights, the old man lay down and the young man sat by the firepit, playing the ukulele and thinking about his own thoughts.