Folk activities of Xiamen Lantern Festival

Festive activities such as dragon dancing, lion dancing, walking on stilts, roller boating, setting off fireworks, welcoming Zigu, solve riddles on the lanterns and eating jiaozi were held in public places such as Zhongshan Park, temples or Workers' Cultural Palace. At night, glittering palace lanterns, lanterns, lotus lanterns, lotus lanterns, pictographs and other lights are brilliant, and on the surface of the pool, lamp boats sway; Girls and children dressed in costumes danced with joy; The high court team held spectacular street activities; The actors of the Southern Orchestra sang Nanyin ancient music. There is a ready-made jiaozi in the street, about the size of a longan. The Minnan folk song "Selling glutinous rice balls" sings: "Selling glutinous rice balls, selling glutinous rice balls, jiaozi is round at Yuanxiao", which is a true portrayal of Minnan people's "eating glutinous rice balls at Yuanxiao".

Since the ninth day of the first month, the lantern market in Xiamen has been very busy. There is an endless stream of men, women and children who buy, watch and send lanterns. On the night of Shangyuan, every household decorated with lanterns, among which "Lantern" was the most popular among men, women and children. "Lantern" has two layers, inside and outside, moving and static. The inner layer is cylindrical, carved and hollowed out, with myths and legends, dream stories, dragon dancing and galloping horses painted on it. There is a windmill above, a pillar in the middle and a needle below. Light a candle or oil lamp next to it, and use hot air to drive the windmill to rotate, so that the pattern on the inner layer rotates circularly, and its shadow is cast on the fixed outer layer, which is lively and dynamic. In addition to scattered small lanterns, there are also large lantern festivals such as Aoshan Lantern, which piles lanterns into mountains.

In the Lantern Festival in Xiamen, there are beliefs and customs of "giving lanterns to add to the sky" and "drilling the feet of lanterns to beg children". Married and childless women, in order to pray for more help, go in and out in the streets, temples and under the Aoshan lamp shed, which is called "drilling the lamp feet". Unmarried women have the belief of "listening to incense". That is, in the dead of night of the Lantern Festival, you should burn incense in front of idols, bow down to divination, walk in the direction of "throwing a hat" and take hearing the first sentence of others as a sign of the success or failure of your marriage. Therefore, most parents should tell their children to say more auspicious words that night so that people can get a good sign.