Common Talk Weeklyshuang yu zhou kan
issue date

Bustling Yuanxiao festival
February 4, 2004
By Fan Shouchun
Translated by Vivian Zhang
Photos by Yao Fan
Select a lantern

现今的元宵夜，白鹭洲或前埔会展中心的焰火表演已是惯例。而几十年前，厦门人闹元宵的传统方式则是燃放鞭炮，自制元宵灯，舞龙舞狮，抬阁游行……那 些热闹的场面如果您有些淡忘的话，不妨跟随本文回忆一下吧。

Yuanxiao, falling on Jan. 15 of the Chinese lunar new year (It is tomorrow this year), is a highly celebrated Chinese festival. It is named Lantern Festival or Yuanxiao Lantern, since lights and lanterns pose a necessary part of the celebration. Yuanxiao used to be one of the festivals of Taoism (道教）. Now it has evolved into one celebrated by the general public.
Chest tapping dance

The ways of celebrating Yuanxiao Festival have changed with the development of society. The firework show at Bailuzhou Square or Xiamen International Conference & Exhibition Center is becoming an indispensable（不可分的）part of the program of each year's Yuanxiao Festival, whilst firecrackers used to play the most important part tens of years ago.

Lanterns （灯笼）are necessary on Yuanxiao Festival. Nowadays the ones on sale at stores are produced in factories and are battery charged. However, in early times, making lanterns was a big pleasure every family member would not miss, with lantern shapes ranging from round, flat, six-angled, eight-angled to fan-shape. Some people were even capable enough to make picture rotating lanterns and palace lanterns. The materials included bamboo strips, cotton paper and cellophane. On the evening of the big day, everyone, including kids, swarmed onto the streets carrying their lanterns, which was truly a magnificent show. Even foreigners living on Gulangyu, then a foreign settlement, were no exception.


Lion dance

"The dragon and lion dance" （舞龙舞狮）was a vital part of early Yuanxiao Festival. Usually, performers were chosen from robust porters and construction workers. They paraded along the streets and stopped to perform whenever a household was lit up a string of firecrackers. Then a Hongbao (红包， granted money stuffed in a red paper envelope) was hung high to the end of a bamboo stick. The "lion" or "dragon" climbed onto the stick surrounded by the laughter and applause of on-lookers and took it down. Streets and lanes were all flooded with joyous people that day.

Tens of years ago, parades of stage scenes carried on people's shoulders （抬阁游行）were very popular. Those scenes could be a child cycling a little waterwheel, a huge double-dragon boat, or ancient-costumed lovers performed by a local opera troupe. Sometimes, a herd boy could be seen riding on his buffalo's back in the parade.

In the early days, people of different professions or native places formed their own parade contingents（队伍）. Some of them were walking on long sticks, made up as match-makers（媒婆）, clowns and dandy boys, while some others were performing a chest tapping dance（拍胸舞） to the accompaniment of local music.

Nowadays, Yuanxiao Festival could be as bustling as before when merits of both the present and past ways of celebrating are taken into consideration.