dragon dance

Playing with dragon lanterns, also known as "Dragon Dance" and "Dragon Dance", is a unique folk entertainment activity in China. From the Spring Festival to the Lantern Festival, China has the custom of playing dragon lanterns in both urban and rural areas. After thousands of years of inheritance and development, playing dragon lantern has become a kind of folk dance with lively form, beautiful performance and romantic color. Playing with dragon lanterns originated from people's superstition about dragons and has a history of more than two thousand years. In ancient times, people used dragon dancing to pray for the blessing of dragons, in order to have good weather and abundant crops.

The main prop for playing dragon lanterns is "dragon". Dragons are made of grass, bamboo, wood, paper and cloth. The number of dragons is singular, which means good luck. Most of them are nine-section dragons, eleven-section dragons and thirteen-section dragons, up to twenty-nine. Dragons with more than fifteen knots are bulky and unsuitable for dancing. They are mainly used for viewing. This kind of dragon pays special attention to decoration and has high technological value. There is also a kind called "fire dragon", which forms a cage by weaving bamboo sticks into cylinders, affixing transparent and beautiful dragon clothes, and lighting candles or oil lamps to burn. The performance in the evening was spectacular.

There are many ways to play the dragon lantern, among which the trick within nine knots is the key. The common moves are: dragon swimming, dragon drilling, head and tail drilling, dragon wagging its tail and snake molting. The dragons in sections 1 1 and 13 focus on action performance. Jinlong chased the orb, jumped up, sometimes flew to the clouds, and sometimes broke the waves into the sea. Very good.

The custom of dragon dancing is carried forward by overseas Chinese. Whenever people in China have traditional festivals and major celebrations, they will dance lions and play with dragon lanterns, showing a strong oriental spirit.