Where is the most famous lantern festival in China?

Zigong International Dinosaur Lantern Festival

Zigong Lantern Festival is the inner part of the southern city of lanterns, which was formed in the Qingming period, and gradually developed into a large-scale folk cultural activities with relatively fixed connotations and carried out at a specific time with certain inheritance lines.

Introduction of colored lanterns

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The 14th Zigong Lantern Festival in 2008

Colored lanterns, also known as lanterns, is a popular traditional folk crafts. The art of colored lanterns is also the comprehensive decorative art of lamps.

The creation of colored lanterns is a development from the use of fire, the invention of lamps, manufacturing lamps and lanterns. Suiren's invention of drilling wood for fire, mankind lit a fire, lit a torch, this fire, torch is the origin of the original lamp.

With the development of social productivity, mankind began to use plants and animals and mineral oil wax for light lamps. Zhou Li, Si Heng's "in all the state of the big things, for the candle court prairie, candle hemp candle," visible, the Zhou Dynasty, there is a candle lamp. To the Warring States, the lamp manufacturing process flourished, which is expressed in the Qu Yuan "Chu Ci": "Orchid paste bright candle Chinese copper wrong". Han Dynasty is the heyday of copper lamp production. "Xijing Miscellany" contained: "Han Gaozu into the Xianyang Palace, Qin jade five lights, seven feet five inches high, under the coiled chi dragons, the mouth of the lamp, burning scales and armor are moving, Huan Bing like a list of stars Ying Ying Ying." To the Tang Dynasty, Lantern Lantern development into an unprecedented Lantern Market, the capital "for the Lantern Wheel twenty feet high, dressed in brocade, decorated with gold and silver, burning 50,000 lamps, clusters such as the flower tree". After this, lanterns around the activity is especially prevalent. Song Dynasty, lanterns developed to the peak, the style changes. Tokyo Dreaming Records" recorded: Bianjing (Kaifeng) court tie to do light mountain, there are Puxian, Manjushri Buddha riding a lion, white elephant and other lights.

Chinese lanterns, renowned ancient and modern; Zigong Lantern Festival, renowned. Hard-working and intelligent people of Zigong, not only the unparalleled well salt technology dedicated to the world, but also the beauty of the colorful lantern craft contributed to mankind. In the thousands of years widely spread in the annual festival lanterns on the land of China, Zigong lanterns stand out, a collection of Chinese lamp culture style, won the "world's first light" reputation, so that the national historical and cultural city, with the "thousand years of salt", "Hometown of Dinosaurs" and "Light City of South China". Zigong region has a long history and distinctive characteristics of the annual festival of lights. Since the Tang Dynasty, there has been the custom of lighting the lamps in the New Year here, and extended to the Qing Dynasty, there is the "Lion Lantern Market", "Lantern Festival"; to the early twentieth century, and gradually formed a festival of lanterns, and there are sky lanterns, dragon lanterns, lion lanterns, lanterns, and other activities. Thus developed into a set of regional folklore and folklore of the festival reputation at home.

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Zigong Lantern Festival

According to historical records, the Tang and Song dynasties, Zigong area has gradually formed a New Year's lantern, Lantern Festival before and after the Lantern Festival custom. Tang and Song dynasties in Zigong, New Year's and Lantern Lantern, Lantern, folk acrobatics, juggling and other performance activities also appear in the middle of it, y popular among the people watching the lights. Southern Song Chunxi two years (1175), the famous patriotic poet Lu You had written in its "Qinyuanchun" wrote: "a goodbye to the Qin Lou, turn the eyes of the new year, and close to the release of lights," it can be seen at that time, the Zigong region, the new year, the release of lights has been customary for the agreed upon folkloric activities. Of course, this is still a difference with the birth of the formation of lights. Therefore, the Tang and Song dynasties should be the budding period or the initial stage of Zigong lanterns.