Dragon lantern in hometown

In my hometown of Gao Ru and Zhoucun, every year, on the 14th and 15th of the first month, dragon lanterns are ushered in. This kind of dragon lantern is different from the cloth-covered dragon lantern commonly seen in TV, but is made of a hardwood board about eight feet (Lu Banchi) long, with a width of twenty centimeters and a thickness of five or six centimeters. There is a hole in the front and back of the board, and the two sections are put together, and a lamp post with a thickness of three or four centimeters and a length of one meter passes through it. There is a small hole in the upper and lower parts of the lamp post, and the goose feather tube is positioned through the small hole, so that the lamp post is not easy to slide out, and two wooden boards (each section of the dragon body is called a bridge) are connected together. The way of connection and the materials used reflect the wisdom of farmers.

Dragon lanterns in my hometown are very ornamental. The faucet and a small Duan Long near the faucet are carved from a whole piece of camphor wood, with bright colors, mainly red, glazed yellow and dark green. There are many lantern stands supported by wire on the faucet. After lighting the lantern, the whole faucet is dazzling. The dragon body is connected to the back of the faucet section by section, and each section has two lanterns. The last dragon tail is also carved from a whole section of camphor wood. Gao Ru has a "dragon head meeting", which is specially used to welcome the dragon lantern, inherit the etiquette of the dragon lantern, and manage the dragon head and the dragon tail. Lanterns hung on the dragon's tail are generally the most exquisite, and there are some auspicious paintings. Every household manages its own Duan Long, and most of them only use bamboo lanterns, wrapped in red transparent windproof paper and lit with candles. Some well-off families also use good lanterns similar to those on faucets, and they were envious when they saw them when they were young.

Gods are dragon lanterns that "get up" (raise the faucet to move forward) and "dismount" (put down the faucet to rest, worship, etc.). ) and some early warning signals. This is the supreme voice of the night, representing the majesty of the dragon. Generally, the post of Shenchong is set up to ensure that the dragon dance will not go wrong that night, and it will be undertaken by experienced people in the "leadership meeting". Shen Shen poured gunpowder into the gun barrel, rammed it with a wooden stick, stuffed it into other fillers, rammed it hard and sealed it, leaving only a lead bullet. When he needed a signal, he went to the side of the road and lit the fuse, with his gun in the air. "Boom ~!" There was a loud noise, and the whole dragon either walked or stopped, or warned the boys dancing the dragon to pay attention to safety and discretion. When I was a child, I felt that when I watched the dragon lantern, I didn't know when it would ring in my ear, which always made my heart jump, both scared and expecting.

Before the dragon lantern, the "dragon head meeting" held a very grand sacrifice. Villagers who hear firecrackers will burn incense at home early, have dinner, light candles and respectfully carry the dragon's body to the hall where the dragon head is located. As soon as it got dark, I got up and left the hall with a loud noise from the gods. I first passed several large houses and shops in the village and stopped in front of each house for a while. The big house will give red envelopes for good luck. Dragon lanterns have walked along the established route in the village for decades. The most important thing is to pay homage to Empress Zhangshu, because the camphor wood carving the faucet is made there, which is equivalent to worshipping the mother. This is the crystallization of "filial piety culture" in China.

In the narrow alley of the village, it takes a lot of experience and physical strength to hold a faucet of more than 100 kilograms and keep it stable vertically so as not to be burned by oblique candles. Therefore, the strong young people in eight villages are carrying heavy bibcock, and there are two or three senior leaders of "bibcock clubs" under the command, so as to be fully protected. Because the dragon body is one section after another, the joint can be folded at any angle to facilitate turning. But if you walk too fast and too late, you will often be taken into the ditch. If your hand is in the wrong position, it is easy to get caught. In high school, I was eager to try. My father told me two things. First, my hand must hold the top of the hard stick and never put it on the board to avoid being caught. Second, follow the trend, follow the overall trend, people move forward, you move forward; Someone pulled you back, and so did you. This second point smacks of philosophy of life.

In big villages like Gao Ru and Zhoucun, there are only leaders retained by "leading clubs". In the small village nearby, there are only dragons from all families. Gao Ru's Dragon Lantern will go all the way through the surrounding villages after it leaves the village, connecting the dragon bodies in Ziguetang, Dingjiu, Jiao Ling and Liugou villages. After the dragon in Liugou Village was connected to the head of Liugou Tantou, the whole dragon was full of energy, walked along the Baimen Line Highway to the "rice field" in Gaoru Village (the place used to dry rice during the double robbing period), and danced dragons in a large open space that was rare in several nearby villages, which ushered in a climax.

? But for the boys in the villages, the final dragon dance can't be very enjoyable, because it is necessary to take the "orthodox" dragon dance, such as "plus 8" and "reverse 8", and the dragon looks up. The "leadership meeting" will strictly require everyone to abide by the "rules." So the climax of boys is to pull the lights back and forth on the white door line. I followed my mother and sisters when I was a child. Usually, as soon as the Dragon Lantern leaves Gao Ru Village, I will go to the dam of the power station near the rice field where the Dragon Dance was held earlier, occupy a good position by myself, and eagerly watch when the Dragon Lantern will come back and look at the road from a distance. Look, coming, coming. I was very excited when I suddenly saw the whole dragon lantern slowly stop and walk back. Even when I saw it getting closer, my eyes blinked, and I suddenly saw the whole dragon lantern running in the direction of Jiao Ling. The adults around me said with a smile, this is a boy pulling a lamp, it's still early. Walking back and forth several times, I suddenly heard the adults around me say, where is God? God is ringing. Sure enough, with a dull "dong ~ ~ ~" sound, the dragon dismounted and the whole dragon was slowly put on the road. The figure is mottled, and adults are changing candles. There are still some lanterns burned, so we can only light candles directly. Without the wind protection of lanterns, naked candles are swaying and will be blown out by the wind at any time, which seems to be gone from a distance.

There was another "dong ~ ~ ~" and the faucet turned on. Everyone continued to carry the dragon lantern on their shoulders and walked politely to the rice fields in Gao Ru. After walking for a while, I was dragged to make trouble. Going back and forth several times, the noise is fierce, and the immortal will give a sound of "dong ~ ~ ~". The people of the "Dragon Head Club" will personally go to every bridge lamp in the first half of the dragon, greet everyone to listen to the words of the "Dragon Head Club", work together, and finally bring the whole dragon back to the rice field. There is an unwritten tacit understanding that people who tend to tap will connect the lights near the tap early. Young people who like to frolic start from the end of the dragon's tail and are mainly distributed in the second half.

After hard work, the "Dragon Club" finally brought the whole dragon back to the rice field and started the dragon dance handed down from generation to generation. This dragon dance, plus 8 characters, minus 8 characters, the dragon looks up and so on. We have been listening to these nouns among the large population around us since childhood, but we still don't know the specific form at all. But this is the essence of dragon dance, the focus of "leading meetings" in past dynasties, the way to pray for good weather and the top priority of dragon dance. Every time we finish a fancy, the faucet is removed to have a rest, and everyone changes the candle booth. This is when we children run to the rice fields and drill under the dragon to look for our father everywhere. One thing, no matter adults or children, you must never cross the dragon body, which is very unlucky. When the magic spear from the faucet rings, adults will drive away all the children around them to avoid danger. For us children, besides watching dragon lanterns, it is all kinds of fun. Most people will buy a few strings of firecrackers for their children, open them one by one and put them in their pockets. He was holding a incense in his hand and drilling around in the crowd. In addition to setting off firecrackers to scare each other, friends often light firecrackers and inadvertently put them in front of the little/big girls who are focused on watching the lights. "Bang ~!" We are happiest when the girl turns pale with fear. My brother and I often don't have the money to buy a whole string of firecrackers, so we will scramble to pick up some unexploded firecrackers at the door of our own house or neighbor's house throughout the New Year and leave them until the fifteenth day of the first month to welcome the dragon lantern. However, we will soon run out of toys, so our other toy is a cannon (kicking a foot), one end of which is painted with candle oil and lit. Because the paper of the cannon is actually flame retardant, it is necessary to constantly apply candle oil to ensure that the fire will not go out. During the Spring Festival, these candle oils are in clothes pockets. I can't wash it off after a few days, and I am often scolded by my mother. We still enjoy it.

After the dragon dance in rice fields, the whole dragon will go to Huangtan Village along the Baimen Line, and one will go to Baisha Hall. After the worship, every family will take the dragon apart, light candles and take it home. It was nearly midnight when I got home. My father put the dragon body on the table of the Eight Immortals, burned incense and worshipped again, and lit new red candles to make the house look red. My mother sends cakes to my brother and me for church every year. Besides cakes, my mother prepared soup (four tones, jiaozi stuffed with radish and bacon) early, and the family went to bed after eating.

Before the Lantern Festival this year, I heard that this old tradition was banned in order to protect the water quality of Jinhua water source. This article is a souvenir.