Liancheng Boxing and Liancheng Lion Dance

Liancheng County, the 20th day of the first lunar month every year, is designated as the festival for the gathering and competition of the lion dance martial arts teams in each village, which is called "Tianchuan Lion Club". On this day, lion dance teams from ten towns and eight villages will flock to Tian Ge Village from all directions to compete. Accompanied by the Fan Shi Band, lions of all colors performed their skills on the Daping before Huang Zongda, which was very spectacular. After the lion dance, boxing and mechanical fighting were performed, with swords and shadows, flashing and leaping. The audience was very large on this day, and the whole scene was crowded with people.

Around the first month, the lion dance martial arts team went door to door to perform lion dance martial arts. This custom is to drive away evil spirits. The martial arts of lion dance began on the first day of the New Year's Day and ended in February of the lunar calendar. During the period, the family martial arts teams of each village walked around the village, with gongs and drums all the way. As soon as people who need lion dancing to exorcise evil spirits hear the sound of gongs and drums, they open the door of nave, light incense on the holy table, and the host stands at the door with a string of firecrackers in his hand. As soon as they saw the lion dance team, they set off firecrackers. The lion dance team knew that this family was going to dance lions. So the lion dancer came to the door with the lion's head, made three obeisances to nave with the lion's head as a gift, and then stepped into nave step by step, followed by martial artists. In nave, lion dancers danced with drums and drums on the nave, and the rest of the martial artists sat on both sides of nave. The host used a tea tray to offer tea to the martial artist. After the lion dance, the lion dancers put the lion's head on the sacred table (the lion's head faces the gate of nave) and began to perform martial arts. The performances include: 1. Performing single boxing and single equipment, including sticks, forks, hooks, double knives, broadsword with long handle, double jun, short halberd, iron ruler, etc. Then, double or triple boxing and equipment sparring performances were performed, and the rhythm of gongs and drums was accelerated.

After the performance, the lion dancer took the lion's head off the magic stage and danced again. At this time, the host will respectfully give the elders who lead the team a red envelope as a reward and say some words of thanks and good luck. The lion dancer hunched his back and danced the lion's head, retreating away from the gate of the nave. The rest of the martial lions, beating gongs and drums, walked out of the gate. After leaving the gate, the lion dancer can stop dancing, put down the lion's head and walk to another house.