What are the customs of celebrating Lantern Festival in Hunan?

Lantern Festival has a long history in China, and its origin can be traced back to the pre-Qin period. Lantern Festival is one of the important traditional festivals in China. What do you know about Lantern Festival? Do you know what the custom of Hunan Lantern Festival is? Next, let's take a look.

Hunan: Dragon and lion dances to celebrate the festival. In Shangyuan, Changde, every household uses peppers to make soup, and adds leeks and fruits to entertain guests, which is called "time soup". After swimming in the dragon lantern in Xintian County, the dragon lantern was lit, which was called "sending disaster".

On the Lantern Festival, eating Yuanxiao, enjoying lanterns and dancing dragons and lions are the most important folk customs in Hunan. For example, fried dumplings with pickled cabbage and pepper in Changsha are tender in the outside, sweet, sour, salty and spicy. Chenzhou is inhabited by many ethnic groups, which has formed a unique activity of dragon and lion dancing in the Lantern Festival.

Located in Xintian County in the south of Hunan Province, adjacent to Guangdong and Guangxi, Yuanxiao has a unique custom. On the night of the Lantern Festival, farmers in Xintian county will gather in front of the palace temple with small lanterns to light candles. Hundreds of strings of lanterns are connected into a "dragon" nearly a kilometer long, and each light on the "dragon" represents a family. Accompanied by the sound of gongs and drums, the procession of Youlong Lantern started from the farmland in front of the palace and began to March around the village under the traction of the majestic "dragon head". The person holding the dragon lantern must also ensure the continuity and integrity of this "long dragon", so everyone should cooperate with the "long dragon" carefully, not too fast or too slow. Wherever the dragon goes, the sound of fireworks and firecrackers is deafening. After the dragon lantern parade, the villagers will gather all the dragon lanterns together to "burn the dragon lanterns" and look forward to the good weather in the coming year.