The Folk Connotation of Making Fire in Pan 'an

Pioneer trumpets resounded through the sky, and the sound of gongs and drums was earth-shattering. In a fire altar with a diameter of more than 10 meter, charcoal piled up on the hillside and burned fiercely. The temperature in the center of the fire altar is as high as 700 degrees Celsius. A group of big men, shirtless and barefoot, dressed in waist skirts and primitive costumes in the shape of animal skins and leaves, holding bell forks and steel knives, danced wildly and shouted loudly, and rushed into the raging fire, vividly showing the scene of people relying on their own will and strength to carry out struggle for existence with nature. This is a magnificent and mysterious scene of Pan 'an fire training performance.

Fire training, also known as "stepping on fire", is named after performing barefoot on red coals. It is a traditional folk activity spread in Pan 'an, Zhejiang Province, with strong regional cultural color. Fire refining originated from the worship of fire by ancestors. The scene of fire refining is very similar to the scene of ancestors returning from hunting and celebrating around a big bonfire. Later, the combination of fire refining and local gods' beliefs, such as "Yan Fanggong Hu", with the purpose of praying for blessings and good weather, formed a set of standardized ceremonies with strong vitality. Every year, the Double Ninth Festival and Gong Hu Memorial Day will hold large-scale fire-refining activities.

All bonfires are held at night, and the villagers carry baskets of charcoal from door to door to make a fire. Generally, 80- 120 reed charcoal is needed, and the gossip is evenly coated, and then red charcoal is lit, and then piled up into hills, and the fire is soaring. Villagers from all directions gathered around the fire. Firefighters should fast and bathe themselves three days in advance, and husband and wife should not share the same room. Tattooed barefoot firefighters, with bells and steel forks in their hands, patrol around the four fire water gates in the east, south, west and north. First, they rushed into the altar from the north gate and came out through the flames from the south gate. Then go around the west gate and rush into the fire altar, and fight out from the east gate: this way, repeatedly shuttling and stepping on the fire, a quarter of an hour is an altar, and three altars are generally refined.

Fire refining activities are basically spontaneous organizations and voluntary participation. The number of participants varies from dozens to hundreds, and they can practice in one village or several villages. The process of refining fire is full of traces of the worship of fire by Han ancestors in ancient times.