Why do you walk on stilts during the Spring Festival?

The origin of stilts

There is a folk legend that Yan Ying, who was famous for his antics in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, once went to neighboring countries, and the neighboring countries laughed at his short stature, so he put on a Shuang Mu leg and suddenly became tall, making the country's monarch and minister look ridiculous. He also used the topic to make a sarcastic speech at foreign ministers, which made them still embarrassed. Accordingly, stilt walking activities spread among the people.

Another legend is that walking on stilts is associated with fighting against corrupt officials. Once upon a time, there was a county called Liangjincheng. The people inside and outside the city were very friendly. Every year during the Spring Festival, they jointly held a social fire to wish each other prosperous business and abundant crops. Unexpectedly, a corrupt official saw this as an opportunity to make a fortune, and said that everyone who went in and out of the city to run a social fire had to pay San Qian silver. If people don't pay, he will close the city gate and hang the suspension bridge. But it's still hard for smart people to stand on stilts. Climb over the city wall, cross the moat, continue to celebrate the Spring Festival and enjoy it.

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Stilts

Stilts, a form in which dancers perform with long wooden stilts tied to their feet, are highly skilled and have lively and diverse forms. Because the stilts are higher than ordinary people, they are easy to watch from far and near, and the mobility is no different from the activity stage, so they are deeply loved by the masses.

Scholars think that the origin of stilts is related to the totem worship of primitive clans and the fishing life of coastal fishermen. According to the research of historians, the Danzhu clan, which took cranes as totems in Yao and Shun times, had to dance on stilts to imitate cranes during the ceremony. (See Sun Zuoyun's "Talking about Dan Zhu"); Archaeologists believe that there are characters in the ancient Oracle bones that approximate the image of stepping on a stilt. (Fang Qidong's Dance in the Shang Dynasty in Oracle Bone Inscriptions) The two can prove each other.

there is a description of "long-stock country" in the ancient literature "Shan Hai Jing". According to the notes of the ancients, it is known that "long-stock country" is related to stepping on stilts. From the annotation "Long-legged people often carry long-armed people to fish in the sea", it is not difficult to imagine the image of fishing in shallow water with long wooden stilts tied to their feet and primitive fishing tools made of long wood. What is even more interesting is that the Jing fishermen who live in the coastal area of Fangcheng, Guangxi today still have the habit of fishing in the shallow sea with long wooden stilts.

stilts used by people today are mostly made of wood, and their performances can be divided into double stilts and single stilts. Double stilts are often tied to the calf to show their skills; The single stilt holds the top of the wooden stilt with both hands, which is convenient for going up and down and dynamic and interesting. Its performances are divided into "literary stilts" and "martial arts stilts". Literary stilts emphasize pretending and teasing, while martial arts stilts emphasize personal skills and unique skills. Stilts in various places have formed distinctive regional styles and national colors.

Shandong stilts are often stacked in three layers (no stilts on the second or third floors) to play opera characters, and the upper-class people walk as usual when they step on the shoulders of the lower-class people.

In the stilts around Beijing and Tianjin, performers often perform difficult skills such as "jumping with one foot", "splitting" and "crossing obstacles". Others perform stunts such as jumping from four high tables with one foot.

Stilts are popular in Northeast China, and the most famous is "Liaonan Stilts". Its form is complete and its performance is standardized. At first, it is necessary to "build an elephant" (fold up the two-story shape) to sing yangko, which means "there is an elephant in peace", and then it is necessary to run in a big field to change the formation pattern, and then perform duet, "butterfly flapping", "fisherman fishing" and play a small folk role in groups.

On the stilts of ethnic minorities, the actors all wear their own costumes, and their performances are unique. For example, Buyi people have both double stilts and single stilts (also known as single wooden stilts), and both hands hold the ends of stilts, which is convenient to make, and its single wooden stilts are especially popular among children; Bai people's "stilts play with horses", and the actors also step on wooden stilts and perform in horse-shaped props; The Uighur "double stilts" integrate folk dance into it, which is refreshing.