"Ying Lantern" is the only remaining folk activity in Gugou Township

Every year on the night of the 16th day of the first lunar month, it is the time for the lantern tour in my hometown - Gugou Township.

Youdeng, the local pronunciation is "yingdeng", and the word "ying" expresses the meaning of parade and public display.

Nowadays, "camping lanterns" has become the only solemn folk activity in the countryside. This day has a more festive atmosphere than the Spring Festival.

After this festival, the new year is completed and the journey of the new year officially begins.

Every household in the countryside has a lantern, which is usually missing and wrapped and hidden. It is only taken out on the sixteenth day of the first lunar month.

The family-style lantern has the surname and first name of the lantern owner written on it. The lantern is made of bamboo cut strips, covered with oil paper, written with red letters, and equipped with a lamp handle and wick. The style is retro and traditional.

The public ones are large lanterns, like the ones displayed in front of the prime minister's house in ancient times, which represent a village.

On this day, everyone will have dinner early, first gather in villages, and then gather into the large army of the entire village (a village is divided into several villages). The gathering place is in the overseas Chinese school in the township.

(The picture above is a scene of everyone gathered through aerial photography taken by a friend of mine. Each white dot is a lantern) Next to the school is the "Master's Palace". Those who come with lanterns each carry a bag.

To buy incense, you must first go to the "Laoye Palace" to burn incense and pray for blessings.

Probably everyone thinks that the more incense they burn, the more sincerity they show, so everyone "spends a lot of money" and burns it in bunches.

The thick smoke from the incense inside the "Master's Palace" choked people so much that they couldn't open their eyes and burst into tears.

When I was a child, I was most afraid of this incense-burning process, and I was also curious about how those people who act as if nothing happened developed this skill.

Villagers from each village gathered one after another. When the parade time came and the gongs and drums sounded, everyone began to line up with lanterns and walked around the village road. Firecrackers roared all the way and resounded through the sky.

In addition to the parade, most of the villagers also came out that night, each having their own pastimes. Those who watched the lanterns, those who watched Teochew operas, those who enjoyed the fireworks, those who satiated their appetites at roadside stalls... It was very lively along the road.

The most festive time in the village in the middle of the year is called "Laure" locally.

Lamp has the same pronunciation as "Ding" in Chaoshan dialect. "Ding" refers to the continuation of family life and the passing of incense. Therefore, lamps are used to symbolize inheritance.

Our local custom is that if a man in the family got married in the previous year, he would need to customize a new lamp with the word "Newlywed" on it; if a boy was born in the family, he would also need to customize a new lamp with the word "Newlywed" on it.

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In the parade of lanterns, you can see the alternation of old and new lanterns, with different brightness and darkness. Each lantern represents a family.

In principle, only men can participate in the lantern parade. Every year, you can see the changes in the lantern parade. Children, young people, adults, and old people alternate. The old people gradually withdraw, and the children join one after another. The faces are changing.

What has changed is the pace of this team and people's expectations for better days.

No matter how many years have passed, everyone is still guarding this land. The lifestyle of being self-sufficient in the fields has long been far behind the times.

Due to the needs of development, most people are rushing to other places. They once thought that the queue for traveling lanterns was very long, with no end in sight, but in fact it was not very long.

There are not that many people living at home anymore. The population of a community in the city can exceed the population of our entire village.

People going to other places come and go through festivals, the population is moving, and so is life.

The ancestors of our village migrated from Raoping, Chaozhou. At that time, things were difficult and poverty-stricken. They moved here to clear up wasteland, took root, and started business bit by bit. They have been passed down from generation to generation and have multiplied to this day.

People today care more about development and cannot change the poverty of the countryside, so they have no choice but to venture into the outside world.

Compared with the outside world, this lantern tour activity that the villagers value very much may not be so spectacular, but as the epitome of life in the village, its status is unshakable. This is the foundation.

Traveling lanterns can be regarded as the most original thread running through the history of the village.