Rui'an Famous Winds and Customs

In the festival, in addition to songs and dances, there are also a variety of lanterns for people to enjoy, these lanterns are from the hands of generations of craftsmen, well-made, quite local characteristics.

Beadlights

In the lanterns, the southern suburb of Wenzhou City, Puzhou beads, the most local characteristics. Bead lamp also known as "bead hoarding", "beads". Ming Dynasty has been recorded: "Lantern ...... also have between with bamboo wire, beads, material silk, wheat Kan lights to different people, the fight competition, can not be described" (Jiang Jun "Qihai Zaotan"). Now preserved in Wenzhou Bozhou in the port of Xuan Tan Temple bead lamp, according to legend produced in the Qing Dynasty Kangxi (1662 ~ 1722) years, so far has a history of 300 years. The bead lamp consists of nearly 70 different forms of bead lamps. Beads with fired colored porcelain or glazed beads, including "Liu Hai money pattern" beads 80 balls, beads strung with 150 ribbons, 156 nets, 6 corners of the following 3 couplets, decorative motifs are strung with colored beads. Lamp was 6-sided body, more than 4 meters high, weighing more than 400 kilograms, lamp circumference of 12.3 meters, divided into 3 layers to form a whole. The first layer of the center is a maximum of 8 angle lamp, painted with 8 landscapes, flowers and birds silk paintings, this lamp around the original beads strung with the "Eight Immortals across the sea" pattern, has not been able to restore. The middle of the second layer is a refined 6-cornered lamp, lamp with beads threaded into 3 landscape paintings and 3 fan verse, the text are: "torch spring, singing night fall", "thousands of cities moonlight, ten thousand wells light", "the sky opens up the beauty of the night, the people are playing good night". In the center of the lowest tier are marigold ball and lotus flower lanterns.

In the Ming Dynasty, there were already such lamps, "villages paste kozo like dragon head and tail, cut plate for the body, machine turn windlass, bonfire lamps on the top, from the golden drum, along the door to appreciate, called the dragon boat lamp. (Ming Jiang quasi "qi sea trivial talk") Qing Guangxu years, Wenzhou area prevalent in this lamp. In Zhang "DuYinYuan diary" is also recorded: the Lantern Festival (RuiAn) Meigang lanterns "the last light, about 6 meters high, 3 meters across, which plays a variety of brushes, ichthyosaurus, and so on, especially enough to dazzle people's eyes." Jewelry dragon is developed on the basis of flat dragon. It is 3 meters long, 2 meters wide and 2.5 meters high, and is the structure of a large dragon boat. Before the dragon, after the dragon's tail, the middle is divided into 5 to 7 layers, each layer is pasted with colorful fine-grained carved paper, the dragon belly lights up the lamp, the light reflected around the carved paper is dazzling, magnificent and colorful, the dragon boat has more than 70 high platforms and pavilions, the production of fine, delicate, with the art of China's architecture of national style. In the galleries and pavilions on all levels, there are nearly 300 silk plastic characters, composed of more than 80 plays, the content of which is taken from the "Three Kingdoms", "Yue Chuan" and other traditional plays or folk stories. These characters, vivid and beautiful modeling, brightly colored costumes, in the dragon lanterns, there are large and small wooden gear transmission device, can pull all the characters of the opera, there is a rocking hand below, operated by a person, as long as the rotation of the swinging hand, those characters will be active, each performing different actions, interesting, amusing, with a strong local color and a unique style of art. Today, every Lantern Festival, the village jewelry dragon lantern parade everywhere, some elderly women are burning incense to worship, pray for blessings. This kind of dragon lantern by the side of the folk artists carefully processed, as a traditional crafts to Shanghai around the exhibition tour, welcomed by Chinese and foreign audiences.

The activities of the above jewelry dragon lanterns, generally in the first month of the lunar calendar from ten to sixteen, *** seven days and nights, the seventh night, the nearby "dragon lanterns" will have to focus on the temple, the "collection of the death" (i.e., incinerated with fire) so-called "send the dragon to heaven. Therefore, the first month of the 16th this night, called "Dragon Lantern Lantern Festival", is the most lively, the most grand night, the village dragon boat lights will get together to play after singing, and each to sesame seeds, green beans sprinkled, burned when the release of the explosion. In the "collection of Gotham" before, but also to let the masses to comment on the craft of the dragon lanterns, especially on the dragon boat lights at the end of a large fine lines of innovative carving flowers, called "Dragon Tail Flower", for a careful comparison and rigorous review. Who rated the first, called "seven dragon brother", is a great honor.