What kind of folk activities is the Lantern Festival? What are the traditional customs and historical origins?

The Lantern Festival in Gan Yuan directly originated from the folk custom of "Lantern Festival" in Deqing around the 15th day of the first lunar month. Every Spring Festival, every household is scrambling to invite the Dragon Dance Team to perform a wonderful performance in the open space at their door, while others are more interested in dancing dragons in front of their master's sleeper for good luck, and at the same time, they warmly entertain the members of the Dragon Dance Team and celebrate with drinks. The most popular areas of dragon lantern custom are the two banks of Dongtiaoxi River and the junction of Deqing and Hangzhou. There are dozens of folk dragon lantern teams active in Deqing County. Whenever there are festive festivals, they go to villages and families to perform, retaining a simple and rich traditional culture.

Traditionally, Gan Yuan Dragon Lantern Festival includes three major contents. One is the dragon lantern, that is, dragon dance. There are dances such as "Golden Goose Old Dragon", "Long Wen", "Oolong", "Water Dragon", "Fire Dragon", "Mulberry Leaf Dragon" and "Lotus Dragon" in Gan Yuan Town. The second one is a lantern. On the 13th day of the first month, the market is full of lanterns. Silkworm flowers, historical figures, riddles and paper-cuts with auspicious expressions are pasted on lanterns, and the silver flowers of the fire tree are brightly lit all night. The third is "sedan chair". Every village has a "sedan chair". The girls in the village dress up as silkworms, and eight boys parade in the market in sedan chairs. If the audience is blocked, the silkworm mother scatters silkworm flowers to the "silkworm breeder".

In 20 13, Gan Yuan Town was successfully selected as one of the 26 Spring Festival cultural characteristic areas in Zhejiang Province with the "Gan Yuan Dragon Lantern" annual custom project, and introduced the local characteristic annual custom in the "Beautiful Intangible Heritage" column of Qianjiang Channel of Zhejiang TV Station on the day of Lantern Festival. Taking this as an opportunity, Gan Yuan Town further innovated its forms and enriched its contents. On February 22nd, the 13th day of the first lunar month, the traditional Lantern Festival was grandly opened. With the theme of "Longteng Spring Festival travel rush welcomes people in the era of high-speed rail to build a beautiful Gan Yuan", dragon dance contest, colorful spring stream dragon lantern show and lantern festival, wuyue Yue Yun concert and Qingxi ancient rhyme folk activities will be held.