Shexian Wangmantian Fish Lantern is a folklore intangible cultural heritage of Huangshan City, Anhui Province. Wangmantian Village is located in Xitou Town, She County, Huangshan City, Anhui Province. Every Lantern Festival, a village cultural feast "Fish Lantern" will arrive as scheduled.

This fish lantern can be described as a "big brother" level, with a dragon head and a fish body.

The fish-playing lantern began to appear when the Ming Dynasty was established, and reached its peak in the early Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty. It is a sacrificial way for the villagers to worship their ancestors and pray for peace. It carries the unique ancestral culture of the Huizhou people and has been passed down from generation to generation. , passed down from generation to generation, is a living fossil of Huizhou’s intangible cultural heritage ecology.

In front of the Xiyu Lantern, various families competed in front of the ancestral hall, beating gongs and drums, and the sound was shocking.

The origin of the fish lantern is quite mysterious. When the Ming Dynasty was established, the people broke away from the "Tatar" rule of the Yuan Dynasty and celebrated peace and prosperity. The villagers set up a fish lantern festival to pray for "more fish every year" )", the fish will have many children, and I also pray that the children and grandchildren will be prosperous. On the second day, fires that often occur in wooden houses in Wangmantian Village are caused by the collapse of the "Fire Mirror" on the smooth rocks in front of the village. Houses with the surnames Cheng and Ye are especially prone to fires because "Cheng" and "Ye" are next to "禾". The top of the grass is easy to catch fire. A fire broke out in Cheng and Ye's house, and the Wang surname was also affected. Therefore, five fish lantern festivals were established with the Zhifangfang sect as a unit (now there are six fish lantern festivals). From the 13th to the 16th of the first lunar month every year, people use fish lanterns to visit the village and "play in the water" with water, which is called "playing with fish" by the locals.

Walking with gongs and drums

Two fish playing with lanterns

Everywhere the fish lantern goes, firecrackers are set off to greet them, and meteors are ejected from the mouth of the big fish lantern from time to time. , as if to thank you. Every fish lantern passing by the ancestral hall must nod and wag its tail three times at the ancestral hall door to report that the weather is going well and there will be more than enough every year. When walking to the bank of the cypress garden, the fish lanterns will spin and dance one after another, which is called "Teaching Flowers", which is likened to Dazi, Dingwang of Zhaocun clan. The fish lantern travels around the village for several times, and finally exits the village entrance, the temple, returns to the ancestral hall, extinguishes the candles and places them, then starts the stage with gongs and drums, and performs a play to reward the gods.

Torches guide the way

On the 16th night of the first lunar month, all the fish lanterns will swim to the hill behind the village, point their fish heads towards the "fire mirror" descending from the west mountain, and shake their heads and tails , this is the final climax of the fish lantern, bowing in front of the "Fire Mirror" on the pier, and praying for "peace and prosperity" in the coming year.

Wangmantian fish lanterns are made with exquisite craftsmanship. The fish racks are all made of green flakes of moso bamboo, not yellow flakes. The paper used is all tissue paper. Tissue paper has strong toughness and is not easy to be damaged. The fish lanterns come in various forms, with painted fish scales, a "king" character on the head, double whiskers at the mouth, and a meteor nozzle, making them vivid and lifelike. The large lantern is majestic, about seven meters long, with five sections and more than three meters high. It contains more than a hundred candles. Each lantern is carried by more than 20 people. The small lantern is flexible and can be carried by children.

The internal frame structure of the fish lamp holds the candle in place. Light every candle before playing with lanterns