Yuanxiao is a unique Han folk plastic arts in traditional Yuanxiao customs. According to some famous old people in Zhongxin, the history of Zhongxin lanterns has been more than 600 years, but the real written record is 278 years. In the eighth year of Yongzheng (1730), Lu Tingjun compiled the Official Records of Li Anping [(Qing), Lu Tingjun, Yan Xisheng and Xiao Shenyang compiled the Official Records of Li Anping [an ordinary ancient book]: Ten volumes of Yongzheng, the archives library of Lianping County, Guangdong Province, 1980], Volume II, The Customs. "Shangyuan" means Lantern Festival. Experts also identified the lantern printing plates collected by folk artists, which were also proved to be products of the Qing Dynasty. So lanterns are most likely to introduce loyalty in the Qing Dynasty.
From the records in Li Anping Zhouzhi, we can know that the early Lantern Festival is closely related to the Lantern Festival in China. On the Lantern Festival, faithful people go out to enjoy lanterns and watch dragon and lion dances. Cui Ye, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, once wrote a poem, "Who can sit around and watch the bright moon? Where can I smell lanterns? " In the Song Dynasty, Xin Qiji also wrote a poem, "The crowd looked for him for thousands of Baidu, and suddenly looking back, the man was in the dim light." The lively scene is like "BMW carving cars full of incense, phoenix flute moving, jade pot shining, fish dragon dancing all night" However, with the gradual evolution of the history of lanterns and the changes in the customs of loyal people, loyal lanterns gradually broke away from the relationship with the Lantern Festival and gradually formed a traditional custom with unique local characteristics-putting lanterns.
Lantern for short is a unique folk custom in Zhongxin area. It is a birthday celebration ceremony specially held for men, which is held on the thirteenth day of the first month. "San" is homophonic with "Sheng" in Hakka dialect. The staff of the local cultural center said that this may be one of the reasons why the China-Singapore Lantern Festival gradually separated from the Tenth Five-Year Lantern Festival. There is no textual research on the specific origin time of Shangdeng, and there is only a legend of loyalty about Shangdeng. In ancient times, a powerful man was lucky to get a son in his later years after having several daughters in succession. In order to celebrate, he brought back a palace lantern from other places and hung it on the ancestral hall after the Spring Festival the following year, which is homophonic with Deng and Ding in Hakka dialect, indicating the addition of Ding. Neighbors think this method is very novel. The old artists in the village use their wisdom and absorb the artistic essence of palace lanterns. They make their own "lanterns" with ready-made bamboo sticks and various colored papers in the countryside and hang them on the ancestral hall. Since then, there has been a unique custom of loyal lanterns, and lanterns have been formally given the meaning of praying for children's happiness.
Although the origin time of Shangdeng has not been verified, its origin has been gradually recognized by believers: Hakka ancestors migrated from the Central Plains and settled in western Fujian, southern Jiangxi and eastern Guangdong. In the extremely harsh living environment, the ancestors borrowed the homonym of "Deng" and "Ding" in Hakka dialect to get their meaning, and the homonym of "Deng" and "Shangding" (that is, Shangding genealogy) was homonym.
1999, in order to better inherit and protect the loyalty lantern festival, Li Anping county government specially held a large-scale activity of loyalty lantern festival on the first day of New Year's Day, and officially established the first day of New Year's Day as the annual loyalty lantern festival. Since 1998, Lianping County Government has held the 8th Li Anping Zhongxin Lantern Festival. On this basis, Zhongxin lanterns have been greatly developed.
The reason why the faithful Lantern Festival is specially chosen on the ninth day of the first month is because faithful people will go out to market on the third, sixth and third days of the lunar calendar. The ninth day of the ninth lunar month is the first gathering day after the Spring Festival and the only day to sell lanterns. Lantern makers picked out lanterns early and put them on the market for sale. People who need lanterns this year will buy lanterns that suit their needs and take them home. Since ancient times, the trading of lanterns has been carried out in a special place, that is, an old street located in the downtown area of China and Singapore, commonly known as "Lantern Street". Nowadays, Lantern Street has gradually faded from its original function of buying and selling lanterns and turned into a Lantern Exhibition Street. Since 1999, every year, the government subsidizes lantern artists to make colorful lanterns and hang them on Lantern Street and Square for tourists to watch. This move gave the lantern a strong protection. In May, 2006, Zhongxin Lantern was listed in the first batch of Guangdong intangible cultural heritage representative list.