When the Lantern Festival approaches every year, dragon lanterns will be played in my hometown for three consecutive days, commonly known as "dragon lanterns".
There are many types of dragon lanterns, and the village where my hometown is located usually uses straw lanterns made of woven straw. Although this seemingly inconspicuous dragon lantern is neither exquisite nor as graceful and gorgeous as lanterns, it is low in cost, light in weight and has deep meaning. A week before the Lantern Festival, the village chiefs started preparations. Grandpa Cao, who has been weaving for many years, found clean straw early and started working on the playground of the village primary school. He chops grass and twists rope, and it often takes him a day or two to weave a complete dragon lantern. Purely hand-woven dragon lanterns are generally divided into three parts: the dragon head, the dragon body and the dragon tail, which are connected by a dozen vivid straw handles with straw ropes. Most of Grandpa Cao's unique skills are in the dragon heads. The dragon heads he weaves with straw handles are full of energy and life, especially the pair of "dragon eyes" decorated with white radish, which are particularly bright and vivid. After weaving the lantern into shape, we inserted fine fir sticks into it, and the long dragon lantern was ready to go.
The thirteenth day of the first lunar month is the day when dragon lanterns are lit. In the evening, a large group of dragon lantern performers began to gather at the playground of the village primary school to stand by. A dozen handsome young men around fifteen years old each held a fir stick, and a lit incense candle was inserted into the straw handle. The dragon lanterns under the lights are newly decorated and full of energy. In addition to the young generals who performed the dragon lantern, there were also older leaders carrying bags, emcees who cheered, and team members who played gongs and drums. At 6:18 in the evening, a big red firecracker went off on time, and the dragon lantern performers set off vigorously amidst the noisy gongs and drums.
My home is not far from the village primary school, and every year I am one of the top families in line to welcome the lanterns. Seeing that the dragon lantern was coming, my mother cleaned up the Eight Immortals table early and made a spacious space in front of the old house. At the same time, she took out one large, two small and three hanging firecrackers, took a small bundle of incense and lit them, and waited for the arrival of the dragon lantern. When I was young, I was not qualified enough to play dragon lanterns, but my ability to join in the fun was absolutely top-notch. When the dragon lantern first entered the previous room, I no longer followed him to join in the fun. Instead, I hurriedly went home to tell my parents to greet the lantern at the door.
After a while, with a burst of rapid gongs and drums, the high dragon head immediately appeared in front of my family and me. My father quickly lit a big firecracker and invited the dragon lantern into the house very reverently. The leader took the lit incense and inserted it one by one on the straw lamp. Under the leadership of the leader, the long dragon lantern circled three times in front of the old house. The emcee kept cheering at the top of his voice, and two small firecrackers were interspersed with them. When the dragon lantern is about to leave the house, my father will stuff a pack of cigarettes into the leader's bag, which is not only a reward for everyone, but also a good luck.
As soon as the dragon lantern left, I couldn’t wait to invite my friends and follow them lively. There were only fifty or sixty households in the village at that time, but it would take more than two hours to go from house to house. In order to catch up with the rhythm of the dragon lantern show, I completely ignored the slippery muddy road under my feet. Sometimes, if I was not careful, my cotton shoes would step into the muddy puddles on the roadside. What's worse is that if you step on your partner's heel, both of them will fall to the ground and chew the mud. After laughing for a while, we became more and more energetic and followed the dragon lantern performing team from house to house.
In my memory, my eldest brother participated in the dragon lantern show more often, and I just followed and made fun of him. Once, under the leadership of my eldest brother, I also got addicted to playing with dragon lanterns. It's just that he is too young, and is only qualified to lift the dragon's tail. Performing the dragon lantern dance all over the village for three consecutive days, going door to door, which naturally consumes a lot of energy. In order to facilitate the care of me, the elder brother who was originally holding the dragon head changed to holding the dragon body that time, just in front of me. Maybe it was because I was too excited to participate for the first time. After playing for two days, I felt so tired that I couldn’t even move my feet. Even so, on the night of the third day, the night of the Lantern Festival, I still appeared in the team on time. Before setting off, my eldest brother gave me a thumbs up and encouraged me to finish the last mile. That night, the weather was not good, and when there were only about ten households left, it suddenly started to rain, and we were all soaked in the rain. Traveling on the bumpy road, everyone's good mood suffered a heavy blow. My eldest brother turned around and told me to worry about the road under my feet and stop falling! Before I finished speaking, I stumbled and fell to the ground. At that time, the dragon head in front was moving very fast, and the whole grass stretched the dragon straight. The tail of the dragon I lifted was instantly pulled away from the fir stick. When my elder brother and the team leader came over to help me, I was half lying on the ground, still holding a bare fir stick firmly in my hand. Everyone laughed at my embarrassed look, and their original depressed mood disappeared in an instant. There are not many families left, so just hold on to the end. I reattached the dragon's tail and set off again with the large army...
That night, the dragon lantern show came to a successful conclusion. The team leader took us back to the village primary school, lit a bonfire in the center of the playground, put a dozen straw handles and sticks into the fire, and then lit a hanging firecracker. We formed a circle around the bonfire and bowed respectfully three times. It means sending the dragon to heaven, which means good weather and good luck in the new year. At the last stage of the reward distribution, everyone praised me and decided to give me an extra pack of Foziling cigarettes. I didn’t know how warm I felt at that time.