Praying for good luck at the Lantern Festival

On the morning of the 15th day of the first lunar month, Daguan and Erguan are on their way to worship gods in the village.

On the morning of the 15th day of the first lunar month, villagers pay visits to the family accommodating the “three gods”, bringing incense with them to pray for a happy new year.

This is a most important day for children. On every lantern festival before a child turns 12, they come to the front of the shrine of the “three gods” with their parents early in the morning and have two coins with holes in the middle strung together, which is used as talisman to keep the evil spirits away. It’s believed every child in the village is, on the first 15th day of the first lunar month after his or her birth, trusted to the “three gods” to grow up healthy and safe, and the two-coin talisman is the symbol of the gods’ protecting power. When the child turns 12, he or she is taken to the “three gods” with dozens of coin strings made in past years and a key is inserted into a lock. A senior person who presides over the ceremony uses the key to unlock the lock, indicating the child has grown up and is embarking on a journey to seek his or her own future.

All day long, the village glows with high spirits. In addition to folk street performances, Jin Opera is staged in a half-a-century-old theater situated in the middle of the street. Xiadongzhai Jin Opera Troupe, famed for its outstanding performing skills, used to be a household name in neighboring counties. Members of the troupe are all locals in the village. Their roles are all-inclusive, even including a cross-dressing male actor. The troupe has all the costumes and props that one expects to find; they have so many repertoires that in a half-a-month-long performance season they will not repeat any of them. Unfortunately, with modern entertainment getting more airtime, the troupe finds itself withering and audiences shrinking.

On the night of the Lantern Festival, members of the Jin Opera troupe and Bayin music ensemble assemble in front of the shrine of the “three gods” to perform throughout the evening.

Horseback riding and Shehuo show

Horseback riding on the 16th day of the first lunar month is the most thrilling and impressive event of the whole Lantern Festival celebration.

Handed down from generation to generation for hundreds of years, “horse running” is held annually along the street in the village. All the riders are locals who till the farmlands and have no equestrian training, while the horses are raised by local families and used to plough land during the busy farming period. In recent years, the number of local horses is declining, so the village has begun renting horses from neighboring Hebei Province.