In the old days, there were many rules for welcoming lights, from urging lights to receiving lights, welcoming lights, hanging mountains to turning on lights, and there was a set of extremely strict procedures.
Mr. Wang Yonghua, a cultural resident of our city, recorded in the "Dongyang Customs Records" that the dragon lanterns went out for three nights in various places, and the specific dates spanned villages and concentrated on the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth nights of the first month.
On the 14th (and 13th) night, a strong man took the tap and accompanied the gongs and drums to travel around the village, which means "urging the lights". Every bridge lamp holder comes out of the house with a lamp and meets the faucet in the yard, which is called "receiving the lamp".
In the old society, it was customary to greet the lanterns at night, and the dragon lanterns did not leave the village, which was called "the first night benefit village".
After the first night, the dragon lantern will leave the village to meet the game. Southern customs: the leading bamboo was stolen from Hecun, and I went to the village to greet the lamp the next night, so that I could thank her and call her "Xie Niang Jia". Dragon lanterns from all over the country enter the village. If the dragon lantern in the main village does not leave the village, it must be assembled at the entrance of the village, which is called "receiving guests". In the past, Huaide Township was still very popular in Xiachenghuang Temple, and the dragon lanterns in each village came in and out in order to be safe in the coming year.
When going out of the village to welcome lanterns, several rows of dragon lanterns meet and need to compete with lanterns: dragon head racing or lantern train racing array. The main formations are hoop, belly roll, green snake slide, wheat cake pick, lotus spin, scissors stock, double door, round house column and so on. Because you eat more ergot on the fifteenth day of the first month, it is also called "buckwheat horn".
In Izayoi, dragon lanterns go out to the wild, hanging mountains, turning hills, winding streams and ponds to drive away the plague. The weather is fine and the crops are ripe. Until the fourth watch, the dragon lantern returned to the light, dancing wildly in the open place and pulling hard. This is called "flushing light" and "painting light". It is auspicious to pull the faucet to the ground, that is, to win the color of "harmony" by "reaching the ground" So customs often hurt people who say hello and light, so they have been abolished.
When the light went off, it dispersed. The bridge lamp is gone, and the decoration on the faucet is torn off. Take out the keel bamboo stick and light the cotton paper bamboo stick. Commonly known as "turn on the light" and "send the dragon to heaven". Some villages don't have this custom, but it's best to keep the faucet and dragon lantern intact. Hide the tap in the hall after the reception. The colored lights on the faucet are given to the newlyweds in the village, called "sending lights", wishing them an early birth.
In the past, Dongyang welcomed dragon lanterns. If there was a leap moon in that year, it was necessary to welcome it for one or two nights, which was called "welcoming the leap moon lights". If you meet the year of Jiazi, it means that it is very rare to reopen Jiazi. You have to greet it for several nights, called "Ying Jia Zi Deng".