The Rituals, Symbols And Meanings Of Lantern Festival

Located in the southeast Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Bobai County has a Hakka population of over1.4million which occupied over60%of its total population. Deeply influenced by Han Chinese Culture, it is known as the biggest county of Hakka. Having long and deep relationship with the Nuo culture of Han Nation, the "Lantern Festival Dance" of Fengshan Town in Bobai Country not only inherits the essence of Nuo culture but also is fused with local culture. Thus, it is a indispensable ritual in the festival. Therefore, this thesis have the "Lantern Festival Dance" as the entry point to the village as a unit,select Fengshan Town in Bobai County as the fieldwork site. First of all, the paper make a brief introduction about the natural environment and the humanities environment in Fengshan Town,followed by the development process and the preparatory work to sort out the Lantern Festival.Focusing on the introduction of Fengshan Lantern Festival activities of the grand occasion during the Spring Festival in2013. So it can sum up that the Lantern Festival activities are divided into two aspects, one of that is based on the "Invite God","Move God " and "Sent God away",the other one is the "Lantern Festival Dance" for getting rid of ghosts and disasters. Through the study of the Lantern Festival Dance ceremony, and explore the origin and development process of Nuo culture, it spy the essence, artistic features, inheritance and development rule about the ceremony. Furthermore, this paper make a development on the Lantern Festival tradition for the range of time and space analysis.The next part analysis the Lantern Festival customs about historical and cultural value, artistic value, market value and so on.On the basic of above studies, the author conduct a comparative study between " Lantern Festival Dance" and Nuo rituals in other regions. With a summary of the essential characteristics of Fengshan town’s " Lantern Festival Dance", the author then digs into its historic, artistic, and commercial values, as well as its restraining factors and problems, its social functions and possible visions under the background of modern society.