Zigong City Lantern Festival Carnival
The Lantern Festival is a major festival activity throughout the Han nationality living areas of China. It has a history of two thousand years and is known as the carnival of the Chinese nation.
As early as in the Tang and Song dynasties, Zigong area had the custom of appreciating lanterns during the New Year, which further developed into various festivals in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. In the middle of Qing Dynasty, there were "Lion Lantern Market", "Lantern Pole Festival", "Lantern Festival", "Concealment" and other Lantern Festival activities, which were rich in local customs and folk colors and formed a heavy cultural accumulation. According to the records of Zigong history, in addition to the colorful lanterns and lantern products, Zigong Lantern Fair activities have three characteristics: First, the historical Zigong Lantern Fair has integrated the lion dance, acrobatics and other artistic performances with the lantern watching; Second, the Lantern Festival combined with tourism, has already received foreign guests; Third, the Lantern Festival in Zigong area has formed its own characteristics and personality. "rope all the skills, tang cheung yan", "the westerners also readily to view, see also" by the beijing-shanghai, etc.
Zigong Lantern Fair from the tradition of continuous innovation, adhere to the combination of traditional technology and modern science and technology, traditional culture and modern aesthetic combination, formed a grand scale, spectacular, unique conception, exquisite production, colorful, bright and confusing overall artistic characteristics, full of charming artistic charm. Since 1964, Zigong has held seven Spring Lantern fairs and 23 International Dinosaur Lantern Fairs. It has been invited to show in more than 500 large and medium cities in China, and has been exhibited in more than 50 countries and regions in Asia, Europe, America and Oceania for more than 200 times, attracting 400 million visitors from home and abroad.
Zigong enjoys the reputation of "the best lantern in the world" in China and abroad. Zigong Lantern Festival is a national intangible cultural heritage announced by The State Council. Is one of the two national folk activities determined by the National Tourism Administration, listed in the top of 40 folk activities; It is the main project of "Chinese People's Life Tour" promoted by China to the world. It was awarded "Excellent Export cultural products and services Project" by the Ministry of Culture. It is awarded the "most influential International Festival" by the International Festival Association and other organizations. It has been listed as a series of activities of "Perception of China" by the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and identified as a "Spring Festival Culture Going Out" project by the Ministry of Culture.
