The audience is still reminiscing about the previous "Peony Pavilion", and saw a group of people on stilts wearing costumes on the stage, a total of eight people, entering the stage with a long snake array, and then changed into a double side by side formation on the stage, at first the stilt team is not new, the eight people just walked around the stage twice, only to see the steps change, changed to a figure-eight shape, and then the eight people each showed their housekeeping skills, playing a small whirlwind, flower arms, harrier turning, big splitting and other difficult actions.

Although the eight people walking on stilts look a little messy, they also have a special taste, and they are dazzling to watch.

Not long after, a burst of waist drums, small boring gongs, and large and small hairpins sounded on the stage, and the eight people on stilts on the stage immediately accelerated their movements, and the patterns became more and more varied.

At this time, from the backstage of the big theater, the previous group of artists who performed "The Peony Pavilion" walked out in costumes, and at the tea house where the play was watching, the people who were originally densely packed in the aisle also gave way at this time.

Those artists came out of the stage and sang the opera again with the harmonies of the flute, the three strings, the sheng, and the pipa, and walked along the road given by the audience towards the Bixia Yuanjun Niangniang Temple opposite.

These singing artists walked past rows of tea tables, and every time they walked through a row, someone put together the two adjacent tea tables behind them, and directly blocked the aisle they walked through, and walked through a total of eight rows of tea houses, and the eight rows of adjacent Eight Immortal Tables were all put together.

In addition to the big theater, even the audience on Temple Street took the initiative to give way to a compact road.

At this time, the musicians who were accompanying the stilts on the big stage also stood up and walked down the stage. The music in their hands does not stop, bypassing the eight rows of eight immortal tables put together, standing in the door of the big theater building and continuing to knock and beat, the eight people on the stage also followed off the stage one after another, and then there are one big two small three lion dancers on the stage, the big lion is danced by two people, also known as the lion, the little lion is danced by one person alone, also known as the young lion, in addition to the big two small three lions, and another person holds a hydrangea to guide.

Ordinary lion dances usually involve a person pretending to be a martial artist and punching and kicking to lure the lion to dance, but this time the audience was surprised by the outfit of the guide, who was actually dressed as a shaman, and the shaman danced for a while, and then threw a hydrangea to lure the lion to dance.

Although the beginning is a little absurd, with the fast, slow, light and heavy sound of gongs and drums on the stage, the three lions are also full of fun.

The eight-person stilt team got off the stage, but they didn't change the way, and stepped directly on the eight immortal tables that were put together one by one, and the eight people showed their skills, even if they stood on the eight immortal tables, they were still playing different moves, wonderful, and the people who looked directly were dazzled, this was the "Tiger Leaping Mountain Gate".

After these people passed the Eight Immortals Table, the musician who had been waiting for a long time in front of them came out of the door of the big theater and continued to lead the way in front, and when the audience watching the play in the tea house looked at the Eight Immortals Table that had been put together, the almost dried fruits on the table had not moved a bit, and they were still the same as before.

Everyone in the lantern eaves gallery praised again and again, and Xu Ming'er said: "It turns out that this is the 'Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea', and I finally saw it today, and it really deserves its name." ”

Zhu Youzhen also echoed and nodded, he used to see people walking on stilts at the annual Lantern Festival, but those stilts are just to make some articles on the length and height of the stilts under their feet, and then change the costumes and walk in different queues It has become a different play, the so-called Eight Immortals across the sea, the water is full of Jinshan, it depends on whether those people's costumes are wearing the Eight Immortals or Fahai and Shami, which is completely incomparable with what he saw at this time, which made him sigh that these ancient folk arts have been lost terribly.

Look at the stage again

The lion dance performance was quite exciting at the beginning, but it became a little clumsy the further it went.

One of the two lions, one big and one small, suddenly looked up, suddenly looked back and looked down, suddenly looked back and crouched, suddenly shook their heads and shook their tails, in a thousand postures, it is still wonderful, but the hydrangea in the hands of the shaman often can't keep up with the rhythm of the lion, and the other little lion is also very rusty, the imitation of the action has licking hair, wiping feet, scratching the head, washing ears, worshipping, rolling, etc., only let the little lion dance out of the little monkey scratching ears and cheeks feeling, watching everyone laughed.

The singing procession went up the square along the stone steps on one side of the square in front of the Niangniang Temple, sang again in the vacant place on the square, and then went down the stone steps on the other side and turned back to the theater. Then the stilt team of the second scene waited on Temple Street for the previous one to finish singing, and then went up the stone steps on one side to perform in the square.

At this time, the lion dance team on the stage has begun to perform on stilts, they still have no intention of getting off the stage to pay tribute to the gods, the lion head of the big lion is a little anxious, the person beating the gong and drum has been standing up for a long time, and the shaman is still dancing there with hydrangea.

The last day of the temple fair is the most important scene of the temple fair, such an important moment is the lion dance team frequent problems, not only the lion dance team, even the front stilts are a little anxious, they have been performing in the square for a period of time, but still do not see the lion dance off the stage.

The lion head of the lion dance at this time quite regretted accepting the money of the two of them to let them join, they swore that there would be no problem with the lion dance before, but they wanted to take the opportunity of the performance of the gods to get some good fortune, the lion head saw that they danced fists and feet also looked like they believed it was true, and there was no problem when they practiced together.

The lion's head didn't care much, and he stretched out his foot and kicked the shaman's buttocks, kicking him straight and stumbling, and the audience laughed loudly.

The shaman who danced the hydrangea was the Jurchen Guolai, as the deputy commander of the blue flag, when did he suffer such a humiliation, he suddenly wanted to attack, but after thinking about the task and endured it stubbornly, he looked back, and saw the lion head of the big lion signaling to the gong and drummer again and again.

Only then did Gorai remember what he had agreed before, and as soon as he saw the gongs and drummers get up, he would follow them off the stage. Thinking of this, Guo Lai hurriedly picked up the hydrangea and danced a few movements, and hurriedly followed the gong and drummer to the stage, for fear that someone would see something if he was slow.

The gong and drummer walked around the Eight Immortals table and stood inside the door of the theater like the previous musicians of the stilt team, and continued to beat.

At this time, the eight rows of eight immortal tables had long since been removed, and the shaman stood on the eight immortal tables in the first row waving hydrangeas.

The big lion on the stage did not follow the gong and drummer and the shaman down the ladder of the stage before, and after the shaman stood still on the table of the eight immortals, the two big lions jumped from the stage and jumped off the stage directly, and then the two little lions also jumped down after the big lion.

First, the two little lions went towards the shaman's hydrangea, followed the hydrangea and jumped over a table of eight immortals, the two little lions stopped between the eight immortal tables in the first, second and third rows, and then the big lion jumped along the first table of eight immortals, the lion's tail squatted, the lion's head jumped up, and landed firmly on the shoulders of the lion tail, which is the upstairs platform in the lion dance.

The audience saw that the lion head stood on the lion's tail and the lion's tail quickly got up, the lion's head jumped forward, the lion's tail followed closely, and the two of them landed steadily on the two lion cubs in front, which is called crossing the bridge.

Treat the big lion

After settling down, the two little lions went up, and the big lion jumped forward again with the movements of the little lion, one head and one tail stood on the two adjacent Eight Immortal tables, which was across the three mountains.

The big lion is on top, the little lion is down, the big lion keeps jumping forward along the table of the eight immortals, and has been over the eight rows of tables that have been put together, and the little lion is drilling under the table of the eight immortals one by one, and the three lions of one big and two small have come to the door of the big theater at the same time, which is the lion going down the mountain and the lion out of the hole.

After a wonderful lion dance technique, the audience screamed again and again, and they had long forgotten those small mistakes on the stage.

At the moment when the three lions left the Eight Immortals Table, they heard the crackling of firecrackers in front of the door of the big theater, and at the moment when the firecrackers sounded, the shaman suddenly threw the hydrangea in his left hand upward, and picked up a bamboo pole in his right hand to hold the hydrangea thrown in the sky steadily.

At this time, one large, two small and three lions moved with the hydrangea, the two little lions were stacked one after another, and the big lion behind stepped on the two little lions below to climb up layer by layer, until the four people stacked up, and the lion's head grabbed the hydrangea at the head of the club.

Then I saw the lion's mouth vomit slightly, and the hydrangea was spit out again, only to see the hydrangea drooping out of a long banner, on which the book "Niangniang is merciful to the people, and the temple is elegant and eternal." ”

From the moment the banner was lowered, the people who came to watch the play applauded, whether they recognized or did not recognize the words on the banner, it was enough to know that it was a couplet to reward the gods.

The three lions jumped down in turn, and the onlookers burst into applause for a long time.

At the end of the performance in the big theater, according to the plan, the lion dance team was going to play with the spectators in the theater, but at this time, the stilt team on the square in front of the Niangniang Temple had been waiting for them for a long time, and the leading lion did not delay any longer, signaled to the gong and drum players, and then left the theater and headed towards the square.

Seeing that the lion dancers had finally come out, the stilt walkers breathed a sigh of relief, and they should have returned to the theater a long time ago before slowly leaving from the stone steps on the other side of the square.

The onlookers on Temple Street were very curious about the lion dancers, and the road that had been given way was quite crowded, and when they saw the three lions passing by, the people watching the play on Temple Street, regardless of men, women, and children, reached out curiously to touch the lion dance team, and even the mask of the shaman did not let go.

Guo Lai, who was walking in front, was bored by the touch, and quickly quickened his pace, and at this moment, the little lion who walked at the end only heard a young child's voice clapping his hands behind him and shouting: "Mother, I touched the tail of this lion." ”

Then I heard a woman's voice say, "That's not the tail, it's the back of the lion cub." ”

Then the child's voice said again: "No, it's the tail, it's long, hard, you can touch it if you don't believe it." ”

The last lion cub was Guo Lai's subordinate, and when he heard the child's words, the Jurchen who walked at the end panicked, and the child touched the fire hammer on the back of the little lion.

The child was about to touch the woman's hand, and the man, afraid of being exposed, suddenly turned around with the lion's head, and then opened his mouth to the child, and then heard the child cry out with a frightened "wow", and the woman was only concerned with coaxing the child at this time, and how could she have the heart to touch the tail of the little lion.

The Jurchen was able to escape, and after being scared of the crying child, he turned around and ran.

The lion dance team crossed Temple Street and went up the stone steps to the square, which was at its peak of activity.

The lion dance team is different from the previous two performances, and when they arrive at the square, the lion dance team no longer performs like the first two performances, but just interacts with the surrounding spectators.