The prosperous and prosperous atmosphere of the Tang Dynasty has nurtured the majestic grandeur of China's excellent traditional culture. The popular civil activities such as lantern festivals, cannon burning, and fire dance are known as the grand events in the history of folk customs since the Han and Tang dynasties. Visiting the lantern festival is also full of strong New Year's flavor in the local area. When Huineng was two years old, he went to the village with his father and mother to visit the lantern festival.

The origin of Xinzhou lanterns is inseparable from traditional Chinese culture. During the first year of Tang Dynasty, in order to celebrate the peace of the country and the people, the lanterns were tied inside and outside the imperial city, and the flickering lights symbolized "the colorful dragon is auspicious, and the people are strong and the country is strong", and the lantern atmosphere has become popular since then.

Xinzhou was the place of exile for officials of previous dynasties, and the degraded officials and their families brought the art of making lanterns from the Central Plains.

Every year during the Lantern Festival and the Xia Yuan Festival, large-scale lantern festivals will be held in various villages in Xinzhou. The village hall is full of lanterns sent by various households, with different forms, magnificent, and joyful. At the same time, the village also invited the opera troupe to act, feast, and hold all kinds of ceremonies such as inviting the king and sending the king, which was very lively, attracting many outsiders to come to enjoy the lanterns and watch the play.

The lantern and the Lantern Festival are inseparable, in the traditional festival customs, the Lantern Festival can be said to be the atmosphere is more active, the inheritance is the best, the folk since the thirteenth day of the first month, go to the ancestral temple to hang the lantern, the fifteenth day of the first month will take the lantern back to hang at home, called the lantern.

The local dialect of NSW "lamp" is the same as "ding". The old customs all want to "prosper people", which is convenient for the Lantern Festival to make a homophonic "Xing Deng (Ding)" article on the lamp (Ding). Even if the lantern is burned during the fire, it is not a bad omen, on the contrary, it is a good omen for the lantern to burn, which means that the coming year will be auspicious.

In the past, every festival in the local folk, the villages and villages would dance joyful lantern dances, pray for good fortune, and have the custom of nephews visiting their uncles. There is a folk saying in Xinzhou: "The nephew beats the lantern ——— shines on (uncle) old".

According to the old rural customs in Xinzhou County, during the Lantern Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival, the nephew went to visit his uncle, and when he returned home, the uncle would buy a lantern for the nephew to go home. On the night of the festival, there are all kinds of lanterns hanging on the roadside, there are red gauze palace lanterns, there are all kinds of paper lanterns, and many uncles and concubines are busy buying lanterns for their nephews and nieces.

Lanterns are lamps that people use for lighting. In the past, in the Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, weddings, occupations, adults, Tianding and other festive days, lanterns were widely used by people, from local officials to ordinary Li people, all advocating the culture of lanterns, and every household liked to hang lanterns. The lantern represents good luck. There is a popular folk song about lanterns in NSW:

Lantern meeting, lantern meeting, lantern black home sleeping.

Carry the lantern and shine on the uncle, who hid behind the door.

Watermelon lanterns, jack-o'-lanterns, lantern lanterns in the streets and alleys.

Kick once, kick twice, my lantern won't break.

After visiting the lantern festival, it was the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.

As the saying goes, "a hundred miles of different winds, a thousand miles of different customs". Lantern Festival, there are different customs in various places of the people.

The most popular way to make Lantern Festival in Huineng's hometown is to "burn cannons". Every year from the first month of the year to February, each village takes turns to burn, and it can be said that the day of "burning cannons" is more lively than the first day of the new year.

"Burning cannons", known locally as flower grabbing cannons, has been in Xinzhou since ancient times. Huineng heard her mother say: "When she was a child, she went to see the cannon every year, and the day of the cannon burning in our village is also the time to worship the gods." The villagers sacrificed chickens, pork, and fruits, and used them to worship their ancestors and the land. Land, also known as the earth god, the land god, the shrine god, the shrine lord. ”

"The Legend of the Ram" records: The society is also the lord of the land. Hence the name of the land. The god of the land is the god who guards the place and is responsible for protecting the safety of the party. The land loads and grows all things, and people worship it, on the one hand, it is a feeling of admiration, worship and gratitude, and on the other hand, it is also a prayer for the future to eliminate disasters and diseases, good fortune, good weather, and a rich life. After worshipping the ancestors and the land gods, the next step is to burn the cannon.

Folklore has it that the ninth day of the first lunar month is the birthday of the Jade Emperor, and on this day, people use fast fruit and tea to pay homage to the Jade Emperor. For large-scale sacrifices, altars are also set up, firecrackers are set off, gongs and drums are beaten, music is played, and trumpets are blown during worship, and the scene is very enthusiastic.

After the worship is over, activities such as "going to the knife mountain", "going down to the sea of fire", and "grabbing flowers and cannons" will be held.

The so-called "Knife Mountain" is to climb a wooden knife ladder, and a number of special knives are installed on the ladder. "To go down to the sea of fire" is to burn charcoal on the ground and walk barefoot over the coals. Those who can "go up the sword mountain and down the sea of fire" symbolize bravery, tenacity, and fearlessness of hardships and dangers, and also place people's wishes to eliminate disasters. "Grab the flower cannon" is to put the cannon ring into the cannon in advance, and the cannon ring that bounces up after ignition falls from a high altitude, and people scramble, meaning to grab good luck. The village where the winner is located regards the cannon ring as a holy relic and carefully worships it, saying that it can protect the clansmen and ensure the safety of the villagers, and life will get better and better.

Every year on this day, every family has to hold a family banquet to entertain the married daughter and other relatives and friends.

Running a family banquet is not complicated, there are generally chicken, duck and fish, and then a few dishes can be fried. Such as shiitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots, broccoli, snow peas, vegetable cores, sauerkraut, mushrooms, etc. The "sour" Cantonese dialect has the same sound as "sun", and the mushrooms with sprouts are metaphors for the full house of children and grandchildren, and Ding is prosperous.

The place to burn the cannon is to choose a relatively open field, build a high platform in the middle, find a wood or bamboo pole to erect, in a little farther place, erect a long bamboo pole with pulleys, specially used to set off firecrackers, the colorful flags around are flying, very magnificent. People came from all over the world, in several layers. In this batch and wave of people, there are not only those who came to help, but also those who came to watch the fireworks and cannons, plus the villagers who joined in the excitement from ten miles and eight townships, such a "big battle" is really unprecedented.

On the day of "burning the cannon", the relatives and friends of all families in our village, plus the villagers from ten miles and eight towns, the scene was quite spectacular.

At 3:30 p.m., the firing began. The firecrackers are uniformly made. When firing a cannon, the ring (made of metal or rattan) is first loaded into the cannon. With the commander's order, the gunner lit the cannon with incense, and immediately heard a loud "boom", and the cannon circle rose into the air, and then fell from the sky. The people who grabbed the gun circle first looked intently into the air, and the moment the gun circle fell, people rushed up. The one who grabs the cannon circle, after it is raised high, others are not allowed to snatch it again, and the victory belongs to him. The winner will quickly run to the gun owner and receive a big red envelope.

Of all the fireworks, the first cannon is the most solemn, and the winner is not only revered by the people, but also proud of it, which indicates good luck for the year.

After the cannon was fired, the fireworks grabbing activity came to an end. After the crowd of onlookers dispersed, the host continued to organize the procession, beat gongs and drums, play joyful music, and carry the cannon ring and mirror screen to the home of the winner of the first cannon. The winner needs to kill the chicken and worship the heavens and the earth and the ancestors after 3 days, and then send the mirror screen and cannon ring back to the village, where they will be kept by respected elders and kept for recycling in the next year. At this point, the cannon burning activity is over.