Photo shows the dragon and lion dance performance. (By Xia Zhengfeng/Xianning Daily)

On Feb 19th, the 7th Xiangcheng Big Stage activity themed as “Spring Nourishing Xianning, Sailing to 2019” Xianning City Lantern Festival Urban and Rural Cultural Alliance Co-Movement was successfully held, and thousands upon thousands of people gathered in the People’s Square to celebrate the Lantern Festival happily.

This activity will be carried out in the “1+6” form, with 1 main venue being set in Xianning downtown areas, and 6 branch venues in 6 counties, county-level cities and districts, among which the main venue has been divided into 6 zones to hold a series of activities, such as the folk song and dance performance, lantern riddles guessing game, intangible heritage demonstration, special snack sales and tasting activity, specialties sales exhibition activity and renowned tea savoring activity.

The activity kicked off with a dragon and lion dance performance, the gong and drum performance Jin To Liang conveyed the masses’ anticipation towards a better life; the “My Motherland and Me” music flash mob activity demonstrated the patriotic feelings of Xianning citizens towards their motherland; other Xianning local characteristic programs with diverse performance styles, such as Tongcheng flapping dance, Chibi Cailianchuan (it is a traditional land boat dance which origins from Hubei people’s daily life in the old days of rowing boats to gather lotuses), Jiayu clamshell spirit dance and Tongshan local traditional opera which goes by the name of playing with phoenix, all of which have won thunderous applauses from the audience on the scene.

1500 riddles were hanged above the lantern riddle zone in the center of the square, which have attracted citizens to fall over each other to guess the riddles, with happy smiles on their faces. A citizen, Ms Li said, “not only have my children and I guessed right, but also we have received some small gift, more importantly, we have enjoyed the enchantment of traditional culture and learn a lot of knowledge.”

In the special snack zone, Xianning local special delicacies, such as the Hecai noodles, glutinous rice cake of Xian’an District; Paizhou fish balls, stinky tofu of Jiayu County; Chibi meat loaf; Tongcheng steamed rice cake with stuffing; Chongyang sweet rice wine; meat-stuffed balls made from sweet potato starch and sesame cakes of Tongshan County have been placed in line, waiting for citizens to taste them for free.

In the tea savoring zone, Zhaoliqiao brick tea and Yangfanlin Yao mountain black tea plant have put on a tea art show, filling this area with the aroma of tea, which attracted citizens to stop by and taste the tea.

“We can drink tea, eat snacks, guess riddles and watch performances here, and it really makes this Lantern Festival full of special meanings.” a citizen, Mr. Wu said happily.

In that day, every county, county-level city and district have held Lantern Festival celebration activities that can manifest their own unique local characteristics to realize the collaboration of towns and countries, and the co-movement of upper and lower levels. (By Wang Tian/Xianning Daily)