Xincheng Lantern Festival Folk Customs Xincheng Town, Xiuzhou District, has had the "Aoshan Lantern Festival" since the Qing Dynasty. It was called "Water Play" at that time. It was held every 19 years and must be held in the leap April. Enthusiastic people from all quarters raised money from door to door to decorate the water surface with springs, rocks, pavilions, figures, flowers, etc., competing for beauty and ingenuity. The more they came, the more strange they were. There were tens of thousands of boats coming from afar. "Aoshan" refers to the production of lantern scenery, which is made of hundreds of lanterns piled into a mountain, shaped like a giant turtle, commonly known as "Aoshan". Because the activity is held in the evening and the lanterns are lit together, it is called "Aoshan Lantern Festival". Aoshan uses pavilions, towers, rocks, and gardens as the background. There are also garden villas, figures and flowers that compete for beauty, which are the first to go; followed by orchestral gongs and drums, ground play lanterns; there are also dancing impermanence, stilt walking and various colored lanterns. Some are also accompanied by boys or puppets, compiled into dramas, and various performances, with realistic images. The Aoshan Lantern Festival is often accompanied by folk musical instruments, playing and beating, and walking along the street. There are tens of thousands of spectators, which is very lively. Aoshan (lantern scenery) is generally divided into large and small. The one carried on the shoulders is the small Aoshan, also known as "Pu Ao", and the big Aoshan is usually always the last treasure as the finale. The Aoshan Lantern Festival is often accompanied by the famous fire umbrella display. The paper umbrella with the characteristics of elegance, simplicity, exquisiteness and dexterity is particularly eye-catching. In the spring of the 13th year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty (1887), the county magistrate Zhu Qifeng banned the Aoshan Lantern Festival because the cost was too high. However, the Aoshan Lantern Festival and the display of fire umbrellas have left moving records in various local chronicles or poems of literati. In the early years of the Republic of China, the industry and commerce of Xincheng Town were increasingly prosperous. There were six major industries in the town, including money houses, pawnshops, oil mills, wood shops, silk shops, and rice shops, competing with each other, and a prosperous scene. Every time there is a festival to welcome the gods on the 15th day of the third lunar month, Aoshan often participates in it, which is called "Ri Aoshan". In the 14th year of the Republic of China (1925), on a certain day of the fourth lunar month, the Aoshan Lantern Festival was held. All the squares in the town designed various lanterns and Aoshan, and gathered in front of Nengren Temple in the evening to welcome the lanterns. Each square was led by the Qi Ma Pai, with gongs and drums, orchestras, local operas, horse lanterns, Wuchang Tuo, stilt walking, lanterns, and finally Aoshan. Parallel to it are elegant, exquisite, and delicate colorful fire umbrellas. In the fourth lunar month of the 23rd year of the Republic of China (1934), the last Aoshan Lantern Festival in the history of Xincheng Town before the founding of New China was held. In 2010, Xincheng Town restored the traditional Aoshan Lantern Festival in the 12th Lantern Festival Folk Culture Festival. Xincheng Lantern Festival folk customs were included in the third batch of Jiaxing City's intangible cultural heritage list. Information source: Jiaxing Library (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.) Information source: Jiaxing Library (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.)