The broadsword lantern is a traditional folk activity in Xucun, an ancient town in the northwest of She County. It is one of the distinctive activities in She County. It originated from the memory of Xucun people for their ancestor Xu Yuan, a loyal and righteous man in the Tang Dynasty. According to the "Tang Shu Zhongyi Zhuan", Xu Yuan was both wise and brave, proficient in military tactics, and created a set of "Xu Family Sword Techniques". With a sword in his hand, he was full of power and superb, like the dance of dragons and snakes. During the Five Dynasties, Xu Yuan's grandson Xu Ru moved his family from Henan to Huizhou to avoid war. Soon he settled in Xucun, multiplied and prospered, and the family prospered. In order to commemorate the loyal and heroic, educate future generations, and prevent the "Xu Family Sword Technique" from being lost, the broadsword lantern custom was formed in the third and fourth years of Tongzhi. The descendants of the Xu family set the fifteenth day of the first lunar month of each year as the memorial day of the loyal and righteous Xu Yuan. That night, all the ancestral halls of the Xu family had to send a sword dance team, holding a broadsword more than two meters high, walking on the ten-mile long street, and dancing back and forth all night. The main materials for making the big knife lantern are bamboo and fir. The bamboo is split into 11 strands by hand and tied into the shape of a big knife. A candle is lit inside and cotton paper is pasted outside. Patterns such as figures, flowers and birds, and pavilions are painted on the cotton paper, integrating craftsmanship and culture. In terms of performance, it has unique artistic value, mainly reflecting the unified coordination of "hands, eyes, body, method, and steps". At present, since most young people go out to work, the participants in this activity are all over 50 years old. It is very difficult to organize the lantern dance because they are old and have insufficient physical strength. In addition, since the big knife lantern is mainly made of bamboo, which is easy to be eaten by insects, it must be re-tied every 35 years, and funds must be invested. Now, with the passing of old folk artists, the big knife lantern has no successors and is still in an endangered state. In the past one or two years, some local sages in Xucun have raised funds to organize villagers to make big knife lanterns in order to explore and inherit this folk custom, and spontaneously established a big knife club, but it is a drop in the bucket and cannot ensure continuity. Information source: Anhui Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center Information source: Anhui Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center