Origin of the Spring Festival Lion Dance
The lion dance is a traditional folk sports activity in China, which originated in the era of the Northern and Southern Dynasties.
According to the legend, in May of the 23rd year of Yuanjia (466 AD) of Emperor Wen of Song Dynasty, the assassin of Jiazhou of Song Dynasty, Trojan Hezhi, was ordered to attack Linyi, and the king of Linyi, Fan Yang, used an elephant army to participate in the battle. This army of elephants made it difficult for the enemy, who possessed only short weapons, to even approach it because the soldiers were armed with spears and rode on the backs of tall and large elephants, and the soldiers of the Song army began to suffer great losses. Later, the vanguard officer, General Zhenwu Zongcourt, thought of a solution. He said that all beasts are afraid of lions, and elephants are probably no exception. So, overnight with the noodles, hemp, etc. made a lot of fake lions, painted in colorful, and special open mouth. Each "lion" was carried by two warriors, hidden in the bushes. He also dug a number of deep and large traps around the intended battlefield. The enemy drove the elephant army to attack, Zongcourt used the bow to release the fake lion, this "lion" one by one turned a big bloody mouth, tusks and claws straight to the elephants.
The elephants were scared to turn their heads, Zongcourt took the opportunity to command the soldiers ten thousand crossbows, the frightened elephants were running around, a lot of them fell into the trap, people and elephants were captured alive. Since then, the lion dance first popular in the army, and then spread to the people. Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi's "West Liang Envoy" in the "masked hu people masked lion, carved wood for the head of the silk for the tail; gold plated eyes and silver teeth, up sweater swinging both ears?" The Chinese idiom of "The Lion with Masked Face" was written in the Tang Dynasty. It can be seen, in the Tang Dynasty, there are similar to the modern lion dance.
Why do people like to dance lions during the Spring Festival? It is said that in the early Ming Dynasty, Guangdong Foshan region appeared a monster, every year will be the end of the year, it appeared in the outskirts of Foshan, trampling crops everywhere, maiming people and animals, rural farmers do not win their bitter people will be tied into a number of bamboo grates into a number of lion model, and painted a variety of mottled colors, beforehand, when the beast appeared, drums and gongs, the group of lions dance, all towards the beast, the beast was terrified, turned away, and then ran, the local townspeople think the lion dance. Afterwards, the local villagers think that the lion has the power to drive away evil spirits and suppress demons, and has auspicious omens. So, every year in the Spring Festival to play drums and gongs, door to door, lion dance to pay tribute to the New Year, in order to show that the elimination of harm, forecast auspicious intentions.
Lion dance, in addition to the Spring Festival, in the days of celebration, also often with a lion dance. Folk general lion dance by two people cooperating to play a big lion (some areas called too lion), a person dressed as a small lion (some areas called less lion), another person dressed as a warrior, holding a hydrangea ball as a guide, and the first open fist kicking, in order to induce the lion to dance. Lion with the drum beat of fast, slow, light, heavy, and suddenly look up, and suddenly look back and low, and suddenly back to prostrate, and suddenly wagging his head and tail, a variety of postures, interesting, in imitation of the action, there are licking the hair, wipe the feet, scratching the head, wash the ear, pilgrimage, rolling and other actions; in the skills, there are on the platform, over the footbridge, across the three mountains, out of the hole, the next mountain, rolling, spitting and picking up the green, and so on.