Fire dragon dance: A century-old tradition to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival

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This year's Mid-Autumn Festival falls on October 4. Aside from eating mooncakes and admiring the full moon, people in southern China have a long tradition of celebrating the night with a "fire dragon dance."

For Shangyuan villagers in Foshan city, Guangdong Province, the fire dragon dance is the biggest event of the year – even more important than New Year's Eve.

Villagers light up incenses and stick them on a dragon figure./ Handout photo from Foshan Daily

500 kilograms of incense

Incense are one of the most important parts of making a fire dragon. At 8 p.m., thousands of people begin to light up incense and stick them on a dragon figure.

Villagers light up incenses and stick them on a dragon figure. /Handout photo from Foshan Daily

During the dragon dance, incense sticks will be replaced twice once they burnt out. A total of 500 kilograms of incense will be used for this event.

80-meter long dragon

The dragon dance only starts at night, but preparation begins early in the morning with dozens of villagers in form to make the dragon.

They use bamboos to build its skeleton and wrap it with water lettuce.

The green dragon figure is made of water lettuce. /Handout photo from Foshan Daily

The dragon is 80 meters long and about 60 performers are needed to manipulate it.

Two-hour parade

Performers and villagers will lift the dragon together and march around the village for two hours – that's their way of praying for good luck.

The dragon head weighs about 50 kilograms once put on incenses. /Handout photo from Foshan Daily

So how did this practice begin?

In ancient times, a plague once befell the village, and many died from the disease. One day, a fairy told villagers that in order to get rid of the plague, they needed to create a fire dragon and parade it around the village.

They did exactly what they were told, and the plague went away.

Fire dragon dance is a century-long tradition in southern China. /Handout photo from Foshan Daily

There are definitely no plagues in this village today, but this activity has become a tradition for the people in southern China.

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