CHAPTER IV

_THE FEAST OF LANTERNS_

The Feast of Lanterns comes almost directly after that of the New Year. It may almost be said that one is the complement of the other, as the latter in date takes place from the tenth day to the fifteenth day of the first moon, and as the holidays of the New Year are prolonged from the twentieth day of the twelfth moon of the dying year to the twentieth day of the first moon of the new year.

During this month of holiday, all official business is suspended. The seals which represent the official signatures are locked up in their cases.

It is the use made, in incredible quantities, of all sorts of lanterns that gives its name and its originality to this feast. The Chinese are very fond of making these lanterns, and give them a luxury of form, and employ in their manufacture a variety of material which defy imagination. There is not on that day a single nook of the mighty Empire which is not thus lighted up. To carry out an illumination on such a scale, it will be readily understood that something more is needed than is seen elsewhere when lanterns are used for illuminations.

To get a more exact idea of the character of our illuminations, imagine one of your large toy-shops filled with transparent lanterns—horses, lions, sheep, elephants, soldiers, horsemen, parasols, flowers, grotesque figures, fantastic animals, &c. All the imitations of living things are associated with all the varieties of fancy to transform light silk or translucid paper into multi-coloured lanterns, now simple, now double. These latter turn round and round, driven by the motion of the heated air, and display the series of pictures with which they are filled. There is not a thing in nature, or out of it, that does not on that day take shape of lantern.

A gigantic lantern representing a dragon is carried about in the public places to the sound of music. This is composed of a framework of wicker covered with transparent stuff, on which the dragon’s scales are painted. It is mounted on staves, which are held by the bearers. Anybody can get the procession to stop before his house, or he can have it enter his courtyard if he wants a private representation. In this case, all he has to do is to let off a certain number of crackers as the procession passes his house, so as to let the bearers know that they have to stop. After the performance, which consists in making the dragon fly about in every direction, cake and wine are offered to the musicians and to the bearers, but never money, for the procession is always composed of people belonging to the highest classes of society, who do this for their pleasure. The European torchlight procession gives but a very feeble idea of our dragon walk.

When a marriage takes place in a family, the relations of the bride send her on her wedding-day a lantern representing a divinity holding a child in his hand. If in the second year the wife has not had a child, another lantern is sent her representing an orange; the word orange in Chinese is synonymous to the words “make haste.” The lantern thus constitutes a kind of punning reminder to her of her duty. Lanterns are also sent from the local temples to any house in the parish in which either a recent marriage, or a birth, or a literary success has taken place.

The subjects of these lanterns differ according to circumstances; the bearers are always accompanied by an orchestra. One sees a large lantern, on which are written enigmas, riddles, and puzzles, in almost every street. The passers-by are supposed to try their skill at guessing these puzzles, and those who succeed get as a reward some letter-paper, or some brushes, ink, fireworks, sweets, &c. When the problem propounded is some clever _jeu de mots_, or a comic answer is given, you can hear the whole street ringing with shouts of healthy laughter.

Formerly under the dynasty of the Hans, it was forbidden to be out in the streets of nights except during these feasts. On these occasions the bridge gates of the city remained wide open, and the padlocks of the bridge railings were unlocked all night.

Poetry has celebrated these nights of popular gaiety:

“The trees on fire and the flowers in silver form bouquets on every side, And the iron padlocks no longer exist on the starlit bridges. A fine dust pursues on all the roads the perfumed feet of the horses; And the moon shining brilliantly, accompanies the walkers; These for the most part belong to the radiant youth, Who sing so joyously that one fancies one hears the celebrated melody of Lo-Mei-Hoa, or the fall of the petals of the plum-tree. This night it is not forbidden to walk abroad, Therefore let the waters flow slowly and without undue haste.”

Another poem says:

“Two phœnixes come down from heaven with their triumphal chariot. Six dragons rise from the bottom of the sea bearing a mountain on their backs.”

Does not this remind you of the “Isoline” of Catulle Mendes?

Let me quote a few more lines:

“What charitable hand has scattered all these lotus seeds, Which at one and the same time flower in every corner of the city?”

All this literature will show what a brilliant fête it is.

There are, of course, besides, family meetings, parties, where wine and poetry help to bring the solemnity to its end indoors; while, in the streets, the pleasures of the joyous crowd are prolonged until the morning.

Lanterns have this advantage over gas and electricity, that they give a softer light and present more of that variety and irregularity with which life loves to surround itself, so as to escape as much as possible from the monotony and uniformity of ordinary existence. They lend themselves more readily to poetry, and realise in a small way what large illuminations do in a greater.

The members of the constituted bodies also take part in the illuminations. When officials go out at night, they are always accompanied by lanterns, on which are written in red the name and titles of the dignitary. On the evening of the feast, these lanterns decorate the house of the functionary, like so many visiting cards, welcoming the public.

In conclusion, let it be said that the little folk, without whom there is no real pleasure, have also their rôles to play and their part to take in the general gaiety. Fruits are cut up for them, especially oranges, and the children light these up with a little candle, and carry their make-shift lanterns round the streets. Some of these fruit-lanterns are wonderfully and beautifully carved and decorated.

Everything, in one word, is lighted up; so that could one take on that night a bird’s-eye view of China from the car of some balloon, she would show like a sky starred with thousands and millions of lanterns, and the dazzled aeronaut would be forced to admit, as he looked down on the last day of the feast of the New Year, that in China, at least, we never have a gloomy New Year’s Day.