Torch festival in Jinjiang

Nearly 1,500 bamboo torches formed an illuminated "dragon" meandering through Shanqian village in Jinjiang city on Feb 5.

This was the villagers, along with visitors and homecoming overseas Chinese, praying for an auspicious year ahead. The tradition formed some 300 years ago in the process of fighting a flood disaster and was listed as Jinjiang's intangible heritage in 2013.

Villagers, visitors and homecoming overseas Chinese, holding up blazing torches, form a one-kilometer procession, on the night of Feb 5 in Shanqian village, Jinjiang city, Fujian. [Photo by Wu Baoye/Xinhua]

Similar to the summer celebrations of ethnic groups such as the Yi people of southwest China, Shanqian residents' torch festival falls into the Chinese New Year festivities in late winter. The date used to be decided by divination annually and was fixed on the ninth day of the first lunar month years ago.

On this special day, banners, gongs and drums and crackers herald the spectacular parade that lights up the night with hundreds of torches - the longest ones could easily exceed three meters, and even the short ones are at least one meter.

Shanqian village's traditional torch festival is hosted as an event to pray for blessings in the new year and attracts villagers, visitors and homecoming overseas Chinese. [Photo by Li Guibin/Xinhua]

Every family in Shanqian knows how to make the torches with bamboo, yellow rag paper and peanut oil. Two or three days ahead of the event, villagers start preparing torches, said Cai Zhushan, secretary of the village Party committee.

Shanqian has a permanent population of 2,600, while 3,000 from the village are residing abroad in places such as the US, Canada, Vietnam, Singapore and Australia.

Cai Jian'an, 70, relocated to Hong Kong 40 years ago and is the chairman of the Shanqian Fellows' Association there. The torch festival is fixed firmly on his calendar. The event is a cultural tradition and makes him feel homesick. Cai hopes this legacy of Shanqian will passed down to young generations, so he invited 200 townspeople to attend the occasion this year.

Participants at Shanqian village's torch festival. [Photo by Shi Qingliang/Xinhua]