Snake Dance: 650-year-old cultural heritage
- By Lin Liyao
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E-mail China.org.cn, June 9, 2016
Maybe you are familiar with traditional Chinese Dragon Dance, but have you ever heard of the Snake Dance?
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Villagers from Feidong County perform the Snake Dance. [File photo] |
Similar to the Dragon Dance, the Chinese Snake Dance is a traditional performance art which originated in Dashao Village, Feidong County, Hefei City of Anhui Province. Enjoying a long history of nearly 650 years, the dance was included on the country's intangible cultural heritage list in 2008.
According to folklore, during the late Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) and early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), people were suffering from chaos and tragedy caused by war.
One day, a pregnant women and her mother-in-law ran into a group of soldiers and hid themselves in a bush to escape from massacre. The soldiers attempted to kill the two; suddenly, a huge white python emerged from the bush and struck the soldiers. The soldiers ran away terrified, while the two women were saved.
Ninety-nine days after the attack, the pregnant women gave birth to a baby boy and named him Shao Siming. When he was 18 years old, Shao's mother told him about the python, which saved his life. In order to express his gratitude, Shao and all the residents made a python-like lantern and danced in the village.
The dance is performed by a team of dancers who manipulate a long flexible figure of a python using poles positioned at regular intervals along the length of the snake. The dance team mimics the supposed movements of the snake in a sinuous and undulating manner.
In the beginning, the dance celebration was held every 18 years, and the lantern is extended 1.6 meters each time. Currently, the python-like lantern reaches 104 meters long.
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