福建平和龙艺亮相农历五月初五元宵节物品展销会
我们中国人对于农历五月初五的元宵佳节往往是比较重视的，各地有各地的过法。而在闽南地区，则以舞龙、龙艺的方式去庆祝春天的到来，祈求来年风调雨顺、硕果丰收。勤劳的人们用自己传统的“龙艺”方式庆祝春天的到来，祈求来年风调雨顺、硕果丰收。
龙艺是平和县广泛流行的一种民间艺术。龙艺一般由“龙头”、“龙段”、“龙尾”三部分组成。每块木艺板由两位壮汉肩抬，称“扛艺”。艺板上用竹、木、纸、绢等材料扎成楼、阁、舟、车模样，并点缀花卉草虫鱼和彩灯，此项工艺称“装艺”。每块艺术板上站一位5至8岁少女或少男，全部按戏曲人物打扮，称“艺术旦”。
以前，要是哪家的小孩被选中了去“装艺”，则是非常荣幸的，还可以得到一定的酬金。而在当今，要想你家的小孩去“装藝”，除了要交一笔钱外，还要走后门才能荣幸地当选。
Dragon's dance is a traditional folk art in Pinghe County, Fujian Province. It consists of three parts: dragon head, dragon body and dragon tail. The dragon body is made up of dozens of wooden boards called "art pieces". Each piece is about 3 meters long and 0.3 meters wide, made of wood. Two strong men carry each board on their shoulders.
The boards are decorated with various materials like bamboo, wood, paper and silk to create models of buildings, towers, boats and carts. This process is called "decorating the arts". A girl or boy aged between 5 to 8 years old stands on each board dressed as characters from Peking Opera.
In the past, being chosen to decorate the arts was considered an honor and they would receive some payment too. Nowadays it requires more than just money; you need connections to get selected.
There are different numbers of pieces in a Dragon Dance performance - sometimes it's 24 pieces other times it could be as many as 48 pieces. In 1986 during Mid-Autumn Festival in Pinghe County Nine Peaks town Huangtian Village created a Dragon Dance with a record-breaking length of seven dozen sections which was the longest recorded so far in South Fujian history.
Each section was connected by wooden rotating nuts allowing for easy movement along narrow streets while maintaining its shape like a snake. The Dragon Dance parade when accompanied by drums often has one or several drum teams joining them.
Pinghe has had Dragon Dance performances since at least Ming Dynasty when Qing Emperor Kangxi ruled China (1662-1722). The county records indicate that people would gather together to build scaffolding where boys were dressed up beautifully standing on top pretending stories happening around them before parading through town squares called 'presenting spring'.
This formative stage shows how close 'scaffolding' comes to being an early version of our current 'Dragon Dance'. After liberation local communities organized these events themselves but later they became sponsored by groups such as villages who picked one person known for organizing these events commonly known as "head organizers".
Every household contributed either one or two sections depending upon their wealth making this activity accessible only for those who could afford it not just financially but also physically carrying heavy loads including artistic displays performed by young participants whose involvement came at both financial cost & physical labor seen positively within community circles!
Nowadays these celebrations have been taken over mainly by institutions sponsoring lavish decorations costumes music broadcasts etc., leading towards grandeur festivals attracting crowds everywhere!
