DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5386#0049
38
orientalist brought home with him, and has deposited in this
country, the complete apparatus of these Indian Fantoccini. *
It is to be regretted that those who have visited China, have
communicated but scanty information respecting the annual
exhibition of transparencies in that country. Mr. Boulanger, in
his Antiquite devoilce par ses Usages, has reported that the Chinese
derive the Feast of Lanterns from a Mandarin (Peirun) whose
daughter perished in a river, and from his seeking her by torch-
light. (Tom. hi. p. 51. 8vo.) He compares this Mandarin and his
daughter, to Ceres and Proserpine ; and adds, it is for those who
have acquaintance with the Chinese language, to seek in the
etymology of their names, whether his conjecture be well
founded. This festival is held in February, soon after the
opening of the new year. The sign Aquarius is accordingly
termed in the Chinese language, the Resurrection of the Spring.
(Vol. iii. p. 167.)
The number of the learned to whom Mr. Boulanger appeals,
must necessarily be very limited. Accordingly, until some Sino-
logist shall be found, who may confirm or disprove his comparison,
I offer the following illustration of the Chinese festival from
observations made nearer home; and from this the reader shall
draw his own conclusions.
At Dunkerque, about the Feast of St. Martin, or between the
4th and the 11th of November, boys go about with paper lanterns,
variously fashioned and painted, and blow children's trumpets.
They assemble in the great square at evening, and, dividing into
parties, parade the different quarters of the town. It is there
supposed, that the custom originated in a woman having lost her
child, who was drowned in the canal, and in the people of the
* See the engraving in Sir T. Stamford Raffles's History of Java, vol. i.
p. 336, 337. 4to.
orientalist brought home with him, and has deposited in this
country, the complete apparatus of these Indian Fantoccini. *
It is to be regretted that those who have visited China, have
communicated but scanty information respecting the annual
exhibition of transparencies in that country. Mr. Boulanger, in
his Antiquite devoilce par ses Usages, has reported that the Chinese
derive the Feast of Lanterns from a Mandarin (Peirun) whose
daughter perished in a river, and from his seeking her by torch-
light. (Tom. hi. p. 51. 8vo.) He compares this Mandarin and his
daughter, to Ceres and Proserpine ; and adds, it is for those who
have acquaintance with the Chinese language, to seek in the
etymology of their names, whether his conjecture be well
founded. This festival is held in February, soon after the
opening of the new year. The sign Aquarius is accordingly
termed in the Chinese language, the Resurrection of the Spring.
(Vol. iii. p. 167.)
The number of the learned to whom Mr. Boulanger appeals,
must necessarily be very limited. Accordingly, until some Sino-
logist shall be found, who may confirm or disprove his comparison,
I offer the following illustration of the Chinese festival from
observations made nearer home; and from this the reader shall
draw his own conclusions.
At Dunkerque, about the Feast of St. Martin, or between the
4th and the 11th of November, boys go about with paper lanterns,
variously fashioned and painted, and blow children's trumpets.
They assemble in the great square at evening, and, dividing into
parties, parade the different quarters of the town. It is there
supposed, that the custom originated in a woman having lost her
child, who was drowned in the canal, and in the people of the
* See the engraving in Sir T. Stamford Raffles's History of Java, vol. i.
p. 336, 337. 4to.