Bench dragon, also known as plum bamboo lantern, is one of the traditional customs of Lantern Festival. It originated in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, and is said to have originated in the Han Dynasty, and evolved from the religious activity of "dancing dragons for rain". Legend has it that a long time ago, there was a drought, and a waterspout in the East China Sea jumped out of the water and it rained heavily. But because it violated the dogma, it was cut into pieces and scattered around the world. People put the dragon's body on a bench and connect it (people call it "Wolong"). People run around the clock and tell each other that it can survive, so there is the custom of jumping in Wolong.

This custom continued until the Southern Song Dynasty. With the relocation of the capital, the custom of dancing Wolong spread to many places in southern Zhejiang, such as Xianju County. The dragon lanterns in Hangzhou River, Caodian in Xianju and Wuyuan in Jiangxi are more distinctive, and the Ban Long in Caodian in Xianju is the most spectacular. During the Spring Festival and Lantern Festival, dragon dance teams beat gongs and drums and marched between villages, adding a lively atmosphere to traditional festivals.

Xianju Wolong is beautifully made, magnificent and unique. It consists of three parts: dragon head, dragon section (body) and dragon tail, and is made of wood, bamboo, white paper and various kinds of flower paper. Each dragon body is made of 6-inch-wide and 8-foot-long wooden boards, with round holes drilled at both ends and connected by wooden sticks with a length of 1 foot, which can walk in a straight line and hover left and right. The skeleton of the dragon head, the dragon body and the dragon tail are all made of bamboo strips, and then pasted with white paper and colored paper. The dragon head is particularly exquisite, generally decorated with dragon whiskers, longan, dragon eyebrows, dragon horns, dragon balls, painted dragon forests, dragon fins, colorful clouds and so on. There are no fixed artists on the bench, all of whom are witnessed by villagers and passed down from generation to generation. When the dragon body was made, it was generally a voluntary labor force, and everyone showed their magical powers and worked hard, which showed that this was a sports event with the participation of the whole people. The faucet is the key part of the whole dragon, and villagers with high skills are selected to make it together. Every Duan Long lights two candles, which is a scale from a distance and a painting from a close look, reflecting the intelligence of the working people. The bench dragons in Caodian village are generally more than 300, and the bench dragons are more than 600 meters long. The performance was spectacular and breathtaking.

Xianju lantern

In Xianju, lanterns have a history of more than two thousand years. Every year, lanterns are played on the Lantern Festival, and a village is covered with lanterns, as well as temple fairs, major celebration lanterns and other activities. Lantern has become the main folk tradition in Xianju, and needleless lantern stands out in the traditional Lantern Festival and is known as "the first Yi Deng in China".