In history, winding paths lead to secluded places, barren land, poor people and constant disasters. In order to make a living, men go to the West and women dig wild vegetables, which breeds bitter and high-pitched Han folk songs and produces tearful stories about the West. Many people who went to the west never returned to their hometown. In order to mourn the distant relatives and pray for the future, people held a series of ceremonies, among which the Hequ Lantern Festival is a unique and gradually continuing ancient custom. Hequ River Lantern Festival is held around July 15th of the lunar calendar every year. Before the Lantern Festival, a ceremony will be held to put river lanterns in memory of Yu, and all kinds of sticky river lanterns will be dedicated to Shen Yu in memory of Yu. Later, the monks chanted sutras, and the people arranged prepared river lanterns in front of the shrine, praying for Shen Yu to take refuge from disasters and bless the good weather. In the evening, when dusk came, the host fired a gun to light a torch, the monks chanted and sent the lanterns in front of the statue to the ferry, and the boatman drove a wooden boat carrying all kinds of river lanterns, which went upstream for about a mile and anchored in the center of the rapids. When they are ready, musicians play music, and with the music, lanterns are put into the river. Along the main channel of the Yellow River, the river lights drifted forward in droves, obviously extinguished, and in a trance, it seemed as if another world was in front of us. The whole activity lasted for three days, and besides putting on river lanterns every night, there was also drama to entertain.
In the past, people would place hand-made "river lanterns" of various shapes in the river to guide lonely souls in the dark, and wish the good weather and the people on both sides of the strait to live and work in peace. Now the making of river lanterns is much simpler than before. Generally, the four corners of a square piece of paper are glued together with various wax lamps. The wick made of hemp rope is not easy to be blown out by the wind and burns for a long time. The bottom of the river lamp intrudes into wax oil. Before wax oil solidifies, sand is placed at the bottom of the lamp, and the sand adheres to the bottom of the lamp, which quickly condenses and adheres. On the one hand, it prevents the lamp from being corroded by water, on the other hand, it increases the weight of the lamp and is not easy to be blown down by the wind.