Linyi celebrates Lantern Festival with Yangko performance

People celebrate the Lantern Festival with Yangko performance in Linyi city, east China's Shandong province on Feb 12, 2025.

Yangko (秧歌, yāng gē), a rural Chinese folk dance with a history dating back thousands of years, originates from farming life in ancient times.

The dance relates to sacrifices to the farmland god when people prayed for a good harvest. As time passed, the original dance evolved, taking in various artistic forms and skills, including opera, acrobatics and martial arts, and eventually developed into the type of Yangko that is seen today.

Chinese people celebrate the Lantern Festival by creating lanterns, eating sweet rice balls called yuanxiao or tangyuan, solving riddles on the lanterns and enjoying a diverse range of cultural activities – from Yangko performances to lantern fairs.

Editor：Lotus