Outing, the dengshou lantern head
Outing in Longhu, Shantou: the lantern head is set out in the second month, one turn in ten years. Like the centipede dance at Ximen, this session is not held by the year — one year in ten has it, and the rest do not.
1. One turn in ten years
Dengshou — “lantern head” — is the head of a lantern fair: in the year its turn comes, a quarter or a clan acts as host, sets out the lanterns, welcomes the gods and feasts its guests. Outing takes its turns on a ten-year cycle; the roster itself was not found.
Ten years of eleven are empty, so a year-by-year conversion cannot be laid out. Which year has the turn is a question for the place itself or that year’s notice.
2. What a dengshou is
In Chaoshan the word carries two senses: the first place of a lantern fair, and the household or the quarter that holds it. The household whose turn it is prepares lanterns and offerings and lays out the tables — an expense, and a matter of face as well.
How the Outing session is actually run — where the lantern shed goes up, what form the lanterns take, how many tables are set — was not established. The lantern customs at Longdu and at Nansha are also in Shantou and are run differently, so they are not carried over.
The lists: no heritage entry found. That means no matching list entry was found, not that the event does not exist.
Getting there: the nearest high-speed station is Shantou, for Outing in Longhu; the turn comes once in ten years, so confirm first whether that year has it. In festival time village roads often run one way or are closed at short notice, and a navigation estimate excludes parking and the walk in; a night session often ends after nine, and the way back should be checked against the year’s timetable rather than reasoned from past experience.
3. Where to stand (general, not this session’s rules)
Three points only: do not crowd in front of the lantern shed and do not touch the paper lanterns; the village roads are narrow, so park outside the village; the feast is a private one, and one does not join it uninvited. These three are this site’s suggestions for lantern customs of this kind, not the rules of the organisers of this one.
4. Sources
| Source | Body | Date | What it establishes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Local reporting and accounts of custom | No named body | Not seen | only “second month, one turn in ten years” |
This entry is second-hand, with no original document to open. No public record of the turn-taking years was found.
5. What comes next
Another session held by cycle rather than by year is Ximen, the centipede dance, on the sixteenth of the second month in a leap year. Other lantern customs in Shantou are Longdu, walking the lanterns and Nansha, walking the lanterns.
Elsewhere on the site: Chaozhou lanterns, the ritual year, Shantou routes.
Back to the Chaoshan procession calendar for all twenty-three sessions.
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Last revised: 4 November 2026