Little Things in Old Beijing
Windmill
There is an old legend saying a bird with 10 heads in heaven was depreciated
into human's world. Not repenting though, it made destruction anywhere and
brought misery to humans. So the king of Zhou ordered his courtier, Jiang Ziya,
the most talented person at that time to handle this. Jiang ziya figured out
that this bird was mostly afraid of windmill and he made such a thing to repel
evil. The bird with 10 heads disappeared then. The citizens learned to do
windmill from Jiang Ziya and it became a popular thing In Beijing.
Lamps with cycling horses
It is one kind of folk color lamps starting from Song Dynasty. There are two
layers in the lamp and beautiful pictures are stick into the inner side. When
light on, the inside layer begins to cycle because of heat and it seems from
outside that horses and people are walking here and there.
In the past, in the traditional Spring Festival and other happy days, lamps with cycling
horses are shown together with dozens of children dancing and sing around to
express people's happiness and wishes to the future.
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