Children in horse costumes and facial makeup walk along the main road in Qingtangwu village, Longyou county, Quzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, to give out blessings. [Photo/zjol.com.cn]

A traditional folk dance performed by children called "zoumadeng" was recently carried out in Qingtangwu village, Longyou county, Quzhou, East China's Zhejiang province.

Children in horse costumes and facial makeup walked along the village's main road to give out blessings.

As a traditional way to pray for good luck, the traditional folk dance is carried out in the village every Spring Festival and Lantern Festival.

The performers are children aged 9-12.

The performance was introduced during the reign of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and currently has a history of more than 600 years. It was listed as an intangible cultural heritage item of Zhejiang province in 2009.

Since the songs are not scripted, the lyrics need to be passed from mouth to mouth, said Lao Tingxiang, an inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage item.

Lao began learning the traditional folk dance at the age of 17, and has trained 14 batches of performers for the village over the past 60 years.