Lion dance, mostly performed at New Year festivals and festive events. In the minds of the people of the Chinese nation, the lion is the beast symbolizing auspicious wishes, so as to place the people's good wishes to eliminate disasters and seek luck in the lion dance activities. In the course of more than a thousand years of development, the lion dance has formed two performance styles: north and south. The lion dance is widely popular in Ningbo's urban and rural areas, and the Ninghai lion dance began in the Tang Dynasty and flourished in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

The musical accompaniment of the Ninghai Lion Dance is the roughest. The sound of the gong is low and long, and the drum does not use drumsticks, but hits with fists or palms, especially the muffled blows of the gong and drum, which can vividly express the fierce and clumsy character of the lion.

After more than 300 years of wind and rain, Ninghai Lion Dance combines the fierceness of the northern martial lion and the delicacy of the southern school, and it is precisely because of the unique characteristics that the Ninghai lion dance shines in the lion dances in various regions of China.