Nonetheless, the basic connotation of Hakka customs has consistency or similarity, so it is quite cohesive, and the Hakka people have always been cohesive together. Hakka customs reflect Hakka traditions, morals, religious beliefs and other matters of social life. They are the sacrifices to gods and ancestors, the festivals, entertainment and games, or the taboos, costumes, production ...... The Hakka people express in their customs their longing for their relatives, their admiration for the great achievements of their ancestors, and their respect for the righteousness of the nation. And the township party to celebrate and friends and relatives to talk about the feelings of the lyrics.
With the development of the times, Hakka customs are also evolving and developing. Some of them are still in the folklore, and some of them were popular in the folklore in the past. In between, since some with a strong superstitious color, but as part of the study of customs, still has its cultural and academic value, only need to be familiar with the viewer discernment of the ear.
I. Hakka festivals and customs
The Hakka's customs of the year broadly include the national traditional yearly festivals and customs, the worship of local gods and goddesses. Through these folk customs, some of the origins of the Hakka folk genre can be explored.
Major festivals of the year:
1. Spring Festival: The Spring Festival can be roughly divided into three phases: the preparatory phase from the New Year's Eve to the New Year's Day; the New Year's Day to the fifth day of the New Year; and the aftermath of the New Year's Eve, from the sixth day of the New Year to the New Year's Night Festival. The more special activities include sending the New Year, playing the coal, steaming the New Year's rice, eating New Year's wine, keeping the New Year's Eve, opening the gate, paying homage to the New Year, and amusement activities.
2. Lichun: that is, the spring. At this time, the folk generally prepared incense, burning incense and candles, firecrackers, high-rise guns, sticking on the "welcome spring to receive blessings", "spring to Fuzhi" and other red paper, known as the "catch spring".
3. Lantern Festival: The 15th day of the first month is the traditional Chinese folk Lantern Festival. Lantern Festival to eat Lantern Festival, play lights, lanterns, riddles. Hakka folk cities and villages are dotted with all kinds of lanterns, very beautiful. Tingzhou custom before the Lantern Festival, the mother of the lotus lamp to be sent to the daughter of the married and unborn child, the lamp harmonic "Ding" sound, take "send Ding, add Ding" meaning. The Lantern Festival is much the same everywhere.
4. Hibernation: Tingzhou folk have two customs related to health. One is fried beans, or in hot water cooked with taro seeds, the second is the foot of the table in the cabinet feet, column feet, wall feet and so on to spread some lime. Both are to exterminate insects.
5. Spring Society, Autumn Society: rural areas have long been in the social day to worship the God of the land, the gods of the five grains custom. Often welcome the gods, "support the community" to play the jiao-festival, and pray for the success of the year.
6. Ching Ming: Hakka grave sweeping custom more from the spring equinox, Ching Ming reached a climax, continued to the valley rain before and after, about a month or so. The first jiaojiao all tomb after jiaojiao family tomb. After the summer, it is called "sacrificing wild ghosts".
7. Dragon Boat Festival: Hakka commonly known as the May Festival. A few days before the festival, glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo leaves are used to make zongzi, which are given to each other by friends and relatives. The main contents of the festival are eating zongzi, xionghuang wine, dragon boat races, bathing with "medicine water", hanging peach tree branches to avoid evil spirits, etc.
8.
8. Into the ambush: many people in urban and rural areas boil "immortal jelly" to eat.
9. Eating new: that is, taste the new rice. Generally in the small summer after the day, the d day to eat new. The countryside will be newly cut paddy rice milled into rice, good rice for the gods and ancestors, and then everyone ate together to taste the new wine. In the city, a small amount of new rice is usually bought and cooked with old rice, along with newly released vegetables. The offerings include bitter gourd, loofah, and eggplant. Commonly known as the bitter gourd to bless everyone, the silk family to bless the whole family, young and old, eggplant to bless the wife.
10. July 7: The Hakka have about "Tanabata begging" and "Cowherd and Weaving Maiden" legend, but the customs related to this less. Folk have outside the house at night to sit and watch the activities of the sky. Some women have "sisterhoods". Tingzhou folk have the custom of getting together to invite the gentleman.
11. Zhongyuan Festival: also known as the Ghost Festival. Hakka's Zhongyuan Festival is on the 14th day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar. Changting is commonly known as the "July Festival" or "half of July" thirteen fourteen meat, fifteen vegetarian. There are old customs such as steaming pastries, "Knotting", "Receiving Grandparents", "Burning Bags", "Burning Night Incense", etc. The festival is held on the 14th day of the 7th lunar month. Tingcheng original on the knife ladder custom. The superstitious color of the festival is strong, and the old custom is gradually thinning out.
12. Mid-Autumn Festival: commonly known as the August Festival. Eat mooncakes, enjoy the moon and other customs are largely the same everywhere. On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, there are still several customs related to the moon, similar to witchcraft, such as "ambrosia, pecking the moon aunt, jumping tandem pole, spinning water bowl" and so on.
13. Chongyang Festival: Hakka people called "September Festival". Some villages also called "Touwei Festival", that it is the last important festival of the year. In the countryside, all kinds of pastries are fried and chickens and ducks are killed, while in the cities, it is simpler to add extra food. It is a traditional custom to climb the mountain and drink chrysanthemum wine.
14. October half: October 15, the next Yuan Festival, also known as the end of the Winter Festival. Rural areas often do patties, rice fruit, taro buns, tofu and other food, so-called "do finish winter". Some places have the custom of playing jiaojiao God theater.
15. Lunar New Year's Eve: December 23rd of the lunar calendar, there is a "Zaojun master to heaven" said. Commonly used sugar melons sacrificial stove, in order to "wipe the mouth of the stove king sweet, in front of the Jade Emperor more good things".
It is the main festival of the year for the Hakka.
Second, the Hakka marriage, celebration customs
The Hakka marriage rituals and customs by the ancient times, the main purpose is still to pass on the family for the purpose. Hakka men marrying women pay attention to the "matchmaking", Hakka society, the formal marriage relationship is a "marriage marriage", the trend is not prevalent to invite the family.
Although Hakka society is not immune to the existence of patriarchal stereotypes, but on the whole, the relationship between men and women is more equal. For example, Hakka women and men work equally hard at home. Therefore, when a woman is in her mother's house, she is equal to her brothers; when she marries, her parents attach importance to her marriage, and her husband's family must follow the rules and regulations according to the traditional etiquette in order to get a good daughter-in-law.
The Hakka people have a very good marriage style. The Hakka people's way of marriage is in accordance with the ancient system of "six rites". As society changes, there are changes, but generally still refer to the old system. The six rituals are: "marriage proposal, sending the bride to the bridegroom, announcing the date of marriage, sending the bride price, dowry, receiving and sending the bride to the bridegroom, paying respects to the bridegroom, and eating noodles and chicken". And the ancient "six rites" is similar. Wedding ceremony, there is still a room, round room and other old customs.
The third day after the bride was married, the bride's family feast daughter, son-in-law, called "please three Chao". On this day, the daughter can not stay in the mother's home, must be rushed back to the husband's family. In some villages, the mother's family invites some women's relatives and friends to visit the daughter's home in a few days; or the mother's family invites the daughter home to make a full-moon wine (on the occasion of the full moon of the marriage). Men's and women's in-laws each choose the date, set up a banquet and invite each other, so-called "door to door", in order to strengthen the two in-laws between the exchanges.
Marriage banquet guests, commonly known as "happy wine", rituals are very grand, especially in the past. Among them, the female guests to the male family called "big guest"; the male party to firecrackers in front of the door to meet, they are not present, can not start the feast. The bridegroom should hold the pot at the first table of the maternal uncle, and take turns to pour wine from the maternal uncle. Guests are seated according to seniority, near and far, eldest and youngest, foreign relatives are honored, the clan is inferior. The upper left side of the hall is the chief, the right side is the second, the upper sitting old man, the lower accompanied by guests and so on.
Other forms of marriage, such as holding child brides, superfluous marriage, transferring relatives, changing relatives, remarriage and so on. Some of them are now gradually rare, disappeared.
Three, the Hakka people's clothing, food, housing, transportation customs
1, clothing
The Hakka people dress is simple and practical, spacious and simple. Generally like to wear plain colors, especially the most popular blue, black and white. The texture is mostly coarse cloth, bleached blue satin Wu into clothes, self-weaving summer cloth for the tent. Also useful summer cloth to do summer clothes to wear. Almost all men, women and children in the Qing Dynasty to wear "side-breasted shirt", long-sleeved, straight collar, cloth buttons, placket by the neckline slanting to the right side, in the placket pocket. Pants are all "big crotch pants", wide and large, another four or five inches wide waist, waist, not open, the excess part of the folded in front of the belly, to tie. Pants also known as the leg, about 0.3 meters wide. Women's clothing collar with rolled decorations, placket, cuffs, trouser legs with lace and so on. In the late Qing Dynasty, men of the upper class wore long shirts when they went out or met guests, and sometimes they added waistcoats on top of the long shirts. Rural women generally wear a kind of apron "to cover the abdomen", in fact, can cover the chest, hem width
and both sides, the upper end of the sewing flowers embroidery, plus "neck chain" "waist chain" and "dental plate". The silver ornaments such as "neck chain", "waist chain" and "tooth plate"
are also added. Girls wear braids and young women wear buns. In addition, small-footed women also wear embroidered shoes, tied Roppa attire. Peasant women do not wrap their feet, the old woman also tied Ropa.
During the Republican period, men's side-breasted shirts were gradually eliminated, and the number of long shirts and waistcoats increased, and then Zhongshan suits appeared, which began to prevail in the intellectual world. The laborers wore short shirts with lapels, commonly known as lab coats. Women still kept the side-breasted shirt, only a few women who had read books changed to wear cheongsam, a blue dress and black skirt, with sleeves shortened to the root of the palm. Read more men changed to Western-style pants, with belts or suspenders, women's pants have been mainly large crotch. Shoes and socks, the Qing Dynasty, mostly wearing cloth shoes, is a family of women's homemade, women's shoes with embroidery, small-footed women's shoes pointed and buckled, the length of only 14-15 centimeters. In the rainy days, they went barefoot; or they wore wooden clogs and cloth shoes, which Changting called "shoe clogs"; or they thickened the soles of cloth shoes and coated them with tung oil. When they went out of town or cut grass and firewood in the mountains, they wore straw shoes made of rice straw. In the Republic of China, only a few people wore rubber shoes, rainboots and leather shoes shipped in from abroad. A pair of rain shoes was often used by the whole family. Socks were sewn with cloth in the old days, and yarn-knit socks were introduced in the late Qing Dynasty.
In the late Qing dynasty and early civil society men wore a cap with a top hat. Ordinary men wear cotton thread woven tube paw hat, after more than half a ball-shaped wool hat. Women's cold weather bag Ropa, rarely wear hats.
2, diet
Hakka daily meals, most of the morning and evening porridge, day side (noon) to eat dry rice. Rural breakfast congee with mixed grains. Changting called miscellaneous grains for "coarse goods", the past year is "coarse goods half a year grain", when the harvest is bad to miscellaneous grains, sometimes to eat sweet potato residue to feed the hungry. Wheat has always been less planted, so the noodles are only used for festivals or entertaining guests. Sometimes when the spring drought is not enough, the wheat will just be harvested and ground into a coarse powder, make wheat soup to spend the day, after the 50's is seldom eaten so. Changting, Shanghang, Wuping part of the countryside there is a hidden sweet potatoes, pickled in brine, unique flavor.
Home cooking, dried pickles, dried radish year-round, with seasonal greens, amaranth, blood fern, cabbage, mustard, quinoa melon, gourd is most common. Every family can make some small dishes, such as raw rubbing pickles, raw rubbing radish seeds, crisp and tasty, rich in local characteristics. The first thing you need to do is to get your hands dirty.
In addition to rice, porridge, rice can also be made dried, bowl cake, cage bed pay and so on. Dried flour to white tender fine, soft and slippery characteristics of the famous. There are also glutinous rice patties, rice fruit made of rice, varieties such as cake, round, jelly, fruit points, the taste of sweet, salty, alkaline difference. Whenever the day of celebration, every family has to prepare, honor the gods, pay guests, gifts to friends and relatives are appropriate, but also the rural New Year's traditional food.
The flavorful snacks are meat rounds and lantern cakes. Meat food, burned chunks, white chicken is the most famous, is the main dish in the feast. Blanch pork, dry steamed pork is usually traditional dishes.
Changting home brewing has a reputation for pure flavor and sweetness, low degrees are not easy to get drunk, women and children like. Wine lady is even more sweet and delicious, accompanied by steamed eggs, the beauty can not be described. Drinking tea with a bowl, to quench the thirst of the main, sometimes used for soup and rice, often cloud "tea and rice".
For sweet, sour, bitter, spicy, Tingzhou people do not have a preference for addiction. Many people love to eat fried food, that crispy and delicious. Boiled vegetables are salty and heavy in flavor.
3, living
Hakka house building features, mostly for the hall between the kitchen cabinet four ways. Earth and wood structure bungalows mainly, rubbing the upper and lower halls, the left and right two pendulum horizontal house symmetrical, before and after the right and left have a patio. Hall central tianzi wall must be shrines for ancestors, halls and halls between the compartments. Typical of the front of the ping, the back of the garden, four doors, and the gatehouse. Hall on both sides of the room for the bedchamber, hall weekdays dining meeting guests, annual festival rituals; horizontal house is mostly used for kitchen, Wo Warehouse, put farm equipment furniture sundries. Bathtubs are mostly inside the house, while pig and cow pens and toilets are outside the house. All kinds of buildings, the city generally use brick and wood structure, the countryside is mostly wood frame earth wall, remote mountain villages pure wood building is also a lot. In the countryside, there are also "nine halls and eighteen wells" of huge buildings and "earth fortress" buildings with high walls to prevent bandits. Most of the She people's houses are bamboo fences and thatched roofs. This kind of house format has been inherited for more than 1000 years, and it is still very common in the countryside, which is convenient for the family to live together and for brothers to live separately. The original city houses are also above and below the hall or three or four hall bungalows, the city houses or ancestral halls, and later part of the facade evolved into a store, Changting ShuiDongJie's Riding House is quite a southern city characteristics.
According to the Dictionary of Chinese Folklore: Southwest Fujian and northern Guangxi, Guangdong, traditional Hakka housing style for the group courtyard housing, because the Hakka have long been living together, help into a group. Most of the earth and wood structure, the outer wall with a thickness of more than one meter of rammed earth bearing wall, and the combination of internal wood frame, and add a number of perpendicular intersection with the outer wall partition wall. Outer walls are generally not open windows, so the shape of the fortress. A kind of large courtyard, the plane in front of the back round, the interior by the center, left, right three parts. Overlapping courtyards, buildings vary; a square, rectangular or round brick buildings and earth buildings, the larger diameter of more than 70 meters, with three-story ring-shaped housing sets, up to more than 300 rooms. The outer ring of houses is four storeys high, the ground floor is used as kitchen and utility room, the second floor is used for storing food, and the third floor is used for living. The other two rings of houses are only one story high, with a hall in the center for clan deliberations, wedding and funeral ceremonies and other activities. When brothers live apart, in principle, the average distribution, but the eldest son does not leave the stove, if the toilet belongs to the "full son" (the youngest son), the valley proverb: "the eldest son of the seat of the stove, the full son of the seat of the shit cellar.
Three, Hakka folk entertainment
Hakka folk entertainment content is very rich, the main festivals are rice-planting songs, dragon boat races, stepping on the boat lanterns, dragon lanterns, lion dances, high-footed division, welcome lanterns, stepping on the lanterns, playing the drums, the nine-linking ring, the tea lights, the knife dance, the dance, the Dacheng music dance, the Taoist dance, the musical instruments will be, the opera, ten times the music, mention the puppets, fireworks, the welcome to the gods will be; the usual have to sing songs, sing songs, playing the qin, the usual have to sing, singing, singing, playing the qin, the usual have to sing, singing, playing, singing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing. The usual activities include singing mountain songs, singing small songs, playing the qin, playing the zither, playing the erhu, playing the flute, playing chess, playing six pieces of chess, playing cards, throwing the sign of the scholar, playing mahjong, raising flowers, fishing, etc. For example, the "Hakka" of Tai Po has the following activities. For example, the music of the Hakka "zheng" in Tai Po
is characterized by the great ancient vowels of Zhongzhou and Hanshui, forming its own unique style
and has a set of basic laws, which reminds people of the upward and different customs of Hakka music.
The games played by children include: sheep-skipping, hide-and-seek, planting taro, planting winter melon, shuttlecock, rope skipping, excelling in chess, throwing sandbags, playing checkers, etc.
The Hakka music has its own unique style and has a set of basic laws.
The main types of circulating theater are Beijing Opera, Qi Opera, Nanchu Opera, Puppetry, Han Opera, Gaijiang Ban, drama, etc. After 1949, Changting also imported Opera, Yueju Opera, Caicha Opera, Huangmei Opera and so on.
1, Yangge. As the name implies, it is a song sung during labor such as rice-planting, so it was first a form of singing, and only later did it appear in the form of dance and drama performances. Now these three forms and rice-planting songs are widely popular throughout the country. In some areas, folk dance forms such as flower drums, tea lanterns, dry boats, and bamboo horses are generally known as Yangge. There are also stilts called stilted rice-planting songs, the general rice-planting songs called "ground rice-planting songs".
2, lion dance. Lion dance in the treasure trove of Chinese folk dance shining pearl, more than 1,000 years, become one of the favorite dance forms of the working people. Popular in the Tingzhou area of the lion dance in the performance of the "cultural lion" and "martial arts lion" two forms. Every year in the first month, the lion dance performers usually in the city and countryside to visit households Por congratulations on the New Year and dedication, after the performance of the head of the household more than a red packet to give, as a token of appreciation. "The lion dance is a delicate, soft and steady performance, focusing on the portrayal of the lion's gentle and lovely character. "Martial lion" focus on martial arts, high skill, mainly to show the lion's majestic, brave and robust.
3, dragon dance. Dragon is a wish for a year of good luck and good luck activities and contact with friends and relatives a good opportunity. Tingzhou production of the dragon body is generally dyed green, yellow two, respectively, called "green dragon", "yellow dragon". Some in the play dragon lanterns at the same time, fireworks, firecrackers, look at the sparks, only to see the dragon in the 10,000 points of sparks rolled in and out, appearing to be golden, and then with the noisy drums and music, resulting in a warm festive atmosphere.
Liancheng Gutian Lantern Festival tour big dragon is the local farmers traditional, the largest mass recreational activities. In the first month of every year 14-16 days held. Each dragon lamp tour one day and one night will be incinerated. Lantern Festival in the village of Fort China, Jiang two surnames take turns out of the dragon, at least 100 boards or more, known as the main dragon, dragon head and tail are equipped with a cannon, gongs and drums, 10 times the band, can be said to be unprecedented.
4, light dance. Lantern Festival activities, to the most lights dance, called different places, some say "play lights", some say "grate lights", also known as "haunted lights" or "lanterns The "Stomping Horse" in Changting is also known as the "Stomping Horse" in Changting. Changting's "Stomping Horse Lantern" reflects love as the main content, danced by a man and a woman or a man and two women. This dance is characterized by its simplicity and lightheartedness. "Horse lantern dance" performers are mostly children and teenagers, the performer is in the middle of the horse lantern, the lamp with a rope hanging on the shoulder, the performance of four or eight people in line.
5, step on the boat lights. Stomping boat lights generally more in the Spring Festival, Lantern Festival performances, although the name of the different places, but the basic form of performance is similar, such as "running dry boat", "swinging dry boat", "fishing boat", "pick lotus boat", "fishing boat", "fishing boat", "fishing boat", "fishing boat", "fishing boat", "fishing boat", "fishing boat", "fishing boat", "fishing boat", "fishing boat". "Cailian Boat", "Flower Boat Lights" and so on. Some areas of Fujian is also called "land rowing", are the same form of "dry boat", just in the performance of the content and shape of the boat there are differences.
6, nine consecutive rings. Also known as the "king whip", "playing Lotus Xiang". The form of performance is mostly singing and dancing, the tune is mostly the region's folk songs, the content of the manifestation of love between men and women. It has the form of small performance and singing by two or three people, as well as group dance with various formations and images while playing; there are also those who hold the king whip and those who hold props such as fans and bamboo boards, etc., who dance with them. It is loved by young people and children.
7, others: such as stilts, throw the sign of the scholar, string puppets, tea lights, sword dance, Dacheng music dance, Taoist dance, and so on, will not go into detail.
Fifth, the Hakka funeral rituals
Than other rituals, funeral customs to a more solemn. Hakka people for this, do very thoughtful, and even too much red tape. Burial from the thick, rituals from the luxury, abundant feasts, drunken full of spirit side, drumming and so on. Some of the old customs still exist in some places.
When the patient is dying, they will be done in advance of the "life jacket" to the patient to wear, said "with life jacket". In the past, there was a "six under four", that is, the upper wearing
six heavy clothes, the lower wearing four heavy pants.
The Hakka custom emphasizes the importance of the end. Those who are away from home try to come back home to see the last side of the dying person, so as to show filial piety. When a person dies, he or she immediately burns a sedan chair, burns paper, and cries and weeps with grief for his or her family members and children. This is the "send the end".
Mourning: the patient immediately after the death of mourning. Filial son to grandmother's uncle's family and relatives uncle's family to report the funeral, in front of the door or the nearby intersection also put out obituaries.
The Hall of Filial Piety: hang a white cloth in front of the body, set up a table with incense, and put the spirit tablet or statue. Weeping in the morning and evening, registration of gifts from friends and relatives or "on behalf of the candle", the tent cloth hanging in order on both sides of the mourning hall.
Pillow: move the body, in the hall on the ground spread a white cloth, the body will be placed on it, the head of the new tile, tile pads to cloth triangular pillow, day and night to send people to wait; choose a day and time will be the body into the coffin is called "into the material". Every morning and evening, as well as friends and relatives to offer condolences, the female members of the mourning family in the tent beside the coffin. In the evening, friends and relatives attend the mourning hall, commonly known as "with the night".
Mourning to choose the time, often in the morning. In the old days in the first day to "funeral", all night long, drums and music. Mourning first held a memorial service, and then bier funeral. The first day of mourning, and then the bier out of the funeral, pay attention to the scene, to show the children filial piety.
Burial: the coffin into the cemetery. The graveyard is chosen for its "feng shui". The appearance of the grave is very similar to the Hakka's dragon house, which is a manifestation of the Hakka's worship of their ancestors. On the third day after the burial, relatives wearing mourning clothes go to the grave to cry and worship, burn paper money, so-called "Jiao Sanchao".
Do seven: After the death of a person, every "seven" days, to hold a memorial service, commonly known as "do seven". Generally only do "five seven". Finally held a memorial service, the incineration of the spirit house (paper house), called "finish seven", to show the end of the funeral. After that, the festival is held on the anniversary, which is called the opening of small mourning; the festival is held in three years, which is called the opening of big mourning. When the big filial piety, the door, the hall replaced with red couplets, everything back to normal.
Hakka custom, after a number of years of burial (often ten years), digging open the grave, the remains baked on charcoal, according to the structure of the human body bent limbs into a special ceramic urn, so-called "check the gold", and then re-buried, which is a permanent, real graves.
For the unnatural death of people, there are some special funeral rites, such as more attention to the monks and Taoist priests to play the Jiaojiao chanting, the soul of the dead and so on.
Sixth, Hakka beliefs and taboos
The religious beliefs of the Hakka people, in addition to the traditional Buddhism, Taoism, and later imported from the Western Christianity and Catholicism. In addition, the Hakka people worship ancestors, believe in ghosts and gods. In addition, the Hakka worship their ancestors and believe in ghosts and gods, and most of them believe in Buddha.
1, Buddhism
Buddhism in the South Tang Dynasty, Tiancheng four years (929 years) by the Huikuan masters into Changting. In the second year of the Song Dynasty (964), Master Ding Guang came to Changting to preach
Teaching.
The above two masters in folklore, for the people to drive away thieves and invaders, protect the city to relieve the siege; for farmers to pray for rain to avoid drought; to protect people's lives and safety, to remove the tiger, the people called Huikuan "tiger Xiangshi".
2, Taoism
Taoism in the Hakka local popularity, and Buddhism can be said to go hand in hand. In the past, medical naivety, plague is rampant, so the Taoist priests are building jiaojiao to pray to the gods of the plague. Smallpox epidemic is praying to the God of the pox, the plague smallpox has been a thousand extinct, but in the countryside on the Anlong Jiao-festival, praying for blessings, erection of charms, starting the earth, safe birth, exorcism, pressure and charm water for the treatment of disease and other items are still often found.
3, Catholic
Qing Shunzhi years (1653), the Italian clergyman Ai Ruliu to Changting, in the old well missionary.
4. Christianity
In the spring of the eighteenth year of the Qing Dynasty (1892), Hui'an Zhou Zhide, Chen Qiuzheng and so on to create a church in Changting.
5. Folk rituals and beliefs
The temples of the Hakka people, often in addition to the main God, there are many from the God. From the gods are also enshrined together inside, fully demonstrating the nature of Chinese folk beliefs - polytheism and idolatry colors, and most of them belong to the soul worship. In the Hakka region, folk beliefs in local gods and gods of the countryside include Mazu, the King of the Three Mountains, and Master Yi Min. Changting folk belief in gods is not necessarily what the religious, some people see the image to worship, not divided into what religion. Immortals and Buddhas in the same furnace incense in Changting is very common, the main ones are the eight immortals, mainly Lv Dongbin, God of Wealth, King of Yan, Jade Emperor, Wenquxing (Kui Xing), the true ruler of the Bodhisattva, the God of the Door, Zaojun, the five valleys of the Great God, Sakyamuni Buddha, the Buddhas of the Western Paradise, the Bodhisattvas, and so on.
6, meet the God
Hakka towns and villages to meet the God is very popular in the old days, the twelve months of the year; the first fifteen days of the month, the good men and women at home or on the temple burning incense and candles firecrackers, to show their respect. February 19, June 19, September 19 every year, women in urban and rural areas have to carry incense and candles, flour, pastries and so on to the various temples "to do the meeting", to commemorate the "Goddess of Mercy," the birth of the Buddha, the path to enlightenment and nirvana. During the period of welcoming the god, every family is full of friends and relatives, and every family has to be entertained with food and lodging. Some of the people are so happy that they prefer to scrimp and save on food and clothing, in order to pray for a good harvest and the safety of people and animals.
7, other beliefs and taboos
The Hakka folk also have about the heaven and earth, the sun and the moon, lightning, wind and rain, time and location of the faith. There are also different beliefs about plants, animals and utensils, such as snakes, swallows, grasshoppers, broomsticks, lamps and so on. They also have their own ways of interpreting human behavior, such as kicking toes, changing teeth, eyelids jumping, dreaming, and so on. In divination and witchcraft, the folk retained not a lot of witchcraft to cure the custom. Such as "catching the four eyes", "under the shock", "draw a talisman", "ask God", "ambrosia", "the flower", "the spirit", "the spirit", "the spirit", "the spirit", "the spirit", "the spirit", "the spirit". "Fu Hua" and so on.