Folk customs are close-fitting "old cotton-padded jackets", and foreigners like to collect the remnants of those folk customs when they come to China, because the bread here contains a long-standing national personality. As time goes on, the folk customs we have preserved gradually decrease. But on some days every year, they will come back in large numbers. These days mainly refer to traditional festivals, especially the Spring Festival. Nowadays, folk customs still exist, but they may have taken on new meanings. Can we rediscover our identity and experience a feeling of "going back to our hometown" again, or at the end of this year, miss those years that have passed away.
Get married and find a good day; When a woman gets married, she can't step on the ground with her feet and ask others to carry the sedan chair; When traveling, be sure to look through old calendars; Rooster can eat five poisons, so rooster paper-cutting can ward off evil spirits ... Today's civilized people have regarded them as superstitions. But no matter how rationally people oppose these old habits, there are still many people who consciously follow them. Let's not talk about how unfounded and ridiculous those taboos are, but consider the unique ritual mystery of those taboos and sentences and the role of this mystery. For example, the strange customs of marriage, because of their complexity, make the wedding ceremony more grand, and the married people are closely surrounded by a sense of mystery. This encirclement is caused by those external customs, so both parties to the marriage will feel awe of this important event, which may increase their treasure of marriage. On the positive side, this ancient folk custom plays a positive role in maintaining traditional social organizations and family ethics. Of course, the downside is that because some folk customs are unscientific, it is easy to destroy people's normal thinking, thus damaging society.
We read books about folk customs today, perhaps just as an interesting game or as a memory of our local roots. This set of "Illustrated China Folk Custom Series" at hand divides the folk custom of China into several parts for special research and description, including marriage custom, mourning custom, martial arts, taboo, mathematical technology and so on. There are not only professional expositions, but also some pictures on the spot, so that we can fully understand those important traditions. This book has not only superficial introduction, but also in-depth discussion, clearly outlining the origin and history of each folk custom.
This book collects a lot of vivid information about taboos. Different places and different nationalities have different taboos. For example, if you are a guest in a coastal fisherman, you should pay attention to your words when eating. If you are not careful, you will violate taboos and make the host and guest unhappy. For example, when eating fish, you want to turn the fish on the plate upside down. You can't say that. You have to say turn the fish around or upside down. They are very afraid to say the word backwards.
In many places, such as Qingtian, Zhejiang, you can't say "hole" when you dig coal in the mine, but the mouse has become the mascot of the miners. They think "mouse" stands for safety. There have always been auspicious pictures of mice getting married among the people. There may be a scientific basis in this, because if there are many rats in the mine, it may prove that there is a hole leading to the outside, which is conducive to safety. On the other hand, scholars have their own unique views on taboos. The author of this book says that breaking taboos is generally punished, and this punishment is mainly implemented by "the inner strength of the parties." This sentence can be said to hit home. Fraser, a famous British scholar, said in The Golden Branch: "If the consequences of a particular behavior will be unpleasant and dangerous to him, he will naturally be very careful not to do so to avoid such consequences. In other words, he doesn't do things that he mistakenly thinks will bring disaster based on the wrong understanding of causality. He abides by taboos. In this way, taboo has become a negative application in applied witchcraft.
From this point of view, many folk customs actually have some scientific elements, but these scientific elements appear in non-scientific packaging, so they are far from the essence of science. And some national taboos have some psychological explanations. Some taboos are ancient beliefs, and people believe in animism. People think that everything around us has life and ideas, not only animals and plants, but also teacups and teapots, so they will have an impact on people's lives. So many people have made some taboos. For example, the mouth of a teapot can't face its guests, because the homonym of the teapot is "tea tiger". If it is aimed at the guest, it will naturally offend him. For another example, when a guest comes to your house for the first time, you can't let him eat jiaozi because jiaozi is hot and slippery. Can't eating jiaozi make the guests get out of here quickly? Today, it seems that these trivial details are actually a way to communicate feelings. For example, a person who is not good at words can't express his closeness and affection to the guests in words, so he can use these small details to make the guests feel the respect of the host. Doesn't this also add a lot of mysterious fun to ordinary life?
2. Correctly treat the religious beliefs and customs of the masses.
Respecting and protecting freedom of religious belief is the party's basic policy on religious issues, and it is also a long-term policy. However, the policy of freedom of religious belief does not mean that party member can practice religion freely. Party member is different from ordinary citizens, but a member of Marxist political party and an atheist. Religion is an idealistic worldview, which is anti-scientific in nature. Therefore, as a producer of * * *, party member not only can't believe in religion, but also has the responsibility to promote materialism and atheism at any time. However, party member should also understand that it is not only ineffective, but also very harmful to deal with problems in the ideological world and spiritual world, including religion, in a simple way. The policy of freedom of religious belief was formulated by our party according to Marxism–Leninism, which is a correct policy in line with the interests of the people. Communist party member should comprehensively and correctly understand and conscientiously implement the party's policy of freedom of religious belief, unite religious and non-religious people, and strive for the prosperity of the country and the happiness of the people.
In ethnic minority areas where all people believe in religion, party member, who lives at the grassroots level, refuses to participate in any wedding ceremony or mass festival with certain religious colors and traditions, even if he gets rid of his religious beliefs, he will inevitably be divorced from the masses. Therefore, it is necessary to proceed from reality and treat specific situations in order to contact the masses. Although many traditional wedding and funeral ceremonies and mass festivals of these ethnic groups contain some religious colors or traditions, they have actually become an integral part of ethnic customs. Party member, who lives at the grass-roots level, should not only draw a clear line between his thoughts and religious beliefs, but also respect national customs and habits in his life.
3. How to correctly understand and treat the customs and habits of ethnic minorities?
The customs and habits of every nation are the product of the stage of social and historical development. In the development of human society, with the development of production and the progress of social life, all kinds of distinctive material life and the organizational forms of human social life closely related to material life, as well as marriage, funeral and customs, have also developed day by day, and gradually formed national customs. ?
National customs and habits are the reflection of a nation's political, economic and cultural life, and reflect its lifestyle, historical and cultural traditions, psychological quality and emotional realm, moral standards and religious concepts to varying degrees. Once the national customs and habits are formed, they are recognized and observed by the whole nation. When a nation expresses its national characteristics, there are always some characteristics different from other nationalities, such as customs and lifestyles, which become one of the symbols representing the nation. Therefore, respecting national customs and habits is an extremely sensitive issue in ethnic relations and needs to be treated with caution. If you don't respect the customs and habits of ethnic minorities, it will inevitably arouse their disgust. Customs and habits change with the change of living conditions, but the change of customs and habits often lags behind the change of living conditions and has relative stability. This shows that at any time, there are always some backward and outdated customs and habits that hinder the development and progress of the nation. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the national customs and habits in detail. The customs of all ethnic groups can be divided into three situations:
(1) Good, relatively good. All customs and habits that are beneficial or harmful to national unity and people's unity, economic and cultural development and people's life and physical and mental health belong to this category. Such customs and habits should be advocated and carried forward. ?
(2) There is no distinction between good and bad, that is, there are no obvious positive or negative customs. As long as people are keen on this custom, they should leave it alone. ?
(3) bad and harmful. All unscientific and unsanitary customs and habits that are harmful to national unity and people's unity, hinder production and economic and cultural development, and are not conducive to people's life and physical and mental health fall into this category. This kind of customs and habits should be explained to the cadres and the masses of the nation, educated and inspired to raise their awareness, and then they should carry out reforms themselves. ?
The formation of ethnic customs is determined by the historical development, economic characteristics and natural conditions of ethnic areas. Therefore, we can't treat customs and habits in isolation, but should explore the reasons for the formation and existence of these customs and habits from the historical, economic and natural conditions of a nation. Only in this way can our understanding conform to the objective situation. It is discrimination and slander to describe the customs and habits of ethnic minorities as stereotypes. Practically speaking, there are some stereotypes in the customs and habits of ethnic minorities. At the same time, we should also see that stereotypes also exist in the customs and habits of the Han nationality. As mentioned above, there are three kinds of customs and habits of every nation: good, average and bad. The customs and habits of any nation should not be completely affirmed or completely denied, but should be analyzed in detail. When some people mention ethnic minorities, they are immediately associated with backwardness, which is a manifestation of the influence of Han chauvinism. Generally speaking, it is an objective fact that the political, economic and cultural development level of the Han nationality is relatively advanced, while the development of most ethnic minorities is relatively backward. However, being advanced is not all good, and being backward is not all bad. Many customs and habits of the Han nationality need to be reformed, and many customs and habits of ethnic minorities are worth promoting. Therefore, all ethnic groups should never take their own customs and habits as the standard when treating other ethnic groups, but should take whether it is conducive to national unity, national unity, economic and cultural development, socialist cause and people as the standard. ?
Correctly understanding and treating the customs and habits of ethnic minorities and respecting them are conducive to protecting the equal rights and democratic rights of all ethnic groups, prospering and developing national traditional culture and safeguarding national unity. The customs and habits of ethnic minorities are an important part of national culture. Some customs and habits of various ethnic groups are expressed in the form of song and dance art, and the diversity of customs and habits constitutes a rich and colorful national culture. Promoting national traditional culture includes developing progressive customs and habits. Respecting the customs and habits of ethnic minorities, all ethnic groups have the freedom to maintain or reform their own customs and habits. This is China's basic policy towards ethnic customs and habits, which is essentially a concrete manifestation of adhering to the principle of equality among ethnic groups and developing socialist democracy. Violating national customs means trampling on national equal rights and democratic rights; Respecting the customs of a nation means respecting a nation; To despise a nation's customs is to discriminate against a nation. Therefore, any words and deeds that don't respect the customs and habits of ethnic minorities, even out of jokes, are easy to stimulate or even hurt national feelings, which is not conducive to national unity.
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