New Year's Day is the most important festival in China. People everywhere celebrate the Spring Festival, but at the same time, they also create colorful festivals and customs. Some have disappeared, and some still exist and continue to this day. Generally speaking, the holiday customs in Taishun are similar. According to the survey data, according to the author's Frog at the Well, are the differences of New Year customs in county towns mainly caused by the influence of native place, nationality and living habits?
In fact, each of us has the experience of Chinese New Year, but not many people have investigated the custom of Chinese New Year. As the son of Taishun Mountain, should we understand or investigate the local culture closely related to our home? Personally, I think that as long as everyone takes action and makes some investigations, a large number of valuable local cultural materials can be collected in a few years.
The author's investigation words are really vulgar. As the saying goes, "throw a brick to attract jade", then I'm afraid my words are not even bricks. But I am suspected of "going too far", hoping to inspire everyone to investigate and study our local culture together.
If you can patiently read this survey data, I would like to thank you and get your advice!
Sweep the dust from a year ago.
"If you have money but no money, wash for the New Year". No matter rich or poor, every household should go out to clean the kitchen, hall and other places before the year, and the boxes, cabinets and corner beds should also be cleaned. This is called "sweeping the dust". When sweeping the dust, it is especially necessary to clean the chimney, because when the kitchen god returned to heaven on the 24th, he turned into a puff of smoke and came out of the chimney. Of course, his "walking" path must be cleaned.
It is reported that the custom of sweeping dust during the Spring Festival has a history of more than 4,000 years in China. In the Tang and Song Dynasties, year-end dust removal has become a must for every household. Wu's Dream in the Southern Song Dynasty: Lin 'an people celebrate the Spring Festival. "All homes, big or small, sweep the floor, clean the house." Dust prevention at the end of the year was also stipulated as a kind of etiquette in the Ming Dynasty's Da Dai Li. In the old society, no matter how busy people are, they should clean up, sweep away the indoor garbage, sweep away the bad luck and bad luck, and welcome the fine weather in the New Year.
Legend in some places in the county holds that after the kitchen god left, the affairs of the human portal will not be under the care of the kitchen god, and the jade emperor will send the kitchen god down to take care of the "government affairs" for a few days, and this kitchen god is very clean. If he is neglected, he will go back and report to the jade emperor like the kitchen god, and people will be punished by the jade emperor. Therefore, before the kitchen god goes to heaven and the fairy arrives, we must clean the portal.
The date of sweeping dust depends on the date of offering sacrifices to the kitchen god. For example, Sankui, Yang Ya, Gui Hu and Lingbei worship the kitchen gods on the 29th of the twelfth lunar month, and generally sweep the dust around the 24th of the twelfth lunar month. In Xia Hong and other places, Kitchen God offered sacrifices on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, and began to sweep the dust from the 16th of the twelfth lunar month. Generally speaking, before the kitchen god returns to the sky for the New Year, it is necessary to carry out a dust removal.
On dust-cleaning day, there are some customs in Taishun to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. On the day of sweeping the dust in Xiahongbei Valley, if the children at home are unsafe in 2008, that is, as the saying goes, "disobedience", a hat worn by children will be dug out in the closet and thrown into the hill. In Yangxi and Si Qian, find a set of children's clothes and throw them into the stream to float away. I hope that the old year can take away unlucky things and let good luck come when the new year comes.
The custom of sweeping dust is full of people's good wishes, but it also has practical significance. After cleaning, the dusty house suddenly becomes clean and spotless, which is very beneficial to human health.
Baner New Year's Goods and China New Year's Diet Customs
The biggest festival in a year is the Spring Festival, and food is the most abundant. After the new year, the villagers in the mountain city set out to buy new year's goods. Taishun has different markets. Some places go to market every Wednesday, and some places go to market every seven days. But the 28th of the twelfth lunar month is a market day specially set up for people to buy new year's goods. North and South goods outside the mountain, local products in the mountain, etc. It can be described as a sea of people, and the atmosphere of the New Year is getting stronger and stronger with the lively scene of buying new year's goods.
General business shops close early in the afternoon of the 29th of the twelfth lunar month and go home for the New Year. They will not resume business until the sixth and seventh day of the first lunar month, so every household should prepare the necessary items for the New Year, such as fish, fruits and vegetables, tobacco, alcohol, sugar, tea, scented paper candles and so on. Children should also take adults by the skirts, pestering adults to buy their favorite candy in the market, and then bring back a big bag, which is enough to satisfy their temporary greed. For children, the reason why they like Chinese New Year may be that they are not scolded by adults in the first month, and the happiest thing is to have their favorite "new year's goods" to eat.
Bread is the pillar of life. The importance of diet in people's lives is self-evident, and New Year's Day diet has formed a rich diet folk custom. Rice is mainly grown in the south of China, and rice is the staple food of people. Taishun villagers made a big fuss about rice and created food with local flavor. For example, the broken cakes in Luo Yang, the free-seed smoked bacon in Sixi and Sankui areas, the pork smoked bacon in Gui Hu areas, the maltose in Shiyang and Yang Ya areas, and so on.
Most people who have been to Shancheng and Shancheng hotels and restaurants are full of praise for the unique "Pobing" in Shancheng, with food and food. It is said that making a cake requires a lot of effort. First of all, you must soak the top-grade rice, grind it into rice slurry with moderate thickness, spread it on a hot pot, and fry it into a complete cake crust with uniform thickness. Then, take out a cake crust and spread it flat, and cover it with a layer of meat stuffing, mushrooms, fungus, shrimp, scallops, peanuts, sesame seeds, shredded eggs and chopped green onion. Add a layer of cake crust and a layer of stuffing; Add a layer of cake crust, put a layer of stuffing on it, repeat it several times, then roll it into long strips, flatten it, put it in a pot and fry it with slow fire, and you will have a pleasant creaking sound and increase your appetite. When it's golden and crisp, you can take it out and put it on a shallow plate. When it is served, it is a delicious and well-known cake.
Eating old lady cakes also has a sense of exquisiteness. The clip must be scooped with a spoon and held in a shallow basin or thin plate. Be careful not to let it spread. Otherwise, the stuffing will come out from the crust, and the crust will separate, losing the unique flavor of the cake. This will be like percussion music played separately by gongs and drums, out of tune. Be more impatient when using it. You should shrink your lips and teeth and chew a small piece carefully. Otherwise, it will burn your mouth, hurt your throat and suppress your tears, which will embarrass you in public and hurt your elegance.
Women's cakes are also called pancakes, steamed stuffed buns and pancakes. Legend has it that a long time ago, in some single-family families in mountainous areas, men went to farm in the fields during the day, and young women also helped, leaving only the old woman to look after the house. They are bored, so they want to get something to make a rare sumptuous meal. At that time, the poor could not afford to buy silver for non-staple food, and there was no place to buy it in remote mountainous areas even if they had money. The old ladies "learned from their greed" and took local materials: they measured a liter and a half of millet at home and ground it into pulp, so the rice paste cake wrapped in the dish became the prototype of the old lady's cake. Later, it was constantly improved, perfected and improved. Because the "invention patent" of this dish belongs to the old woman, it is called "old woman cake". (Tian Xin's textual research on "breaking the ice")
The bacon made in Sixi, Sankui, Gui Hu and Johor Bahru are similar, but the raw materials are different. If the raw materials do not contain seeds, the fat intestines and internal organs should be removed and smoked as a whole. If pork is used as raw material, take lean meat. The method of making bacon with pork as raw material is: first, put a catty of rice in the pot (calculated by smoking ten catties of pork), then erect wooden branches on the rice vertically and horizontally and put pork on it. After the firewood is burned in the stove, the rice burns to produce smoke, which plays the role of smoking pork. You can smoke it out in ten minutes, then put it in a ventilated place to cool, and you can eat it in a day or two.
Maltose in Shiyang, Yang Ya and other places is also a must-have item for local villagers in the New Year. The preparation method is as follows: first, the steamed glutinous rice is slightly cooled to about 20 degrees, and then the barley malt soaked in warm water is added and mixed. After one night, the yeast in barley malt has transformed the starch in glutinous rice into sugar, which is porridge-like. The next morning, put it in a sugar ladle (big straw bag) and wring out the sugar water with a wooden frame to separate the sugar residue. Then heat the sugar water in a pot. After the water evaporates continuously, the sugar water gradually becomes sticky. When there is filamentous sugar oil, take it out and pull it out to become soft candy. If fried for a long time, the sugar oil will be thicker and can be pulled into crisp sugar. In addition, sugar water can be mixed with fried rice flowers, peanuts and sesame seeds to make fragrant, sweet and crisp "fried rice candy", "fried fruit" and twist (wrapped sugarcane candy).
Although farmers in different areas of the county have some differences in Chinese New Year food, rice cakes and glutinous rice balls are the foods that villagers have to prepare before the New Year and become the most important local food for villagers in Shancheng. To make rice cakes, first take rice and steam it, then pour it into a stone mortar and beat it with a stone hammer. The dough should be turned over constantly and sprinkled with water to avoid sticking to stone mortar and slate. After the rice noodle ball is thoroughly beaten, it is placed on the door panel, cut and twisted into strips, which are usually eaten by yourself. Or block printed with wood block, engraved with flowers and birds, these auspicious patterns are printed on the rice cake. This kind of printed cake, after being affixed with a red note, is used to pay New Year greetings in the first month. There is also a ghost Zhai Jian, which looks like "gold" and is used as a sacrifice.
Tangyuan is a food made of glutinous rice flour, and there are names such as "Maruko" and "jiaozi" in the county. Because "glutinous rice balls" and "reunion" are homophonic, eating glutinous rice balls in the Spring Festival also means "family reunion, reunion". This is a homophonic meaning, and there is a legend of eating glutinous rice balls to pray for reunion. According to legend, after the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon, Hou Yi was ill and bedridden because he missed Chang 'e day and night. On the fourteenth night of the first month, a boy asked for an audience and said to Yi, "I was sent by my wife (Chang 'e). My wife knows that you miss her day and night. Tomorrow is the full moon night in May. Madam, please make meatballs with rice flour, and then put them in the northwest corner of the room, and madam can come. "In order to pray for a smooth and healthy family and reunion every year, people also eat meatballs during the Spring Festival. To make glutinous rice balls, firstly, glutinous rice is soaked in water, ground into slurry, put into a cloth bag, pressed under a stone mill to filter water, and then the powder is kneaded into glutinous rice balls. Sankui area does not make stuffing, commonly known as "meatballs"; Luo Yang usually puts stuffing such as sesame oil and sugar into jiaozi, which is called "Tangyuan". It tastes fresh, sticky but not thick, sweet but not greasy.
Sacrifice to the kitchen god at the age of three
Taishun has a saying: "Mr. Wang doesn't eat winter solstice pills, and he doesn't eat 24 meals all year round." It is said that in ancient times, teachers had to go home before the winter solstice, while "long-term" people who helped others to do long-term work had to go home before the 24th of the twelfth lunar month to start preparing for the New Year. Off-year, also known as "off-year" and "off-year", is relative to New Year's Eve. The dates of off-year are slightly different between the north and the south, usually on the 23rd and 24th of the twelfth lunar month. In some places, it is earlier, and there is a saying that "it is the year after Laba", that is, after the "Laba Festival" on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, people began to prepare for the New Year. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cui Mang's "Four-person Moon Order" said: "The twelfth lunar month is renewed, which means that you are young, respected after drinking, and trained as a teacher." This shows that in the Han Dynasty more than 2,000 years ago, the custom of respecting teachers and attaching importance to Taoism in young years has been formed.
The most important thing in off-year is to worship the kitchen god. Kitchen God, also known as Kitchen King, was also known as Kitchen King after the Tang Dynasty. It is a god revered by ordinary people in China, and it has been worshipped by every household since the emperor gave orders to ordinary people. Before the Han dynasty, there was a view that the kitchen god was a fire god, because the function of the kitchen was mainly to cook food with fire. Later, Yan Di and Zhu Rong were regarded as Vulcan and Kitchen God, because these two mythical figures were humanized gods established after the Warring States Period. Taking the kitchen god as the fire god, its beliefs are all produced from the natural attributes of the kitchen and its practical role in people's lives. At that time, people thought that the Kitchen God was the revered Emperor Yan and the Yellow Emperor, and it was changed from the Vulcan Zhu Rong, so the Kitchen God was regarded as the god in charge of diet.
Kitchen God became the "head of the family" after the Han Dynasty. He controlled people's lives and destiny by eating and drinking. On the one hand, people want to get happiness through this kind of sacrifice, on the other hand, they are afraid that the kitchen god will bring them disaster. "A Complete Book of Respect for Chefs: A True Gentleman Persuades Kindness" says: "A gentleman in the kitchen is the commander-in-chief of the East Kitchen, who receives a fragrance, protects a Kangtai family, observes the good and evil of a family, and plays the merits and demerits of a family. On Gengshen Festival, people play the role of Jade Emperor. At the end of the month, people who do more will live a long life after three years. There are more people, and after three years, the sky will fall. " In this way, the Kitchen God became the supervisor sent by the Jade Emperor to supervise the words, deeds and faults of each household, and once he found the behavior that made him dissatisfied, he secretly wrote down an account. On the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, it returned to heaven to make a general report to the Jade Emperor.
There are not many legends about Taishun Kitchen God. One of them is a poor man named Er Ding who lives by begging. Later, his family got well and got married. But his wife, though virtuous, is ugly. After a long time, Er Ding didn't like her. After the family became rich, Stud divorced his wife and married a woman who hooked up with him in the village. When the Jade Emperor knew this, he set fire to all the property of Er Ding, and his later wife was also killed in the fire. Er Ding lived a life of begging again. One day, I had a family. Er Ding is too hungry to walk. After knocking at the door, she finally fainted from hunger. Coincidentally, his ex-wife remarried to this family. Ding woke up to see his ex-wife, felt sorry for her, and set her on fire. When the Jade Emperor in the sky knew about it, he felt ashamed of Er Ding and had not lost his humanity, so he named him the Kitchen God and was in charge of the affairs of human incense.
Taishun folk sacrifices to the Kitchen God are mostly on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, such as villages in Xia Hong and Shinohara. There are also places on the 29th of the twelfth lunar month (New Year's Eve, the same below), such as Sankui, Yang Ya, Gui Hu and Lingbei. Sacrifice to the kitchen god is usually held during the day, and some places in turtle lake sacrifice to the kitchen god after New Year's Eve. The shrine of Kitchen God is installed on the wall of the kitchen. Generally, the Kitchen God is installed after the main building of the residential building is completed, and the ceremony should be presided over by the teacher. The teacher should report the family situation of the head of household to Kitchen God and ask him to bless the peace. On the wall outside the shrine of the stove, the words "Kitchen God plays good deeds in the sky, cigarettes fall to the ground to make money" and "God talks about good deeds and peace in the next world" are written in red paper. Inside the shrine, there are books on the left and right, which read "a boy who picks firewood and a boy who carries water". It says "Give a good class meeting".
In some places in Gui Hu, women are forbidden to participate, which may be related to a legend. It is said that Kitchen God is the third son of the Jade Emperor. Because of his lust for women, he was demoted to the mortal world as a kitchen god by the Jade Emperor. So women don't sacrifice to the kitchen god. In Taishun, folk deities generally use three kinds of gifts (eggs, pork and fish) and tea, wine and rice cakes. When offering sacrifices, the host added wine and prayed that the kitchen god would say something nice when he returned to heaven, and could not report the scandal at home to the Jade Emperor. In order to make the kitchen god speak well, some people also sacrifice sugar, which means that they eat sweet and have a sweet mouth. Of course, they speak well. Others say that the purpose of offering sacrifices to the kitchen god with sugar is to stick his mouth and prevent him from talking nonsense. It is said that offering sacrifices to stoves with rice cakes also means "living". All this stems from the fact that Kitchen God is the "head of the family", and the reason why people worship him is of course that they are afraid of him.
According to legend, Luo Yin, who lived as an emperor, was played by the Kitchen God and became a beggar with a golden mouth. The folklore goes like this: Luo Yin lived like an emperor. Before he ascended the throne, mother and son lived by begging. Luo Yin's mother is very irritable. Once she went to the village to borrow something from Luo Yin, but the villagers refused to borrow it. She flew into a rage. She vowed that if Luo Yin can achieve great things in the future, all the chickens and dogs in the neighborhood will see blood. This statement was heard by Kitchen God, who reported it to the Jade Emperor when he returned to heaven at the end of the year. The Jade Emperor was furious and immediately ordered the abolition of Luo Yin's imperial life. Mountain soldiers will stand in the clouds to take back Luo Yin's imperial life, and Luo Yin doesn't know that he has an imperial life. Seeing the thunderstorm in the sky, he quickly hid under the bed and was blocked by the urinal in panic, leaving a "golden mouth".
There is also a story circulating in Xia Hong that one hundred and eight generals in Liangshan were originally subordinates of Luo Yin, who had imperial power. Because Luo Yin was not regarded as the emperor, all 108 generals came to no good end.
After returning to heaven to report earthly affairs to the Jade Emperor, Kitchen God will return to earthly affairs to take care of "government affairs". In Taishun, the days of welcoming Kitchen God back to Earth are different. Some places send the Kitchen God back to the sky on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, and then welcome him back to earth on the 29th of the twelfth lunar month. But most places welcome the kitchen god on the fourth day of the first month. Although the days of welcoming Kitchen God are different, the places of welcoming Kitchen God are the same. They all put three animals and other things in the shrine on the second floor of the house to worship the kitchen god again, hoping that he could protect his family in the new year.
Si Chunlian's door god Daofu
Spring Festival couplets originated in Fu Tao. "Fu Tao" refers to rectangular red boards hanging on both sides of the gate since the Zhou Dynasty. According to the Book of Rites, the peach symbol is six inches long and three inches wide, and the words "Shen Tu" and "Lei Yu" are written on the mahogany board. "On the first day of the first month, I made a peach symbol for this family and named it Xianmu. All ghosts are afraid of it." In the Song Dynasty, the peach symbol was changed from mahogany board to paper, which was called "Spring Sticker". In the Ming Dynasty, Fu Tao changed its name to Spring Festival couplets.
The content of Spring Festival couplets in Taishun Mountain City is very rich, and there are many places to paste Spring Festival couplets, which are divided into door hearts, frame pairs, cross arms, fights and so on. In many places, posting "Huazi" Spring Festival couplets is also very popular. The so-called "Hanako" is written according to the shapes of animals and plants. "Huazi" Spring Festival couplets not only contain festive connotation in the name of the word, but also have auspicious symbols in the form of the word.
During the Spring Festival, there is also the custom of putting up doors. Some were painted by the janitor, and some just wrote the janitor's name on red paper. Generally, people who believe in the Mountain Gate God are Harmony, or Qin Harmony. Shentu and Lei Yu are legendary ghost hunters. Ying Shao's Custom Pass in the Eastern Han Dynasty quoted the Book of the Yellow Emperor: "In ancient times, two brothers Nash and Lei Yu lived on Dushuo Mountain. There is a peach tree on the mountain, and the shade is like a cover. Every morning, they will review the ghosts under the tree. If an evil spirit harms the world, tie it up and feed it to the tiger. Later, people painted portraits of Shencha and Lei Yu on two mahogany boards and hung them on both sides of the door to ward off evil spirits. " In the Tang Dynasty, Qin's harmony was regarded as a door god. There is a story that Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong, was once in a bad mood. He often heard bricks and tiles being dragged outside his bedroom and ghosts calling. Makes the thirty-six palaces and seventy-two courtyards uneasy every night. He was so scared that he told his ministers about it. Qin went out of class and said, "I have killed enemies like melons and collected corpses like ants all my life. Are you still afraid of ghosts? " I am willing to stand guard outside the palace gate with Wei Chijingde armed to the teeth. "Li Shimin agreed, and nothing happened that night. In order to avoid the hard work of the two of them to stay awake every day, they drew a full-length portrait for them, holding Yu Fu, with whips, chains, bows and arrows tied to their waist, imposing, as always, and pasted them on the left and right doors of each floor, and the evil spirits disappeared from now on. Later generations followed this method and took his portrait as the door god.
The custom of posting the word "Fu" during the Spring Festival is more common in Taishun, a mountain city. The word "Fu" is generally written on red paper and pasted upside down to take the auspicious meaning of "Fu has fallen (arrived)". "Blessing God" is also a god widely worshipped by folk villagers. There is a legend in Yangxi, Zhouling and other places that he is a kind-hearted man. Even if he is unlucky, he sacrifices to pray for God under the roots of trees for several days in the cold winter of the twelfth month. On the evening of 29th, on his way home, he found a pot of silver. There was a bully in the village. He cheated a good man out of his money and then sacrificed to the gods. Because he was lazy and didn't want to walk, he was asked to carry the sedan chair. He lay in the sedan chair and stuck his head out along the road to find money. As a result, he was stoned to death on the road The next day, the good-hearted man passed by here, but I didn't expect the god of fortune to turn this stone into silver and give it to him. It can be said that "good is rewarded with good, and evil with evil."
Sacrifice a hundred gods, and talk about the image first.
We call December "the twelfth month" because of its origin. In Shang Dynasty, Chinese New Year was called "Sacrifice", which means offering sacrifices to ancestors and natural gods during Chinese New Year. Sacrificial activities are also called "wax" and "wax". In the Zhou Dynasty, "wax" and "wax" were separated. "Wax" refers to ancestor worship, and "wax" refers to mountain worship. It was not until Qin Shihuang unified the world that offering sacrifices to ancestors and gods was collectively called "La". The ancients believed that "everything is animistic", and all the gods in nature have their own duties. Therefore, if you sacrifice them inappropriately, it will definitely affect your own survival and work. Therefore, in daily life, if something goes wrong, we should prepare offerings for sacrifice, hoping to be blessed. The date of sacrifice is not a specific day. However, around the 29th of the twelfth lunar month, every household must make sacrifices to all the gods in the village. Among the gods worshipped, some are well-known and widely worshipped by villagers all over the country, and some are just small gods popular among different places.
In Taishun, villagers offer offerings to gods with temples, while those without gods, such as door gods and heaven and earth gods, insert a few sticks of incense instead. For gods who have temples or shrines at home, sacrifices are usually made on the morning of the 29th of the twelfth lunar month. For example, Sankui will offer sacrifices to the Five Emperors and Yang Fuxing, Sixi and other places will offer sacrifices to the Fourteenth Empress Chen, Luoyang will offer sacrifices to Qianjinyan (Lingshi), and Shinohara and other places will offer sacrifices to loyal officials and train the king, and so on. Sacrifice to ancestors should be cooked in one pot, and sacrifice to god can be cooked in one pot. The reason is that it is popular in Xia Hong and other places that God has supernatural power to cook raw food before eating, but the ancestors of the underworld do not have this "magic", so it is natural to cook before eating.
During the day, the activities of offering sacrifices to gods vary from place to place, and immortals from all walks of life are also in a hurry to go to dinner. However, on the evening of the 29th, the situation was very different, and people turned their sacrifices to Lu Shen. There are also different opinions about the origin of the road head god. Some people think that the road god is the god of wealth, which is divided into five roads and is in charge of various finances. Therefore, on the evening of the 29th, people went to the fork in the road to offer sacrifices to the God of Wealth, in order to pray for wealth and prosperity. When offering sacrifices, you should insert "incense" along each road at the fork in the road and extend the incense to dozens of meters away. Villagers in Xia Hong believe that the Road Head God refers to the "xianggong" and the beggar's head. He has 36 apprentices and 72 apprentices. He is also known as "the monkey master in the street", "the dog master at the end of the street" and "the general who locks his throat". As a beggar god, it is most beneficial to meet beggars when offering sacrifices. They often give all the sacrifices to beggars, and some people even prepare red envelopes for each other.
It is a custom to sacrifice at the end of the road and avoid being caught by passers-by. If the night watchman sees someone offering sacrifices to the roadside gods from a distance and knows the rules, he should try not to make any noise. Even the relatives or friends of the victim will take care of each other as strangers when they meet him.
Apart from offering sacrifices to the gods on the 29th, people think that there are so many people offering sacrifices that the gods may not remember me or bless me, so there is a custom of burning the "first incense wheel" on the first day of the first month, thinking that those who can burn the first incense column will ask for more blessings. People who burn incense in the first round often leave in the middle of the night for fear of being later than others. The old man was unable to go to the temples on the mountain and the "Xianweng Cave" to pray for God and worship Buddha, so he burned "head incense" in the small palace temple in the village. There will be fewer people burning incense in small temples, but burning incense in big temples is another scene. Often, the road is blocked, and there are too many people to stand. Coupled with the spread of cigarettes, it makes people cry. There is only one column of "head incense" in each temple, which can be described as "more monks than porridge", but burning "head incense" is a portrayal of people's piety to the gods and buddhas.
Sacrificing ancestors on New Year's Eve
Sacrificing ancestors on New Year's Eve is a popular holiday custom in China. People believe that the gods of their ancestors will protect their descendants and make them prosperous. On the other hand, it also comes from the thought of "being cautious in the end" and "putting all virtues and filial piety first" in traditional ethics. Ancestor worship of the ancients was mainly manifested in the establishment of temples and shrines, and ancestral shrines were also set up in ordinary people's homes. Every new year's eve, the incense burner in front of the ancestral hall in the shrine on the second floor should be invited to the hall, and a bowl of rice should be placed on the table of the Eight Immortals to show filial piety and memory.
Sacrificing ancestors on New Year's Eve is usually held in the afternoon. In Xia Hong and other places, there is a saying that noon belongs to Yin, and ancestors are also people in the Yin world. Of course, they should worship their ancestors in the afternoon. If they belong to Yang when they worship their ancestors in the morning, their ancestors can't drink soup. The Zeng family, who had been abroad, followed the custom of their ancestral home in Quanzhou and worshipped their ancestors on New Year's Eve, because their ancestors died in the morning.
Before the sacrifice, roommates each prepared a bowl of rice and put it on the table of the Eight Immortals. There are generally three kinds of gifts (pork, fish and eggs), rice, rice cake, tea and wine. Sacrificial food is also exquisite, and King Gui Hu is not allowed to use cowpeas to worship his ancestors; The Xu family is not allowed to worship their ancestors with snails. If it is taboo, the children born to the younger generation will be extremely ugly and have eyes as big as snails. In terms of taboos, the legendary Xu family also paid attention not to let the children cry when offering sacrifices to their ancestors. According to legend, on the afternoon of New Year's Eve, an ancestor of the Xu family went to eat in the dead man's room, but the man of this family hasn't come back for the New Year, and the woman is preparing soup in the kitchen, leaving the children unattended and crying. The ancestors coaxed the children. When the food was served, the woman was busy with other things after the sacrifice began. The ancestors had to coax their children and eat at the same time. A column of incense time has passed, and the Xu ancestors have not eaten enough at this time. Helpless soup rice was withdrawn, so we had to go back hungry. A few days later, he had a dream for the descendants of the deceased, telling them not to make their children cry again.
The arrangement of sacrifices varies slightly from place to place. In Xiahong North Valley, a big bowl filled with rice should be placed in the north of the square table. There are oil lamps and fragrant rice in the bowl, and two bowls of tea beside the bowl. There is a custom of worshipping ancestors on the balcony of the rich Zhuang nationality in Yangxi without chopsticks. Because their ancestors moved from Pingyang, it is said that this custom was handed down from Pingyang. At the top of the tower, members of the Ji family also invited their ancestors' portraits to hang on the wall of the Taishi, adding a solemn atmosphere to the solemn sacrificial activities.
After the incense is lit, add wine to the glass, and then add wine every few minutes. Usually add wine three times. In some places, wine is also added five times, thinking that "poetry has eight chapters and wine has five rounds."
In Zhengjiazhuang and Shiyang Dong Xi, Gui Hu, on New Year's Eve, a family worships their ancestors in the ancestral hall. This huge ancestor worship scene can better reflect the intention of not forgetting the merits and demerits of ancestors and burying them. When you go to the ancestral temple to worship your ancestors, everyone should dress neatly and behave appropriately to show respect for their ancestors.
Qi New Year's Eve snack Shao Nianzhu hand broken
On New Year's Eve, after worshipping the ancestors of heaven and earth, families will hold "New Year's Eve wine", also known as "New Year's Eve". No matter how far away from home, we should try our best to go back to our hometown and have this "reunion dinner" with our relatives. In Guihu, Yangxi and other places, if a family member fails to go home for the New Year's Eve dinner, the family still has to leave him a place and put chopsticks on it, which means reunion.
Generally speaking, the New Year's Eve dinner in Shanxiang is an offering to ancestors, which is eaten after heating. If it is an unheated offering, you can't eat it, otherwise it will be considered unlucky. When eating, in some places, the elders should be asked to use chopsticks before the younger generation can eat. There are many rules on New Year's Eve, such as no dropping utensils on the ground; Speak more auspicious words than unlucky ones. You can't sweep all the meals on New Year's Eve. Be sure to leave some until the second day of the first month (eat vegetarian food on the first day of the first month). Some extended families still attach great importance to the dishes of New Year's Eve, such as rice cakes (high every year), vegetable heads (good dishes), fish or taro (more every year), jiaozi (reunion) and so on.
After the New Year's Eve, there will be a "midnight snack" around eleven or two. The food on New Year's Eve is far from abundant, but it is still valued by the villagers and has become an important Spring Festival custom. "midnight snack" is often associated with "burning pig" While "burning Nian pig" in the fire pit, food is also being burned for "supper". There are many sayings of "burning pigs in the year" in the county.
On New Year's Eve, the whole family get together for dinner. When people keep watch on New Year's Eve, they start a charcoal fire and bury firewood in the fire pit (fire pond) in front of the stove, which is called "burning pig". Legend has it that in the Yuan Dynasty, the people hated the rulers, carved wood into the appearance of local officials and buried it in charcoal fire to curse the rulers. Since then, the custom of "burning pigs in the middle of the year" has spread. In fact, the purpose of burning the "Year Pig" is to bury the fire, because during the Spring Festival, everyone gets up early to light up and burn incense to welcome the god of wealth, fearing that it is unlucky not to find a fire; Moreover, fire is also a symbol of prosperity. On New Year's Eve, the house is brightly lit, the kitchen is on fire, and the heating is off, which means that the family is prosperous. (Zhou Ruzi's Traditional Festival Customs in Taishun)
The popular story in Xia Hong is like this. I don't know which dynasty Chao Yan sent many supervisors to supervise the work of the people. These executives are very vicious. So on August 15, everyone agreed to send Mid-Autumn moon cakes (with notes hidden in them) in the twelfth lunar month to kill the head of the supervisor. Although the head of the supervisor was killed, the hatred for them remained unsolved, so on New Year's Eve, people took a tree brain instead of the head of the supervisor, burned it to a certain extent in the fire, covered it with dust, and burned it until the first day of the first month to express their dissatisfaction and struggle against evil forces.
The story about "burning pig in the year" in Yangxi area is circulated like this. In ancient times, Chao Xuan sent many princes, each of whom was responsible for the food of nine guys. Every monarch has a kitchen knife. If people want to make a fire and cook, they must borrow a kitchen knife from the monarch. People hate Wang Ye's bullying, so they send a message through the Mid-Autumn Festival cake and agree to kill Wang Ye on the day of the twelfth lunar month.
Shiyang also has the custom of "burning pigs in the New Year", but this is a custom that villagers produce in order to pray for the gods to bless their pigs to grow old and fat. Obviously, it is quite different from the legends in other places.
"midnight snack" is also related to keeping the old age. When people eat "midnight snack" food, they start "vigil", often all night. There are two meanings of observing the old age: in the eyes of older people, it means "resigning from the old age" and cherishing time; For young people, it means extending the life span of their parents. People whose parents are alive must keep their age. Another way of saying it is, guarding the old age is also called "guarding the Tianmen": "In ancient times, God saw that the people were very poor, so he opened the Tianmen at the moment of the handover of the New Year's Eve, that is, the moment when the old and the new years crossed, and scattered the gold and silver treasures in the vault to the world. The people must pick it up at this moment, and the gains and losses are only in the blink of an eye. Are these treasures early or late?