Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Almanac inquiry - Old yellow calendar 5. 1

Old yellow calendar 5. 1

In rural areas in 2022, beginning of spring Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day are all called China New Year, which is the most exquisite day in folk customs, and many folk taboos are similar.

Because beginning of spring Day rarely coincides with New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, it is either years ago or years later. People in rural areas think that New Year's Eve and New Year's Day are the New Year in China, while beginning of spring Day is the New Year in China solar terms. In fact, in rural areas, people are used to seeing beginning of spring as the real beginning of a new year.

There are many folk customs in rural areas of China, which are still circulating today. This article will introduce three main customs in beginning of spring, namely, hiding from spring, stepping on spring and biting spring.

1, escape from spring

There is an old saying in the countryside that "beginning of spring should hide from spring every day". In rural areas, hiding from spring is also called "playing spring". People think that day in beginning of spring is the time for the seasons to change. Some people must stay at home and can't see outsiders. What are these people like? Why don't some people hide in early spring? They can go out, but they want to hide.

Some rural people like to say orally, "Do you dare to break ground on your tradition?" According to folklore, the phrase "put your head on the ground" is called "put your feet on the ground". It belongs to the so-called "numerology" in ancient China, and their professional name is "Chongke Sui Jun".

In our country, there is a kind of god called the aged god, also called the traditional god, or simply referred to as the traditional god. There are sixty Tai-sui gods, which are divided into five small cycles, with twelve years as a small cycle. In a short period of time, Artest Sui was on duty every year, which is called the duty year, and it was replaced once a year and once every twelve years. It was the turn of the Tai Sui God.

Tai sui originated from the worship of immortals in ancient China. What the ancients called Tai Sui is Jupiter in the sky now. Jupiter runs once every twelve months. The ancients called Jupiter an old star or an old age. The ancients believed that Jupiter runs every twelve years, just like twelve people on duty, and twelve people must be arranged to be on duty in turn. Later, Jupiter melted and became a twelve-year-old god, and there was a different god in a year.

During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Wang Chong believed that traditional gods were not gods in the sky. He said in "On the History of Heng Di":

"Tai sui, the god of time; With punishment, the movement is different, and it is not the way of God. "

Since then, people have thought that Tai Sui God is a fierce god hidden in the crowd, which is usually unknown and little known.

With the development of our country, these twelve-year-old years are constantly personified. At present, the earliest anthropomorphic Tai Sui God that can be verified is Yin Jiao. Yin Jiao is the eldest son of Shang Zhouwang. There is a saying in the romance: "Yin Jiao is a god worthy of the age of a king." Later, it gradually increased, and there were more than 60 people, all of whom were anthropomorphic traditional gods, but they were different from place to place. Among them, there are 60 traditional portraits of gods and idols. Few people are too old for God, and few people know this.

People think that people can't rush to commit crimes because traditional gods are fierce. How can the criminal be considered too old?

Later, China's ancient numerology borrowed the traditional view of China in astronomy, and put forward a set of views that the zodiac was in conflict with the traditional view of China. This sentence is like a calendar, which can be used for a long time and written into the old yellow calendar or the farmer's calendar. Sixty years is a cycle, and it will be used again after 60 years, and so on. In the past, almanac like the Old Yellow Calendar was found in almost every household in rural areas, which shows that the conflict between the old and the young has a far-reaching impact on rural customs.

So far, if we want to look at the lunar calendar "Tai Sui Chong" in 2022, we can use the old printed almanac or various versions of the almanac, that is, the ox is too old, the sheep is too old, the dragon is too old, the horse is too old and the dog is too old. According to folklore, these people who are in conflict with "Tai Sui" should go into hiding when the seasons change in beginning of spring. There are mainly two kinds of people: one is the one who commits tai sui, and the other is the one who conflicts with others.

The statement is to avoid illness and talk about the next year. Specific time, it is generally believed that within one hour before and after sexual intercourse (specific time in beginning of spring), with the current conversion of time, one hour is equal to two hours, that is, one hour before and after sexual intercourse. However, in 2022, the time in beginning of spring is 22: 58: 39 on February 3rd. As a rural person, it is late at night, and I have gone home to sleep. This statement formed a custom in ancient China. Until now, some elderly people in many rural areas still have the custom of "hiding from spring".

There are also some rural areas in China where there is no custom of "avoiding spring", but there are many details about the days of opposing beginning of spring, that is, there are many taboo customs, or the custom of "avoiding spring" is combined with taboo customs. For example, beginning of spring is not suitable for breaking ground, moving, going to the home of seriously ill patients, funeral scenes, etc. And it is forbidden to pick up the dung bucket, pour dung, swear words, cry, yell at children, break bowls and lamps, fall to the ground while eating chopsticks, cut your head, cut your nails, etc.

Scientifically speaking, the theory of "hiding from spring" is unreasonable, just a traditional folk custom. In rural areas, except for some elderly people, most young people don't believe this.

Step 2 step on the spring

If "hiding in spring" means staying at home, or in a quiet place, you can't meet people casually, then "stepping on spring" is just the opposite. You can't hide at home or stay alone in one place, but you should go out from home, absorb the fresh air in nature and play in crowded places.

The two rural customs of "stepping on spring" and "avoiding spring" seem to be playing against Taiwan Province, each singing its own tune, which also reflects the diversity of traditional folk culture in China, and it is impossible to say which is reasonable and which is unreasonable.

There are two ways to say "stepping on spring". One way is to go out for a spring outing and climb mountains. I think that's what city people do, but rural people don't have the luxury. Rural people's "stepping on spring" mainly focuses on labor and harvesting. For example, in some rural areas in mountainous areas, beginning of spring went up the mountain early in the morning to chop wood with a firewood knife. In rural areas, beginning of spring went up the mountain that day and called it "chopping spring firewood", and carrying it home was called "carrying spring money (firewood) home". In some rural areas, there is a similar custom on New Year's Day, which is also called "chopping spring firewood". When you get up in the morning, you are not busy paying New Year's greetings, but cutting a load of firewood from the mountain, commonly known as "making money".

Generally, women don't go up the mountain to cut wood, but go to the vegetable garden to pick vegetables or play pig grass (vegetables). The homonym of vegetables is wealth, which can also make family members "make money" in beginning of spring that day and bring them good luck for a year.

In other places, you don't have to go up the mountain to cut wood or pick vegetables in the garden, but you must go outside and go out empty-handed. You can't go home empty-handed You have to take something home, which is also called "making money".

There is also a kind of "stepping on spring", which means climbing high. There are two kinds. One is walking on stilts. After walking on stilts, people step on high places, which means a better life in the new year. The other is swinging, which was popular in the southern rural areas in the old days. It is a swing made of straw. When swinging, it swings higher every time, which also means step by step.

"A spring outing" means that you have to go out for a walk and can't stay at home. Walking on stilts and swinging are all collective activities, and the scene is very lively. In some places, people are also competing to win lottery tickets.

There is a special saying about "stepping on spring". For example, in the Lunar New Year of 2022, there is no solar term in beginning of spring, which is commonly known as no spring year, dumb year, black year, off-year and so on. According to the old saying, there is a saying in the countryside that "I should not get married when I am widowed, but I should get married first". If I want to get married, I'm afraid of this folk proverb. Women who want to get married will "step on the spring" in beginning of spring that day to drive away the bad luck in the coming year. This is of course a good expression.

The custom of "stepping on spring" in rural areas expresses that when spring comes, it is a beautiful yearning to greet the Spring Festival with your own steps and labor, and I hope that life will be better in the coming year.

Step 3 bite the spring

During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, beginning of spring in ancient China was very popular among the gentry. The custom of making and eating spring cakes became popular in Song Dynasty.

Making spring dishes is very popular in ancient palaces and wealthy families. They eat fresh vegetables, fruits, sugar and cakes on plates. It was also at that time that people began to pay attention to the solar terms in beginning of spring to welcome the Spring Festival. The dishes and cakes on the plate. Spring cakes used to be put on a plate, but later they developed into individual spring cakes and then into spring rolls. Until now, many rural areas still have the custom of eating Japanese spring rolls in beginning of spring.

The custom of making and eating spring cakes spread from top to bottom, from the upper level to the countryside. Rural people's New Year's Eve is not rich, and luxury goods such as fruit and sugar are hard to buy, and there is no money to buy them. Fresh vegetables can be grown at home, which is not a problem. If there is no fruit and sugar, it's easy. Make radish into fruit and sugar and put it in the spring plate. It's like in the past, when the poor had no meat to eat, they cut carrots into pieces and called them "fat meat", which was a kind of helpless self-comfort.

In rural areas, because you eat spring cakes and carrots at the same time, it is called "biting spring". In fact, biting spring is biting spring cakes and radishes.

Poor people in rural areas can't eat raw radishes. A little oil and water in their stomachs will be "scraped away" by radish, which will make them eat more and feel more hungry. There is a saying in the countryside: "If you die of poverty, you will not plow the fields, and if you starve to death, you will not enter the radish garden". Eating raw radish not only can't satisfy hunger, on the contrary, the more you eat, the hungrier you get.

But in the eyes of the rich, radish can relieve spring sleep, relieve boredom and ventilate. Spring dishes from poor rural families have become their delicacies since they were handed to the rich. According to historical records, in order to please the emperor, some ancient ministers would send fresh radishes to the emperor and dig kang holes at home to grow radishes, which is similar to growing greenhouse vegetables now.

This is the case with folk culture. The life customs of the upper class often affect the life customs of the lower class, and the life customs of the lower class will also affect the life customs of the upper class. In ancient China, the custom of "biting the spring" was formed by the interaction between superiors and subordinates.

Spring cakes are usually pasta. In ancient times, the transportation was inconvenient and the logistics industry was underdeveloped. Spring cakes can only be eaten in the main wheat producing areas. People in the main rice producing areas can't make spring cakes. What should we do?

Some are wise. People in major rice producing areas steam and mash glutinous rice to make it round like a cake, but this is not called cake, but Bazin. In many villages in the south, rice is not allowed for breakfast on the first day of the New Year, but cake-shaped Ciba is eaten, and fresh vegetables (vegetables) and radish strips are eaten to welcome the Spring Festival.

The above is related to the farmers' calendar in 2022, and it is about the sharing of meat ganoderma lucidum. After reading the list of legal holidays in 2022, I hope it will help everyone!