People's Education Press, Chinese Grade Six, Volume II Unit 2 Composition Hakka Celebrates Important Festivals.

Hakka women are famous for their virtue and hard work.

Wearing a cool hat, a big blouse, carrying a child, holding a plow and barefoot in the fields is a traditional image of Hakka women. The custom of Hakka women wearing cool hats began in the late Song Dynasty. At that time, Hakka ancestors moved south from the Central Plains. In order to survive, women also cultivated and worked like men. But it is indecent for a woman to go out of the boudoir and make public appearances, so she puts on a bamboo hat and covers her face with a black cloth with two small holes. Later, in practical use, I found it inconvenient, so I cut the cloth short and sewed it around the brim to become a cool hat that is both practical and beautiful. Later, even the curtains were removed, and only bamboo hats were worn. It is precisely because of the need of work that Hakka women never bind their feet, and the big-breasted shirts have been shortened from the original robes.

On the twelfth day after giving birth, Hakka women called it "Dachao" and sent ginger wine to their neighbors to show good news. Wine, of course, is the mother wine that Hakka women eat in the "month". The ginger in the wine is very delicate, or ginger slices or ginger strips, indicating male or female birth respectively. Generally, it is not necessary for the host to point it out. When neighbors look at the ginger in the wine, they will say "the joy of a brick and a tile"; Or congratulations on "The Joy of Teasing". The so-called "playing with tiles" means giving birth to a girl and giving her tiles to play with. Today's girls are also called "girls' films" in the Central Plains. I don't know if they have the same meaning. The so-called "Nongzhang" is to give birth to a boy and give him jade to play with. Obviously, this gender tendency is that boys are preferred to girls. The expression of ginger slices and strips is not only a symbol of gender, but also a preference for boys. Today, the custom of sending ginger wine is still popular in Hakka areas. Of course, for a long time, the words "making tiles" and "Nongzhang" did not exist. The most common sentence of a boy is: "Congratulations, just like his father!" " Giving birth to a girl will generally comfort: "When you are born, (boys and girls) are all the same"; Or change the topic and ask about the health status of the parturient.

Things similar to using ginger slices or strips to express gender can be found everywhere in Hakka areas, ranging from mountain peaks and gullies to chopsticks bowls and spoons. Almost all round and triangular things can be associated with women, and almost all bar and straight things can be associated with men.

Celebrate the Spring Festival

Like most parts of the province, Hakkas regard the Spring Festival as the biggest and happiest festival of the year. People began to prepare for the Spring Festival very early. 9. Sweet potato slices and rice cake slices will be dried in 10 for frying and frying in the New Year. As soon as the winter solstice arrives, the wine will be steamed. Nearly 30 days ago, every household would steam sugar cakes, make rice fruits, kill pigs, make tofu, kill chickens and so on. Welcome the New Year with great joy.

Sacrifice to the kitchen god

1February 23rd, after the evening of 23rd, the kitchen stove should be cleaned, and the old kitchen stove should be removed and burned. New pictures will be posted on the morning of the 30th, as well as wine, meat, candy, sugar cane, rice fruit and so on. It should be placed, and incense, candles and paper cannons should be lit in front of the kitchen stove.

Enter the year limit.

Lunar calendar1February 25th, people will enter the "New Year's Day" and step up preparations for the Spring Festival. Everyone who goes out will rush home for the New Year. After entering the fixed number of years, we should educate our children not to scold each other and not to say unlucky things. Before and after entering the new year, we should choose an auspicious day to clean the dust and clean the house. We should clean the tables and benches in the kitchen, clean the bedding and mosquito nets, and celebrate the New Year cleanly.

New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve, that is, New Year's Eve, is the warmest and happiest day of Chinese New Year. On this morning, every family should worship bodhisattva and god. On New Year's Eve, portraits of ancestors should be hung in each hall, and red Spring Festival couplets should be posted at the gate. Red notes should be put on the barn door, in front of the livestock pen, on the furniture bed and beside the water tank, which is called "sealing the year" or "putting red". Adults and children should take a bath, put on new clothes and celebrate the New Year cleanly. Each hall will also be decorated with tables, incense tables, chickens, fish, meat, fruits and so on. To worship their ancestors. On New Year's Eve, we have a family reunion dinner with rich dishes. Put more bowls and chopsticks on the table to invite our ancestors back for the New Year. Before meals, sift the wine for your ancestors, sprinkle it on the ground, and then start eating. During the dinner, the old people and children eat chicken legs to show respect for the old people and young people.

stay up late or all night on New Year's Eve

After the reunion dinner, the cooker should be cleaned to prevent vegetarianism on the first day of the first month or all day. At night, we should keep the old year, say goodbye to the old and welcome the new. Every room should be brightly lit all night. This is called "lighting the old fire". In some places, cowshed and pigsty should also be illuminated. Parents should give their children lucky money, and some places give old people lucky money.

Open the gate

On the first day of the first month, the city gate was opened at the auspicious moment stipulated in the general book, and firecrackers exploded one after another.

Pay new year's call

I am a vegetarian on the morning of the first day of the first month. After dinner, people greet each other with auspicious words. The children are wearing new clothes. They are very happy and love to play. Some of them are vying to pay New Year greetings to the elderly: "My grandparents and uncles have money, and all the candied fruit is given to ya (me)." On the second day of the first month, visit relatives to celebrate the New Year. In particular, the newly-married son-in-law (the Yue family will post an invitation with a book) will go to her parents' house to pay a New Year call. Generally, young couples go together, and a son-in-law goes alone; Some came back the same day, and some stayed for five or six days. When you go, you should bring little hens, rice fruits, candy, incense sticks and firecrackers, and then burn incense, light candles and set off firecrackers in front of the ancestors of the Yue family. At noon, the Yues treat, and the son-in-law should be drunk, not drunk or enthusiastic.

Eat old rice.

On the third morning, I ate "New Year's Rice" (some steamed on the 29th night of the previous year, some steamed on the second night of the first month), put chopsticks on the rice, several pairs of chopsticks for several people at home, a leafy branch, some oranges, grapefruit and other fruits. Before eating the New Year's Eve, you should put the rice on the "Sun" shrine to worship the gods and ancestors. There are many dishes to prepare for the New Year's Eve, including chicken and meat, which is similar to having a reunion dinner on New Year's Eve. You can't kill animals in the third grade, but chickens should be killed in the second grade or kept during the Chinese New Year.

Exceed the annual limit

The fifth day of the first month of the year. The portraits of ancestors in the hall should be put away, the paper curtains should be taken down and burned, and those who go out on business can start.

the Lantern Festival

On the fifteenth day of the first month, Lantern Festival, also known as "Shangyuan Festival", every household should prepare food and drink for the New Year. To celebrate the Lantern Festival, the Spring Festival amusement activities will reach a climax. From the beginning of the Lunar New Year to the fifteenth day of the first month, entertainment activities are constantly going on in various places, mainly Youlong lanterns and lion dances, and some activities begin on the first and second days of the first month. Dragon lanterns and lions will be posted in advance before they arrive, and red envelopes and snacks will be given when they arrive. Dragon lanterns, lions, etc. It will not only perform in every household, but also pay New Year greetings to gods and ancestors in various temples and ancestral halls in the village. During the first market after the Spring Festival, all kinds of dragon lanterns, boat lanterns and lion lanterns will be performed at the party, which is called "opening the market". During the Spring Festival to the Lantern Festival, there are also some recreational activities in various places:

Generally speaking, on the first day of the Lunar New Year, teams of three or five people will send out pictures of spring cows to all households, including those who play suona, drums and cymbals. They will blow from door to door and send out red stickers saying "Congratulations on getting rich", and the owner will send out red envelopes.

The rice straw dragon was cut into pieces and filled with incense, and the children danced in front of the stove and cowshed in the pigsty on their backs to congratulate the family safety and the prosperity of the six animals. The family should give red envelopes, the children will be happy, and the owner will ask for good luck.

Bat lights are also danced by children from door to door. "The fire dragon came into the house and asked you for candles." "Congratulations on getting rich, buying land and building a house." Bat lights don't accept red envelopes, only candles.

Ship lights are like boats, performing and singing on land. Rehearsal before the Spring Festival, gongs and drums team, playing ten times to cooperate. When we arrive at the village, we will have some snacks and then perform in the open space. The boatman and the boatman can sing tunes such as Pregnant in October, Ancient People in December, Guazi Man, A Flower, etc. The boatman just rows a boat and can't sing. In the evening, I will "open the heavenly officials" in the ancestral hall, sing "God bless the people" and so on, and finally have a drink and dinner.

There are Nuo people on the lion lantern, including a lion head, a lion tail, a monkey, a sand monk and a gongs and drums team. After the lion, monkey and sand monk sing, they will perform martial arts, boxing, knife dancing, playing with sticks and jumping on the table. Lions will hire a master to coach martial arts before the Chinese New Year.

Spring Equinox

At the vernal equinox in February, people began to pay homage to their ancestors, also known as the Spring Festival. Before sweeping the grave, a grand ancestor worship ceremony should be held in the ancestral hall, pigs and sheep should be slaughtered, drummers should be invited to play, and the ritual students should read the eulogy and quote three praises. At the beginning of the spring equinox grave sweeping, the first thing is to sweep the graves of ancestors and distant ancestors. The whole family and the whole village have to be dispatched on a large scale, and the team often reaches hundreds or even thousands. After the ancestral graves of Kaiji and Yuanzu were swept, they were divided into rooms to sweep the graves of ancestors in each room, and finally each family swept the graves privately. In most Hakka areas, ancestor worship and grave sweeping in spring begin at the vernal equinox or earlier, and must end in Tomb-Sweeping Day at the latest. There is a saying everywhere that after the Qingming Festival, the tomb door is closed, and the ancestors' spirits are not needed.

Qingming Festival

Qingming Festival in March, ancestor worship. In addition to sweeping graves in most Hakka areas at the vernal equinox, there are also some places that sweep graves in Tomb-Sweeping Day. On this day in Tomb-Sweeping Day, there are places for offering sacrifices to altars, such as the roadside land Bogong.

Dragon Boat Festival

The fifth day of May is the Dragon Boat Festival. Every household buys meat, kills ducks, makes zongzi and makes rice fruit for the festival. Dragon Boat Festival is a big festival. In many places, people who work outside will go home for the New Year.

Ghosts'Festival

In Hakka areas, July 15 is usually regarded as "Ghost Festival". In some places, it is necessary to celebrate the festival one day in advance, which is called "14 people on July, and ghosts on July 15". In some places, Hakkas also worship their ancestors in July and a half.

Mid-Autumn Festival

Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15, commonly known as "August Festival", is also a big festival. Eat moon cakes, enjoy the moon and celebrate the reunion. Every household has to buy a dining table, buy pork, kill chickens and ducks, and cook rice and fruit for the holidays. On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, families get together for the holidays, eat moon cakes and enjoy the moon after dinner.

Double Ninth Festival

The ninth day of September is the Double Ninth Festival, also known as the Double Ninth Festival, commonly known as the "September Festival", which is a big festival at the end of the year. There is a saying that "there is no big festival after the Double Ninth Festival", and many people who go out have to rush home for the New Year. On this day, people in many places will take their children to climb mountains. Some people fly kites on the mountains, which means they can avoid evil spirits and plagues. Many old people say that this custom was brought by ancestors from the northern Central Plains and passed down from generation to generation. On this day, some old people and women go to temples to burn incense and worship Buddha.

Winter solstice

The winter solstice is in November of the lunar calendar, also known as the "winter solstice". On the solstice of winter, we should eat pork and beef, make rice fruit and soup pills, and the rich should eat pilose antler and ginseng to make up for the winter.