Linzhou Spring Festival custom

Linzhou folks call the Spring Festival Chinese New Year, but Chinese New Year does not refer to the first day of the first month, but includes the beginning and end of a year. As soon as you enter the twelfth lunar month, you will have a "taste of the year." People eat "Laba porridge" for breakfast on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. Porridge is made of millet and persimmon. It tastes sweet and is commonly known as "persimmon dough soup". All peasant women should make porridge before the sun rises, put a pile of rice on the south wall and say, "Make Laba porridge early, put a pile of rice on the south wall, and the little wren will not push my house." Eating "Laba porridge" According to the literature, Linzhou began in the Song Dynasty. The original intention is that people use a year's harvest to sacrifice ancestors and gods to celebrate the harvest. Later, due to the frequent disasters in Linzhou, it gradually evolved into eating "Laba porridge" and wished Guliang a bumper harvest in the coming year. At present, there is a folk saying in Linzhou that "eating Laba porridge will have a good harvest in the coming year".

Twenty-three, send the old stove master to heaven. In order to ask the Kitchen God to intercede with the Jade Emperor for the people, people wrote on the pairs on both sides of the Kitchen God memorial tablet: "Heaven speaks kindly, and it is auspicious to come down to earth". In order to prevent the kitchen god from giving false information, sesame candy was used as a fruit sacrifice and stuck to the mouth of the kitchen god.

Clean the house twenty-four According to folklore, the Kitchen God is the commander-in-chief of the Emperor of Heaven and is responsible for inspecting the merits and demerits of his family. Anyone who does this should make a mark on the wall and report to heaven on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month at the end of the year. After receiving the order from the Emperor of Heaven, Lu Yiwu will punish the Hui people with heavenly soldiers according to the marks on the wall. In order to eliminate hidden dangers, people immediately began to clean the house the day after sending Kitchen God, forming the custom of "sweeping the house 24 times".

Twenty-five grinding bean curd. On that day, people ground the soaked soybeans, rubbed off the residues through baskets, cooked them into pieces, fished them out and put them into a sieve, forming a backlog. After that, tofu was cut into small pieces and kept in salt water for consumption during the Spring Festival.

26 pieces of meat. On that day, there were many meat shelves in the market, and the villagers slaughtered pigs and sheep in cauldrons. Those who cut meat and measure wealth are prepared by rich households until the fifteenth day of the first month; The poor are going to the fifth day of the first month.

Twenty-seven steamed to eat. It is something that both the poor and the rich have to do, and it is also one of the characteristics of Chinese New Year. According to the size of the population and the number of guests, each family should steam enough to eat until the fifteenth day of the first month, at least to eat the number of "broken five".

Twenty-eight big stickers Before 1949, most people in Linzhou asked people to write couplets, and some farmers used flowers at home to express their feelings. Besides, they have to stick to the door on Saturday. The door gods are mostly Qin Qiong, Jingde, Daguo Guan Gong, and Deng Ke, the fifth son. And most of them are stamped. Sticker pays attention to "poor sign (horizontal seam) and rich pair", that is, the lintel paper should be small and the pair paper should be fat. After 1980, double couplets were posted in rural areas, that is, in addition to the pair on the door frame, a pair of giant couplets were posted on the door battlements. There is also a bucket of prescriptions written on diamond-shaped paper, with the word "Fu" written on it, and a message such as "Go out to see Fu", "Welcome to receive Fu" or "Celebrate the Spring Festival" posted on the door or wall. Spring scenery in the courtyard is attached to the trees in the courtyard, white tiger is happy on the stone mill, dragon is happy on the stone mill, traveling thousands of miles every day is attached to the car, six animals are thriving on the barn, Mimi Man Cang is attached to the table, clothes are full on the wardrobe, and health and safety are attached to the bedside. At the same time, all kinds of tablets are written in new ways, except the kitchen is written in green paper (to avoid fire), and the rest are written in red paper. Inside and out, there are red lights, and it is good luck.

Sprinkle wax and leave on the 29th. That night, dozens of people, led by neighboring villages, were carrying lanterns, beating drums, patting cymbals and holding incense sticks. They light candles and burn incense foils in temples in various villages in order to worship God, exorcise evil spirits and deliver the gospel. People in the village gathered in the holy land, waiting for the arrival of the evangelist team. One village delivers, one village receives, and the fields are brightly lit. After 1950, this custom disappeared and changed to 29 dozens of wine.

30 pinch the kernel out of the pot. Knead the kernels and flatten the vegetables, and stir-fry them when they are out of the pot. These two tasks are the most tense and arduous work on the thirtieth day of the twelfth lunar month. On that day, from the morning, all the women in the family began to work together, making stuffing and mixing noodles. After stuffing and kneading dough, they gathered around the kang and kneaded the dough. Mother-in-law and sister-in-law are very happy while pinching and teasing. Packed flat food should be enough for 30 nights and the first day of junior high school. I have been busy until about 5 pm. After the flat food is wrapped, you should first cook a pot and fish it into small plates, two for each plate. Housewives will burn incense and paper at home and pray for their ancestors: "If you have something to say, eat it first, so as to bless your family and prosper." In addition, the men in the family used trays to carry them to the graves to worship their ancestors. A small plate was placed in front of each grave and a cannon was lit to kowtow. After these things are done, they start to fry. Everything that needs oiling should be fried. Crispy meat, meatballs, sliced meat (for ribs) and vegetables should be fried in the pot, but you should take some from the first pot and put it in the stove so that the kitchen god can come back to eat on the first day of May. Of course, if the twelfth lunar month is small, the activity of this day will be on the 29th.

Coins are flat. This is a popular folk custom in Linxian County. Among the 30 packs of flat food, a few coins are wrapped in flat food. Whoever eats flat food on the first day of breakfast will be blessed in this year, bringing great fun to the whole family, old and young. People are scrambling to get up early, especially children. They make an exception and eat more light food to make the whole family laugh.

Send a lamp. On the evening of the 30th, every household in the rural area in the south of the county will connect paper lanterns to the pillars and send them to the graves to light them all night, so that ancestors can celebrate the New Year with others. This lamp was brought back in the morning of junior high school.

Door bolt. On New Year's Eve, people are used to putting a peach stick on the threshold of the gate. If there is no peach, use other sticks to prevent "wild ghosts" from entering the house.

Endure it for a year. Also known as "shou sui". According to folklore, thirty nights, as long as you have perseverance, you will wait until God's daughter opens a worse door to bless the world. If you go to bed early, you won't be happy. People have good wishes. Every year on the 30th night of the twelfth lunar month, the whole family chats endlessly, taking this opportunity to enjoy family happiness. Housewives should also set up incense tables to offer sacrifices, hold candles all night and burn incense five times. It is forbidden to talk loudly at night, so as not to disturb the gods; It is forbidden to open the cabinet to avoid absconding with the money; It is forbidden to take a wooden comb in the mirror to avoid seeing "ghosts"; It is forbidden to see knives and scissors, so as not to break the house; It is forbidden to sweep the floor to avoid the outflow of gold and silver; It is forbidden to pour urinals, so as not to blaspheme. If you throw away the leftovers after 30 nights, it's called dinner next year. It is not only a good sign to throw away the leftovers early on the first day of the New Year. After 1980, new content was added to the Lunar New Year, and many families with conditions gathered around the TV to watch wonderful TV programs. In the early hours of the morning, young people from all walks of life held guns in their right hands, struck a light with their left hands, stepped out of the door with their right feet, stepped into the door with their left feet open, and stood in a posture of nodding and firing guns. As soon as the TV screen arrives, with the melodious bell, firecrackers of thousands of families are ringing, and various colored cannons such as firelight, fireworks and the second ring decorate the sky with colorful and dazzling colors.

Kowtow on the first day. After people stop eating flat food before dawn, the younger generation kowtows to the elders at home first, and then goes to other families (usually their own homes) to pay their respects to the New Year. Except for a venerable old man, everyone else in the family went to the neighbor's house, and even Sanli Wucun paid New Year greetings to relatives and new friends. If the younger generation is a child or a newly married daughter-in-law, the elders should give some lucky money.

Visit relatives. The order of visiting relatives is: nephew goes to grandma's house, daughter goes to her parents' house with her husband, and then goes to aunt, aunt and sister's house. Except for special circumstances, we should all go back to worship. There is a folk saying that "the first day and the second day are beautiful, and the third day and the fourth day are good for worship festivals".

Untie five knots. The fifth day of the first lunar month is the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, which is a superstition. People think that the fifth, fourteenth and twenty-third days are unlucky days. The fifth day of the first month is the first unlucky day after the New Year, and it is very taboo to "visit relatives and friends". The backlog is to improve the life at home for the holidays. On that day in Yin Shi, the housewife took out a little ash from the stove and sent it to the street corner, commonly known as "sending poor ash".

During the period from the thirtieth day of the twelfth lunar month to the fifth day of the first lunar month, all children will not be beaten and scolded. They will eat well, dress beautifully and have fun. Even if they make mistakes, they will not be beaten and scolded. This is a rule handed down from the older generation. If you beat and scold children, you will be condemned by everyone. Therefore, what children are looking forward to most is the New Year.