What are the customs in Linzhou for the New Year?

Linzhou New Year Customs (transferred from Linzhou Folk Records)

Spring Festival. Commonly known as "Chinese New Year" and "Lunar New Year", it is the most prosperous traditional festival for the Han people in China. In the Shang Dynasty, every year began in December of the lunar calendar, the week began in November of the lunar calendar, and the Qin and Han Dynasties began in October of the lunar calendar. Taichu calendar was adopted in the first year of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, which stipulated that the first month of Yuchun was the beginning of the year. Then the Lunar New Year lasted for more than two thousand years. After the Revolution of 1911 (A.D. 19 1 1) in Xuantong, Qing Dynasty, the Gregorian calendar was adopted, and the first day of the first lunar month was renamed the Spring Festival, which is still in use today.

People in Linxian call spring the Spring Festival, but the Spring Festival 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 blocks, and it tastes sweet, commonly known as "persimmon pimple white soup". The peasant woman should cook porridge before the sun comes out and put it on the south wall, saying, "Laba porridge should be cooked early and put on the south wall, and the little wren will not push my valley." Eating "Laba porridge" According to the literature, Linxian started 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 frequent disasters in Linxian County, it gradually evolved into eating "Laba porridge". I wish Gu Liang a prosperous New Year. At present, there is a folk saying in Linxian 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's trump card: "Heaven speaks well, and the lower bound is auspicious." 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. This shows that people would rather not let God bless them than let them suffer. From this day on, the flavor of the year is getting stronger and stronger, and the crisp firecrackers are coming from all the hutong courtyards from time to time. "When the year is over, my niece wants flowers, my son wants firecrackers, my wife wants a bun net, and the old man wants a small felt hat." No matter rich or poor, they should be based on their own economic conditions. Buy new year's goods, especially wine, meat and vegetables. Gifts for relatives who are ready to leave are even more indispensable. Doing new year's goods has been busy until the last day of the twelfth lunar month. The courtesy of meeting people in the middle is a sentence: "Are you ready for the New Year?"

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, report to Heaven on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month at the end of the year, and punish the Hui people with heavenly soldiers according to the mark on the wall after the first month. In order to eliminate hidden dangers, people immediately began to clean the house the day after sending the 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 inside, measure their wealth, and the rich are prepared 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". The top of the bun is round and weighs about half a catty. Big steamed buns generally weigh 1 kg, and even weigh 3 kg. Except steamed bread, persimmon peel and red beans are cooked, stirred into stuffing and wrapped in steamed bread; Some also have yellow steamed bread made of millet, which contains persimmon skin and red beans, commonly known as "yellow steaming". Some of them decorate white bread with lotus petals, chrysanthemum leaves, curved peaches and many other patterns, while others decorate it with different colors. The uses of steamed buns are large and small. One is to provide yellow steamed buns and stuffed buns for family members, and the other is to offer them as sacrifices during the Chinese New Year. Second, when receiving gifts from relatives, it is not interesting enough if there is no big bun in the gift. Steamed flower cakes and steamed jujube seeds are also one of the characteristics of Chinese New Year steamed buns. Flower cakes and jujube seeds are made of white flour and have various patterns, such as playing with pearls with two dragons, offering peaches for the boy's birthday to make his head rich, jumping the dragon gate with carp, and lotus petals, which mean wealth, longevity and good luck. They not only express people's good wishes, but also fully demonstrate the wonderful skills of smart wives. There is a chassis under the big flower cake, with all kinds of flower cases piled on it. Diameter less than half a foot, 5 kg multiple; Jujube flowers with a diameter of more than 2 feet and a weight of more than 10 kg are mostly lotus-shaped, with single jujube, single lotus and double lotus in the middle. Jujube flowers are used to worship ancestors, and flower cakes are used to worship gods. Candles are flashing, and they look magnificent when you put them on the confession. On the third day of the first month, flower cakes and jujube flowers can entertain guests.

Twenty-eight big stickers Before 1949, most people in Linxian asked people to write couplets, and some farmers used flowers at home to express their wishes. Besides, they have to put a keeper on the door. 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 line of "Go out to see Fu", "Welcome Fu" or "Celebrate the Spring Festival" is written vertically and posted on the door or wall. Trees in the yard, full of spring scenery, stone mill, stone mill, cars, livestock, rice and wheat Man Cang, table, wardrobe, bedside. At the same time, all kinds of god cards have been written in a different way, except that the kitchen is written in green paper (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, each with two people. Housewives will burn incense and paper at home and pray for their ancestors: "Eat first if you have something to say, so as to bless the 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, knives (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 the fifth lunar month. 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 30, people used to put a peach branch on the threshold of the gate. If there are no peaches, use other sticks to prevent "wild ghosts" from entering the house.

Door bolt. On New Year's Eve, people are used to putting a peach stick at 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, for 30 nights, as long as you have perseverance, you will wait until the daughter of God opens a worse door and bless the world. If you sleep, 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 together, 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 for 30 nights, it's called dinner next year. Getting up early on the first day of the Lunar New Year also means throwing away meals, which is not only a symbol of good luck. After 1980, new content was added in the new year, and many families with conditions gathered around the TV to watch wonderful TV programs. Near noon, young people from all walks of life held a gun in their right hand, a fire in their left hand, their right foot stepped outside the door, and their left foot stepped inside the door, watching the TV screen and standing in a posture of nodding and firing guns. As soon as the TV screen arrived, with the melodious bell, firecrackers rang in unison for thousands of families, and various colored cannons such as firelight, fireworks and the second ring decorated the sky with colorful and dazzling colors.

Kowtow on the first day. After people stop eating flat food before dawn, the younger generation first nods to their elders at home, and then goes to other families (usually their own families) in droves to nod and pay New Year greetings (Figure 28). 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 and son-in-law go to her mother's house, and then go to aunt, aunt and sister's house. Except for special circumstances, we should all go back to worship. There is a folk saying that "Emei has a good holiday on the first day and the second day, and the third day and the fourth day."

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 year, so I am very taboo about "visiting relatives and friends" and improving my 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 intersection of the street, 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.