Anecdotes of Spring Festival in the Year of the Ox

Yuan Zhen, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote the poem "Spring Life": "Whip the cattle outside the county gate and fight for the soil to cover the spring silkworm." "Whip first" and then "fight" are two ancient folk words to send winter cold and welcome the new year. Whip spring cattle, also known as whip cattle, originated earlier. Zhou Li?' Monthly Order: "Digging cattle to send cold. "Later, it was kept, but in the spring, it flourished in the Tang and Song Dynasties. Especially after Song Renzong promulgated the "Cattle Slaughter Classic", the custom of whipping and slaughtering cattle spread more widely and even became an important part of folk culture.

China's ethnic minorities have the custom of expressing their condolences to cows, which is called "offering cows as kings". Buyi people in litchi, Luodian, Anlong and other places in Guizhou take the eighth day of the fourth lunar month as the New Year. On that day, let the cows have a rest and eat glutinous rice. The Niuwang Festival of the Gelao people is also called Niushen Festival, Niuwang Bodhisattva Festival and Niuwang Sacrifice Festival, which is held on the first day of the tenth lunar month every year. On that day, people stopped letting cows work, made two glutinous rice cakes, hung them on the horns, and then took the cows to the water to look after their shadows to celebrate their birthdays.