What are the customs of the vernal equinox?

In ancient times, people in Shanxi and Zhejiang had the custom of making wine and mixing vinegar at the vernal equinox. Xiao Fang said that the ancients brewed vinegar and wine at the vernal equinox, probably taking the artistic conception of "heaven and earth are equal" at the vernal equinox, which means balance, balance can be reconciled, and good wine and vinegar can be brewed. In addition, the vernal equinox season, the atmosphere is interlinked, and microorganisms begin to be active, which is also conducive to the production of wine and vinegar. Zhejiang county records: "the wine brewed by the vernal equinox is stored in an urn, and the dregs are self-melting." Its color is red, and its taste will not go bad for a long time. This is called "vernal equinox wine". There is also a saying in folk proverbs that "good wine knows the season, and spring brewing is as expensive as gold".

Hangzhou, Shaoxing and Hangzhou all have ancient wine-making traditions. Gao Lian, a famous opera writer in Ming Dynasty, recorded an ancient custom in Hangzhou in Eight Chapters of Respect for Life: picking flowers to brew rice when pear blossoms bloom, which is called "Pear Blossom Spring". Bai Juyi wrote the poem "Hangzhou Spring Hope" when he was the secretariat of Hangzhou, and also wrote "Qing Qi sells wine and pear blossoms". The author's original note: "It is vulgar, and the pear is ripe, which is called' Pear Spring'."

Nowadays, the pace of people's life is getting faster and faster, and the cultural tradition of "making spring wine" is gradually disappearing. At present, only Zhejiang and Shanxi provinces in China still keep the custom of making wine on the vernal equinox. In Lingchuan, Shanxi, the vernal equinox not only makes wine, but also sacrifices wine to farmers to pray for a bumper harvest.

2. Flower Festival

Like other solar terms, the vernal equinox also has three phenology: "waiting for the mysterious bird to arrive;" Second, wait for Lei Nai to make a sound; Third, wait for electricity. "It means that swallows fly back from the south to the north at the vernal equinox, and when it rains, the sky begins to thunder and lightning. There are also three flowers in the vernal equinox, "one is Haitang, the other is Pear, and the third is Mulan". However, there are far more than three kinds of flowers in full bloom at the spring equinox.

Colorful, full of flowers. When flowers bloom, there are naturally festivals about flowers. Xiao Fang said that there is a very old festival around the vernal equinox, called "Flower Festival", also called "Flower Festival", commonly known as "Hundred Flowers Birthday". The specific time of the "Flower Festival" varies from place to place, some on the second day of February, some on February 12th, and some on February 15th.

In ancient times, "Flower Dynasty" and "Mid-Autumn Festival" had the same important position, and there was a saying that "Flower Dynasty was full moon and bright". During the Flower Festival, there is a ceremony to worship the flower god. According to legend, the flower god lives in the flower temple, so the celebration ceremony of the flower festival is mostly held in the flower temple. Flower beds are all over the country, especially in Jiangnan.

On the "Flower Festival", flower farmers in the south of the Yangtze River will rush to the temple early in the morning to worship the flower god, offering cakes and offerings in front of the statue to pray for blessing. Cai Yun, a poet in A Qing, said: "A hundred flowers are in a good season, and the flowers are not half spring. Colorful flowers are dotted with flower gods, depicting the grand occasion of the flower god festival of the old Jiangnan people. Wu's Dream in the Southern Song Dynasty also recorded the lively scene of citizens going out of the city to enjoy flowers. On this day, local officials from all over the country will also take their families to the suburbs and villages to comfort Nong Sang.

The "Flower Festival" in Hangzhou usually falls on the 15th day of the second lunar month. On this day, ingenious girls will shuttle through the courtyard with red cloth strips to "hang red" flowers and trees. There is a poem "Hanging Red" in Wu Cunkai's poem "Jiangxiang Cultural Festival" in the Qing Dynasty, which reads: "I am too diligent to cherish flowers, the same color is red, and the bottom of the tree is divided. The message is that I am worried that Chunhong is not a pomegranate ball. " Hanging flowers and trees in red is not only a wish for flowers and trees to flourish, but also a legacy of the ancient tradition of hanging flowers and protecting flowers. Later, the custom of hanging red flowers in the flower dynasty was passed down from generation to generation, and it became more and more auspicious, rich and festive.

Flower Festival is not only a day for the ancients to get close to nature, but also reflects the aesthetics and taste of the ancients, and is the aesthetic expression of their daily life. Therefore, Flower Festival is also a festival and custom that modern people should inherit.

Step 3 dig wild vegetables

The spring equinox season is also a period when wild vegetables flourish. Xiaofang said that since ancient times, people have the custom of digging wild vegetables at the vernal equinox. In the Song Dynasty, digging wild vegetables was a national custom activity, and even the emperor and queen would participate, so the flower show was also called the "Vegetable Picking Festival". In people's ideas at that time, "picking" meant "guessing" and "digging". According to "Old Wulin Stories", every year on the second day of February, a "vegetable picking feast" was held in the Palace of the Southern Song Dynasty, which was actually a game of guessing the names of wild vegetables. The maids-in-waiting eunuchs prepared a batch of wooden welcome guests, piled wet soil in them, and inserted all kinds of dug wild vegetables one by one, one for each welcome. Then find a batch of silk fabrics, cut them into strips, write the names of wild vegetables, roll them up, and press them together at the bottom of the pot. Many people attended the vegetable picking banquet. Empresses, princes, royal daughters, concubines, eunuchs and senior ladies-in-waiting are all eligible to participate. See a wild vegetable, guess its name, then take out the rolled silk strips and compare them with the names of the wild vegetables above. If you guess correctly, you will be rewarded.

It is even more interesting to compare the record of "picking vegetables" in Old Wulin with the record of "Wang Wuyue's tribute" in Song Dynasty. According to the Transcript of the Song Dynasty, on the second day of February in the second year of the Northern Song Dynasty (977), Qian Chu, the king of Wu Yue in the Song Dynasty, returned the land and paid tribute to "four gold pickpockets, four yellow Jin Cuodao pickpockets, twenty silver pickpockets and twenty silver knives". The knife inlaid with gold jade is used to dig wild vegetables, and the vegetable picker is used instead of wood to welcome guests.

Digging wild vegetables in spring is also a unique custom of modern people. In the vernal equinox, Malantou, shepherd's purse, Artemisia, dandelion, bracken and so on. It's all sprouted and ready to be a seasonal side dish on the table. The way to eat wild vegetables is extremely simple, just use refined salt, sesame oil and white sugar to cope with the refreshing taste of spring. Wild vegetables have the effects of cooling, detoxifying and reducing fire, which is very suitable for spring when the yang is rising.

4, vertical eggs

On the vernal equinox, countless people in the world are doing the experiment of "standing eggs": take a fresh egg and slowly stand it on the table. "When the vernal equinox comes, eggs are beautiful." This ancient game originated in China is now popular all over the world. Xiao Fang said that the foundation of the vertical egg game is actually the "equal" heaven contained in the vernal equinox.

Equality means justice and fairness, so the vernal equinox is a sacred day. He told the reporter of China Youth Daily and China Youth Network that on the day of the vernal equinox, the ancients would also calibrate the symmetrical weights to see if the scales and barrels used were up to standard to show their innocence.

The vernal equinox embodies the way of neutralization in China's traditional culture, that is, impartiality and excess. Therefore, the vernal equinox is also a traditional "standard day" in China, and its connotations of "justice" and "equality" still have important guiding significance in modern society.