What are the customs and habits of Zhou Ning's traditional festivals?

Beginning of spring is the first of the 24 solar terms in the lunar calendar, and it is also the beginning of agriculture and transportation in a year. On this day, its sacrificial ceremony is also highly valued: when marking according to the calendar, prepare enough seasonal offerings, put incense sticks, set off firecrackers to welcome the spring, pray for the peace and prosperity of the four seasons, and at the same time stick a red note saying "Spring comes to my house" in the middle of the hall.

No matter the end of the spring or the spring outside the year, as long as it is in beginning of spring, it is at the moment of "spring arrival". The firecrackers in the whole city are one after another, and the sky is ringing, and it has been heard for several hours. Everyone wants to invite "Miss Chun" to their home, which can make Miss Chun very busy!

Sacrifice to the kitchen god

It was called the Spring Festival in ancient times, and it was also called dust removal or "going to heaven". Where there is a kitchen, there must be a kitchen god. The kitchen god on the gable in front of the kitchen is the most exposed god in every household in the world. Because the Jade Emperor descended to earth (forbidden words-hidden) all kinds of gods of life, their power is sky-high, and their main financial resources are grains and six animals, beauty, ugliness, good and evil. In this way, their power can be as big as the sky. If you don't get along with him, are you all right?

At the earliest, Huangdi, Yan Di and Zhu Rong were kitchen gods. Now full-time kitchen god, surnamed Zhang, whose name is Guo. He wore an imperial crown, a robe of dragons and phoenixes, a jade belt around his waist, an ivory face, three long beards, a face like a heavy jujube, and a longan and a phoenix eye; The kitchen goddess who shared fireworks with him, the crested rockhopper was exposed and dignified.

Every year, the 24th of February (some people fall on 23rd) in the lunar calendar/KLOC-0 is the day when the kitchen god reports to the Jade Emperor and returns to the heaven to celebrate the New Year. In the late Tang Dynasty, Luo Yin wrote in a poem:

A green tea and a wisp of smoke,

Kitchen God went to heaven,

The jade emperor wants to ask about human affairs,

Articles written for the Tao are worthless.

At the same time, the Jade Emperor listened to the report of Kitchen God, and the next day (1February 25th), he was bound to go to the lower bound to make an investigation, so the kitchen god would be welcomed again on this day. As the old saying goes, "Send the Kitchen God to meet the Jade Emperor". Therefore, the memorial ceremony was very grand: at 18-20 that night, three cups of oven sugar oven cakes, fresh fruits and green tea were placed in front of the stove, and candles were lit to burn incense. Parents take the lead in the whole family, so they are afraid that when Kitchen God and his wife return to heaven, they can report more good deeds to the Jade Emperor. Then when the incense sticks burn halfway, set off firecrackers and send the kitchen god back to the sky. Everyone can share the sacrifice. This is like an old saying: sacrifice to the kitchen god and eat the candy in the kitchen.

Anyone who goes out to make a living or do business must come back before offering sacrifices to God in order to have a reunion!

New Year's Eve

The last day of the year, also known as New Year's Eve, is very important.

On New Year's Eve, there were records of disaster reduction and epidemic prevention in the literature of the pre-Qin period. After the Eastern Han Dynasty, it gradually became a custom. In the Tang Dynasty, offering sacrifices to God, exorcising ghosts and praying for blessings became more serious. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, every household in the folk burned incense and paper to welcome the kitchen gods, and tried every means to hold a "reunion dinner" (to celebrate the reunion), eat rice cakes (rising year by year), eat large pieces of meat (fat, oil and oil), eat big chickens (good luck), eat whole tail fish (more than a year), give children lucky money, and put Spring Festival couplets and inverted blessings on the doors (zhensha).

Keeping coffins, also known as keeping years. Sitting all night, waiting for dawn. As early as the Yao and Shun era, there was a custom of observing the age, which boded well for the coming year: two years old in one night and two years old in Class Five. That's what it means; Another meaning is to pray for parents' longevity: "Keep grandpa alive in winter and mother alive." The poem Shou Sui written by Emperor Taizong is more realistic: "* * * New Year, welcome all night."

English god

Also known as the descendants of God. On the sixth night after the Spring Festival, the Kitchen God returned to the earth, and every household in the city burned incense, offered offerings and set off firecrackers just like sending the Kitchen God to heaven. From this day on, this mortal god never leaves the shadow and lives with people in the lower world every day.

Seeing that the kitchen couplets posted on both sides of the shrine are so grand, it is not difficult to guess why:

God gives good deeds and returns good luck.

Long summer eating customs

China's culture is profound, especially the food culture. Yuanxiao Tangyuan Mid-Autumn Festival Cake, Dragon Boat Festival Zongzi chong yang wine, most festivals must be related to diet. There are different eating habits in the long summer alone.

Wheat is planted in the north, and long summer is the season for wheat to appear. Therefore, in most parts of the north, people are used to making and eating pasta in the long summer to celebrate the wheat harvest. There are three kinds of pasta in long summer: summer cake, flour cake and spring rolls. Summer cakes, also known as hemp cakes, have different shapes, such as riding a horse by the champion, sending a child by Guanyin and holding a peach by a monkey. There are two kinds of bread: sweet and salty. Salty flour cakes are made of shredded pork and leeks dipped in garlic paste, and sweet flour cakes add more sugar. Spring rolls are made of refined pancakes, wrapped with fried bean sprouts, leeks, shredded pork and other fillings, sealed with flour and egg white, and then fried in a hot oil pan until Huang eats.

Jiangsu and Zhejiang have the custom of "tasting the new in the long summer". There is a saying in Suzhou that "seeing three new things in the long summer". "Sanxin" refers to newly matured cherries, plums and wheat. People worship their ancestors with "Sanxin" first, and then people taste food. At the same time, Suzhou Changxia also wants to eat Haisi, gluten, white bamboo shoots, shepherd's purse, salted duck eggs and green beans. On this day, the long summer of each hotel gives free fermented white wine and soju to the old customers who enter the store, so the long summer is also called "feed festival". Wuxi folks have always had the custom of "tasting three flavors in summer". Three fresh foods are divided into three fresh foods: ground, tree and water. The three fresh plants are broad bean, amaranth and cucumber (amaranth, wheat, broad bean, amaranth, broad bean and garlic sprout); Three fresh trees are cherries, loquats and apricots (plums, apricots, cherries, plums, cherries and toon heads); The three kinds of fresh water are marine fish, puffer fish and shad (shad, shad and yellow croaker, as well as shad, whitebait and mackerel). Changxia, a native of Changshu, has a new taste and richer food. There is a saying called "Nine Meat and Eighteen Vegetables", so I won't list them here. In Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui and other places, people still retain the ancient custom of eating black rice in the long summer. Black rice is a kind of purple-black glutinous rice, which is collected from the leaves of wild Chinese tallow tree, boiled with this soup for a long time, and then taken out and steamed in a wooden steamer.

After the long summer, it is another hot summer. People eat some food in the long summer, usually hoping to pray for peace. For example, people in Shengzhou, Zhejiang Province believe that eating eggs in summer is the heart, eating bamboo shoots on the legs, and eating peas on the eyes; People in Changsha, Hunan eat glutinous rice flour mixed with rat grass in summer, which is called "long summer soup". There is a folk saying that "eat long summer soup and learn from into the pit" and "eat a ball in long summer and cross the river with one foot", which means that he is extremely strong and as light as a swallow. Farmers in the suburbs of Shanghai make strip-shaped food with wheat flour and sugar in summer, which is called "wheat silkworm". When people eat them, they can avoid "summer". People in Tongshan County, Hubei Province regard the long summer as an important festival. Chang Xia, a native of Tongshan, eats soaked strawberries, shrimps and bamboo shoots, which is called "eating soaked eyes, eating shrimps is strong, and eating bamboo shoots strengthens the feet and bones". Eating shrimp noodles in southern Fujian in the long summer is to buy sea shrimp and cook it in the noodles. Shrimp turns red when cooked, indicating good luck. Shrimp is homophonic with summer, which is a wish for summer.

Chang Xia, a native of eastern Fujian, mainly eats light cakes. Zhou Ning, Fu 'an and other places will soak the light cake in water and make it into dishes, while Jiaocheng, Fuding and other places will cut the light cake in half and eat fried bean sprouts, leeks, meat and waste vegetables. Some villages in Chunchi Town, zhouning county eat "long summer paste", which can be divided into rice paste and sweet potato paste. Cook the soup in a large pot. The content of soup is extremely rich, including meat, small bamboo shoots, wild vegetables, chicken and duck water, tofu and so on. Neighbors invited each other to drink paste soup. This is somewhat similar to the custom of eating "seven porridge" in rural areas of eastern Zhejiang in the long summer. "Seven porridge" means that farmers give beans and rice to each other in the neighborhood in summer and cook a pot of porridge with yellow sugar. It is said that after eating this kind of porridge, the neighborhood is harmonious, and they are bent on going to Xia Geng for summer sowing.

The first day of the first month:

This is the most solemn day during the Spring Festival. No matter adults or children, get up early in the morning, put on new clothes, pants and shoes, and the elders take the lead in worshipping heaven and earth, and then worship the elders in turn. The younger generation can get the red envelopes of their elders and have a happy meal together during the New Year. Only this meal should be vegetarian: noodles (longevity noodles, no matter how long, must not be broken, only inhalation can lead to longevity); Green vegetables (long-lived vegetables, also torn into long strips, taste slowly). Don't touch the meat. Because the three days of the Spring Festival are managed by Maitreya, you should be vegetarian. )

Happy new year:

Just after breakfast, I went to pay a New Year call.

The meaning of New Year greetings is different: First, give birthday wishes to people who are 50 years old. No matter how old they are, as long as they are 50 years old, they can call for birthday wishes at home, and the host will warmly invite you to sit at a table. Children of people who celebrate their birthdays are given longevity noodles, eggs and cakes in the hall in advance, which are specially used by neighbors when they come to celebrate their birthdays. The more people come to congratulate, the more decent they are. ) and then give out red envelopes, (the price ranges from two to several hundred yuan, and there are also awesome sons, gold rings, bicycles and watches. )

Secondly, the son-in-law celebrates her parents' birthdays. At the beginning, he led his wife and daughter to celebrate their birthdays together, kneeling and knocking on birthdays one by one. A son-in-law, half a son, has prepared a plaque, trotters, clothes, socks, shoes and hats and other complete sets of clothes to celebrate his birthday. )

Moreover, when you first go out, no matter who you meet, even those who have a good relationship in the past, you are greeted with a smile and say hello to the New Year.

There are many interesting customs in the Spring Festival. For example, during the three days of the Spring Festival, firecrackers should be set off when the door is closed at night, and firecrackers should be set off when the door is opened in the morning, otherwise it will be unlucky for a year; You can't sweep the floor with a broom for three days, you really can't get through, and you can't take out the garbage. Dumped it and went out like sweeping money. Also, eat big fish, big meat and white rice and drink good wine for three days during the Spring Festival; Father-in-law may also play cards and gamble in public places on the street. Public security patrol people half closed their eyes and left them alone. Some people jokingly call it: fish and rice cook three days a year, and nobody cares about gambling.