What are the customs and taboos of the vernal equinox?

The solar term of the vernal equinox begins on March 20th or 2 1 day of the Gregorian calendar every year, and the sun reaches 0 degrees of the yellow meridian (vernal equinox) and ends on April 4th (or 5th). As our traditional festival, are there many traditional customs on the vernal equinox? What is this? Let's take a look with Bian Xiao.

The most important custom of the vernal equinox is to worship the sun, which first began in the Zhou Dynasty. The Book of Rites says, "Sacrifice the altar to the sun." In the Tang Dynasty, Confucius had a short name: "Also called vernal equinox." This custom has been handed down from generation to generation. Pan Rongbi, a Qing Dynasty man, said in "Ji Sheng at the Age of Emperor Jingdi": "The vernal equinox and autumn are divided into national gifts, and scholars should not sacrifice them at will."

Remembrance day is very important, so be careful in site selection. Ritan, such a place, located in the east of Ritan Road in the southeast outside Chaoyangmen, Chaoyang District, Beijing, is also called Asahi Altar, where emperors of Ming and Qing Dynasties offered sacrifices to Daimyojin (the sun) at the vernal equinox. The specific time is at the vernal equinox in Shi Mao, from 5 am to 7 am, which is the time when the sun rises. Every year, the emperors A, C, E, G and Ren get up early in the morning to offer sacrifices to the sun, just like the soldiers in the flag class today. The remaining years were sacrificed by officials.

Vernal equinox custom: Although the ceremony of offering sacrifices to heaven and earth is not as good as that of offering sacrifices to heaven, it is also quite grand.

Today's altar is in the city of Beijing, and it was in the suburbs of Beijing in ancient times. At present, this altar in Beijing was built in the ninth year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty (AD 1530), and it is surrounded by square external walls. Before each sacrifice, the Emperor would come to the Dave Hall in Beitanmen to have a rest, and then change his clothes and go to the Asahi altar to sacrifice.

Asahi altar is located in the south of the whole building, facing east and west. This is because the sun rises in the east, and people have to stand in the west and salute the east. The altar is circular, 1 floor, with a diameter of 33.3 meters. Surrounded by low walls, there are 1 stargates in the east, south and north. To the west is the main entrance, and there are three star gates to show the difference. A square platform made of white stone in the middle of the wall is called the altar, with a height of 1.89 meters and a circumference of 64 meters. After the completion of the Ming Dynasty, the altar was made of red glazed tiles, symbolizing the sun in Daimyojin. This was originally a romantic arrangement, but in the Qing Dynasty, it was paved with square bricks, and the altar was inferior.

Although the memorial day is not as good as the ceremony of offering sacrifices to heaven and earth, the ceremony is also quite grand. The Ming emperor offered sacrifices to the Japanese, laying jade and silk, offering three gifts, playing seven songs, dancing eight songs and kneeling three times to worship nine. The ceremonies of the emperors in the Qing Dynasty offering sacrifices to the sun included welcoming the gods, offering jade and silk, first offering, first offering, last offering, blessing, car dealership, sending gods and meteors, which were also very grand. Today's altar has bid farewell to the era of worshiping the sun and become a park for leisure and entertainment, but people who come here will be infected by the atmosphere of worshiping the sun.

At the vernal equinox in February, people began to sweep graves to worship their ancestors, also known as the Spring Festival. Before sweeping the grave, a grand ancestor worship ceremony should be held in the ancestral hall, pigs and sheep should be slaughtered, drummers should be invited to play, and the ritual students should read the eulogy and quote three praises. At the beginning of the spring equinox grave sweeping, the first thing is to sweep the graves of ancestors and distant ancestors. The whole family and the whole village have to be dispatched on a large scale, and the team often reaches hundreds or even thousands. After the ancestral graves of Kaiji and Yuanzu were swept, they were divided into rooms to sweep the graves of ancestors in each room, and finally each family swept the graves privately. In most Hakka areas, ancestor worship and grave sweeping in spring begin at the vernal equinox or earlier, and must end in Tomb-Sweeping Day at the latest. There is a saying everywhere that after the Qingming Festival, the tomb door is closed, and the ancestors' spirits are not needed.

The vernal equinox is coming soon, and there will be a picture of spring cattle delivered door to door. The picture is printed with red paper or yellow paper on the lunar solar terms all the year round, and also printed with farmers' ploughing patterns, which is called "Spring Cattle Map". The people who send pictures are folk singers, who mainly say things like spring ploughing and auspiciousness that are not against the farming season. Every time they go to a house, they say whatever they see until the owner is happy to give money. Although the words spoken are casual, every sentence rhymes beautifully. Commonly known as "spring", spring people are called "spring officials".