What customs does the folk culture of the Central Plains mainly include?

Folk culture generally includes three aspects: material folk culture, with production, exchange, transportation, clothing, diet, housing and so on as its main contents; Social folk culture pays attention to family, relatives, villages and towns, social structure and life etiquette. Spiritual folk culture includes belief, ethics, folk oral literature, folk art, entertainment and sports.

The folk culture in the Central Plains is distinctive and colorful, which is embodied in diet, clothing, daily life, production activities, etiquette, beliefs, festivals, parties and other aspects. The folk culture in the Central Plains has typical characteristics of root culture, which has a great influence on China folk culture and even national culture.

It has a long history and is colorful.

China folk culture has a long history, which is a colorful cultural memory in the Central Plains. In the Central Plains region, which is known as the cradle of Chinese civilization and the hometown of etiquette, the hardworking and brave people of the Central Plains have formed many fashions and customs in their long-term production and life, which have been inherited from generation to generation and accumulated rich and colorful folk culture of the Central Plains for a long time. The folk culture in the Central Plains includes not only the living customs of food, clothing, housing and transportation, the etiquette and customs of daily social communication, the living customs of childbirth, weddings and funerals, the Lantern Festival during the Spring Festival, but also the customs of daily life, productive labor, industry and commerce, folk festivals, folk crafts and folk arts.

Wang Quanying (researcher, Provincial Academy of Social Sciences): Since there have been human activities, there have been folk customs. The Central Plains was the center of political, economic and cultural activities in Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties. As early as this period, a relatively systematic etiquette system was initially formed, and later they gradually evolved into the traditional etiquette system in China.

The marriage custom in the Central Plains first appeared at the end of the ancient couple's marriage and the beginning of individual marriage, and it became perfect in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and gradually formed the "six gifts" of accepting gifts, asking names, accepting gifts, inviting guests and welcoming relatives. On this basis, it became a marriage custom such as proposal, ceremony and marriage, which has continued to this day and become the main marriage custom in China. According to archaeological excavations, there were funerals in the Central Plains as early as 20,000 years ago. By the Zhou Dynasty, a relatively complete set of funeral etiquette had been formed, which became an important custom in China.

Customs closely related to production and life, such as walking on stilts, boating, playing with lions, hanging lanterns, etc., such as offering sacrifices to stoves in off-year, observing the 30th anniversary of New Year's Eve, eating jiaozi on New Year's Eve, lighting lanterns on Lantern Festival, offering sacrifices to ancestors in Tomb-Sweeping Day, inserting mugwort leaves in Dragon Boat Festival, watching stars on Tanabata, enjoying the moon in Mid-Autumn Festival in August, climbing mountains on Chongyang in September, etc., mostly originated in the Central Plains and spread all over the country.

The Central Plains commonly calls the Spring Festival "Chinese New Year" or "Chinese New Year". After the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, we began to prepare new year's goods. As early as the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, the worship of the Kitchen God was one of the "Five Sacrifices". On the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, commonly known as "New Year's Eve", every household has to offer sacrifices to the kitchen god. On the last day of the twelfth lunar month, from the Eastern Han Dynasty, people in the Central Plains called it "New Year's Eve". On this day, every family should pack jiaozi, and the more packages, the better. Every household should post Spring Festival couplets, which originated from the peach symbols created by the Yellow Emperor. Everyone eats jiaozi on the first day of school, which mainly means "making friends at a young age". Paying New Year greetings is an important activity during the Spring Festival. On the first and second day of the New Year's Day, it is a greeting from the family. After the third day, it is a New Year greeting between neighbors, relatives and friends, which lasts until the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month.

The folk Lantern Festival in the Central Plains is rich in content and grand in scale, and is known as "Small New Year, Big Fifteen". Lighting at 15 o'clock in the first month is an important activity to worship the gods and pray for blessings during the Lantern Festival.

During the Spring Festival, there are many colorful "playing with social fire" in the Central Plains, such as walking on stilts, rowing dry boats, playing with lions and hanging lanterns. It originated from ancient worship of land and fire. Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, it has evolved into a comprehensive cultural activity of folk tradition and has become an important part of the national Spring Festival cultural activities.

The Central Plains has long been the mode of production of small-scale peasant economy, and has always worshipped the dragon god who can give orders. Legend has it that the dragon ascended to heaven on the second day of the second lunar month, and the ancient Central Plains people designated this day as the "Dragon Head-raising Festival". On this day, there will be various activities, one is to pray for rain from the Dragon King, and the other is to pray for disaster relief and detoxification.

Sacrificing ancestors and sweeping graves is the core content of Tomb-Sweeping Day custom in the Central Plains. As soon as Tomb-Sweeping Day arrived, people took sacrifices to the cemetery to burn paper and light candles in memory of their ancestors. On Qingming Day, willow branches should be planted at every door, and both men and women should wear wicker rings.

In the pre-Qin period, there was a custom of Dragon Boat Festival in the Central Plains. The Dragon Boat Festival in the Central Plains has not only the customs of eating zongzi, pasting Ai Hu, hanging calamus and drinking realgar wine, but also some customs of eliminating disasters and diseases and preventing plague. On this day, people stick the collected mugwort leaves on the door to ward off evil spirits.