Shanxi Folk Face Painting for Chinese New Year

As an ancient Han folklore, Shanxi Folk Face Painting originated from the pre-Qin Dynasty and was molded in the Han Dynasty as a Chinese festival custom, which is the accumulation of mankind's understanding of nature and conquest of nature. The Spring Festival is a key festival in people's understanding of the physical calendar, so the rituals of the Spring Festival are particularly grand, and the exquisite face sculptures came into being along with people's psychological needs, and became an important form of expression of the festival.

The main function of the Shanxi folk face sculpture of the Spring Festival is to offer sacrifices and prayers to heaven, earth and gods, and it is the embodiment of the ideals of pursuing a life of plenty of food and clothing and everything is going well. Most of the Chinese New Year face sculptures are abstract, faith-based and idealistic in their stylistic consciousness. Those dedicated to heaven and earth are called jujube mountains, and those dedicated to the god of the stove are called rice mountains and flower cakes, all of which are large in shape and called rice noodles into mountains, which Jinnan legend says was made in honor of Dayu's water control. Ancestral spirit before a sheep for the sacrifice of the custom, in order to show piety. Elders send children and grandchildren offspring "money dragon" intended to attract money dragon into the House, attracting wealth and treasure,...... There are a variety of other colorful buns with flowers, it is to pay guests hospitality to visit friends and relatives to pay attention to the gift.

Jinbei people for the gods used jujube mountain is quite elaborate. This is because it appears as an offering. It is believed to have some kind of mysterious power beyond the self, and is a bridge of communication between human beings and the gods. The production of the hair of the surface rolled into a large triangle, so that it is flat, covered with a layer of red dates, and then made with the surface of the disk cloud, disk dragon, disk rabbit, Ruyi pattern, or embellished with Lianli, Yuanbao, downhill tigers, deer, fruits and so on, to the grains and cereals pointing and set the nose, steaming out of the pot, Mianying naive, the white surface and crimson jujubes, colorful grains, beans, forming the color of the overall effect of the contrast. On the first day of the Lunar New Year to welcome the gods when offered to the gods before it is said that the rice and noodles into a mountain, expressing a good hope for food and clothing. Some places also want to burn some cypress firewood on the fire, grilled food flower buns, so-called evil buns, to ensure a year without disaster and disease, peace and good fortune. Jinnan noodles in the flower and "five sons," "Qiao Gong Qiao mother," "all the best" and other shapes.

Whether it's jujube mountain, rice mountain or flower cake, it can be said that in this grand festival, the people of the countryside created their own spirit of worship, a way to send wishes. As for the Qianlong, it is a three-legged ideal animal similar to a toad, which expresses the people's desire for prosperity. In some places, Zao Ma and Zao Ji are also offered as offerings during the Zao Festival on the 23rd day of the Lunar New Year. These offerings are both offerings and objects of worship, essentially still food, and always have to be divided and eaten. It is these composite functions that make it one of the most popular and easily inherited art forms.

Shanxi Spring Festival face modeling simple and thick, simple and elegant, is a natural worship, religious thought, psychological awareness, modeling language of the integrated cohesion. The modeling is generally neat and general, and the inner content is full of rich, both geometric linear form, but also full of the Qin and Han heritage of suitable patterns, and more concrete unique traditional Han cultural modeling style of figures, animals, plants. The fusion of different modeling consciousness constitutes a unique folk festival content, forming a special Han folk art form.