Hometown Folklore: Jiuhua Spring Festival Festival, Eight Dragons Announcing Joyful Noise

The coincidence of New Year's Eve and Spring Festival on New Year's Day is not rare, occurring in about five out of a hundred years. And the situation of New Year's Eve and Spring Festival on the same day occurs only three years out of about a hundred years. Coincidentally, in 2019, Lichun and New Year's Eve are on the same day.

On Feb. 4, the New Year's Eve festival and the first day of spring "happily coincide", the hometown of Quzhou City Kecheng District, Jiuhua Township, Myo Yuan Village, held a grand sacrifice to the god of spring, Jumang, to welcome the spring and pray for blessings.

From all over the world love of folk culture celebrities, guests and local villagers gathered together, *** with the sacrifice of the spring god Jumang, reproduced to welcome the spring and pray for blessings traditional folklore.

"A year's plan lies in spring." Spring is the first of the twenty-four solar terms. Every year at the beginning of spring, the villagers of Miaoyuan Village will hold a large-scale spring festival in the Wutong Ancestral Hall. During this grand and solemn festival, people smile and meet to congratulate each other and to bid farewell to the old and welcome spring.

Miaoyuan Village in Jiuhua Township is the only place in the world where the custom of worshipping Jumang, the god of spring, has been completely preserved. on November 30, 2016, China's "twenty-four festivals," represented by the Jiuhua Spring Festival in Quzhou, were inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of UNESCO. The "twenty-four festivals" were inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

"The jasper tree is a tall tree with ten thousand green silk tapestries hanging down from it. I don't know who cuts out the fine leaves, but the February spring breeze is like scissors." "Spring sleeps without realizing the dawn, everywhere heard the crowing birds. The wind and rain come at night, and the flowers fall to know how much." ...... morning, accompanied by 24 young boys and girls dressed in green, wearing willow circles on their heads and carrying oil-paper lanterns outside the Wutong Ancestral Hall chanting poems and singing joyfully, the footsteps of spring are getting closer and closer.

"Auspicious time! Welcome Spring ......" With a high-pitched chant from the priest Wu Weijie, everyone in the Wutong Ancestral Hall, with piety and respect, presents flower baskets and offerings to the bird-bodied, human-faced god of spring, who is in charge of the growth of everything in the world, in order to pray for favorable winds and rains and for abundant farming.

"The Jiu Hua Spring Festival Festival, the eight dragons report the clamor of joy." "Yes!" "One night is even a double year, striking the shifts to divide the two years." "Good!" "Ke Cheng spring comes early, Wutong Hui phoenix crown." "Good!" "Quzhou creates civilization and reports peace everywhere." "Yes!" ...... imposing Lichun cheering ballad stirred in the hall, echoed under the blue sky, as if waking up the whole spring at once.

The pleasant sound of bells and drums and the ceremonial firecrackers sounded in unison, and the entire Wutong Ancestral Hall instantly became a boiling sea. After the ceremony is the end of the spring ceremony is the whip spring cow ceremony, 63-year-old farmer Xu Mingren, leading the corner of the big red flowers hanging family ox, began the first plough in the spring ploughing. 11-year-old elementary school student Huang Hao dressed up as a shepherd boy, he held a colorful whip, sang the "Whip Spring Cheer Ballad", whip "spring cow" ploughing, and prayed for a good wind and rain, a good agricultural harvest.

Jumang, God of Spring

Jumang (gōu), or Jumang, or Jumang Long, is an ancient Chinese mythological god of wood (the god of spring), who is responsible for the germination and growth of trees, and is a minister of Taihao, the emperor of the eastern sky. The god of spring is a deity worshipped in Chinese folklore.

Introduction

The sun rises from Fusang every morning, and the sacred tree Fusang is under the control of Jumang, and the area where the sun rises is also under the control of Jumang. Jumang was very, very important in ancient times and had a part in the annual spring festival. His original face was a bird - a bird with a human face, riding on two dragons - and then it didn't even have any influence at all. But we can see him in the rituals and in the annual paintings: he becomes a cowherd boy riding a bull in spring, with a double bun on his head and a willow whip in his hand, also known as the Mang Tong (芒童).

For more than 2,000 years, Jumang, the god of spring, not only survived in literature, but also appeared in ceremonies to welcome spring.

The Tang poet Yan Chaoyin wrote a poem saying, "Jumang's face rides on two dragons, and it is said that it is the god of spring that guards the nine heavens." (All Tang Poetry, Volume 69) Jumang was also a recurring character in the spring rituals of all generations. According to the record of "Record of the Years and Seasons", on the day before the first day of spring, when the officials at all levels of government led a team to the eastern suburb to hold the ceremony of whipping the oxen and welcoming the spring, Jurmang was always accompanying them, sometimes holding a colorful whip in his hand. As for the position where he stands, it depends on the five elements of the stem and branch. The Jumang in this ceremony is no longer Jumang, but is called "Mang Shen". The god is both the god of spring and the god of grain. The year's agricultural activities are even under his control and arrangement.

Wutong Ancestral Hall

Wutong Ancestral Hall is dedicated to Jumang (pronounced gōu), the god of wood (the god of spring) in the Middle Zhou Dynasty. Jumang was originally a subordinate god of Taihao, the emperor of the eastern sky. He, with a human face, bird body, wearing white clothes, riding two flying dragons and holding a round gauge in his hand, managed the growth of all things in spring. During the Spring and Autumn Period, Duke Mu of Qin was so virtuous that the Heavenly Emperor Jumang added nineteen years to his life.

The Wutong Ancestral Hall, as a specialized temple dedicated to the God of Wood (the God of Spring), is still a rarity in western Zhejiang and even in the country. It is a valuable historical and cultural heritage of Quzhou that the folk of Quzhou have preserved the place and rituals of enshrining the God of Wood (Spring God) by using astronomical seasons as the method of timekeeping. Lichun is a temple fair for Jumang, the god of spring, at the Wutong Ancestral Hall. The temple fair to welcome spring is held in an extremely grand manner, beating gongs and drums, and is lively and unusual.

The Spring Festival for the Wutong ancestral temple sacrificed to the god of spring Jumang's temple, Chinese folk saying, "the year is not as big as the spring," so the Spring Festival was held in an extremely grand, Spring Festival Temple custom of spring, spring, spring, spring insertion, spring cattle, and so on.

Welcome spring ceremony: before the moment of spring, the main hall open the door to welcome spring, the hall before the table, table Phi wrote "welcome spring to receive the blessing of" red paper (brocade), the table in the middle of a rice cauldron, Sheng pointed full of cauldron after a cup of tea, left and right to place the incense burner, candlestick, greens, plum blossoms, pines and cypresses, bamboo, a symbol of cleanliness, evergreen and affluence. At the moment of spring, firecrackers (three-eyed unity) Van Xiang line rituals to welcome the spring.

In the old days, Quzhou had the custom of trekking in spring, and the public rushed to the Temple Source Wutong Ancestral Hall to worship the god of spring and feel the light of spring, which was called "exploring spring". The collection of holly branches, pines and cypresses and wild vegetables was called "spring picking". The collection of pine branches, bamboos, and various other tree branches is put on the door, which is called "inserting spring". Green vegetables are eaten for breakfast and lunch, which is called "tasting the green". Willow branches, bamboo branches braided into a ring around the child's head, thought to keep the seasons clean and healthy, so-called "with spring".

The temple rituals also welcome the custom of spring cattle. Take the bamboo gabion into a cow shape, glued with colored paper, feet mounted on small wheels, called the "spring cow", people give the spring cow cloaked in red and green, a beggar dressed as a cow herding the year-old, welcome the spring festival, holding a cow parade. The flag bearers beat gongs and drums, lively and unusual.