Write an essay on the theme of "Our Festivals" and write about the customs or feelings of traditional festivals.

Winter Solstice

Winter Solstice, one of the twenty-four solar terms in the lunar calendar. In the old days, people in the night before this festival, the old and the young gathered in the hall, sitting around the table when rubbing rice. Glutinous rice grinding pressure to half-dry rolled into balls, into the pot to cook, fish up and stick on the sugar bean powder is "?". The balls are cooked in a pot and then picked up and glued with sugar-soybean powder. On the table are placed several red oranges, a bunch of red chopsticks, a pair of paper flowers, a clay figurine of a man and a woman (child (lyre)), and a bottle with red chrysanthemums. When rubbing incense and candles, children sing nursery rhymes in Fuzhou dialect: "Rub? The children sang a rhyme in Fuzhou dialect: "Rub it with your mother's milk, your brother's milk, your brother's milk, your brother's milk, your brother's milk, your brother's milk, and your sister-in-law. When his sister-in-law got pregnant, his parents rejoiced. When the child falls under the bucket of feet, Yee Goh will become a father right away." The winter solstice is a time to pray for the birth of a new child. The winter solstice rubbing contains the meaning of praying for more children and more happiness. The night's rubbing was done on the night of the winter solstice. The next morning on the winter solstice as breakfast.

Sacrificing the stove, the 24th day of the 12th lunar month. According to the custom of Fuzhou, the 23rd day of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar is the day when the official family sacrifices meat stoves, the 24th day is the day when the ordinary people sacrifice vegetarian stoves, and the people living on the water (?) are on the 23rd day of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar. The people on the water (the people) on the twenty-fifth day of the sacrificial stove.

Sacrificing the stove, originally an ancient summer fire ritual. The emergence of fire, so that mankind from the age of blood, is worthy of great remembrance. But the later generations of the sacrificial stove into the "stove god" worship, said stove god can be "heavenly blessing, landing blessing people" of the "God of the Division". This process of change began around the Han Dynasty. According to the "Book of the Later Han Dynasty? Yin ugly biography ", there is a filial son called Yin Zixing, waxing (December 23) morning drink, see the god of the stove appeared, hastened to worship, and slaughtered the home of the yellow goat sacrifices, "since then, riot to the rich ...... so often after the waxing of the sacrifice of the stove, and recommend the yellow goat Yan." This legend over time, the more said the more God, said the God of the stove is the Jade Emperor sent to the earth's "ambassador to the household". Once a year, on the 24th day of the 12th month of the lunar calendar, the god of the stove goes up to heaven to report to the Jade Emperor on the good and bad situation of the head of the household, and goes up to heaven for ten days, and then descends to the mortal world on the 4th day of the first month of the following year. Before the Zaoshen leaves, every household has to give him a farewell party. Offerings to the meat stove are chicken, duck, fish, meat, stove sugar, stove cake, wine, etc.; offerings to the vegetarian stove are sugar cane, water chestnuts, jujubes, peanuts, golden needles, fungus, etc., in addition to stove sugar and stove cake. In the offering, the children sing the rhyme: "Sacrificing Stove Sacrificing Muddle (satirizing the God of Stove Muddle), a copper incense burner in front of the stove, the Yuanbao is Nongxie, the golden pants are Nongxie, the Stove King speaks good words to the sky, the Stove Mother blesses Nongxie on the ground, blesses Nongxie's father with money to earn, blesses Nongxie's mother with money to grow, blesses Nongxie's brother to discuss the brother and sister-in-law, and blesses Nongxie to study to become smart." At the end of the festival, the old Zaoshen map is torn down and cremated, and a new Zaoshen map is pasted on it to signify that the old is being sent off and the new is being welcomed. Before the festival, grandparents to give men and women grandchildren Zao sugar Zao cake, there are a few men and women grandchildren, you have to send a few packets, each packet is also attached to a "flower face shell" (mask) with the Tang Monk, Sha Harmonious Monk, the Monkey King, Porky Pig, and so on, the children have eaten and played a good time.

Now, some people still have the old custom of sacrificing stove. Zao sugar Zao cake was renamed as New Year's Sugar New Year's Cake and became one of the New Year's commodities in the Spring Festival market in Fuzhou.

New Year's Eve

Legend has it that "Nian" is a devil who comes out to play tricks on people on New Year's Eve every year. Therefore, on New Year's Eve, every family puts up new charms (spring scrolls) and sets off firecrackers to drive away the "year". Fuzhou is also modeled after the old Zheng Tang burning firecrackers to drive away the "year" in addition to the disaster of the festival.

Entering December, people are busy brewing and preparing for the New Year. After the 15th, they began to clean their houses, which is known as sweeping and brushing. People who have been away from home return in droves to reunite with their families. After the 25th, they begin to steam New Year's cakes, prepare chickens, ducks, fish, meat, wine, etc., and offer sacrifices to their ancestors and to the gods of heaven and earth, which is known as the New Year's share. The son-in-law sends a New Year's gift to his parents-in-law, which is called the New Year's gift. New Year's Eve, red candles burning high, the family happy, *** drink dinner, said to do the year. It is the night and then sweep the hall, set off firecrackers, cooking New Year's Eve rice. The next year's rice with a wooden rice steamer containers, around the insertion of red chopsticks ten pairs of red paper, tie red rope, and sprinkled with "five" (jujube, peanuts, melon seeds, cinnamon seeds, chestnuts), placed in the hall table. The main gateway, curtains, boxes, furniture, valuable utensils and objects pressed on the "gold and silver foil", meaning that the family's gold and silver treasures to overflow from the doorway, symbolizing the next year's great wealth.

On New Year's Eve, the elders also give children the custom of "New Year's money", from the first to the fifteenth can pay homage to the New Year. The song "Worship the New Year, no orange also want money." It's a great way to get a lot of money out of the Spring Festival!

Old times, thirty blind asr (thirty night) is the debtor to collect debts, the debtor to avoid the most nervous days. In the old days, when you were in debt, you couldn't celebrate the New Year, you couldn't celebrate the 30th night. Households living outside the city debtor ran to the back of the Island Shangshu Temple, live in the city ran to the City God Temple theater to avoid the debt. 50 years later, the people's living standards have improved dramatically, forcing the matter of the debt has long since disappeared. Now the supply of New Year's goods, colors and varieties, everything. Institutions, factories, stores, decorated with lanterns, streets on both sides, colorful lanterns, fire trees and silver flowers, we are happy to meet the arrival of the new year.

The Spring Festival

The first three days of the first month of the lunar calendar, the ancient name of Cuiduan, New Year's Day, now known as the Spring Festival, the Fuzhou people called "to do the New Year", is the most grand, the longest holiday folk festival of the year. At dawn, families open their doors, burn incense and fire cannons to welcome the New Year. This festival tradition has many taboos, say the first word, do the first thing, are concerned about good luck, in order to hope for a year of peace. At the beginning of the New Year, the first sentence to say "congratulations", "fortune", "peace" and other auspicious words, the other side also reported the corresponding good words. On that day, they do not sweep the floor, do not fetch water, do not carry burdens, do not chop firewood, do not wash clothes, do not take a bath, do not get a haircut, and do not say unlucky words. When the whole family woke up, they put on new clothes or wore clothes of the best texture. For breakfast, some eat tai ping ping (thread noodles, chicken and duck eggs) to wish for peace and longevity; some eat nian gao (brown sugar rice cake) to wish for a good year; some elderly people eat vegetarian to pray for a year of peace for the children and grandchildren of the family. On the first day of the year, the younger generation pays New Year's greetings to the elders, who give them New Year's money or candies and oranges.

The first day of the year do not go out, the second and third day of the year, people can visit friends and relatives, congratulate each other on the New Year. As the Qing Dynasty Wu Jijun said in "Fuzhou year bamboo stick lyrics": "Clan new clothes tend to people in front of the courtesy of modest joy; road meet **** bowed, fortune congratulations on the New Year." This is the landscape of Fuzhou Xinzheng in ancient times. People with married daughters should organize spring wine and invite their daughters, son-in-laws and grandchildren back to their parents' home for a feast and reunion. The women of the water boat family (? The women of the water boat family, wearing red flowers on their heads, blue shirts and green pants, and green shoes with cloth soles, boarded the shore in pairs and went from house to house, singing poems to celebrate the New Year in Fuzhou: "Auntie and sister-in-law celebrate the New Year with red umbrella lamps hanging in front of the hall; good? Good kuey teow sends the slaves to go, the golden character boards stand in front of the door." "After the old year, it's a new year, business is booming and you'll make a lot of money; congratulations and peace of mind, send the slave to the door. I'll send you a gift." This is called the "Chiu-mei Poem", which is also a congratulatory poem. It is also a New Year's greeting, which is a poem for good luck. It is also a New Year's greeting to show good luck. During the Spring Festival, Fuzhou streets and alleys, decorated with lanterns, fire trees and silver flowers, laughter, everywhere showing a festive atmosphere.

After the founding of the Chinese People's Republic of China, the party and government leaders at all levels before or during the festival, with gifts to the military martyrs, retired cadres and old labor models, such as the House of New Year's greetings. All relevant departments organize Spring Festival tours, carnivals and cultural evenings. Those old customs with superstitious colors gradually disappeared. In the early nineties, most homes were installed with telephones, and generally relatives and friends used the telephone to pay New Year's greetings to each other, reducing holiday traffic congestion.

Early in the morning on the fourth day, every household, burning incense "to receive God", to meet the stove king back to see things. All walks of life on vacation, firecrackers, stores open for business, factories start work, the authorities began to work. After the nineties, the practice time for adjustment, is now the eighth day of work. Some service industries are still open for business on Chinese New Year.

Metal Lantern Festival

The 15th day of the first month is the Lantern Festival, which is also known as the Shangyuan Festival. The Lantern Festival in Fuzhou began in the Han Dynasty, and in the Song Dynasty it was listed as the best of the Kyoto Lantern Festival. The Old Story of Wulin described the Fuzhou lanterns to the capital as "pure white jade, dazzling, such as clear ice and jade pots, clear mind." Fuzhou's orange lanterns, vegetable headlights, lotus lamps, etc., chic form, bright colors, unique Fuzhou local life, striking.

According to Wang Yingshan, "Min Daji", Fuzhou, "hanging lights along the door, all-night tour, known as the light market." This custom also began in the Song Dynasty. At that time, every household, open lights hanging door, ten miles of light street, red light reflected. State and county officials, every Lantern Festival, advocating the great lanterns, "officials and the people of the same music". During the Yuanfeng period of the Northern Song Dynasty (1078-1085), Liu Jin was the governor of Fuzhou, and in order to view the lanterns, he ordered ten lanterns to be donated from house to house. Chen Lie, a poet from Langguan Lane, angrily hung a lantern in Gulou: "A lantern for a rich family, a grain of corn in Taicang; a lantern for a poor family, a father and a son weeping relative to each other. Do you know that the governor of the city knows about this? I hate that the pianoforte has no marvelous music." Since then, the government no longer forced the people to donate lights. Throughout the ages, there are changes in the time of the lanterns: Tang and Song Dynasty for the first month of the 14th to the 18th; Yuan Dynasty court does not advocate large-scale lanterns; Ming Dynasty for the 13th to the 22nd; Qing Dynasty for the 13th to the 17th. After the Republic of China, there is no fixed rules.

Fuzhou Lantern Festival is not only a brilliant lantern market, there are also set up aoshan, for people to enjoy. "The spring lanterns are better than all the flowers, and the Lantern Festival is full of splendor in Fu-Tang; the silver candles are burnt to make a beautiful scene, and the Ao-Shan towers over the place to show auspicious light." This poem depicts the grand scenery of the lantern market and Ao Mountain in Min Du in the past. The city gates were open at the Lantern Festival, and Ao Mountain was outwardly facing, and people from the outskirts of the city entered the city to enjoy the festival, which was very crowded and bustling.

From the Spring Festival to the eve of the Lantern Festival, there is a custom of sending lamps to the people of Fuzhou. For married women, the mother's family routinely must send lights, "lights" and "Ding" harmonized, to take the meaning of Ding. The first year to send "Guanyin send son" lamp, the second year, such as not having children, then send "heavenly gift Liner" lamp, "child sitting basin" lamp, the third and fourth years, such as not having children, will send If the child is not born in the third or fourth year, then the "orange" lamp will be sent to symbolize the meaning of "anxiety". After the birth of a child can be sent to the "Scholar riding a horse" lamp, "heavenly gift unicorn" lamps, etc., until the nephew 16 years old. There is a folk rhyme: "Lantern in the first month of the Lantern Festival, Grandma loves her nephews (grandchildren), send red tangerine lamps, good luck and add Ding." It reflects the social custom that grandmothers love their grandchildren. Yang Qingshen's Bamboo Branch Lyrics on the Eve of Rongcheng: "The sky gives the linnet colored fabrics, and the bride's house has a brighter glow; I want to remove the golden hairpin in the middle of the night and report that my mother's family has come to send me lanterns." This poem depicts the pomp and circumstance of the delivery of lights at that time.

The Lantern Festival Lanterns since the beginning of the seventh, the former Fuzhou South Back Street and Nantai Taijiang flood specializing in the sale of paper lanterns. Picked octagonal lights, ball lights, watermelon lights; carrying the lights about the knife, dragon rob bead lights, and later there are airplane lights, battleship lights; the ground walking monkeys riding sheep lamps, cowboys riding cattle lamps, Scholar riding a horse lamp; hanging on the hall of the palace lanterns, lanterns, and so on. At that time, there was a poem: "Lanterns into the city will be the New Year's Eve, color craftsmanship fee cutting, several send for the new year to play, clear light four walls shine cup." It depicts the grandeur of the lantern market in Fuzhou.

On the night of the Lantern Festival, some townships and streets touring the streets, combined with welcoming the gods. Welcome God team, more with the dragon dance, stilts, lion dance, underground ping, land rowing and other folk cultural activities. Some people at home see the welcome god crossing, they will raise lamps and firecrackers, praying for the safety of the family. Today, the custom of sending lamps is still popular among some older people.