Qinghai festival customs

When the Tibetan people living on the grassland celebrate the annual New Year's Eve, there is a unique court column in each family's yard, with children thrown on the stigma, which is full of heavy highland barley ears. On New Year's Eve, dust off and decorate your ears. Some people stick a piece of red paper, others decorate colored paper, and their ears shine. The niche or water cup on the table is very long, and the butter lamp illuminates the room brightly.

On New Year's Eve, the old people who had lived a long and bumpy life had no idea. They follow the traditional ceremony: dip their fingers in fried noodles and porridge and write the words "Tashildler" on the white wall. They are so devout, bit by bit, they always have to recite the mantra of Lu' an Mingjing several times. At the point of forming each word, there is a light of hope, praying for "good luck" in the new year.

On New Year's Eve, girls' hearts are the most restless. In their boiling hearts, the symbolic word "cut" rolled in. "Kache" means morning star water. Morning Star Water refers to the first bucket of water carried on the back at the moment of transition from New Year's Eve to New Year's Day. Legend has it that the morning star water is the most auspicious water in the world. It can worship the gods, clean the body, wash away all dirt and ominous, and bring people light and happiness. At night 12 o'clock, radiant girls, according to national customs, put three pieces of ghee on the mouth of the "tip (cylinder)" of backwater, and then insert three lighted incense sticks. Embracing mulberry scissors made of cypress and white fragrant green, covered with stars, scrambling to recite the morning star water. According to custom, the girl who is the first to light mulberries by the river and scoop up the morning star water is the most blessed person.

At night, the twilight is heavy. The stars shine. The girls who followed broke the silence of the long night by the river. Their songs, laughter, wearing rings, and the footsteps of Cha, Cha, Cha made up Katie Qu's chorus. The girls go home with morning star water, first pour some into a clean basin, then inject a little milk, and wash them in the order of men first and women later. "Wash it clean". All the old things, with the clean body of the morning star water, are gone forever. Will usher in a new year, new things, new good luck.

From the first day to the third day, pay New Year greetings to each other. Guests come and go, and Ma Si rings. Every evening, the old people invited artists to tell the story of King Gelsall, and listened to the heroic story of King Gelsall's conquest of the north and the devil all night. Young men and women danced "Guo Zhuang" and "Yi" all night, watched burlesque and celebrated the Spring Festival.

The flavor of the year is getting stronger and stronger. There are hawkers on both sides of the street, and there is a faint smell of smoke in the air. Impatient children set off fireworks from time to time. Looking at the calendar, it's already the 22nd day of the twelfth lunar month, and it's getting closer and closer to the Spring Festival. Tomorrow is the 23rd, which is commonly known as off-year among the people.

. There is a folk saying in Qinghai called "the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the goddess who made a scene in heaven", which is an important day after the Spring Festival in rural areas. It is important because a "big shot" in the family is going out for a few days, and this farewell ceremony is already quite grand. On the morning of 23rd, rural women got up early to make "oven cakes". In fact, hearth cake is a special kind of thousand-layer cake, because it is made of vegetable oil and flour, so it is particularly delicious. Their characteristic is "crispy". When we are greedy, our mouths water, but the adults at home don't let us eat at all. Then the men at home will tie a horse-shaped straw handle with straw and worship the kitchen god cake and straw handle in the position of the kitchen god at home. Kitchen God is the head of fireworks at home. This position is probably much smaller than that of Bi. According to my personal research, it is actually the lowest position in Xianban, but it is the biggest position in the family-commonly known as the head of the family, and the background of this sesame official is not small. His wife is the daughter of the Jade Emperor. Twenty-three is to send the princess to sit at her parents' house! Because this daughter can directly convey the voice of the people at the lowest level to the ear of the supreme commander, the Jade Emperor, the ceremony of offering sacrifices to the stove is particularly grand. This ceremony actually reflects the simplest wish of ordinary people, hoping that their voices can be heard more than those of the ruling class. Let's get into the topic of gossip. In the evening, a ceremony of offering sacrifices to the stove was formally held, and stove cakes and grass horses were offered in front of the stove. "As the saying goes, women don't offer stoves and men don't offer crescent moons." Probably because women are easy to communicate with each other, the work of offering sacrifices to stoves is always done by the most senior woman in the family, and boys are not allowed to watch it. But according to the voyeurism ceremony when we were young, it was nothing more than three knocks and nine worships, and then we prayed to the goddess of the kitchen, "The kitchen cakes here are probably the travelling expenses used by Mrs. Kitchen on the distant road, and the grass horse is the fodder for the mount!" At this point, the ceremony of offering sacrifices to the stove is over, and the stove cakes that make us salivate can make us feast our eyes.

It's been seven days since Zaojia Niangniang left. On New Year's Eve, there will be a ceremony to receive the gods in order to welcome the early morning vacation of the Queen Jia. Compared with sending her away, the ceremony of receiving god will be much simpler. It is nothing more than lighting firecrackers and burning a few high incense. There is still one year to go to heaven for vacation next year, and people are not afraid of the armor empress gossiping (it is estimated that the armor empress can't remember trivial things, hehe), so it is also true.