How to celebrate the New Year in Guangxi

Customs of Spring Festival in Guilin

From the "New Year's Eve" to New Year's Eve.

The Spring Festival walks into Guilin's towns and villages with the sound of the bell at zero hour on December 24 of the lunar calendar. This day is the Guilin people's "New Year's Eve", also known as the "New Year's Eve". On this day, people slaughter chickens and ducks to celebrate the arrival of the Spring Festival. On this day, the sound of firecrackers, with people to send Zaowang master "to the sky to say good things" wish crackling, the sound of the high world. People believe that the God of the stove is the master of the family, a family of good and evil merits and demerits are in charge of it, so the end of each year, we must send the God of the stove to the sky to the Jade Emperor, for the whole family to lower the blessing from disaster. The ceremony of sacrificing to the God of Zaos is mostly done by the elders of the family, who put candies on the head of the stove to sacrifice to the God of Zaos, praying that the God of Zaos "says good things in heaven and descends to the earth with good luck". The purpose of offering candies to Zaoshen is to make the candies "stick" to Zaoshen's mouth, so that his sweet mouth can say good things. After New Year's Eve, firecrackers are set off to bring the Zaoshendi down to earth. This is the ancient custom of Guilin's "New Year's Eve", and now even the firecrackers are only a remnant of the ancient rituals.

From the 24th to the 30th day of the Lunar New Year, people are busy shopping for New Year's goods and cleaning up inside and outside their homes to welcome the New Year with cleanliness. There are many kinds of traditional foods for the festival, and they have good wishes: on the twenty-ninth day of the Lunar New Year, people steam rice cakes, which are sweet and sweet, meat and vegetarian, and eat them to make their lives and work flourish in the new year, so that they can rise higher and higher.

New Year's Eve dinner, people like to get together as a family, the dishes must have "round", "happy", to take its meaning of reunion, happy. On this night, thousands of people are at home to observe the New Year. During the vigil, the charcoal fire in the fire pit is burned red-hot to symbolize the prosperity of life year after year. When the zero hour arrives, young and old are filled with joy and welcome the New Year with the sound of firecrackers. The sound of the firecrackers, one after another, until late at night, people still do not sleep, the fire is still strong, is to go to rest, but also will not forget to nestle the fire pot fire, leaving kindling, and so on tomorrow morning to burn a good fire pot. New Year's fire is like human life, it is a good omen for the New Year's prosperity, family prosperity. People have such a deep affection for fire, perhaps because the fire has brought civilization to mankind, brought warmth. Love of fire is like love of one's own life, especially in the New Year.

-From the first day of the Lunar New Year to the fifteenth day of the first month of the lunar calendar-

Early in the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, the firecrackers that receive the God of Fortune awaken the dawn. Neighbors, friends and colleagues, the first thing they say when they meet is to wish a good new year. The Spring Festival is a good time for people to enhance their relationships and consolidate their friendships. People pay their respects to each other, have fun, look back on the past and look forward to the future, and have a strong sense of humor.

The streets and alleys, a team of New Year's Eve lion dance side line, very active, many children follow the lion team to see the lion New Year's Eve hustle and bustle. When the lions went to a store door, the owner will light firecrackers to meet, the lions in front of the door to the owner of the salute, the leader also went up to the owner of the arch bow to the New Year blessings. The lion's humane New Year's greeting and the leader's auspicious words will make the owner's heart happy and the store's business will be prosperous. At this time, the lion in the sound of firecrackers dance, dance out of a good luck, dance out of a strong wind. Its big head of joy, broad forehead, big eyes, raised nose, square mouth, golden red hair, its image is both powerful and naive, amusing. See the lion robust and courageous, out of the cave, across the bridge, in the head up chaotic clouds flying over, head down, "ten thousand feet deep" on the bridge to rise up to God's might. At this time the lion drums such as stormy, thrilling and wonderful lion performance thrilling. Then it is up and down the mountain, drinking water and eating green, step on the star walk pile, on the ladder, nine days to catch the moon, etc., the lion head, lion tail with the tacit understanding. Dance to the sound time, stacked Luohan picking green, the lion picked green after nodding to the audience bowing. And then hair, cut the collar, quite interesting. Drums stop, the lion from the nine days Guanghan straight down, shocked the whole audience, to be fixed eyes, the lion is stable in the hands of all Luohan, is looking back at the moon. This stunt in the silence of the heart, won the applause of the audience.

Lion New Year's Day is a favorite traditional project of Guilin people, so every Spring Festival eve, the lion team will be dressed up, practicing the traditional routine of lion dance. Once the Spring Festival arrives, the lion shakes its spirit and dances on the street to pay New Year's greetings to the pre-arranged home or store. The lion walks all the way to dance all the way, jumping, intruding, Rin, roaring, stepping, leaping and so on to perform a lively performance. The big-headed monks and big-headed dolls who play the lion dance take three steps to twist, and the monkeys who tease the lion dance are full of monkey energy. The sound of gongs and drums of the lion dance team adds to the joy of Guilin and brings a sense of spring.

Guilin's lion New Year's greetings and monkeys to pick spring, picking high green, eat ground green and other forms. Some of the lion team's lion, able to dance on the 6-meter-high platform, 13 benches stacked high mountain, and can move freely on it, amusing and entertaining! After the dance, the lion also calmly edge of the bench and down, the demeanor is still so natural. Of course, compared to the lion that eats the ground green and the lion that picks the high green, its skill is slightly lower. The master of the package and vegetables on the bench, in front of a pot of water, the lion in the "eat green" before drinking water, "eat green" after also want to gargle, these very rich in animal interest and anthropomorphic action, it is more than handsome.

The lion's New Year's greeting is accompanied by auspicious lion songs in some of Lingui's villages:

Three points of yellow on the lion's head,

Today's greeting is on the hall,

Congratulations to the master of the house on the birth of a noble son,

World-wide to make the name known.

Three points of green on the lion's head,

Today we worship in your court,

Congratulations to the master's family for their good fortune,

Adding more money and more children.

The lion's tail is a ball,

Coming to your house to worship the pig and cow,

Congratulations to the master's family, the pig will get big soon,

With food and clothes, there will be no worries.

The lion's eyes are bewildered,

Congratulations to the master's family for their good fortune.

The blessed six animals will prosper,

Goose, ducks and chickens.

The lion's song is a beautiful song, which has been passed down in the folklore for thousands of years, blessing and cheering up the neighbors and making people happy every year in the Spring Festival.

Unwittingly to the Lantern Festival, the night of the fifteenth day of the first month of the year, Guilin City, although there is no fire trees and silver flowers in full bloom, but it is the lights of all the houses.

The Lantern Festival in Guilin in the past, from the thirteenth day of the first month onwards, there were dragon lanterns on parade. The dragon lanterns traveled through the streets and alleys for three nights, and wherever they went, families set off firecrackers and burned incense and candles, praying that the dragon lanterns would bring good luck and prosperity. Dragon lantern parade there are a variety of shengxiao drum music, stilts, card lamps, gongs and drums shed together on the streets, forming a vast dragon lantern parade, the scene is very spectacular. On the night of the festival, the lanterns are lit up all night long, which together with the flying dragon lanterns turn Guilin into a city that never sleeps.

Nowadays, the custom of lighting lanterns on the night of the Lantern Festival is still preserved in Guilin. On the night of the Lantern Festival, you can see the lanterns from a height, which is very refreshing. The flickering lights converge into a river of lights, as if the Milky Way in the sky falls several times. The light or quiet, or flow, flash leap in tall buildings, open in the green leaves, so that the night sky of Guilin brilliant. At this time the halls and rooms of families, all the lights are shining brightly, and the whole family sits under the lights and eats osmanthus sugar-centered Lanterns, peanut and sesame Lanterns ...... that sweet, fragrant traditional food, so that every family is immersed in the joy of the festival. "Fire on New Year's Eve and lanterns on the 15th day" is a proverb circulating in Guilin folklore. The fire pots on New Year's Eve are red-hot, while the lanterns on the fifteenth day of the festival are also closely related to the word "fire", which is also a kind of hope for the New Year.

************************************************************* Customs of Spring Festival in Nanning, Guangxi

Spring Festival is the biggest festival of the year in Nanning, the first day of the year from zero hour, home firecrackers, saying goodbye to the old and welcome the new. On the second day of the year, friends and relatives bring gifts to visit each other to pay tribute to the New Year. Fifteen Lantern Festival night lanterns. The sixteenth county outskirts of the countryside held a temple fair, "snatch firecrackers". According to the unique Spring Festival custom of the Zhuang family, there are also activities such as picking new water, drinking velvet water, lion dance, chicken dance and spring bull dance. Before dawn on the first day of the Lunar New Year, Zhuang housewives have gone to the creek to pick new water for the whole family. When picking new water, they also pick up a few stones that resemble livestock and imitate the cries of the six animals along the way home. When they return home, they put these stones into pig pens and cattle pens to pray for the prosperity of the six animals. Then, new water is used to boil New Year tea for the whole family to drink. The women of the Zhuang family want to drink Lingliang water, that is, before drawing new water, they compete to drink the fresh water held by the village's recognized "Lingliang Sister-in-Law," which they believe will make them smarter and more clever, and the girls who are to be married take this opportunity to pray for finding a husband of their choice in the new year. The Chicken Dance and the Spring Bull Dance in the western part of the country are even more distinctive. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, by the chicken dance of young people with wood, papaya made of two door chicken, playing the gong to go to each household to celebrate the New Year, they sing the auspicious humor dance chicken song, so that the host family smiling. The host family plucks a few chicken feathers from the chicken and puts them on their own chicken coops to pray for the prosperity of the six animals. The Cow Dance is even more interesting. Dancing bull with the Department of exquisite "spring bull" show, a person in front of the head of the bull, a person in the back of the back bending over the arching back to fling the tail; the back by a hand holding a plow frame of the man to drive the "spring bull", clustered around the spring bull and drumming gongs and drums, singing the spring bull song, vast and majestic, joyful and happy. The song of the spring ox is sung, and it is full of vigor and joy.

Dancing Spring Bulls

In some areas of Guixi, the chicken dance and spring bull dance have been passed down from generation to generation, adding to the festive atmosphere of the Spring Festival. The young men who perform the chicken dance carry two fighting cocks made of wood and papaya, and beat a gong to every house in the village to celebrate the New Year. The cock dance songs are humorous and make the host family smile. Giving red packets to the New Year's Eve chicken dancers, and pulling a few chicken feathers from the "fighting chickens" on their own chicken coops to pray for the prosperity of six animals.

The Spring Bull Dance is even more interesting. "Spring Bull" is cleverly woven with bamboo, cow head, cow horns on the paper, painted cow eyes, cow body is a piece of black cloth or gray cloth. The bull dancers perform in the village with gongs and drums, and the two men who are drilled into the bottom of the cloth, one in front of the bull's head, and one in the back bending over and arching his back to fling his tail, are followed by a man with a plough frame in his hand. In addition, there are gongs and drums, leading the singing of the spring cow song, where they go, where there is singing and laughter. Dance after the village and then to the village, from the first day to the Lantern Festival. The people who dance the spring ox bring the joy of the festival to the farmers, and at the same time, they also send their wishes for a good harvest and peace to the farmers.

Playing the flat stretcher to celebrate the New Year

"The first month of pounding the hall closed Boom Boom, this year everywhere corn abundance." This is an ancient proverb passed down by Zhuang families in Mashan, Du'an, Shanglin and Xincheng in Guangxi. Liu Xun in the Tang Dynasty in his "Ling Table Recorded Iso" has vividly recorded the dance rhyme of pounding the hall: "Spring Hall, the deep wood carving and groove, a groove on both sides, about rows of lemons, men and women standing in order to pound the rice beams, knocking the groove gangway, are all over the beat, the groove sound like a drum, heard in the miles, though thinking about the woman's tricky fall anvil, can not be compared to its Liu Liang also." Today, instead of pounding bamboo is the farmer's stretcher, wooden boards instead of a large wooden trough, the old pounding hall to play the stretcher form of entertainment revitalized. Playing flat-bearing is a traditional self-entertainment activities, each Zhuang family members are playing with the Hall of the actors, women's movements light and graceful, men's movements strong and powerful, self-entertainment "playing with the Hall", sent the Zhuang people pray for a good harvest wishes.

The dance form of playing the flat dancer has a double dance, four people wear flowers, more people wear flowers and other sets. The dancers are mostly in pairs. The dancers hold the flat stretcher in their hands and surround the bench or pounding trough, rhythmically beating the bench and hitting each other's flat stretcher. The stretcher is used freely in the hands, or front, or back, or side to side, and the sound emitted is either brittle, or dull, and the sound is different, forming a rhythm with a bright rhythm and undulating rhythm. In the flat stretcher constantly hit each other, the performers keep wearing flowers and turning, which makes people's eyes dazzle even more. Skillful action, in the sound of the sound of the stretcher easily completed.

The activity of playing the flat stretcher during the festive season is even more lively. On the field of long bamboo tube and gongs and drums and accompanied by the crowd of onlookers from time to time to sing colorful sounds, the festive atmosphere is particularly warm.

In the crowd of flat-bellied people, you can find two buns of white old people and young children, some of the whole family swings flat-bellied on the battlefield, there are mothers and children with the same playing flat-bellied, you race me, I race you, the whole flat-bellied activities are full of joyful laughter.

On the way to the dike, the mountain people walked sour legs, shoulders tired, put the stretcher a put, playing the flat stretcher, not long fatigue will be in the flat stretcher sound disappeared. Catch the market on the road to play flatbed activity improvisation and, as much as possible and dispersed. This is a light and convenient cultural and physical activity in the Zhuangxiang township.

The dance vocabulary of "playing flat-bellied" is rich in farming culture, and the dance modeling is closely related to farming, with performances such as: harrowing and transplanting rice seedlings, bailing water and cultivating the fields, harvesting and playing the field, and pounding rice to taste the new, etc. The artistic image is life-like and labor-intensive. Artistic image of life, labor characteristics are extremely prominent, it is firmly rooted in the Zhuang family soil, will be evergreen.