Folklore experts give lectures to learn how to honeymoon, shave fetal hair, collect saliva and grasp the week!

Folklore experts give lectures to learn how to honeymoon, shave fetal hair, collect saliva and grasp the week! "Send oil rice in the second month, collect saliva in the fourth month, 1 year-old grasp the week ..." Are these ancient growth gifts familiar to you? In the early agricultural society, every household hoped for a prosperous population, but the infant mortality rate was common, so the ancestors prayed to God for the safe growth of their children and grandchildren. In this paper, folk experts are invited to share the traditional growth ceremony of 0 ~ 1 year-old, and parents are invited to record their baby's growth footprint with traditional customs! Living customs wish children a safe growth.

There are many traditional customs in Taiwan Province Province. The main customs and habits of 0 ~ 1 year-old are: good news for the newborn on the third day of birth, courage in the three dynasties, harvesting the moon and shaving fetal hair on the full moon, collecting saliva on the fourth month of birth, and grasping the week on 1 year-old. This does not include three generations of "worshipping mother in bed" and "eating rice" for the first tooth of six months old. Lin, a traditional customs consultant of Lin Antai Ancient Cultural Relics Museum, said that the reason why there are such complicated customs and habits at the age of 0 ~ 1 is mainly because the agricultural era requires a lot of manpower, and every family wants its population to prosper. However, at that time, medicine was not developed and infant death was very common. Therefore, ancestors hope to help their children grow up safely by worshipping God and praying for blessings.

Good news. How to make a gift?

In the agricultural era, transportation and communication are inconvenient, so when babies are born, they will send people to tell their parents the good news, which is called "good news". Later, the mother will prepare a sesame-oil chicken wine and oil rice to go back to her parents' home to worship her ancestors, and at the same time, she will send a sesame-oil chicken wine and oil rice to the matchmaker's home. This is called "reporting wine". After receiving the wine report, the bride's family will give back the supplements such as chicken and wine for confinement, which is called "sending Geng".

Modern practice

Modern communication software is developed, and the bride's family can easily learn the news of the baby's birth on social networking platforms, so no one follows the custom of announcing good news. And "reporting wine" evolved into sending fried rice, red eggs or cakes to relatives and friends and matchmakers in the second month of children.

How to do the three dynasties' bold and unrestrained ancient rituals?

In ancient times, babies did not take a bath immediately after birth. The midwife will wipe the baby's whole body with non-sexual vegetable oil or sesame oil, and then wrap the baby with clean cotton cloth until the third day, when grandparents bathe the baby. At this time, there will be three boulders representing courage, several osmanthus leaves representing wealth, several longan leaves representing good luck and several orange leaves representing good luck in the bathtub. When taking a bath, it is "brave" for the child to pat the baby's chest three times with the bath water in the palm, so that the child will not be easily frightened because of cowardice. This is the traditional "brave three dynasties".

Lin Maoxian, an associate professor in the Department of Chinese Studies in Taiwan Province Province of Taichung University of Education, reminded us that we should pay attention to a few eyebrows when we are bold. First of all, the water for bathing your baby must be boiled cold water, and you can't use "yin and yang water" (tap water with hot water mixed with cold water) to avoid contact between unsterilized raw water and your baby and cause infection. Secondly, the stone put into the bathtub should not be too small or too big; Too small a stone is timid, too big a stone is bold. Finally, if you want your children to live in poverty in the future, you can also put 6 or 12 copper coins in the bathtub.

Modern practice

Modern newborns are washed by nurses as soon as they are born. "Braving three dynasties" is no longer a custom. On the contrary, some temples in heaven have the ceremony of "borrowing the courage of heaven". However, parents who intend to follow the ancient method can still follow the above process and help the baby bathe on the third day.

Folklore experts give lectures to learn how to honeymoon, shave fetal hair, collect saliva and grasp the week! How to do the ritual of shaving fetal hair in ancient times?

In ancient times, when a child was born for 24 days (or full moon), his parents would shave his baby's hair. There are many theories about the origin of shaving fetal hair; Some people say that shaving fetal hair on the 24th day of birth means that children will follow the example of twenty-four filial piety and become filial parents when they grow up. There is also a legend that someone took a tire brush to participate in the first prize of scientific research high school. Later, everyone followed up and shaved off the baby's fetal hair to make a fetal brush. Later, someone made a seal from the baby's umbilical cord, and took its homophonic hair (hair) and navel (money) together as a rich seal. However, the most common saying is to help children get rid of dirty air.

Since you want to greet Geely with filth, you will naturally prepare many auspicious items. The most commonly used mascots for shaving fetal hair are cooked eggs and cooked duck eggs; The barber will draw circles on the baby's head and face with boiled eggs, and say auspicious words: "Egg body, egg noodles, shave without changing your face, marry a wife." Then draw a circle on the baby with the cooked duck eggs and say auspicious words: "Duck eggs, egg noodles, good relatives to match." At this time, parents can prepare a stone as big as the child's head, put the stone on the child's pillow, and say an auspicious word: "The head shell is hard, and the head shell is difficult to feed. "Bless the baby to eat 120. Finally, prepare hibiscus wormwood soup to bathe the baby with shaved fetal hair.

Other mascots include the "onion" representing wisdom and wisdom; Represents hardworking celery; Represents the "garlic" of careful calculation; "Leek" or "longevity fruit" (peanuts) representing longevity; An "apple" representing peace; "Chicken leg" or "rice" representing wealth and clothes; A "coin" or "gold ingot" representing wealth and money; "Longan", which represents a lifetime aristocrat, and so on. These mascots can be put aside when children shave their fetal hair, and then relatives, friends and elders can explain the relevant meanings.

Modern practice

Modern parents have gradually looked down on shaving fetal hair to remove filth, but many older mothers-in-law still insist on shaving fetal hair. If you want to shave your baby's fetal hair but don't want your child to shave the whole head, you can cut a handful of your child's hair, which can represent shaving fetal hair.

How to carry out the ancient ceremony in Mi Yue?

As mentioned earlier, infant death was very common in ancient times. "Mi Yue" means that children can cross the first important stage of life and grow up smoothly, so they need to be celebrated seriously. At this time, it is necessary to prepare oil rice to reward the gods such as the Year of the Horse, the Empress, the Third Wife and Mazu, and distribute them to relatives and friends. The bride's family will give back "head and tail gifts" and "longevity locks". As the name implies, the head-to-tail ceremony is the clothes worn by the baby from head to toe, including clothes, hats, shoes, socks and so on. The longevity lock is a rectangular silver ornament, which is hung around the baby's neck in the form of a necklace. On the day of a child's full moon, a brother, cousin or cousin usually carries it on his back and calls it an "owl".

(Owl is an eagle), at this time, my brother will shout with a bamboo pole, "Owl, fly up the mountain, your son will be an official soon;" The owl flies high and the girl is the champion; Fly low, baby, be a father! I hope the children can get married as soon as possible.

It is said that in rural times, it is a great burden to help the daughter-in-law to have a confinement because of the lack of materials, so when the daughter-in-law gives birth to a child, relatives and friends in the neighborhood will take the initiative to send chickens, wine and sesame oil to help the daughter-in-law to have a confinement. After confinement, the daughter-in-law will take the remaining wine and sesame oil to steam rice, first take it to the temple to thank God, and then distribute it to relatives and friends in the neighborhood to thank them for their help. Fried rice will be mixed with red eggs. It is generally believed that eggs have the meaning of "rebirth".

Lin Maoxian pointed out that the agricultural society favors boys over girls. If the baby is a boy, a chicken leg is usually added to the fried rice; If the baby is a girl, the custom in central Taiwan Province province will celebrate one day in advance. In addition to the above significance, another purpose of sending fried rice and red eggs to relatives and friends at the end of the month is to establish contact between children and relatives and friends, so that relatives and friends who receive gifts can give support and care to children during their growth.

Modern practice

When modern children have a full moon, relatives and friends usually take the initiative to visit them and bring various gifts as blessings. Parents will also give them fried rice or moon cakes in return. Replacing fried rice and red eggs with cakes has become a trend of modern moon viewing.

Folklore experts give lectures to learn how to honeymoon, shave fetal hair, collect saliva and grasp the week! How to do the ancient gift of taking saliva?

Most children drool until they start teething at 6 months, so ancient parents will "take saliva" for their babies when they are about 4 months old. Traditional saliva collection clubs will prepare 6, 8 or 12 saliva collection cakes and a peach, and invite relatives and friends to come home to collect saliva for their children. When collecting saliva, the child will be asked to "sit on the peach" (meaning to sit on the peach for longevity), and then the cake for collecting saliva will be strung together with red silk thread and hung on the child's chest. Please ask the elder who is responsible for collecting saliva to break off a piece of cake and put it on the child's mouth, saying auspicious words while wiping. The auspicious words of saliva collection are very interesting. Some wish the baby to grow up safely, such as: "It's up to you to drool", "Ask your mother to watch you if you have any ideas about collecting saliva", "Don't be afraid to watch you when you hear thunder" and "It's up to you to eat 120", while others wish people prosperity.

Lin Maoxian explained that according to the traditional customs in Taiwan Province Province, children can't go out before they are four months old. Therefore, saliva collection is the first time for children to show their faces in front of many relatives, friends and neighbors. The purpose is to let relatives and neighbors know the new members of the family and take care of the children in the future.

Modern practice

Early salty biscuits were mostly used for saliva collection, and now there are many lovely saliva collection biscuits for parents to choose from. Mom and dad can make customized saliva-collecting biscuits, write the baby's birthday and name on the biscuits with icing, and design corresponding patterns according to the baby's gender or favorite items.

How to grasp the ancient rites of Zhou?

Children begin to learn to walk, talk and imitate the actions of adults after they are one year old. In ancient times, parents would prepare symbols of all walks of life for their children to choose during the period when their children were reading a lot, so as to predict the industries that their children might engage in in in the future. This is the so-called "grasping the week".

A turtle and a fragrant rice, as well as mascots such as apples, chicken legs, onions and garlic, must be prepared before the Zhou Grasping Ceremony. Let the children step on the tortoise with their feet and say a blessing: "The tortoise with superficial feet tells you to learn wisdom ("will "in Taiwanese); Just shake it with red beans and feed it to the tortoise until it gets old. I wish children wisdom, reading, health, peace and longevity. Then give the children rice fragrance, and tell them to "eat rice fragrance, eat rice fragrance, even if you learn to speak, it is really fragrant, and then you will be popular and hurt." "Let children learn more beautiful words in the process of learning to speak. Finally, let children bite apples (safe), chicken legs (not worrying about food and clothing), hold onions (smart and wise), and touch garlic (careful calculation is not easy to be cheated).

Next, I officially entered Zhou's ceremony. At this time, books, pen and ink, abacus, coins, seals, chicken legs, dirt, rulers, onions, garlic, celery and so on. It should be placed in the rice sieve (the number is preferably 6, 12 or 18, and the number should be increased by multiples of 6), so that children can sit in the rice sieve and choose their favorite items in order to catch them.

Modern practice

In ancient times, the common objects of grasping Zhou were hoes, straws, raw onions, raw garlic and so on. In line with the evolution of the times, Zhou's articles have also changed from the agricultural tools mentioned above to computers, financial cards, mice, bats and so on. Obviously, Zhou's articles will change with the evolution of the times and the use of different tools.

Lin reminded that although parents are looking forward to the success of their children and their daughters, they don't have to pay too much attention to the results of grasping the week. As long as the child is happy.

Celebrate your baby's success with ancient gifts!

In ancient society, the birth of new life represents the continuation of the family lifeline, so we must be cautious. Good news, courage in three dynasties, shaving fetal hair, closing the moon, collecting saliva, grasping the week and other life customs represent the life checkpoints that children face at different stages, and each hurdle means that children have passed another challenge. Dear mom and dad, if you also think it is not easy for children to grow up, you may wish to follow in the footsteps of your ancestors and congratulate your children with these traditional living customs!

Lin Maoxian

Education: Ph.D., Institute of Ethnology, University of Paris VII, France

Experience: Editor of Folk Quyi magazine

Director of the National Culture and Art Foundation

Executive director of performing arts alliance

Current position: Associate Professor, Taiwan Province Chinese Department, Taichung University of Education.

Member of the Central Review Committee of Intangible Cultural Assets of the Ministry of Culture

Director of the National Art Foundation

Lin

Experience: folk writer

Lin Antai, the host of Gu CuO Zhou.

General Manager of Huayi Integrated Marketing

Current position: consultant of traditional customs of Lin Antai Ancient Folk Cultural Relics Museum.

For details, please refer to 17, February issue of Babies and Mothers magazine.