Hakka customs and traditions

Like most parts of the province, Hakkas regard Chinese New Year as the most grand and joyful festival of the year. People began to prepare for the Spring Festival very early. 9. Sweet potato slices and rice cake slices will be dried in 10 for frying and frying in the New Year. As soon as the "winter solstice" arrives, we will start steaming wine. Nearly 30 days ago, every household would steam sugar cakes, make rice fruits, kill pigs, make tofu, kill chickens and so on. Welcome the New Year with great joy.

1February 23rd. Brush the kitchen stove clean after the night of the 23rd, and take down the old kitchen stove and burn it. On the morning of 30th, post a new picture. When you get a free one, you should put wine, meat, candy, sugar cane, rice fruit and so on. Burn incense, light candles and set off paper cannons in front of the stove. Entering the New Year's Eve and the 25th of the twelfth lunar month, people who go out should hurry home for the New Year. After entering the fixed number of years, we should educate our children not to scold each other and not to say unlucky things. Before and after entering the new year, we should choose an auspicious day to clean the dust and clean the house. We should clean the tables and benches in the kitchen, clean the bedding and mosquito nets, and celebrate the New Year cleanly.

New Year's Eve, that is, New Year's Eve, is the warmest and happiest day of Chinese New Year. On this morning, every family should worship bodhisattva and god. On New Year's Eve, portraits of ancestors should be hung in each hall, and red Spring Festival couplets should be posted at the gate. Red notes should be posted on barn doors, in front of livestock fences, on furniture beds and beside water tanks, which are called "sealing the year" or "becoming popular". Adults and children should take a bath, put on new clothes and celebrate the New Year cleanly. Each hall will also be decorated with tables, incense tables, chickens, fish, meat, fruits and so on. To worship their ancestors. On New Year's Eve, we have a family reunion dinner with rich dishes. Put more bowls and chopsticks on the table to invite our ancestors back for the New Year. Before meals, sift the wine for your ancestors, sprinkle it on the ground, and then start eating. During the dinner, the old people and children eat chicken legs to show respect for the old people and young people.

Have a reunion dinner at the end of the year and clean the stove to prevent vegetarianism on the first day of the first month or all day. At night, we should keep the old year, say goodbye to the old and welcome the new. Every room should be brightly lit all night. This is called "lighting the old fire". In some places, cowshed and pigsty should also be illuminated. Parents should give their children lucky money, and some places give old people lucky money.

On the first day of the first month of the first month, according to the auspicious time stipulated in the "Tong Shu", firecrackers suddenly broke out one after another and resounded through the sky. I am a vegetarian on the morning of the first day of the first lunar month. After dinner, people greet each other with auspicious words. The children are wearing new clothes. They are very happy and love to play. Some of them are vying to pay New Year greetings to the elderly: "My grandparents and uncles have money, and all the candied fruit is given to ya (me)."

On the second day of the first month, visit relatives to celebrate the New Year. In particular, the newly-married son-in-law (the Yue family will post an invitation with a book) will go to her parents' house to pay a New Year call. Generally, young couples go together, and a son-in-law goes alone; Some came back the same day, and some stayed for five or six days. When you go, you should bring little hens, rice fruits, candy, incense sticks and firecrackers, and then burn incense, light candles and set off firecrackers in front of the ancestors of the Yue family. At noon, the Yues treat, and the son-in-law should be drunk, not drunk or enthusiastic. On the morning of New Year's Eve, we eat "New Year's Rice" (some steamed on the 29th night of the previous year, and some steamed on the 2nd night of the first month). Chopsticks are inserted in the rice, several pairs are inserted by several people in the family, and a leafy branch is inserted, and some even put oranges, grapefruit and other fruits. Before eating the New Year's Eve, you should put the rice on the "Sun" shrine to worship the gods and ancestors. There are many dishes to prepare for the New Year's Eve, including chicken and meat, which is similar to having a reunion dinner on New Year's Eve. You can't kill animals in the third grade, but chickens should be killed in the second grade or kept during the Chinese New Year.

On the fifth day of the first month of a year, the year is over. The portraits of ancestors in the hall should be put away, the paper curtains should be taken down and burned, and those who go out on business can start.

Lantern Festival On the fifteenth day of the first month of the Lantern Festival, also known as the "Shangyuan Festival", every household should prepare dishes and drinks for the New Year. To celebrate the Lantern Festival, the Spring Festival amusement activities will reach a climax. From the beginning of the Lunar New Year to the fifteenth day of the first month, entertainment activities are constantly going on in various places, mainly Youlong lanterns and lion dances, and some activities begin on the first and second days of the first month. Dragon lanterns and lions will be posted in advance before they arrive, and red envelopes and snacks will be given when they arrive. Dragon lanterns, lions, etc. It will not only perform in every household, but also pay New Year greetings to gods and ancestors in various temples and ancestral halls in the village. During the first market after the Spring Festival, all kinds of dragon lanterns, boat lanterns and lion lanterns will be performed at the party, which is called "opening the market". During the Spring Festival to the Lantern Festival, there are also some recreational activities in various places:

The spring equinox in February begins to sweep graves to worship ancestors, which is also called "Spring Festival". Before sweeping the grave, a grand ancestor worship ceremony should be held in the ancestral hall, pigs and sheep should be slaughtered, drummers should be invited to play, and the ritual students should read the eulogy and quote three praises. At the beginning of the spring equinox, the graves of ancestors and distant ancestors are swept first, and the whole family and the whole village have to be dispatched on a large scale, and the team often reaches hundreds or even thousands. After the ancestral graves of Kaiji and Yuanzu were swept, they were divided into rooms to sweep the graves of ancestors in each room, and finally each family swept the graves privately. In most Hakka areas, ancestor worship and grave sweeping in spring begin at the vernal equinox or earlier, and must end in Tomb-Sweeping Day at the latest. There is a saying everywhere that after the Qingming Festival, the tomb door is closed, and the ancestors' spirits are not needed. Qingming March Qingming, ancestor worship. In addition to the vernal equinox, most Hakka areas sweep graves to worship their ancestors, and some places are also sweeping graves in Qingming. On this day in Tomb-Sweeping Day, there are places for offering sacrifices to altars, such as the roadside land Bogong.

Dragon Boat Festival is the Dragon Boat Festival on the fifth day of May. Every household buys meat, kills ducks, makes zongzi and makes rice fruit for the holidays. Dragon Boat Festival is a big festival. In many places, people who work outside will go home for the New Year.

On Mid-Autumn Festival, July 15 is usually regarded as "Ghost Festival" in Hakka area. In some places, it is necessary to celebrate the festival one day in advance, which is called "14 people on July, and ghosts on July 15". In some places, Hakkas also worship their ancestors in July and a half.

Mid-Autumn Festival August 15 Mid-Autumn Festival, commonly known as "August Festival", is also a big festival. Eat moon cakes, enjoy the moon and celebrate the reunion. Every household has to buy a dining table, buy pork, kill chickens and ducks, and cook rice and fruit for the holidays. On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, families get together for the holidays, eat moon cakes and enjoy the moon after dinner.

Double Ninth Festival The ninth day of September is the Double Ninth Festival, also known as the Double Ninth Festival, commonly known as the "September Festival", which is a big festival at the end of the year. There is a saying that "there is no big festival after the Double Ninth Festival", and many people who go out have to rush home for the New Year. On this day, people in many places will take their children to climb mountains. Some people fly kites on the mountains, which means they can avoid evil spirits and plagues. Many old people say that this custom was brought by ancestors from the northern Central Plains and passed down from generation to generation. On this day, some old people and women go to temples to burn incense and worship Buddha.

The winter solstice is in November of the lunar calendar, also known as the "winter solstice". On the solstice of winter, we should eat pork and beef, make rice fruit and soup pills, and the rich should eat pilose antler and ginseng to make up for the winter.

Hakka

China is mainly divided into five language families: Sino-Tibetan, Altai, Austronesian, South Asian and Indo-European. Among them, the Sino-Tibetan language family contains the main language of China: Chinese. As for which language family Hakka belongs to, there are different opinions. Some people think that it belongs to one of the eleven branches (dialects) of Chinese, because it has the linguistic characteristics of Chinese. In Hakka Dialect Zi, Zhang Taiyan proved from the linguistic point of view that Hakka dialect originated from the Central Plains and preserved the phonology of Zhongzhou, Henan Province. It is the official dialect of Henan Province and also a local dialect. But some people think that it originated from the Tungusic language of the primitive Altai people. However, no matter which language family it belongs to, one thing is certain: it comes from the oldest language in the Central Plains, because today, many ancient sounds can still be found in Hakka dialect.

/other/nlkjr/kjyy.htm

Hakka eating habits: Hakka people are very particular about ancient customs and have many traditional customs. On New Year's Day, we have soup, and on the 20th of the first month, we make rice fruit. On February 15, the flower dynasty ate tea, fried beans, dyed rice in Qingming, made tofu in long summer and ate rice flour meat. On Dragon Boat Festival, we make zongzi and duck eggs. On June 6th, we make wine and dog meat. Xingu came on stage to recommend new products. On July 7th, we ate melons and fruits. On the Mid-Autumn Festival, we first kill ducks to worship our ancestors. On the Mid-Autumn Festival in August, we eat moon cakes. Without these, there would be no festive atmosphere for the Spring Festival. These customs are also entertaining, full of knowledge and expectations: on the first day of the New Year, there are green vegetables such as onions, garlic and celery. Onion means being smart and well informed, garlic means being careful, and celery needs to work hard every year. Fried beans are put forward to kill insects, and fried beans are like fried insects. Peeling taro in Mid-Autumn Festival means peeling ghost skin, which has religious significance.

Some customs left over from ancient times are gradually out of date and need to be improved. For example, the pace of life in today's society is accelerating, while Hakka festive banquets tend to be complicated and hospitality tends to be "bombed". Some meals last for hours, first tea, then noodles, then cold dishes, and finally hot dishes. Between tea and noodles and the host, boring and polite words are repeatedly said, and people who meet for the first time become regular customers.

Don't eat on the wedding day: There is a custom among Hakka folk residents in Jinggangshan: a girl takes home-cooked eggs, pork and other food with her on her wedding day, and hides in her new house after going to her husband's house, and doesn't eat her husband's food that day. No matter how sincere the family invites, even if the food is sent to the new house, they will not eat it once, but eat the food they bring. In order to save the food of parents-in-law, honor parents and give it to parents-in-law, in exchange for the love of parents-in-law, in exchange for the family to live in harmony for many years. This custom has persisted until today, when I married my husband's family, I didn't eat the food brought by the bride.

Before and after the Spring Festival, local and Hakka residents in Jinggangshan had a series of activities:

1Feb. 24, folk residents' homes sent kitchen gods to pay New Year greetings,1Feb. 30, residents' homes waited for kitchen gods. Send them to Kitchen God, such as beating rice fruit, burning incense, burning paper money, burning firecrackers and so on.

1February 30th is China New Year. People who work, study and work outside all the year round should return to their hometown to reunite with their families. New Year's Eve is also called "reunion dinner". This is the best meal for the whole family. The family sat around, chatting while eating and toasting each other. After dinner in recent years, the family has been sitting in front of the TV to watch the annual Spring Festival Gala, which is very affectionate.

On the 30th, folk residents will go to the vegetable garden to pick some vegetables and put them beside the gate, some of which will be placed on the incense table in the hall to show the wealth in the coming year.

Also, on the first day of the first month, all residents fast. Every New Year's Day breakfast, folk residents not only don't eat big fish and meat, but also don't see any birds and animals on the table. They are all vegetarian dishes. Even the water you wash your face and rinse back in the early morning of New Year's Day is not poured out, but put it in a bucket. The firecrackers set off on the first day of the new year are very popular everywhere, so you can't sweep the floor that day. It also means auspiciousness, gathering wealth for treasure.

the Hakka earth buildings of Fujian

Hakka Tulou is mainly distributed in Yongding County, Fujian Province, China, and it is a kind of mountain village residential building with oriental color. It has a long history, unique style, large scale and exquisite structure, and stands proudly in the world of residential architecture art.

Hakka earth buildings are mostly square or round, among which the peculiar round earth buildings are the most rich in Hakka traditional colors and powerful. This circular building consists of two or three circles, which are interlocking from the inside out. The outer ring is more than ten meters high and has four floors. It has one or two hundred rooms and is a public place for hundreds of people living in the building to get married, mourn, celebrate and celebrate. There are also wells, bathrooms, mills and other facilities in the building. The earth building is rammed with local raw soil, without reinforced concrete. The width of the wall foundation is 3m, the thickness of the bottom wall is1.5m, which gradually decreases upwards, and the thickness of the top wall is not less than 0.9m.. Then it is divided into many rooms with wooden boards along the circular outer wall, and there is a corridor inside.

Earth buildings not only have the function of defending the enemy, but also have the characteristics of earthquake prevention, fire prevention, theft prevention, good ventilation and lighting. Because of the thick soil wall, it is warm in winter and cool in summer. The magnificent structure of Tulou not only shows the wisdom of Hakkas, but also reflects their simple folk customs.

Unique Hakka culture

History clearly shows that the migration of Hakkas is mostly from the densely populated Central Plains area with relatively developed culture and economy to the remote and wild areas with sparse population and backward economy. These Hakka ancestors from the Han nationality in the Central Plains, in the process of creating new homes through hard work, constantly merged with the southern Baiyue ethnic groups (mainly She, Li, Yao and other ethnic groups), which not only formed a stable social group, but also created a unique Hakka culture. On the one hand, they maintained the mainstream characteristics of the Central Plains culture, always advocated orthodox Chinese culture, advocated the inheritance of poetry and rites, attached great importance to the complete preservation of tradition, culture, language and customs, and closely United with the same lifestyle, customs, beliefs and concepts; On the other hand, he is good at absorbing nutrients from local ethnic minorities and accommodating the cultural essence of local ethnic groups. The most striking features of Hakka culture are:

Advocating China orthodox culture. If you have the opportunity to open the genealogy of Hakka, or look at the couplets of Hakka houses, you will find that every household has a county view of the Central Plains. Such as Chen from Yingchuan, Li from Longxi, Lang Xie from Taiyuan, Xie He from Chenjun, He from Lujiang, Huang from Jiangxia and Yang from Hongnong. Although some records of this genealogy can't stand scrutiny, it shows that Hakka people are proud to come from the Central Plains from the bottom of their hearts. In the process of migration and development, generations of Hakkas have overcome all kinds of difficulties and built their own new homes with the spirit of "respecting the truth". Take the new Hakka immigrants in Taiwan Province Province as an example. On the one hand, they rely on and carry forward Hakka local culture such as "selling ancestral fields instead of ancestral words" and stubbornly follow the dialect accent; And according to the form of family and clan in hometown, the family and clan were reorganized, and the residential buildings also followed the form of hometown. On the other hand, it abides by the etiquette and music education of Chinese culture and carries forward the fine tradition of patriotism and love for the nation. When the Netherlands, France and Japan invaded Taiwan Province Province, they adhered to the national justice, held high the banner of patriotism and species protection, and waged a life-and-death struggle with the invaders. A large number of people with lofty ideals such as Liu Yongfu, Qiu, Wu Tangxing, Xu Xiang and Jiang Shaozu emerged, adding luster to the Hakka people and the Chinese nation! Nowadays, many overseas Chinese who have succeeded in starting a business feel that they have benefited from the spirit of worshipping truth in Hakka when summing up their success. In order to make future generations accept and carry forward the spirit of worshipping the truth of Hakka forever, they took their descendants back to their ancestral home in Chinese mainland and even the birthplace of the Central Plains again and again, and launched the second public sacrifice to the Hakka Mother River.

Chongwen attaches importance to education and studies family heirlooms. Hakka people attach great importance to scholars, and there is a saying that wool is the best scholar. In the eyes of Hakkas, the only way to change the situation is to study hard in the rain, be the number one scholar and take the road of official career. Only by studying can we realize the dream of "being a Tian Shelang and an emperor at dusk", join the ranks of officials, and realize their ideals of self-cultivation, keeping the family in order, governing the country and leveling the world. Therefore, no matter how difficult the family is, even if it is begging, it is necessary for children to study. As a Hakka, Zhu De wrote in Memory of Mother: "My family is a tenant farmer and my ancestral home is Shaozhou, Guangdong. Hakkas ... originally had no money to study ... the tuition fee was borrowed from the east and the west, which cost more than 200 yuan. It was not until later that I became the head of the National Defence Force. " In order to make their children flourish and shine brilliantly, Hakkas often concentrate the strength of the whole family and clan to train their children to study. People who have been to Hakka areas will surely find that there are many stone flagpoles in front of family ancestral temple, which proves that Hakka people respect and respect education. Those stone flagpoles are the symbol of raising people and scholars among the children of the clan. How many flagpoles there are shows how many people in the clan have won the fame of being a juren and a scholar.

Help each other and advocate thrift. Hakka people pay attention to the word "righteousness", that is, sharing weal and woe. They believe that if they want to gain a foothold in the new guest house, they must face many difficulties, and unity and mutual assistance are particularly important. Therefore, they advocate that "all Hakkas are family members" and ask people of the same family living in different places to unite sincerely. And believe in "one hero and three gangs, one person is worth ten people" and "helping one hand and turning stones into fermented beans". Because Hakkas advocate unity, until today, the ancient style of using the word "bang" is still preserved in the wedding and funeral red and white posts of Hakkas. Hakkas are very hard-working, and "carrying a pole around the world" is a true portrayal of their tenacious spirit. Hakka people also advocate the virtue of thrift. There is a proverb: "The corner of the mountain is covered with new clothes", which means that Hakka people put old clothes on new clothes and protect them with old clothes. This shows how frugal the life of Hakka people is.