Cultural Customs of Nantang Town

Spring Festival; the Spring Festival; Chinese New Year

On New Year's Eve, every family sticks couplets and has a family reunion dinner.

On New Year's Day, men, women and children all put on new clothes, and elders give red envelopes to their children, commonly known as "benefiting the market". When people meet, they bow their heads and say auspicious words, and relatives and friends pay New Year greetings to each other, which is called "New Year greetings". On this day, I don't kill animals, I like to eat desserts. There are many activities such as lion dancing and setting off firecrackers in urban and rural areas.

On the second day of the Lunar New Year, you can kill animals and eat meat.

The third day is poverty day, also called "bare mouth day". Sweeping the floor in the morning and throwing the dustpan outside the door is called "sending the poor", which means not going out to visit relatives and visiting each other. Modern customs change, no longer pay attention to.

The seventh day is "People's Day", and eating fried rice or fried rice noodles with lettuce is called "raw eating".

On the eighth day of "Gu Erdan", pick "He" in the morning and water the shed or vat with longan leaves.

The ninth "Military Day", avoid visiting relatives and friends. At night, many people go out to steal the green in other people's gardens. In order to prevent the crops in the garden from being trampled, the onion (meaning smart), garlic (meaning smart and thrifty) and celery (meaning diligent and thrifty to make money) are tied into a small bundle with grass in advance (smart and diligent can make money, so be sure to be smart and thrifty as a blessing) and put them in a conspicuous place next to the garden to "steal".

On the eighth or tenth day of the eighth lunar month, a man's family is added and lanterns are hung in the land temple or ancestral hall.

Example of year

The New Year Festival is the biggest festival in Gaozhou and even in western Guangdong. In rural areas, it is called "New Year's Day is greater than Spring Festival" and it is also the most distinctive festival in Maoming.

Guangxu's "Gaozhou County Records and Customs" contains: "December to February (the second month of the lunar calendar), villagers Nuo, chasing ghosts along the door and singing local songs, which is called the year." It is understood that the chronology of Ming and Qing dynasties has been recorded in the popular local chronicles of western Guangdong from the early years of the Republic of China to the early days of liberation, which was once interrupted. Since 1980s, with the reform and opening up and the rapid economic development, the annual pattern has gradually recovered.

1. Make laws and regulations

For the host family, the year is a word of "doing". Generally speaking, a year can be divided into "beginning year", "perennial year" and "year-round year". Every family prepares "three sacrifices" and "banquets" to worship the earth temple and kitchen god. "An example of mindfulness" is to prepare the ingredients for a banquet early in the morning and set up a stove. Some people eat from noon until evening. They are welcome and very lively. On the third morning, at the end of the year, the paper boat burned, and the Bodhisattva returned to the temple, ending the year.

Step 2 eat for a year

Because the time of the annual flavor is staggered, eating the annual flavor of this village today, eating the annual flavor of another village tomorrow, and I will go to your house to eat the annual flavor tomorrow, and everyone will participate, which will become the "Year of Eating and Drinking" activity. On the first day of New Year's Day, every household invites guests, fetes relatives and friends in the morning and evening, and guests are ready to have dinner. All blood relatives, relatives and friends, colleagues and classmates, friends of friends, classmates, acquaintances and strangers are warmly welcomed, and the host family will do its best to make the guests have a good time.

Check the chronology

In the evening, there are all kinds of performances dedicated to bodhisattvas, and all kinds of folk art performances do their best to show them to God, so as to please God and pray for good weather and abundant crops in the coming year. Cantonese opera and puppet show known as "ghost play" are one of the necessary programs and highlights of the New Year. A year ago, every household of the villagers pooled their money to invite a troupe to perform, and the performance time ranged from three or two days to more than a week. In recent years, with the continuous development of the times, in addition to traditional programs, healthy and progressive forms such as movies, plays, concerts, sports competitions and guessing activities have increasingly become people's new choices.

Mrs Sendai's birthday

On the 24th of the lunar calendar 1 1 month, whenever there is an ancestral temple in Gaozhou, performances will be held in the days before and after the festival, especially in places where Feng Xiansheng lived, such as Liangde, Changpo and Dong 'an. In Donglei Village of Changpo, villagers named Xian live together, and Mrs Xian is called "grandma". In the past, whenever Xian's birthday, the villagers always prepared a sacrificial ceremony, beating gongs and drums, and went to Liangde (his hometown) to welcome his "grandmother" back to celebrate the festival.

The old town of Changpo is the settlement of descendants of Feng Bao, where the Sendai Temple went to Donglei Village dozens of miles away to welcome the "Sendai Temple" back to the old town. The neighboring Huazhou, before liberation and a few days before Xian Tai's birthday, went to Gaozhou City to welcome Xian Tai to Huazhou, and all villages along the way had the habit of "grabbing worship". After the worship, there was a parade that night. Guangdong opera

Gaozhou is a Cantonese-speaking area, and people always like to watch Cantonese opera. Because of its huge lineup, rich music, singing and performance programs, it is also called "drama". During the period of the Republic of China, major theatrical troupes such as "Zhu" and "Sun, Moon and Star" appeared in Gaocheng, and a number of famous Cantonese opera actors such as "Shen Shout" emerged.

In the early 1950s after the founding of New China, the county established an amateur Cantonese Opera Troupe. 1954, 1 In June, Jianjiang Cantonese Opera Troupe was established. In the late 1950s, it was transformed into Gaozhou Cantonese Opera Troupe. LAM Raymond, Shigu, Nantang, Dong 'an and Zhenjiang amateur Cantonese Opera Troupes have also been established in towns and villages.

shadow play

Puppet show, commonly known as "ghost show", has the characteristics of fewer actors, less equipment, less expenses, convenient transportation, convenient reception and easy solution of venues, which is conducive to performances in rural areas and remote areas, so it has long been welcomed and loved by rural people. Whenever there is a holiday in the busy farming season, the villagers are willing to donate money, so they invite the puppet troupe to sing for three to five days or half a month. Therefore, the masses gave the puppet show the reputation of "two bamboo poles sing the former, and the abbot platform nurtures future generations". In the old society, there was a lack of cultural and recreational activities in rural areas, and puppet shows were deeply loved by the masses.

Tea-picking opera [a popular local opera in Jiangxi]

Tea-picking operas were very popular in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, mainly distributed in the northwest areas such as Shiban, Lianhua, Dajing, Nantang, Dongan, Tantou and Dunsuo, which border with Guangxi and Huazhou. Whenever there are slack seasons and festive occasions, villagers will donate money to invite tea-picking artists to perform in the village, which is a kind of entertainment that the masses love to see and hear.