Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Traditional festivals - What are the customs in Rudong?

What are the customs in Rudong?

Rudong New Year custom:

1, a busy year

From "Laba" to the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, it is to prepare for the Chinese New Year in advance. Farmers began to make wine, and shops began to buy new year's goods (especially sacrificial supplies, such as incense sticks and paper horses) to supply Wang Shi. Handicraft workers aim at the market to process items needed for the Spring Festival, such as incense burners, candlesticks, pots and pans, children's toys and so on.

Ordinary people need to make or customize new clothes, new hats and so on. The market is becoming more and more active. In order to prevent fire and guard against theft, people began to "ring the bell" in the market town at night, and the atmosphere of the New Year became stronger every day.

On the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, "dust removal" began. That is to say, the furniture and household appliances inside and outside the courtyard are thoroughly cleaned and cleaned. Dust off the cobwebs in the corner of the roof and hang up the ash. Incense burners and candlesticks made of copper and tin are also polished with incense ashes. The indoor windows are bright and clean, and the home is completely new. The cleaning and hygiene work from 24th to New Year's Eve should be "four or four things", that is, dust removal, changing clothes, haircut and bathing.

After "dust removal", it officially entered the "busy year". Farmers began to slaughter pigs, sheep, chickens and ducks, dig ditches for fishing, steam steamed buns, pour rice cakes and make wine. People in the town also began to prepare Spring Festival dishes. Regardless of the urban and rural rich and poor, almost every family will speculate on "Fucai". Some also cook fish jelly beans, fried peanuts, broad beans, popcorn, fried rice, fried peanuts and rice sugar for children, and so on.

The old custom shop is closed from the first day of the first month to the fifth day of the first month. Before the end of the year, people should buy all kinds of goods during the festival, commonly known as "handling new year's goods". First of all, there are things like incense sticks and paper horses used to worship gods and ancestors, which are called "please make a fortune", and then door gods, couplets, wedding invitations, firecrackers, rice, noodles, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, cigarettes, wine and sugar. Spring Festival is the best selling season for tea and food. Many people want to buy as many colorful refreshments as possible with less money. In order to meet the needs of the masses, tea shops package all kinds of tea and food. The high-quality combination is called "Shangza" and the general one is called "Zhongza", which is cheap and good, and a kind of ingot-shaped bamboo basket packaging is popular.

From the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, shops began to settle accounts and collect debts until midnight on New Year's Eve. Friends and relatives also began to give gifts to each other, nothing more than fish, cakes, people, alcohol and tobacco, which are called "New Year gifts". Mao's son-in-law will give gifts to her parents-in-law, and there are many beautiful gifts. Mainly wine, sugar, fish, meat, and the rest are added at the discretion of luck, and the recipients are also rewarded.

Step 2 pour the cake

Farmers call steamed rice cakes inverted cakes. Steamed cakes have a cake mold, which is square and divided into several rectangular cells. The bottom plate is engraved with concave characters, which are generally "Fu, Lu, Shou, Cai", "No.1 scholar" and "Five scholars enter the subject". This kind of cake mold is rarely brought by rural farmers, and most of them are brought by steamed cake masters when they pour cakes for farmers. The residents of the town took their own rice noodles to the steamed cake shop for processing. The steamed cake master first takes a little edible "magenta" (a red additive), mixes it with rice flour crumbs, scatters it in the grooves of the cake molds, then puts a box with the same size on each mold, and pours the rice crumbs until the box is full. Then scrape the cover with a thin board and move it to the pot for steaming. There are several cake molds stacked on the steamer, and the hot water in the steamer is boiling. When the steam rises to the highest level, it is usually called round gas. Wait a moment, and you can put it down. At this time, a large piece of wet cloth was spread on the chopping board, and the cake fell on the wet cloth, hence the name "inverted cake". Small rectangular sticky cakes with red letters and red borders on all sides. When the hot air is exhausted, put your hands in cold water and put the wordless side of two cakes together to make a cake. This kind of cake is also called powder cake and box cake.

There is also a kind of Ciba, which is often steamed by farmers in Caobu and Xindian in this county during the New Year. It is long and square, with two red stripes embedded at both ends, much like cloth towels woven by farmers in the past, so it is also called "towel cake". In addition, farmers in Di Gong often steam a glutinous rice cake, which is very big, about 40 cm long, with a cross section of 15 cm square and a weight of about 2 kg. Steamed cake can be eaten many times.

Step 3 steam steamed bread

At the beginning of the twelfth lunar month, farmers began to grind wheat into flour. At the end of the twelfth lunar month, choose a day to ferment steamed bread, which is to mix the prepared fermented water into flour. This starter must ferment well. There is a saying in the countryside: eat steamed bread well and punch more. This means that when talking about yeast, you must clench your fist and rub it hard, and some simply step on it with your feet, so that the yeast will be done well and the steamed bread will be round, tough and delicious. It's cold in winter, so put the prepared yeast in a bathtub or jar, cover it with cotton-padded clothes and pad it. In the evening, when the fermented product grows, you can steam the steamed bread. According to folklore, the most taboo steamed bread is coming. In this way, people's steamed buns are not so round and loose, and even very strong. Therefore, in rural areas, most people will not go to this one if they know who steamed steamed buns. If you really want to go, you just stand by and shout at your host and never enter the house. Rural steamed buns are also steamed by neighbors. The day before, everyone weighed the flour and brought it. It was fermented in a spacious house. When steaming steamed bread, bring a pot and firewood. Women knead dough and make steamed bread. If you steam stuffed buns, bring your own mixed stuffing. Every household's steamed bread has fallen out of its cage. Let's take out some for everyone to taste and see whose steamed bread is crisp and delicious.

Rural steamed buns are mostly steamed buns borrowed from other people's homes. As long as a dozen families have a steamer, they can turn around. In the twelfth lunar month, farmers who have a steamer will wash the steamer that has been idle for a year early and prepare to lend it to their neighbors. Cage owners arrange their work and rest time according to the agreement of each household, and steam until the 28th of the twelfth lunar month. As a token of gratitude, every family does not forget to put a drawer full of steamed bread when they return the steamer.

4. Please send paper horses.

The so-called "paper horse" is a sacrificial object in the old society, that is, a bodhisattva statue engraved on paper with wood, also known as bodhisattva paper. In the past, the "paper horse shops" all over the old streets of Digang were also a major feature of local commerce. Every year before the Spring Festival, every household goes to the "paper horse shop" to buy new year's goods, which is also called "please make a fortune". Large families in rural areas made a special trip to the streets at the beginning of the twelfth lunar month to invite new year's goods. Merchants in the town generally "please make a fortune" before the 24th of the twelfth lunar month. Some time-honored "paper horse shops" have relatively stable customers. These shops have detailed customer lists, which are well prepared, and they will also provide them with corresponding incense products on their own initiative as needed.

If you want a big meal, usually two people go shopping in the big countryside. After you ask for it, they take it home. At noon, the paper horse shop will treat you to a hearty lunch. Most towns are invited to their homes at night, carrying lanterns. Some people carry it home with baskets, while others carry it home with bamboo rafts. There are three specifications of paper horses: glossy paper is for the table, 65-sided paper is for the foreign table, the best is the golden dragon table, and the lower part is filled with a sacred cabinet, which is very spectacular. There is also a simple "paper horse" that is only half the size, with a little paper lining instead of "upper forehead". This is an economical "paper horse" that ordinary people can't wait for.

The number and variety of paper horses vary from person to person. Usually, there are also some industries that offer sacrifices to gods to celebrate their birthdays, which is what they need. For example, on the fifth day of the first month, please ask the God of Wealth to celebrate Marshal Zhao Gong's birthday. May 13, please "Guandi"; May 18, please "all day"; Please invite Guanyin on February 19, June 19 and September 19; June 24th, please ask Raytheon and so on. Usually, please "paper horse" when you are seated in the right place, with the same big incense and candles, firecrackers are ringing to pray for the blessing of the gods, so as to eliminate disasters and reduce happiness. In addition to the "paper horse", it is also necessary to provide incense, candles, ingots, yellow yuan and other sacrifices for the gods. Please come to the door at night and hang the lantern marked with the name of the hall at the door of the hall first. Then, the big ones are distributed in the sacred cabinets (cabinets with ancestral tablets and shrines).

On New Year's Eve, the bones of ancestors are hung up first, which is called "hanging capacity" (the bones of ancestors are kept by the eldest son). At the same time, the "paper horses" should be placed according to the rules, the "family hall" should be placed in a suitable position, and the others should be placed in order. Then, dates, persimmons, red cakes and holy steamed bread are served, incense candles are lit, firecrackers are set off and worship is performed. For the first time, the whole family should pay homage according to their seniority. If someone in this family lives outside, even if the traffic is tight, they should go back to their hometown to reunite with their families before the Spring Festival. The "hanging capacity" after the sacrifice, but also by the elderly to tell the family history in detail This is different from the "Tomb-Sweeping Day" and "July and a half" ceremony, but the most grand "ancestor worship" ceremony in a year.

People generally worship paper horses until the 18th day of the first month (when lanterns fall), that is, to thank God. At that time, the ancestors' bones were taken down and kept by the eldest son. Then all the "paper horses" on the sacred ark were put in the brazier in the middle of the courtyard and sent to the sky (incinerated) with cypress branches and yellow watches. Some people don't thank God for sending paper horses until the lights are turned off on the second day of February.

Spring Festival couplets

5. Post Spring Festival couplets

During the Spring Festival, every household should put couplets on the door. In the past, rural people often asked educated people to write Spring Festival couplets. In recent years, when the town is closed, it is often Mr. Xue who puts a small table on the street, with paper, pen and inkstone on it. All kinds of omnipotent Spring Festival couplets and blessings are hung behind him with strings for people to choose from. More people write Spring Festival couplets on the spot according to the requirements of buyers.

There are many kinds of Spring Festival couplets, which can be divided into door heart, frame pair, cross string, spring strip and bucket square according to the place of use. Posting Spring Festival couplets, commonly known as "posting couplets", is usually posted on New Year's Eve (or 29). The "door core" is attached to the center of the upper end of the door panel; The "door frame pair" is attached to the left and right door frames; "Cross-dressing" is attached to the crossbar of the lintel; "Spring strips" are posted in corresponding places according to different contents; "Dou Jin", also known as "door leaf", is a square diamond, often attached to furniture and screen walls. Most of the rice cabinets and grain depots in the farmhouse, pigsty and sheep shed outside the house are upside down with the word "Fu" in a square and diamond shape, or the words "Lucky for Wealth and Treasure" are combined into one word based on the word "Gold", and some of them are connected up and down to express the desire to pray for wealth.

Step 6 stick to the door

The legend of Hades is that Shen Tu and Lei Yu can catch ghosts. Later, people painted the portraits of Shen Tu and Lei Yu on two mahogany boards and hung them on both sides of the door to ward off evil spirits. Because the ancients believed that peach wood was the essence of five trees and could subdue all ghosts. Door gods in rural areas are mostly printed on stones or wood. Qin Bao Shu has a white face and a bright face, holding an iron mace and sticking it on the left; Wei Chijingde has a dark face and an angry face. He holds Strafe in his hand and sticks it on the right. In addition to Qin, there are Zhao Yun, Ma Chao and Xue. In addition to military commanders, there are also folk door gods and praying door gods. The door gods of civil servants are mostly related to promotion and wealth, while praying for the door gods is linked to having more children and more happiness and prolonging life. Sometimes the two are paired. For example, the guardian of the heavenly official (or the champion) is often paired with the goddess who sent the child. In addition, there are XiShen, Hehe Erxian, Liu Hai and Lucky Boy. Doorman's paintings are also colorful. Some wear tiger helmets, some wear dragon robes to hang, some have New Year pictures, and some mascots are added, such as Jue Lu, Bat, BMW, bottle saddle and other festive patterns, homophonic "Jue Xi, Ma Baoping" to pray for good luck. Door gods and Spring Festival couplets are both evolved from peach symbols. From the earliest exorcism, it has gradually become a special form for people to express their good wishes.