What are the customs in Chaoshan?

The origin and legend of the god parade is that on festivals such as the Lantern Festival or the Christmas Day of the gods, people go to the temples and carry the statues of the gods out to parade around, believing that only if the gods come out to parade around and have fun with the people, the gods will bless the people in the four directions.

There is a familiar saying circulating in Chaoshan: "The god of salt stove owes drag." The story is that once upon a time, Chenghai County, salt stove township, there is a man went out to do business, before leaving, with livestock gifts to the temple to measure the future, get a good luck sign, so full of joy and go, but the result is a loss of money and return. He was so angry that he pushed the statue of the god to the ground, and then dragged the statue on the ground with a rope.

After that, he went out to do business again, but returned with a profit. When people heard the news, they followed suit and dragged the god for fun. The people were so happy to hear this, that they took pleasure in dragging the god, and over time it became a custom.

What is similar to this way is to tour the "King of the Three Mountains" in Wolishi Township, Chaozhou. Every year on the ninth day of the first month, the townspeople will be in the temple of the "Great King" and other six wooden idols carried out, the first ten townships set up household sacrifice, burning incense and burning treasure. By the 11th, the idol will be returned to the temple.

Sending back the idol, some people will be the idol in the armpit, some people will carry it on the shoulder, but also deliberately let the idol collision. At the end of the procession, the idol will be gathered in an open place, holding the idol hard to fall, which is called "pounding the master".

Some places even use grass rope to put the idol's neck on the ground "five horse". This way, the Chaozhou proverb called: "lying stone old master (God) the more you eat, the more shocked". It is said that the more the statue of the god is torn and tattered, the more prosperous the luck will be in the coming year. As long as the statue is repaired after the tour, it will be fine. In the area of Chaozhou, the most solemn activity is to visit the "Anji Shengwang".

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Xie Shaocang, a native of Chaozhou, was an official of Yongchang Prefecture. Once, there was a drought in the area, he opened a storehouse to help the people, but unexpectedly offended the court and was tortured. When he was being executed, he dreamed of a god who was secretly protecting him, and Xie Shaocang thought that this god was exactly the same as the statue in the temple of Mr. and Mrs. Wang.

To show his gratitude, he brought them back to Chaozhou. When the Han River was flooded, the statue was placed in the "Ancient Temple of the Green Dragon", and the flood was lifted. The flood was lifted. The descendants were grateful and called it "Anji Shengwang".

Tour "Anji Shengwang", the first throw the cup of wild rice to choose an auspicious date, the date is generally in the first month of the twenty-third or twenty-fourth. The first step is to "wash Anji".

The procession of "Wash Anlu" is preceded by a horse-head gong and followed by a ceremonial procession of "silence" and "avoidance", marching along the route of the future tour and announcing the date of the tour by striking a gong. The date of the trip is announced by the sound of a gong.

The purpose of washing the road is to clear the roadblocks and drive away demons and evil spirits, as well as to notify all households in advance, who, upon hearing of the event, clean up, prepare five animals, and steam and make sweet 馃, red 馃桃, hair 馃, Yuanbao, and firecrackers.

After intense preparations, on the day of the tour of the gods, they went to the front of the Qinglong Temple to fire a salute.

After firing the salute, the Prince of Anji and the "First Lady", "Second Lady" statue into the sedan chair, and then held "worship the horse" ceremony. After the completion of the ceremony, by several big men to carry the sedan chair parade.

The parade is the front of the horse gong, - six pairs of damask satin gold embroidered silver colorful large standard, An Road sign "silence" "avoid" and eight treasures of the magic weapon; followed by an elder with a long shirt and waistcoat with both hands holding a small incense burner, followed by twenty-four pairs of tin incense burners; followed by the first sedan chair of "Anji Shengwang", the second and third sedan chairs of "First Lady" and "Second Lady".

Then there are thirteen Chaozhou gongs and drums. Each class has three or six colorful labels, a big drum, eight gongs, two pairs of cymbals, hyper gongs, moon gongs, small cymbals, Chin Tsai, Sham Bo, Su gongs, large and small suona, 28-section flute, yangqin, guzheng, xylophone, cloud gongs, Dawan, Dahu, and so on.

The palanquin passes through the road, and every family sets up a festival at the entrance. Tour A-Ma Zu God is also very grand, rich and powerful people often to A-Ma Zu idol gift gold rings, gold necklaces. When the streets are paraded, Mazu wears jade and gold, which is a great honor.

There are many folk legends about A-Ma's manifestation of her spirit to punish evil and promote good.

On one occasion, a thief saw A-Ma wearing a gold ring on her hand and took it off. Unexpectedly, just stepped out of the temple door will be dizzy, do not know how to go to the good, the whole night around the temple. March spring cold has not gone, wait until dawn, the temple priest went out to see, the thief was frozen into a ball, cowering in the temple door.

Another kind old woman, every day in front of the statue of Tianfei incense burning wish, sincere worship. She was so impressed by her sincerity that she gave her a ring. This day, the old woman finished burning incense, just stepped out of the temple door, they saw a ring on the ground. The old woman turned around and entered the temple, and threw a cup in front of the Princess of Heaven, asking if she could take the ring and get the Holy Grail. So the old woman happily took the ring.

Whenever A-Ma God swims, onlookers flock to touch the idol or the sedan chair for good luck in the coming year.