The custom composition of Jiangnan water town

Folk custom of Jiangnan water town

God of offering sacrifices to stoves

Every year on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, it was said in ancient times that sending the kitchen god to heaven was also called La La 23rd. On that day, everyone did a lot of cleaning and dust removal. In ancient times, bamboo oil lamp holder or paper sedan chair was the custom of burning shoulders. Today, people worship the kitchen god with red beans, glutinous rice, holly and cypress leaves. The clay sculpture bodhisattva or kitchen Sima (commonly known as the black-faced bodhisattva of the kitchen family) in the kitchen King Hall (located above the firewood stove) was removed. Children in ancient and modern new towns are playful and do not pay attention to facial hygiene. When his face was dirty, he was accused by his family of "being a kitchen bodhisattva." After burning incense to the sky, put on a new kitchen god. In the evening, the whole family eats red bean glutinous rice with sugar, lard and osmanthus, which is sweet and delicious and unforgettable all year round. This custom has lasted for more than 1000 years.

Silkworm sacrifice to god

Starting from Shang Dynasty, sericulture was carried out in new urban areas. In order to pray for the silkworm god to bring good luck to silkworm farmers, every year, on the occasion of the birthday of the silkworm god on December 12 of the lunar calendar, an activity of offering sacrifices to the silkworm god will be held. It is difficult to verify the exact date of the worship of the silkworm god in the new city, but it was carried out at the latest after the construction of Juehai Temple in the Tang Dynasty. On the day of offering sacrifices to the silkworm god, the mother-in-law and sister-in-law of the silkworm farmer began to grind the powder into white cocoon-shaped zongzi, commonly known as silkworm Zi Yuan. All four of them were wrapped in bamboo shells and cooked in a pot. That night, the worship of the silkworm god began, and charming and colorful sculptures of the silkworm god were posted on the stove or wall. Under the statue, four jiaozi with raw silkworm rice and fresh fruit are enshrined. The whole family worships the silkworm god together and sincerely wishes the silkworm a bumper harvest in the coming year. The next day, the residents of the new town received four or eight jiaozi worshiped by the silkworm god Rice from their relatives and friends in the countryside to share their good wishes for a good silkworm harvest. Relatives in the town will give back noodles to win lucky prizes.

the Lantern Festival

The lanterns in the new town are as famous as those in Shixia Town, Haining County. Because the design and production of lanterns require a lot of manpower and material resources, they are not held every year, but usually only once every few years. And every time it is held, it is a grand event with unprecedented pomp. The largest and grandest lantern festival in the history of the new town was held in the 23rd year of the Republic of China (1934). Before the Spring Festival that year, posters with big red and gold characters were posted on the streets, which were widely publicized: "On a certain day in February, the Lantern Festival will last for three days" to attract foreign audiences to visit the town. ? The whole town first formed twelve "Lantern Societies" (lantern-making collectives) by industry, and each society selected ten people with artistic talent to participate. In order to show the colorful lights with their own characteristics, they began to design and make them one year in advance. Between the light and the light, in order to achieve the purpose of surprise, both show their magical powers. With "what lamp to make and how to do it" as the confidential content, the two can't talk to each other. The first level in the process of making lanterns is ingenious conception and careful design. If the design works are outstanding, the Lantern Competition will be a shoo-in, so the lanterns in various industries will be more ingenious in design and choose the style that they are most familiar with and others are unfamiliar with. For example, the "Silk Reeling Lamp" designed by the Silk Factory Lamp Society not only made all the lanterns in the silk reeling process, but also equipped dozens of silk "female workers" with different operating procedures to operate freely on the "silk car" under the light. Another example is the oil mill lamp club, which designed the oil mill lamp and displayed the oil squeezing process in lanterns. The audience can see the oil press workers sweating like rain, and they can also see the scene of "oil" gurgling out of the "oil tank". It's really vivid and innovative. It can be seen that making lanterns, like other forms, should also pay attention to some realistic styles. The second key to making lanterns is to fully express artistry. Every part of every lantern should be beautiful, elegant and beautifully carved. Among them, there are calligraphy arts: truth, grass, official script and seal script are engraved with poems, words, songs and fu; There are excellent paintings: landscapes, ladies, flowers and birds, insects and fish. In terms of expression, besides painting, cutting and pasting, there are numerous acupuncture and iron carvings like silver hooks. The so-called acupuncture art is to draw various patterns on paper first, and then pierce holes with a needle tip according to the patterns. After the production is completed, under the transmission of candlelight, such as "Feng Dan facing the sun, Yuanyang playing in the water, eagle spreading its wings, complacent", etc., the vivid picture is unobstructed. As for carving, to be precise, it is hollowing out, that is, carving the pattern from the paper with a sharp knife. Knife is extremely exquisite, and there can be no roughness or omission. What about the hollowed-out part? Then it must be full of coal spar. "Pyrite" is also called "Melaleuca paper", that is, muscovite (heat-resistant, used as insulation material in electrical appliances) sold by Chinese medicine shops. The process of treating coal beams is more detailed and technical than acupuncture. First, carefully peel it off layer by layer with a needle and turn it into thin slices. When the sheets are connected, they should be ironed flat with a soldering iron and then stuck on the back of the hollowed-out pattern. In this way, the pattern on the lamp is transparent. Some lanterns are covered with coal spar, which makes their engineering more complicated and more difficult, but their finished products are crystal clear, pure and delicate, which can compete with ice sculpture art. Why not use glass instead of coal spar? According to experts, the advantages of coal spar are: bright as crystal, clean as water, thin as cicada wings, light as goose feathers, heat-resistant and not afraid of fire smoke, bending without breaking, so for the production of lanterns, the grades of silk, paper and glass are all below coal spar. In a word, the making of lanterns is a comprehensive art, which combines calligraphy, painting, modeling and sculpture in one furnace. The whole process of making lanterns reflects the richness and diversity of China folk art? On the day when the Lantern Festival was officially held, people from all over the world had gathered in the new city. They made a special trip from Hangjiahu, even Shanghai and Nanjing, and countless ships were moored on the waters of Nanzhayang and Xizhayang. Mr. Chen, Minister of the Organization Department of the Kuomintang Central Committee, also went to Nanhui Street in the new city to enjoy the lanterns. At night, the main streets in the town, such as Dongxi Street, Beijie Street, Hengjie Street, Zhijie Street, Ruyi Street, etc., are decorated with lanterns and colorful lights, just like thousands of pearls scattered in the sky, which are dazzling and reflect each other, forming a beautiful scene of "wine boats donate money at night, and there is no need to swim by candlelight through the ages". The streets are crowded with people everywhere, and the occasion is unprecedented. At dusk, lanterns from all walks of life first gathered in front of Liu and then set out from here. At this time, hundreds of lanterns (Taiwan Province lanterns) formed a colorful and dazzling dragon and crawled slowly. Firecrackers and fireballs clear the way in front, and the bachelors in the middle follow in turn. Each club is equipped with a band, with sonorous gongs and drums and melodious silk and bamboo. The sound played in turn is endless and touching. The lights of the electric beads in the lantern procession are flashing, such as stars flashing and colorful. Lantern styles are varied, from pavilions to birds and animals. There are small and exquisite, but also tall and majestic, colorful, dazzling, dazzling. The most peculiar landscape is that when the Lantern Festival parades on the pontoons, I can see from a distance that the water on the bridge has its own brilliance, just like two dragons playing in the water, which set each other off. After three nights of Lantern Festival, everyone has feasted their eyes. The only fly in the ointment is that each lantern just flashes in front of everyone and can't be seen carefully. In order to make up for this deficiency, the person who presided over the Lantern Festival decided that from the fourth day, the most admired one, which is the essence of lanterns, would be concentrated in Liu Wang Temple and displayed for people to appreciate and evaluate carefully. The most prominent and representative lanterns are selected, which are briefly introduced as follows: the base area of the pin pavilion is about 4 square meters, and the height is about 2 meters, imitating the structure of the pavilion in the Qing Dynasty palace: beautiful and antique. The arrangement of the three pavilions is just like the word "pin", so it is called "pin pavilion" In the pavilion, a paper man is vividly performing the Peking Opera "Empty City Plan", accompanied by Zhuge Liang's aria on the phonograph, which aroused the audience's interest and lingered. ? The pagoda lamp is thirteen stories high (* * * about 2 meters) with a bottom area of 3 square meters. The tower is made of wood and decorated with colored silk. The doors and windows of the tower are glued with coal beams, carved with beams and painted with cornices, and the workmanship is very elegant. The tower is decorated with countless red and green electric beads, and the brightness can be adjusted. From a distance, it is bright and bright, and from a close distance, it is meticulous and is the crown of lanterns. ? The crane pavilion lamp is based on the allusion of Mei Wife Crane written by Lin Bu in Song Dynasty. Set up a pavilion with wood, tie it into a one-person-high crane body with mocking pieces, and paste it with white "crane" hair for external use, with one foot on the ground and one foot sticking out, making it tall and slender, lifelike and quite elegant and refined. The brilliant red plum blossom reminds people of the poem "The shadow is thin and shallow, and the fragrance floats on the moon at dusk". ? The bronze cymbal lamp is an ingenious masterpiece of the workers' lamp society in a certain industry. It is as big as a silkworm plaque and about seven or eight inches thick. In the square hole in the middle, there is a "man" wearing a robe and jacket, which is constantly rolling. It is said that the purpose of making this lamp is to depict those tycoons who are mercenary, so it is called "somersault in the eyes of brass cymbals". ? These lanterns stopped in the new city for a few days, and then sent to Shanghai World (playground) for exhibition. Every ticket is sold at "Ocean Corner". It's a story that Shanghainese come here for a while.

Xinshi temple fair

Xinshi Temple Fair has a long history. As early as the end of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, in order to commemorate Zhu Si, a general and newcomer in the town, there was the Yongling Temple Fair. Time is in spring and autumn. In addition, the statue of "Shuilong Temple Fair", the birthday of "Golden Dragon King" on the third day of the third lunar month, is dedicated to the Nanzha Dawang Temple (near the shipyard today). At that time, the fire brigades of various workshops gathered in front of Liu Wang Temple to compete, and the winner was the highest fire hose. There was a sea of people in front of Liu Wang Temple at that time, and it was not abandoned until the late 1940s. ? The silkworm temple fair in Juehai Temple is also a traditional temple fair in Xincheng. As for the holding date, it was the heyday of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. Silkworm reeling has been the main economic source of four new towns since ancient times. Farmers pray to God to give silkworm babies a bumper harvest year to eliminate diseases and disasters. Every year in Tomb-Sweeping Day, farmers from Xing Wu, Chongde, Yuhang and other neighboring new cities flock to Juehai Temple, an ancient temple, to attend the annual silk flower Temple Fair. Believe in Buddhism, worship Buddha on Lingqian Mountain, and sincerely pray for "bumper harvests". The girl and sister-in-law in the country are dressed up with silkworm eggs in their arms and "silkworm flowers" on their heads, and sincerely wish a bumper harvest of silkworm flowers this year. Silkworm flowers are cut into paper or silk, some are butterfly-shaped and some are beautiful. They really have different postures, and they compete with each other, attracting men, women and children inside and outside Juehai Temple to see you pressing me. Therefore, it is called "rolling silkworm flowers". According to folklore, the fiercer the tumbling, the better the harvest of silkworm flowers. ? The Silkworm Flower Temple Fair also provides opportunities for young men and women who fall in love at first sight. There used to be a ballad about rolling silkworms in Xincheng: "It's warm in Qingming, pink and green, and the scenery is good. My aunts and sisters both go to the streets, rouge and pollen are pretty, red and green silkworms are plugged in, and the perfume is fragrant." The temples in Juehai are really noisy. Men, women and children are like the ocean. The elder brother of the neighboring village had been waiting for a long time. When he saw A-mei huddled around him and secretly squeezed a thigh, the girl blushed. The Riyuehai Temple is crowded with people, and various wonderful performances such as acrobatics, magic, children's dramas and peep shows attract the audience. Numerous North-South theatrical troupes performed in Liu Wang Temple, Yongling East Temple, Yongling West Temple and Dongyue Temple for three consecutive days, which feasted many fans in Xincheng. After the temple fair, spring silkworms began in the four townships, and this custom ended on 1936. ? 1999 Tomb-Sweeping Day was interrupted for 63 years and the silkworm flower temple fair in Xincheng was resumed. Temple fairs hosted by Xinshi Business Travel Company are very colorful. The procession of the temple fair is composed of dragon dance team, silkworm king sedan chair and waist drum team, which passes through the main streets of the new town. At one time, four rural farmers flocked to the new town to see the grand occasion of the year of the flower and the flower disappear. The main roads in the town were crowded with people, with about 40 thousand tourists. ? In 2000, the second silkworm flower temple fair was held in Xincheng, Tomb-Sweeping Day, with the participation of organizations such as Guanzhong Town, Xiashe Town and shilin town, and the number of visitors was about100000.

Social customs and habits

On the first day of the first month, commonly known as the Chinese New Year, everyone sets off firecrackers in small units, eats "Happy Birthday" in the morning and pays New Year greetings to their elders and relatives. In ancient times, there were customs of offering sacrifices to heaven, stoves and ancestors. People's Day on the seventh day is rare. Scholars and soldiers give poems. 13 to 18 is the Lantern Festival, and Zhang Long phoenix dance is hung on the street. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the right prime minister visited the new city. He imitated the custom of entertaining relatives in Shu, his hometown, but it remained unchanged: pines and cypresses in the village were clustered in wooden ends, meteors and fireworks were hidden in the village, and drums were played in the town at night. The lyrics were burning silkworms in the field, which represented praying for the New Year. ?

Qingming is a unique custom of Jiangnan water town, also known as Cold Food Festival. As the saying goes, Qingming is as big as a year, that is, the grand occasion of ancient Tomb-Sweeping Day surpassed the Spring Festival. Qingming is the most grand. Qingming zongzi is wrapped in four towns of Xincheng, including jujube zongzi, dried pumpkin zongzi, lard fine sand zongzi, red bean zongzi, soybean zongzi and pea zongzi. It has also been made into turquoise Qingming Zi Yuan, with nearly a dozen small categories of salty and sweet fillings. Ancestor worship began before dinner on Qingming night, commonly known as worship of Ata Tower. The table is full of rich dining tables, 12 bowls, 16 bowls. Red candles are hung high, and zongzi, Qingming zongzi and fruit offerings are offered to ancestors to ensure family peace and good weather. During the Qingming period, he began to burn incense and watch social dramas in Juehai Temple, Yongling West Temple, Yongling East Temple and Dongyue Temple. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, I also had the habit of wearing a willow hat, saying: If you don't wear a willow in Qingming, the beauty will become handsome. Advocate youth and beauty. The south gate of the new ancient canal is full of high-pole boats and a pole climbing competition is held. The boxing boat is full of 18 kinds of weapons, including spears, spears and clubs. There are Sanda performances, all 18 kinds of weapon routines and dragon boat rowing competitions. Tourists on both sides of the strait are like clouds. Go to Liu Wang Temple, Yongling West Temple and Yongling East Temple for free in the evening. There are Peking Opera "Catch and Release Cao", "Empty City Plan" and "Walk to Maicheng" at the same time, and there are incense worship parties and arm incense parties. Worship party: Hundreds of Buddhist men and women went out for a party (that is, a parade) and walked on the main streets of the new city, carrying folk musical instruments such as huqin, mountain string, flute and flute. Originated in the Tang and Song Dynasties, it flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, basically once a year, and the last worship party was about 1936 before the Anti-Japanese War. ? Arm incense party, the time is also three days in Qingming. Xincheng Temple invited Chongde County, Xing Wu County and other places to perform new performances. The performer is a young man who believes in Buddhism. During the performance, his arms were naked. He hooked an iron hook to a copper incense burner weighing dozens of kilograms, and another iron hook hooked the skin of his arm. Cigarettes curled up in the incense burner, showing no fear of pain. He also traveled around the town to express his piety to the Buddha. The number reached about 6500. ?

On the Dragon Boat Festival in May, every family eats zongzi and drinks realgar wine, and sticks spells on the doors with calamus and mugwort leaves to drive away evil spirits. Also use realgar wine to give children eyebrows to drive away scorpion, snake, centipede, gecko and toad. ?

In June, literati exposed painting and calligraphy clothes. Farmers dry their clothes and trousers and eat wonton on June 6. As the saying goes, cats and dogs take a bath on June 6, and they take a bath in the river from this day on.

July 15 is the Mid-Autumn Festival, commonly known as "July and a half". In ancient times, small families prepared food and wine to pay homage to their ancestors. There was no meat sacrifice in ancient times, and fruit thinning was the main way. On the 30th birthday of the Tibetan king, there is a custom of burying incense in the ground. ?

August 15 is the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is "August and a half". On that day, every family eats moon cakes, and in the evening, they get together to enjoy the moon. The old man tells the story of Mid-Autumn Festival to the younger generation. ? On the ninth Double Ninth Festival in September, people climb mountains together, and the new town has the custom of eating millet cakes. Millet cake is made of rice flour, sprinkled with peach kernels, roses and sugar, sweet and delicious. ?

Winter solstice is the day to enter winter, commonly known as "winter solstice is as big as a year" Every family prepares food and drinks for the winter solstice and worships their ancestors with red candles, which is called "worshipping Atatai" in the new city. ?

On December 23rd of the lunar calendar, Kitchen Day is called "La La 23". Worship the kitchen god with red beans, glutinous rice and holly cypress leaves, tear down the kitchen of the kitchen hall, burn the sky with incense sticks and replace it with a new statue of the kitchen god. ?

1February 30th, which is called "New Year's Eve". Every family prepares new year's goods, cooks rich food and drinks, and eats "New Year's Eve". At night, call "keep old" to get rid of the old saying and stay up late. In the middle of the night, it's called "seeing off the old", and in Rosty Yi, it's called "welcoming the new". Spring Festival couplets are posted to welcome the kitchen god.