Xiangyin, a master of Chinese studies: What is beginning of spring and what are the customs in beginning of spring?

The folk customs of ancient spring mainly include the following contents.

Peiyanzi

Wearing swallows is an ancient custom of people in Chang 'an and Guanzhong areas. At the beginning of every spring, people like to wear "swallows" cut with colored silk on their chests. This custom began in the Tang Dynasty and is still popular in rural areas.

Because the swallow is the messenger of spring and a symbol of happiness and good luck. So many wealthy families build bird's nests in the middle of their own halls or under the eaves. As long as you can put a small mat under the purlin of the county government or on the wall of the eaves, swallows can build their own nests.

Swallows are migratory birds. They fly to the north in spring and to the south in autumn. "Don't eat your millet, don't eat your millet, just hold a nest of sons in your house." Therefore, Xiangyang people like to stay in their quadrangles and provoke swallows to thrive. In early spring every year, people like to wear "swallows", especially children. Their parents are ready for them. They put them on their chests and danced with their hands and feet, jumping with joy and joy.

Dai Chun chicken

Some women use blue silk to cut into Chun Yan and spring butterfly to decorate their heads; The girls cut the ribbon into butterfly swallows, which are called "spring chickens", and they look better on their heads. Some people wear red velvet flowers with the word "Spring" on their heads, or cut flowers and birds from Chun Yan symbolizing the arrival of spring and put them on their hair. Girls like to exchange these headdresses. It is said that silkworms thrive.

Some also cut red paper into the shape of a rooster and stick it on the door, because chicken is homophonic with "Ji", which means good luck. "Cut yee cut red wonderful spring scenery, GongMeiDian LiuZhi heaven. Yao Lan Cai Yan Xian Rui, Golden Rooster does not learn to sing. " This ancient poem is about the spring scenery in the courtyard and the joy of welcoming spring.

In Tongchuan, Shaanxi, eating Dai Chun chicken is an ancient custom of local people. Every year on beginning of spring Day, the mother will make a 3 cm long cock out of cloth and sew it on the child's hat to express her wishes for the "spring chicken". Women hang beans on horns with thread, or tear them off cows with beans, thinking that this will save children from measles. The former is called "hectic rash" and the latter is called "scattered rash".

Hanging spring board

The ancient folk Spring Festival activities were very lively. On Japan Day in beginning of spring, quadrangles and farmhouses should be hung with banners to welcome the spring. Some people stick stickers of Yichun, that is, couplets written in red paper are attached to each door frame, such as "A door is full of laughter and spring breeze", "The four seasons are peaceful and beautiful", or "Xue Rui is rich, and auspicious flowers are presented in all directions" and "Spring Breeze is proud, and Liuhe is in the same spring". Other couplets are also posted on the wall of the yard.

Tieyichun calligraphy and painting

Spring is coming, and it is the custom of Chang 'an in Tang Dynasty to stick Yichun calligraphy and painting on the door wall. According to records, at the beginning of spring, Chang 'an people in Tang Dynasty often posted calligraphy and paintings on their doors, which were called "Yichun characters" and paintings were called "Yichun paintings", such as "Spring Festival", "Beautiful Spring" and "Warm bloom in Spring".

Others posted greetings on the door panels to express their wish to welcome the spring. If you are a painter, you will often draw a plum blossom or wax plum in Five Blessingg on the door.

Send a picture of a spring cow.

In ancient times, during the Spring Festival, folk artists would make many small mud cows, which were called "spring cows". Give it to all families, this is called "send it to spring". The owner should pay the person who sends the spring water. It is essentially a holiday sales activity, but it is a happy event.

In some places, there is a yellow paper with a picture of a spring cow on the wall. Yellow represents land, and spring cattle represents farming, commonly known as "Spring Cattle Map", which is a simple "Spring Cattle Map", but the "Spring Cattle Map" in some New Year pictures is very beautiful, such as Yangliuqing New Year Pictures, Wuqiang New Year Pictures and Fengxiang New Year Pictures, which are all excellent New Year pictures.

This form of sending "Spring Cattle Map" at the beginning of spring is also called "Spring Newspaper" in some areas. There is also an ancient custom in the countryside, that is, a person knocks on a small gong and drum, sings a hymn of welcoming the spring, and sends out pictures of spring cows from door to door. On this red paper-printed picture of Spring Cattle, there are 24 solar terms and people holding Niu Gengdi, which is called "Spring Post".

This picture of spring cattle is intended to remind people that the plan of the year lies in spring, so we should pay close attention to the farming season and not miss the good spring. This custom of sending pictures of spring cows is recorded in Yanjing Chronicle: "At the beginning of spring, the ceremony was presented as the throne of Chunshan Mountain, and the picture of spring cows was presented to Shuntianfu, and the ceremony was returned to the department."

In old Beijing, photos of spring cows and New Year pictures of 24 solar terms are often posted on the walls of folk bedrooms. It can be seen that the custom of announcing spring has been very popular in the palace and urban and rural areas since ancient times.

In the past, there were pictures of Mang God and Spring Cattle in the imperial calendar every year. In Dianshizhai Pictorial in the late Qing Dynasty, "The tortoise reported spring" and "The bronze drum drove away the epidemic" were both important activities that began in the Spring Festival at that time.

Living on a spring night

In the suburbs of Beijing, there is a custom of "staying in the spring night". Children stay in other people's homes the night before, and some people stick the words "Welcome to Spring" written in red paper on the wall.

Urge the spring festival

Bai people call the beginning of spring "Spring Festival", while Dong people play the role of spring cattle every day.

Sui Chaochun

For example, beginning of spring coincides with the first day of the first month. As the saying goes, "a year's plan lies in spring", once in a hundred years. People think that this year's harvest must be very good. There is a folk proverb, "It's hard to meet spring in a hundred years."

There are many different names for the relationship between beginning of spring and dates and festivals. For example, beginning of spring is called "spring in a year" after China New Year, and beginning of spring is called "spring outside a year" before China New Year.

Hu Chunniu

The custom of sticking spring cattle began before the beginning of spring. According to the traditional practice, the county government (county government) hired experts and craftsmen in paper binding to get together in the county town before the spring, and carefully made images of spring cattle.

Generally, bamboo is tied into the skeleton of a cow, spring wood is used as legs, paper is pasted and paint is applied, and the image of a cow is successfully made. As the saying goes, there is a lot of red and yellow paper on it, and then there is a "bumper harvest". Paste on black paper, the harvest was not good that year. So the magistrate arranged to win people's hearts with red and yellow paper. After the spring cattle were pasted, a ceremony was held to make the finishing point, that is, an incense table was set up and a bow was made to worship.

Spring sacrifice

The Spring Club is a day of offering sacrifices to the land gods in ancient spring. The Zhou Dynasty was the first day of junior high school, and most of them were held on the fifth day after beginning of spring. "The Book of Rites of Mingtang": "It's Xia Gou, Autumn Taste, Winter L, Spring Society and Autumn Province, it's a big wax, and it's also a sacrifice to the son of heaven."

Before the Han dynasty, there were only spring festivals, and after the Han dynasty, there were spring festivals and autumn festivals, which were held around the vernal equinox and autumn equinox.

Social day is mainly about offering sacrifices to gods, and it also means gathering with neighbors.

In the Southern Dynasties, Liang Zong wiped the Chronicle of Jingchu: "On the social day, the neighborhood merged to form a comprehensive society, offering sacrifices to wake up, first offering sacrifices to God for the house in T9, and then celebrating its yesterday."

Wang Jia, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote the poem "Social Day": "Santoying leaves the Spring Society and everyone is intoxicated." It can be seen that the ancients attached great importance to offering sacrifices to the country, and later it became a custom passed down to later generations and became a sacrificial activity, which implied the multiplication of all things on the earth, praying and offering sacrifices, so as to make the six animals flourish and the grain harvest plentiful.

Diao Chunsui

Hanging spring ear is a traditional custom, which spreads in Chengcheng area of Shaanxi Province. At the beginning of each spring, women will weave tassels with various colors of cloth, or wrap colorful threads into various shapes of "ears of wheat". Then it can be hung on children or young people, and it can also be hung on animals such as donkeys, horses, cows, etc., in order to wish a good weather and a bumper harvest in the coming year.

The custom of making love in spring

Hakka people in southern Jiangxi and western Fujian are used to calling this beginning of spring solar term "making love spring". Hakka's "love for spring" does not include the three solar terms in beginning of spring (five-day period), but specifically refers to the arrival time of "spring" on beginning of spring Day.

When spring comes, Hakka traditional customs require every household to set off firecrackers to welcome them, and the Hakka people in Sanming, western Fujian, even offer sacrifices to heaven, which is called "receiving spring". On this day, when spring begins, even in the middle of the night, Hakka people in Gannan will light incense sticks and set off firecrackers to welcome spring. Then they will put on spring wine, eat spring rolls and light spring lanterns to celebrate each other in the old way.

How to judge the moment of spring? Hakkas often put their eggs upright. If they let go and the eggs don't fall, it is "spring". Or put the eggs in water, and when spring comes, the eggs that floated horizontally on the water can stand up slowly. Hakkas believe that only at this moment will the new year really begin.

The custom of opening spring in Hakka is very old and traditional, whether it is "worshipping spring gods" (that is, offering sacrifices to mountain gods), "eating spring cakes", "sending spring cows" or "dancing spring cows".

Set off spring scenery

According to Travel Notes of Guangdong, during the Qing Dynasty, there was another activity in Chaoshan area called "promoting spring scenery".

In the parade of beginning of spring Day, there will be a decorated pavilion where a geisha sits and is carried by two people.

There is also a difference between Gao Chun and Gao Chun in Jiaying Meizhou: sitting on the stage and performing for Zhou people, while Gao Chun stands on the stage with two people, and then inserts a straight wood, which is hidden in that person's long coat, flush with this person's shoulder. Then tie a wooden stick horizontally at the upper end of the straight wood. The crossbar is hidden in a wide sleeve, and another person stands on the crossbar.

To be on the safe side, put your feet firmly on the crossbar. Two people dressed up as characters in a story, and the other person marched with a long stick wrapped in cloth under his arm. If there are obstacles in the road, people with long sticks will push them away with sticks.

In Mianzhu, Sichuan, where the famous New Year pictures are produced, the activity of raising spring colors is also very popular. The Spring Festival couplets of Mianzhu New Year pictures, a national first-class cultural relic, produced in the early years of the Republic of China, contains this folk custom.

There are many folk customs in beginning of spring, which are rich and varied. If some feathers are butterflies, they are called "spring moths"; Some are wrapped in velvet into sticks, which are called "spring sticks"; Some make surface cocoons with meat or vegetables as stuffing and paper labels in the middle, which is called "Tanchun Cocoon"; Some people give gifts with spring vegetables, or the whole family eats spring cakes, radishes and so on. Call it "biting spring"; An anthology of some outstanding figures, actors, prostitutes, etc. Dressing up as a social fire to teach them, this is called "acting in spring"; Some people are used to making small dolls out of silk, called "Spring Baby", for children to wear.

Some pay attention to sewing small cloth bags, which contain beans, grains and other miscellaneous grains, and hang them on the horns of cattle, which means that six animals are prosperous and the crops are abundant, and they are safe and auspicious all year round.