What are some interesting folklore in China?

Eating Lantern Festival

No matter in the south or the north, on the fifteenth day of the first month of the lunar calendar, all the families have to get together and eat Lantern Festival. The 15th day of the first month is also known as the "Shangyuan" festival. "Lantern" the name of this food, said to appear in the late Song and early Yuan, because people are accustomed to eat it on the night of the New Year's Day. Lanterns are also called "round curfew", "round", the south is often called "dumplings", "water round", the Song people because they see its Cooked floating in the water, called "floating dumplings".

The night of the New Year is the first fifteen full-moon night in the New Year, "a year of the bright moon playing the first round", a full moon shining in the sky, the earth is gathered to eat the shape of a full moon Lanterns, there is a very subtle correspondence, "star and moon in the sky when the ten thousand candles burned, on earth and heaven, the two Lanterns! "

And then there's a whole new world of people who want to be a part of the world's most beautiful city.

Then look at the varieties of Lantern Festival and eating. Yuanxiao before the Northern Song Dynasty is solid, no filling, under the boiling water, with sugar, honey dates, cinnamon, cinnamon and other things. The Southern Song Dynasty began to have the middle of the sugar "lactose round", is probably the earlier stuffed Lantern. Later, there are sweet and salty fillings. Sweet filling is generally made with white sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, nuts, sesame, etc.; salty filling is mostly meat filling, single package of meat or meat and vegetables combined package. Most of the Lantern to boiled food, but there are also fried food, "Lu's miscellaneous" in the "deep-fried chase" is actually a deep-fried Lantern. Today, the way to eat the Lantern is more rich, many people even began a combination of Chinese and Western food, such as chocolate has become one of the Lantern filling.

The Lantern Festival

The Ao Shan Lantern Pole and the Fire Tree are the most prominent sights of the Lantern Festival and best summarize the activities of the festival, i.e., the opening of lanterns and the setting of fires. Zhang Lantern, fire is the most important Lantern Festival activities, the rest of the Lantern Tour and social games are directly or indirectly from this development, derived. Initially, the lamp is simple, static, it can not move, but also less decorative, and more than a single independent. Subsequent development and change in the process, the decoration of the first step, the lamp inside and outside are carved, modified.

The Lantern Festival is a festival with more than 2,000 years of tradition, and its customs are still quite prevalent in China today. Nowadays, before and after every Lantern Festival, no matter in the countryside or in the towns, people have to put up lanterns and colorful decorations, watch the lanterns and enjoy the festival, and fireworks are also essential. In addition to the lanterns, more prominent activities of the contemporary Lantern Festival are various kinds of social fires, such as lion dances, dragon lanterns, dry boats, stilt walkers, waist drummers, rice-planting songs, and overseas Chinese settlements are also annual performances, which are still prevalent. The Lantern Festival can be regarded as China's carnival.

The Lantern Festival is inseparable from the "haunted", open lanterns to see the lanterns race called "haunted lanterns", social fire called "haunted social fire", the whole activity is called "haunted Lantern". The whole event is called "Lantern Festival", as if it is not a Lantern Festival without the hustle and bustle. The Lantern Festival, in addition to lanterns, fireworks, social fire decorations, coloring, the most prominent is afraid of people. From the Lantern Festival is formed not long ago in the era of those written records can be seen, the Lantern Lantern Festival at that time to see the people who have forgotten the shoulder to shoulder, the street fill the alley plug.

Said haunted, and can not help but swing the theater. The big theater, the small theater is also a joke. When the stage is full of songs and dances, and the flowers rotate up, it is impossible not to make a scene.

Haunting and its own value in. Chinese people are more appreciative of the quiet skills, so the "big hidden in the city" than the "small hidden in the mountains" a few more points of admiration. In fact, the Spring Festival, the Lantern Festival, the social fire, also have the meaning of quietness.

At the same time, people think that life is only interesting when it is so noisy. Therefore, it is a kind of life supplement, is an additive, dye, with it, life is full, only peaceful, only colorful. It can even be said that this mess is part of the ideal life.

The fifteenth day of the first month of the lunar calendar is the Shangyuan Festival. The night is called the Lantern Festival, so also known as the "Lantern Festival", commonly known as the "fifteenth night". Lantern Festival is one of the three traditional festivals in China, all over the country have held some activities to celebrate. Because the customs of a place are determined by the natural and social environment of a place, so the Chaoshan Lantern Festival has also appeared some interesting customs that are different from other places.

Hanging of joyful lamps

Lamps are used as symbols of light and joy in the rituals of worshiping gods. From the eleventh day of the first month to the eighteenth day of the first month, especially on the day of the Lantern Festival, it is customary for every household in Chaoshan to light and hang lamps. Because the Chiu Chow language "lamp" and "Ding" have the same sound, lighting lamps and adding Ding are close to each other, so the Chiu Chow people think that lighting lamps is a good sign of adding Ding. Lantern this day, people have to carry lanterns, prepared paper and silver incense and candles, to the countryside in the temple to light a fire, and come back to hang in the family's shrine and bedside, which is called "hanging happy lights. In addition, if a male child is born after the Lantern Festival last year, the family must pick up a pair of red lanterns from the thirteenth day of the first month of the lunar calendar, and write the name on the red paper pasted under the lantern screen, and joyfully hang them on the lamp stand of the ancestral shrine of the clan in the township to symbolize that there is an addition of a child to the family. Every night, family members carry their children to the ancestral hall and light candles in their own lanterns to make them red, while accepting congratulations from the surrounding townspeople. The night of the Lantern Festival is even more solemn and lively.

Doing Ding table

In the Chaoshan countryside, the family who gave birth to a boy the previous year, the night of the Lantern Festival, but also in the Ancestral Hall, hosted a banquet to celebrate the "out of the Ding", commonly known as the "Doing Ding table". There are two types of banquet, one is called "Dragon Boat Seat" that is, a number of square tables linked up, guests around the sides of the meal, in the shape of rowing a dragon boat; the other is called "Walking Horse Seat", that is, regardless of family and friends, know people who do not know can come in to eat, eat and go, the host then re-set the dishes. The host then re-set the dishes to entertain another batch of guests to come, one after another. This latter style is usually reserved for the richer and more generous families. In the old society, the Chao people strong sense of comparison, dead love of face, where the birth of a boy's family are very important to do ding table, and to do a decent pride. Even the poor family, in order not to lose face, they borrowed money from all over the world, resulting in heavy debts, or to bear the pain of selling his brother, the proceeds of the money used to cope with the heavy cost of running the table, which is often referred to as the "birth of a fine sale of a big" the origin of this proverb. After the liberation, due to the advancement of the times, the idea of progress, although the Chao people still have the custom of the Lantern Festival Ding table, but more changed in their own homes, and is limited to the banquet relatives and better friends, rich and frugal, no one cares.

Seeking happy things

This day of the Lantern Festival, the countryside more altar worship activities. The temple shrine lights, smoke filled, good men and women to worship, crowded abnormal, bustling. Chickens, geese, ducks, candies, rice and fruits, candles and candles, Daji (Chiu Chow mandarin) and other sacrificial offerings placed in front of the altar are regarded as sacred objects. The men and women who worship the gods have to take the offerings and take them back home, which is called "seeking for good luck". It is believed that the use of these sacred objects will bring peace and prosperity to the family. Divine objects home to the family, the next year, or more to return to take the divine objects. So some people will take the opportunity of crowded, secretly take the altar in front of the offerings to eat at home, meaning "eating prosperity.

Throwing happy children

The Lantern Festival this day, most people in the countryside in the ancestral ancestral halls of the large Cheng, the streets and alleys at the end of the open, set up a colorful hut, inside the clay molded into a giant Maitreya Buddha, bare chest and breasts, a smile. Maitreya Buddha's bare head, shoulders, navel, thighs and other parts of the men and women are set up "clay happy children. People stand outside the bamboo railing at a distance of more than ten feet and aim at the clay children on the Maitreya Buddha with copper coins. In the happy child that belongs to its own, and in some of the more difficult to hit the part, such as the top of the head, ears, etc., hit the person is a gift of two or three ranging; do not hit the coin that belongs to set the Maitreya Buddha's owner of the shed all. This is a favorite activity of young and old. It is said that those who hit the "male happy child" will give birth to a boy in the future. Therefore, young couples who have not been married for a long time, or eunuchs and grandmothers who have just married their daughters-in-law and are eager to have grandchildren are also actively involved in this activity. Once hit, the owner of the shed and the surrounding people will applaud and congratulate him. They are even more joyful and sweet to the "male happy child" to carry home, that won the lottery, a good omen, this year will be able to give birth to a son of early wealth.

Through the bridge

Lunar New Year's Eve, Chaoshan most of the custom of the bridge, which is also recorded in the old records, the Qing dynasty Shunzhi "Chaozhou Fu Zhi" and Qianlong "Jieyang County Zhi," "(on the first day of the year) the women's degree of the bridge to throw the block, known as the 'degree of doom'! ". In Jieyang, the Lantern Festival this day, men, women and children compete to be the first to pass the bridge, after the birth of a brother praying for the future to marry a good wife; the girl prayed to marry a good husband and son-in-law, the birth of a boy; the old man is praying for a long and healthy life; small children are praying to grow up to adulthood. In Puning Hongyang also have "fifteen night line head bridge" custom. The "head bridge" that has a history of more than four hundred years of Taiping Bridge, both sides of the railings at both ends have two stone lions. Every Lantern Festival night, men, women and children *** with walking across the Taiping Bridge. Crossing the bridge can not turn back, otherwise "turn back inauspicious", people crossing the bridge and the custom of touching the stone lions. Children who are reading like to touch the nose of the stone lion, said "touch the nose of the lion, write elegant words"; unmarried young man like to touch the lion belly, said "touch the lion belly, to marry elegant women it"; and pregnant women like to touch the lion's ear, said "touching the lion's ear, have a brother! The first is to touch the ear of the lion and say "Touch the ear of the lion and give birth to a brother".

In addition, the Lantern Festival this day, some places in Chaoshan also pick banyan branches, bamboo leaves home inserted in the lintel, stove, poultry house, in order to pray for peace of the population, the prosperity of six animals; some places, the newlywed couple in the countryside under the old banyan tree swinging, let the townspeople splash feces on their bodies, said to be splashed the more this year will be able to give birth to a boy; some parts of the farmers will also be outside the house or the field to hold back the gray bricks or pieces of soil, placed in the pig pen, said "fifteenth night". In some places, farmers also go outside their houses or fields to carry back bricks or pieces of earth and put them in pig pens, saying "holding a big pig on the fifteenth night" in order to pray for raising big pigs and making big money; in some places, young girls sneak into vegetable gardens to sit down on mustard greens, saying "sitting down on big greens, and marrying a good son-in-law in the future"; and young men sneak in and push down the walls of latrines, saying that they can marry "Ya Nu Mai" in the future. "Ya female it", some places are held in the race pig, race duck, race goose, race chicken and other race activities and night lift the god of the touring activities.

Overseas Folklore:

Three Meals for Americans

Generally speaking, the three meals for Americans are both casual and simple. For breakfast, it is often juice, eggs, milk and bread. Eggs are cooked in hot water or on an electric stove, and milk is taken directly from the refrigerator. Lunch, more often than not, takes half an hour to be consumed in a hurry at the workplace. A few slices of sandwich, a banana, and a cup of coffee are taken from a small paper bag that people bring with them for lunch. For dinner, it is often one or two dishes, with some snacks, fruit and so on. Sometimes, even though there are many items on the dinner menu, they are just ingredients. A favorite is steak or pork chop, a large piece of which is more than 150 grams.

Driver farms

In the United States, customers often drive their own cars into the farm, picking tomatoes, cucumbers, apples, strawberries, corn and other fruits and vegetables at will. This kind of farm is commonly known as the "driver's farm". The fruits and vegetables bought at these farms are not only fresh and appetizing, but also inexpensive. Farmers of this kind of distribution, not only to save the cost of picking, but also to cut out the profits of the middleman, but also popular with customers, can be said to "kill three birds with one stone".

Self-help feast

In order to make it easier to entertain guests, Americans often set up a "buffet" at home. Especially when entertaining more than two guests, this "buffet" can show the closeness between the host and guest and casual. Meals, the host on a table to a variety of food arranged, the guests and friends hold a plate to the table to take their favorite food, and then to another room to sit down to eat and talk. Buffet-style family dinner, mostly informal feast, it does not set the table, the seat from the convenience, which is more conducive to the host and guests and the guests between the casual conversation and free contact.