Chaoshan boys like lanterns.

Chaoshan boys like lanterns. China has a vast territory and abundant natural resources. Different places have different customs. Every festival, various ceremonies will be held in various places to celebrate the festival. In Guangdong and Guangxi, there are many customs worth knowing. Let's see what it means that Chaoshan boys like lanterns.

Boys in Chaoshan like lanterns 1 Every year from the 11th to 18th of the first lunar month, every household in Chaoshan, Guangdong Province has the custom of putting lanterns and hanging them. Because "Deng" and "Ding" are homophonic in Chaozhou dialect, putting lanterns is similar to adding children, so red people think that putting lanterns is a good omen for adding children. On the Lantern Festival, everyone rushed to the temple in the country with small lanterns and paper and silver incense, and went home to hang their shrines and beds in their bedrooms at home. This is called "hanging happy lights".

In addition, if someone gave birth to a boy on the Lantern Festival last year, from the 13th day of the first month of the Lunar New Year, this person will poke a pair of red lanterns, write their names on the red paper under the lamp screen, and happily hang them on the family ancestral temple lamp stand in the countryside, which means that Ding has been added to the family. Later, every night, relatives would take their children to the ancestral temple and light candles in their little lanterns to make them red and accept the surrounding area.

As for the origin of the lucky lantern, it is said that during the Yongping period of Emperor Hanming (58-75), because Ming Di advocated Buddhism, it coincided with Cai Mao's return to Buddhism from Indonesia, saying that it was the fifteenth day of the first month in Mohatuo, Indonesia, and monks gathered to pay homage to the Buddhist relics, which was an auspicious day and a beautiful scene to visit Buddhism.

In order to better promote Buddhism, Emperor Han Ming ordered that "lights should be lit to show Buddha" in palaces and temples on the fifteenth night of the first month. Since then, the custom of putting lights on the Lantern Festival has been widely spread to the people from the palace. On the fifteenth day of the first month, both gentry and Shu Ren put up lights, and the town was brightly lit all night.

The custom of setting off lanterns during the Lantern Festival became a spectacular lantern market in the Tang Dynasty. At that time, Chang 'an, Kyoto, Beijing was already the largest modern city in the world, with a population of several million and a well-off society. Under the personal initiative of the emperor, the Lantern Festival became more and more luxurious. After the middle Tang Dynasty, it has developed into a popular shopping festival.

In Tang Gaozong (685-762), there was a huge lantern market in Chang 'an, with 50,000 lanterns and colorful lanterns. The emperor ordered 20 super-large lantern buildings with a height of 150 feet, which were magnificent. This is the "happy lantern" that continues to this day.

The Lantern Festival in Song Dynasty is superior to that in Tang Dynasty in terms of commercial scale and exquisite lighting, and the theme activities are more folk and stronger in national style. After that, the Lantern Festival of each generation continued to develop, and the Lantern Festival lasted longer and longer. The Lantern Festival in Tang Dynasty is "the day before and after Shangyuan Festival". In the Song Dynasty, it increased by two days after the 16th, and in the Ming Dynasty, it increased from the 8th to 18th to ten days.

When the Hui people came to the Central Plains in the Qing Dynasty, the Lantern Festival was no longer held in the imperial palace, but the folk Lantern Festival in China was still unprecedented, and the date was shortened to five days, which has continued until now.

Therefore, the folk activities of hanging festive lanterns in China in Chaoshan area of Guangdong Province always inevitably have new items of worshipping God, offering sacrifices to ancestors and welcoming God, which are full of colors of worship, fun games and entertainment atmosphere, and have become an indispensable custom for Chaoshan people. It can also be said that hanging happy lanterns is the most grand and prosperous traditional festival of Chaoshan people and an important part of Chaoshan folk culture in Guangdong Province.

The Origin of Chaoshan Boys' Happy Lantern 2 Hanging Happy Lantern

The Lantern Festival in Song Dynasty is superior to that in Tang Dynasty in terms of scale and dreamy lighting, with more folk activities and stronger national characteristics. Since then, the Lantern Festival has continued to develop and the time of the Lantern Festival has become longer and longer. The Lantern Festival in Tang Dynasty is "the day before and after Shangyuan". In the Song Dynasty, two days were added after the sixteenth, and in the Ming Dynasty, it was extended from the eighth day to the eighteenth day to ten days.

In the Qing Dynasty, Manchu occupied the Central Plains, and the court no longer held lantern festivals, but the folk lantern festivals were still spectacular. The date was shortened to five days and continues to this day.

In Taiwan Province Province, lanterns have the meaning of light and elegance, and lighting them means lighting up the future. The homonym of Taiwan Province Lantern and En stands for having a boy. So in the past, women would deliberately wander under lanterns, hoping to "drill under lanterns to lay eggs" (that is, swim under lanterns to give birth to boys).

In Chaoshan village, families who gave birth to boys last year had to light lanterns at midnight snack and hold a banquet in the ancestral hall to celebrate Ding, commonly known as Ding Table. There are two kinds of banquets, one is called "dragon boat banquet", that is, many square tables are connected, and guests are divided into two sides to eat, just like rowing a dragon boat; The other is called a "horse-riding mat", which means that no matter how close friends or relatives are, people you know or don't know can come in for dinner, and then leave after eating, and the host will put on dishes to entertain another group of guests, one after another.

The latter type of banquet is usually held by richer and more generous families. In the old society, people who follow the fashion are eager to compare with their neighbors and love face. Boys pay great attention to setting the ding table and are proud of doing it decently. Even poor families borrow money everywhere to lose face, resulting in heavy debts, or reluctantly sell their brothers and use the money they get to cope with heavy desk expenses. This is the origin of the saying "Give birth to a good child and sell a big one".

After liberation, due to the progress of the times and ideas, although hipsters still have the custom of holding tripod tables during the Lantern Festival, they usually do it in their own homes and only entertain relatives and friends. People are rich and thrifty, and no one cares.

On the Lantern Festival, there are many ancestor worship activities in the countryside. Temples and ancestral temples are brightly lit and smoky, and good men and women are scrambling to pay homage, which is extremely crowded and lively. Sacrificial products such as chicken, goose, duck, candy, rice fruit, candle and Daji (Chaozhou orange) placed in front of the altar are regarded as sacred objects. The men and women who visited the shrine took sacrifices home, which is called "seeking happiness"

People think that using these sacred objects can make the family safe and increase wealth. Those who bring the holy things home will return them more or less next year. So some people took advantage of the crowded opportunity to secretly take the sacrifices in front of the altar and go home to eat, which means "eat well."

On the Lantern Festival, most people in rural areas set up colorful sheds in ancestral halls and open spaces in streets and alleys, in which a huge Maitreya Buddha was made of clay, with a bare chest and a smile. The exposed head, shoulders, navel and thighs of Maitreya are decorated with "clay-loving children" for men and women. People stood outside the bamboo railings more than ten feet away, aiming at the mud on Maitreya with copper coins.

If the winner likes children, it belongs to him, but in some hard-to-hit parts, such as the top of the head and ears, the winner gets two or three gifts. Those who fail to win will belong to the owner of the tent where Maitreya Buddha is placed. This is an activity suitable for all ages. It is said that those who beat "boys like children" will have boys in the future.

Therefore, young couples who just got married, or grandparents who just got married and are eager to have grandchildren, also actively participated in this activity. Once hit, the shed owner and people around him will cheer and congratulate. I even took the "boys and girls" home with joy, thinking that winning the lottery was a good sign, and I could have children earlier this year and make a fortune.

Every household has the custom of lanterns and chandeliers. Because "Deng" and "Ding" are homophonic in Chaozhou dialect, lighting and Gading are close sounds, so chaozhou people thinks that lighting is a good omen for Gading. On the Lantern Festival, people carry lanterns, prepare paper and silver incense one after another, light them in temples in the countryside, and hang them on shrines at home and bedside, which is called "hanging happy lanterns".

The lighting ceremony of Happy Lantern 3 for Chaoshan boys is divided into several steps.

First, turn on the light.

The time to turn on the light is between the eighth and twelfth day of the first lunar month every year. The specific date is selected by the village feng shui master, but it cannot be later than the twelfth day of the first month. According to the date of birth of the first born lamp holder, the Feng Shui master calculated the auspicious day to turn on the light. After the date is determined, the ancestral hall is responsible for notifying all lampstand holders.

Set up a light shed before turning on the light. This light shed is built of wooden boards. It is eight meters long, four meters wide and four meters high, like a wooden house of more than 30 square meters. After entering the door, the wooden boards on the left and right sides are also carved with dragon and phoenix patterns and birthday pictures of the Eight Immortals.

On the day when the lights are turned on, at first light, the people holding the lights will beat gongs and drums and go to the "Hongsheng Temple" in the village. Old people over 60 years old should wear long gowns. Please come down from the temple to worship the gods of Hong, Hong and Jin, and hang red for the gods, that is, put red cloth on the gods, then meet them in the light shed and worship in the middle above the light shed. A sacrificial table was placed in front of the statue, with offerings such as incense burners, fried piles, tea fruits and fruits.

The lamp holder was held by the elders and went to the ancestral hall to hold a lighting ceremony. The lighting ceremony was carried out in the order of the birth of the lamp holder. Each family first puts their own offerings on the altar, including pork, chicken, fried piles, tea, wine and fruit. Put the incense in the incense burner. At this time, the elders will light oil lamps and put them in lanterns prepared in advance. Lantern is an octagonal long lantern with a diameter of two feet and a height of three feet.

The eight sides of the lantern are painted with pictures, such as "Ji Xiannv sends the child" and "Five children enter the topic". Then everyone hung the lighted lanterns on the main beam of the ancestral hall. Finally, the family held the lamp holder, bowed down to their ancestors, and knocked gongs at the same time. Usually, the father of the lamp holder is responsible for knocking gongs.

After worshipping for three times, the ceremony of the ancestral temple was over. Then go to the lamp shed to worship God. The worship ceremony in the lamp shed is basically the same as that in the ancestral hall. After worshipping the lamp shed, every household will hang a lamp on the main beam of their home. The style of the lamp is the same as that of the ancestral hall, but smaller. At this point, the lighting ceremony was completed. Every morning and evening, the family of the lantern bearer will go to the ancestral temple and the lamp shed to burn incense and cheer for the lamp. The lights will be hung until the 19th day of the first month, during which they cannot be put out.

Second, grab the gun head.

This is a celebration and entertainment activity in the lighting ceremony. The time is the morning of the fifteenth day of the first month, and the place is in the village square.

The villagers piled up two square tables, on which a stool was placed. On the stool stood the Tianshi cannon, and a colorful head was hung on the cannon. After the firecrackers were lit, they immediately rose into the sky, only to hear a sound in the air, and colorful heads fell from the sky. The villagers crowded forward, scrambling to grab the lottery ticket.

Whoever grabs the lottery will bode well for this year, and whoever will win the prize. A * * * to put nine guns. The Mo family in Shawei Village is divided into four big rooms, and the people who won the lottery will have a dinner together to celebrate. One-room people who won the prize this year will return the same amount of goods next year as prizes for grabbing the gun head next year.

Third, pay Li Ding.

On the 16th day of the first lunar month, a wedding is held. On this day, a big pot dish banquet will be held in the square outside the ancestral hall. At about five o'clock this afternoon, firecrackers were set off three times outside the ancestral hall. When the men in the village hear these three firecrackers, they will automatically come to the ancestral hall for a cauldron banquet without notice.

There are fifteen kinds of raw materials for a big pot dish banquet, including radish, mushrooms, yuba, celery, pork, dried asparagus, squid and duck. The weight of each raw material is calculated according to the total number of men in the village. It is shared by families with lamp caps, collected and handed over to ancestral halls. The ancestral temple should be weighed once and then arranged for people to make it.

The making method is to use fifteen main ingredients to make fifteen main courses with different styles and tastes, and then use radish as the first course to lay the foundation. Put fifteen dishes in a big wooden basin layer by layer, and each table has a pot of vegetables, which is called a cauldron banquet.

Fourth, round lights.

This is an important procedure of the ignition ceremony. The time is the 19th day of the first lunar month. This morning,

The family members of the lampstand came to the ancestral temple with the lampstand, placed large pots of vegetables, fried piles, wine, fruits and other offerings on the altar in front of the memorial tablet of the ancestral temple, lit candles, set off firecrackers, and bowed down to their ancestors with the lampstand, incense and wine; After the worship, take the offerings outside the ancestral hall, put them on a table, and also worship the heavens, and then worship the gods inside the ancestral hall. After the lantern festival, you can take down the lanterns hanging in the ancestral temple and at home and burn them.

Five, the dragon boat.

This is the last ceremony of the lighting ceremony. After the Lantern Festival, the men of the clan will carry dragon boats and go to all households to worship. The dragon boat is made of bamboo chips and straw. It is more than 5 feet long and 2 feet wide. Every family should throw things they don't want on the boat. After the worship, taking a dragon boat to the seaside and burning it means that the foul air of a year has been sent to the sea.

At this point, the whole lighting ceremony was completed. The next day, that is, the 20th day of the first lunar month, all the families of the lantern holders will go to the lamp shed to send their gods. Under the leadership of the ancestors, everyone beat gongs and drums and set off firecrackers, and sent the statues of Master Hongsheng and Mother Hongsheng back to the temple. Then, under the leadership of the patriarch, the people will remove the lamp shed and store the removed boards in the ancestral hall until the next year when the lights are lit.

As an important life custom activity, the lighting ceremony has been handed down from generation to generation in the primitive villages in Futian area, which has a history of hundreds of years and contains a very profound history and culture. It also reflects the ancestors' worship and awe of human survival and reproduction, and has anthropological and folklore values.

At the same time, family and clan are the cells that constitute society and play an important role in society. The lighting ceremony plays a certain role in promoting the harmony between families, carrying forward the traditional national virtues of patriotism, respecting the elderly and loving the young, and building a harmonious community.

Due to its special geographical location, many people from various villages and families have settled in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and abroad. As a bond, the lighting ceremony closely linked them.

Today, after giving birth to a boy, some people who have settled abroad will go back to their ancestral temple to light lamps, let their children recognize their ancestors, attend lantern festivals organized by their hometown and eat traditional big pots of vegetables, which has a certain positive effect on promoting economic and cultural exchanges at home and abroad, strengthening close ties with overseas Chinese and compatriots in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, and enhancing national cohesion.