What are the folk customs on the 22nd day of the first lunar month?

The custom of the 22nd and 23rd of the first month.

1. According to legend, "Nian" is a very ferocious and terrible monster. It often comes out to hurt people on New Year's Eve, but it is afraid of fire and firecrackers. Therefore, in ancient times when technology was underdeveloped and productivity was extremely low, ancestors slaughtered pigs and sheep to sacrifice the monster "Nian". At the same time, they cut off bamboo branches and lit bonfires, staying up all night, making bamboo branches make a "crack" sound, making Nian afraid to get close to himself. Therefore, Chinese New Year is like a passport, so people call it "Year Pass". Everyone knows that 2008 started with firecrackers, but few people know that the year of the Northwest people ended with fire.

On the 23rd night of the first month, people in the northwest will "jump dry". On the 22nd day of the first month, they cut out many paper figures with yellow and white paper and hung them behind the door. On the morning of 23rd, they will "open their eyes" (burn their mouths and eyes with incense sticks), and then put them in the rice noodle tank or beside the water tank for them to eat and drink. At night, they put them in the fire and began to "jump dry".

This custom originated from a very beautiful legend: a long time ago, the crops on the earth had no branches and leaves, only ears, and the emperor sent a god to inspect the world. Seeing that human food was seriously wasted and ruined, the gods smoothed the ears of many foods to only a little, and smoothed them to buckwheat and millet (a crop; When it was widely distributed in the arid areas of northwest China, God's hand was broken, and the straws of millet and buckwheat were all dyed red, which was no longer uneven. The God vowed to report the matter to the Emperor of Heaven, but those who looked at the front and pleaded for it felt sorry for it. Then, God gave people an idea: On the 23rd day of the first month, when the emperor toured the world in the sky, people must jump paper men, so that the emperor would think that so many people who wasted food were burned to death! So, on the 23rd day of the first month, in Long Yuan Township, flames were blazing, and people were jumping around on the fire, as if they were really struggling in the fire. This highly educational legend is clearly warning people that food cannot be wasted, even at the end of the year.

In addition, there is a saying called "jumping dry people", that is, the bad luck in a year will be burned clean by raging flames. Therefore, people in the northwest also call "jumping dry people" "burning malnutrition", thinking that all fires are clean and all diseases are not born. With the end of this day, the year of rural people is really over, just waiting for the dragon to rise to work on February 2.

Second, the 20th day of the first month in Lintong District, Shaanxi Province, the birthday of Lishan's mother (Biography of Nu Wa). Every family steamed "steamed buns" and "thousand-layer cakes" and threw them on the house, which was called "mending the sky". Women should not be "inappropriate" (women should not work). )。 On the 22nd day of the first month, people in the countryside insert hay (straw) into dung heaps, mounds, water crossings, wells and villages, and grind roads. , called "fragrance", which means dew from heaven. This day should not be "inappropriate". On the 23 rd of the first month, licorice was recovered, which was called "sweet"; It is also said that this day is the "Cow and Horse Festival", and the folk proverb says that "on the 23rd day of the first month, the old donkey and the old horse have a day off". On this day, careful people also hung HongLing on the horse's head to improve the forage life and not to serve. Women should not be "inappropriate".