What is a week?

As the saying goes, "three turns, six sits, nine climbs, and October is numb." "Indeed, after the 100 day ceremony, the newborn grew up quickly, could sit, climb, babble, toddler and become more and more lovely. On the first birthday, the family will hold a ceremony to celebrate and bless this week. When the baby is one year old, the elders will give him or her a long life lock or amulet, praying for a long life and peace. As a ceremony to predict the baby's future and temperament, it is a way to celebrate the first birthday of life. However, this folk custom is gradually forgotten and replaced by miscellaneous banquets. Many children's first birthdays are not so memorable. Recently, some sociologists have called for the return of traditional culture, and "grasping the week" has gradually returned to the family life of modern people.

Grasping the week is also called "Year Week", "Trial Week" and "Trial Week", which means putting all kinds of symbolic objects on children's first birthday, catching them together and testing their aspirations. The exquisite way is to put many symbolic things on the bed: seals, Confucianism, Buddhist classics, pens, ink, paper, inkstones, abacus, coins, account books, jewelry, flowers, rouge, food, toys, and girls need to add shovels, spoons, scissors, rulers, embroidery threads and so on. Adults take their children to sit up without any guidance, let them choose for themselves, and judge their interests, future and future career according to what they catch. The results are varied: if the child catches the seal first, it means that when he grows up, he will make use of grace and prosper in his career; Grasping stationery first means that when you grow up, you will be eager to learn, and there will be splendid articles, which will eventually be ternary harmony; If a child grasps the abacus first, it means that he will be good at managing money when he grows up and will definitely become a career in Tao Zhu. If a girl first masters sewing utensils such as scissors and rulers or drinking utensils such as shovels and spoons, she is said to be good at housework when she grows up; If the child catches food and toys first, everyone will politely say, "When the child grows up, he will have a good life." In short, winning a good reputation is the high hope that elders place on their children. When grasping Zhou, different objects have different symbolic meanings, such as Kangxi Dictionary or Modern Dictionary (English-Chinese dual interpretation): representing writers or lawyers; Pen and ink: meaningful, representing the works of calligraphers, artists, literati and civilians; Ruler: It means graduated, representing legislators, regulators and revolutionaries; Calculators and abacus: representing enterprises or businessmen; Gold, money, jade, diamonds: indicating wealth, you can become a banker, a rich person who is good at saving or a rich person in the future; Seal: representing official position or power; Colored paper, colored clay, water color box and colored pen: representing artists; Plush group: representing fashion designers; Table tennis racket, tennis racket: representing athletes; Flute and CD tape: representing musicians; Chopsticks and shovels: on behalf of chefs and hotel operators; Shoes: representing travelers and explorers; Mirror: quiet inside, a girl; Rouge: stands for loving beauty and caring about your appearance; Cotton swabs and gauze: on behalf of doctors and nurses; Screwdriver: representing engineers and industries; Toy cars: representing drivers and the automobile industry. Building blocks: representing the construction industry, designers, etc. In recent years, with the development of science and technology, some high-tech products have been popularized, and they have also been listed as "weekly" items, such as mobile phones, floppy disks and mice, which represent the IT industry, high-tech and communication industries.

The custom of grasping Zhou is very popular in ancient and modern times, and its records in historical books and biographies of the ruling and opposition parties, as well as descriptions of novels and operas, abound. "Yan Family Instructions" once described: "The first stage of a child's life is to make new clothes and decorate the bath. Men use bows, arrows, paper and pens, while women use knives and rulers to sew and play with food and treasures. Before you let your children go, you must observe their intentions and take them to test their greed, sincerity and wisdom, which is called a test. " One of the "attempts" is what we now call "grasping a week". According to historical records, the custom of grasping Zhou was widely popular in Jiangnan during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and gradually spread throughout the country during the Sui and Tang Dynasties. For example, the biography of Cao Shan in the Song Dynasty recorded: "Sugiyama was born at the age of one, and his parents gave him various toys to see what he took. Sugiyama held a battle in his left hand and peas in his right, so he had to take seals. He ignored it. Everyone is different. Later, he became a military attache and served as a tutor and teaching assistant of the school. Lu Feng, Lord protector. " At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, this kind of children's "Catch Tuesday" ceremony was still popular in Beijing. Although children don't put up tents to hold banquets or post invitations to entertain guests, their close relatives always congratulate and get together according to the rules. Generally, no big gifts (such as gifts, gold and silver jewelry) are given, only cakes, food or toys are bought for children. It can be seen that since modern times, the custom of grasping Zhouyi has been very popular, and its wind is quite fierce. Hu Pu 'an's "China Folk Customs" has many records about this. For example, (Jing Zhao) put the instruments used by scholars and industry and commerce on the table at the age of one. After washing and dressing, the children put on new clothes and were carried to the table, allowing them to grab at will. Pick up a pen and you will be a scholar in the future; If you have an abacus, you must be a businessman. By analogy, it is called grasping the week. There are also related records in novels, biographies and other literary works, reflecting the widespread influence of this custom. For example, in the second episode of A Dream of Red Mansions, when Jia Baoyu was one year old, Master Jia Zheng wanted to test his future ambitions, so he put out countless objects in the world and robbed him. Unexpectedly, he didn't take anything except some powder and silver rings. Master Jia Zheng was furious and said, "In the future, drunkards should listen!"

Just like many life ceremonies in China, the custom of grasping Zhouyi also reveals the remains of primitive beliefs. In the ancient Yin and Shang dynasties, our ancestors frequently performed divination and divination, and they always asked for divination in almost everything. At that time, people thought that all things were interlinked, all things were in sympathy, and the droughts and floods in nature and the quality of human society were omens. The mysterious forces in the dark could predict the future, so people turned to mysterious supernatural forces and firmly believed that omens and the future were bound to be related. From this, the belief in miracles was formed and a set of related etiquette was established. Zhou, who was ill and rushed to the hospital, is one of them. This is obviously irrational, but objectively it does have its positive significance. As the old people say, "A hundred years old depends on a person's age", which objectively tests how parents educate their children. Therefore, although some parents are not superstitious, they still advocate letting their children "catch the week". More importantly, it reflects parents' deep affection for their children, and at the same time it has a certain nature of family games, so it has been talked about by people for thousands of years.

The long-standing popular folk custom of grasping Zhou has its profound cultural roots. That is, the secular hierarchy has influenced this custom. In China, although there is a saying called "seventy-two lines, each goes its own way", the concept of dividing the five elements and stereotyped writing of scholars, industry and commerce into different levels is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Generally speaking, people always regard some classes and industries as dignitaries, while others as lowly. This concept clearly embodies the social value orientation, while China people have always lacked subjectivity and attached importance to social evaluation, so the lack of subjectivity and the ringing of social value orientation have made people move forward in step under the guidance of social value. Therefore, people who want their descendants to be honored will express their feelings with the ceremony of grasping Zhou.