What are the folkways and customs in Henan?

Dragon Head Raising Festival (the second day of February). The second day of the second month of the lunar calendar is a traditional Han Chinese festival. Folk believe that this day is the day the dragon wants to ascend to heaven, so it is called "Dragon Head Raising Festival" or "Green Dragon Festival". On this day, women in rural Henan generally do not move the scissors, do not do needlework, for fear of moving the knife and cut the dragon body. According to the elderly. This is to show respect for the dragon. In this festival, people go to the fields to pick wild vegetables, dumplings, fried pancakes, fried soybeans, fried bacon, steamed jujube buns, to improve the life of the festival has become an important element.

Duanwu Festival (the fifth day of the fifth month). The fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar is the traditional Dragon Boat Festival in China. In Henan folklore, the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival has two sayings, one said to honor Qu Yuan, one said to have originated from the Tianwen Dragon Boat Festival to establish new rules.　Accompanied by vivid and interesting legends, the Dragon Boat Festival customs in Henan become more and more rich and colorful. There is a ballad that says: "May 5, wheat ripe, wrapped dumplings over the Dragon Boat Festival." This means that wrapping zongzi and eating zongzi is an important folk activity in the Dragon Boat Festival in Henan. From the shape, other provinces and cities have bags of rice dumplings, angle rice dumplings, cone rice dumplings, diamond rice dumplings, tube rice dumplings, weighing rice dumplings and nine rice dumplings, etc., and Henan is mainly angle rice dumplings, there are three angles, there are also four angles.

Small year (June 6). The first day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar is a festival that is more important to the folk in the Central Plains. In the east and south of Henan, there is a small year on the first day of June. Especially in rural areas, it is more important. People take this day as a celebration of the harvest, rituals for a good year of the festival. At this time, the wheat has just been hit down soon, the joy of harvest overflowing in the hearts and eyebrows of farmers. People set up offering tables in their houses, courtyards and wheat fields, put on buns, jujube mountains (a kind of bun), peaches, plums and other fruits, and use buckets full of newly harvested wheat, with the word "Fu" (good fortune) pasted on the buckets in red, and then burn incense and fire cannons to pray for good weather and a good harvest in the fall. Afterwards, people happily eat a meal of "chowder" made of meat, vegetables, vermicelli, and seaweed. Adults have fun playing fistfights in the wheat field, and children have fun eating and playing. The customs are not quite the same. In any case, the festivals are all about eating, playing, and visiting relatives. Moreover, these festivals are all related to married girls. Every family in the countryside takes the married girl home from the first to the sixth day of June and sends her back to her mother-in-law's house after she has been entertained. As the saying goes, "June 6, please aunt." "June 6, hang the hoe hook, called the big aunt called the little aunt."

The custom of celebrating the New Year on the first day of June is quite common in the Central Plains. From the first to the sixth day of June, the taste of "New Year" in the rural areas of the Central Plains is strong and lasts for about a week. Although there is a difference between the first and the sixth day of June, the two festivals are so close to each other that the festivals naturally merge into one. These festivals are agricultural festivals in the farming areas of the Central Plains, and are also "harvest festivals" and "harvest festivals". The customary activities during the festivals were the farmers' activities to taste the fruits of their own labor. This joy is naturally shared by all of them when they visit their friends and relatives.

The Beggar's Tree Festival (the seventh day of the seventh month). The seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar is a traditional Han Chinese festival. Because the main participants in the activities of this day is a young girl, and the content of the festival activities is to beg for coincidence, so people call this day for "Begging for coincidence" or "Maiden Festival". Henan Xinxiang area of the begging custom is in the annual lunar July 6 night, the local unmarried girls seven people into a group (to should be "Tanabata" number), each person into the face of things, for the weaving girl to prepare offerings. Some have to buy grapes, pomegranates, watermelons, jujube, peach and other seven kinds of fruits, branding seven oil or sugar buns, wrapped seven bowls of small dumplings, make seven bowls of noodle soup. In addition, seven large dumplings are wrapped individually, filled with seven kinds of vegetables and wrapped with seven things made of flour, such as needles, weaving shuttles, flower mallets, flower spinning spindles, scissors, garlic cloves, or abacus, and so on. These seven things should be able to represent the wishes of the seven girls.

Livestock Festival (July 15th). The fifteenth day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar is the traditional Zhongyuan Festival in China, commonly known as: "Ghost Festival". Farmers in the Central Plains also call this day the "Livestock Festival", and there are many activities to honor the plowing oxen on this day. In the north of Henan Linxian and other places, July 15 this day, every family should steam lamb-shaped white bread, steamed at noon after offering on the table, and then set off firecrackers to celebrate the prosperity of the groove. Where there are large livestock farmers, this day are to stop making a day of service, after the offering of the lamb steamed buns to the big livestock to eat, but also to the livestock feed beans and other fine fodder to show that the livestock festival is different from the usual. At night, they also make a pot of rice soup for the animals to drink. There is a ballad that says: "Beat a thousand, scold ten thousand, drink a millet rice on July 15."

The Chongyang Festival (the ninth day of the ninth month). The ninth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar is the traditional Chongyang Festival in China. Ancient people believed that "nine" is an auspicious number and took it as a Yang number. The ninth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar, occupies two characters of nine, double yang, so people call it "Chongjiu" or "Chongyang". In Chinese traditional customs, Chongyang Festival is a festival of heights, it is the same as the Dragon Boat Festival to eat zongzi, Mid-Autumn Festival to eat mooncakes, heights into the September 9 Chongyang Festival logo. According to the history books, it was formed under the influence of a myth and legend. In addition, in the traditional concept of the Central Plains people, double nine is also the meaning of long life and health. Therefore, people regard the Chongyang Festival as the "Festival of the Elderly", and many activities centering on respecting, loving and honoring the elderly have emerged in the society.

La Ba Festival (Lunar New Year's Day). The eighth day of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar is the traditional Laha Festival of the Han Chinese people in China, on which most regions of China have the custom of eating Laha congee. Laha congee is cooked with eight kinds of fresh grains and fruits harvested in that year, usually sweet porridge. While many farmers in the Central Plains prefer to eat Lahai salty porridge, porridge in addition to rice, millet, mung beans, cowpeas, peanuts, jujubes and other ingredients, but also to add radish, cabbage, vermicelli, kelp, tofu and so on.

Zaos Festival (23rd day of the Lunar month). The 23rd day of the Lunar month is an important folk festival before the Spring Festival, and people call it "Zaosai Festival". Every time this time, people can't hold back the joy of welcoming the new year, stop all kinds of work in hand, busy routine year before the sacrificial stove to send God activities. On the twenty-third day of the Lunar New Year, the first round of firecrackers of the New Year is set off in the cities and towns of the Central Plains. Townspeople are busy buying food for Zaozao, such as sugar and fire. In the vast countryside, the preparatory activities and grand sacrificial stove ceremony in the deafening sound of the firecrackers gradually opened the curtain. In addition to eating zaosu candy on the day of Zaosu festival, huoyao is also a very characteristic festival food. On the 23rd day of the Lunar New Year, the business of baklava stalls in the city is very prosperous. People are crowded and compete to buy the fire roasts for Zaozhao. Most of the rural areas are their own hands, flour, kang system, the family lively, very much the flavor of the New Year.