What's a birthday like?

Birthdays, especially those of the elderly, are an ancient tradition in China. Birthday etiquette is a unique traditional cultural phenomenon. As the saying goes, five lives come first. There is a cloud in Shang Shu Hong Fan: "Five Blessingg, first, longevity, second, happiness, third, corning, fourth, virtue and fifth." Not only does longevity rank first, but other things such as "corning" and "final exam" are also related to longevity, which shows the position of longevity in people's minds.

Generally speaking, the meaning of birthday is to hope, pray and celebrate health and longevity. Birthdays for the elderly are called birthday parties, which are also called birthday parties, birthday parties and birthday parties. It is a life etiquette held on birthdays every year. Generally, only older people celebrate their birthdays. Traditionally, it is called "birthday" to hold a ceremony on the day of birth before 50 years old, and it is natural to celebrate birthdays after 50 years old. However, if your parents are alive, you can't celebrate your birthday even if you are over 500.

Birthday is a very old tradition, which can be traced back to more than 3000 years ago. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, although birthday etiquette was not perfect, it was quite popular. For example, there is a saying in The Book of Songs The Wind in July that "there is a court, and it is said that it will live forever". Xiaoya Tianbao, the Book of Songs, has a description of "living in Nanshan, not sinking or collapsing", which shows that there were not only birthday rituals, but also the custom of expressing blessings on birthdays. By the Han Dynasty, respecting the elderly has become a popular social fashion, and celebrating birthdays is regarded as a form of filial piety, so the more respectable the birthday ceremony, the better. By the Southern and Northern Dynasties, a relatively complete set of birthday ceremonies had been formed. The Tang and Song Dynasties are the peak stage of the development of birthday customs. According to historical records, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty once called his birthday "Shoushou Festival", which was the first time in the history of China to celebrate the emperor's birthday, and the folk custom of birthday celebration was more popular. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the significance of celebrating birthdays was no longer limited to the initial purpose of praying for longevity and protecting health, but began to become an opportunity for people to entertain themselves, show off and compare with each other, so the scale of celebrating birthdays became larger and larger, and birthday gifts became more and more expensive. In today's society, celebrating birthdays has become an important means of interpersonal communication. People who pay attention to reciprocity usually give gifts to the birthday girl on this day. The birthday cake, birthday candle, birthday party and other elements in western culture are gradually integrated into China's birthday etiquette.

Birthday celebrations have different characteristics in different places. Generally speaking, men hold imaginary years and women hold real years, and the whole birthday is more grand than other years. Birthday etiquette is very complicated. People who pay attention to it usually start their birthdays the day before, which is the so-called "warm birthday". On the birthday, a birthday hall will be built, candles will be lit, birthday presents will be hung, and lanterns will be hung to wait for the ceremony to begin. The layout of Shoutang is generally to hang the Antarctic immortal (birthday for men) or the Queen Mother of Yaochi (birthday for women) or other painting axes symbolizing longevity in the middle of the main hall wall. There is a ceremony table in the center of Shoutang, with peaches, cakes and fruits on it. On the birthday, the birthday girl sits in the middle of the birthday hall and accepts the blessings of relatives and friends and kowtows of the younger generation, which is called "offering a birthday". Usually peers just bow, and the younger generation needs to kowtow. After the birthday ceremony, the host family held a birthday party, and everyone sat down in turn to taste longevity peaches, longevity noodles and other foods. The rich family also invited a troupe to perform. In short, the merrier the better.

Peach, longevity noodles and birthday banquet are essential elements in birthday ceremony.

There are different opinions about the legend of Shoutao. It is said that Sun Bin left his parents at the age of eighteen and went to Yunmeng Mountain to worship Guiguzi as a teacher and study the art of war. Since then, I have been studying hard. Twelve years have passed. During this period, he neither went home nor wrote a letter to his family. On the fifth day of May this year, it suddenly occurred to Sun Bin that today is his mother's eightieth birthday, and the beast still knows how to repay the kindness of parenting. But he didn't repay his mother's kindness for twelve years. So he decided to ask the master for leave to go home and visit his mother. Before leaving, Guiguzi gave Sun Bin a peach and told him, "This peach will not be given away easily. You failed to report your filial piety when studying abroad. I'll give you one to take home for your mother's birthday. " Sun Bin took the peach, thanked the master and went on his way. When he got home, the whole family was celebrating his mother's birthday. Sun Bin took out the peaches sent by the master and gave them to his mother, saying that they were gifts from the master. Mother was very happy to see Sun Bin back. She took a bite of the peach and said, "This peach is sweeter than rock sugar honey." Before the peach was finished, my mother's face became younger: her silver hair turned into blue silk, all the wrinkles on her face disappeared, her dim eyes became bright again, and her lost teeth grew back, so she didn't have to walk with crutches. The whole family is happy to see the change of their mother.

After the news came out, people followed Sun Bin's example and sent peaches on their parents' birthdays, hoping that they would be young forever, healthy and live a long life. Because fresh peaches have strong seasonality, in the season when there are no fresh peaches, people use flour to make peaches to celebrate their parents' birthdays, which is called Shoutao.

Throughout the ages, longevity noodles have always occupied an unshakable dominant position in birthday celebrations. Legend has it that Emperor Wudi's family chatted with ministers and said that people have a great relationship with life span. For every inch a person grows, his life expectancy is one hundred years longer. Dong Fangshuo said with a smile, it is said that Peng Zu lived 800 years. Isn't that what people who are eight inches long do? Ministers couldn't help laughing when they thought of the long-faced people among the eight-inch people. Although this is a joke, after a long period of communication, people gradually believe that people really have something to do with life span. For good luck, when they celebrate the birthday of the birthday girl, they will give the birthday girl longevity noodles and pray for a long life. There is also a saying that noodles are long in shape, and "noodles" and "cotton" are homophonic, which is easy to remind people of endless life and indicates longevity, so longevity noodles must be eaten to live longer. It is recorded in "Notes on Clearing Barn": "If you give people rice noodles and fried noodles, you will live longer." Therefore, the custom of eating noodles on birthdays gradually spread. Birthday noodles are generally three feet long, and each bundle is more than 100. They are coiled into a tower with the word "Shouzi" inserted at the top, and then red paper is pasted on the mask as a birthday present for the birthday girl. Usually two copies will be prepared, and birthday noodles will be put on the birthday box when celebrating the birthday. Shoumian is one of the most important foods for birthdays.

Birthday party is an important part of birthday celebration, and sometimes wealthy families even set up running tables. During the pre-Qin and Han dynasties, the etiquette of celebrating birthdays was not complete. Only in banquets and celebrations, people offered wine to celebrate their birthdays and expressed their wishes when toasting. Later, the birthday party gradually became an indispensable part of the birthday ceremony. After the birthday ceremony, people sit down in turn, drink longevity wine, eat longevity noodles and wish birthday stars a long life. At the birthday party, peaches and longevity noodles are essential. In Qing Dynasty, several unprecedented birthday banquets in Kanggan period made the folk custom of birthday banquets more prosperous. One of the most famous birthday parties in history is the banquet hosted by Emperor Qianlong. This year, Qianlong passed the age of ancient times and had the fifth generation of great-grandchildren. So he claimed to be the son of ancient times, the perfect old man, and sent a letter to invite the elderly over 60 to attend his birthday banquet in the Forbidden City to celebrate his birthday. The emperor was like this, and the people should follow suit, so the atmosphere of holding a birthday party was prosperous for a while.

Friends, relatives and guests invited to birthday parties usually prepare a present as a birthday present. Birthday peaches, birthday candles, birthday couplets and birthday pictures can all be used as birthday gifts. Generally, some symbols of longevity are added to birthday gifts, such as pine and cypress, turtle crane and birthday girl, which are all mascots related to longevity. Birthday couplets are also commonly used birthday gifts, which are generally divided into self-birthday couplets and congratulations couplets. The content of Zishou couplets is often humorous, focusing on expressing personal interests or feelings about life with self-deprecating pen and ink. Usually it is the top grade with elegant writing and distinctive personality. For example, Zheng Banqiao's 60-year-old Zishou couplet said, "If you are a frequent guest, why don't you ask Kangning, but you have more money in your bag, more wine in the jar, more food in the kettle, and a few pages of old paper, so you can sing freely, be broad and stubborn, and have five senses. If you aspire to be immortal, you will have troubles in your breath, which will only make your ears tasteless, supercilious and tasteless. You just decorate a few new flowers casually, go to bed late and get up early, and have two days off a day. You are over 100 years old. " And a pair of birthday couplets can often not only express the author's blessing, but also praise the performance of the birthday girl, which is an elegant birthday present. For example, when Emperor Qianlong celebrated his eightieth birthday, Ji Xiaolan wrote a birthday couplet: "Eight thousand is spring, eight thousand is autumn, eight winds and eight directions are harmonious, celebrating his birthday, and meeting in August on the eightieth day; Five numbers are in harmony with heaven, five numbers are in harmony with the earth, and five generations of Five Blessingg live under one roof. It is a prosperous time, and there are five years in fifty. " It not only celebrated Gan Long's eightieth birthday, but also pointed out his achievements in serving the country and people for 55 years, which made Gan Long very happy. Birthday gifts express the blessings of relatives and friends to the birthday girl, and also have a certain communicative function in a society that pays attention to reciprocity.

Today, many complicated ceremonies have disappeared, but the intrinsic meaning of birthday celebration, such as expressing blessings, celebrating birthdays and praying for longevity, still exists. Birthday banquets, birthday gifts, eating longevity noodles and other customs are common, and also incorporate many elements of the times, such as sending travel tickets to parents as birthday gifts, which not only expresses children's wishes, but also allows the elderly to have a meaningful birthday. Health and longevity are people's good wishes, so the custom of celebrating birthdays will continue to spread.