What are the customs of Pujiang?

Pujiang people still retain the customs of the New Year handed down from their ancestors, and there are many differences with Zhuji.

The preparation for New Year's Eve is not much different from that of Zhuji, which is just cleaning, slaughtering, etc. By noon on the thirtieth day of the New Year, all the pots and pans and ladles, tables, chairs and stools are all clean, and the pigs, ducks, chickens and geese are all lying in the stove room, and everything is ready to go, and then it is different from that of Zhuji. Most places in the rural areas of Pujiang still retain the custom of collective family sacrifices. My husband's family in the village is a large Chen family, still retains the large family's original three-pronged big house, can live dozens of families, the middle of the hall is a large **** with, specifically used to engage in ritual activities or to do red and white wedding. On New Year's Day, it is customary to hang red lanterns, put up many spring couplets, put incense in front of the door, and place a very large table inside the door to set up the sacrificial offerings of each family. At twelve o'clock at noon, a designated clan member will sound a gong outside to inform the housewives that they can prepare the sacrificial offerings. The housewives then start to light a fire and boil water for steaming, at this time the housewives have to steam usually a pig's head (if there is no pig's head, they use Yuanbao hard ribs instead), a chicken, a piece of chicken blood, some steamed buns of Pujiang specialties and reddish dyed Yangmei fruit made of glutinous rice, which is full of the rich aroma of meat wafting all over the village at this time. After cooking, these things should be put in a special wooden basket for rituals, labeled with red paper, but also inserted in the pork on a knife, probably for the Bodhisattva or ancestors used to cut the meat to eat it. It takes about two to three hours to prepare these things, and in between, a gong is sounded about every hour to urge the housewives to hurry up with their preparations so as not to delay the big event of praying for blessings. The man of the house is busy putting up red paper and hanging lanterns. Pujiang people pay attention to the New Year is red, New Year's Eve afternoon, every family to hang lanterns, red paper, and is the door, windows, beds, stoves, pig pens, etc., pasted everywhere, red paper written on all kinds of blessings, just this full of red makes people feel festive and auspicious. At around 3:00 pm, the housewives who are quicker will bring out the baskets of offerings. My mother-in-law is quicker, so the offerings of our family are often the first to come out. There are rules about serving the offerings. A man must do it, and women are not allowed to do it. In my family, my father-in-law usually serves the offerings. At this time, my father-in-law has to wash his face and feet first, then put on a new outfit and respectfully take the offerings out. After three o'clock, the gongs and drums start to pound, urging each family to bring out the sacrificial offerings, and then men, women, and children have to change into new clothes. Nowadays, with the high standard of living, it is not unusual to get new clothes, but in the old days, this would have been one of the most exciting moments for children. Around 3:30, the male members of all families, large and small, gathered in the hall with new clothes, the candles on the incense burner were already lit, the sacrificial offerings on the case were already full, and the thousands of square meters of sunbathing field in front of the house were densely lined up with firecrackers, which seemed like a sea of red. Pujiang people have a good tradition of thrift and frugality, but on New Year's firecrackers but not at all ambiguous, are a whole box of the whole box to buy, has to be put to February 2 after the small year, the light of the blessing ceremony of each family will be at least put a box or more. All ready to start the blessing, the whole collective ritual activities in three steps, the first step, first kneeling heaven and earth, thank heaven and earth blessing, praying for the coming year, rain, grains, and then worship the ancestors, praying for the ancestors to bless you with happiness and well-being. The second step is to set off firecrackers, which is the time for all Pujiang people to pray for blessings, and the whole Pujiang River is drowned in the deafening sound of firecrackers. It takes about half an hour to set off the firecrackers. The third step, once again kneeling, and then burn yellow paper, we Zhuji people burn Yuanbao and paper money, while Pujiang people are burning yellow paper in large quantities, probably also be regarded as paper money. After burning yellow paper, the public *** ritual activity link is completed.

Next, each family brings home their own offerings and begins their own ritual session. First offerings to the God of the stove, then to the ancestors, and finally to the Bodhisattva of the Pig Pen. This process is still done by the men, and the women are usually not involved. My father-in-law was loyal and honest, and could not speak more than a few words a year, so I thought he naturally would not object to my participation in the family rituals, so I participated without permission, and the old man never objected. So I participated in this ritual every year. While the men were performing the rituals, the hostesses would hurry to prepare the New Year's Eve dinner, and when the rituals were completed, the hostesses' New Year's Eve dinner was almost ready. After the rituals are completed, the hostess prepares the New Year's Eve dinner and then the family has the New Year's Eve dinner together. After the New Year's Eve dinner, it's time to share the New Year's money, which is called "red paper bag" in Pujiang, and it's the happiest time for the children. Grandparents, uncles and aunts will give, my husband is the only son in the family, but the children can still get a lot of red envelopes from the cousins. Of course, I also have to share it with my own children, and in the meantime, I also give two to the elderly to show my filial piety. After the red packets are distributed, men and women of all ages gather in the hall and the patio for recreational activities. A year of busy down this is the most relaxed time, but also the most generous time, a bunch of a bunch of get together to play mahjong, throw dice, play double buckle, etc., some men in front of the gambling, the female guests (wife) is still behind the money management. Children are busy with small cannons or late games. The Spring Festival Gala is not attractive to them at all. This night you don't have to wait for your husband and children to come back to bed honestly before two o'clock, I am a foreigner, the language barrier also can't afford to take the money to go to such a "smashing", so I will be safe and sound to watch the Spring Festival Gala alone at home. To zero, we put down the hands of the "work" to set off the second firecrackers. After the firecrackers will be from back to the table to continue to "war", basically to the second half of the night.

On the first day of the year, the first thing to do after breakfast is to go to the graves of ancestors, believe in Buddhism on the temple to worship Bodhisattva. The second day of the year began to pay homage to the New Year, Pujiang people pay homage to the New Year special attention, all the elders relatives to take turns to visit, in addition to the deterioration of relations, otherwise it must go and generally every year in the same day to visit, such as the second day of the mother's home, the third grandma's uncle's home, the first four aunts home. So which day to pay homage to whose family or who will come to pay homage to the New Year do not have to guess and do not have to wait, the go to the go to the come to the natural will come, are customary. The rest do not go to pay homage to the New Year's Eve as usual in front of the patio piles of gambling, never heard the husband lost money on the table and the wife in the back of the angry denunciation, everything is so lively, so harmonious! This has been played until the Lantern Festival.

To the Lantern Festival, New Year's Eve into the second climax, almost every village should be prepared to dance dragon lanterns or lanterns, and then several villages to form a joint society, generally from the tenth every night to take turns to the villages to show that the lanterns have been made into the shape of an animal, there are made into a character in the play, there are children sitting on the shelf to play a variety of characters, the husband, they have done a bench dragon, there is a section of a section of a bench type of link! Composition, each section of the bench has a dragon body components, inside the candles (now with light bulbs), at night, six or seven dragon lamps in the road lined up into a few miles long, very spectacular. After coming to the village, the first six or seven "dragons" lined up together, to accept some people's offerings, there are hanging red cloth, there are colorful gifts. After the dedication began to dance dragon lanterns, six or seven dragon lanterns first slowly circling together, and then gradually accelerate the speed, and finally in the light flashes rapidly across, positive disk against the disk, really dazzling people. Dance dragon lantern is a high technology, high difficulty, high risk of work, through the route is very complex, and also have a certain speed, or not reflect the wonderful fierce dragon dance, the process can not have a little error, or may be stranded together can not come out, and even endangered life. So the feeling of watching dragon lanterns is both wonderful and nervous. After the dance of the dragon lanterns, if any newlyweds will be the head of the dragon on the colorful ball to come, hanging in the bed of the newlyweds, praying for the blessing of the Dragon God to give birth to a fat boy, if the Dragon God blessed really add a male, the next year, the Lantern Lantern Lantern Lantern Lantern to welcome all the staff to the dance of the steamed buns. When my in-laws were happy to share. I have seen Zhuji City Square dragon lanterns, because every time in the daytime, although the sea of people, but there is no light, the effect is much worse, not as wonderful as the Pujiang.

To the second day of the second month of the lunar calendar, New Year's Eve into the third climax - a small New Year's Eve, the conditions of good villages at night to do a lively play, do a play before the village will also be enshrined in the Bodhisattva carried out in the theater to accept the worship, and then accept a number of pious people to pay homage to the individual, of course, still have to have sacrifices, but also to burn a lot of firecrackers, plus a large number of firecrackers, and then the village of the village to do a play. Coupled with the lively scene of the play, more lively than the New Year and the Lantern Festival, but in recent years the small New Year seems to be gradually by the cold. Because of the work like the Lantern Festival and the New Year's Eve such a spectacle I have only seen once or twice.

This is the end of the New Year's Eve, so we should do what we do, and then come back together in the next year.