Dezhou Spring Festival Customs and Mid-Autumn Festival Customs

Spring Festival is the largest and most lively ancient traditional festival in China, commonly known as "Chinese New Year". According to the China lunar calendar, the first day of the first month is "Year Yuan, Month Yuan, Time Yuan", which is the beginning of a year. Traditional celebrations last from New Year's Eve to the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first month. The original intention of the two concepts of Spring Festival and New Year comes from agriculture. In ancient times, people called the growth cycle of the valley "year", and Shuowen supplemented it with "year, the valley is ripe". The Spring Festival originated in La Worship, a primitive society in China. It is said that people kill pigs to sacrifice to God and pray for good weather and bumper harvests in the coming year. People paint their faces with vermilion, decorate their wings with birds and sing and dance. During the Xia and Shang Dynasties, the Xia calendar came into being, with the full and short moon as the month, and a year was divided into twelve months. Every month, the day when the moon can't be seen is the new moon, and the first day of the first month is called the beginning of a year, also known as the year. The title of the year began in the Zhou Dynasty and was officially set in the Western Han Dynasty, which continues to this day. However, in ancient times, the first day of the first month was called "New Year's Day". Until the victory of the Revolution of 1911 in modern China, in order to conform to the farming season and facilitate statistics, the Nanjing Provisional Government stipulated that the people should use the summer calendar, and the institutions, factories, mines, schools and organizations should adopt the solar calendar, with the Gregorian calendar 1 month 1 day as New Year's Day and the first month of the lunar calendar 1 day as the Spring Festival. 1949 After the founding of New China, at the first plenary session of the China People's Political Consultative Conference, the internationally used Gregorian calendar era was adopted, and the Gregorian calendar 1 month 1 day was designated as New Year's Day, commonly known as the Gregorian calendar year; The first day of the first lunar month is usually around beginning of spring, so the first day of the first lunar month is designated as the Spring Festival, commonly known as the Lunar New Year. The customs of the Spring Festival in Dezhou are: setting off firecrackers, greeting the New Year, gathering wealth, occupying the New Year, giving gifts to the gods, adding money (adding jars), opening markets, etc.

Opening firecrackers: On the morning of the Spring Festival, when the door is open, Texans set off firecrackers first. This is called "opening firecrackers". After the firecrackers, the ground is broken red, which is the so-called "full house". At this time, the streets are full of anger and joy.

Happy New Year: On the first day of the New Year's Day, when the first cock crows or the New Year bell rings, firecrackers are ringing in the street, and the noise is one after another. Everyone is beaming, and the new year has begun. Men, women and children wear holiday clothes. One is to pay New Year greetings to the elders at home, and the elders also give lucky money to their children. At dawn, people put on their most beautiful clothes early, dressed neatly, went out to visit relatives and friends, and wished each other good luck in the coming year. There are many ways to pay New Year's greetings, some of which are led by the same patriarch from door to door. Some colleagues invited several people to pay New Year greetings; Some people get together to congratulate each other, which is called "group worship". There is a difference between New Year greetings and New Year greetings in the old days: New Year greetings are knocking on elders; The New Year is a time for peers to congratulate each other. The custom of paying New Year greetings in Texas is to visit parents, clans, neighbors, unit leaders and colleagues on the first day of each month. The next day, I went to my grandmother's house and my uncle's house. On the third day, I visited my parents-in-law and my sister's house. Later, I paid homage to other relatives and friends. In Texas, there are some sayings, such as "My grandmother visits her mother-in-law in the third grade, and she visits her mother-in-law in the fourth and fifth grades", "I visit her mother-in-law in the seventh and eighth grades of the lunar new year, and there is no tofu or dregs". New Year's greetings do not exceed the fifteenth day of the first month. When visiting neighbors, they usually don't bring gifts, but every family likes others to pay New Year's greetings at home and treat them warmly with all kinds of melon and fruit snacks and rock tea. When you visit your neighbors, you won't stay in every home for a long time. This is called "Running Year". There is a saying that "it is better to leak one village than one household" in the operation year. When you go to your parents' house for the New Year, you should bring gifts such as tobacco, alcohol, snacks and fruits. When visiting relatives to pay New Year greetings, you should pay New Year greetings to your elders according to their generations. People in the same industry should shake hands and bow to each other and say "Happy New Year to you" and "Congratulations on your fortune". At the same time, it also accepts new year greetings from relatives and younger generations, and the owner should give the children lucky money. Because it takes time and effort to pay New Year greetings at home, some elites and scholars later congratulated each other with various stickers, thus developing the later "New Year cards". After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the state stipulated the Spring Festival as a legal holiday, and all walks of life had a three-day holiday. Various organizations, schools, factories and mines held various celebration activities, such as group worship, sympathy and party. In the countryside, they still follow the old customs, but they seldom engage in superstitious activities, such as worshipping God. In most families, the younger generation only sends greetings and blessings to the elders, and no longer kowtows. The traditional customs and habits of the Spring Festival have been greatly simplified and diluted. Most families watch TV programs instead of observing the New Year and visit them to express their greetings. The color of the times is obviously enhanced, but the joyful atmosphere is increasing. With the development of the times, the custom of New Year greetings is constantly adding new contents and forms. Nowadays, people not only follow the old way of paying New Year greetings, but also begin to pay New Year greetings through courtesy telegrams, telephone calls and text messages. Happy new year: it can enhance the feelings of young and old, eliminate barriers, live in harmony with neighbors, forgive and forget old scores, and get back together in the new year.

Jucai: It is said that the first day of the first month is broom's birthday. You can't use a broom on this day, otherwise it will sweep away luck, ruin money, and bring "broom stars" and bring bad luck. If you must sweep the floor, you must sweep it from the outside to the inside. Don't throw water on the garbage on this day, for fear of breaking the money. Today, this custom still remains in many places. Clean up on New Year's Eve afternoon. On New Year's Day, don't put a broom or take out the garbage, and prepare a big barrel of waste water to avoid splashing outside that day.

Occupation year: In the past, people occupied a sunny year on the first day of the first month of the Spring Festival. Its theory began in Dong Fangshuo's "Year", which means that eight days after the year, one day is chicken day, two days are dogs, three days are pigs, four days are sheep, five days are cows, six days are horses, seven days are people and eight days are valleys. If the weather is fine, creatures will reproduce; When it is cloudy, it is a disaster. Later generations follow their habits and think that the weather is sunny from the first day to the tenth day, and there is no wind or snow for good luck. Texans often say, "On the 30th, it will be sunny, and people will flourish, with sorghum in the first day, millet in the second day, cats in the third day, dogs in the fourth day, pigs in the fifth day, sheep in the sixth day, seven grains and eight wheat, and nine fruits and ten vegetables".

Seeing God off: On the second day of New Year's Day, just before dawn, the firecrackers in Zhoucheng rang again, and the ceremony of seeing God off began. When giving gifts to the gods, bring bowls of freshly cooked noodles in the pot at the confession of the family hall (there is a saying in Texas: the god who receives a spoiled child gives a gift to the gods). Before the patriarch or the old man leads his children to bow down in the family hall, they burn incense and paper, kowtow and say, "Grandparents will go back to Tushan". When they get up, they get off. Someone picked up the door stopper and burned some paper at the door and yard to show it. At the same time, the women in the family cleaned up their homes, withdrew their offerings, and swept the sesame stalks in the courtyard (sweeping money). Later, the whole family or representatives went to the grave, also placed offerings in front of the grave, burned paper and incense, bowed down and kowtowed, and set off firecrackers (there were many firecrackers in front of the grave at this time), and the ceremony of sending the gods ended.

Adding money (tank): On the afternoon of the second day of the Lunar New Year, every man should fill up the water tank at home, even if there is still water in the tank. This is called "adding money". Looking forward to a year of rolling financial resources.

Dezhou Mid-Autumn Festival custom:

August 15th of the lunar calendar is the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival. This is the middle of autumn, so it is called Mid-Autumn Festival. In China's lunar calendar, a year is divided into four seasons, and each season is divided into three parts: Meng, Zhong and Ji, so the Mid-Autumn Festival is also called the Mid-Autumn Festival. The moon on August 15 is rounder and brighter than the full moon in other months, so it is also called "moonlit night" and "August Festival". On this night, people look up at the bright moon like jade in the sky and naturally look forward to family reunion. Wanderers who are far away from home also take this opportunity to pin their thoughts on their relatives in their hometown. Therefore, Mid-Autumn Festival is also called "Reunion Festival".

In ancient times, the people of Texas had the custom of "autumn dusk, moon dusk". The moon at night is to worship the moon god. Every Mid-Autumn Festival night, there will be Mid-Autumn Festival, and every family will burn sugar (burn molds with sugar and print various patterns). In the courtyard facing the moon, a big incense table is set up, with moon cakes, watermelons, apples, red dates, plums, grapes and other sacrifices, among which moon cakes and watermelons are absolutely indispensable. Red candles burn high under the moon, and the whole family takes turns to Yue Bai (called Grandma Moon), and then the housewife cuts the reunion moon cakes. People who cut moon cakes always count the number of people in the family, the number of people in the family and the number of people from other places in advance. They should not be cut more or less, they should be the same size. The whole family can enjoy the moon while eating, in order to celebrate family reunion and harvest.

The legend of eating moon cakes in the Mid-Autumn Festival began in the Yuan Dynasty. At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang led the Han people to resist the tyranny of the Yuan Dynasty, agreed on the August 15th uprising (killing the Tartars on August 15th), and put a note in a moon cake to convey the news. The custom of eating moon cakes on Mid-Autumn Festival spread among the people.

Appreciating the moon in Mid-Autumn Festival has always been valued by all previous dynasties. On this day, all restaurants in the downtown area have to redecorate their facades, tie silk arches and sell newly opened good wine. The shops are full of fresh fruits, and the night market is very lively, which is rare in a year. Dignitaries, rich families, pavilions and moonshine, harps and harps are sonorous. Ordinary citizens scrambled to occupy the restaurant in order to see the moonlight first and arrange a family dinner for their children to reunite. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, people have paid more attention to the Mid-Autumn Festival. Folk take moon cakes as inheritance and take the meaning of reunion.

Nowadays, the custom of playing under the moon is far less popular than in the old days. However, before the festival, customs such as taking moon cakes, braised chicken, visiting relatives and friends with wine, holding banquets to enjoy the moon and eating moon cakes are still very popular. People drink in the middle of the moon to celebrate a better life, or wish their distant relatives health and happiness and have a "thousand-mile trip" with their families.

Legend of Dezhou Mid-Autumn Festival: "the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon". According to legend, in ancient times, there were ten days in the sky at the same time, and the crops were dry and the people were miserable. In Aying County (Decheng District) and a poor county (Plain District), there is a hero named Hou Yi. He has infinite power. He sympathized with the suffering people, climbed the top of Kunlun Mountain, drew his bow, shot down nine suns in one breath, and strictly ordered the last one to rise and fall on time for the benefit of the people.

Hou Yi was respected and loved by the people. He married a beautiful and kind wife named Chang 'e. Besides hunting, Hou Yi spends all his time with his wife, and people envy this beautiful and loving couple. Many people with lofty ideals came here to study as teachers, and Meng Peng with ulterior motives joined in.

One day, Hou Yi went to Kunlun Mountain to visit friends and seek truth. He happened to meet the Queen Mother passing by and asked her for a bag of elixir. It is said that taking this medicine can immediately ascend to heaven. However, Hou Yi was reluctant to leave his wife, so he had to temporarily give the elixir to Chang 'e. Chang 'e hid the medicine in the dresser's treasure chest, but the villain Meng Peng saw it. He wants to steal the elixir to make himself immortal. Three days later, Hou Yi led his entourage out hunting, while Meng Peng with ulterior motives pretended to be ill. Shortly after Hou Yi led the crowd to leave, Meng Peng broke into the backyard of the back room with a sword in his hand, threatening Chang 'e to hand over the elixir. Chang 'e knew that she was no match for Meng Peng. In times of crisis, she made a decisive decision, turned around and opened the treasure chest, took out the elixir and swallowed it in one gulp. Chang 'e swallowed the medicine and immediately floated off the ground, rushed out of the window and flew into the sky. Because Chang 'e was worried about her husband, she flew to the nearest moon and became a fairy.

In the evening, when Hou Yi came home, the maids cried and told what happened during the day. Hou Yi was surprised and angry, and drew his sword to kill the villain. Meng Peng escaped early. Angry and heartbroken, Hou Yi looked up at the night sky and shouted the name of his beloved wife. At this time, he was surprised to find that today's moon is exceptionally bright and bright. There is a swaying figure resembling Chang 'e. He chased the moon desperately, but he chased it three times, the moon retreated three times, he retreated three times, and the moon advanced three times. He couldn't catch up anyway. Hou Yi had no choice but to miss his wife, so he had to send someone to Chang 'e's favorite back garden, put on a table sweetmeats, put on her favorite honey and fresh fruit, and offer a sacrifice to Chang 'e who was attached to him at the Moon Palace. After hearing the news that the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon became an immortal, people set up an incense table under the moon and prayed for good luck and peace to the kind Chang 'e. Since then, the custom of Mid-Autumn Festival in Yue Bai has spread among the people.