Tujia cultural customs

Tujia cultural customs are mainly distributed in the northwest of Hunan Province (Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture), Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Hubei Province, Wufeng Tujia Autonomous County of Yichang City, Changyang Tujia Autonomous County, Shizhu County, Xiushan County, Youyang County and Qianjiang County of Sichuan Province, where they live together with Han and Miao people. Inhabited areas, customs and habits

Language and writing:

Tujia people have their own language, and Tujia language belongs to the Tibeto-Burman language family of Sino-Tibetan language family, and its branch is uncertain. Because most people have lived with the Han nationality for a long time, they began to use Chinese and Chinese very early. Only Yongshun, Longshan, Guzhang and other inhabited areas in Hunan still retain Tujia language completely. There is no written language in this country, and Chinese is widely used.

Resident:

Tujia people love to live in groups, and the houses are built in one village and one village, and there are few single-family houses. Tujia people build houses by relying on mountains, usually diaojiao buildings, where people live upstairs and livestock are shut down downstairs. Building a house needs to be backed by mountains. Generally, there are four pillars and three rooms, and the middle room should be set up with ancestral temples. Others live in the left and right rooms, mostly two small rooms, and are called "the second room". There is a fire shop in front of the second room, and there is a kang in the middle of the fire shop for heating and cooking. There is an iron tripod on the kang. There is a kang rack hanging above the fire kang, which is used to dry kang supplies. Especially before the Spring Festival, bacon and sausages used to dry kang can still be bought.

Clothing:

Tujia women's clothing is a short coat with big sleeves, lapel on the left, 2 ~ 3 layers of lace rolled in, and trimmed pants; Men's wear is a double-breasted coat. "New Year", that is, celebrating the New Year L ~ 2 days in advance, is an important festival. Tujia men wear pipa armour and wrap their hair around their heads. Women wear left-handed robes with two or three laces, wide sleeves, and well-tailored pants or eight-point skirts. They like to wear all kinds of gold, silver and jade articles.

Custom:

The man and the woman fell in love and got married after many songs. Have the habit of "crying and marrying". Women begin to cry 7-20 days before marriage, and wedding songs include "Women cry for their mothers", "Sisters cry for their sisters" and "Scolding the matchmaker". At first, I sang softly, and the closer I got to the wedding day, the sadder I felt. Until I cried my mouth dry and my eyes were red and swollen. They regard whether they are good at crying marriage as the standard to measure women's talent and virtue.

Before the toast system, Tujia people practiced cremation. Burial has been carried out since the toast system, and the funeral is presided over by the toast. When the toast offered sacrifices to the dead, he spun the wheel three times on the skylight, recited the scriptures and sent the dead across the overpass to heaven. Then he pretended to be a dead man and went out around the "Ha Ha Tai". The children of the deceased mourned with the toast, who sang mourning songs and boasted. Suddenly, the cannon exploded into the sky, and the crying and moaning lasted for days and nights. Then the coffin with the body was carried up the mountain and buried. During the return of the Republic of China to the motherland, the funeral of Tujia people was presided over by Taoist priests. Three days, five days and seven days after their death, Taoist priests made different levels of Dojo according to their masters' family background, with names such as Little Ten Kings, Big Ten Kings, Overnight Hall, One Vertical Mast, Two Vertical Masts and Seven Vertical Masts. Dojo generally carries out specific operating procedures such as getting out of bed, clearing the way, recommending the dead, offering sacrifices to stoves, scattering flowers, telling lights, burning coffins, telling spirits and sweeping the hall. Relatives of the deceased wore Pima Dai Xiao, followed Taoist priests to attend the funeral, and invited people to sing filial piety songs in memory of the deceased. After the founding of New China, Tu Laosi and Taoist priests stopped their activities and held a memorial service in the Dojo to sing funeral songs.

Religious belief:

Influenced by the Han nationality, in religion, they mainly believe in ghosts and gods and worship their ancestors. These gods are not their own. Witches used to exorcise ghosts. Some places believe in Taoism. On New Year's Day every year, we should pay high tribute to our ancestors, and we should also pay high tribute to them on the first and fifteenth day of the first lunar month. Ancestor foods include pig's head, jiaozi, Baba, chickens and ducks and five kinds of cereals. Before each meal, some people will put a small amount of food on the rice with chopsticks in silence, indicating that they invite their deceased ancestors to eat first, and then they begin to eat. On the sixth day of the sixth lunar month, a wave hall is built in every village, and sacrifices such as pig heads and fruits are placed in front of the wave hall. In October, winter is sacrificed on the first day of October, and chickens and ducks are slaughtered for banquets. In addition, Tujia people worship the kitchen god, the earth god, the grain god and the tapir god, and offer sacrifices to Luban when building houses. Besides wine and meat, they also want a rooster.

Eating habits:

Tujia people usually eat three meals a day and two meals in their leisure time; Eat four meals in spring and summer when agriculture is busy and labor intensity is high. For example, in the transplanting season, it is necessary to add a "premature" meal in the morning, which is mostly snacks such as glutinous rice dumplings or mung bean powder. It is said that eating glutinous rice balls "too early" means good harvest and good luck. Tujia people also like to eat camellia soup. Besides rice, bibimbap is the most common staple food. Sometimes they also eat bean rice. Baba and unity are also the seasonal staple foods of Tujia people, and some people even eat them until the next seed. In the past, Hongshan medicine has been regarded as a staple food in many areas, and it is still a standing food in some areas after winter. The main characteristics of Tujia cuisine are sour and spicy. Every folk family has a sauerkraut jar, which is used to pickle sauerkraut, and almost every meal is inseparable from sauerkraut. Bean products are also very common, such as tofu, lobster sauce, bean leaf skin, tofu milk and so on. I especially like to eat mixed dregs, that is, grinding soybeans, without separating pulp dregs, boiling and clarifying, and adding vegetable leaves for cooking. Villagers often eat bean rice, corn rice and slag soup together. Tujia people's drinking, especially during festivals or entertaining guests, is essential. Among them, sweet wine and miscellaneous wine brewed with glutinous rice and sorghum are more common, with low degree and pure taste. Typical food: Tujia people like to eat Baba bacon, oil tea and other foods, as well as assorted dishes; Tuanxiang; Mung bean powder (rice flour); Fried rice cakes.

Culture:

Tujia people like to sing folk songs, including love songs, crying wedding songs, rocking songs, labor songs and vegetable songs. "Hand-waving dance" is a popular and ancient group dance, including more than 70 movements in hunting, military, farming and banquets. It is related to offering sacrifices to ancestors and praying for a bumper harvest. No matter what big party you have, you should dance. "Waving" begins on a certain day of the lunar calendar and lasts for odd days. Usually three days, five days and seven days. Generally, there are thousands of participants on the ninth day of the first lunar month or the third day of March. The rhythm is clear, the movements are beautiful, simple and full of life. Epic and folk songs are the most famous. The most famous Tujia literature is narrative poems, folk songs and lullabies when dancing. There are big wave songs and small wave songs, and big wave songs are epic. Xiaolang songs are mostly bitter songs and love songs, belonging to lyric works. It has strong national characteristics and unique Shan Ye flavor. The long narrative poem "Golden Rooster" is a combination of four folk songs, which is expressed by male and female duets. It takes the love story as the main line and reflects the broad social life.

Life:

Mainly engaged in agriculture, handicrafts, embroidery, weaving more famous, especially soil flower bedding. Influenced by the Han nationality in economic and cultural development, it also retains its own characteristics. "Golden Tung Oil" in Xiangxi and "Dam Paint" in western Hubei are famous brands at home and abroad. "Xilankapu" is a wonderful flower in Tujia national craft. Also known as "flower bedding", it is a kind of Tujia brocade. It is listed as one of the five tapestries in China with its unique technology and wonderful composition.

Festivals:

Tujia people take April 8, June 6 and Tujia Year as their main festivals. The most solemn is Tujia Year, commonly known as "catching up with the Chinese New Year", which is held the day before the Chinese New Year. Off-year is the 29th of the twelfth lunar month, and off-year is the 28th of the twelfth lunar month.

The main activities of China New Year.

The Lunar New Year is the biggest and longest-lasting festival of Tujia people, starting on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month and ending on the 15th of the first month. The time before New Year's Eve is mainly to prepare for the Chinese New Year. Basically, every family must make their own bacon, sausage and Ciba (a few families will buy it even if they don't make it themselves).

After entering the twelfth lunar month, every Tujia family began to prepare new year's goods. At this time, people who work and study outside must go home for reunion. The schedule of the twelfth lunar month is as follows: killing pigs, smoked bacon, grinding bean curd, Baba, fried rice, etc. These are typical features of Tujia New Year activities.

(1) Year of the Communist Youth League on New Year's Eve

Lunar New Year's Eve is called the "Youth League Festival", which is the day of the Youth League Festival and the most lively and happy day for Tujia people in a year. Tujia people are very particular about the "reunion dinner": first of all, all family members must arrive, and no matter how far away they work or study, their children must rush home to have the reunion dinner together. Second, all Tujia people must be seated at the same time, and the reunion dinner will not officially begin until the elders at home set off firecrackers in the yard and said a few happy words. Generally speaking, the women in the family are responsible for preparing the New Year's Eve dinner, and the men are generally responsible for helping to make a fire, but now they generally don't burn firewood, so men just help, or post Spring Festival couplets, play cards, or even watch TV or something.

After New Year's Eve, it is the first day of the New Year, and Tujia people begin to pay New Year greetings from this day. Tujia people regard the fifteenth day of the first month as the last day of the New Year. Except those who haven't finished the New Year, they usually spend the New Year in their own homes, and the whole family eats dumplings together. On the first day of New Year's Day, we should pay a New Year call. "On New Year's Day, we worship our family gods. On New Year's Day, we all go to our parents' home to pay New Year's greetings, and then go to our parents' home to pay New Year's greetings."

(2) After eating the sweet dumplings representing "reunion" on the fifteenth night of the first month, Tujia people will come to the last large-scale activity in the New Year: "Playing with dogs"-an entertaining bonfire party, teasing Seven Sisters, playing with dragon lanterns and dancing lions.

As the saying goes: keep warm on the night of New Year's Eve and light on the fifteenth day of the first month. What children are most looking forward to is the fifteenth night of the first month, because every household has to line up that night. When night falls, adults and children light rows of candles in front of and behind their houses, flashing in the breeze, which is really beautiful. The most lively time to play dragon lanterns is the fifteenth day of the first month. After a hearty dinner, the dragon dancers will visit every family in the village and dance in front of each family's house for a while, while the audience will play with the dragon dancers. Turn to Jiangtan for a grand "dragon burning ceremony". People use homemade long bamboo tubes to hold black powder, and each person takes a few. After lighting, they burned violently in the dragon's head and tail. The flying sparks are so brilliant that the dragon dancers try their best to avoid them. After many rounds, until the dragon's tail was completely burned. The scene at that time was spectacular! Laughter, gongs and firecrackers made the year end in a lively atmosphere. After the fifteenth day of the first month, the year is over, which indicates that people will start spring ploughing in the new year.