Folk customs of the Spring Festival

Spring Festival custom: the 23rd/24th of the twelfth lunar month-offering sacrifices to stoves, sweeping dust and eating stove candy

In China, the Spring Festival usually begins with offering sacrifices to stoves. The folk song "Twenty-three, Sweet Melon Sticks" refers to the sacrificial stove on the 23rd or 24th of the twelfth lunar month every year. There is a saying that "officials, three people, four boatmen and five", that is, the government holds the sacrificial stove on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the ordinary people hold it on the 24th, and house boat holds it on the 25th.

offering sacrifices to a stove is a very popular custom with great influence among the people in our country. In the old days, almost every kitchen had a "kitchen god" god. People call this god "the Bodhisattva who commands the life" or "the kitchen master commands the life". It is said that he is the "Nine-day East Chef who commands the kitchen palace" sealed by the Jade Emperor, who is responsible for managing the kitchen fires of various families and is worshipped as the protector of a family. Kitchen God niches are mostly located in the north or east of the kitchen, with the gods of Kitchen God in the middle. Some people who don't have a niche for the kitchen king also paste the gods directly on the wall. Some gods only draw one kitchen god, while others have two men and women. The goddess is called "Grandma Kitchen King". This is probably an imitation of the image of a human couple. Most of the statues of the Kitchen God are also printed with the calendar of this year, with the words "the chef in the East is in charge", "the guardian of the world" and "the head of the family" written on them to show the status of the Kitchen God. On both sides, there are couplets of "Heaven says good things, and the lower world keeps peace" to bless the peace of the whole family.

Kitchen God has been staying at home since last year's New Year's Eve to protect and supervise the family. On the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the Kitchen God will ascend to heaven and report the good deeds or evil deeds of this family to the Jade Emperor in heaven. The ceremony of sending the Kitchen God is called "sending the kitchen" or "resigning the kitchen". According to the report of the Kitchen God, the Jade Emperor entrusted the family with the fate of good fortune and bad fortune in the new year. Therefore, for a family, the report of the kitchen god is really of great interest. Sending stoves is usually held at dusk. The family first went to the kitchen, set the table, offered incense to the kitchen god in the shrine on the kitchen wall, and offered candied melons made of caramel and flour. Then the bamboo sticks are tied into paper horses and fodder for animals. Sacrificing the kitchen god with caramel is to make his old man's mouth sweet. In some places, sugar is also coated around the mouth of the kitchen god, saying, "Say more good things, but don't say bad things." This is to gag the kitchen god with sugar and tell him not to speak ill. In the Tang Dynasty's book "The Chronicle of the Old Age", there is an occasional record that "Si Ming (Kitchen God) was drunk by applying distiller's grains on the stove". After people painted the mouth of the kitchen god with sugar, they took off the idol and ascended to heaven with paper and smoke. In some places, sesame stalks and pine branches are piled up in the yard at night, and then the statue of the kitchen king, which has been offered for one year, is taken out of the shrine, together with paper horses and fodder, and set on fire. The courtyard was brightly lit by the fire, and at this time, the family kowtowed around the fire, burning and praying: It is the 23rd this year, and I would like to send the kitchen ruler to the Western Heaven. There are strong horses and forage, and you will arrive safely. The candied melons are sweet and sweet. Please speak kindly to the Jade Emperor. When sending Kitchen God, there were still several beggars in some places, dressed up, singing songs and dancing to send Kitchen God from house to house, named "Send Kitchen God", in exchange for food. The custom of sending stoves is very common in all parts of China. Mr. Lu Xun once wrote the poem "A Gengzi sends a stove as a matter of fact": only chicken gum is sweet, and the clothes are fragrant. If there is nothing at home, there are only a few antelope. He said in the article "On the Day of Sending Kitchen Stove": "On the day when Kitchen Jun ascended to heaven, there was still a kind of sugar on the street, the size of a citrus, and we also had it there, but it was flat, like a thick pancake. That's the so-called gum tooth. "The intention was to invite Kitchen Jun to eat it and stick his teeth so that he could not talk ill of the Jade Emperor." The allusion to "Antelope" in Lu Xun's poems comes from "The Biography of Yin Shi in the Later Han Dynasty": "When Emperor Xuandi was proclaimed, the Yin Zi Fang was the most filial and kind. Cooking in the morning on the twelfth day, and seeing the kitchen god, the child will worship and be celebrated again; There is an antelope in the family, so it is worshipped. Naturally, after the third, it became extremely rich. "I have known the third generation, and I have prospered. Therefore, I often recommend the antelope to worship the stove in the twelfth lunar month." Yin Zifang saw the Kitchen God and sacrificed the antelope. Later, she made good luck. Since then, the custom of killing antelope to sacrifice the stove has been handed down. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, the offerings for offering sacrifices to stoves were quite rich. Fan Chengda, a poet in the Song Dynasty, wrote a very vivid description of the folk sacrifice of stoves at that time: the ancient legend of the twelfth lunar month, the kitchen king spoke to the sky. Clouds, cars, and horses linger, and there are cups and plates at home. The pig's head is cooked, the fish is fresh, and the bean paste and Gan Song rice bait are round. When a man offers his daughter to avoid, he drinks and burns money. You don't smell the struggle of your servant, and you don't feel angry when your cat and dog touch you. Send you to the heavenly gate drunk and full, and don't repeat the clouds with a long spoon and a short spoon, begging for points from the market. The sacrificial stove on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month is closely related to the Chinese New Year. Because, a week later, on New Year's Eve, the Kitchen God came to the world with the good and bad fortune that the family should get, together with other gods. The Kitchen God is considered to guide the gods in the sky. Other gods ascended to heaven again after the new year, and only the kitchen god will stay in other people's kitchens for a long time. The ceremony to greet the gods is called "receiving the gods", and for the kitchen god, it is called "receiving the stove". It is usually on New Year's Eve to pick up the stove, and the ceremony is much simpler. At that time, just put on a new stove lamp and burn incense in front of the stove niche. As the saying goes, "Men don't Yue Bai, and women don't sacrifice stoves". In some places, women don't sacrifice stoves. It is said that the kitchen god looks like a small white face and is afraid of women's sacrifice stoves, which is "suspected of men and women". For the origin of the kitchen god, it has a long history. Among the folk gods in China, the qualification of Kitchen God is very old. As early as the Xia Dynasty, he was already a great god revered by the people. According to the ancient book "The Book of Rites and Rites", Kong Yingda said: "Zhuan Xu's son Rili is a Zhu Rong, and he is worshipped as the kitchen god." "Zhuangzi Dasheng" records: "The stove has a bun." Sima Biao commented: "bun, kitchen god, dressed in red, looks like a beautiful woman." "Bao Puzi. Wei Zhi" also records: "On a dark night, the Kitchen God also accused the white man of sin." These records are probably the source of the kitchen god. Also, or the kitchen god is a "suiren" who digs wood for fire; Or Shennong's "fire officer"; Or "Su Jili" of "The Yellow Emperor cooks"; Or the kitchen god surnamed Zhang, the list, and the word Guo; Opinions vary. There is an interesting story among the people. It is said that there was a family named Zhang in ancient times, two brothers, the elder brother was a plasterer and the younger brother was a painter. My brother's specialty is cooking pots and pans. He was invited by East Street and West Square, and they all praised him for his high cooking skills. He became famous for a long time, and Fiona Fang called him "Zhang Zao Wang" for thousands of miles. It's strange for Zhang Zao Wang to say that no matter who builds a stove, he likes to meddle in other people's homes if there is a dispute. When he meets a noisy daughter-in-law, he will persuade him, and when he meets a fierce mother-in-law, he will say that he seems to be an old elder. In the future, the neighbors will look for him when they have something, and everyone respects him. Zhang Zao Wang lived for seventy years, and when he died, it happened to be late at night on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month. After the death of Zhang Zao Wang, Zhang Jiake was in a mess. It turned out that Zhang Zao Wang was the head of the family, and everything in the family was under his command. Now that the eldest brother has left the world, the younger brother can only write poems and draw pictures. Although he has spent a lot of time, he has never taken care of housework. Daughters-in-law of several rooms are clamoring for separation, and the painter is stirred helplessly, frowning all day. One day, he finally came up with a good idea. On the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, the first anniversary of the death of Zhang Zao Wang, late at night, the painter suddenly called to wake up the whole family, saying that the eldest brother had appeared. He led his son, daughter-in-law and the whole family to the kitchen, only to see the dark kitchen wall, flickering candlelight showing the appearance of Zhang Zao Wang and his late wife, and his family were shocked. The painter said, "When I was sleeping, I dreamed that my eldest brother and eldest sister-in-law had become immortals, and the Jade Emperor named him the Prince of the Kitchen of the Nine Days East. You are always lazy and lazy, and your sister-in-law is not harmonious, disrespectful and unfilial, which makes your family uneasy. "Big Brother is very angry when he knows that you are splitting up. He is going to tell the Jade Emperor that he will come down to punish you on the eve of New Year's Eve. Hearing these words, the children's nephews and daughters-in-law were terrified, and immediately they knelt down and kowtowed again and again, and hurriedly brought Zhang Zao Wang's usual favorite sweets for the stove, pleading with Zao Wang for forgiveness. Since then, uncles, brothers and daughters-in-law who often make noise have never dared to make a splash again. The whole family lived in peace, and the young and old lived in peace. When the neighbors knew about it, word spread, and they all came to Zhang's house to find out the truth. In fact, the kitchen king on the kitchen wall on the 23rd night of the twelfth lunar month was drawn in advance by the painter. He came to town to scare his children's nephews and daughters-in-law, but this method really worked. So when the neighbors came to the painter to inquire about the situation, he had to pretend to do it and distribute the painted kitchen king to his neighbors. As a result, it spread along the countryside, and every household's kitchen was affixed with the image of the kitchen king. The passage of time has formed the custom of offering sacrifices to the kitchen god on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month and praying for the safety of the family. After the spread of the custom of offering sacrifices to stoves, since the Zhou Dynasty, the palace has also included it in the sacrifice ceremony, setting the rules of offering sacrifices to stoves throughout the country and becoming a fixed ceremony. Due to different local customs, there are also activities of "jumping the kitchen king" and "beating the kitchen king" among the people. "Jumping the kitchen king" is a folk activity form developed from ancient exorcism, which is mainly the activity of beggars. From the first to the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, it is the day of "jumping the kitchen king". After entering the twelfth lunar month, beggars are in groups of three or five, and women who dress up as kitchen stoves make trouble with bamboo branches at the door, begging for money, which is called "jumping the kitchen king" and also contains the meaning of exorcism. This activity is mainly carried out in the southeast of our country.

Spring Festival custom: the 23rd/24th day of the twelfth lunar month-offering sacrifices to stoves, sweeping dust and eating stove candy (2)

After sweeping dust, preparations for the Spring Festival are officially started. Every year from the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month to New Year's Eve, Chinese folks call this period "Spring Festival" or "Dust-cleaning Day". Sweeping the dust is the year-end cleaning, which is called "sweeping the house" in the north and "dusting" in the south. It is a traditional habit of our people to sweep the dust before the Spring Festival. Whenever the Spring Festival comes, every household should clean the environment, clean all kinds of appliances, tear down and wash bedding curtains, sweep the six yards, dust cobwebs and dredge open channels and culverts. North and south of the great river, everywhere is filled with the atmosphere of being happy to engage in sanitation and welcoming the Spring Festival cleanly. Interestingly, there is a rather strange story about the origin of sweeping dust in ancient times. Legend has it that the ancients believed that there was a three-corpse god attached to everyone's body. Like a shadow, he followed people's whereabouts and was inseparable. The Three Corpses God is a guy who likes flattery and gossiping. He often tells stories in front of the Jade Emperor and describes the world as ugly. Over time, in the impression of the Jade Emperor, the world is simply a dirty world full of evil. Once. The secret report of the Three Corpses God tells us that the world is cursing the Emperor of Heaven and trying to rebel against heaven. The Jade Emperor was furious, and made a decree to quickly find out what had happened in the world. Anyone who resented the gods and insulted them wrote their crimes under the eaves. Then let the spider cover it with a net to mark it. The Jade Emperor ordered Wang Lingguan to go down on New Year's Eve, and all the marked families were beheaded, leaving none. Seeing that this plan was about to succeed, the Three Corpse Gods took advantage of the gap and flew down to the mortal world. Indiscriminately, they made a mark on the eaves and corners of every household, so that Wang Ling Palace could be exterminated. Just as the three-corpse god was doing evil, the kitchen god found out his whereabouts and was frightened to disgrace, so he quickly found various kitchen gods to discuss countermeasures. So, I came up with a good idea. From the date of delivering the stove on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month to the time of receiving the stove on New Year's Eve, every household must clean up the house. If the household is not clean, the kitchen god will refuse to enter the house. Everyone followed the instructions of the kitchen god before he ascended to heaven, cleaning the dust, dusting the cobwebs, cleaning the doors and windows, and cleaning their own house completely. When Wang Lingguan visited the lower bound on New Year's Eve, he found that every household had bright windows and bright lights, and people were reunited and happy, and the world was wonderful. Wang Lingguan couldn't find a sign indicating bad behavior, and he was very surprised. He rushed back to the sky and told the Jade Emperor about the peace and happiness on earth and praying for a happy New Year. After hearing this, the Jade Emperor was greatly shocked. He made a decree to detain the Three Corpses God, and ordered to slap his mouth for 3 and put him in prison forever. Thanks to the help of Kitchen God, this human disaster was spared. In order to thank the Kitchen God for helping people eliminate difficulties and disasters and blessing Zhang Xiang, the folk dust sweeping always starts after the kitchen is delivered, and is busy until the New Year's Eve. The custom of "sweeping the house with dust on the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month" has a long history. According to "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals", China had the custom of sweeping dust during the Spring Festival in the Yao and Shun era. According to the folk saying, because of the homonym of "dust" and "Chen", sweeping dust in the Spring Festival has the meaning of "except Chen Buxin", and its intention is to sweep away all "poor luck" and "bad luck". This custom is entrusted with people's desire to break through the old and establish the new and their prayer to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. "Three-corpse God" Taoism is called "God" who worships in the human body. According to "Taishang Three Corpses Classic", "The name of the upper corpse is Peng Shu, which is in the head; The name of the Chinese corpse is Peng, which is in the human abdomen; The name of the corpse is Peng Jiao, who is in the human foot. " He also said that on the day of Geng Shen, they went to heaven to tell Emperor Chen about human sins. But as long as people stay up all night, it can be avoided, which is called "keeping Geng Shen" Eating stove candy is a kind of maltose, which is very sticky. It is called "Guandong sugar" when it is drawn into a long candy stick, and it is called "sugar melon" when it is drawn into a flat round shape. Put it outside the house in winter, because the weather is cold, the candied melon solidifies firmly and there are some tiny bubbles inside, which tastes crisp, sweet and crisp and has a special flavor. True Guandong sugar is so hard that it can't be broken when it falls. It must be split with a kitchen knife when eating, and the material is very heavy and fine. The taste is slightly sour, there is no honeycomb in the middle, each piece weighs one or two, two or four, and the price is more expensive. There are two kinds of sugar, sesame and non-sesame. The sugar is made into melon shape or north melon shape. The center is empty, and the skin thickness is less than five points. Although the size is different, the transaction is still calculated by weight. The big candied melon weighs one or two kilograms, but it is used as a cover, and few people buy it.

Spring Festival custom: the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month-taking the Jade Emperor to drive away the chaos, according to the Thousand Lantern Festival

Seeing the Kitchen God off until New Year's Eve, during which there is no god's jurisdiction on earth, and people in all is forgiven often get married, which is called "driving away the chaos". Luannian is a specific period designed by the people for themselves to adjust social life. At the end of the year, people have leisure and savings, which is a good opportunity for those who rarely have the energy to do big things. According to the old custom of the Jade Emperor, when the Kitchen God went to heaven, the Jade Emperor himself went down to earth on December 25th of the lunar calendar to investigate the good and evil in the world and decide the fortunes of the coming year. Therefore, every family offered a blessing to it, which is called "receiving the Jade Emperor". On this day, we should be careful in our daily life and words, and strive for good performance in order to win the favor of the Jade Emperor and bring good fortune to the coming year. It was not until New Year's Eve that the kitchen god was sent to welcome him back. During this period, there was no god's jurisdiction on earth. In all is forgiven, many people married, which was called "the year of rushing to chaos". Luannian is a specific period designed by the people for themselves to adjust social life. At the end of the year, people have leisure and savings, which is a good opportunity for those who rarely have the energy to do big things. Therefore, people invented this special time folk custom according to the needs of real life. It can be seen that in traditional society, people's living order is regulated by folk customs. Zhaotian Silkworm, also known as "burning field silkworm", "Zhaotian Silkworm" and "burning field wealth", is a popular folk custom of praying for the New Year in Jiangnan area. On the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month, the long pole tied with the torch will stand in the field, and the flame will be used to predict the New Year, and the flourishing flame will herald a bumper harvest in the coming year. This activity is held in some places on New Year's Eve. Thousand Lantern Festival is a religious festival of Mongolian and Daur. Mongolian is called "Minggan Zhuola", which means Thousand Lights Festival. On the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth lunar month, I made "Minggan Zhuola" and lit it in the temple, thinking that the more I ordered, the more auspicious it would be. This festival custom is the most popular among Mongolians in Vilat, Xinjiang. On this day, local people eat roast beef and mutton and hold traditional sports and recreational activities.

Spring Festival custom: Bathing custom on the 27th/28th of the twelfth lunar month

In the traditional folk custom, it is necessary to bathe and wash clothes intensively in these two days to get rid of the bad luck of one year and prepare for the Spring Festival next year. Beijing has ".