The meaning of beating drums and spreading flowers

Passing the flowers by beating the drum means that one person beats the drum, and multiple people pass the flowers in turn. When the drum stops, the flowers stop, and the person who gets the flower receives the punishment or reward.

Passing flowers by beating drums is also called passing colored balls. Chinese folk games are popular throughout China. Several, ten or dozens of people sit in a circle on the ground, and another person beats the drum with a mallet and his back to the circle. When the drum sounds, the flowers begin to be passed, and the flowers are passed from one person's hand. Nowadays, there is also a game of "beating the drum and passing the flower" on the Internet, which is popular among bloggers. The person named needs to answer a few questions on the blog, and then continues to click on other people to pass the questions on. Whoever is called must answer the question, otherwise he will be punished.

There is another fun game similar to drumming and passing flowers, called Liushang. People sit on the ground one by one on the shore, place a wine glass on the upper reaches of the water, and let it drift up and down. Whoever the wine glass stops in front of will drink and compose poetry. There is a similar mini-game abroad called Pass the parcel, but the purpose of the game is different. This is a small game to get gifts.

The history of drumming to spread flowers

According to literature, drumming to spread flowers is a fun game played at ancient Chinese traditional folk banquets. It is a kind of drinking ceremony, also known as "drumming to encourage flowers". has appeared. The book "Jiegu Lu" of the Tang Dynasty mentioned that Li Longji was good at playing drums. Once he played a song on the drums, and the willow branches that had not sprouted at first spit out green. This allusion was originally "beating drums to encourage flowers", and later was used as a drinking order and changed to "beating drums to spread flowers".

In the poem "Yanglanpu Night Banquet" written by Du Mu, there is a line: "The fragrant balls bring warmth to the sleeves, and the wine protrudes and the heart glows brightly." We can learn about the scene of beating drums and passing flowers around at banquets in the Tang Dynasty. Fan Chengda of the Song Dynasty wrote a poem in his "Shangyuan Ji Wuzhong Festival of Things": "The wine racks are stacked with drums first, and the lantern market is sold early." Chapter 54 of "A Dream of Red Mansions" also has a description of beating drums to spread flowers. In order to listen to Jia Mu and Sister Feng telling jokes, everyone deliberately asked the female ancestor who was playing the drum to stop drumming.