What is the custom of filling the warehouse on the 25th day of the first month? What is its origin?

"Lights are lit, incense is burned, and every family has food for Man Cang". The 25th day of the first month is the Grain Filling Festival, which is a traditional folk festival in China, also known as Grain Filling Festival and Tiancang Festival. The so-called grain filling is to fill the barn full, which reflects people's good wishes for a bumper harvest in the coming year.

The Supplementary Festival has a long history in China, which was recorded in the Song Dynasty. However, at that time, there was a saying of filling the stomach. It is said that on that day, you will not go hungry for a year. For example, in the Dream of Tokyo written by Meng Yuanlao in the Northern Song Dynasty, "On the 25th day of the first month, other people's cattle and sheep ate their meat, and they indulged themselves in it, so it was difficult for them to stay and die."

There is also a saying that rice is accumulated for wages, coal is collected and stored, and daily needs are purchased. In the Qing Dynasty, Pan Rongbi's "Ji Sheng at the Age of Emperor Jingdi" recorded: "The people in Beijing don't work hard, rarely hide, and are easy to go out for daily use. As soon as this new festival is over and the granary is empty, it will be replaced and realized, so it is called filling the warehouse. "

Of course, the most common saying of this festival is to offer sacrifices to the gods in order to pray for a bumper harvest of grain and Man Cang.

Legend has it that the filling festival is the birthday of Cang Shen. In the old days, food-related shops such as steamed bread shops and steamed stuffed bun shops, as well as grain merchants and rice vendors all over the country, sacrificed to Cang Shen, set off firecrackers and burned incense to pay tribute on this day in order to keep Cang Shen safe in the four seasons.

On the other hand, at the dawn of this day, farmers will sprinkle grain depots of different sizes with fine charcoal ash or firewood ash in their own yards or threshing floors, and put some whole grains in them to pray for a new year's grain Man Cang.

On this day, people in towns often go to temple fairs or grain and oil shops to buy some necessities such as rice, noodles, oil, salt, coal and firewood as living reserves, and cook delicious food to comfort their families and entertain guests.

The folk custom of the festival emphasizes that people like to go in and don't like to go out. On this day, families are not allowed to borrow things from others' homes, even if someone comes to borrow things, they must refuse. On this day, there will be food in the shop, water in the tank and coal at the door, which will make the town house prosperous for a year. Farmers also avoid selling food on this day, but grain stores like to buy food on this day for good luck.

What are the customs of Lantern Festival? Specifically, the customs in different parts of the country are different, even quite different.

On the filling day, in some places, grain is only symbolically loaded into the granary; In some places, spring cakes, pancakes and jiaozi are eaten on the day of the filling festival, and these foods are put into the granary, which is called filling and warehousing; In some places, jiaozi is wrapped in glutinous rice flour and filled with cakes.

In some places, on the filling day, all kinds of meals are also used to pay homage to ancestors on the roadside at the door, commonly known as seeing them off; In some places, incense and lamps are lit in front of the portrait of Guan Cang at night to commemorate Guan Cang and pray for a bumper harvest in the coming year.

In some places, "rain lanterns" are made on the Lantern Festival. Lantern is as big as a small bowl, made of cereal flour and squeezed into twelve, symbolizing twelve months of the year. The edge of the lamp should be clamped with gaps to distinguish specific months, such as one gap in January, two gaps in February, and so on. After the lamp is steamed, open the lid, first look at the accumulated Su in the lamp, and then infer the drought and flood situation in the corresponding month of the lamp as the basis for planting in that year.

Elsewhere, people celebrate festivals filled with warehouses. Every household uses flour to make lanterns corresponding to the core of life according to the animal sign of the population and family members, and then pinch two dogs, a chicken and a fish, as well as plates, barn officials, a small handleless wine cup, a hip flask, silver coins, gold ingots and donkeys carrying charcoal. At night, these lanterns are lit with oil, and the lanterns, the core monument of life, are placed on the kang at home with chickens.

The festival reflects the people's expectation for a happy and beautiful life. What is its origin? There are many legends among the people.

One is to commemorate the unknown warehouse officer. According to legend, in ancient times, there was drought in the north for years, and farmers went hungry everywhere. Officials guarding the royal granary could not bear to open the granary on the 25th of the first month to help the people. Afterwards, the granary official knew that he had violated the king's law, so he set fire to the granary and set himself on fire.

In order to commemorate this kind-hearted unknown warehouse official, future generations fill the warehouses inside and outside the yard with fine cooking ash every day to show their nostalgia for the warehouse official and pray for a good harvest in the new year. In this way, the custom of filling positions has been passed down from generation to generation.

The other is in memory of Yuyan Chun. Yuyan Chun was a minister in the Western Han Dynasty, and once worked as a granary official. He was honest, but he was framed, sentenced to death, put in prison and pardoned by his daughter's appeal. In order to commemorate him, later generations designated the 25th day of the first month as the festival of filling.

Han Xin, a famous god of war in the Western Han Dynasty, is also related to Cangbin Festival. According to the "Old Customs of Yanjing" written by Shaogong Office in Qing Dynasty, "According to legend, Cang Shen was Han Xin, the founding father of the Western Han Dynasty, commonly known as the Lord of the Han Dynasty."

Cangshen, also known as God, Cangwang, was the earliest Cangxing in the sky, and later it gradually became anthropomorphic. Because Han Xin is well-known in history, he used to be a small official in charge of grain, but he was killed. Later generations, out of sympathy for his tragic experience, regarded him as the ancestor of the warehouse god and grain depot.

In the past, Cangmiao Temple was built in many places, and it was built in Chaoyang Gate, Beijing. Now, there is a statue of Han Xin in the Cangmiao Temple of Dongyue Temple in Beijing.