Diary of the first tooth on the second day of February

Putian has the custom of making head teeth and tail teeth since ancient times. The second day of the second lunar month, commonly known as "February 2", also known as "head teeth", and the sixteenth lunar month, commonly known as "tail teeth".

The theory of "making teeth" is equivalent to "making sumptuous food" in the local dialect. The so-called "toothache sacrifice" is noted in the Modern Chinese Dictionary: "It used to mean eating a meal with meat and vegetables at the beginning and middle of the month, but later it usually means eating a hearty meal occasionally." In Puxian, although there are "rich dishes" throughout the first month, it is not considered as "tooth making", and the second day of February is the first time in a year. On this day, according to the traditional practice, bosses from all walks of life hold fruit, wine, incense and "tribute silver" at night to worship the gods, and then invite friends and craftsmen to dinner. Not inviting them means being "fired", so it is called the first tooth, also known as the sacrificial tooth. In the past, students in private schools went to the school hall to pay tribute to their teachers and Confucius (or Emperor Wenchang or Mr. Sanjiao), and parents also sent their children to school on this day.

Tail teeth are made on the 16th day of the twelfth lunar month, which is the last time in a year, hence the name. On this day in Weiya, bosses from all walks of life prepared some food and drinks to worship the "Land Lord" (named "Ford Shen Zheng"). After the ceremony, a potluck was held at the gate to offer sacrifices to the "master of foundation" (the land god whose house is on the ground). Shoppers, businessmen, carpenters and masons should worship God and "make teeth". Those who hire workers at home mainly hold simple banquets to eat a hearty meal, so as to taste and dismiss employees by "making teeth". The dismissed employees must leave after a full meal, which is a special "gift" treatment. Nowadays, gifts or "red envelopes" are generally used as thank-you gifts.

Why is there a custom of making teeth? From the time point of view, the second day of March is the birthday of the legendary "land god" (that is, "Fude is god", as well as other common names such as "country" and "Houtu"), so the head priest is "land god". The main reason for offering sacrifices to the landowner originated from the ancient farming era. In China, spring actually begins in the second month of the lunar calendar. In this month, the cold gradually weakened, the southeast wind slowly brought warm current, trees slowly sprouted new buds, and intense farming activities such as sowing and transplanting were about to begin. Puxian is located in the south of Fujian, and the temperature is slightly higher. It can be planted and transplanted in February.

In the past, farmers thought that the harvest of fruits in farmland was closely related to the land god. Therefore, this month has arranged the Spring Festival with the theme of praying for a bumper harvest and offering sacrifices to social gods. In ancient China, there was a tradition of emphasizing the sun as a festival, so February 2nd was actually regarded as the Spring Festival very early. In modern times, most of the Han people took February as the birthday of the land god, so the sacrifice of the "land god" in the Spring Festival society was also scheduled for February 2.