"The years refuse to live, look at the little years."
Tomorrow is January 25, the twenty-third day of the lunar month.
According to popular saying in recent years,
The twenty-third day of the waxing moon is a small year in the northern region.
And the little year in the southern region,
It is the twenty-fourth day of the Waxing Moon.
Henan Zhuxian Town woodblock print "Zhuangyuan and The First Stove Jun"
As the saying goes, "After the eighth year is the year". Nationwide, the New Year is preceded by the Eighth Lunar New Year, followed by the Small Year, the Chinese New Year's Eve, and the First Day of the Chinese New Year, until the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month. It is the longest-lasting, most ritually and most representative festival of the year.
Among the five important nodes of the "New Year cycle", the dates of Lapa Ba, Chinese New Year's Eve, the first day of the Chinese New Year and the Lantern Festival are fixed, but there are only two small years, which are divided into the so-called "northern small year" and "southern small year".
This has triggered a heated discussion: Why does the little year have two days? Is the "authentic" day the 23rd or 24th of the Waxing Moon?
In addition, Guangzhou people also have questions: the Internet says that the "Southern Little Year" is the twenty-fourth day of the Waxing Moon, obviously Guangzhou belongs to the southern region, why do many Guangzhou people "Xie Zao" on the twenty-third day of the Waxing Moon? Isn't "Xie Zhao" just a small year?
Yes, "Xie Zao" is to pass the small year, but Guangzhou used to call the small year "small division". "Xie Stove" is the sacrificial stove, which is a ceremony dedicated to the sacrifice of the stove king, and the northern name is "ancestral stove" and "sending stove".
Henan Kaifeng woodblock print "Four Seasons of Peace Vesta God"
The sacrificial stove is the "standard" for the small year, so the day of the sacrifice stove is the small year.
The sacrificial stove was originally one of the "Seven Ancestors" (one said "Five Ancestors") that was included in the national ceremony in ancient times, and was enshrined from the Heavenly Son down to the common people. But the original day of the festival was neither the twenty-third day of the waxing moon nor the twenty-fourth day of the waxing moon.
The Book of Rites and the Moon Order says: "The Moon of Mengxia, its Emperor Yan, its god Zhu Rong, its ancestral stove, the ancestors." The Book of Etiquette of the Later Han Dynasty says: "The day of the establishment of summer... Sacrifice stove. ”
Moving the day of the festival to the waxing moon was a custom that only existed in the Jin Dynasty. The Qing Jia Lu quotes the Jin Zhou Zhou "Record of Customs" Yun: "On the night of the twenty-fourth day of the waxing moon, the stove god went to heaven the next day, and bai was one year old." Therefore, the first day is enshrined. The "Chronicle of the Jingchu Dynasty" records that during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the southerners sacrificed the stove in Lapa.
In the Northern Song Dynasty, the day of folk sacrifice was fixed on the twenty-fourth day of the Waxing Moon, and it was combined with the "New Year Festival" at that time. The Tokyo Dream Record says: "On the twenty-fourth day of the New Year (in December), everyone asked the monks to read the scriptures at night, prepared fruit wine to send to the gods, burned the family instead of money paper, pasted the stove horse on the stove, and smeared the stove door with sake lees, which is called 'drunken order'. ”
"Drunken Order" is to let the stove king eat well and drink well, and go to heaven to say more good things. This custom is evidenced by the Song Dynasty Fan Chengda's "Sacrifice Stove Words":
"According to ancient legend, on the twenty-fourth day of the month of La, the king of the stove wanted to say something to the heavens. The cloud car wind horse small stay, the family has cups and plates feng ceremony. Pig's head is rotten and cooked with pisces fresh, and bean sand and pine powder bait round. The boy offered his daughter to avoid, and the wine burned money stove Junxi. The son of a fights Against Jun Mo, and the cat and dog touch Jun Mo Mo. Send the jun drunk to the gate of heaven, the long and short do not return to the clouds, and beg for the return of the city. ”
After the Song Dynasty moved south,
The custom of "New Year Festival" festival stove spread rapidly to Hangzhou and other places,
And there is a saying of "small year" and "small Chinese New Year's Eve",
Subsequently it became popular throughout the country.
Portrait of "Grandma of the Stove King" in modern times
Yuanren Wu Cheng's "Moon Order" Yun: "The twenty-fourth day of the waxing moon is the year of the year, and the common cover is the small year." The Ming Dynasty Chen Shiyuan's "Slang Commentary" said: "The Song people took the twenty-fourth day of the waxing moon as the night of the small festival and the thirty days as the night of the big festival. It is now called the small Chinese New Year's Eve and the big Chinese New Year's Eve. ”
According to records, from the Song Dynasty to the middle of the Ming Dynasty, both north and south, the twenty-fourth day of the Waxing Moon was used as a small year. It can be seen that the earliest small year on the mainland is the twenty-fourth day of the Waxing Moon. If the order is the standard, the twenty-fourth day of the Waxing Moon is definitely the most "authentic" day of the small year.
It is a small year with the 23rd lunar month, which appeared in the late Ming Dynasty and was first popular in some areas in the north.
The Chronicle of Taikang County during the Ming Jiajing period reads: "Ancestral Stove, December 23 and 4. The "Chronicle of Xuzhou" says: "Twenty-four days of worship, or the first day." The "Shuofang Xinzhi" of the Wanli Dynasty says: "Twenty-three days and nights, the stove." The Tongzhou Chronicle during the Apocalypse period says: "Twenty-four days of worship, there are also those who are the first day." ”
After entering the Qing Dynasty, after experiencing the Shunzhi and Kangxi Dynasties, the custom of celebrating the Small Year on the 23rd day of the Waxing Moon was popular in the northern folk for a while, but it still did not become a climate. It was not until the reign of Yongzheng that the system of worshiping the stove in Kunning Palace on the twenty-third day of the lunar month was determined.
Just as the so-called upward and downward effects, the imperial court worshiped the stove on the twenty-third day of the waxing moon, and the folk naturally took this day as a small year. By the middle of the eighteenth century, in the northern region centered on Beijing, the 23rd anniversary of the Waxing Moon had become the mainstream, which could be described as a "rising star".
Soon after, there were "small years in the south," "small years in the north," and "officials, three people, and four people."
Qing Dynasty version of the "Stove King's Mansion" paper horse
According to the "Examination of the Old Wen of the Sun" written in the 47th year of Qianlong, "The residents of The Beijing Division are still customary... Its worship is used for twenty-three days. However, the south province customers use twenty-four days. "The residents of Kyoshi offered a stove on the twenty-third day, and the customer of the southern province" offered a stove for twenty-four days, and since then there have been "small years in the north" and "small years in the south".
"Xundian Zhou Zhi" Yun: "On the twenty-fourth day, worship the god of Vesta with jelly beans." Where the official office is more than one day, it is commonly known as 'official three people four' also. "That is, the official 23-day sacrifice stove, the folk 24-day sacrifice stove. Later, there was also the saying that "officials three people, four people, and five families".
Under the influence of the "Official Three Sacrifice Stoves", some regions in the south also began to move the 24th year of the Waxing Moon to the 23rd day of the Waxing Moon.
For example, in the Pearl River Delta region of Guangdong, before the middle of the Qing Dynasty, it was the 24th "Xie Zao" of the Waxing Moon, and it was a "Small Year in the South". After the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the situation changed.
According to the "Panyu County Chronicle", "On the twenty-third day, the small removal, the sacrifice stove, sprinkled with flowers and beans." The "Chronicle of Foshan Zhongyi Township" says: "Twenty-three days of small removal, the stove, with kumquats and jelly beans as offerings." ”
Qing Dynasty version of "Three People Stove" paper horse
It can be seen that in Guangzhou and Foshan, since the Qing Dynasty, many people have "Xie Zao" on the 23rd day of the Waxing Moon. Although northern Guangdong, Chaoshan and other places still use the 24th day of the Waxing Moon as the day of the stove festival, it cannot be generally said that the 24th day of the Waxing Moon in the southern region is a small year.
Guangzhou people say, "After a small year is a year."
Twenty-three days after the "Xie Stove",
It officially opened the "New Year mode":
Year 24, open oil wok;
Year 25, steamed rice cake;
Twenty-six years old, washed and quilted;
Twenty-seventh year, cleaning the house;
Twenty-eight years old, washed sloppy;
Year 29, Paste Spring League;
Thirty years late, tuan Nian dinner.
Some people say that Guangzhou did not have the custom of "walking flower street" a few years ago? Yes, there is, but the flower market, which lasted from the 28th to the Chinese New Year's Eve night of the Waxing Moon, was only officially formed in the early 1960s, so it has not been recorded before.
Text: Guangzhou Daily Xinhuacheng reporter Zhong Kui
Photo: Guangzhou Daily Xinhuacheng reporter Zhong Kui (remake)
Guangzhou Daily Xinhuacheng editor Dai Yujing