"Children and children, don't be hungry, after the eighth year is the year." Lapa porridge to drink for a few days, mile mile la la la twenty-three. Twenty-three, sugar melon sticky; twenty-four, sweep the house..." Every year when the closing is approaching, this nursery rhyme will be sung in every household, children will listen to it full of yearning and longing for the lively life of the New Year, and the old people and adults will flash one by one in the past pictures during the rap process. Especially around the beginning and after the small year, nursery rhymes are more suitable for the scene, the taste of the year is stronger, and the memories will be deeper.
Why aren't the little years the same day?
Although the small year, as a traditional festival on the mainland, has a history of thousands of years, the small year in the north and south of the continent is not in one day, the small year in the north is the twenty-third lunar month, while the small year in the south is the twenty-fourth lunar month.
As early as the Song Dynasty, there are records of the twenty-fourth year of the waxing moon, so the twenty-fourth year of the waxing moon has the longest history as a small year. It is said that from the yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty, every year the 23rd emperor of the 23rd month of the Waxing Moon would worship the gods in Kunning Palace, and in order to save money, he also worshipped the king of the stove. After that, the royal family and Baylor followed suit, and also sacrificed on the twenty-third day of the waxing moon, so there was a distinction between the official and the people living on different days.
Now it seems that the 23rd year of the Waxing Moon is mainly in the northeast and north China of the mainland, while the southern region is mostly in the 24th of the Waxing Moon. The different days of the small year in various places are related to the ancient tradition of "officials, three people, four boats and five ships" in the mainland, that is, the twenty-third day of the small month of the official government, and the twenty-fourth day of the general people's family.
Folk customs of the small year
In order to welcome the arrival of the New Year, every household began to take action on the day of the New Year. During the small period, there will be customary activities such as offering stoves, eating melon candy, cleaning, and pasting window flowers.
Sacrifice to the King of Stoves
The sacrificial stove is a custom that has a great influence on the mainland folk and is widely spread. In the old days, almost every stove had a "stove prince" god seat, which was responsible for managing the fires of each stove and was worshipped as the protector of the family. Most of the shrines are located in the north or east of the stove room, and the middle is dedicated to the idol of the king of the stove, and the two sides are mostly "the heavens say good things, and the netherworld ensures peace", and the lower joint is also written as "returning to the palace and descending auspiciously". According to folklore, every year on the twenty-third day of the lunar month, the Emperor of the Stove would go to heaven to report the good and evil of the family to the Jade Emperor and let the Jade Emperor reward and punish. Therefore, when sending stoves, people attach great importance to the table in front of the statue of the king of the stove to put candy, water, beans, and grass, and the last three things are prepared for the mount of the ascension of the king of the stove. The ceremony of sending the god of vesta is called "sending the stove" or "ci stove", which carries the people's yearning for a happy life and prays to the gods to bless the family with peace and auspiciousness in the New Year.
Eat sugar melon
Every local household has the god seat of "King of the Stove" where every household cooks, and sugar melons are placed during sacrifices. In the past, grandma would often say during the offering: "Eat some sugar melon paste, say more good things for us, and have food to eat in the next year."
Clean up
Every time the New Year comes, every household must clean the environment, clean all kinds of utensils, remove and wash the futon curtains, sprinkle the room courtyard, dust and cobwebs, and clean up the Spring Festival.
Window flowers
The window flowers are mostly themed with auspicious motifs such as magpie Dengmei, Deer Crane Tong Tsubaki (Six Contract Spring), Five Bat (Fu) Bou Shou, Lotus (Lian) Nian Youyu (Yu), Mandarin Duck Splashing in the Water, and Hehe ErXian and so on.
Eat dumplings
The northern Xiaonian used to eat dumplings at night, which means to send off the king of the stove, and takes the meaning of "sending off the dumplings to the wind". The family sat together, eating hot dumplings, happy and harmonious, very old-fashioned.
Characteristic "nostalgia" in various parts of the small year
In the small year, the year is getting closer and closer, and the nostalgia is deepening. The little year is the symbol of the year, and it also has the taste of home. Dates vary from north to south, and there are some differences in customs about small years throughout the country.
In Henan, people will make some fires at home to eat themselves, and they will keep one until the first day of the New Year, which means that they will eat all year round.
In Lüliang, Shanxi, on this day of the Small Year (the twenty-third day of the Lunar Month), in addition to cleaning and eating melon candy, another important custom is to set off firecrackers. In the past, not every household could afford to buy firecrackers, and many families would burn corn stalks or dry branches, so that their own stove masters could see their own fireworks.
In some parts of Shandong, every year in the small year (23rd of the Waxing Moon), it is necessary to steam sticky cakes and eat sticky cakes. Sticky cake is a kind of sweet pastry made of yellow rice, red dates, etc., which is intended to stick to the mouth of the king of the stove, so that he only tells good things when he reports to the Jade Emperor.
In Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, every year in the small year (the 24th of the Waxing Moon), making dumplings, sending dumplings, and eating dumplings are a must-have New Year's flavor. The most important sacrifice in the Suzhou people's sacrifice stove is the dumpling, which used to be called "24 tuan". The "24 dumplings" are made of glutinous rice flour and filled with fresh meat, bean paste, and shredded radish. The steamed dumplings are stamped with round, square, and petal-shaped ones to distinguish between different fillings.
In Guangxi Wuxuan and Guiping, there is a custom of making rice cakes. Rice cake is made of glutinous rice flour as the main ingredient, peanuts, sesame seeds, sugar as ingredients, put into a mold to make a round, and then steamed at high temperature, eating a unique flavor, there is a "reunion" meaning.
In Guangdong, Cantonese slang also has the slang phrase "Xie Zhao carp, good slang", which means to rebuke people and be troublesome. On this day, people can eat oil horn, fried heap, egg scatter, radish cake, taro cake, horseshoe cake!
(According to the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network, Nanchang News, Hebei News Network, YuZhuan Recommended Objects, Minnan Network, Sohu, Tencent Network comprehensive collation.) The image comes from the Internet, if there is infringement, please contact to delete)
Editor-in-charge: Wu Min