The New Year is also the Spring Festival, and the New Year is a grand and most grand festival for Chinese and even the Chinese people around the world. Not to mention the New Year's greetings, eating methods, and gameplay across the country, the New Year customs of the Baoji area of Xifu, Shaanxi Province, are very interesting.
Today is the twenty-third day of the Waxing Moon, the taste of the year is getting stronger, commonly known as "small year", the People of Xifu call it "Sacrifice Stove", that is, the day of sacrifice to the God of Stove, on this day people will make noodles early to make round burnt cakes - Baoji people call it "Stove Dry Food", according to legend, the God of Stove "Good things in heaven, auspicious under the heavens" is too hard, and when returning home, they should take it to eat on the road. There are 12 months a year, and of course at least 12 "stove dry foods" are made.
Catch the Year set
The 20th anniversary of the Waxing Moon in the Xifu area was opened, and every day after that was a collection. The streets are closed, vehicles are detoured, rows of people selling things are long, and the streets are lined with vendors on both sides and in the middle, and the goods are gathered. Eating and wearing, sticking to use, watching and playing, the streets are crowded, pedestrians are rubbing shoulders, it is not lively.
Chinese New Year's Eve
The last day of the year is Chinese New Year's Eve. When the people of Xifu pass the Chinese New Year's Eve they should paste couplets before 12 noon, and paste various gods and immortals, called "sealing gods". Each family hangs a big red lantern on the gate, puts the electric lamp in, and then from Chinese New Year's Eve to fifteen, every night "long bright lamp". Then set off the cannon, "God sealed" after eating lunch, the lunch must be Qishan cheek noodles.
Chinese New Year's Eve night's reunion dinner is even more interesting. According to the old practice, when the parents are alive, they are reunited at the parents' residence, and the parents are not at the brother's house. Chinese New Year's Eve meals are prepared by each family, each family makes two or three dishes, the old family brings a plate of peanut rice, a plate of sauce beef, the second family brings a plate of pork stew noodles, the old three families... In this way, it is pieced together into a good meal, the family eats and drinks, shares the experience, shares the harvest, shares the joy, eats the meal, drinks the wine, watches the Spring Festival Gala, and has a happy New Year. This custom has nothing to do with the rich and the poor, but is the meaning of solidarity, solidarity, and reunion.
Relatives
The custom of "walking relatives" is everywhere in the first month, but the custom of "walking relatives" in Baoji, Xifu Province, is definitely the Guanzhong region that has been passed down for thousands of years, removing false essences, and maintaining the family's endless and enduring cultural accumulation and magic weapon.
"Walking relatives" In the Xianyang area is also called "traveling relatives", and Xifu Baoji in addition to the Spring Festival to "walk relatives", other traditional festivals such as the Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival is also to "walk relatives", and the ancestors of the People of Xifu have fixed the custom of "walking relatives" in each traditional festival, the theme of each traditional festival is different, and the gifts taken when "walking relatives" are also different. The more relatives move around, the greater the strangeness between each other, the wisdom and family affection of the Xifu people contained in these customs are endless, and the time when relatives walk around each other on each traditional festival is also a good time for children to gather and play, thus becoming the source of good childhood memories.
〖Spring Festival Relatives〗
In the past, the people's congress of Xifu did not go far on the first day of the New Year, basically staying in their own homes, even sewage - swill water can not be poured out, there is a great sense of "gathering wealth, accumulating wealth". However, with the changes in society, now it has also changed customs, and you can visit your close friends in the first year of junior high school, and you can also go to "Chaoshan" and "Range Rover", that is, to play in the mountains. Therefore, by the first day of the first year, many tourist attractions in Xifu are free to open, and tourists can come and go freely.
In the old yellow calendar of the Xifu people, the second to fourth day of the first lunar month is to worship the New Year, also known as "La Li" is to go to the closest and most honorable relatives, such as paying homage to grandparents, uncles and fathers-in-law.
The fifth to fifteenth time of the first year is the stage of return visits, that is, the grandmother and grandfather and uncle go to the home of the grandchildren and nephews, and the father-in-law returns to visit the home of the woman's son-in-law.
This time is when the children's families are most looking forward to their grandparents and uncles coming to their homes, because the Lantern Festival is coming, and it is time to harvest lanterns and fireworks.
As the hometown of Zhou Li and the birthplace of the ancestors of the Qin people, the Baoji area of Xifu has a strong cultural accumulation, although with the changes of the times, it has long been complicated and simplified, but the delicate folk customs and customs that are now preserved can be seen in the ancient style of Xifu Zhou Li.
How happy should the children of Xifu Baoji be! Because the lanterns of their Lantern Festival are bought by their grandparents or uncles, this is a fixed custom. If you have grown up and no longer "pick the flower lamp", the love from your grandparents and uncles will be extended to your children, and it will be passed on and continued from generation to generation.
How delicate is the Culture of Zhou Li and the Culture of the Qin People? In a word, how delicate and delicate it is.
The fifth day of the first lunar month is called "Breaking the Fifth" in the Xifu area, which means that all taboos have been broken since the fifth day of the first month, the market has resumed as usual, and all activities have been carried out normally. At this time, all kinds of flower lanterns are on the market.
If the new daughter-in-law has not had children in the first year of entering the door, she can harvest the flower lanterns sent by the husband and wife's respective grandmothers and uncles, which may be a lotus lamp or a "fire egg" lantern, symbolizing that the husband and wife are as blessed as lotus seeds, and they are as red as fire eggs.
If it is a family with new children, and the children are less than one year old, they will receive the "yarn lamp" sent by the husband and wife's respective grandmothers and uncles, and the lantern wrapped in tulle is in an inverted rectangular shape, with four legs, and the four sides are decorated with beautiful patterns.
If the child is two or three years old and can run and jump, he will receive a "rabbit lantern", the main body of the lantern is like a rabbit, with long ears, and at the bottom is a small cart, four wheels, and the child can pull and run.
Of course, other older children can harvest a variety of different lanterns according to their hobbies.
If the children in the family are older and no one picks the lanterns, there is no need to pay too much attention, you can take any kind of lantern, as long as there is a ceremony to send flower lanterns.
Lantern Festival
When the Lantern Festival arrives, the "walking relatives" has come to an end. The children have already harvested a variety of colorful lanterns.
On the day of the Lantern Festival, the general government will organize large-scale rallies and social fire performances, people have gone out of their homes to gather in the county, and the performers of the social fire team will restore one role after another: there is a "Journey to the West" theme, there is a "Water Margin" theme, there is a Bell Kui Voldemort, there is a charm ray, and there is a big knife on the head, and the big knife split into the skull of the bloody dress... The social fire culture in Baojilong County is particularly famous and has formed an industry.
Lantern Club
The "Lantern Festival" on the fifteenth night of the first month is the most lively. All the children in the alley will carry the lanterns and shuttle through the streets and alleys, comparing brightness, beauty, strange shape, and playing.
Some clever children will pick their own lanterns in the air a few times, but the candles inside will not fall and extinguish, and the lanterns will not be lit unharmed. And the children who are not deeply involved in the world, clumsy, and cannot play will do the same, they will light their own lanterns, and then cry and shout and run home to beg the adults, and the adults will pick a flower lamp again to calm the children's crying, anyway, the flower lamp is burned and played.
〖Bonfire Party, Fireworks】
The night of the Lantern Festival is naturally inseparable from the campfire. In front of each house, a pile of firewood was set up early, usually a high corn stalk, plus the branches of oil pine, and the flames that flew high after lighting took off, and when the fire became smaller, the adults jumped from the fire with their children, and the adults chanted words, to the effect of eliminating all diseases and disasters. Children mainly play, and there are also new clothes to burn a hole, naturally to be condemned by parents.
The next step is to set off fireworks, each family put all the fireworks on the battlefield, the fireworks of the second fireworks are long and long, this is the rise and fall, the darkness in the sky is broken countless times, until all the fireworks are released, and this year will be comfortable.
Eat Tangyuan
Outdoor activities play, run, watch, people are tired, hungry. Then go into the house to eat a bowl of tangyuan, round, sticky, steaming tangyuan under the belly, harvest the consummation, the next year must be a reunion, round and full.
After the Lantern Festival, this year is really over, the next day is the sixteenth day of the first month, and the people who go out to work on the road of life begin to prepare their bags and embark on the road of running, and this new year of struggle begins, and it is another year of sweaty and endless struggle.