Source: Junction News Client
There are still 7 days to go before the New Year. Pasting the Spring Festival Gala, watching the Spring Festival Gala, and eating the reunion dinner are the most grand ceremonies for the Chinese New Year. This year, due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, the government advocates the New Year in situ, and the Cloud New Year and cloud reunion will become a new New Year ceremony. The sense of ceremony stems from the inheritance of traditional relics and folk culture, out of our respect and love for life, and is a spiritual pursuit of people's deep connection with the real world. When we finished the interview, a quote from Haruki Murakami always lingered in our ears: The sense of ritual makes life life life, not simple survival.
Generous etiquette, the spiritual coordinates of traditional culture
Back home from the winter vacation, Taizhou girl Guo Tingting unsurprisingly saw a pot of fresh daffodils, standing on the eight immortals table at home. Every year near the New Year, my mother would pick out the strongest daffodil balls early, place them in a clean old porcelain jar, and change the water every day. "With Narcissus, it's called New Year's!" Mother said. Mother also often said to Xiao Guo that the different vegetables, fruits and flowers in the four seasons, what season to eat, what to put what are exquisite, there is a sense of ceremony to represent the family life is prosperous. "The bottle is filled with red plums and the daffodils are raised in the plate, which is called 'the year of the Dynasty Qing Offering'. After the Spring Festival, the five poisons of calamus wormwood and zongzi are 'Dragon Boat Festival', and the mooncake persimmon and the old lotus are used to honor the Mid-Autumn Moon. The ancient books also say that the former literati and scholars regarded the brick screens, pianos, stone carvings, ancient paintings and other utensils as 'literary offerings'. "Guo Tingting's initial impression of the festival comes from these subtle customs, and the solemnity of the ceremony and the warm and harmonious family affection are closely linked." As the saying goes, the eight festivals have the scene of ivy, and the four hours have flowers of no thanks, this sense of family ritual represents the respect and reverence for life, and the sense of ceremony is actually the recognition and expectation of traditional festivals. ”
"The spring festival, dragon boat festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, these traditional festivals are a kind of spiritual coordinates of Chinese, its sense of ceremony, convey people's belief in traditional culture, create these ritual senses, but also the ordinary people's opportunity to reward themselves." In the memory of Gao Minkai, a cadre of Nanjing organs, the New Year is the most important ceremony in the countryside. As soon as The Eighth Day passed, every household began to be busy for the New Year, preparing new goods, buying new clothes, and sprinkling the court, and it was busy until the day of Chinese New Year's Eve. "In my hometown, the official opening of the New Year is the twenty-third day of the Waxing Moon to send the stove, that is, to send the stove king who has been stationed in the human stove room for many years to the heavenly court. Every household puts a couplet on the stove that has not changed for a thousand years: the heavens say good things, and the netherworld is safe. The first day after the delivery of the stove, the next day is a small year. One of the great things is to bring the patriarchs back for the New Year. First, a long firecracker was set off outside the house, and the men, women and children of the He ethnic group shouted in unison: The patriarchs have returned home for the New Year. Chinese New Year's Eve the most rituals, pasting couplets, beating incense stones, worshiping bodhisattvas, and worshipping ancestors, and then you can eat Chinese New Year's Eve meal. Gao Minkai said that the New Year is the collective memory of agricultural civilization and a collective carnival in rural China. Chinese new year taste comes from the ceremony, embellishing the once poor life and looking forward to a long and beautiful future. As Professor Ji Zhongyang of the Institute of Folklore of Nanjing Agricultural University pointed out, it is through various rituals that Chinese expresses respect for nature and gods, and cherishes history and tradition.
Located in the Jiangnan Gongyuan of Nanjing Confucius Temple, a solemn opening ceremony is held every year for the "little scholars". "The teachers dyed cinnabar to 'get smarter' for the children, and the children wrote down the first neat 'human' word one by one. Sometimes it is held for children who have reached the age of 10, who wear Han costumes and taste the classics of traditional Chinese studies and understand traditional culture by beating drums and reciting the "Disciple Rules". Chen Rongrong, a teacher at Youfu West Street Primary School in Nanjing, believes that such an "enlightenment" ceremony is the best way to look back at traditional culture, "In the cycle, tradition and current life are interconnected, bringing the sense of ritual back to daily life, making cultural memory thicker and thicker, and also activating the original vitality of traditional culture." ”
In daily life, "grasping the week" is also an important ritual for children's growth. The son of Nanjing media personality Yao Yangyangjia, who has just turned one year old, has just experienced "grasping the week". When the little baby opened his small hand and grabbed a brush without hesitation, he closed his mouth happily with his grandparents and grandparents. "As a post-80s generation, my husband and I originally thought that this was a feudal superstition, and it was the strong demand of the elders of the family, as if there was something missing without doing this ceremony, so I went to Taobao to buy this 'catch the week package'." Looking at the elders who couldn't help but be overjoyed, Yao Yangyang felt a burst of warmth in his heart: "Listen to my mother, I also did the 'Scratch Week' when I was a child, and this ceremony reflects the blessings and expectations of the elders for their children, hoping that this blessing can one day become a beautiful reality." ”
Serious life, ordinary days need a beam of light
In modern society, production and life are no longer arranged according to the time of the lunar calendar, and the sense of ritual of traditional festivals is gradually declining. However, people have found that with the passage of time, people still need to use a sense of ritual to meet their inner emotional needs and light up ordinary lives.
Li Yuling, who works for an Internet company in Suzhou, has spent a whole day every week sketching in the suburbs for four years. Sketching was originally a hobby of her student days, and after graduation, despite the pressure of work, she still insisted on this interest and embellished the unchanging days differently. "In the past, when watching movies, the heroine of "Out of Africa" would bring a set of exquisite tableware even if she was in a wild place; Su Lizhen in "Fancy Years" had to change into a different cheongsam than yesterday when she went out to buy vegetables. In my opinion, these are all rituals. The sense of ceremony is out of recognition and love for the self, within the scope of ability, take the initiative to make surprise changes to yourself, so that ordinary life has a light shining. "The snow scenery that is not easy to preserve, the fleeting rainbow, and more than a dozen thick picture books, Li Yuling depicts those beautiful scenes, and also obtains the double pleasure of body and spirit."
Facing life with a positive and optimistic attitude and seriously living every moment in life is also a sense of ceremony. Qi Feng, who was the head of a department at a state-owned enterprise in Nanjing, used to think that life should be simpler and more casual. But after knowing his wife Wu Ya, I found that there is a sense of ritual in life, which can better express the heart and enhance the feelings between her and the people she loves. As a fashionable woman, Wu Ya is definitely a socilist, every morning will carefully prepare breakfast, when Qi Feng gets up, see the sun sprinkled on the meticulously arranged table, the glass bottle is planted with flowers, the white porcelain plate is exquisite breakfast, and the blue and white plaid placemat is cushioned below, which makes Qi Feng very touched in surprise. Gradually, Qi Feng also changed. Last winter, he spent half a day at home, making a "photo wall", which was plastered with photos that he had specially made to print out, recording the good memories of the two people after they met each other; this year, Wu Ya's birthday, Qi Feng took the time to arrange the venue in a hotel, and arranged the celebration process before notifying Wu Ya to go to the scene. Looking at the balloons, the ribbons, and the romantic dinner, Wu Ya's eyes were full of "careful heart": "Mentality determines the state." Perfect love is almost non-existent in reality, but through the sense of ritual, we feel the small romance of ordinary life, which can make each other better and make people feel evocative. ”
Sometimes, the sense of ritual is a kind of self-affirmation, a restart of life. On New Year's Day 2021, Nanjing media person Wang Wei has participated in the "New Year's Eve Sunrise" activity for the fifth consecutive time. In order to see the first rays of the morning sun, at five o'clock in the morning, the top of Nanjing Zijin Mountain is crowded with mountaineers. Being able to watch a grand sunrise at the beginning of the new year, Wang Wei is very fascinated by it. "It's a meaningful thing to embrace the sunrise at this time, to witness the awakening of a city, to witness the new year. Delete the not-so-good memories of the previous year, start over, start over, and life is full of new hopes and infinite possibilities. In Wang Wei's view, experiencing this sense of ritual is like a charge, making people full of positive energy, being able to look at life with a new and pure eye, appreciating life, and letting themselves have a higher spiritual pursuit.
Sometimes, the sense of ritual is like a beam of light, illuminating our ordinary and simple life, allowing us to see ourselves in front of us, more poetry and distance.
Perceptual resonance, linking the world in higher dimensions
The pursuit of an ideal order, the recognition of self-actualization ... Figurative rituals can often give people abstract feelings, make people associate and experience the values they desire, and thus produce perceptual resonance. The pursuit of ritual, like a hint of giving oneself a preoccupied focus, connects oneself to the spirit of a higher dimension by completing ritualistic movements.
For Meng Yuqing, who has just graduated from college, the sense of ceremony she recently experienced is a meaningful departure in her professional life. At the beginning of January, Meng Qingyu from Heilongjiang ended a six-month probationary rotation in a news unit and was about to enter a formal job. What she did not expect was that before entering the job, the unit specially opened a special induction ceremony for the newcomers. "The first thing the editor-in-chief said when he sat down was, 'How come there are only teacups in front of us, and pour them on the young people too!'" Instantly let everyone's nervous mood relax a lot. Talk about independence, talk about dreams, talk about the courage to struggle, a full two hours of "meeting", the whole atmosphere is warm and warm, the editor-in-chief sent a message to young people in 16 words, "adhere to the ideal, love the platform, cherish colleagues, enjoy life." Such an unexpected induction ceremony made Meng Yuqing feel the warmth of integration into the big family, and more aware of the support and expectations of the collective for the individual: "This sense of ceremony makes a proud, positive and majestic force emerge spontaneously, and encourages me to treat the future work and everything in life with a solemn and serious attitude." And last year's Tanabata Festival, the unit also specially held a Tanabata theme activity for dozens of couples and dozens of newborn babies, two pairs of silver chopsticks printed with the inaugural number of the newspaper, blessing the newcomers in pairs, a gold pendant in the form of a newspaper, blessing the baby to thrive. Such ceremonies and well-prepared gifts bring employees a kind of cohesion of corporate culture. At the scene of the event, Xu Li, a post-90s girl, said, "Such a ceremony allows me to have a sense of gaining growth and witnessing, and I especially want to take the initiative to build and spread such a corporate culture." ”
For many people, the sense of ceremony is still a sublimation of the self-spirit, allowing themselves to be self-disciplined, reflective, awe-inspiring, responsible, and become a better person. "Health is the stake, life is the stake." I volunteered to dedicate myself to the cause of medicine, abide by medical ethics, save lives and help the injured, and pursue the humanitarian spirit..." Lu Ke, 33 years old this year, still clearly remembers that 15 years ago, he was just admitted to Nanjing Medical University, under the leadership of his teacher, and his classmates took this classic Hippocratic oath together. More than a decade later, he is now a qualified surgeon at Jiangsu Provincial People's Hospital, but the deep meaning of the oath ceremony and oath is still firmly engraved in his heart. "When I was a junior in college, I was interning in a hospital, and one night, a postoperative patient suddenly dropped to a very low value. At that time, the doctor on duty did not notice this problem, and when I found it, I quickly reported it and finally saved the patient. After the patient recovered, his family specially sent a pennant, and at the moment of receiving the pennant, I suddenly recalled the oath in my mind, and the sound of the oath sounded in my ears again. On the way to practice medicine, Lu Ke has seen many life and death junctures, faced countless times of great pressure, and whenever he silently recites the Hippocratic Oath, he understands more and more the courage, faith and values that the simple phrase "health is related to life" is entrusted to.
Truly perceiving life, facing life with enthusiasm, the sense of ritual makes the passing time really have a sense of existence, and makes life a spiritual precipitation. For Shi Shuncai, an 82-year-old citizen of Nanjing, taking pictures is an important ceremony for his family, and a photo of each node has made his family archives enter the Nanjing Municipal Archives. "In my life, the most insistent thing I have done is to take pictures to commemorate, every change in the family, every bit of progress, I will record it with photos." In 1961, Shi Lao got married, spent a month's salary of more than 30 yuan, and went to the Chinese Photo Studio on Wangfujing Street in Beijing to take wedding photos. "At that time, the economy was not rich, and I could only choose one wedding photo and travel marriage, and we all summed up, taking wedding photos is an important ceremony in life, and it is a must." 50 years later, in 2011, Shi Laojin got married, surrounded by his children, he and his wife took the same wedding photos to commemorate their enduring love with this ceremony.
"I have a photo archive with thousands of family photos in it. Two years ago, Nanjing collected the 'most beautiful family files', and a group of photos I took was selected, and in that group of photos was the change of my family's transportation, from the second-hand bicycle bought in Tangzi Street to the moped and car, witnessing the more and more beautiful life after the reform and opening up. "In Shi Shuncai's view, photography, as a family ritual, is a silent record, and personal growth, family changes, and the pace of the times can inadvertently and vividly reflect the style of the country and the times." Looking through these photos with your children and grandchildren, recalling the history of the past, and talking about today's beautiful life is the best cultural inheritance and spiritual connection for a family. Elder Shi said.
Xinhua Daily, intersection reporter Fu Qiuyuan, Wu Yuyang
Photo courtesy of Visual China Some of the images were provided by the interviewees