Erect a spring full of hope

Playing Spring Bull Xinhua News Agency issued By Xu Junzuo

【The Charm of China in the Festival】

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Spring, the beginning of all things, the renewal of everything! Spring, the opening of the Winter Olympics, everyone is looking forward to it! At this moment, natural time sequence, ice and snow sports, and folk activities are intertwined, reflecting to the world the beautiful pursuit of Chinese respecting nature, pursuing health, and loving life. "Sometimes, people think it's right." Chinese pay attention to the "season-keeping season", the twenty-four solar terms carry the regional characteristics and humanistic atmosphere nurtured and reflected by the mountains and rivers and the sun and the moon, which are not only related to production and living customs such as agriculture and health care, but also contain a set of time cognition and philosophical wisdom Chinese. Spring, summer, autumn and winter, the four o'clock rotation, we pass on knowledge and experience in specific rituals, relive traditional life, and gather the strength to move forward. Starting from today, this newspaper launched the "Charm of China in the Festival" column, inviting you to savor the Chinese style and humanistic wisdom in the flow of time...

As one of the most anticipated and festive festivals in the Chinese, the Spring Festival has been embodied as a joyful tide of various gongs and drums, crowds of people and lights.

If there is any festival in China that can be compared with the connotation and implication of the Spring Festival, or which festival can more concentrate on the meaning of "one yuan resuming, everything is renewed", then there is only the lichun, the first of the twenty-four solar terms.

Li Chun, also known as The First Moon Festival, Li Chun Festival, Nian Festival, Nian Dan and so on. The so-called "standing" people are founded, erected, and started; the so-called "spring" people are warm, nourishing, and nurturing. "In nature, the most remarkable feature of Lichun is the sign that everything begins to surge and recover" - the Tropic of Cancer and the places south of it, the breath of early spring has quietly come from the beginning of Lichun. Just like the "three phenology" in the spring season: one waits for the east wind to thaw, the second waits for the sting to start vibrating, and the third waits for the fish to be negative on the ice.

Chinese in the period of agricultural civilization have long prepared colorful celebrations for Lichun, such as welcoming spring, beating spring, stepping on spring, biting spring, sending spring, etc., in order to gather a hot popularity, engage in a boiling ceremony, and express the devotion of worship to pray for a new red fire.

In many parts of jiangnan in the mainland, the activities of lichun sacrifice to the spring god are still preserved. For example, in the Kecheng District of Quzhou City in the mountains of western Zhejiang, there is a small village called Miaoyuan Village in Jiuhua Township, and there is a temple in the village, the Wutong Ancestral Hall, and the main god enshrined in the temple is the ancient Chinese myth of the spring god (also known as the wood god) Jumang, and the god statue is carved from the root of a huge plane tree. Every year during the Spring Festival, the "Jiuhua LiChun Festival" is held here. According to local folklore experts: "The Jiuhuali Spring Festival has preserved a relatively complete spring blessing ceremony, including arranging the table, hanging 24 solar lanterns, choosing to receive young boys and girls in the spring, whipping spring cattle, cheering, spring sowing, etc. ”

As far as playing spring cattle is concerned, it has more local Chinese attributes, and is a popular spring festival activity that is widespread in the countryside across the country during the spring season. In the photographic collection (1910-1913) of the American Ruth Naeder, there is an old photograph of the countryside in western Sichuan taken around 1911. In the photo, the prop cow surrounded by the villagers of SichuanXi has a fat head and round ears... Before and after the establishment of spring, local farmers place it at the head of the village, the dam, and the intersection for people to "beat the spring cattle" - both to beat the inertia of the cattle and to stimulate the people's diligent cultivation. As Yang Wanli's poem "Watching children's drama to beat spring cattle": "Children smell Nian Dengxi is not hungry, and cattle smell Nian Deng's sorrow is not fat." The meaning goes without saying: the plan of a year lies in the spring, and the plan of a lifetime lies in diligence.

In the north of the mainland, Feng Lichun has to "bite the spring". The so-called biting spring is to eat fresh vegetables and fruits and taste the breath of spring. It is said that on the day of Lichun, the people in the Beijing-Tianjin region pay attention to buying a radish to eat, taking the meaning of "biting the grass root, then Pepsi can be done". Therefore, in the early morning of the past Spring Festival, there would often be hawkers carrying radish burdens in various alleys and shouting "radish sai pear radish sai pear". Some people say that biting a radish is to ventilate and go to a disease. For example, "Yanshan Night Talk" says that "biting a raw radish is called biting spring to prevent diseases." Of course, in addition to biting turnips, there are also spring plates, spring cakes, spring rolls, spring vegetables... The best thing about biting spring is that it uses a "bite" word, which stimulates a fighting spirit and tenacity at the beginning of Lichun.

Take a closer look at the customs of welcoming spring, fighting spring, stepping on spring, biting spring, and sending spring that have been handed down from generation to generation from ancestors, and look at the Beijing Winter Olympics scheduled to open in lichun this year.

"The east wind blows away the plum snow and saves the world in one night." Behind this yunqin yunpin on the ice and snow, a picture of the spring of the jiangshan lishan that has gone to blossom is unfolding.

(Author: Jing cheng, the person in charge of the all-media matrix of "Shu Yun Cultural Tourism")

(Guangming Daily)