Today is February 4 (the fourth day of the first lunar month), and today is also the first spring of the twenty-four solar terms. Standing means "beginning"; spring represents warmth and growth. The spring that marks the winter when all things are closed has passed, and it has begun to enter the spring when the wind and the sun are warm, and all things grow.
According to Luo Shuwei, a historian and researcher at the Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences, every year around February 4 of the Gregorian calendar, when the sun reaches 315 degrees of the Yellow Longitude, it enters the Spring Festival, which is the first of the twenty-four solar terms. Lichun represents the beginning of spring, but due to the influence of strong cold air, high wind and cooling are still the main themes of this season; only in the gap between strong cold air visits, there will be a more obvious temperature rise. In the spring season, "the east wind blows, although the material is steep, after all, the cold is light", and spring will follow.
That's how Li Chun came about
The "Records of Things" records: "The Zhou Gong began to make spring native cattle, and built out the excavated cattle to show that farming was early and late. "Later generations of feudal rulers have held a whipping ceremony on this day, with the intention of encouraging farming and developing production. Lichun as a festival as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, when there were eight festivals in a year: Lichun, Lixia, Liqiu, Lidong, Spring Equinox, Autumn Equinox, Summer Solstice, and Winter Solstice, and only in the book "Li Ji Yue Ling" and the "Huainanzi Astronomical Training" written by Liu An of the Western Han Dynasty, there were twenty-four solar terms recorded.
Before the Han Dynasty, the calendar was changed many times, when the day of the twenty-four solar terms neutral spring was set as the Spring Festival, which lasted for more than two thousand years until 1913, when the National Government officially issued a document specifying that the first day of the first lunar month of each year was the Spring Festival. Since then, The Spring Day has only existed as one of the twenty-four solar terms and has been passed down to this day.
Some customs of Lichun
Bite the spring
On the day of "Lichun", Chinese folk are accustomed to eating radish, ginger, green onions, and flour cakes, called "biting spring". However, different customs in different places have different manifestations, and in the south, it is popular to eat spring rolls.
Spring
The day before the old custom of spring, two artists shout along the street with crowns and belts: "Spring is coming", which is the traditional "primrose". After the spring, people like to go out to travel in the spring on the days of warm flowers, commonly known as going out of the city to explore spring and step on spring, which is also the main form of spring travel.
Play spring
"Fighting spring" is to "whip spring cattle" to "urge farming.". Spring cattle are divided into paper cattle and mud cows, and people dressed as mangsemies use red silk-wound whips to violently smoke spring cattle three times, that is, "beating spring cattle", which means to beat away the laziness of spring cattle and urge people to quickly cultivate when spring returns to the earth.
Some of Lichun's intangible cultural heritage
Shi Yan said spring
"Speaking of Spring" is a kind of folk performance activity handed down from generation to generation by the people of the Dong nationality in Shiquan, which dresses up as "spring officials" to rap songs and songs during the Spring Festival, and persuades farmers to work, so as to bless the wind and rain and good food and clothing.
"Chunguan" was a kind of official of the Zhou Dynasty, in charge of agricultural affairs. In later generations, folk rap artists dressed as spring officials appeared to perform from house to house in the countryside, forming a custom of "spring officials sending spring" to persuade farmers to pray for blessings. Rappers are also commonly known as "Spring Songs". The Qianlong Shiquan Fu Zhi and county records of the Qing Dynasty have been recorded in the local customs of saying spring. The Shiyan Dong people have absorbed this custom and passed it on to this day.
Spring generally begins during the Spring Festival or Spring Festival and ends at the Spring Equinox. Saying that spring words are actually sung, there are simple tunes, and they vary from place to place. "Speaking spring" is divided into "saying positive spring" and "saying wild spring". "Say the spring" has a fixed spring word, the content of which is mainly to say "twenty-four agricultural festivals" and "fishing tree cultivation reading", the content covers history, geography, humanities and other aspects. "Speaking wild spring", also known as "talking about playing with spring" and "talking about flowers and flowers spring", is rich in content, flexible and changeable, eclectic, and the main titles are "Opening the Door of Wealth", "Ode to the Master", "Talking About Tea", "Seeing the Son", etc. The "Spring Festival" holds a spring cow in his hand, and whenever he goes to the House of Spring, he must distribute a lunar calendar and a spring sticker of the god of wealth, which is intended to persuade the farmers to cultivate in the spring and wish the owner good luck.
On May 23, 2011, the 24 solar terms of the lunar calendar (Shiquan Shuchun) were approved by the State Council to be included in the third batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.
Ban Chun advised the farmers
The 24th lunar festival (Ban Chun persuaded farmers), popular in Suichang County, Lishui City, Zhejiang Province, is one of the national intangible cultural heritage. BanChun persuasion of farmers is a cultural expression of Yingchun in the traditional agricultural civilization preserved in Suichang County, Zhejiang Province. "Ban Chun" is the same as "promulgation", "Ban Chun" is to issue spring orders, "persuade farmers" to persuade agricultural affairs, and encourage spring ploughing.
When Tang Xianzu, a Ming Dynasty writer and dramatist, served in Suichangzhi County from the 21st year (1593) to the 25th year (1597), he was known for his diligence and love for the people, rejuvenation and indoctrination, and encouragement of nongsang. On the day before the spring of Li, he obeyed the system and led his subordinates to welcome the spring in the suburbs of Qingjiao, worship the spring god, whip the earth ox, and give the "spring whip" to the soldiers, and issue the "spring ploughing order" to the Yi people with the whip spring ceremony. Composed "Ban Chun Two Songs", poem Yun: "Today's Ban Chun is not too late, when the rain is sunny on Ruiniu Mountain." Welcome the door to take the spring whip to go, and more with the spring flowers to plant a few branches. "The family officials give the spring whip, and ask the whip cow to learn to farm." The flowers and branches are each rewarded, and the joy is won in the New Year. ”
Kangxi's Suichang County Chronicle has a record that "one day before the spring is established, the official government welcomes the spring in the eastern suburbs, sacrifices to the gods, whips the earth cattle, and the people are xingshi". In the forty-eighth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1709), Miao Zhibi of Suichangzhi County improvised the poem "Persuading Farmers in the Suburbs of Spring" after performing the spring ceremony, which also reflected the annual spring persuasion activities. During the Qianlong period, the Spring Festival celebrations evolved into folk activities that attracted social attention and the participation of the whole people. Suichang County, on the spring day of Lili, made "spring cattle", led by honor guards to advocate, marched east, west, south and north four gates, and spectators blocked the road.
After the Republic of China, the official activities to persuade farmers were suspended, and the non-governmental activities to persuade farmers were still held. On the day of spring, urban and rural people prepare incense candles, sacrifice heaven and earth (gods), plant plum blossoms, and fire firecrackers to show "welcoming spring and receiving blessings".
After the 1980s, the villagers of Daejeon Village spontaneously organized thousands of people to participate in the Banchun persuasion activities, basically restoring the ancient spring festival scenes. Since then, the people in the western region of Suichang have followed suit, and the scale has become larger and larger, becoming a folk activity of urban and rural groups in Suichang.
On May 23, 2011, the 24th solar term of the lunar calendar (Ban Chun Persuading Farmers) was approved by the State Council to be included in the third batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.
JiuhuaLi Spring Festival
The Wutong Ancestral Hall in Jiuhua, Quzhou, has the custom of establishing a spring day to welcome the spring god. Lichun is the temple festival season of the ancestral temple of Wutong to worship the spring god Gumang, and the folk custom is "the year is not as big as the spring". Jiuhua LiChun Festival is a traditional agricultural seasonal custom that has been relatively well preserved in Waichen Village, Jiuhua Township, Kecheng District, Quzhou City, Zhejiang Province. The lunar calendar is the day of the festival, and the Jiuhua Wutong Ancestral Hall is the main event place of the Spring Festival.
The Jiuhua Lichun Festival originated from the worship of the god Jurmang. It is uncertain when the worship of the god Jurman began, but researchers in the Classic of Mountains and Seas trace the traces of Jurman to the ancient Neolithic Age. In the Yan and Huang dynasties, Jurmang was the god of spring, in charge of spring coming, spring ploughing and sowing, and agricultural production. The purpose of the sacrifice is also to pray for the abundance of grain. During the Zhou Dynasty, the god Jurman still assisted the Heavenly Emperor in governing the spring. The Spring Festival ceremony of Zhou Tianzi revolves around the sacrifice of praying for a good harvest in agriculture. When recording this custom, the Book of Rites and Moon Decrees says that in addition to molding earth cattle, the "Great Ceremony" also molds farmers, and shows the morning and evening of farming according to the distance between the farmer and the position of the native cattle. For example, Li Chun is around December 15, and the farmer's position is far ahead, which means early farming. At the end of December and the beginning of the first month, the farmer's position is in the middle, indicating that the agricultural affairs are not slow and urgent. Li Chun is around the fifteenth day of the first month, and the farmer's position is behind, which means that the agricultural affairs are slower.
The main sacrificial activities are: worship of the spring god Gu mang, spring blessings and grain abundance, offering sacrifices, dressing up the god of mang, burning incense to welcome, zachun cattle, acting to reward the gods, stepping on the green, whipping spring cattle, etc.
On May 23, 2011, the 24th solar terms of the lunar calendar (Jiuhua LiChun Festival) were approved by the State Council to be included in the third batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.
(Photo/content from Xinhua Net, China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network, China Weather Network and Network)
Editor-in-charge: Yang Xiaojun