The daily annual custom | the opening of the market on the sixth day of the New Year, which is very auspicious

Today is the sixth day of the Chinese New Year.

Since the Chinese New Year's Eve, people have eaten New Year's meals to observe the New Year, visited relatives and friends to worship the New Year, and driven away the "five poor" to welcome the god of wealth.

For Chinese, "six" has always been an auspicious number. Whether in the past or now, people think that the sixth day of the first lunar month is a good day, which means that the six or six are smooth and smooth.

According to traditional customs, the sixth day of the first lunar month is Horse Day. Marigu called it "Fattening". The original meaning of "fattening" is to worship the "toilet god" and clean the toilet.

Many people do not believe that there was also a "toilet god" in ancient times, but there was indeed a "toilet god" in ancient times, named "Zigu", also known as "Pit Three Girls". The custom of worshipping the "toilet god" has existed since the Six Dynasties. It is said that the "toilet god" goes out on a tour on the sixth day of the first month of each month, and the ancients worship the "toilet god" on the sixth day of the new year may have originated from this.

Worshipping the "toilet god" is absurd, but washing the toilet is something that must be done. Ancient toilets are mostly outdoors, of course, from time to time to "fattening", the New Year is no exception. Nowadays, most of the houses use new sanitary equipment, so there is no such custom.

There is also a saying in the custom of the sixth grade, that is, "sending the poor", but this theory is quite controversial, because the fourth day of the first year has "thrown away the poor", the fifth day of the first year has caught up with the "five poor", and the sixth day of the first year has "sent the poor" seems to be no longer necessary. "Sending the poor" in the sixth grade is just a family statement of "Miscellaneous Notes of the Years".

The customs related to farming and business in the sixth grade deserve attention. The ancients had the saying that "the first six days of the field are prepared for spring ploughing", indicating that the ancient farmers did not forget agricultural production during the New Year and went to the field on the sixth day of the first month to cultivate.

In addition, the ancients also believed that the sixth day of the first year was a good day for the store to open the market, and firecrackers would be set off at the entrance of the shop to celebrate the prosperity of business and great luck. On the day of the store opening, the boss and the clerk will swing the abacus and beat the weighing pan with the scale rod to make the store ring together, taking the meaning of "loud and auspicious". On the door panels on both sides of the store, paste big red couplets such as "Opening of the market, prosperity of all things". And invited a husband, children, in-laws all have a "full can woman" to the shop around, with words in their mouths to say some auspicious words, which is also just to ask for an auspicious.

At present, the sixth day of the first year is still during the holiday period, so the custom of opening the market on the sixth day of the first month is rare.

Text: Guangzhou Daily Xinhuacheng reporter Zhong Kui

Photo: Gao Hetao, reporter of Guangzhou Daily And New Flower City

Guangzhou Daily Xinhuacheng editor Liu Liqin