Happy Year of Five Grains - New Year Customs in the Yellow River Basin of Shandong Province

As the saying goes: "Ten miles of different winds, a hundred miles of different customs." "Different regions, the customs of the New Year are not the same. In ancient China, the country was founded by agriculture, and the Yellow River Basin, especially in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, shouldered the heavy responsibility of "the granary of the world", and during the New Year, there were generally special folk activities such as praying for smooth wind and rain and pest prevention and disaster reduction. Shandong is the birthplace of Confucian culture, and there is a greater emphasis on filial piety and etiquette during the New Year. Therefore, from the first to the fifteenth day of the Chinese New Year, the people of Shandong who live along the Yellow River have been inheriting and continuing the colorful New Year customs such as sacrifice, stringing relatives, praying for a good year, and entertaining the masses, which set off a strong New Year's flavor.

Old sacrifices, string relatives, new "support the army and support the government"

Shandong is the birthplace of Confucian culture, and during the New Year, many traditional customs related to sacrifice and string of relatives were handed down in the Yellow River Basin.

Every year on the first day of the Lunar New Year, each family will set up incense burners and offerings to enshrine the spiritual seats of the gods and the relics of the ancestors, and everyone in the family must wear new clothes for worship, incense burning, firecrackers and other ceremonies. On the sixth day of the first lunar month, the sky has just brightened, the young men by the Yellow River will put on a new yellow "dragon coat", hold a multicolored dragon, under the guidance of an elder to the river, the elder scooped out a bowl of river water to sprinkle on the dragon's body, and then except for the dragon's head and dragon's tail, the young men of the Dragon all knelt down and respectfully prostrated their heads, this ceremony is called "fetching water", there is a meaning of begging the Yellow River to be safe, the wind and rain are smooth; the dragon lantern team after "fetching water" on the way back to the village must set off firecrackers to show their welcome. If a family burns paper money and kneels on incense to welcome, the young men who dance the dragon will also dance on their knees, which is called "Crouching Dragon Greeting", until the paper money is burned out before they can get up, behind the lively ceremony is the people's good wish to hope for the abundance of grains, which is very local.

Family stringing is another important activity for local people during the Spring Festival. The order of the new year is different from place to place, and the custom along the Yellow River in northwest Lu is: on the second day of the first month, to the grandmother, the aunt's family, and the sister's family and sister's family who have recently married; on the third day of the first month, to pay homage to the father-in-law, commonly known as the "walking father-in-law's family"; on the fourth day of the first month, to the aunt's house and distant relatives' homes to pay homage to the New Year. When the Spring Festival is visited, you must bring some gifts, especially the gifts of the newlywed son-in-law to the father-in-law are very exquisite, with four colors, six colors, and even eight colors and ten colors. Among them, wine, meat, chicken, fish, pastries, cigarettes, sausages, and canned food are all counted as the same color. When stringing relatives, the juniors should pay homage to the elders, and the elders will give them money.

During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, there was a tradition of supporting the army and joining the army during the Spring Festival in the revolutionary base areas of Shandong. For example, during the Spring Festival in 1944, the Shandong Sub-Bureau and the Shandong Military Region also jointly formulated the "1944 Pact on Supporting the Army and Supporting the Government and Loving the People," which determined that the fifteenth day of the first lunar month was the "Double Support Festival" and that the first month of the lunar calendar was set as the month of supporting the army. In connection with the "double support" work, in 1944 and early 1945, the strategic areas of the Shandong Anti-Japanese Base Area carried out two large-scale campaigns to join the army, forming a mass upsurge of joining the army, especially in Guangrao County, which is located in the Yellow River Basin, where 28 county-level and district-level cadres took the lead in joining the army, and more than 3,000 young people in the county signed up for the army in three days from the fifteenth to the seventeenth day of the first month of 1945. During the Chinese New Year, when the recruits were about to leave, they wore red and flowers, and the village cadres and the masses beat gongs and drums to bid farewell. At this time, women in various villages made military shoes, hand towels, and other consolation goods for the army day and night, and embroidered words such as "glorious anti-japanese war" and "combat hero" to express their feelings of support for the army. Mass organizations and anti-japanese subordinates in various villages wrote letters of condolence to the army.

"Whip oxen" and "marry jujube" to pray for a good year

Shandong is a large agricultural province, and during the New Year, many folk customs related to agricultural production and bumper harvests have been handed down in the areas along the Yellow River in Shandong.

In the old days, Jinan had the custom of "beating spring cattle" on the spring day, that is, using whips to whip clay sculptures of spring cattle back and forth, with the intention of persuading farmers and praying for a good harvest in the coming year. On the first day of the first lunar month, Zoucheng has a special custom of pounding rat holes, and on the morning of the first day of the New Year, people will use their noodle sticks to pound rat holes, and while pounding, they will say", "Poke and poke, poke and poke, nine of the ten rats are blind, and one is not blind, and also ask me to poke it", with the intention of ensuring food security.

Along the Yellow River in Lubei, there is a tradition of "marrying dates" on the first day of the Chinese New Year, that is, at sunrise, people beat the jujube tree with a knife and an axe, believing that the jujube of that year will get a good harvest. This practice has a certain scientific nature, in the spring everything recovers, the eggs of various diseases and insect pests begin to gestate, so repeatedly knocking on the jujube tree, can remove the eggs of the epidermis of the jujube tree, play a role in protecting the jujube tree. In Liaocheng, Shandong Province, the "Report of the Chiping County Forestry Bureau on the Prevention and Control of Jujube Tree Diseases and Insects" is recorded: In the Spring Festival of 1985, the jujube farmers in the county combined with the past customs and experience to eliminate the eggs of jujube trees, and the forestry department also formulated scientific prevention and control methods for jujube farmers, and adjusted the program for the insect conditions in different months, and achieved good results, and many high-yield townships and high-yielding villages emerged.

The temple festival celebrates the New Year

During the Spring Festival, the Yellow River Basin in Shandong will carry out a variety of folk celebrations, including rice songs, dragon lanterns, lion dances, dry boat running, martial arts performances, etc., and the scenes are very lively.

From the beginning of the Chinese New Year, many areas along the Yellow River in Shandong Will have folk performances that walk the streets and alleys. For example, there are folk street performances in Jinan, Tai'an and other areas, and the content is very rich. During the performance, the bunting float opens the road, and the folk performance teams such as stilts, lions, dragon lanterns, dry boats, and song teams follow up one by one, and every time they go to a larger intersection or village, the performers will concentrate on displaying their skills and skills, and the crowd will laugh and laugh, the applause will continue, and the scene will be festive and lively.

From the second to the sixteenth day of the first year, many places have temple fairs or lantern fairs. At the meeting, there were local opera performances such as flower drums and blind cavities, and various vendors gathered, and people came from all directions, commonly known as "catching the temple fair". Some temple fairs in the Yellow River region of northwest Lu will hold a "driving" ceremony on the day of the Lantern Festival, and the "driving" team will be led by 8 bunting flags, followed by gong and drum teams, stilts, dry boats, lion dances, etc. After entering the temple, they burn incense offerings and sing and dance. Jinan holds the Baotu Spring Lantern Festival every year, on the day of the Lantern Festival, the bright moon in the sky is hanging high, the ground is full of colorful lights, and there are many kinds of flower lanterns. People watch the lanterns, guess the riddles, eat the Lantern, and enjoy the harmony.

During the Lantern Festival, there will also be a very prestigious drum song performance in the Yellow River Basin. Drum Song is the first of Shandong's "Three Great Songs", which has been circulated for more than 2,000 years, it originated from the labor scene, the dance posture is bold and rough, the music rhythm is strong, and the dance scene is magnificent. Every year from the fourteenth to the sixteenth day of the first month, the drum and song team of Binzhou Huimin County will gather together to perform along the streets of the city, and the whole county will suddenly become a happy ocean of songs.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Shandong Jinan Spring Festival folk customs crossed the street performances. Shandong Provincial Archives Collection

This article was originally published in China Archives Daily, January 21, 2022, No. 3784, Third Edition Author: Jiang Xin