The fourteenth day of the first lunar month in Chinese folklore is also not an ordinary day, although this day is close to the Lantern Festival, it still has its own special traditions. Because this day is not only the birthday of the human emperor Fuxi, but also the birthday of the "Linshui Niangniang". As the ancestor of our humanity, Fuxi's birthday is naturally inevitable to have various solemn celebrations, and people in the old days usually had to cook sheep and pigs the night before and prepare various fruits to prepare sacrifices for the next day's sacrifices. When the child arrives, the neighbors will read the sacrifice text, then worship, and then sing to Fu Xiye and play with the community fire. Pray for a prosperous life. After all the ceremonies are completed, the tribute is distributed to the worshippers, implying that the ancestors reward the years with peace. The sacrifice of Linshui Niangniang is also very solemn, as the protector of difficult women in ancient times, there is also the reputation of "Suncheon Virgin" in the folk, and in ancient times without scientific protection, she became an important spiritual pillar for pregnant women. Of course, in addition to the ritual activities that are indispensable to traditional customs, the most common folk celebrations, diets and various taboos are observed.
Eight do not do
The fourteenth day of the first lunar month is not only our traditional festival, but also one of the "Ten Fasting Days" in Buddhist culture. Ancient Chinese Buddhism designated the first day, the eighth, fourteenth, fifteenth, eighteenth, twenty-third, twenty-fourth, twenty-eighth, twenty-nine, and thirty days of the lunar month as good days for fasting, and considered these ten days to be the days of quantifying the severity of sins. If on the day of the tenth fast, one can recite the sutras and practice the eight-level fast in front of the statue of the Buddha and Bodhisattva, then there will be no disaster or difficulty within a hundred years. The "eight fasts" here are actually eight precepts, which we can also understand as eight taboos. That is, not to kill, not to steal, not to be Sanskrit (not to commit adultery), not to speak in vain, not to drink alcohol, not to eat at noon (not to eat at noon), not to be solemn in flowers, not to be kazakh, not to sit on a high bed. According to the Dharma, those who are able to take the eight-level fast have accumulated as many as twelve merits. Although this is a Buddhist precept, for us ordinary people, these are also the biggest obstacles to our cultivation and establishment of a family. All in all, in terms of self-cultivation, abstinence is the eternal theme of Confucianism and the thousands of schools of thought under the whole world.
Try the lights
Holiday taboos are inevitably depressed, and festivals obviously can't be like this. As a special day near the Lantern Festival, the Lantern Festival is undoubtedly the most popular content. Most of us only know about the Lantern Festival, but in fact, the ancient Lantern Festival usually began on the thirteenth day of the first month. In order to ensure that the lantern festival can present the most beautiful lights in the world, the test lights on the fourteenth day of the first month are particularly important. Therefore, in ancient times, the streets of the fortieth day of the first month were already covered with all kinds of flower lanterns, and when it was the fifteenth day of the first month, everyone invariably lit up together, and the thousands of lights were like a galaxy, and the laughter and laughter of the world were happy, and it was no wonder that there were always gods and immortals sifan netherworld.
Drink eye-catching soup
Bright eye soup is certainly unfamiliar to many people, because it is only more popular in the Huiji area of Zhejiang. It is said that it originated in the Song Dynasty, when the Lantern Festival was not the fifteenth day of the first month, but the five days from the thirteenth day of the first month to the seventeenth day of the first month were considered to be the Lantern Festival. On the night of the fourteenth day of the first month, the local people also sprinkled a wild fruit called Wuzi in the corner of the yard, saying that it could make the cat's eyes brighter and the eyes of the rats blind, so that the grain could be protected from the scourge of the rats. Later, people not only hoped that the eyes of cats would become bright, but also their own eyes, so there was a local delicacy called "bright eye soup". It means to appreciate the most beautiful lights with snowy eyes and harvest the best mood to welcome the beginning of the new year.
Food lees soup
We all know that the Lantern festival to eat tangyuan, in fact, there is a place that is unique during the Lantern Festival, that is, Taizhou, Zhejiang. Because the local Lantern Festival is the fourteenth day of the first month, and on the day of the festival, we do not eat tangyuan but eat bad soup. They divided the bad soup into salty and sweet, and usually ate a paste-like salty soup on the fourteenth day of the first month, while on the fifteenth day of the first month, they ate a sweet bad soup similar to the silver ear lotus seed soup. As a unique local festival food, it is as memorable as the distinctive local festival characteristics and connotations.