Happy Lantern Festival!
Every year, the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the Shangyuan Festival, also known as the "Lantern Festival", and the night is called the Lantern Festival, commonly known as the "Fifteen Nights". The Lantern Festival is one of the three major traditional festivals in the mainland, and some events are held all over the country to celebrate. Due to the different customs and habits of different places, the way to make the Lantern Festival is also different. So, how many interesting customs and food customs do you know about the Chaoshan Lantern Festival?
Make a ding table
In the Chaoshan countryside,
The family of the boy who gave birth last year,
On the night of the Lantern Festival, a banquet will be set up in the ancestral hall,
To celebrate "out of the Ding",
Commonly known as "making a ding table".
Hanging lights
Lantern Festival Chaoshan households
There is a custom of lamps and chandeliers
Because the Chao language "lamp" and "ding" homophone
Lighting and Tim Tin is a close note
Therefore, the hipsters believe that lighting the lamp is a good omen for Tim Ting
There are two kinds of seating for guests, one is called "Dragon Boat Seat", which is connected by many square tables. Guests eat around the sides, resembling a dragon boat; The other is called "walking mat", that is, no matter whether the relatives and friends are thick or thin, people who know and do not know can come in to eat, and when they are finished, they will leave, and the host will re-put the dishes; The arrival of another group of guests continued. This latter type of table is usually done by the wealthier and more generous families.
Pleas for pleasure
On this day of the Lantern Festival,
In the countryside, there are many activities to set up altars to worship gods.
The temples and shrines are illuminated,
Good men and women rush to worship first,
It's unusually crowded and bustling.
Cross the bridge
Lantern Festival
Most of the Chaoshan have the custom of duqiao,
Qing Shunzhi's "Chronicle of Chaozhou Prefecture" and Qianlong's "Chronicle of Jieyang County" contain:
"(Shangyuan) Women's degree bridge throwing blocks, called 'Du'er'."
Throw hi boy
Lantern Festival
The countryside is mostly in the open area of the ancestral hall,
Set up a color shed,
Inside it is made of clay to form a giant Maitreya Buddha,
Maitreya Buddha's bare head, shoulders, navel,
The thighs and other parts are placed with male and female "mud children".
Admire the lights
On this day, lanterns are sold on the street,
Hang all kinds of lanterns high,
There are many flower lanterns hanging in the temple and the ancestral hall.
Guess the riddle
Chaoshan guessing puzzles are all on the night of the Lantern Festival.
The flower lantern is affixed with a written puzzle for everyone to guess.
Not only do you feel the strong Lantern atmosphere,
And you can win the trench salute,
Loved by the majority of customers and friends.
Besides
Other areas of Chaoshan are at the Lantern Festival
There are also special customs
Throw Maitreya Buddha
On the night of the Lantern Festival, a large Maitreya Buddha was sculpted in the street shed, and on the Body of Maitreya Buddha were placed some clay sculptures produced in Chaozhou Floating Ocean. After the owner of the shed let go of the cannon, the activity of throwing Maitreya Buddha began. Outside the bamboo fence, which was more than a foot away from Maitreya Buddha, people aimed copper coins at the colored babies and threw them vigorously. If the caiwa is hit, it is a winning lottery, and the owner of the shed will pick up the hit caiwa and wrap it in red paper and give it to the winner as a souvenir. In some of the more difficult parts, such as the top of the head, ears, nose tip, etc., it is a three-for-one. This color baby is commonly known as "Happy Child". People think that if they hit, they will be able to get rich early in the next year. Therefore, those young men who have just become bridegrooms and fathers-in-law who have just married their daughters-in-law are at a loss even if they vote hundreds of times because they are eager to hold their children and grandchildren.
Sing tea picking songs
In the township, some boys with beautiful eyebrows were selected to dress up as tea pickers, and each team of 8 or 12 people carried flower baskets in their hands, dressed up as tea picking, and sang and danced, which was very moving.
Fall in the ancestral hall and sit on the big dish
The newlywed bride in the village will go to the ancestral hall to watch the lanterns on the night of the Lantern Festival. The bride must dress up beforehand, wearing a big red coat and a long skirt. The daughters-in-law of a rich family should wear a phoenix crown on her head and a beaded curtain hanging from her face. The daughters-in-law of ordinary people wear a half-moon shaped "civilization hat" made of dyed feathers and colored velvet, and then use a red silk that is more than two feet long and has a large flower in the middle, and then tie it to the "civilization hat", and then let the red silk hang down from the two sideburns to the ground. The unmarried girl, on this night, will pull up her companions, quietly step into the vegetable garden of the people, and then sit shyly on the mustard greens, which wei Wei "sits on the big dish, tomorrow choose a good husband." This kind of folklore is also difficult to see now.
During the Lantern Festival, most of the Chaoshan have the custom of duqiao. In Jieyang, on the day of the Lantern Festival, men, women and children rush to cross the bridge first, and the later brothers hope to marry a virtuous wife in the future; The girl prays to marry a good husband and give birth to a boy; The elderly pray for health and longevity; Children pray to grow up. In Puning Hongyang there is also the custom of "fifteen night head bridge". The "Head Bridge" is the Taiping Bridge, which has a history of more than 400 years, and there are two stone lions at both sides of the railing. On the night of the Lantern Festival, men, women and children walk across the Taiping Bridge together. When crossing the bridge, you can't turn back, otherwise it is "unlucky to turn back", and people who cross the bridge also have the custom of touching stone lions. Children who are reading like to touch the nose of the stone lion, which is called "model lion nose, write elegant characters"; Unmarried young men like to touch the belly of the lion, which is called "touching the belly of the lion and marrying a wife"; Women who are pregnant like to touch the lion's ear, saying that it is "touching the lion's ear and giving birth to a son".
Banyan tree
Every year during the Lantern Festival, every household should be planted with banyan leaves, bamboo rafts, "pen carts", "Dubi" and other plants on the lintel to ensure safety, saying that "planting banyan trees to survive the dragon", "planting bamboo rafts to raise fat chickens", "inserting pen carts to feed big pigs", and "inserting Dubi barns overlapping". Some women also deliberately put two banyan leaves on their heads, while children take one and clip it to their ears. All of this is a sign of people's yearning for auspiciousness.
Ying Zi Gu
Zigu is a kind, poor girl in folklore. On the fifteenth day of the first month, Zigu died of poverty. The people sympathized with her, missed her, and somewhat conveniently appeared the custom of "welcoming the purple girl on the fifteenth day of the first month". Every night, people use straw, cloth heads, etc. to form life-size portraits of Zigu. The women stood by the toilet, the pigsty and the kitchen where Zigu often worked to greet her, took her hand like a sister, spoke intimate words to her, and comforted her with tears, the scene was very vivid, truly reflecting the thoughts and feelings of the working people who were kind, loyal, and sympathetic to the weak.
Dou She's song
Doushe song is also a unique traditional entertainment activity of the Chaoshan Lantern Festival. Shege was originally a song of the She, but it was later absorbed by the people of Chaozhou and became popular among Teochew folk. Hipster Fighting Song has a long history. The seventh "Song Under the Lamp" of the unearthed Ming Jiajing book "Lijing Ji" contains the custom of the Lantern Festival Chaozhou people doushe song, which infers that there were dousing song activities in the Ming Dynasty at the latest.
Send incense boats
Sending incense ships, a ritual of sending plague gods. This custom is found all over Chaoshan Province. The same is true of the whole country, "paper boats are burning in the sky", which refers to this matter. The paper boat is also the incense boat. Chaoshan has this custom, but the performance of each county is similar. However, some places are called township boats, but in fact, the township boats are not accurate, but they are actually incense boats. The "incense boat" is made of bamboo paper paste, and the furen village is made of a puffer fish with a huge mouth, sharp teeth and a big belly, and Gaotang Township is directly tied into a boat shape.
When walking the incense boat, the villagers are elated and joyful, men, women and children, put on festive costumes, invite foreign relatives and friends, and solemnly do their things. When the incense boat is sent out of the sea, people always seem to unload their heavy burdens, which is extremely comfortable and sings for a while. When Gao Tangxiang walked the incense boat, he posted a pair of couplets: "Fashion is a new sight to see how happy it is; The spring breeze is full of comfort. "It's a good portrayal of this scene at this time.
Swing
Swing is a kind of folk cultural activity that Chaoshan people love very much, and it is mostly held around the first month, especially around the Lantern Festival. For hipsters, the new month is a busy and exciting, lively and happy month. On the afternoon of the first day of the first lunar month, the villagers set up a five-meter-high swing shed in the village square, and everyone who tianding last year had to prepare several baskets of peanuts mixed with raw and cooked peanuts, climbed on the swing shed, and sprinkled peanuts to the people who had been waiting for them until all the peanuts were sprinkled. The people under the shed, especially the brothers who will be fathers, are competing. It is said that those who grab more can give birth to boys, so the brothers who are born later are happy to do so. There are still songs such as "snatch peanuts, cooked and mixed, and twins (twins)" every year. In the first month of Taoshan Township, Fortress Town, Jieyang City, men and women swing almost every day, but on the day of the Lantern Festival, men cannot board the swing shed, and the entire swing activity can only stand by and watch. Some young couples in the village Lantern Night want to run to the old banyan tree in the village to swing, and let the villagers throw feces on them, saying that the more they are splashed, the more they can give birth to boys this year, which is really incredible.
Salute to the Sugar Lion
The so-called respect for the sugar lion means that every time at the Lantern Festival, people in the Chaoshan area will pay homage to the sugar lion in front of the gods, praying for auspicious new year, good luck and great luck. Legend has it that the lion is one of the mascots of the descendants of the Yanhuang descendants of the Shenzhou Earth, which can ward off evil spirits and drive away evil spirits, and has a symbol of solemnity and wealth, and has always been particularly loved by the hipsters. Hong Kong Hipster poet Qiu Yishan (pen name Shi Weng) sang the poem "Lantern Festival" in the "Lantern Festival" in Longxiang, and the tide customs are like hometown; It is the good luck before the sunset god, and the sugar lion fruit table is peaceful. The poem explains that Hong Kong hipsters have the custom of worshipping sugar lions at the Lantern Festival.
Sugar Lion is a kind of sweets made of white sugar processing (cast with syrup poured into a carving mold), with bright colors, beautiful patterns and colorful patterns, and a variety of styles, integrating arts and crafts, food culture and local customs. Sugar Lions are paired in pairs, the big one is full of momentum, and the small one is small and exquisite, which is lovely. On the night of the Lantern Festival, thousands of households worship the sugar lion to borrow good luck from the gods, and next year the Lantern will be returned, so it is called "Gambling Sugar Lion".
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