【Editor's Note】
Folklore related to festivals and festivals has been passed down for thousands of years and contains the wisdom and culture of ancestors. In modern society, we are gradually drifting away from traditional folk customs, but at a certain moment, we will still be amazed by the names of the 24 solar terms such as Qingming and Guyu, and will be moved by the Lantern Festival's "flower market lights like day", and will go to our hometown from a distant hometown during the Spring Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival. Folklore is the memory of Chinese that flows in the blood.
In collaboration with the Institute of Folklore of East China Normal University, The Paper has launched a column on traditional folk festivals to introduce festivals that are very important in traditional Chinese culture and related folk customs, which have not disappeared and are still in our daily lives.
Photo of this article Xinhua News Agency
In the countdown to the twenty-four solar terms of the Beijing Winter Olympics, "rain" is the starting point of the countdown, and the film describes this festival with a poem from Du Fu's "Happy Rain on Spring Nights": "Sneak into the night with the wind, and the moisturizer is silent."
Coincidentally, on February 19, the day before the end of the Winter Olympics, we ushered in the "rain" festival. On this day, the Jiangnan area also happens to be shrouded in misty drizzle.
"The reason why rain is so popular is that people in the Yellow River Basin see that snowfall has turned into rainfall, because the temperature is generally higher than zero degrees celsius at the beginning of this day, and it is not snowfall." Bi Xuling, director of the Folklore and Intangible Cultural Heritage Research Office of the Institute of Literature of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, introduced that the twenty-four solar terms are summed up on the basis of climate change in the Yellow River Basin, but China is vast, so the phenological characteristics of the same solar terms are not the same in the north and south.
During the "rain" festival, it will snow in Inner Mongolia, Northeast China and other places, and spring plowing is far from being carried out, but in the south of the Yangtze River, everything has recovered. Therefore, the custom of "rainwater" is more abundant in the south. In the Yellow River Basin, it is still far from the beginning of spring, and there are not many festival customs related to "rainwater". Since the "rain" festival is not far from the Lantern Festival, everyone basically stays in the afterglow of celebrating the Lantern Festival.
In the "Seventy-two Waiting Solutions to the Moon Order", the rain has "three waits", each "waiting" is about 5 days, "one waiting for otters to sacrifice fish, two waiting for geese to be north, and three waiting for grass and trees to sprout." "'Otter sacrifice fish' means that at this time there are many otter fishing, displayed on the shore, like sacrificial fish, which also indicates that the water has been frozen; 'Hou Yan North' means that a few days after the 'rain', you can see the geese returning to the north; 'grass and trees sprout' indicates that the grass and trees have signs of recovery, but not immediately, because the temperature is still low." These are basically changes in nature. ”
In the south, there are some rain festival customs with primitive witchcraft overtones. For example, in some areas of Sichuan, the popular rainy season "Labaobao" is to let the children worship the dry father, take the meaning of "rain and dew moisturize the growth of all things during the rainy season", and pray that the child can grow up healthily by recognizing the dry father. Chuanxi also has a "Bao Bao Festival" with the participation of the whole people.
"This custom turns the rain festival into Child Protection Day and Thanksgiving Parents' Day." Bi Xuling said, "Also in Sichuan, in some places, it is popular to return to her mother's home during the rainy season, and her married daughter returns home to visit her parents and thank her parents for their nurturing grace." It is also about the meaning of rainwater to moisturize all things, similar to parents feeding their daughters. ”
"Our favorite popcorn used to be a tool for divinating the annual harvest during the 'rain' season." Fang Yun, a lecturer at the School of International Education of Shanghai University and a doctor of folklore, told the surging news reporter. After the "rain" festival, the amount of rain gradually increased, and the south began to prepare for farming, which is the critical period for spring ploughing, and there are many records of related festivals and customs.
Occupying rice color before and after the rainy season is an old custom of the Gannan region of Jiangxi and the Hakka people. The so-called color of the rice is to throw the glutinous grain into the burning firewood, and the whiter the rice flowers, the more white the rice flowers, indicating that the rice planted this year will be of good color and can be harvested, otherwise the grain will fail. After the Song Dynasty, as China's economic center of gravity shifted southward, the rice culture in the Jiangnan area gradually became the main body of China's agricultural civilization. In the Southern Song Dynasty Fan Chengda's "Wu Junzhi", it is mentioned that the custom of occupying rice color during the rainy season is mentioned: "The burst glutinous valley is in the kettle Buzhi, the name is Bo Lou, also known as popcorn." ”
During this solar term in Guangdong (generally from the nineteenth to the twenty-third day of the first lunar month), there is a custom of "patching up the heavens". The ancient almanac said that it was the day "the day is full of water", and it rained when it was in the festival, so it was called "heaven wear". The nineteenth day of the first month is also the day when the legendary Nuwa makes up the heavens, and in order to commemorate this day, this day is set as the "Heavenly Wear Festival". On this day, Guangzhou residents hang garlic vegetables on both sides of the gate, and then use glutinous rice flour to fry pancakes, place them in the open air to worship the heavens, and then throw some of the pancakes on the roof, and the rest of the family gathers to eat them, which is called "making up the sky". The ancient almanac said that it was the day "the day is full of water", and it rained when it was in the festival, so it was called "heaven wear". The nineteenth day of the first month is also the day when the legendary Nuwa makes up the heavens, and in order to commemorate this day, this day is set as the "Heavenly Wear Festival". On this day, Guangzhou residents hang garlic vegetables on both sides of the gate, and then use glutinous rice flour to fry pancakes, place them in the open air to worship the heavens, and then throw some of the pancakes on the roof, and the rest of the family gathers to eat them, which is called "making up the sky". The Festival reflects people's desire for smooth winds and rains, prosperity, agricultural harvests, and peace and happiness.
In the medical books, there are also records about the "health" of this festival. Bi Xuling once saw the "Yellow Emperor Neijing Su Qing" mentioned: "After the rain, the three baths are sweated with medicine", "After the rain, the bath is probably because the temperature rises after the rain festival, and the bath is not easy to catch a cold, so the use of perrin and other herbs to wash away the old dirt accumulated in winter." ”
"Good rain knows the season, when spring is happening. Dive into the night with the wind, and the moisturizer is silent. "Spring rain is as expensive as oil, and when the "rain" festival comes, the precipitation is not much, but the rain that falls at this time is the most precious, and it is the "good rain" that quietly moisturizes all things. As the weather warms up, from south to north, the rain moisturizes the earth and spring gradually arrives.