The mysterious Longdong "Burning Chan Festival", which cannot explain the origin, is a blind date event for single people
Jumping on fire, burning chancre dolls... In the eyes of people in Qingyang and Pingliang in eastern Gansu, as well as parts of the surrounding Shaanxi Province, the "Burning Chan Festival" on the night of the 23rd day of the first month is the final festival in the entire New Year celebration.
In the eyes of traditional Chinese, the New Year is by no means a time when Chinese New Year's Eve to the first day of the first year, but a time period filled with a complete and serious set of rituals. In the words of the locals: "A meal of laba porridge confuses people, and then the whole first month eats and drinks in one breath, twenty-three, burns a chancre, and the fire pit burns people to wake up, and it is time to move the peasants to live a busy life." ”
For those who are not familiar with the Long Dongfang dialect, the previous paragraph must be "translated", otherwise it will make people fall into the clouds. The gist of it is: After the eighth day of Lapa, people are confused, do not take into account the usual constraints, spend money is no longer stingy, adhering to the concept of "better to be poor for a year, not a poor day", longdong people will never let go of the only opportunity in the year to let go of their hands and feet to treat themselves, eat and drink generously, and generously reunite with their families, relatives and friends. After the twenty-third day of the first month, the year will officially end, and it is time to adjust the state and start a new round of labor.
Chinese folklore can be traced back to its origins, but Longdong's "Burning Chancillary Festival" is an exception. For years, many local folklore experts have tried to solve the mystery, but to this day there is still disagreement, and no one theory can perfectly match the festival's various aspects.
The biggest feature of the "Chancre Festival" is that every household lights a fire at the door, and then all the people take turns to jump over the burning fire. Folklore experts believe that this may be the remnant of the worship of fire in ancient times: people firmly believe that fire contains mysterious powers, which can remove obscurity, deter evil spirits, and give people good health. In all the research results, it is finally a word of opinion at this point, but whether it is its true source or not still needs to be excavated and pondered.
In the evening, every household bonfire is lit, and the first thing people have to do is to tear off the Spring Festival and the door god posted during the New Year, and respectfully throw them into the fire to burn it up, it is said that the god will return to the heavenly court, and blessings and wishes will also accompany the fireworks to the Ninth Heaven. The only custom that folklorists cannot explain, and the most strife, is the "chancre doll."
One view is that the pictographic meaning of the word "chancre" refers to the hospital bed, which can refer to all ailments. Later, "chancre" became a common gastrointestinal disease of children. Therefore, in the beginning, the "chancre doll" should be a fierce-looking, ugly ghost image, representing the evil that will bring disease and bad luck to children. Every twenty-third day of the first month, the elders will elaborately make such a "chancre doll" for each child and let it accompany the child for a day, which is equivalent to using this idol to suck away all the bad breath on the child. At night, let the doll turn to ashes in the fire, and the child can spend the new year in health and well-being.
Another view is that "chancre dolls" express the unique marriage concept of Longdong people. In the Longdong area, "gan" and "chancre" are homophones, the written word in the righteous son, righteous daughter, righteous father, righteous mother, in the mouth of the Longdong people is called "dry son", "dry daughter", "dry father" and "dry mother", so more folklorists believe that the real name of the current popular "chancre festival" should be "liao gan jie", and the doll picked up by the children in their hands should be "dry doll" rather than "chancre doll". I am more inclined to support the idea of "dry".
Making "dry dolls" is a joyful thing that longdong people do. Most families have to start preparing and getting started two or three days in advance. The material is simple, the tools are easy to obtain, but the technical content is quite high. Colored paper, branches, bamboo strips, eggs, cotton, in the past when materials were scarce, colored paper was not easy to find, most families looked for old New Year paintings, door gods, old pictorials and other colored paper. On the twenty-first two days of the first month, if there are elders in the family who are skillful and skillful, they will operate on their own; if no one in the family can do it, they need to beg others. Nowadays, people pay attention to convenience, there are piles of piles of sales on the street, and it is finished to buy one along the way.
It seems to be a handmade, but the person who makes the "chancre doll" is poured out of affection, because this bamboo and wood for the bone, colored paper for the clothes, eggs as the head of the doll, is in a near or far future, become the lover of someone in reality, is a child's future family happiness, and even the family prosperity of the sustenance. For boys, called "dry daughter-in-law", and strive to be white and beautiful, virtuous and capable, so when choosing an egg shell for making the head, be sure to choose the color of white, the appearance of the weekly, clothes, headdresses are also cut as far as possible, handsome; to girls called "dry son-in-law", and strive to have good facial features and dignified appearance.
In the early morning of the twenty-third day of the first month, the children will invariably carry the "dry dolls" out of the house, or go from door to door, or wander the village, and the adults will also judge the dolls made of these papers: "Hei San, you dry daughter-in-law raises her eyebrows and picks her eyes, in the future you will guarantee to marry a crooked (spicy) daughter-in-law" "Zhaodi, you dry son-in-law with clear eyebrows, in the future, I am afraid that I will be a person who can read and eat official meals"... No one has verified how accurate this "prediction" was, but this "beauty pageant" has both the secret competition of manual technology in various families and the expectations and blessings for the children's future marriage.
Making a "dry doll" for a child will accompany the child throughout his unmarried years. The people of Longdong do not have the worship of the gods in charge of marriage such as Elder Yue, and they will not believe that marriage is a fate that has long been predestined in some "treasure book". This may be the same as the bitter cold in the Longdong region since ancient times, the People of Longdong have never been able to get anything they want by waiting, and the more difficult the place, the more they will respect the value of the struggle.
The children's early "dry dolls", with the meaning of "customization", strive to give the most satisfactory couples in the minds of the elders to the future children. Although the vast majority of children no longer enjoy the glory of picking "dry dolls" after they reach the age of fourteen or fifteen, if a young person reaches the marriageable age, he is still married very "hard" and cannot find a suitable partner, the family will still make "dry dolls" for them, but the meaning of "dry dolls" at this time has changed from "customization" to reminder and marriage - both to urge men and women in the dust to pay attention to their marriage events, but also to urge the forces in the underworld to "arrange" the other half of someone.
The reason why the "Burning Gan Festival" can also be regarded as the "Valentine's Day" of the Longdong people, in addition to the custom of picking "dry dolls", there is also a reason is the custom of jumping into the fire. Traditional Chinese culture has always believed that the Lantern Festival is the Chinese Valentine's Day, which may only be suitable for densely populated and bustling areas. For the people of the Great Northwest, who have long been extremely dispersed and displaced, it is almost impossible for such a crowded and crowded lantern festival to appear. Before the implementation of large-scale migration in recent years, the vast majority of Longdong people were separated by dozens of miles from village to village, hundreds of households in large villages, more than a dozen households in small villages, and some households were also far apart from each other.
Regardless of the urban or rural areas, people today are forced by an invisible force, and everything is in a hurry, as if they are afraid of missing something. But a few years ago, before the twenty-third day of the first month, the agricultural work had not yet started, the young people did not go out, and on the day of the "Burning Dry Festival", the firewood piles at the entrance of each household were not lit in unison, but in turn, and groups of people would jump over one by one, one fire after another.
Those young, strong and energetic young men will also go for miles to go to neighboring villages to "burn dry". At this time, young women will also go out to try to be lively, "burn dry" themselves, and watch others burn dry. This moment actually provides an opportunity for marriageable men and women to know each other. Who is handsome, which guy is handsome, under the light of the fire, it is clear at a glance, which person is healthy, which person is clumsy, you can judge from the action of jumping the fire, and even for people, how to behave in the world, how to personality, a few eyes, a few words can also reveal a lot of information.
A considerable number of single men and women in longdong will find their fate in this "bonfire party" that has been burning since ancient times, at least they will let themselves know a few more people of the opposite sex. Don't think that this almost electric flint acquaintance is too shallow, love is human instinct, love depends on feelings, and finding your other half is something with some talent. The vast majority of love is a sight of life and death, and the pursuit of the future is about a sense of ritual, or the enjoyment of the process. Many people today are looking for a spouse, starting with a house, a car, a ticket, which is already a transaction, weighing the pros and cons, rather than a love that stems from the instinct of life.
With the passage of time, the "Burning Festival" in Longdong may gradually dissipate, and the twenty-third day of the first month will grow, but the roaring bonfire that night may not necessarily be lit as usual, but the pursuit of happiness and beauty of human beings will never stop.
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