Cover news reporter Li Yuxin
"The new spring is stinging, and the grass and trees are still unknown." On March 5th, the stinging season arrives, accompanied by a thunderclap of spring, awakening the stinging insects that are dormant underground for wintering, when the spring air is budding, and nature has new vitality.
As the saying goes, "Spring thunder frightens a hundred insects", and it is also recorded in the ancient book "The Seventy-two Waiting Solutions of the Moon Order": "On the February Festival, everything is shocked, and the earthquake is thunder, so it is known as the sting." It was the stinging that flew away. "It can be seen that the stinging festival is characterized by spring thunder and full of vitality.
The sting is a sign of spring, and in agricultural activities, this festival is also of great significance, and is a reflection of the natural seasons of ancient farming culture. As the agricultural proverb says, "When it comes to the sting festival, the hoe does not stop", and the working people of China have attached great importance to the sting festival since ancient times, and regarded it as the beginning of spring ploughing. The arrival of the sting also tells the farmers that in this season of growth, the spring ploughing of the year has begun.
Peach Blossom Picture from China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network
Spring thunder, all things grow
Folk proverb cloud: "Spring thunder, all things grow." "It can be seen that the stinging season reflects the phenomenon of natural organisms being affected by rhythm changes, and the phenomenon of germination and growth occurs. It's a good time for everything to grow, the crops can start planting, and the farmers have ushered in a busy spring ploughing. "The stinging festival plays a very important role in agricultural production." Folklore expert Liu Xiaochang said, "The sting has arrived, and the spring ploughing busyness has also begun." ”
The spring is getting stronger, and the temperature changes are also very large. At the same time, with the entry into the Gregorian calendar in March, it is also the time of "nine nine". According to the ancient Chinese folk method of calculating the date of cold days and warm spring flowers, "counting nine", the eighty-one days after the winter solstice are "winter nine nine". After counting the nine nine days, it is the day when spring blossoms bloom. Although the sting is the time of "nine nines", because the cold and hot air alternate, the weather is warm and cold at first, cold and hot. "It's like a doll's face, crying for a while and laughing for a while." Liu Xiaochang quipped. So in this season, you can eat more moist food. Due to the large changes in the weather and the relatively dry climate, it is easy to make people feel dry mouth and body discomfort. Therefore, it is known in the folk custom of eating pears.
The image is from the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network
In addition to the food custom of eating pears, Liu Xiaochang, as an old Chengduer, said that in the old days, Chengdu people also had the custom of eating fried beans for dolls on this day. And this custom comes from a legend. "Legend has it that a long time ago, the Dragon King of the West Sea, in order to save the peasants who had not been in drought for a long time, privately gave thunder and rain, thus offending the Heavenly Court, and the Jade Emperor was angry and locked the Dragon King under the snowy mountain, and ordered that the golden beans should be allowed to blossom before they could be released into the West Sea." Therefore, on the day of the sting, every household fried soybeans and corn, and sure enough, "golden beans blossomed", and the Jade Emperor could only release the Dragon King back to the West Sea. "Of course, some dolls are stinging and eating some soybeans and corn flowers, which are good nutrition."
Northern Song Dynasty woodcut chromatic print "Silkworm Mother" According to the official website of wenzhou museum
Holding silkworms for the silkworm gods
Folk proverb has clouds: "February stings and hugs silkworms." "When the sting season awakens hundreds of insects, nature contains silkworms that can spit silk. Since ancient times, Chengdu has been known as the "Jincheng", from the legend that the Shu people found silk, to the Shushan silkworm Cong clan to develop the technology of planting mulberry silkworms, and then to the silkworm silk to prosper the country, this land and the silk weaving industry are inextricably linked. In Shudi, where the silk weaving industry is developed, there are naturally many silkworm farmers. As the stings arrived, they also got busy.
"Every year after the sting in February of the lunar calendar, whenever the earth thunders in the spring and the new shoots of the mulberry tree spit green, the silkworm farmers begin to pick mulberry and feed the silkworms, night and night." Liu Xiaochang said that after the sting, from the hatching of silkworm eggs into mud silkworms, silkworm farmers pick mulberry leaves day and night to feed the silkworms, until the mature silkworms climb to the cluster to spit silk cocoons.
Shudi has a long history of cultivating silkworms, the silk industry is developed, its weaving OfShu brocade is famous all over the world, and the custom of worshipping silkworm gods is very popular, and in the past thousand years, many large and small silkworm temples have been built. "In the old days, every peasant household in Jiang'anHe had a portrait or a small statue of a horse-headed lady in their homes." The horse head lady is the silkworm god in Chinese mythology, and it is said that she is a maiden with a horse head, hence the name. "On the day of the sting, the silkworm farmers will offer their own silkworm eggs, or newly hatched silkworm ants, in front of the statue of the god who lights the incense candle, and the incense cannot have a taste, and sacrifice the silkworm god with a knife, chicken or fish."