Kaizhou Wentojing festival customs

The folk traditional culture of Wentangjing (now Hot Spring Town) in Kaixian County is rich in traditional culture, and it has unique characteristics in the New Year's Festival, customs and habits. The author was born and raised in Wentojing, and the following is a record of some of the customs and customs I have personally experienced.

Regimental year

Before liberation, every year for the 24th to 30th day of the lunar month, every household had to celebrate the New Year, and every family who was outside had to rush home to eat the New Year dinner.

When I was a child, my family lived in Kaixian County, at the bend of the East Jiangxi Temple of the Wentangjing River, and the small place was called The Big Wharf. My father was a cook and opened a restaurant on the street. Every year on the twenty-eighth day of the lunar month, the new year's dinner is cooked by the father, basically do not sleep at night, and in the second half of the night, I call my brother and me: get up! Get up! Go and invite Yaya (uncle), Chen Mama (aunt), Three Uncles, Hu Mama (aunt), Sangaga (grandmother), uncle, etc. to eat Tuan Nian Dinner (Tuan Nian only invites the family, not outsiders). After inviting them here, my brother and I lit incense, wax, set off cannons, and worshipped the bodhisattvas. This was followed by a lighted eaves lamp, and a square wooden frame hung above the gate, each side affixed with red paper, on which were written the words "purple, micro, high, and illuminated". The adult put two large square wooden tables together, arranged the two tables of wine and dishes into a table, cups, spoons, bowls, chopsticks, first "call the old generation" (please eat the dead elders first, to show respect), after seeping wine in the cup three times, verbally read: Please the old generation to celebrate the new year. At this time, my mother shouted to the side of our brothers and said, "Today is the Year of the Regiment, don't talk nonsense, you can't say unlucky words, the dishes, cups, spoons, and plates must be kept steady, don't break things, remember (remember)!" When eating, sit upright, don't touch others, don't pick vegetables, don't pick any dish, which dish the adult picks, you pick which dish, pick the side in front of you, don't pick the other side. Mother means that doing so will not make a "mistake" in the year of the regiment. For example, if the chopsticks fall to the ground during the year of the regiment, it indicates that the person will be unlucky the next year, or will be seriously ill or die.

After calling the old people, everyone began to sit (on the table) to eat the New Year's dinner, from the early morning to dawn. After eating, my mother took a cup of cold water and called out to my two brothers to take a sip, saying that it was a drink that did not hurt my stomach all year round.

After eating the New Year's dinner, it was already dawn (dawn), the uncle, aunt, etc. went home separately, the three uncles and the three gagongs and their two families lived a little (worse), and the father brought them a few meat dishes to bring back.

Keep the age

On the morning of the 30th day of the Waxing Moon, adults go out to prepare meat, wine, small dishes, candy and other New Year goods, and also push tangyuan noodles. At night, both the stove and the small stove that roasts the fire must be burned vigorously (I think that this will be the next year's business is booming). Mother cooked the new year's rice on the stove, this meal should be cooked the next day's meal, left until the New Year's Eve to eat, indicating that there is leftovers (yu), hope to eat enough rice in the coming year, fried peanuts, two sunflowers, rice flowers (children), our two brothers cleaned the front of the gate and every house, the table, the bench wiped clean, the slag (garbage), miscellaneous water must find something to pack, after the first three days of the first month can be thrown out, the mother said, this is all wealth, can not be thrown away. Then, we began to light the cornice lamp and paste the pairs (couplets), and when we were done, my mother put peanuts, two sunflowers, and candy on the table with the oven, and the family gathered around the stove to roast the fire, and while eating, we set up a dragon gate array, and my mother ordered new clothes and shoes for my brothers alone. Father said: Every year in our family, it is the night of the twenty-eighth lunar month, because this day is your grandfather's birthday...

Late at night, when we were digging the kiln (sleeping), my mother gave the two brothers a hat, a new set of clothes, and a new pair of shoes, and put them on the side of the bed, so that they could be worn when they got up early in the first morning of the first month, and gave each of us a few copper shells (copper coins) as money.

Closed for the New Year

On the first day of the first month, the second day of the first month, the third day of the first month, do not do business, close the door for three days, adults and children stay in the house for the New Year. Dressed in new clothes and well-eaten, the family gathered around the fire, set up a dragon gate array, played late every night to go to bed, and got up the next morning (very late). Our three grandfathers (father and my two brothers) made more than 100 yuanbao (tangyuan), after grabbing the treasure (eating tangyuan), my father moved the prepared small hemp stone out and placed it at the foot of the wall inside the house, so that my two brothers "hit the bell" on it, which is a game we had when we were young: on the cornice stone of Shikan Street, or on the foundation stone under the common wall, several children crashed out on the stone with copper shells (copper coins), to see whose copper shell "flew" farther, and the farthest copper shell owner stood in that place, aiming at the second-farthest copper shell with the copper shell. If you hit, you win the second child's copper shell; if you don't fight, you don't lose or win, and then you can win and lose. Or play backgammon, corner chess, pants chess, monk chess... If there is a man named Hanako (a beggar) shouting outside the gate: Uncle Fortune, give a little (give some food to eat)! My brother and I would give him or her some cooked meat, rice or rice.

Bye bye

On the fourth day of the first lunar month, after "snatching the treasure" in the morning, my father took my brothers and brothers to visit the New Year: I went to the five uncles and the Sanga gong's house to visit the New Year, and shouted "Wishing you prosperity" before the door! New Year's Eve! New Year's Eve! After entering the house, the brothers invited the elders to the cupboard of God, placed the grass mat on the ground, and prostrated their heads in turn to give them New Year's greetings, while the elders next to them said auspicious or blessing words to me about growth. Then, with incense wax, paper, artillery, wine, cold noodles, and meat and vegetables, he went to the ancestral tomb worship platform on the nearby mountain, lit incense wax, put wine and vegetables, set off the cannon, knelt in front of the grave and prostrated to the deceased ancestors, prayed to them, and remembered them.

Play Dragon Lantern

On the fourth night of the first lunar month, you will start watching and playing with the dragon lanterns. We stood in front of our own homes to watch, at that time, the river was bounded by the river in the east and west of the river, and the masses on both sides of the river competed with each other to play with dragon lanterns, to see which side of the dragon lamp was more pierced and looked good. From Hedong to Hexi, and from Hexi to Hedong, adults and children playing with dragon lanterns wear dragon robes, and wear phoenix crowns and xiapeis dressed as princes and ladies; in front of the dragon lanterns, there are rudder flags, marquee lamps, drum lamps, and horses, and the rudder flag is made of stalks, about 1 zhang high and about 2 feet wide, rectangular, with a long bamboo pole in the middle, eight-sided stickers, painted with portraits or landscape paintings, and candles lit inside. The marquee is a palace lamp style tied into the court with a strip and candles lit inside. The drum lamp is made of a horse's head and horse's tail, and in the middle is a person, the horse's head hangs in front of the person, the horse's tail hangs behind the person, and the horse's head and horse's tail light candles.

Next is the straw hat (with a garlic sprout on the top) playing "boom", as well as the big lion, the tall little lion, laughing Luohan. To play "fire" is to have a person hold a lit candle or torch in his left hand, grasp the gunpowder in his right hand, sprinkle it on the lit candle or torch, sprinkle it into the sky, and scatter fireworks.

Along the banks of the river, hundreds of dragon lights a night are enough for you to watch. The streets are colorful, with gongs and drums and cannons. It was crowded and crowded. On the night of the fifteenth day of the first month, playing with the dragon lantern down the mountain, the journey is ten miles, through Jinguan along the west coal kiln across the river east to turn back to Wentangjing. The lively scene lasted until the night of the fifteenth day of the first month.

Out of the pavilion

Before liberation, every year on the fourth to fifteenth day of the first lunar month, dragon lanterns were played at night and pavilions were out during the day. The pavilion is made of a square frame of logs about one meter long, with iron rods in the middle of the frame and people standing on iron rods in the air. The base is eight logs, in the middle is a wrought iron strip steel iron rod, two inches to three inches in diameter, 1-3 meters high, and a person standing on the iron rod is called a color. The color is on the shoulder of the person, there is on the hand of the person, or on the tools and items, the number of people is 2-5, according to the number of people who play. Covered with props, outsiders generally can't see it. Two long wooden rods are tied to the pavilion seat. Carried by eight strong men, a total of sixteen people changed the carry. People with forks on both sides (there are several forks for a few people on the pavilion) protect the safety of the people on the pavilion. The pavilions I have seen, carried from Hedong to Hexi, from Hexi to Hedong, are crowded with people wearing red and green, and everyone applauds.

In November 1968, the inaugural meeting of the Revolutionary Committee of Hot Spring Town was celebrated, and people were elated and set up two double-colored pavilions. One is "The White-Haired Girl" and the other is "Wise Tiger Mountain", which is paraded throughout the town.

In April 1969, the people of Wenquan Town celebrated the victory of the Ninth National Congress of the Party, and for the first time in Kaixian County, the Shuangcai Pavilion was produced, starring in the costume drama "Journey to the West" fragment "Sun Wukong Three Dozen White Bone Essence", the first color was sun Wukong on the nail rake of the Eight Precepts of the Pig, and the second color was the white bone essence on Sun Wukong's golden hoop stick, two colors, standing high in the air on a pavilion pipe core, very wonderful.

clear and bright

March Qingming is one of the twenty-four festivals of the year for the croppers, which has been called the Qingming Festival for generations. As the old saying goes, "Qingming should be clear, and the valley rain should be drenched." "On the day of the Qingming Festival, the sun will come out, and the valley rain will rain on this day, which is called the wind and rain, which symbolizes that the year is good, the grain is abundant, and the people are well clothed and fed."

Qingming Festival, there is a wild vegetable on the mountain, called Qingming cuisine. Once in The Qingming, the growth is luxuriant, the farmer digs up, sells on the street, the people who do snack business on the street, buy the Qingming dish, wash it, mix the fermented rice milk with the Qingming dish, steam it into the Qingming Rice Dumpling, its fragrance is delicious, and it is rich in nutrition.

Qingming day is not only a harvest festival, but also a day of ancestor worship. Every year on this day, basically every family, the old with their children and grandchildren, carrying or carrying incense, wax, paper, artillery, as well as meat and various cold dishes, the family, prostrating to the ancestors, worshiping the ancestors to sweep the grave Later, the family will eat a meal in front of the grave to express their mourning for the ancestors.

Dragon boat festival

The Duanyang Festival in May, commonly known as the Dragon Boat Festival, is called the Little Dragon Boat Festival, and the fifteenth is called the Great Dragon Boat Festival.

Wen Tangjing, the Dragon Boat Festival is particularly lively, people on the street and people in the township have come to the street to weigh meat, play wine, go home to make noodles, dumplings to eat, drink Xionghuang wine. On each side of the gate is a handful of mugwort leaf (a kind of Traditional Chinese medicine) to show the atmosphere of the Duanyang Festival.

Restaurants and snack bars on the street have famous snacks such as oil buns, cold noodles, cold powder, rice dumplings, oil fruits, white sugar for a long time, ci tang pieces, salt cakes, dried eggs, live sugar cakes, etc., which are especially well sold and in short supply.

On the banks of the Qingjiang River, the large pier, the colorful boats and dragon boats that return to the water Tuotuo are full of colors and are very dazzling. On both sides of the west bank of the river east, dragon boat races, swimming, full of rivers, the shore to see the lively, crowded sea, the sound of gongs and drums on both sides, the sound of refueling, shocking the canyon.

On this day, the grass vines and vines on the mountain were randomly pulled a few handfuls of medicine, and the people in the township ripped them to the street to sell, and my mother bought a few in the morning, and when it was dark, she boiled water to bathe our brothers and brothers, saying that there were no sores on the body after washing.

At the same time, the mother mixed the Chinese medicine male yellow, sulfur powder, and washed garlic with a basin of water, and sprinkled it in every corner of the house with a brush, especially the gutter. I asked my mother if she wanted to sprinkle this water? The mother said: "It can prevent snakes and centipedes from coming into the house to bite people." ”

July 19

During the Republic of China, at the beginning of July, each family had to buy several bundles of thirty-two pieces of straw paper, poke a hole in the shape of a copper coin on the straw paper, and seal it with white paper into a bag one by one, called the financial bag. This is for the old generation (the dead elder) to use in Hades. Seal the package, and write the name of the recipient and the package on each package, and the writing method has a specific format. The money bag that my family sent to the old man was written by my two brothers. After writing it, it was all placed on the god cabinet. At noon on the twelfth of July, the banquet is placed, and the old man must be invited first, and later, each party will pour a little wine from the wine glass on the ground, and then invite the old man to eat. Dinner is also set up for drinking, only three wines, not rice.

It's getting dark. The father broke the crown of the rooster and bled, and sacrificed each treasure bag with the blood of the cock's crown. Bring a small rice bowl for rice and water, and carry it together in a basket. My father took my brothers to the dam to burn them. First divide the financial package into rounds and rounds of yards, light incense, burn wax, and then light the treasure bag. Make a few strokes. Wait for the purse to burn out before going home. Basically, every family goes to a river dam or a barren slope to burn a financial bag.

On the night of July 15, every family was burning loose money paper in front of their homes. Burning those orphans who have no children and no daughters to die is called orphanhood.

From the first to the fifteenth day of July, except for the thirteenth and fifteenth days, the bun can be burned on any day. Folklore says that july 13th and 15th can not burn the bun, because The 13th of July is the Horse King Society, the 15th is the Shi Orphan, if these two days burn the bun, afraid that they will receive the "money paper", the old generation will not be able to receive it. During this period, each adult is not allowed to go down to the river to bathe. According to legend: Because there were many ghosts in the river during this period, I was afraid that the ghosts who fell into the water would find a substitute, and the feet of the people bathing in the river would be pulled to the ground and drowned in the river, which was very taboo.

Put river lights

When I was a child, on the night of July 15 of one year, I saw many people making all kinds of small lights made of colored paper, lit in the middle, and put small lamps on the river and flowed away. The water sparkles like stars, and the river is full of it, which is very beautiful. The elder said: It is those who have drowned in the water who have not been illuminated, and it is a memorial to send them a light.

August 15

Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15th. Early in the morning, my father steamed rice (glutinous rice) and kicked the rice. That is, the sake rice is steamed, poured into the stone nest (stone trough), and the wine rice pestle is rotten with a reed bamboo pole or a raking wooden stick, and the glutinous rice is divided into two pots, one pot is used to steam into several round rakes of different sizes, and at night to worship the moon bodhisattva. The other pot, first divided into several pieces in a small bowl, put in sugar or bee sugar, called laoshi. In this way, the family ate and rake for the Mid-Autumn Festival.

In the evening, my father set up a small table at the gate, placed moon cakes, rakes, peanuts and melon seeds, made two cups of covered bowl tea, and called on our brothers to light incense and wax to worship the moon bodhisattva.

Tengu "eats" month

When I was young, on the fifteenth night of a certain month of one year, I was sleeping, and my mother woke me up with my brother and woke me up! Get up! You two quickly took out the gongs and drums, and we heard the sound of gongs and drums outside, opened the gate, and saw that the neighbors next door were beating gongs and drums, and they also knocked. As soon as I heard it, there was a bang on both sides of the river, and the sound of a big gong and drum was ah! Straight, straight, up, up. Listen to my father say: Tonight the moon bodhisattva fell into distress, the tengu eats the moon (lunar eclipse), if the people in the world do not beat the gong and drum, the tengu will eat the moon to eat a missing horn, everyone must beat the gong and drum, save the moon bodhisattva, until the moon appears in the sky before not knocking.