Come, sit, have a cup of tea.
I often hear people complain that there is no New Year's flavor at all, as if it was just a holiday.
The so-called New Year's flavor is more like a metaphysics.
Chaoshan colleagues' New Year's program list
However, among the people who are sad about the New Year, Chaoshan people must not account for a high proportion, right?
For them, the New Year has to worship the lord, worship the ancestors, burn the fire dragon, camp the lord of all kinds of customs, indescribably lively; there are many kinds of offerings, and they can't eat the sweet soup of braised goose kueh teow and blood cockles, and they are hungry when they think about it. The taste of the year is a specific and subtle beauty.
After all, the Chaoshan New Year is a feast that invites the gods of the heavens to participate in it, and it is notoriously lively.
01
Chaoshan, full of gods
In the unique flavor of the Chaoshan New Year, there are lords who worship and don't play, and gods who can't be invited.
Chaoshan is located in the southeast corner of Chinese mainland, and the people of this land believe that everything in the world is dominated by gods. Therefore, they all bow to the heavens and the earth, the sun and the moon, the mountains, rivers and seas, the thunder and the lightning mother, and the rain fairy and the wind and the earth.
There are many hilly terraces and little arable land here, and it is a "wild and barren" land with many natural disasters since ancient times. Relying on the sky for food and the sea for their livelihood, the harsh natural environment makes it easy for the indigenous people to be in awe of the natural forces in the dark.
Before the Qin and Han dynasties, Chaozhou belonged to Minyue. The Yue people's belief tradition of "believing in witches and ghosts and valuing obscenity" has a far-reaching influence on the Chaoshan folk. In the Western Jin Dynasty, the Central Plains was turbulent, and the Yu and Jin Shi people moved south to Chaoshan, and the immigration tide allowed the Central Plains culture to take root in the land of Chaoshan. Diverse gods and beliefs are blended here, and different god worship is staged here, which also forms a unique Chaoshan New Year custom.
Field, a missionary who came to China at the end of the 19th century, once described the folk beliefs in the Chaoshan region as follows:
"There are countless gods that people worship here. They worship the huge statues of the gods in the great temples, the scattered wooden fragments in the shrines, they worship the local gods, and every village, field, and green hill in this land has its own god, they worship the invisible gods who control the thunderstorms, the harvest and the forces of nature, they worship the ghosts of the dead, and especially the ancestors who have died. ”
When the festival is held, various celebration and worship activities have been passed down from generation to generation, and the authentic Chaoshan Year has begun.
02
A god who rejoices with all
(People carry "Lord", picture from the "Cultural City" website)
Regarding the preparation of the year, it begins with the wax moon. "Reward the gods at the end of the year, travel to the gods at the beginning of the year", worship heaven and earth, worship ancestors, worship the king of the stove, and worship from the end of the year to the first month.
The gods of Chaoshan who stay at home for a long time and bless the safety of the family are collectively called "masters". The twenty-fourth day of the lunar month is the small year of Chaoshan, and it is also the day to send the "old man to heaven".
Shen Mian Gong is the god of the stove that every Chaoshan family must worship. He is a representative sent by the Heavenly Court to be stationed at home, supervise everyone in the family, record people's merits and demerits at any time, and return to the Heavenly Court to report as scheduled.
Chaoshan people believe that the report of the god of the stove will affect the fortune and misfortune of the whole family in the coming year. So they will present a gift for the birthday of the god of the stove, and they will also prepare a gift for him before and after the god of the stove to report to heaven, hoping that he can say a few more good words for his family.
Picture | Cai Huansong
Laoge is the most solemn festival of the year in addition to worshipping ancestors. "Lao Re" is the transliteration of Chaoshan dialect, which is actually noisy. The villagers invite the statues in the nearby Lao Ye Temple to come out, and the villagers carry them to patrol the places and accept the people's admiration, in order to pray for good weather and peace in the new year, and the place is also called "Ying Lao".
In the entire Chaoshan area, there will be activities every day in the New Year, and the time is different in different places, and some places even hold it until March. Each place has its own lord, including the city god, the king of the three mountains, the emperor of Guan, the emperor of the north, the lord of Shuangzhong and so on. The camp is a major event for the whole village to work together, and it is a grand agreement between man and God.
"The temple worships a lot and welcomes the gods for a year and occupies half of it, the pear orchard is swaying, there is no day, the lanterns are colorful, the fire trees and silver flowers, the whole country is noisy, day and night. - "Examination of Chaozhou Customs"
In addition to the golden body of the lord, there will also be a variety of flower basket teams and drum bands. There are people with dart flags, people who carry statues, people who beat gongs and drums, and there are also little flower girls who hold flower baskets.
On the dart flag, most of them are written with blessings such as "peace in the realm", "smooth wind and rain", and "open peace in the four seas". Children will also be allowed to touch the statue of the lord, and the Teochew people believe that children who touch the lord will grow up safely.
It was really a carnival time of the year, with high lights and flags, drums and firecrackers, and young people, adults and children running with statues of gods crowded the streets and cheered. Someone in front of the team set off firecrackers to open the way and make a noise. Every household will also put offerings in front of their doors, and when the old man passes by, they will set off firecrackers. It can be said that wherever you go, firecrackers go off.
After setting off the firecrackers, the smoke in the sky and the red all over the ground made people excited, and they also made their eyes water, but it did not affect the excitement at all. The streets of the second day of Lauge were completely red, with a thick layer of firecracker shells.
("Camp Master" must set off firecrackers, picture from the "Cultural City" website)
The traditional route of the wandering gods also carries the idea of "from the ancestors". The geographical boundaries through which the procession of the gods of wandering passes represent the land, which belongs to the village of the team of the gods and is guarded by the gods.
In this carnival with God, there is joy, anticipation, reverence and inheritance. In the repetition and overlapping rituals, the confirmation of one's identity is completed.
03
A generous gift to the gods
Photo source @ Penguin eat, drink and have fun
To send the lord and worship the ancestors, it is naturally indispensable to prepare a generous gift. The shrine of one's own house needs to be offered, and the gods of the temples and palaces in the township (called "lord" by the locals) cannot be rude.
In addition to the five animals (pigs, chickens, fish, geese, and ducks), various rice cakes, sugars, bowls, and vegetable bowls should be added to thank the gods. Fruits should be in season, bananas and apples are a must-have, and at the same time, watermelons ("dead melons") and other bad ones should not be chosen.
There are as many as twenty or thirty Chaoshan folk "Eight Festivals of the Year", together with various "Old Festivals". Depending on the time of year, the offerings vary depending on who is being visited.
Photo source @ Penguin eat, drink and have fun
On the twenty-fourth day of the lunar month, the gods go to heaven to report everything they have seen on earth during the year. Each household should prepare kueh products, rice, sugar, auspiciousness, paper horses, wicks and other worship. I also have to prepare sticky sweet cakes for the lord. Let the master speak unclearly, and do not speak too plainly about the affairs of the world, so as to avoid punishment and suffering. This is the hidden careful thinking of Chaoshan people.
Wait until Chinese New Year's Eve, and it is time for various kueh types to appear in a concentrated manner. Originating from the agricultural era, "kueh" is a delicacy that Chaoshan people rely on for their survival all their lives. The festival is not good without it. Fat cake, sweet cake, rat shell cake, cabbage cake, pine cake...... There is a lot of variety, and there are countless of them.
Red peach cake. Photo by Lian Youxi
On the fourth day of the first lunar month, the lord came back from the sky, and a plate of red peach cake is a must-have for every family, which means a good omen for a good start.
The whole chicken and goose, along with the entrails and blood, are also the two protagonists of the offerings. The chicken is required to be a large gelding, and the goose must be a huge lion-headed goose. Although braised goose has become extremely common on the dining table, there are still people in Chaoshan who insist on the New Year's ritual of braised goose. In the old house ancient alley, the brine goose still uses a firewood stove. For children, it is a very beautiful thing for the New Year to help add firewood, listen to the gurgling of the marinade, and smell the aroma of goose meat and marinade.
The braised goose is an important offering to the ancestors and the lord, and the slightly more important ones will be offered. And there is almost no unimportant worship of the Lord during the New Year. Therefore, every year during the Chinese New Year, it is also the time to eat braised goose and get tired of eating.
When you eat for two weeks, you finally finish the braised goose, and on the fifteenth day of the first month, you worship another one...... But it is inevitable that there will be some happy troubles.
04
Heaven and earth, rejoice together
In the house of worshipping the master, it is often necessary to get up early and go to the vegetable market to prepare for the festival. On the table of the Eight Immortals, the dishes are divided into red bowls for sacrifices, and then wine, sweet tea, and small balls are poured on them, and the incense burner and sesame oil lamp that were originally on the altar will also be solemnly invited to the table.
When it is ready, you can put incense and candles in worship and pray to the gods. After the sacrifice is completed, the money prepared in advance is offered, and a set of procedures for worshipping the lord are almost settled.
After worshipping the gods in the sky, they also worship their ancestors. In some old ancestral halls in Chaoshan, the Xi of the whole clan sacrifice is still preserved. On Chinese New Year's Eve, the grandchildren of each house come with their meals, and the aromas of cups and bowls on the table of the Eight Immortals are intertwined. Bustling people, preparing incense paper on the side, a candle flame red light.
Although I worship the lord, it will be a little annoying to worship too much, and the braised goose meat and kuay teow are really hard to eat...... But in retrospect, the excitement of the gathering still makes people happy.
This kind of joy of carnival with God has quietly become a part of the life of Chaoshan people. In the big festivals, hundreds of people are used at every turn, and the ancestors and gods are also alarmed.
All is well, that is, the greatest joy in the world.
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