Anyone who has experience in rural life or has rural elders in the family knows that in the village, there are many ancient Xi customs that have been passed down, not ignorant feudal superstitions, and have very interesting practical value in some scenes, even science cannot explain. I'll list a few of them, and let's see if you've seen them.
1. When children are toddlers, use a kitchen knife to scratch the ground behind them
Children who are just starting to walk are often afraid to take the first step. Nowadays, the way we usually use it is for parents to clap their hands in front of them and encourage them to guide their children forward. Or with the help of toddler tools, let your child get used to it slowly.
In the past, if the children in the countryside were toddlers, if they did not dare to walk well, an old man would take out the kitchen knife that usually cut vegetables from the house, quietly come behind the child, and make a few strokes back and forth on the ground.
Amazingly, it doesn't take long for a child to stagger forward. In particular, the scared, frightened expressions they showed at the beginning were replaced by joyful and curious looks.
2. When someone dies in the family, after the person leaves, open the window and sweep the house
In rural families, if someone dies unfortunately, after the person is carried out of the house, the elderly will arrange for a special person to open the window in the house, and then take a broom to make a cleaning shape on the wall.
What are the specific statements of this move, the old people say different reasons, and I don't know which one is true. But in reality, once such an act is done, the atmosphere of sadness that originally permeated the room is indeed greatly reduced. I don't know if it's a psychological effect or a real situation, but many people say they feel refreshed.
Moreover, the people who open the windows and sweep the house must not be children and close relatives, either distant relatives and friends, or old people in the village who are not related by blood.
3. When you go home after the funeral, you should turn over the kitchen knife in the basin at the door, take off your filial piety clothes and throw it in from the wall
Rural people attach great importance to white things, and they do not enjoy happiness in life, and they can relieve the mood of their relatives with fatigue when they are gone.
After the funeral, everyone went home from the grave, and when they arrived at the gate, they could not go in directly, and some female elders prepared a basin of water at the door, and put a kitchen knife in it, and everyone had to turn the kitchen knife over. After turning over, he took off his filial piety clothes and wore linen and filial piety, wrapped them in a ball, and threw them into the courtyard from the walls on both sides of the door.
After these two things are over, people are allowed to enter the door. When you enter the door, you pick up the filial piety clothes you threw away, and when you enter the house, you should eat, drink, and drink tea.
4. Move the pot first, burn it if you can open the fire, and burn it if you can't turn on the fire
After rural people build a new house, even if they rebuild an old house, they must have a "ceremony" of boiling the pot. It is said to be a ceremony, but in fact it is not complicated, and there is no big scene.
Put a big iron pot on the stove that has been built, and if you have the conditions to open the fire, burn the stove and heat the pot, stir-fry a vegetable, or boil some water without stir-frying, you have to let the chimney smoke.
If there are various reasons that are not convenient for the stove, it doesn't hurt, lift the lid of the pot, put a green onion, and put a few cloves of garlic and a piece of ginger, and this matter is also completed.
There is a time node for opening a stove, and the old people will calculate the direction and time. If you want to move, you can move at any time, which means that you can live in it.
5. The toilet is built in the southwest corner
When building houses in rural areas, toilets are to be built in the southwest corner. This does not seem to be a definitive conclusion, and it varies from place to place. In my opinion, it depends on what kind of wind is blowing in the local area on a regular basis.
The toilets in our hometown are all open-air aqua toilets enclosed by half-human high earthen walls, without a roof, which is convenient for manure. In the past, the so-called "going up to the north and going down to the south", and from this to get the saying of going to the toilet and going to the kitchen, is not applicable to us.
This is one of the few rural Xi that we can explain scientifically.
With the development of the times, even in the ancient and backward countryside, it is no longer closed. People yearn for beauty, and go out of their homeland with joy to welcome a new urban life. As the left-behind elders gradually wither, many old Xi and old traditions slowly disappear, and perhaps one day in the future, no one will remember these things. I don't know if when life loses the sense of ritual and awe, will we remember the past, and then let out a knowing smile and a sigh.