Little year to come
Nafrey
spring festival
Today is the twenty-fourth day of the waxing moon
It is also a small year for the Chongming people
Twenty-four nights
Everyone has already started to prepare
Buy New Year goods, dust dust, and worship the god of vesta
Do you know the legend of Vesta?
What is the point of the sacrificial stove?
Let's take a look
Legend of Vesta
Vesta is a god sent by the Jade Emperor of Heaven to the human world to monitor good and evil. People call him "Stove Prince", "Stove King Gonggong", "Stove Lord", "East Chef Si Ming".
Legend has it that in ancient times, there was a family with the surname Zhang, two brothers, the older brother was a plasterer, and the younger brother was a painter. His brother's job was pan pot table, and East Street and West Square praised him for his high craftsmanship. The elderly and long-term fangyuan all the areas honored him as "King ZhangZao".
King Zhang Zao lived for the full seventy years, and his death was on the night of the twenty-third day of the waxing moon. As soon as he died, the Zhang family was chaotic, it turned out that King Zhang Zao was the head of the family, and everything in the family obeyed his orders, and now the eldest brother left the human world, and the younger brother could only write poetry and paint, although he had spent his armor, he had never taken care of housework. Several rooms of daughters-in-law were clamoring to separate the family, and the painter was helplessly disturbed, and his face was sad all day. One day, he finally came up with a good idea. On the night of the first anniversary of king Zhang Zao's death on the twenty-third day of the lunar month, the painter woke up the whole family and said that the eldest brother had appeared. He led his son and daughter-in-law's whole family to the kitchen, only to see that on the dark stove wall, the fluttering candlelight loomed to show the appearance of King Zhang Zao and his late wife, and the family was stunned. The painter said: "I dreamed that the eldest brother and sister-in-law had become immortals, and the Jade Emperor named him 'Nine Heavens Eastern Chef Si Ming Zhao Wangfu Jun'. You are usually lazy and lazy, you are discordant, disrespectful and filial, and you make the family uneasy. The eldest brother knew that you were making trouble and was very angry, and was ready to go to heaven to warn the Jade Emperor and punish you Chinese New Year's Eve night in the Netherworld. ”
When the children and nephews and daughters-in-law heard these words, they were terrified, and immediately knelt down and prostrated their heads one after another, and rushed to bring the sweets that King Zhang Zao usually liked to eat on the stove and offer them on the stove, and begged the king of the stove to forgive. Since then, the uncles, brothers and daughters-in-law who are often noisy no longer dare to throw spills, and the whole family gets along peacefully, and the old and young live in peace. After this matter was known to the neighbors and friends in the neighborhood, they passed on ten, ten to hundred, and they all rushed to the Zhang family to inquire into the truth. In fact, the king of the stove on the wall of the stove on the night of the twenty-third day of the waxing moon was pre-painted by the painter. He was pretending to use the apparition of the eldest brother to scare his children and nephews, but he did not expect that this method would really work. Therefore, when the neighbor came to the painter to inquire about the situation, he had to fake the real scene and distribute the painted statue of the king of the stove to the neighbor. In this way, along the countryside, every stove house is labeled with the statue of the king of the stove. As the years passed, the custom of offering sacrifices to the king of the stove and praying for the peace of the family was formed on the twenty-third day of the lunar month. Since the Zhou Dynasty, the imperial palace has also included it in the festival and has become a fixed ritual throughout the country.
Ritual stove customs
At dusk on the twenty-third day of the waxing moon (in some places, at night on the twenty-fourth day of the waxing moon), the family goes to the stove room, sets up the table, and arranges the sugar melon made of caramel and noodles, and then incensees the king of the stove in the stove niche. The use of sugar melons to sacrifice the king of the stove is to make him sweet. Some people also smeared sugar on the four sides of the mouth of the stove king, and while painting it, they said: "Good words to say, good words to say more." "Use sugar to plug the mouth of the stove king." In more places, the lees soil was smeared on the stove, so that the king of the stove was drunk and confused, and naturally he could not remember what he wanted to say when he reported to heaven. Finally, the statue of the king of the stove was removed and burned, and the king of the stove ascended to heaven with paper and smoke.
In Chongming, the elderly will paste a statue of the god of vesta printed on red paper on the stove head of the house, and light two large red candles and a stick of incense in front of the statue, and the house is brightly lit and smoked. Rolled silver buns, red bean rice, round balls, tofu, Cifu and other offerings for the god of Vesta to enjoy are placed one by one. The whole family knelt down and prostrated their heads one by one according to the size of the generation. Finally, the statue of Vesta was cremated with a paper hammer to show the heavens.
Twenty-four nights of food
Twenty-four sugars
"Twenty-four sugars" are caramels made from grain. The shape is roughly divided into two kinds, one is a square prism, like the ancient Yuanbao, also called "Yuanbao sugar"; the other is similar to the ancient gold bar, in the shape of a cylinder about an inch long, because of the "inch" and "call" harmonic sound, also known as "satisfactory sugar".
Mushrooms
Mushroom, pronounced "self-care", means to take care of one's own home. The mushrooms are a bit bitter, but they all have to be eaten, especially the small ones, and the parents have sent them over to the side and instructed: "Remember well, just take care of yourself, don't worry about things." "This seems a bit selfish, but in fact, everyone manages their own duties, and it is too peaceful."
Vegetable head
Caitou, caitou and "caitou" and "color head" harmonic sounds, meaning fortune, good luck. In the cities and villages of Chongming, most of them are male masters, cultivating the fields or earning copper tin to support their families, and he eats the vegetables first, and he has to choose the big ones to eat, and the little women follow to eat, and everyone gets rich and rich.
bean curd
Tofu means that the character is upright and unblemished, and the person is innocent.
Red bean rice
Red bean rice, the new rice harvested that year, the new red beans are boiled, let the stove master taste the new, and the red beans are red, symbolizing fire, belonging to the yang, and have the mana to deter ghosts and monsters, drive away evil spirits and avoid diseases. The red bean rice cooked more than usual on the 24th night, why? First, a bowl is to be thrown on the roof for the gods who pass by to share it, asking for their blessing and protection. It is also necessary to eat a bowl to the Spring Festival, and eat it in the old year until the New Year, which is in line with the auspicious phrase of "more than enough every year".
Because this bowl of red bean rice is of great significance to be eaten next year, the family carefully preserves it and is careful to steal it for cats and dogs. Before and after to store for seven or eight days, if the temperature is high, it is easy to eat, quite a lot of people hang under the outdoor eaves, and then the living conditions are good with a refrigerator, it is stored in the refrigerator, and the insurance will not deteriorate.
Roll silver pack
A rolled silver bun is a product made of flour that is a little larger than the skin of the spring roll, and the bread is covered with golden melon shreds, watercress crisp, or cifu, green vegetable tofu and other dishes, and grows into strips. Folk also use the blind wrapped dishes as rolled silver buns. In the eastern part of Chongming, the rolled silver bun, also known as the Stacked Money, is an indispensable food for praying for Najib during the New Year. In the old days, people didn't have wallets. The money in circulation is broken silver and copper coins, copper coins are strung together, and broken silver with higher monetary value is generally wrapped in cloth, called silver bags. The silver bag rolled in the twenty-fourth night means to earn more money, which is people's yearning for a better life.