The second day of the second lunar month is a traditional festival of the Han nationality. People think that this day is the day when the dragon will ascend to heaven, so it is called "Dragon Head Lifting Festival" or "Qinglong Festival". On this day, women in rural areas of Henan generally don't move scissors or do needlework, for fear of cutting off the dragon's body with a knife. According to the old people. This is to show respect for the dragon. On this festival, people go to the fields to pick wild vegetables, make jiaozi, fry pancakes, fry soybeans, fry bacon and steam jujube buns to improve their lives.
Among the numerous food customs, there are the most people who spread pancakes and eat fried beans on this day. People believe that this day is the birthday of the Dragon King in the East China Sea, and pancakes are the dragon king's afterbirth. Eating pancakes is to chew the disaster for the dragon king, and throwing pancakes is to bury the dragon king's afterbirth.
On the second day of the second lunar month, people will fry corn and soybeans.
Dragon Boat Festival (the fifth day of May)
The fifth day of the fifth lunar month is the traditional Dragon Boat Festival in China. In Henan folk, there are two versions about the origin of Dragon Boat Festival. One is to commemorate Qu Yuan, and the other is from Tian Wen's new regulations on the Dragon Boat Festival. With vivid and interesting legends, the custom of the Dragon Boat Festival in Henan has become more and more colorful. There is a folk song that says, "On May 5th, when the wheat is ripe, dumplings will be wrapped for the Dragon Boat Festival." It shows that wrapping and eating zongzi is an important folk activity of Henan Dragon Boat Festival. In terms of shape, other provinces and cities include Bao jiaozi, Niujiao jiaozi, Cone jiaozi, Diamond jiaozi, Barrel jiaozi, Weighing Hammer jiaozi and Jiujiao jiaozi, while Henan is dominated by Niujiao jiaozi, with triangles and four corners.
Why does Henan want to package jiaozi? It is said that after Qu Yuan threw himself into the river for the first time, people throw rice into the river every year on May 5th, the anniversary of Qu Yuan's death, to commemorate Qu Yuan. One night, someone dreamed that Qu Yuan was sallow and emaciated, so he hurried forward to ask. It turned out that the rice people threw into the river was eaten by fish, turtles, shrimps and crabs. Qu Yuan has no food to satisfy his hunger, so he is getting thinner. He pondered how to prevent fish, turtles, shrimps and crabs from eating rice. Qu Yuan told him that if rice is wrapped in bamboo leaves and made into pointed corn (that is, zongzi), fish, turtles, shrimps and crabs will think it is water chestnut and dare not eat it any more. When the man woke up, he told the dream to his neighbor. On the Dragon Boat Festival the following year, people did what Qu Yuan said in his dream. Soon, Qu Yuan gave the man a dream to thank people for giving him zongzi. Later, people did this, and gradually formed the habit of keeping jiaozi.
"There is afternoon sunshine in May, and jiaozi fried dough sticks are soaked in realgar." During the Dragon Boat Festival, people in Henan not only eat zongzi, but also eat fried food. Fried dough sticks, fried dough sticks, hemp leaves, etc. They are all fried foods that people often cook. Among many fried foods, sugar cakes and vegetable corners are the most typical and representative holiday foods.
On the Dragon Boat Festival, some people are very particular about eating eggs. On the morning of Dragon Boat Festival, housewives cook the eggs, roll them on their children's stomachs several times, and then shell them for their children to eat. It is said that this can avoid the child's disaster, and the child will not have a stomachache in the future.
The ancient custom of catching toads on Dragon Boat Festival is still popular in rural areas of Henan. People think that toads are highly toxic and can clear away heat and detoxify, especially the toads caught on the Dragon Boat Festival are the most toxic and have the best quality. People squeeze the poison from toad's eye blisters, mix it with flour, rub it into strips and dry it for later use. Also put the ingot ink into toad's mouth, hang it on the wall, and dry it to become Chinese medicine, called toad ink. People have gangrene. Draw a circle with this ink and the disease will be controlled. It is precisely because of this custom that toads on this day are particularly difficult to catch. People say it is a "magic bug". On this day, people are afraid of being caught and hide in succession. Therefore, there is a folk saying that "a pot-bellied toad hides in the Dragon Boat Festival".
Dragon Boat Festival is the happiest time for children. Adults dress them with Chinese-style chest covering with five poisons, yellow embroidered shoes, five-color lines on their hands and feet, and delicate and beautiful sachets hanging around their necks. They are full of pride and frolic behind others. Children are ideal models for women. When children are dressed neatly and show off their mother's needlework skills in front of everyone, women get great psychological comfort and satisfaction. These children's decorations, which embodies maternal love, add charming colors to the traditional Dragon Boat Festival.
A Happy and Harvest Year (June 6th)
The first day of the sixth lunar month is a festival that people in the Central Plains pay more attention to. In eastern and southern Henan, there is a saying that the first day of June is a small year. Especially in rural areas. People regard this day as a festival to celebrate the harvest and worship the harvest year. At this time, the wheat has just been planted, and the joy of harvest is full of farmers' hearts and eyebrows. People set tables in houses, yards and wheat fields, and put five kinds of melons and fruits, such as steamed bread, jujube hill, peaches and plums. They filled the barrels with newly harvested wheat, wrote the word "Fu" on the barrels, and then burned incense and set off firecrackers, praying for good weather and abundant crops in autumn. After that, people happily ate a "chop suey" made of meat, vegetables, vermicelli and kelp. Adults guess the rules of boxing in the wheat field, and children have fun while eating.
After the first day of June in the lunar calendar, the sixth day of June is another big festival. So some people simply put the activity on June 6th on June 1 day. On the sixth day of June, people call it "Fried Noodles Festival", "Looking at Summer Festival" and "Daughter's Day", which are often ten miles (5 kilometers) and eight miles (4 kilometers) apart, so the customs are very different. Anyway, festivals are about eating, playing and visiting relatives and friends. And these festivals are all related to married girls. Every household in the countryside will take the married girl home from June/kloc-0 to June 6, and then send her back to her husband's house after being entertained. As the saying goes, "June 6, please ask your aunt." "On June 6th, I hung up my hoe and called my aunt and sister-in-law."
The custom of celebrating the New Year on the first day of June is quite common in the Central Plains. From June/KLOC-0 to June 6, the flavor of "Nian" in the rural areas of Central Plains is rich and lasts for about a week. Although there are differences between the first day and the sixth day, the distance between the two festivals is too close, and the festival activities naturally blend together. These festivals are not only agricultural festivals in the farming areas of Central Plains, but also "Harvest Festival" and "Harvest Festival". Custom activities in festivals are activities for farmers to taste the fruits of their labor. This kind of joy naturally allows all people to share it at the same time when visiting relatives and friends.
Fun Begging Festival (July 7th)
The seventh day of the seventh lunar month is a traditional festival of the Han nationality. Because the main participants in this day's activities are girls, the content of the festival activities is mainly begging skills, so people call this day "begging skills festival" or "girls' day".
The custom of begging for cleverness in Xinxiang, Henan Province is that every year on the sixth night of the seventh lunar month, seven unmarried local girls form a group (according to the number of "Chinese Valentine's Day"), each of whom exchanges things for a face and prepares offerings for the Weaver Girl. Someone wants to buy seven kinds of melons and fruits, such as grapes, pomegranates, watermelons, dates and peaches, bake seven steamed buns with oil or sugar, make seven bowls of small jiaozi and make seven bowls of noodle soup. In addition, seven big jiaozi will be packaged separately. Dumpling stuffing is made of seven kinds of vegetables, and there are seven kinds of things made of flour, such as needles, looms, flower hammers, spindles, scissors, garlic cloves or abacus. These seven things should represent the wishes of seven girls.
That night, the seven girls put their offerings under the melon shed or in a secluded place, burned incense and lit some paper, knelt under the moon and prayed to the Weaver Girl. After praying, seven girls were given fruit and seven bowls of steamed buns. Then put seven oil cakes and seven big jiaozi in bamboo blue and hang them on the Chinese Toona tree. That night, seven girls kept vigil together, guarding the bamboo basket. This kind of behavior is called "guarding cleverness", and its purpose is to prevent joking boys from stealing cleverness.
On the morning of July 7th, at dawn, seven girls closed their eyes and touched a big jiaozi in the bamboo blue. Whoever finds needles, scissors and other things in jiaozi will become a dab hand in the future.
In northern Henan, Qinyang, Mengxian and other places, there is still the custom of "Tanabata" duet. On Valentine's Day in China, local girls form groups with seven people in each group, or nine or eleven people in each group, depending on the number of people. People pay attention to the number of singers, and there is a saying that "when the list is wrong, the fault lies in the generation." People divide the duet into odd numbers in order to get a "coincidence" and hope that the duet in our village will win.
Begging for songs and customs is really interesting and memorable. It enriches the contents of the Begging for Cleverness Festival on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, making this girl's festival as naive, lively, optimistic and cheerful as a girl's character.
Animal Festival with Outstanding Rural Characteristics (July 15)
The 15th day of the seventh lunar month is the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival in China, commonly known as "Ghost Festival". Farmers in the Central Plains also call this day "Cow Festival", and there are many activities to sacrifice cows on this day.
On July 15 in Linxian County, northern Henan Province, every household steamed white bread in the shape of mutton, steamed it at noon, and then set off firecrackers to celebrate the prosperity of the trough head. Every farmer with big animals will stop work for one day, give mutton buns to the big animals, and some will feed the animals with concentrated feed such as beans to show that the Animal Festival is different from usual. In the evening, they will make a pot of rice soup for animals to drink. A folk song says, "Beat 1000 and scold 10000, and have a small meal on July 15th."
The Central Plains is a farming area, and large livestock is the main "labor force" of every family's cultivated land, and autumn ploughing is the heaviest labor force of livestock. People regard the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month as the "Animal Festival", which shows that people attach importance to livestock and the important role livestock plays in people's production and life.
Climbing the mountain and enjoying chrysanthemums and talking about Chongyang (the ninth day of September).
The ninth day of the ninth lunar month is the traditional Double Ninth Festival in China. The ancients thought that "nine" was a lucky number and a positive number. On the ninth day of September, it occupies two nine characters, and double yang is important, so people call it "double ninth" or "double ninth".
In the traditional customs of China, the Double Ninth Festival is a climbing festival, which, like eating zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival and eating moon cakes on the Mid-Autumn Festival, has become a symbol of the Double Ninth Festival on September 9. According to historical records, it was formed under the influence of a myth and legend.
In addition, in the traditional concept of Central Plains people, double ninth still means longevity, health and longevity. Therefore, people regard the Double Ninth Festival as "the festival for the elderly", and there are many activities in society to respect, care for and respect the elderly.
At present, dogwood is rarely worn in Henan folk Double Ninth Festival, but chrysanthemum viewing in Double Ninth Festival is becoming more and more popular. Because chrysanthemums are in full bloom in September, which is also called "Chrysanthemum Month", viewing chrysanthemums has become an important part of the festival during the Double Ninth Festival in Ao Shuang.
Laba "jujube tree" eats rice (the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month)
The eighth day of the twelfth lunar month is the traditional Laba Festival of Han nationality in China. On this day, most parts of China have the custom of eating Laba porridge. Laba porridge is made of eight kinds of fresh grains and fruits harvested in the same year, usually sweet porridge. However, many farmers in the Central Plains like to eat Laba porridge. In addition to rice, millet, mung bean, cowpea, peanut, jujube and other raw materials, porridge also contains radish, cabbage, vermicelli, kelp, tofu and so on.
In northern Henan, on the morning of the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, people get up and cook porridge at dawn. After the porridge is cooked, the first thing to do is not to eat it yourself, but to feed the cooked porridge to the jujube tree, cut some small holes in the jujube tree, and then piously wipe the porridge on the tree marks, so that the jujube tree thinks that it has eaten rice. People do this because, according to the old people, the jujube trees in the Central Plains are fruitless and people are unwilling to plant jujube trees. Seeing that people didn't respect her, Shen Zao became an old woman and came into this world. She drew an orchard not far from the village, which was full of jujube trees and dates. People picked it, tasted it, and it was sweet and sour, so they went to the old woman who managed the jujube tree for advice. The old woman told everyone that jujube trees will bear fruit as long as they are fed rice on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month every year. People did as she said, and sure enough, all the trees had red dates. This is just a legend. In fact, there are many scientific reasons for bread here: cutting some holes in jujube trees can adjust the nutritional growth of jujube trees, prevent nutrients from being transported underground, and supply the above-ground parts centrally, thus ensuring the nutritional needs of fruits. As for putting porridge on tree scars, it is actually just a soil measure to protect wound healing.
Until now, there is still the custom of letting jujube trees eat rice on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month in northern Henan. There is a folk song circulating in the local area: "Laba jujube trees eat rice and jujube bears dried eggs." "Dried egg" is a Henan dialect, which means that jujube trees are full of fruits and thick.
In the famine year (the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month), God was sent to busy offering sacrifices.
The 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month is an important folk festival before the Spring Festival, which is called "Festival of Sacrificing Kitchen Stove". At this time, people can't help but welcome the joy of the New Year, stop all kinds of work in their hands, and are busy with the sacrificial activities of offering sacrifices to the gods years ago.
On the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the first round of firecrackers was set off in urban and rural areas of the Central Plains. City residents are busy buying sesame candy, fire and other food for offering sacrifices to stoves. In the vast rural areas, preparations and grand ceremonies for offering sacrifices to stoves gradually began in the deafening sound of guns.
Ceremonies for offering sacrifices to stoves are mostly held at night. When offering sacrifices to the stove, the people who offer sacrifices to the stove kneel in front of the statue of the stove and hug the rooster. Some people even let children hold chickens and kneel behind adults. It is said that the chicken is the horse on which jujube ascended to heaven, so the chicken is called a horse instead of a chicken. Such as red rooster, commonly known as "red horse" and white cock, commonly known as "white horse". After ordering the incense table, the cigarettes in the room were filled with mysterious colors. The host poured wine and kowtowed, muttering something. After reading it, the burning lamp shouted "collar"! And then pour the chicken head with wine. If a chicken's head flutters, it means that Grandpa Jujube has been ungrateful. If the head of the chicken doesn't move, it needs to be watered again.
After the ceremony, people began to eat food, such as stove, candy and fire. In some places, they also eat sugar cakes, oil cakes and tofu soup.
In Henan, the typical food for offering sacrifices to stoves should be the first stove candy. It is also said that the candy used for offering sacrifices to the stove is not stuck on the mouth of the stove owner, but on the mouth of the grandmother who is greedy and loves to gossip.
In addition to eating stove candy, fire is also a very distinctive seasonal food on the day of sacrifice. On the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the business of biscuit stalls in the city is booming. People gathered together and rushed to buy sacrificial stoves and burn them. Most of the countryside is made by ourselves, made of flour and kang. The home is very lively, with the taste of off-year life.
In Henan, people regard the festival of offering sacrifices to stoves as a reunion festival after the Mid-Autumn Festival. Anyone who works, does business or goes to school in other places should try to get home before the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month. If you can eat the sacrificial stove cooked at home, you will be protected by the kitchen god and your family will be safe in the coming year.