As the Chinese Lunar New Year, the Spring Festival is an ancient and most solemn festival in Zhengzhou folk customs. How much do you know about the traditional Spring Festival customs in Zhengzhou? Let's listen to what Chinese New Year customs people used to have in Zhengzhou.
Zhengzhou Spring Festival custom: stealing lent lanterns and carrying jujube hill.
About 61 or 71 years ago, in the villages in Zhengzhou City, there was a custom of offering lanterns to gods and sending jujube hill to nephews.
The so-called "Zhai Deng" means that before the 31th of the year, when steaming steamed buns, a lump of dough the size of steamed buns is made into a small bowl and steamed with steamed buns. When we have a reunion dinner in jiaozi on New Year's Eve, in order to thank God or the deceased elders for their blessings over the past year, we pour a little cooking oil into the steamed bun bowl, find a piece of thread to twist, light it, and put it in a shrine at the gate, or on the pier or in front of the ancestral memorial tablet to worship them.
At that time, there was a general lack of food. Some naughty and daring children would take advantage of the night to touch the shrine of others' homes and steal the burning "Zhai Deng" and eat it, or take it home. This is stealing lent lamps. Many elderly people simply don't know how to write the word "Zhai". All I know is that everyone calls it that. As for stealing, it is simply a ridiculous behavior that can be ignored.
carrying jujube hill is still related to eating. Before New Year's Eve, when steaming steamed buns, jujube hill was also steamed. The so-called jujube hill is to make the dough into a shape like a mountain the size of a melon, and then insert a circle of dates on it and steam it. On the second day of the Lunar New Year, the niece and son-in-law came to worship the Chinese New Year with their nephews and nieces. When they returned to their home after dinner, they took this jujube hill out for their nephews to take home and eat slowly. This jujube hill probably symbolizes the hope that nephews and nieces will grow up earlier, and perhaps symbolizes the hope that nephews and nieces will make a fortune earlier. Anyway, it's just a good wish. With the improvement of living standards, these "ancient" customs related to eating are "abandoned" by people.
Zhengzhou Spring Festival custom: make up the "patch" on the fifth day of the first month.
According to the old man, in Zhengzhou and its surrounding areas, there is a saying in the Spring Festival custom that people eat noodles to make up patches on the fifth day of the first month. It is also said that this custom was particularly important in the rural areas around Zhengzhou in the early years. Now, many young people may not know this custom.
After the New Year's Day, besides the 15th day of the first month, the fifth day is often regarded as a very important day. On that day, the people still burned incense and worshipped God, in order to protect peace and happiness. On the fifth day of the first month, we eat dough to make up the "patch". First, there are many taboos during the New Year, such as not quarreling, not swearing, not breaking the basin, not hitting the bowl, etc., in order to be lucky. However, although you are extra careful, it is inevitable that you will not break a bowl or a spoon. To make up for this mistake and save Geely, you will eat dough on the fifth day of the first month to make up for this "broken stubble".
In addition, another reason for making up the "patch" on the fifth day of the first month is that most people were poor at that time, and they may have owed a lot of debts in the past year. The people call these debts "holes". In order to expect to repay the debt as soon as possible, and to make my family no longer in debt in the future, on the night of the fifth day of the first month, I cooked and ate a round dough, comparing it to a "patch", and after eating it, I filled all the holes. Moreover, the bigger the dough, the stronger it will be, and the more you eat, the more you will make up. At that time, most children didn't like to eat this dough, and adults just persuaded them to eat it.
The custom of mending the patch on the fifth day of the first month is actually an expression of people's longing for a better life. Now that people have a good life, there is no "hole" to fill, so this custom has gradually faded. Besides, who still believes that this thin dough can really make up for anything? It's just to get rich by relying on your own wisdom and honest labor and legal management.
Zhengzhou Spring Festival custom: sweep the house on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month.
In Zhengzhou, there is a custom of sweeping houses on the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month. According to folklore, the Kitchen King is the commander of the Heavenly Emperor, who is responsible for checking the merits and demerits of each family. Anyone who has done so should draw a mark on the wall, and report to the Heaven on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month at the end of the year. After the first day of the fifteenth lunar month, Hui people with heavenly soldiers will be punished according to the mark on the wall. In order to eliminate hidden dangers, people immediately began to clean the house the day after they were sent to the kitchen god, which formed the custom of "sweeping the house 24 times" Legend goes back to legend, but it is a good custom to clean the house. All the year round, it is comfortable to clean the house and the outside. This habit is also in line with the spirit of the national health campaign advocated by the state. Imagine that every household has cleaned the house and yard very clean, and then prepared Chinese New Year food: steamed buns, fried crispy meat and dried sausages. There is an attractive fragrance floating in the air, and the children are laughing and playing. It is really a harmonious and vivid picture of spring music.
Nowadays, the living conditions have improved. The rooms are usually sucked by mops and vacuum cleaners, and the floors are mostly spotless. Maybe I don't care about cleaning the house any more, but it has become a habit to clean the room thoroughly years ago. The New Year is coming, and it will give people a brand-new feeling inside and outside. Who can deny that this good hygiene habit has not been handed down from the custom of' sweeping the house 24 times'?
Zhengzhou Spring Festival custom: Sesame candy sticks to the mouth of Kitchen God.
The 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month is a "small year", a day to send the kitchen god to heaven. It is said that the Kitchen God was originally a star in the sky. Because he made a mistake, he was relegated to the world by the Jade Emperor and became an official in charge of the kitchen. He sat in the middle of the kitchen stoves of various households, watched how people lived and acted, and recorded all the good and bad things in detail. On the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, he turned to heaven and reported the good and evil of various households to the Jade Emperor. Return to earth on the night of the twelfth lunar month, and punish evil and promote good according to the jade emperor's will.
Mother always gets up early that day and puts up a new year picture of Kitchen God. After dinner, my mother began to put sesame candy in front of the kitchen god's case. After burning incense, she burned the sesame candy on the candle, and the sticky sesame candy melted. My mother put the melted end on the kitchen god's mouth in the New Year pictures. I always draw a couplet on the edge of the kitchen god, which is puzzling. "Heaven speaks good things, and the lower world is auspicious." Later, my mother said that this was to let the kitchen god ask him to put in a good word when he ascended to the Jade Emperor, because he pasted his mouth with sugar, so the kitchen god could only say good things and could not gossip. After serving the Kitchen God, the sticky and sweet sesame candy became our delicacy.
Zhengzhou Spring Festival custom: avoid evil spirits, accept blessings and scatter firewood ashes.
Like many other places, people in Zhengzhou began to be busy as soon as they entered the twelfth lunar month. From the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month to the sweeping of houses and steaming of flower cakes until the Spring Festival couplets were posted on the 28th of the twelfth lunar month, this year's preparations were almost complete.
It's very particular to paste Spring Festival couplets, such as red couplets of appropriate size should be pasted on both sides of the gate, kitchen door and woodshed door. After the Spring Festival couplets are posted, the moral is to invite the door gods, kitchen gods and other gods of heaven and earth home. Then there was a little ceremony that was almost sacred.
The old people who used to live in the countryside near Zhengzhou knew that after the Spring Festival couplets were posted, a circle of white firewood ash should be sprinkled in front of and behind the house, which meant to keep other ominous little ghosts and gods out of the door, avoid evil spirits, keep their wealth from flowing out, and pray for the health, happiness and peace of the family in the coming year. This is usually done by the man in the house.
At that time, the steamed buns in cook the meat were burned in the earth pot. After the firewood and tree bumps were fully burned, the gray firewood was very clean. Father took it out slowly, put it in a laundry basket or basin, grabbed it one by one with his hands, spread it carefully and seriously around the house, and spread it in a dense circle to enclose the whole house. Children follow behind, don't talk nonsense, lest a word is wrong and offend the gods. When all this is done meticulously, just wait for the arrival of the 31 th anniversary, watch the new year's eve, set off firecrackers, kowtow and exchange auspicious greetings.