In ancient times, the vernal equinox was also a traditional festival, which left many customs, such as laying eggs at the beginning of spring, eating spring vegetables and offering spring sacrifices, the most bizarre of which was "laying eggs".
1, spring eggs begin
China has a tradition of "spring equinox" since ancient times. According to historical records, this tradition originated 4000 years ago, and people celebrated the arrival of spring. Legend has it that the vernal equinox is the easiest day to lay eggs, and many places will hold egg-laying competitions. Playing with eggs on the vernal equinox is a very interesting folk activity with the cultural characteristics of keeping pace with the times, so it is widely accepted and handed down.
Step 2 eat spring vegetables
On the vernal equinox, there is another custom that cannot be celebrated, which is called "eating spring vegetables at the vernal equinox". "Spring vegetable" is a kind of wild amaranth, which villagers call "Artemisia chun". At the vernal equinox, people go to pick spring vegetables. When searching in the wild, it is often green and thin, about the length of a palm.
Picked spring vegetables are usually boiled with fish fillets at home, which is called "spring soup". There is also a folk jingle that describes it like this: "Spring soup is dirty, washing the liver and intestines; The whole family is safe and healthy. " A year's plan lies in spring, and the vernal equinox is coming. Faced with the germination of all things, people naturally want to pray for peace and health at home.
3. Spring Festival
At the vernal equinox in February, people began to sweep graves to worship their ancestors, also known as the Spring Festival. Before people sweep the graves, they should hold a grand ancestor worship ceremony in the ancestral hall, kill pigs and sheep, ask drummers to play, read the eulogy and quote three praises. At the beginning of the spring equinox grave sweeping, the first thing is to sweep the graves of ancestors and distant ancestors. The whole family and the whole village have to be dispatched on a large scale, and the team often reaches hundreds or even thousands. After the ancestral graves of Kaiji and Yuanzu were swept, they were divided into rooms to sweep the graves of ancestors in each room, and finally each family swept the graves privately.
In most Hakka areas, ancestor worship and grave sweeping in spring begin at the vernal equinox or earlier, and must end in Tomb-Sweeping Day at the latest. There is a saying all over the country that after the Qingming Festival, the tomb door will be closed and the ancestors will be affected by it. ...
4. Memorial Day
Since the Zhou Dynasty, there has been a ritual of offering sacrifices on the vernal equinox. Chengshantou in Rongcheng, Shandong Province is considered to be the place where the ancient sun god lived. According to Records of the Historian, after Jiang Taigong helped Zhou Wuwang negotiate with the world, he built a Japanese main temple here. During the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shihuang went to Chengshan Mountain twice, where he built the "First Emperor Temple" and set up the "Japanese Temple" to worship the Japanese Lord. Later, emperors of all dynasties set up altars and temples in the capital to worship the sun, and the place where emperors of Ming and Qing dynasties worshipped the sun was the altar now located in the east of Beijing.
On the vernal equinox, there is a custom of eating sun cakes in northern China. Sun cakes are especially common in Beijing. They are not only sacrifices to the sun, but also food for festivals, meaning "the sun is high". Sun cakes are generally made of glutinous rice and sugar, with the three-legged sun symbolizing the sun printed on them. Eating sun cakes is to express gratitude to the sun.
5. Go for an outing and fly kites
Gao Ding, a poet in A Qing, wrote in his poem "Village Residence": "In February, the grass grows with warblers, and the willows on the embankment are drunk with spring smoke. The children came back from school early and were busy flying kites in the east wind. " This is a folk activity of flying kites at the vernal equinox. Flying a kite is a physical and mental exercise, which is fast and slow, relaxing and conducive to stretching. At the same time, go for an outing in the suburbs with fresh air and bathe in harmonious spring, and the depressed mood can be swept away.
6. Stick the sparrow's mouth
According to custom, farmers have a holiday on the vernal equinox. Every family should eat dumplings, and a dozen or thirty dumplings that don't contain hearts should be cooked and placed on the edge of outdoor fields with thin bamboo forks, which is called sticking sparrows' mouths so as not to destroy crops.
The vernal equinox is also a good time for children to fly kites. Especially on the vernal equinox, even adults take part. Kites are divided into Wang Zi Kite, Silver Carp Kite, Myxomoth Kite, Leigong Kite and Moon Light Kite. The biggest kite is two meters high, and the smallest one is two or three feet. There are kites on the market, many of which are smaller than others' and suitable for children to play with, but most of them are posted by themselves, and the bigger ones have to compete with each other to see which one flies high.
"Twenty-four solar terms" said: "In mid-February, half a minute, that is, 90 days and a half, so it is called a minute." According to our traditional calendar, 90 days from beginning of spring to Changchun is spring, and the vernal equinox just divides these three months equally, so the ancient vernal equinox is also called "vernal equinox". The arrival of the vernal equinox means that spring has passed halfway.
The vernal equinox embodies the way of neutralization in China's traditional culture, that is, impartiality and excess. Therefore, the vernal equinox is also a traditional "standard day" in China, and its connotations of "justice" and "equality" still have important guiding significance in modern society.