Vertical egg

Every spring equinox, tens of millions of people all over the world are doing "vertical egg" experiments. How this toy, which is called "customized by China", became a "world game" is still difficult to verify. However, the game is simple and interesting: choose a smooth and symmetrical fresh egg that has just been born for four or five days, gently stand it up and put it on the table. Although there are many losers, there are also many winners. The vernal equinox has become the best time for vertical egg games, so there is a saying that when the vernal equinox arrives, the eggs will be beautiful. The eggs that stand up are very beautiful.

Eat spring vegetables

Lingnan style:

In the past, there was a custom in the four cities (now Heshan is the five cities) called "eating spring vegetables at the vernal equinox". "Spring vegetable" is a kind of wild amaranth, which villagers call "Artemisia chun". On the vernal equinox, the whole village went 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 a jingle that says, "Spring soup is dirty, but it washes the liver and intestines. The whole family is safe and healthy. " Since the spring of the year, people still pray for peace and health at home.

Send spring cattle

The vernal equinox is coming soon, and there will be a picture of spring cattle delivered door to door. The picture is printed with red paper or yellow paper on the lunar solar terms all the year round, and also printed with farmers' ploughing patterns, which is called "Spring Cattle Map". The people who send pictures are folk singers, who mainly say things like spring ploughing and auspiciousness that are not against the farming season. Every time they go to a house, they say whatever they see until the owner is happy to give money. Although the words spoken are casual, every sentence rhymes beautifully. Commonly known as "spring", spring people are called "spring officials".

Sticking 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 at the vernal equinox. Even adults are involved. 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.

the Spring Festival; Chinese New Year

At the vernal equinox in February, people began to pay homage to their ancestors, also known as the Spring Festival. Before sweeping the grave, a grand ancestor worship ceremony should be held in the ancestral hall, pigs and sheep should be slaughtered, drummers should be invited to play, and the ritual students should 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 everywhere that after the Qingming Festival, the tomb door is closed, and the ancestors' spirits are not needed.

worship

The folk festivals around the vernal equinox are February 15, Zhang Kai's birthday: Wang Sheng, also known as "Chen", was a warrior of the Tang Dynasty, Chen Yuanguang, who made great contributions to Zhangzhou and became the patron saint of Zhangzhou after his death. February 19 is the birthday of Guanyin Bodhisattva. Every birthday, many believers will go to Guanyin Temple to worship. On February 25th, Sanshan King Sacrifice Day: Sanshan King refers to Dushan, Mingshan, Jinshan and other mountain gods in Jieyang County, Chaozhou Prefecture, Guangdong Province. In the early years, Chaozhou Hakka immigrants were the patron saint, so the believers were mainly Hakkas.

festival

In the Zhou dynasty, there was a ceremony to worship the sun at the vernal equinox. Book of Rites: "Altar." Ying Da Shu by Confucius: "Also called vernal equinox". This custom has been handed down from generation to generation. Pan Qingrong won Ji Sheng at the age of Emperor Jing: "The vernal equinox and autumn are a grand ceremony of the country, and scholars should not worship it."

Ritan is located in the east of Ritan Road in the southeast outside Chaoyangmen, also known as Asahi altar. It is the place where emperors of Ming and Qing Dynasties offered sacrifices to Daimyojin (the sun) at the vernal equinox. Asahi is set at the beginning of the vernal equinox. Every year, A, C, E, G and Ren are sacrificed by the emperor himself, and the rest are sacrificed by officials.

Most places where ancient emperors offered sacrifices to the sun were located in the suburbs of Beijing. There was an altar in Beijing in the Yuan Dynasty. Now this altar in Beijing was built in the ninth year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1530). It is surrounded by a square outer wall. Before each sacrifice, the emperor would come to the clothing hall of Beitanmen to rest, then change into clothes and go to the Asahi altar for sacrifice. Asahi altar is located in the south of the whole building, facing east and west. This is because the sun rises in the east, and people have to stand in the west and salute the east. The altar is circular, 1 floor, with a diameter of 33.3 meters. Surrounded by short walls, there are 1 stargates in the east, south and north. To the west is the main entrance, and there are three star gates to show the difference. A square platform made of white stone in the middle of the wall is called the altar, with a height of 1.89 meters and a circumference of 64 meters. After the completion of the Ming Dynasty, the altar was made of red glazed tiles, symbolizing the sun in Daimyojin. This was originally a romantic arrangement, but in the Qing Dynasty, it was paved with square bricks, and the altar was inferior.

Although the memorial day is not as good as the ceremony of offering sacrifices to heaven and earth, the ceremony is also quite grand. When the Ming emperors offered sacrifices to the Japanese, they performed three rites, seven songs, eight dances, three kneels and nine bows. The ceremonies of the emperors in the Qing Dynasty offering sacrifices to the sun included welcoming the gods, offering jade and silk, first offering, first offering, last offering, blessing, car dealership, sending gods and meteors, which were also very grand. Today's altar has bid farewell to the era of offering sacrifices to the sun and worshipping God, and has become a park for people's leisure and entertainment.