Out of the Garden (Part 1)

A unique adult custom in Chaoshan area. Families with 15-year-old boys and girls should prepare three kinds of fruits for their children to bid farewell to their parents-in-law on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month and the Hungry Ghost Festival on the fifteenth day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar. They are children who play in the garden all day long. The ceremony is to put the three animals and fruits together into four, eight, or twelve pieces, and place them on a table commonly known as "Jiaoli". Then the gods of the parents-in-law are invited to come out of the sacred furnace. The children who come out of the garden will kneel down and worship. After worshiping, there will be no more. Goodbye. Children who go out to the garden must wear red clogs, eat rooster heads, and eat a little of all food. The custom of wearing red leather clogs and eating rooster heads.

Garden customs are slightly different in Chaoshan. In some places, only boys have gardens, not girls; in some places, you have to consult the gods first and learn that there are no "taboos" or "collision" before the ceremony can be held. The customs in Chenghai County are roughly the same as those in Chao'an County: 12 kinds of flowers must be soaked in water for bathing in the garden; people must change into new clothes, wear red leather clogs, and wear new bellybands; and they must hide in the house that day. In addition to worshiping the gods of parents-in-law, they also need to worship Hua Gong and Hua Ma. When a man comes out of the garden, he must bring a rooster as a sacrifice, and when a woman goes out to the garden, she must use a hen, and she must invite her relatives to have wine and food. . Raoping County uses banyan branches, bamboo branches and pomegranate flowers. A pair of peach branches, number one bamboo, and green grass are combined into 12 pieces of water to bathe in the garden. Fifteen-year-old men and women in Huanggang Town, this county, who received divination from fortune tellers but did not give out the garden, only held a simple ceremony, gave their children new clothes, bought a pig belly and cooked it for the children to eat behind the door, commonly known as "Change the intestines and stomach", then bid farewell to the parents-in-law and throw away the incense burner. Those who go out to the garden in Jiexi, Puning, and Huilai will eat fried pork intestines and pork tripe that day, and children are invited to eat at the same time around the "Jiaolu (bamboo dustpan)" on the ground. Congratulations to those who go out to the garden to "change into adult intestines and tripe" , say goodbye to childhood. In Jiexi County, the homes of gardeners should present fermented rice cakes, chickens and ducks to relatives and friends, and relatives and friends should return the favor with cloth. The local Hakka adult ceremony is held at the age of 21. It is called the 21st birthday. It is not called a crowning ceremony or a garden. There is also the custom of gardening in Hailufeng area. There is a saying in Chaoshan that "Fifteen men become adults, sixteen men become adults." When Mr. Zhong Jingwen, a famous contemporary Chinese folklorist, spoke at the founding meeting of the Guangdong Provincial Folklore Society in 1983, he mentioned that going out of the garden in Chaoshan is a special coming-of-age ceremony. .

Out of the Garden (Part 2)

Out of the Garden is a coming-of-age ceremony held by Chaoshan people to bid farewell to their childhood.

No matter whether they are boys or girls, it is time to leave the garden. At the age of 15 (the imaginary year), the child's parents and grandparents will prepare for the child to go out to the garden, usually on the third, fifth and seventh days of the lunar calendar, especially on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month. >On the day when they go out to the garden, the children must wear new clothes sewn by their grandparents and wear red clogs newly given by their grandparents. Early in the morning, the children's parents will put the prepared pig offal, including pig intestines and tripe. , liver, kidney, heart, boil it into soup, add some sugar, and let the child eat it. The implication is that at the age of 15, people must renew their internal organs and abandon dirty things. This is followed by worshiping the "parents-in-law". The last time I paid my respects to my parents-in-law was a sumptuous lunch, including meat, three-bird eggs, and twelve vegetables. The main vegetables were ham and green garlic, which means that after eating ham, everything will be better. "Liuhe"; green garlic, which can be harvested when grown up, is smart; qin, which means hardworking throughout life. The seat of the person who goes out of the garden is also particular. On this day, he or she should sit upright when eating, with the chicken head facing. He or she cannot be touched by others, and the person who goes out of the garden eats it himself. The chicken head has become the exclusive property of the person who goes out of the garden. It means that he or she will be successful when he or she grows up.