Families with 15-year-old boys and girls in Chaoshan area should prepare three kinds of fruits to bid farewell to their parents-in-law, indicating that their children have grown up and can leave the garden, and are no longer children who play in the garden all day.
Chaoshan people believe that/kloc-children under 0/5 live in a "garden" and are sheltered by a pair of gods called "in-laws". Whether children can grow up depends on the gifts of these gods, so Chaoshan people have always attached great importance to the worship of "in-laws".
Children living in the "garden" worship their parents-in-law on the seventh day of July every year, praying for healthy growth; Children who leave the "garden" are no longer under the control of "in-laws" and no longer worship "in-laws" on the seventh day of July.
On the day of "leaving the garden", children should put on new clothes and clogs sent by their uncle, which are usually red. Moreover, this morning, parents will let their children wear a pomegranate flower with auspicious meaning on their ears.
On this day, eight people usually get together for breakfast. For breakfast, rooster, dessert, vegetables, etc. are combined into eight courses or 12 courses. The table is also exquisite. The person who "leaves the garden" sits in the right position, and the head of the chicken is facing him. The person who "leaves the garden" eats it himself, and the head of the chicken becomes his patent. Its significance lies in that when you grow up, you can get ahead and prosper.
People who "leave the garden" can only eat with chopsticks and vegetables. This is true of every kind of food. When the gardener is a chicken, geese should be used instead of chickens.
At noon that day, a sumptuous lunch was prepared to entertain relatives and friends. During the dinner, family members and relatives all blessed the children and sent good wishes. A few days before or on the day of "leaving the garden", relatives will come to give gifts, or red envelopes or gifts. When the protagonist of Out of the Garden gives gifts, parents usually arrange them in return.
In Jieyang, there is a saying that children can't run too far out of the garden or even cross the bridge. On this day, children just play, eat and don't do any housework, and are spoiled by their parents for the last time.
For a good omen, children's words and demands are generally not rejected unless absolutely necessary.
"Going out of the garden" is a farewell ceremony as well as a beginning ceremony. From then on, even if the child jumped out of the garden wall and bid farewell to his innocent, carefree and ignorant childhood, it also marked that he had entered adulthood and really embarked on the road of life.