I. Welcoming Spring and Receiving the Sentence of the God of Mang

Welcoming Spring is an important activity on the day before the day of the first day of Spring. This event is very important and well attended, and the purpose of the event is to bring back the spring and mango gods that have taken a break from their work.

Jumangjin is the god in charge of spring, and it is said that she has a human face and a bird's body, and that she is in charge of the reproduction of all plants and trees. To welcome back the god of spring and mange, there was also a spring official, who would announce the exact time of the beginning of spring. Most of the spring official by beggars or engaged in undesirable occupations of women as, this reason may be because this role is more or less funny, normal people do not want to play.

One day before the spring, people will carry the god Mang and parade through the streets, the people are out to see the fun, throwing grains and cereals, called "see to welcome the spring". At the end of the procession, the procession would leave the city and go up the mountain to complete the ritual, accompanied by drums and music.

Second, whipping spring cattle, send spring

Whip spring cattle, prevalent in China during the Tang and Song dynasties, and then has been passed down, and still in Shandong, Hebei and the rural areas around the custom, that is, the form of a slight change.

Anciently, the whipping of the spring bull, is molded into a clay bull in advance, in the stomach of the bull stuffed with grains. On the day of spring, people use the whip to break the clay cow, pick up the grain on the ground, put the grain into their own granary, said next year will be full of grain. People will also compete to take away the pieces of clay ox, grab the most auspicious ox head. It is said that if the pieces of the cow are put inside the barn, many calves will be born in the coming year.

Craftsmen with brains will do a lot of small clay oxen before the spring, sent out of each household, called "send spring", and now the rural areas of the Northeast New Year's Eve, many children to each household "send God of Fortune," the same, is also a marketing tool.

I had the honor of seeing a "spring bull whip" on the day of spring in our rural area of Hebei. It was a few years ago, because of work, I came to a county in Hebei Cangzhou rural areas, where I spent a pleasant busy day.

That day was the beginning of spring, and I saw a lot of farmers take their cows out and tie them up outside their doors. The cows were draped in red and green, with big red flowers on their heads, and one cow was so beautifully dressed by its owner that I felt joyful just looking at it.

At noon, people took their oxen to a spacious place, where they were gently beaten with colorful ribbons under the auspices of a respected-looking old man. It seems that this is the changed version of beating the spring bull.

Three, wear spring chicken, hanging spring spike

Day spring chicken

Childhood, in the grandma's house and the neighbor's sister, little brother to play together. His family moved here from out of town, and there were many things that were different from ours. For example, at the time of spring, they would have a cloth rooster sewn on their clothes and hats by their mother, a big rooster twisted with colorful cloth, majestic and beautiful. None of our other children had one, just the two of them. I never knew what it was all about.

Until a few days ago, I suddenly recalled these two childhood playmates and remembered the cloth rooster on their hats. I then looked it up specifically, and it turns out that this is a custom in the Shaanxi region of China. On the day of spring, children wear a large rooster hand-sewn by their mothers to indicate "spring chicken" - "spring auspiciousness", which is the mother's good wishes for the child. Now that we are all grown up and dispersed in different cities, and have not been in touch for many years, I wonder if the siblings will also hand-stitch a cloth rooster for their children?

Hanging spring spikes.

I've heard of this one. When I had chicken pox as a child, my mom's best friend said that if you threaded beans on colored thread and hung them from a cow's horn on the first day of spring, the child wouldn't get chicken pox. However, my grandmother said that it was the old cure for measles and had nothing to do with chicken pox. In fact, it was useless, I already had chicken pox at that time. So, my mom didn't wear beans. Not wearing on the right, the city where to find cows to go.

This I check the origin of the cloth rooster, casually also found out. In fact, hanging spring cob is an ancient custom, also popular in Shaanxi. In the spring day, mothers with a variety of colorful cloth woven into wheat ears, it will be hung on the body of small children, donkeys, horses, cows, goats, thereby praying for next year's grain harvest. There are also special hemp beans scattered on the cattle, used to "scatter rash".

Four, bite spring

This is now the most preserved, the most widely circulated spring activities. Our traditional festivals seem to be inseparable from the food, but also have their own specific food, really should be the people to eat the old saying. Lichun is no exception, it also has its own specialized holiday food. Spring food in the north to spring cake-based, in the south to spring rolls-based. Northern spring pancakes, thin, with shredded meat, radish, cucumber strips, bite, crunchy, folk called bite spring. As a northerner, and is a northerner who does not understand the southern food, what to eat in the spring of southern friends will not say much, lest my southern friends laugh at me.