One of the folk customs of Sixteen Nights: You must eat Ciba on this night. The method of Ciba is to mix glutinous rice flour into thick paste first, and then spread it in an oil pan to peel it ("peeling" is a dialect, that is, "branding"). Sprinkle a little salt when peeling it, and add green garlic flowers when taking it out. It is a very delicious peasant food. When eating, the Kazuhiro Mori bowl is placed in the center of the dining table, and people who eat porridge eat it with chopsticks. In the past, there were a few nursery rhymes that said, "Izayoi, peel off Ciba; Sticky, buy a field; If you don't plow, buy a needle; If the needle doesn't bend, buy a goose; If geese don't fly, buy a turtle; If the turtle doesn't climb, buy a snake; Snakes don't swim, buy a cow; Cows have no horns, buy a broken desk; A broken desk has no legs, so I'll hit you a delicious ghost ... "Because the pronunciation of" night "in Xinghua dialect is the same as" ya ",it rhymes and catchs.
Folk custom 2: on this day, every family will fry some roasted seeds and nuts such as broad beans and peanuts, which is called fried mouse eyes. It is said that this is to use the crackling explosion in the wok to blow the eyes of the mice blind, and its purpose is to reduce the rodent damage in that year.
Folklore 3: On this day, after dinner, we should worship bodhisattvas, dance torches and cross the fire. Although worshipping Bodhisattva is not as grand as New Year's Eve and the first day, it is also lighting candles. Burning incense and setting off firecrackers are just smaller. It is said that this activity is to welcome the kitchen god. Every kitchen god went to report his work on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month years ago. When he arrived in Izayoi, he would return to work according to the instructions of heaven. Torch dancing is an annual carnival for children, who are looking forward to this day as soon as the New Year is over. Torches are tied to bamboo poles with straw, and some children still hide small firecrackers in them. In the past, most of the villages were thatched houses. In order to prevent fire, torch dancing was carried out in the fields. Sometimes, when two teams dancing torches meet in the field, there will be a "war". Adults are particularly concerned about crossing the fire. In the rural dialect, it is commonly known as "sliding and swallowing things" ("sliding" means crossing, and "swallowing things" is a dialect that refers to unlucky things). It is said that stepping over the fire can throw all your bad luck into the fire, and this year will be safe and good luck.
Folklore 4: This is a kind of mysterious folk activity, called "Invite Grey Heap Girl". At that time, all the cooking of peasant households was burning straw, and every family had an ash pile pond. At that time, the grass ash had two purposes, one was to chalk the field (the ash contained potassium), and the other was to use the water filtered from fresh grass ash as soap to wash clothes. Legend has it that there is a girl named Ash Heap in the ash heap, and Izayoi asked her to come out and predict the future things quite effectively. So a few little girls lit a stick of incense and took a dustpan filled with ash, and went to an old ash heap pond to "invite" their girlfriends home. At this time, the door must be closed to prevent strangers, especially men, from coming in. It is said that the gray girl is shy, and it will not work if a man comes in. When asked about the divination, the two girls each carried the border of Fenji with one finger, so that Fenji could make a "nod" flexibly. At this time, someone nearby began to ask questions, such as: "Grey heap girl, grey heap girl, is this year's rice harvest good?" At this time, if the dustpan moves, it means that she nodded, and there will be a good rice harvest this year. If the dustpan does not move, it means that the rice harvest will not be good this year. Someone asked about the marriage of a girl present and said, "Grey heap girl, grey heap girl, can so-and-so marry a Mr Right this year?" At this time, if the active dustpan moves, everyone will congratulate the girl and the girl's face will fly with happiness. In fact, there are many elements of games in this activity, and those two people who carry the dustpan may be the child care of the ash heap girl.
There is also a particularly renewed folk custom that night, that is, "sending stakes". "Sending piles" is a superstitious activity. If a family in the village gave birth to several girls in succession, Izayoi hoped that someone would send him a stake. It is said that if he received the stake, he would probably be pregnant with a boy that year. So a few buddies who usually get along well discussed giving the family a "stake", and the stake used as a prop had to be "stolen" from a family with more boys. It is ok to tie the pile on the ship or the pile on the fence. If you can't find the pile, you can use other objects instead. Generally, there are six people to send, including a boy of half age. When the pile wrapped in red paper is delivered, the host will burn incense and light candles to worship the bodhisattva in good faith, and the boy who follows will also symbolically pee on the master's bed. If that family happened to have a boy that year, the birth name would be Zhugen or Zhuanghuo. In the future, every time my son has a full moon, a week until he gets married and has a family, he must invite the person who sent the post to drink.
Now, most of these folk customs of Sixteen Nights have drifted away from us, and only eating Ciba and "sliding things" seem to be stubbornly preserved in the countryside. Maybe in a few years, even these two folk customs will become history. The purpose of this article is just to take a picture of these folk customs that have disappeared or will disappear.