The most solemn traditional folk festivals in China generally refer to New Year's Eve and the first day of the first month, also known as the lunar calendar, commonly known as "Chinese New Year" and "Chinese New Year". But among the people, the traditional Spring Festival refers to the sacrificial ceremony from the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month or the 23rd or 24th of the twelfth lunar month to the 15th of the first lunar month in La Worship, with New Year's Eve and the first day of the first lunar month as the climax.
The Spring Festival has a long history, which originated from the activities of offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors in the beginning and end of the Shang Dynasty. According to the China lunar calendar, the first day of the first month is called Yuanri, Chen Yuan, Jacky, Yuanshuo and New Year's Day. Commonly known as the first day of the first month. It was changed to Gregorian calendar in the Republic of China. The first day of the Gregorian calendar is called New Year's Day, and the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar is called Spring Festival.
During the Spring Festival, Han people and many ethnic minorities in our country will hold various activities to celebrate. The main contents of these activities are offering sacrifices to gods and buddhas, paying homage to ancestors, saying goodbye to the old year and welcoming the new year, and praying for a bumper harvest. The activities are rich and colorful, with strong national characteristics.
Origin of the Spring Festival
After the victory of the Revolution of 1911 in modern China, in order to conform to the farming season and facilitate statistics, the Nanjing Provisional Government stipulated that the people should use the summer calendar, and organs, factories, mines, schools and organizations should adopt the solar calendar, with January 1st of the solar calendar as New Year's Day and the first day of the first lunar month as the Spring Festival.
2. Lantern Festival
The 15th day of the first lunar month is the traditional Lantern Festival in China. The first month is January, and the ancients called the night "Xiao". The fifteenth day of the year is the night of the full moon, so the fifteenth day of the first month is called the Lantern Festival. Also known as "Shangyuan Festival". According to the folk tradition in China, the moon is high in the sky and there are 10,000 lanterns on the ground on the festival night of Spring Festival, so people can watch lanterns, solve riddles on the lanterns, eat Yuanxiao and have family reunion.
There is a folk custom of eating Yuanxiao on the Lantern Festival in China. According to folklore, Yuanxiao originated from King Zhao of Chu in the Spring and Autumn Period. On the fifteenth day of the first month, King Chu Zhao crossed the Yangtze River and saw floating objects on the river, which were sweets with white outside and red inside. King Zhao of Chu asked Confucius, and Confucius said, "This duckweed fruit is also a sign of the resurrection of the Lord." Yuanxiao is a kind of holiday food, just like rice cakes in the Spring Festival and zongzi in the Dragon Boat Festival. Eating Yuanxiao, like a full moon, symbolizes family reunion and entrusts people with good wishes for their future life. Yuanxiao is called "Tangyuan", "Zi Yuan", "Floating Zi Yuan" and "Shui Yuan" in the south. It is made of glutinous rice, solid or stuffed. The fillings are red bean paste, sugar, hawthorn and so on. Can be boiled, fried, steamed and fried. As time goes by, there are more and more activities for the Lantern Festival. In many places, activities such as playing dragon lanterns, playing lions, walking on stilts, rowing dry boats, dancing yangko and playing Taiping drums were also added during the festival. [/Center]
On February 2nd, the dragon looked up.
According to folklore, every second day of the second lunar month is the day when the Dragon King, who is in charge of heavenly sexuality, looks up. After that, the rain will gradually increase. Therefore, this day is called the Spring Festival. There is a saying in northern China: "On February 2, the dragon looked up; Big warehouse is full and small warehouses are flowing. "Folk proverbs.
Whenever the Spring Festival comes, in most parts of northern China, every family carries lanterns to fetch water from wells or rivers in the morning, and when they get home, they light a fire, burn incense and offer offerings. In ancient times, people called this ceremony "attracting dragons". On this day, every household will eat noodles, fried cakes and popcorn, and compare "picking the dragon's head", "eating gentian", "golden beans blossom, the dragon king ascends to heaven, the clouds and rain rise, and the grains are abundant" to show good luck.
Four. Qingming Festival
Qingming is one of the 24 solar terms in China. Because the 24 solar terms objectively reflect the changes of temperature, rainfall and phenology throughout the year, ancient working people used them to arrange agricultural activities. Huainanzi? Astronomical training says: "On the 15th day after the vernal equinox, the bucket refers to B, and the Qingming wind is coming." According to the centenarian question, "everything grows clean and bright at this time." So it's called Qingming. "As soon as Qingming arrives, the temperature rises and the rainfall increases, which is a good time for spring ploughing and spring planting. Therefore, there is an agricultural proverb that "before and after Qingming, point melons and plant beans" and "planting trees is not as good as Qingming". It can be seen that this solar term is closely related to agricultural production.
However, Qingming, as a festival, is different from pure solar terms. Solar terms are symbols of phenological changes and seasonal order in China, while festivals contain certain customs and activities, which have certain commemorative significance.
Tomb-Sweeping Day is a traditional festival in China, and it is also the most important festival to worship ancestors and sweep graves. Grave-sweeping is commonly known as going to the grave and offering sacrifices to the dead. Most Han people and some ethnic minorities visit graves in Tomb-Sweeping Day.
According to the old custom, when sweeping graves, people should bring food, wine, fruit, paper money and other items to the cemetery, offer food to the graves of their loved ones, then burn the paper money, cultivate new soil for the graves, break some green branches and insert them in front of the graves, then kowtow and worship, and finally go home after eating and drinking. The poem Qingming written by Du Mu, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, said: "There are many rains during the Qingming period, and pedestrians on the road want to break their souls. Ask local people where to buy wine? The shepherd boy pointed to Xinghua Village. " Write about the special atmosphere in Tomb-Sweeping Day.
Tomb-Sweeping Day, also known as the outing festival, according to the solar calendar, between April 4th and 6th every year, it is the season of beautiful spring and lush vegetation, and it is also a good time for people to have a spring outing (called outing in ancient times), so the ancients had the custom of going for an outing in Qingming and carrying out a series of sports activities.
To this day, the custom of worshipping ancestors and mourning the dead relatives in Tomb-Sweeping Day is still very popular.
Verb (abbreviation for verb) Dragon Boat Festival
The fifth day of the fifth lunar month is a traditional folk festival in China-Dragon Boat Festival, also known as Duanyang Festival, General Festival, Mid-Day Festival, Dachang Festival, Mulan Festival, Daughter's Day and Children's Day. It is one of the traditional festivals of the Han nationality. The Dragon Boat Festival is also called Dragon Boat Festival and Duanyang. In addition, there are many nicknames for the Dragon Boat Festival, such as: Noon Festival, Chongwu Festival, May Festival, Magnolia Festival, Daughter's Day, Zhongyuan Festival, Dila Festival, Poet's Day, Dragon Boat Festival, Ai Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Summer Festival. Although the names are different, on the whole, the customs of people everywhere are more similar than different. Today, the Dragon Boat Festival is still a very popular grand festival among the people of China.
For more than two thousand years, the Dragon Boat Festival has been a traditional habit of China people. Due to its vast territory and numerous ethnic groups, some Mongolian, Hui, Tibetan, Miao, Yi, Zhuang, Buyi, North Korea, Dong, Yao, Bai, Tujia, Hani, She, Lahu, Shui, Naxi, Daur and Mulao. Its contents mainly include: daughter going back to her mother's house, hanging Zhong Kui statue, welcoming the ghost boat, hiding in the afternoon, sticking leaves in the afternoon, hanging calamus and wormwood, traveling in all diseases, wearing sachets, preparing sacrificial bowls, dragon boat races, competitions, hitting the ball, swinging, drawing children with realgar, drinking realgar wine, drinking calamus wine, eating poisonous cakes, salted eggs, zongzi and seasonal fresh fruits. Some activities, such as dragon boat racing, have made new progress, breaking through the boundaries of time and region and becoming international sports events.
6. Aunt's Day on the sixth day of June
June 6, please aunt. In the past, on the sixth day of the sixth lunar month, rural customs invited married girls, old and young, to receive them well and then send them back.
Seven. Seven nights festival
In the past, July 7th was a very lively festival for people. At that time, young women were most interested in this day. They wear new clothes, worship double stars and seek wisdom.
The custom of Tanabata in Qiao Qi
The most common custom of Valentine's Day in China is all kinds of begging activities carried out by women on the evening of July 7th.
Most girls try their best to make small things and put some melons and fruits on them. Different regions have different ways to please others, and each has its own interests.
Begging activities in Jinan, Huimin, Gaoqing and other places in Shandong are very simple, just showing melons and fruits for begging. If there are cobwebs on melons and fruits, begging is very skillful. However, in Juancheng, Cao Xian, Pingyuan and other places, the custom of eating clever rice and begging for cleverness is very interesting: seven good girls collect food and vegetables, wrap jiaozi, and wrap a copper coin, a needle and a red date into three jiaozi respectively. After begging for wisdom, they got together to eat jiaozi. It is said that they are rich, make good use of needle and thread, and marry early with dates.
In some places, the Begging for Clevership Festival is of a competitive nature, similar to the ancient custom of fighting wisdom. Modern people are used to piercing needles, steaming and branding fruits skillfully, and some places also make clever bud soup. Generally, a handful of grains are soaked in water at the beginning of July, and the buds are cut to make soup on Tanabata. Children in this area pay special attention to eating smart buds, and decorations made of dough sculpture, paper-cutting and colored embroidery are the evolution of the custom of fighting smart buds. The shepherd boy will pick wild flowers and hang them on the horns on Tanabata, which is called "Happy Birthday to the Cow" (it is said that Tanabata is the birthday of the Cow).
Zhucheng, tengxian and Zouxian call the rain on Tanabata "acacia rain" or "acacia tears" because it is caused by the meeting of cowherd and weaver girl. Legend has it that there are very few magpies in Jiaodong and Southwest Shandong, and they have all gone to build a magpie bridge.
Today, there are still similar begging customs in various parts of Zhejiang. For example, in Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou and other places, on this day, all kinds of small objects are made of flour and fried in oil, which is called "Tuoguo". At night, Tuoguo, lotus, white lotus root and Hong Ling are displayed in the yard. The girl put a needle on the moon and begged the Weaver Girl to give her a clever skill, or caught a spider and put it in a box. If you open the box the next day, it's called cleverness.
In the countryside of Shaoxing, there will be many young girls hiding under the lush pumpkin shed that night. If you can hear the whispers when the cowherd and the weaver girl meet in the dead of night, the girl to be married will definitely get this eternal love in the future.
In order to express people's hope that the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl can live a happy family life every day, in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, every family will kill a chicken on July 7, which means that the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl will meet on this night, and if there is no rooster to announce the dawn, they will never part.
In the west of Guangxi, it is said that on the morning of July 7th, a fairy will come down to the earth to take a bath, and drinking its bath water can ward off evil spirits, cure diseases and prolong life. This kind of water is called "Double Seven Water". When chickens crow on this day, people scramble to get water from the river and then take it back and put it in a new urn for future use.
Guangzhou's begging festival is unique. Before the festival comes, the girls prepare colored paper, medulla tetrapanacis, string, etc. in advance and weave them into various fancy gadgets. They also put seeds and mung beans in a small box and soaked them in water to germinate them. Buds grow to more than two inches and are used to worship the gods, which are called "worshipping the immortals" and "worshipping the gods". From the sixth night to the seventh night, the girls put on new clothes and jewelry for two nights in a row. After all the arrangements are made, they burn incense and light candles and bow down to the stars, which is called "welcoming the immortals". From the third night to the fifth watch, they will worship seven times in a row.
After worshipping the immortals, the girls passed through the pinholes with colored threads in their hands. For example, those who can wear seven pinholes in one breath are called skillful hands, and those who can't wear seven pinholes are called skillful hands. After Tanabata, the girls exchanged small crafts and toys to show their friendship.
On Valentine's Day in Fujian and China, Weaver Girl should be allowed to enjoy and taste fruits and vegetables, so that she can wish a bumper harvest of fruits and vegetables in the coming year. The offerings include tea, wine, fresh fruit, five kinds of seeds (longan, red dates, hazelnuts, peanuts and melon seeds), flowers, pollen from female cosmetics and a censer. Generally, after fasting and bathing, everyone takes turns to burn incense and worship God and pray silently. Women not only seek wisdom, but also children, longevity, beauty and love. Then everyone eats fruit, drinks tea and chats, and plays clever games. There are two kinds of begging for wisdom: one is "divination", that is, asking yourself whether you are smart or stupid with divination tools; The other is clever match, that is, whoever wears the needle quickly is clever, and the slow one is called "losing cleverness". People who "lose their intelligence" should prepare some small gifts for smart people.
In some areas, "Seven Sisters Club" was organized, and "Seven Sisters Club" from all over the country gathered in Zongxiang Guild Hall, put on various incense tables, and offered sacrifices to Cowherd and Weaver Maid at a distance. All the "incense tables" are made of paper, and the tables are filled with flowers, fruits, rouge powder, paper floral dresses, shoes, daily necessities and embroidery, and so on. The "Seven Sisters Club" in different regions will work hard on the incense table to see who makes it exquisite. Nowadays, this activity has been forgotten, and only a few ancestral halls still set up incense tables on this festival to worship the cowherd and the weaver girl. Incense tables are usually prepared on the seventh day of July, and at night they begin to plead with the Weaver Girl.
Proper fruit is the most famous holiday food in Chinese Valentine's Day. Proper fruit, also called "Kiki Fruit", has many styles. The main materials are oil, flour, sugar and honey. "Dream of China in Tokyo" refers to it as "laughing boy" and "eating fruit patterns", and the patterns include holding incense and winning prizes. In the Song Dynasty, appropriate fruits were sold in the market. The method of proper fruit is: first, put sugar into a pot and melt it into syrup, then mix it with flour and sesame seeds, spread it on the table, let it cool, cut it into cubes with a knife, and finally fold it into spindle-shaped proper fruit embryo and fry it until golden. Handy women will also create various patterns related to the legend of Qixi.
In addition, there are many changes in the melons and fruits used in Qiqiao: either the melons and fruits are carved into exotic flowers and birds, or the surface of the melon skin is embossed; This kind of melon is called "flower melon".
To this day, Tanabata is still a romantic traditional festival. However, many customs have weakened or disappeared, and only the legend of Cowherd and Weaver Girl, which symbolizes loyal love, has been circulated among the people.
Eight. Mid-Autumn Festival
Mid-Autumn Festival has a long history. Like other traditional festivals, it develops slowly. The ancient emperors had a system of offering sacrifices to the sun in spring and the moon in autumn. As early as in Zhou Li, the word "Mid-Autumn Festival" was recorded. Later, aristocratic scholars followed suit. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, people watch and worship the bright and round moon in the sky, pinning their feelings. This custom spread to the people and formed a traditional activity. Until the Tang Dynasty, people paid more attention to this Yue Bai custom, and the Mid-Autumn Festival became a fixed festival. 6? 1 Tang Taizong recorded the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15th, which was popular in the Song Dynasty. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was as famous as New Year's Day and became one of the major festivals in China.
Eating moon cakes on Mid-Autumn Festival is inevitable. Nowadays, the production of "moon cakes" is becoming more and more elaborate, and there are more and more varieties, such as disks, which have become the best gifts. After the Mid-Autumn Festival, the custom of eating moon cakes has been circulated among the people.
Nine. the Double Ninth Festival
The ninth, 29th and 29th day of the ninth lunar month is very important, which is called "Double Ninth Festival". Because in ancient China, six was the number of yin and nine was the number of yang, so the Double Ninth Festival was called "Double Ninth Festival".
In ancient times, people had the custom of climbing mountains on this day, so the Double Ninth Festival was also called "Mountain Climbing Festival". According to legend, this custom began in the Eastern Han Dynasty. There are many climbing poems in the Tang Dynasty, most of which are the custom of writing the Double Ninth Festival. Du Fu's Seven Laws "Ascending the Mountain" is a famous article about climbing the mountain in Chongyang. There is no uniform rule for climbing mountains. Generally, we climb mountains and towers. There is also the custom of eating "Chongyang cake". Exquisite Chongyang cake should be made into nine layers, like a pagoda, with two lambs on it, which conforms to the meaning of Chongyang (sheep). Some people even put red paper flags on Chongyang cakes and light candles. This is probably replacing "crawling" with "lighting" and "eating cakes", and replacing Cornus officinalis with a little red paper flag.
The Double Ninth Festival also enjoys chrysanthemums and drinks chrysanthemum wine, which originated from Tao Yuanming. Tao Yuanming is famous for his seclusion, his poems, his wine and his love for chrysanthemums. Later generations have followed suit, so Chongyang has the custom of enjoying chrysanthemums. In the old days, in order to get close to Tao Yuanming, scholar-officials often combined chrysanthemum appreciation with feasting. In the Northern Song Dynasty, Kaifeng was the capital, and chrysanthemum appreciation on Chongyang was very popular. At that time, there were many kinds of chrysanthemums. After the Qing dynasty, the custom of enjoying chrysanthemums was particularly prosperous, and it was not limited to September 9, but it was the most prosperous around the Double Ninth Festival.
The custom of inserting Evodia rutaecarpa in the Double Ninth Festival was very common in the Tang Dynasty. The ancients thought that inserting Evodia rutaecarpa on the Double Ninth Festival could take refuge and eliminate disasters. Or wear it on your arm, or make a sachet and put it in it, or wear it on your head. Most of them are worn by women and children, and in some places, men also wear them. Ge Hong's Miscellanies of the Western Classics in the Jin Dynasty recorded that Kaunus participated in the Double Ninth Festival.
In addition to wearing dogwood, chrysanthemum is also inserted in the Double Ninth Festival. This happened in the Tang Dynasty and has been popular since ancient times. In the Qing Dynasty, the custom of Beijing Double Ninth Festival was to stick chrysanthemum branches and leaves on the doors and windows, "to eliminate evil and filth, and to make money and treasure." This is the vulgarization of the chrysanthemum on the head. In the Song Dynasty, some people cut ribbons into dogwood and chrysanthemum and gave them to each other.
X. laboratory animal breeders association
The most important festival in the twelfth lunar month is the eighth day of December, which was called "La Ri" in ancient times and commonly known as "Laba Festival". Since the pre-Qin period, Laba Festival has been used to worship ancestors and gods and pray for good harvest and good luck. It is said that Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, realized enlightenment on the eighth day of December, so Laba is also a Buddhist festival, called "Buddhist Enlightenment Festival".
Laba has the custom of eating Laba porridge on this day. Laba porridge is also called "Qibao Wuwei porridge". China has a history of drinking Laba porridge for 1000 years. It first started in the Song Dynasty. On the day of Laba, whether it is the imperial court, the government, temples, or the people's homes, Laba porridge will be cooked. In the Qing Dynasty, the custom of drinking Laba porridge became more popular. At court, emperors, queens and princes give laba porridge to civil and military ministers and attendants, and distribute rice and fruit to monasteries for monks to eat. In the folk, every household should also make laba porridge to worship their ancestors; At the same time, family members get together for dinner and give gifts to relatives and friends.
Xi。 Winter solstice festival
The winter solstice is the year with the shortest day and the longest night in the northern hemisphere. After the solstice in winter, the days will get longer day by day. The ancients said this about the winter solstice: As soon as the cathode arrived, the yang began to grow, the sun went south, the day was short and the shadow was long, so it was called "the winter solstice". After the winter solstice, the climate everywhere has entered the coldest stage, which is often called "entering the ninth". In China, there is a folk saying that "it's cold in March, and it's dog days".
According to modern astronomical science, the sun shines directly on the tropic of Capricorn from the winter solstice, and the sun is most inclined to the northern hemisphere. The northern hemisphere has the shortest day and the longest night. After this day, the sun gradually moved to the north.
Now, some places still celebrate the winter solstice as a festival. The northern region has the custom of slaughtering sheep and eating jiaozi and wonton from winter solstice, while the southern region has the custom of eating glutinous rice balls and long noodles from winter solstice on this day. There is also the custom of offering sacrifices to heaven and ancestors in winter solstice in various regions.
The custom of winter solstice
After thousands of years of development, a unique seasonal diet culture has been formed from winter solstice to Sunday. Such as wonton, jiaozi, glutinous rice balls, red bean porridge, millet and rice cakes. Can be used as new year's goods. The once popular "Winter Solstice Day Annual Banquet" has many names, such as eating winter solstice meat, offering winter solstice dishes, offering winter solstice groups, and worshiping winter with wonton.
A more common custom is to eat wonton on the solstice in winter. As early as the Southern Song Dynasty, people in Lin 'an ate wonton on the solstice in winter. At first, it was to worship ancestors, and then it gradually became popular. There is a folk saying that "there are wonton on the solstice in winter and noodles on the solstice in summer". Today, wonton has become a famous snack with many kinds, different productions and delicious taste all over the country, which is deeply loved by people. Wonton has many names, such as Jiangsu and Zhejiang Wonton, Guangdong Wonton, Hubei Noodle, Jiangxi Clear Soup, Sichuan Wonton, Xinjiang Ququ and so on.
Eating jiaozi is also a traditional custom from winter solstice, especially in the south of the Yangtze River. "Tangyuan" is an essential food from winter solstice, and it is a round dessert made of glutinous rice flour. "Round" means "reunion" and "perfection". Eating glutinous rice balls on the winter solstice is also called "the winter solstice group". There is a folk saying that "eating glutinous rice balls is one year older". The winter solstice group can be used to worship ancestors or give gifts to relatives and friends. In the past, Shanghainese were most particular about eating jiaozi. An ancient poem said, "Every family beats rice to make glutinous rice balls, knowing that it is the winter solstice of the Ming Dynasty."
In many places in the north, there is a custom of eating dog meat and mutton from winter to Sunday, because the weather enters the coldest period from winter to the future. Chinese medicine believes that mutton and dog meat have the functions of aphrodisiac and tonic, and there is still a folk custom of tonic in winter to day.
In Taiwan Province Province, China, the tradition of offering nine-layer cakes to ancestors from winter to the sun is still preserved. Glutinous rice flour is used to knead animals such as chickens, ducks, turtles, pigs, cattle and sheep. , a symbol of good luck, and then put it in a steamer and steam it layer by layer to worship the ancestors to show that they don't forget their ancestors. In the early days of the winter solstice or before and after the agreement, people with the same surname and clan gather in the ancestral hall to worship their ancestors one by one in the order of generations. After the ceremony, there will be a grand banquet for the people who come to worship their ancestors. Everyone drinks heartily and meets again after a long separation, which is called "food ancestor". The ancestors of the winter solstice festival are handed down from generation to generation in Taiwan Province to show that they have never forgotten their roots.