Folklore makes life full of mystery and fun. Large such as the activities of the rituals of the year if compared to the rhythm of people's lives culminate in words, general interaction ritual activities naturally make every moment of life become colorful, the participation of face painting is essential. The new house up frame, on the beam of good luck, painting gossip, paste congratulatory couplets, lights and firecrackers, relatives and friends in the neighborhood to do a good job of flowers and peach buns to celebrate, known as the "Fu Liang". The new house is completed, housewarming. When the new wheat on the field, to grind a bucket of white flour to make a snow-white tribute, fried all kinds of exquisite noodle flowers, pay thanks to the five earth, and respectfully ask the God of the earth to settle down, blessing the golden beams and jade pillars, a thousand years of eternity. July 7th Beggar's Day, the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden magpie bridge meeting *** v. love. Weaver's skillful hands have long been the idol of women worship on earth. So every day, girls and daughters-in-law to eat noodles made of "thimble", "needle and thread colander", expect their own dexterity. August 15 Mid-Autumn Festival, moon cakes have become a legendary food. In the modeling pattern are delicate and chic, pleasing to the eye, when called the art of face molding different flowers. New daughter-in-law over the door of the first year, the mother's family to send the daughter of the lamb buns. Poor families to send a few, the wealthier families to send a dozen or even dozens. There are a lot of stylized patterns related to the consciousness of life and fertility worship. Jiangzhou, i.e. today's Xinjiang County, is a county on the plains of southern Jin. Historically, this area was rich in wheat, and has been the origin of wheat and cotton in Shanxi Province. Therefore, during the festivals, every family here would grind flour from the best wheat and make a thousand different kinds of face molds to celebrate the festivals. As the dough figurines here focus on colorful dyes and gorgeous flowers, the local people call them "flower buns". The flower buns of Jiangzhou are exaggerated and shaped in a chic way, especially the "beast flower buns" are the most outstanding. In the cities and villages of Jiangzhou, most of the housewives will make flower buns, and generally they will make many kinds of ordinary shapes, because they are self-made for their own use, even though the level is not the same, it does not affect the food, over time, some housewives become skillful, and the level of making flower buns can be improved continuously. Because of this kind of folk activities to be carried out in every household, creating a large number of fabricated flower buns of skilled craftsmen, and passed down from generation to generation. Whenever there are weddings and funerals in towns and villages, the making of flower buns becomes an inevitable activity. Moreover, these flower buns will be displayed in front of the public, so as to get the evaluation, this kind of spontaneous mass evaluation without electing the champion has undoubtedly become a kind of driving force to promote the fabrication of flower buns, and become a folk comment that promotes the continuous improvement of the level of face molding. Therefore, Jiangzhou has become a traditional folk handicraft with many famous hands who make flower buns. In short, as a kind of folk life force strong plastic arts, growth and rooted in the people's life, become a way of expression of folk customs, all the time, all the time. Whether it is an art form or a food culture, it has its own unique system program. Among them, the modeling consciousness and method, primitive religious consciousness and derivation, humanistic thought and development, all have profound connotation that need to be developed.

The raw material of the noodle kneader is steamed river rice noodles, mixed with honey, and then mixed with very bright mineral pigments, respectively, finished red, blue, orange, green and other colors. The operation of a small bamboo stick as a frame, with a piece of horn as a plastic knife, molding a variety of characters, such as fishing old man, the Monkey King, Lin Daiyu, etc., can be bought for children as toys, but also can be placed in the home as a decorative object, is a folk art of international repute. The formation of each folk festival has its own specific meaning, which in turn has its own culture and way of expression. On the 15th day of the 7th month, every family makes noodles and goats, and goes to the graves to offer sacrifices to ancestors and gifts to relatives and friends, which is a major feature of Shanxi's folk customs. From the traditional customs, the fifteenth day of the seventh month is called "ghost festival", from the Buddhist "Meilian save mother" legend: Buddha Shakyamuni disciple Meilian's mother did not do good deeds during his life, after the death of the soul into the hungry ghosts in the path of the food into the mouth of the both into the fire, the suffering is difficult to tolerate, Meilian begged to Buddha, Buddha told him in July! The Buddha told him to do the Bon Festival on July 15, to put all kinds of fruits and flavors there, and to rely on the goodness of all the Buddhists and monks in order to overthrow the souls of the dead and to save his mother. This saying was also integrated with the Chinese Taoist saying of "forgiveness of sins by the earth officials", which y influenced people's lives, and thus formed the custom of steaming goats and making offerings to ancestors and graves on the fifteenth day of the seventh month of every year. In fact, the July 15 sacrifice to the ancestors of the original intention is like the "Tokyo Meng Hua Records" said is "...... is suing the ancestor of the fall into the meaning of", is a kind of wish to pray for a good harvest. Rich religious meaning of the Ghost Festival, the development of the later has been no trace of ghosts, has been a kind of blessing with people and human emotions mingled with the festival. A few days before the festival, three or five women in the countryside get together, send a good fine white flour, parents talk and laugh, rubbing the twisted, cut and pressed, a tie and a pick, dish jujube point beans, a living thing popped out of the hands: anxious jumping rabbit, naive tiger, sheep, sheep, live and slippery fish, lions, piglets, chickens, puppies, and each object on the wisdom, injected into the love. To be molasses good on the pot of steam out of the fire, a white fat, tender and flexible, delicate can be hollowed out, and then point Shi Danqing, dressed up, it will become the best gift for friends and relatives. Jinbei custom to send the boy for the sheep, sheep for the auspicious Yang things. Send girls for the fish, fish belongs to the Yin, is in accordance with the order of yin and yang practice. Jinbei face sheep modeling thick and full, embedded force is very strong, plus the contrast between the body points and lines, so that it is very rich in Hanwei style, which is related to the local history, culture and geography. Jinnan's beasts steamed bun styling Linyuan exquisite, harsh, colorful and strong. The so-called face of the sheep is the essence of the pronouns, birds and beasts are actually anything, there are combinations of the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac, the two play peaches, the five sons of the buttocks and so on. Dingxiang's "face sheep" more with its full and showy, thick and big modeling strength and renowned at home and abroad. The shape of a large to three, five pounds of white flour, as small as three or five inches, depending on the gift object. In the modeling style accurately grasped the randomness of this feature. In the simple overall shape on the comb, awl and other artifacts pressed out points, lines or face made of delicate decoration, forming a strong contrast in strength, very similar to the use of carved lines on the stone carving of the Han Huo Zhaodi. Production techniques to grasp a good sense of proportion, do form but not do enough, leaving the face of the natural molasses and steam to complete the work, in order to give full play to the characteristics of the surface, reflecting the texture of the surface, natural, simple and mellow, people love it. In particular, a kind of modeling called "defense", a few small fat dolls wrapped around the arms coiled together to play, so that you can not identify whose arms and whose legs, only to see a group of beautiful modeling, brilliant conception, let a person marveled at.

Customs and rituals

Face sculpture plays a pivotal role in the customs and festivals of the year, and has an irreplaceable place in the ceremonies that show the meaning of life. The full moon is the first grand ceremony of a person's arrival in the world, and it is also a time for face painting. In the Huo County area, grandmothers would make a food item called a "gulp" that was more than a foot long, with a fine modeling of the twelve phases of the genus, and the child's genus would be what it was, and then a red dot would be placed on the genus, which was called "pointing out the mind. "Gulp" placed in the middle of the exquisite dragon, phoenix or tiger head called the dragon and phoenix auspicious or tiger to drive away evil spirits. Sent to the children, distributed to friends and relatives to visit the celebration to eat, to take the meaning of disaster prevention. Jinbei people do more flower buns, called "peach", shaped like breasts, nipple point red, decorated with a variety of flowers and plants on the bun, decorated with auspicious motifs. Peach in the ancient customs of the original evil things, harmonic language "escape", meaning free from disaster. Made into breasts, indicating maturity, is a metaphorical approach to the maternal characteristics of rural folklore. To the child's birthday to do similar large flower bun or twelve phases of the genus, modeling or clumsy or clever, or elegant or vulgar with the local change. Wedding customs have always been extremely grand life ceremony. As the saying goes, "marriage is as good as a small enrollment", Jinbei custom, to meet the day of the morning of the bride and groom each ate a pair of "happy fish auspicious rabbit", the roof of the bridal chamber door to put a pair of red thread connected to the face of the rabbit in order to symbolize the Jade Rabbit Golden Edge. In fact, the original meaning of the rabbit for the tiger, is the Han Chinese folk home to drive away evil spirits of the God of blessing. Wedding face painting must be mentioned Xinzhou, Dingxiang, Yuanping, Daixian area of the "Palace Food", generally three, five pounds of white flour to do a pair, most of the shape is a jade rabbit pack peaches, goldfish back pomegranate, above the fine molding twelve zodiac shapes, fine embellishments, styling vivid, fun and pleasing to the eye, colorful, bright and bright, the line and the surface, the point and the block, the shape and the painting, the combination and contrast of clumsy and ingenious. Line and surface, dots and blocks, plastic and painting, clumsy and clever combination and contrast, the formation of a strong and touching artistic effect, enhance the festive atmosphere, enriching the content of the folk wedding customs, and more folk art has added a beautiful branch. Elderly people to the age of old age, the younger generation is customary to celebrate their birthday, congratulations on the steam to do a beautiful big peach to wish the elderly a long and healthy life, to express the filial piety and respect for the elderly heart. Religious teachings tell people that when each person hurriedly walks through his or her perceptible life, the human soul will be immortalized and sublimated in another world. For this reason, people make the funeral program extraordinarily grand and complicated. It is a way of celebrating and recognizing the meaning of life. The main pasta offerings in this activity, depending on the degree of proximity and distinguish between different forms, there are "big offerings", "small offerings" points, the immediate children and grandchildren of the generation of the big offerings called steamed bread, round above decorated with bright and simple petals, inserted with jujube blossoms, originating from the ancient times of the three animals The custom of offering sacrifices, other relatives and friends are similar to the snake coiled small offerings. Dingxiang Hongdao area is to shape a few loud - or even hundreds of face-molded characters series, theater characters, gods, earth officials, and so on, and then decorated with colorful paper for dress. The difference is that the color used in the depiction of the five senses is very strange, and the painting eyes are not eye-catching. There is a clear difference in the aesthetic structure with the enjoyment of goods on earth, which makes people feel a kind of cold sadness in the rich color. Noodle sculpture in the rituals of life is generally the face of food, only to give it a cultural and religious meaning, so that it has a composite value, thus becoming a study of the Han folk culture of a non-negligible information.

Face sculpture is actually a bun, with glutinous rice flour and flour with color, pinched into a variety of small figures. Mainly in the marriage gifts, funeral offerings, but also for birthday, gifts to friends and relatives, prayers and sacrifices and so on. Farmers have been steamed a variety of face painting flowers placed in front of the gods, which pig head-shaped face painting commonly known as "big for", in addition to flower mold, flower and fruit mold, gift molds, bun toys and so on. The tools for making buns are very simple: white flour, scissors, kitchen knives, combs, jujubes, peppercorns and other things, as long as you master the technology of the flour, in accordance with the style of pinching, then a vivid image of the noodle mold will stand out." China's traditional food culture has a long history, according to the literature, the Han Dynasty has long been a record of face molding, the Song Dynasty, "Dream Sorghum Records" has recorded the face molding used in the Spring Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, as well as the wedding birthday celebration days. In Shaanxi and Hebei, there are also called "noodle flower" and "annual mold", and will be this ancient custom of a good throughout the festival days. From the 30th day of the New Year to the 15th day of the first month of the lunar calendar, the joyful scene of giving each other gift buns can be seen everywhere in the countryside. In eastern Guanzhong in Shaanxi Province, almost all women are masters of making gift molds, which Shen especially older women's skills are even more advanced.