There is a folk saying in China that "open the door and set off firecrackers". That is, when the new year comes, the first thing for every household to open the door is to set off firecrackers to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new.
Firecracker is a specialty of China, also known as "Firecracker", "Firecracker" and "Firecracker". Its origin is very early, and it has a history of more than two thousand years.
Now, most of us think that setting off firecrackers can create a festive atmosphere, is a kind of entertainment in festivals, and can bring happiness and good luck to people. However, if we trace the origin of firecrackers, we will understand the original intention of the ancients to set off firecrackers and its evolution history.
"The Chronicle of Jingchu" said: "On the first day of the first month, chickens crow and firecrackers are set off in front of the court to avoid evil spirits." This record shows that firecrackers were an acoustic tool to drive away plagues and evil spirits in ancient times, which made the custom of setting off firecrackers have a certain superstitious color from the beginning. In fact, this is entirely caused by the misunderstanding of the ancients.
According to Nerve, in ancient times, people camped through deep mountains and lit bonfires at night, one for cooking and keeping warm, and the other for preventing wild animals from invading. However, there is an animal in the mountains, which is not afraid of people or fire, and often steals food while people are unprepared.
In order to deal with this animal, people thought of setting off firecrackers in the fire and using the crackling sound of bamboo to drive it away. The animal mentioned here is called "sister-in-law". The ancients said that it can make people cold and hot, and it is ghosts that make people get cold and hot, scaring away mountains, that is, driving away evil spirits and making people lucky and safe.
In the early Tang Dynasty, plagues were everywhere. A man named Li Tian put saltpeter in a bamboo tube and lit it to make it emit louder sound and stronger smoke. As a result, the miasma in Shan Lan was dispelled and the epidemic was stopped. This is the earliest prototype of firecrackers.
Later, when gunpowder appeared, people filled bamboo tubes with saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal and burned them, resulting in an "explosion war." In the Song Dynasty, people began to make "guns" (that is, firecrackers) with paper tubes and hemp sticks wrapped in gunpowder.
Regarding the evolution of firecrackers, Excellent Popular Arrangement records: "Ancient firecrackers. They are all popular with real bamboo, so Tang poetry is also called explosive pole. Later people roll paper for it. It's called firecrackers.
With the passage of time, firecrackers are more and more widely used, and there are more and more varieties and colors. Liuyang in Hunan, Foshan and Dongyao in Guangdong, Yichun and Pingxiang in Jiangxi and Wenzhou in Zhejiang are the famous "hometown of fireworks" in China. The firecrackers they produced not only sell well all over the country, but also are exported to other countries and regions in the world.
Setting off firecrackers has become an entertainment activity with national characteristics. People not only set off firecrackers to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new in the Spring Festival, but also set off firecrackers to celebrate major festivals and happy events, such as Lantern Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, marriage, building houses and opening businesses.
dragon dance
Playing with dragon lanterns, also known as "Dragon Dance" and "Dragon Dance", is a unique folk entertainment activity in China. From the Spring Festival to the Lantern Festival, China has the custom of playing dragon lanterns in both urban and rural areas. After thousands of years of inheritance and development, playing dragon lantern has become a kind of folk dance with lively form, beautiful performance and romantic color. Playing with dragon lanterns originated from people's superstition about dragons and has a history of more than two thousand years. In ancient times, people used dragon dancing to pray for the blessing of dragons, in order to have good weather and abundant crops.
The main prop for playing dragon lanterns is "dragon". Dragons are made of grass, bamboo, wood, paper and cloth. The number of dragons is singular, which means good luck. Most of them are nine-section dragons, eleven-section dragons and thirteen-section dragons, up to twenty-nine. Dragons with more than fifteen knots are bulky and unsuitable for dancing. They are mainly used for viewing. This kind of dragon pays special attention to decoration and has high technological value. There is also a kind called "fire dragon", which forms a cage by weaving bamboo sticks into cylinders, affixing transparent and beautiful dragon clothes, and lighting candles or oil lamps to burn. The performance in the evening was spectacular.
There are many ways to play the dragon lantern, among which the trick within nine knots is the key. The common moves are: dragon swimming, dragon drilling, head and tail drilling, dragon wagging its tail and snake molting. The dragons in sections 1 1 and 13 focus on action performance. Jinlong chased the orb, jumped up, sometimes flew to the clouds, and sometimes broke the waves into the sea. Very good.
The custom of dragon dancing is carried forward by overseas Chinese. Whenever people in China have traditional festivals and major celebrations, they will dance lions and play with dragon lanterns, showing a strong oriental spirit.
lucky money
When visiting the New Year during the Spring Festival, the elders should distribute the lucky money prepared in advance to the younger generation. It is said that lucky money can kill evil spirits, because "old" and "special" are homophonic, and the younger generation can spend a year safely with lucky money. There are two kinds of lucky money, one is to put colored rope in the shape of Jackie Chan at the foot of the bed, which was recorded in Yanjing year; The other is the most common, that is, parents wrap the money distributed to their children in red paper. Lucky money can be given in public after the younger generation pays New Year's greetings, or it can be put under the child's pillow by parents when the child is asleep on New Year's Eve.
Folks believe that giving children lucky money, when evil spirits or "Nian" hurt children, children can use the money to bribe them and turn evil into good luck. A Qing Wu Manyun's poem "Lucky Money" said: "One hundred yuan long colored thread, and then take it from the pillow. On the price of firecrackers, Joule was busy all night." From this point of view, lucky money is tied in children's hearts, and children's lucky money is mainly used to buy firecrackers, toys and candy and other things needed for holidays.
At present, the custom of elders giving lucky money to younger generations is still prevalent, and the amount ranges from tens to hundreds. Most of these lucky money are used by children to buy books and school supplies, and the new fashion has given new content to the lucky money.
Stick the words of blessing backwards.
During the Spring Festival, every household should put the word "Fu" on doors, walls and lintels. Sticking the word "Fu" during the Spring Festival is a long-standing folk custom in China. According to Liang Lu's Dream, "When I was young, I would visit department stores, draw door gods and spend the Spring Festival ..."; "Scholars, big or small, must sweep the floor, clean the family, change the door gods, hang Zhong Xu, nail peaches, stick spring cards and worship their ancestors." The "spring card" in this article is the word "fu" written on red paper.
The word "fu" is now interpreted as "happiness", but in the past it meant "good luck" and "good luck". No matter now or in the past, the word "Fu" posted in the Spring Festival has pinned people's yearning for a happy life and wishes for a better future. In order to fully reflect this yearning and wish, the people simply turn the word "blessing" upside down, indicating that "blessing has fallen" and "blessing has arrived" There is also a legend that the word "fu" is posted upside down among the people. Ming Taizu used the word "Fu" as a code word to prepare for murder. In order to eliminate this disaster, kind Ma Huanghou asked all the families in the city to put "Fu" on their doors before dawn. Naturally, no one dares to go against Ma Huanghou's will, so the word "Fu" is posted on every door. If one of the families can't read, turn the word "fu" upside down. The next day, the emperor sent people to the streets to check and found that every family had posted the word "Fu", and another family had posted the word "Fu" upside down. When the emperor heard the news, he was furious and immediately ordered the body guard to cut down the house. Seeing that something was wrong, Ma Huanghou quickly said to Zhu Yuanzhang, "My family knew that you were visiting today and deliberately put the word' Fu' upside down. Isn't this the meaning of "blessed road"? " When the emperor heard the truth, he ordered his release, and a great disaster was finally eliminated. Since then, people have turned the word "Fu" upside down for good luck and in memory of Ma Huanghou.
Others elaborate the word "Fu" into various patterns, such as longevity, longevity peach, carp yue longmen, abundant grains, dragons and phoenixes, and so on. In the past, there was a folk saying that "on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, every family wrote big characters". The word "fu" used to be handwritten, but now it is sold in markets and shops.
Eat rice cake
During the Spring Festival, many areas in China pay attention to eating rice cakes. The rice cake, also known as "rice cake", is homophonic with "high year by year", which means that people's work and life are improving year by year.
As a kind of food, rice cakes have a long history in China. 1974, archaeologists discovered rice seeds at Hemudu matriarchal clan social site in Yuyao, Zhejiang Province, indicating that our ancestors began to grow rice as early as 7000 years ago. People in Han Dynasty called rice cakes "rice cakes", "fish bait" and "glutinous rice cakes". The ancients also had a development process from rice cakes to rice cakes. In the 6th century A.D., the cookbook Historical Records contained the method of making "white cocoon candy" for rice cakes, which said: "If the rice is cooked thoroughly and hotter than that in Chu Jiu, it must be cooked extremely well so as not to have rice grains ..." That is, after the glutinous rice is steamed, it is boiled into rice and then cut into peach kernels.
The method of grinding rice into cakes is also very early. The Book of Qi Yaomin written by Jia Sixie in the Northern Wei Dynasty can prove this point. The production method is to screen glutinous rice flour with silk, add water and honey to knead it into hard dough, attach dates and chestnuts to the dough, wrap it with bamboo leaves and steam it. This glutinous rice cake has the characteristics of the Central Plains.
Rice cakes are mostly made of glutinous rice flour, which is a specialty of Jiangnan. There are sticky grains such as glutinous rice in the north, and sticky millet (commonly known as millet) was first introduced in ancient times. This shelled millet powder is yellow, sticky and sweet after being steamed with water. It is a delicious food for people in the Yellow River valley to celebrate the harvest. The article "A Brief Introduction to the Scenery of Jingshi" published during the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty recorded that Beijingers at that time would "eat millet cakes and have New Year cakes on the first day of the first month". It is not difficult to see that "rice cake" is a homonym of "sticky cake" in the north.
There are many kinds of rice cakes, such as the white rice cakes in the north, the yellow rice cakes of farmers in Saibei, the Shuimo rice cakes in the south of the Yangtze River, and the red turtle rice cakes in Taiwan Province Province. Rice cakes have different flavors from north to south.
There are steamed rice cakes and fried rice cakes in the north, both of which are sweet; In addition to steaming and frying, southern rice cakes are also sliced and cooked in soup, which is both sweet and salty.
It is said that the earliest rice cakes were used to worship gods and ancestors on New Year's Eve, and later became food for the Spring Festival.
The rice cake is not only a kind of holiday food, but also brings people new hope with the passing of a year. As a poem in the late Qing Dynasty said, "People's hearts are high, and food is harmonious, so that the year is better than the year to pray for the year."