The fifth day of the first lunar month is commonly known as Powu. According to folk custom, many taboos five years ago can be broken on this day. According to the old custom, it is necessary to eat "water dumplings" for five days. In the north, it is called "boiled dumplings". Nowadays, some people only eat it for three or two days, and some eat it every other day, but there is no one who doesn’t eat it. This is true from the prince's mansion to the small households in the streets, even when entertaining guests. Women no longer stay taboo and start visiting each other to pay New Year greetings and congratulate each other. Newly married women return to peace on this day. It is said that it is not advisable to do anything on the fifth day, otherwise you will be in trouble during the year. In addition to the above taboos, the five customs of Po Wu are mainly to send away the poor, welcome the God of Wealth, and open markets for trade.

Sacrifice to the God of Wealth

Southerners worship the God of Wealth on the fifth day of the first lunar month. According to folklore, the God of Wealth is the God of Five Ways. The so-called five roads refer to the east, west, south, north, and middle, which means that you can get wealth in any of the five ways.

Qing Jia Lu written by Gu Lu in the Qing Dynasty said: "The fifth day of the first lunar month is the birthday of the Lutou God. Gold gongs and firecrackers are used, and the sacrifices are finished. In order to compete first for the benefit of the market, we must get up early to welcome it. It is called "Jielutou." He also said: "Today's road head is the walking god in the Five Sacrifice. The so-called five roads should be the east, west, south, and middle ears." There was a custom in Shanghai in the old days. On the midnight of the fourth day of the first lunar month, prepare sacrifices, cakes, fruits, incense and candles, etc., and worship with gongs, drums and incense, piously and respectfully to the God of Wealth. According to popular legend, the fifth day of the Lunar New Year is the birthday of the God of Wealth. In order to compete for market profits, it is first received on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, which is called "grabbing the road head", also known as "receiving the God of Wealth".

The five sacrifices are the household gods, kitchen gods, earth gods, door gods, and walking gods. The so-called "Lutou" refers to the gods among the five sacrifices. Whenever you receive the God of Wealth, you must offer a sheep head and a carp. Offering a sheep head means "auspiciousness", and offering a carp is a homophone of "fish" and "yu" in the picture. The poem is auspicious. People firmly believe that as long as they can get the God of Wealth to appear, they can get rich.

Therefore, every Chinese New Year, people open their doors and windows at 50:00 on the first lunar month, burn incense, set off firecrackers, and light fireworks to welcome the God of Wealth. After receiving the God of Wealth, everyone also eats Lutou wine, often until dawn. Everyone is full of hopes of getting rich, hoping that the God of Wealth can bring gold and silver to their homes and make them rich in the new year.

Lutou God

Lutou God is a god of wealth believed in by Wu. It is customary to regard the fifth day of the lunar month as his birthday, and it is quite spectacular to offer sacrifices and greet him.

Lutou is also known as the "Five Road God". It is said that at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, there was He Wulu, who died fighting against foreign invaders. Therefore, people worshiped him as a god and named him "Five Road God". But this Five-way God seems to have nothing to do with the Lutou Five-way God who is the God of Wealth. Or the Wulu God is actually the Five Holy Gods, or the Wutong God. During the Kangxi period, after Tang Bin destroyed and banned the Wutong Temple in Fangshan Mountain, the people did not dare to worship the Wutong God, so they changed its name to Lutou and worshiped it. . Generally speaking, this road head is regarded as the walking god in the ancient Five Sacrifice. The so-called five roads refer to the east, west, south, north, and middle. Wealth all travels along the road. Therefore, people regard the walking god as the god of wealth and offer sacrifices to it in the hope that it will bring money to the door. Or travel for profit. When the ancients traveled, they worshiped the road god to seek peace. This was the "ancestral way" custom. Wu customs connected the road and worshiped the road god, and the road god became the god of wealth. The God of Roads became the God of Wealth because of the development of commerce and the intensification of the circulation of goods. Goods travel between land and water. People intuitively believe that the road controls the goods.

It is commonly believed that the sooner you pick up the road head, the better. The earliest one to pick up the road head is the true god, which is particularly effective, so it is called "grabbing the road head". In some places, people really "rush to grab the road" on the fourth day of the first lunar month, and it has become a custom. Now that the road god is no longer the protector of travel, people no longer worship it when traveling.

As for the fact that people worship the Lutou God on the fifth day of the first lunar month and use this day as his birthday, this is because the "five" among the five Lutou gods is related to the "five" on the fifth day of the lunar month. The same goes for the "Five Poor" worshipers in the north on this day. In the first month instead of other months, it is to take the new year and new atmosphere, so that the year will be auspicious and the financial resources will be prosperous. From east to west, south, north, and center, wealth will advance in five directions.

Sending the poor

"Sending the poor" on the fifth day of the first lunar month is a very unique folk custom in ancient my country. On this day, women in each household are made of paper, called "Sweeping Qing Niang", "Five Poor Women", and "Five Poor Women". They carry paper bags, sweep the dirt from the house into the bags, and send them outside to blast them with cannons. This custom is also known as "sending the poor to the poor" and "sending the poor daughter-in-law out". In the Hancheng area of ??Shaanxi Province, people are not allowed to go out on the fifth day. Fresh meat must be roasted in a pot, and madou must be stir-fried to make it crackle and make a sound. It is believed that this can eliminate poverty and bring wealth. In addition, in the old days, people had to eat particularly well on New Year's Eve or the fifth day of the first lunar month, which was commonly known as "filling the poor hole." The widely popular folk custom of sending the poor away reflects the traditional psychology of the Chinese people who generally hope to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, bid farewell to the old poverty and hardship, and welcome a better life in the new year.

Opening of the market

It is an old custom that during the Spring Festival, large and small shops will be closed together from the beginning of the new year, and the market will open on the fifth day of the first lunar month. It is customary to regard the fifth day of the first lunar month as the holy day of wealth. It is believed that choosing this day to open the market will definitely attract wealth.

Po Wu

1. The first way to say "Po Wu":

In some places, the fifth day of the Lunar New Year is called "Yuan Nian", which means the year It’s over, I have to make a summary on this day and draw an end to it. In fact, this is a variant of "Po Wu", which slowly evolved due to the unknown origin of "Po Wu"

According to "The List of Conferred Gods", Jiang Ziya conferred the title of God and conferred the title of "Po Five" on his wife who betrayed him. The "poor god" has told her to "return as soon as she is broken".