The twelfth day of the first lunar month is said to be the time when rats get married. In some places, it is also said to be the birthday of rats. Every household has to make dumplings and pinch the dumplings tightly, which is commonly known as pinching the rat's mouth.
Some old people often make mice (actually mouse-shaped dumplings) and make "mouse eyes" at night.
Rat marriage was once one of the important annual customs. There are two versions of the date. In some places, it is the tenth day of the first lunar month, while in other places it is the twelfth day of the first lunar month.
The idea of ??a mouse marrying a wife expresses the simple idea of ??harmony between man and nature: even a mouse is rich enough to marry a wife, not to mention farmers’ harvests.
On the day when the mouse marries his wife, many villagers will dance, some pretending to be mice, and some pretending to be the mice's wives to celebrate.
Bundle the scissors and hide them: On that day, the daughters-in-law and girls of each family must wrap the scissors they usually use with red rope or red silk and hide them in drawers and under mattresses.
The villagers said that you cannot use scissors on Rat Day. As long as you can't hear the "click" sound of scissors, you won't hear the "click click" sound of mice eating things in your home for a year.
Collecting old shoes with baskets on their backs: In the morning, children from each family carried baskets on their backs to collect old shoes from door to door, and the people in the village were also happy to give away the "evil" (shoes).
In normal times, the people in the village do not sell their worn-out old shoes as scrap, but instead save them for the Rat Festival to be put to great use.
Han Dawei, a 66-year-old villager, said that in addition to digging holes, rats are also used to hiding in people's old shoes that are not worn to make nests and lay mice.
Making dumplings by pinching the mouth of a mouse: At noon, every family made dumplings. The reporter saw that the villagers made the dumplings into the shape of a mouse, with a mouth, ears, and a tail, and used mung beans as eyes. It was like
Each little mouse is like a piece of dough sculpture art.
The villagers said that making dumplings means "crushing the mouse's mouth". If the mouse's mouth is crushed to death, the mouse will not be able to bite, and there will be no mice in the house for a year.