how many folk festivals do you know in Henan? A unique festival (the second day of February)
The second day of the second month of the lunar calendar is a traditional festival of the Han nationality. Folk believe that this day is the day when the dragon wants to ascend to heaven, so it is called "Dragon Head-lifting Festival" or "Qinglong Festival". On this day, women in rural areas of Henan generally don't move scissors or do needlework, for fear of cutting the dragon's body with a knife. According to the old people. This is to show respect for the dragon. In this festival, people go to the fields to pick wild vegetables, make jiaozi, fry pancakes, fry soybeans, fry bacon and steam jujube buns, so as to improve their lives.
Among many food customs activities, the people who spread pancakes and eat fried beans on this day are the most. Folk believe that this day is the birthday of the Dragon King in the East China Sea, and pancakes are the afterbirth of the Dragon King. Eating pancakes is to chew disaster for the Dragon King, and throwing pancakes is to bury the afterbirth of the Dragon King.
On the second day of the second lunar month, people have to fry corn and soybeans.
Dragon Boat Festival (the fifth day of May)
The fifth day of the fifth lunar month is the traditional Dragon Boat Festival in China. In Henan folk, there are two versions of the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival. One is to commemorate Qu Yuan, and the other is from Tian Wen's new regulations on the Dragon Boat Festival. With vivid and interesting legends, the custom of the Dragon Boat Festival in Henan has become more and more colorful. A folk song says, "On May 5th, when the wheat is ripe, wrap zongzi for the Dragon Boat Festival." It shows that wrapping and eating zongzi is an important folk activity in Henan Dragon Boat Festival. In terms of shape, other provinces and cities have bag dumplings, horn dumplings, cone dumplings, rhombus dumplings, barrel dumplings, weighing hammer dumplings and nine-dumpling dumplings, while Henan is mainly horn dumplings, with three corners and four corners.
why does Henan make dumplings? It is said that after Qu Yuan first threw himself into the river, people threw rice into the river to commemorate Qu Yuan every May 5th, the anniversary of Qu Yuan's death. One night, someone dreamed that Qu Yuan was sallow and emaciated, so he quickly went forward to ask. It turned out that the rice that people threw into the river was eaten by fish, turtles, shrimps and crabs. Qu Yuan has no food to satisfy his hunger, so he is getting thinner. He pondered over how to prevent fish, turtles, shrimps and crabs from eating rice. Qu Yuan told him that if rice was wrapped in bamboo leaves and made into sharp corn (that is, zongzi), fish, turtles, shrimps and crabs would think it was water chestnut and they would not dare to eat it again. When the man woke up, he told the dream to his neighbors. On the Dragon Boat Festival the following year, people did what Qu Yuan said in his dream. Soon, Qu Yuan gave the man a dream to thank people for the zongzi. Later, people did this, and gradually formed the habit of making dumplings.
"There is a mid-afternoon sun in May, and dumplings and fried dough sticks are soaked in realgar." During the Dragon Boat Festival, people in Henan not only eat zongzi, but also eat fried food. Fried dough sticks, twisted dough sticks, hemp leaves, etc. are all fried foods that people often cook. Among many fried foods, sugar cakes and vegetable corners are the most typical and representative holiday foods.
On the Dragon Boat Festival, some people are very particular about eating eggs. On the morning of Dragon Boat Festival, housewives cooked the eggs, rolled them on their children's bellies several times, and then shelled them for the children to eat. It is said that this can avoid the child's disaster, and the child will not have a stomachache in the future.
The ancient custom of catching toads on Dragon Boat Festival is still popular in rural areas of Henan. People believe that toads are extremely poisonous and can clear away heat and detoxify, especially the toads caught on the Dragon Boat Festival are the most poisonous and of the best quality. People squeeze out the poisonous juice from toad's eye blisters, mix it with flour, rub it into strips and dry it for later use. Also put the ingot ink into the toad's mouth, hang it on the wall, and dry it to become Chinese medicine, which is called toad ink. People have gangrene, draw a circle with this ink, and the condition will be controlled. It is precisely because of this custom that the toad on this day is particularly difficult to catch. People say that it is a "god bug". People are afraid of being caught this day, and they all hide in succession. Therefore, there is a folk saying that "the toad with a belly hides from the Dragon Boat Festival".
Dragon Boat Festival is the happiest time for children. Adults dress them with a Chinese-style chest covering with five poisons, yellow embroidered shoes, five-color lines on their hands and feet, and exquisite and beautiful sachets hanging around their necks. They are full of air and frolic in front of and behind people. Children are ideal models for women. When children are dressed neatly and show off their mother's needlework skills in front of everyone, women get great psychological comfort and satisfaction. These children's decorations, which condense the mother's love, add fascinating colors to the traditional Dragon Boat Festival.
The first day of June in the lunar calendar is a festival that people in the Central Plains pay more attention to. In eastern and southern Henan, there is a saying that the first day of June is a small year. Especially in rural areas. People regard this day as a festival to celebrate the harvest and worship the harvest year. At this time, the wheat has just been laid, and the joy of harvest is filled with farmers' hearts and eyebrows. People put tables in houses, courtyards and wheat fields, and put five kinds of melons and fruits, such as steamed buns, jujube hill (a kind of steamed buns), peaches and plums. They filled buckets with newly harvested wheat, put the word "Fu" on the buckets, and then burned incense and firecrackers to pray for good weather and bumper harvests in autumn. After that, people happily ate a "chop suey" made of meat, vegetables, vermicelli and kelp. The adults guessed the boxing rules in the wheat field, and the children enjoyed themselves while eating and playing.
after the first day of the sixth lunar month, the sixth day of the sixth lunar month is another big festival. Therefore, some people simply put the activities on the sixth day of June into the first day of June. On the sixth day of June, people call it "Fried Noodles Festival", "Looking at Summer Festival" and "Daughter Festival", which are often ten miles (5 kilometers) and eight miles (4 kilometers) apart, so the customs are quite different. Anyway, festivals are about eating, playing and visiting relatives. And these festivals are related to married girls. Every household in the countryside will take the married girl home from the first day of June to the sixth day of June, and then send her back to her husband's house after entertaining her. As the saying goes, "June 6th, please invite your aunt." "On June 6th, I hung a hoe and called my elder sister-in-law and my younger sister-in-law."
The custom of celebrating the first lunar month in June is quite common in the Central Plains. From the first day of June to the sixth day of June, the flavor of "Nian" in the rural areas of the Central Plains is rich and lasts for about a week. Although there is a difference between the first day and the sixth day, the two festivals are too close, and the festival activities naturally merge together. These festivals are not only agricultural festivals in the farming areas of the Central Plains, but also "Harvest Festival" and "Harvest Festival". The custom activities in festivals are activities for farmers to taste the fruits of their own labor. This kind of joy naturally makes everyone share it at the same time when visiting relatives and friends.
Fun Begging Festival (seventh day of July)
Every year, the seventh day of the seventh lunar month is a traditional festival of the Han nationality. Because the main participants in this day's activities are girls, and the content of the festival activities is mainly begging for skills, people call this day "Begging for Skills Festival" or "Girls' Day".
The custom of begging for cleverness in Xinxiang, Henan Province is that every year on the sixth night of the seventh lunar month, seven unmarried local girls gather together in a group (according to the number of Chinese Valentine's Day), and each person exchanges flour and goods to prepare offerings for the Weaver Girl. Some people want to buy seven kinds of melons and fruits, such as grapes, pomegranates, watermelons, dates and peaches, bake seven oil or sugar steamed buns, pack seven bowls of small jiaozi and make seven bowls of noodle soup. In addition, seven big jiaozi will be wrapped separately. Dumpling stuffing is made of seven kinds of vegetables, and seven things made of flour are wrapped inside, such as needles, weaving shuttles, flower-playing hammers, spinning spindles, scissors, garlic cloves or abacus. These seven things should represent the wishes of seven girls.
On this evening, seven girls put their offerings under the melon shed or in a quiet place, burned incense and lit some paper, knelt down under the moon and prayed to the Weaver Girl. After the prayers, the seven girls shared fruit and seven bowls of little jiaozi. Then put seven oil cakes and seven big jiaozi in bamboo blue and hang them on the Toona sinensis tree. That night, seven girls kept vigil together, guarding the bamboo basket. This behavior is called "guarding Qiao", and its purpose is to prevent joking boys from stealing Qiao (jiaozi).
On the morning of July 7th, just before dawn, seven girls closed their eyes and touched a big jiaozi in the bamboo blue. Whoever finds out that the jiaozi contains needles, scissors and other things, will be a skillful hand in the future.
In Qinyang, Mengxian and other places in the north of Henan Province, there is still the custom of "Qixi" duet. On the Chinese Valentine's Day, local girls form groups by village, or by township and county, with seven people in each group, or nine or eleven people, depending on the number. The folk pay attention to the number of singers, and there is a saying that "when the list is not right, it is wrong for the generation." People divide the duet group into odd numbers in order to get a "coincidence" and hope that the duet group in our village can win.
The custom of asking for a clever meeting and asking for a clever song is really interesting and has an endless aftertaste. It enriches the contents of the Begging for Cleverness Festival on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, making this girl's festival as innocent, lively, optimistic and cheerful as a girl's character.
Livestock Festival with outstanding rural characteristics (July 15th)
The 15th day of the seventh lunar month is a traditional Mid-Autumn Festival in China, which is commonly known as "Ghost Festival". Farmers in the Central Plains also call this day "Cattle Festival", and there are many activities to worship cattle on this day.
In Linxian County, northern Henan Province, on July 15th, every family steamed lamb-shaped white flour buns, steamed them at noon and offered them on the kitchen table, and then set off firecrackers to celebrate the prosperity of the trough head. Every farmer with big animals will stop working for one day, give the lamb buns to the big animals to eat, and some will feed the animals with concentrated feed such as beans to show that the Animal Festival is different from usual. In the evening, they will make a pot of rice soup for the animals to drink. A folk song says, "Hit a thousand, scold ten thousand, and have a small rice meal on July fifteenth."
The Central Plains is a farming area, and large livestock is the main "labor" of every family's cultivated land, and autumn ploughing is the heaviest labor of livestock. People regard the 15th day of the seventh lunar month as "Animal Festival", which shows that people attach importance to livestock and the important role livestock plays in people's production and life.
If you climb the mountain and enjoy the chrysanthemum, you will see the Double Ninth Festival (the ninth day of September)
The ninth day of September in the lunar calendar is the traditional Double Ninth Festival in China. The ancients thought that "nine" was a lucky number and regarded it as a positive number. On the ninth day of September, it occupies two nine characters, and the double yang is important, so people call it "Double Nine" or "Double Ninth".
In the traditional customs of China, the Double Ninth Festival is a climbing festival, which, like eating zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival and eating moon cakes on the Mid-Autumn Festival, has become the symbol of the Double Ninth Festival on September. According to historical records, it was formed under the influence of a myth and legend.
In addition, in the traditional concept of Central Plains people, Double Nine still means long life, health and longevity. Therefore, people regard the Double Ninth Festival as "Festival for the Elderly", and there are many activities in society that respect, love and respect the elderly.
At present, it is rare to wear dogwood on the Double Ninth Festival in Henan, but chrysanthemum appreciation on Double Ninth Festival is becoming more and more popular. Because chrysanthemums are in full bloom in September, which is also called "Chrysanthemum Moon" by the people, viewing chrysanthemums has become an important part of the festival during the Double Ninth Festival when chrysanthemums are in full bloom in Ao Shuang.
Laba "jujube tree" eats rice (the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month)
The eighth day of the twelfth lunar month is the traditional Laba Festival of the Han nationality in China, and it is the custom to eat Laba porridge in most parts of China on this day. Laba porridge is cooked with eight kinds of fresh grain and fruits harvested in the same year, which are generally sweet porridge. However, many farmers in the Central Plains like to eat Laba salty porridge. In addition to rice, millet, mung bean, cowpea, peanuts, jujube and other raw materials, porridge also contains radish, cabbage, vermicelli, kelp and tofu.
In northern Henan, on the morning of the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, people get up and cook porridge at dawn. After the porridge is cooked, the first thing to do is not to eat by yourself, but to feed the cooked porridge to the jujube tree first, cut some small holes in the jujube tree, and then piously wipe the porridge on the tree marks, which is considered that the jujube tree has eaten the rice. The reason why people do this is that according to the old people, it turns out that jujube trees in the Central Plains are not fruitful and people are unwilling to plant jujube trees. Seeing that people didn't respect her, Zaoshen turned into an old woman and came to the world. She drew an orchard not far from the village, full of jujube trees and red dates. People picked it, tasted it sour and sweet, and it was delicious, so they went to the old woman who managed the jujube tree for advice. The old woman told everyone that jujube trees will bear fruit as long as they are fed rice on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month every year. People did what she said, and sure enough, all the trees bore red dates. This is just a legend. In fact, there are many scientific reasons in bread here: cutting some holes in jujube trees can adjust the nutritional growth of jujube trees, prevent nutrients from being transported underground, and concentrate on supplying aboveground parts, thus ensuring the nutritional needs of fruits. As for putting porridge on tree marks, it is actually just a soil measure to protect wound healing.
until now, the custom of letting jujube trees eat rice on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month still exists in northern Henan. There is a folk song circulating in the local area: "Laba jujube trees eat rice, and jujube bears dry eggs." "Dried eggs" is a Henan dialect, which means that jujube trees are fruitful and thick.
Sending God to Sacrifice in the Year of Famine (the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month)
The 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month is an important folk festival before the Spring Festival, and people call it the "Festival of Sacrificing Stove". At this time, people can't hold back the joy of welcoming the New Year, stop all kinds of work in their hands, and are busy with the ritual activities of offering sacrifices to the gods years ago.
On the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, the first round of firecrackers is set off in urban and rural areas of the Central Plains. Urban residents are busy buying sesame candy, fire and other food for offering sacrifices to the stove. In the vast rural areas, the preparation activities and grand ceremony of offering sacrifices to stoves gradually began in the deafening sound of guns.
Ceremonies for offering sacrifices to stoves are mostly held at night. When offering sacrifices to the stove, the people who offer sacrifices to the stove kneel in front of the statue of the stove and embrace the rooster. Some people also let children hold chickens and kneel behind adults. It is said that chicken is the horse on which Zao Ye ascended to heaven, so chicken is not called chicken, but called horse. If red rooster, commonly known as "red horse", white cock, commonly known as "white horse". After burning the incense table, the cigarettes in the house are filled with mysterious colors. The host poured wine and kowtowed, mumbling something. After reading it, the burner shouted "collar"! Then the day holds wine to pour the chicken head. If the head of a chicken flutters, it means that Zao Ye has been ungrateful. If the head of the chicken does not move, it needs to be watered again.
After the ceremony, people began to eat food such as stove candy and fire, and in some places they also ate sugar cakes, oil cakes and tofu soup.
in Henan province, the typical food for offering sacrifices to stoves should be stove candy first. It has also been said that the candy used for offering sacrifices to the stove is not glued to the mouth of the stove master, but to the mouth of the grandmother of the stove master who is greedy for good deeds and loves to gossip.
In addition to eating stove candy, burning fire is also a special seasonal food. On the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, the business of biscuit stalls in the city is very prosperous. People crowded around, vying to buy sacrificial stoves and burn them. Most of the rural areas are self-made, and they are made of flour and kang. The family is very lively and has a taste of off-year.
In Henan, people regard the festival of offering sacrifices to stoves as a reunion festival next to the Mid-Autumn Festival. Anyone who works, does business or goes to school in other places will try to get home before the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month. If you can eat the sacrificial stove cooked at home, you will be protected by the kitchen god, and your family will be safe in the coming year.