In the urban area, zhang wan and Maojian districts alternately staged folk cultural performances in the People's Square and Cultural Square, which made the citizens dazzled. The performances of folk art in cities and counties are even more colorful: Yunxian held the county-wide folk lantern contest and the folk art performance of farmers' performing teams, Zhushan held the folk art evening, Fangxian held the folk art contest and special art evening, Danjiangkou held the fireworks evening of large-scale street folk art performance, Yunxi held the folk art performance into community activities, and Zhuxi held the folk art evening in the Square to welcome the Spring Festival. In addition, the "Story Meeting" in Wujiagou Folk Story Village in danjiangkou city and the "Folk Song Hall" in Lvjiahe Folk Song Village have both boarded the elegant halls of the city, and the farmers' performing arts teams from towns such as Liupi and Qingqu in Yunxian County have been invited to perform in Shiyan City.

these original ecological folk arts mainly include 31 kinds of local operas, such as Yunyang phoenix lantern, two bamboos with high cavity, Yunyang two sheds, Yunyang four or six sentences, boating, clam shell dance, lion dance, dragon lantern, float boat and Huangzhou idea, which fully demonstrate the charm of local folk arts and the audience is full.

For thousands of years, the ancestors of Shiyan have left us many folk customs, which are valuable cultural heritage. There are many folk customs in Shiyan area to celebrate the Spring Festival. From the twelfth lunar month of the first year to the fifteenth day of the first month of the following year, almost everywhere is busy. South of the Han River, Jingchu Chuanxi has a strong taste; To the north of the Han River, the Shaanxi style is refined and vulgar, and it permeates the territory.

Killing the Year Pig

Killing the Year Pig is one of the most important contents in Shiyan people's busy year, starting from "entering the ninth year". Pork is generally not sold in 28, and it can't be eaten in the New Year. Therefore, pigs are killed after "entering the ninth year" in order to make bacon and save it for the next year. In poorer families, pigs are too small to eat, and they wait until around the twentieth day of the twelfth lunar month to kill pigs. Shiyan folk song "December" sings: "The twelfth lunar month is 2 wax, and every family kills pigs. Cut the meat and hang it, and take it to my sister's house. "

everyone rushed to kill Nian pig together, so they became familiar with the pig butcher. The pig butcher is dressed in greasy clothes, and everyone who sees him avoids it on weekdays. Can enter the twelfth lunar month, no one thinks he is dirty, and queues up several days in advance. Heavy, greasy pig-killing tool baskets were also helped to clean up and grab them.

On the day of killing the pig, the owner of the pig got up early, set up a firewood stove on the ground in front of the house, put a large iron pot on it, and chopped wood to boil water. Feed delicious food to the pigs to be killed, and then invite the butcher, the helper, and the relatives and neighbors who drink pig-killing wine (pig blood soup) to join us. Old people came to wait for the pig-killing water to soak their feet, while little kids waited for the pig's urine bubble to play ...

In the old days, children in the mountains had no toys, but only grabbed a pig's urine bubble and blew it into a balloon to play when killing pigs. Seeing the pig-slayer's gut breaking, they were all around. At the moment when they cut off the pig's urine bubble, they grabbed it first, rubbed it on a stone, blew it into a basketball, tied it with a rope, and became a "balloon" on cloud nine. Children who don't grab it often take advantage of it unprepared and stab the pig's urine bubble, and soon they are discouraged. Never mind, that family is killing pigs again. The children rushed over like a mountain, like a gust of wind.

In the old days, old people also wore straw sandals in winter, and their feet were frozen and cracked. If they were soaked in pig-killing water, they would not crack next year. As a result, people who killed pigs and had frozen feet rushed there. After the pig's hair is scraped clean, put the scalding water in the big footbath, and everyone put their feet into the basin together and soaked their feet with laughter.

After the pig was killed and the meat was salted, the pig butcher, helpers, relatives and neighbors all gathered around the square table in the yard, drinking and eating meat, and never getting drunk.

Nowadays, children have more toys, the elderly have warm boots, and the custom of blowing pig urine bubbles and soaking feet with pig killing water has disappeared.

Having a small year

The small year in Shiyan area falls on the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, and it also falls on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, which is commonly known as "the army, the three people and the four bullies are twenty-five" ("bullies" refers to soldiers who go to war late). In Wen Tianxiang's poem "24th" in Southern Song Dynasty, there is a sentence "Jiangxiang is in its early years". "Fang County Records" Volume 11 "Customs" records: "On the 23rd, the kitchen god was worshipped, and the common cloud was played by the sun kitchen god. Housewives clean the cauldron and light the lamp, offering offerings such as gum paste, glutinous rice paste and bean candy balls, saying,' A few words are sweet'. He also put black beans and grass on a plate, thinking that the kitchen god could make a harness. After the sacrifice, the whole family went to worship and gave candy to the children. Having a feast and sitting together is called' having a small year'. Naturally, the flute, drum and firecrackers continue to be played all night until New Year's Eve, which is called' Noisy Year'. In the Shiyan folk song "Love Song", there is a saying: "On the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, every family will celebrate the New Year, telling the kitchen king to go to the sky and bless Lang to return." In fact, the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month is mainly a sacrifice to the kitchen god, and people regard it as an off-year holiday.

The Kitchen God is also called Master Siming. The Shiyan folk song "Kill pigs and sheep to worship God" says: "The family god of the hall, the director of the kitchen, and the mother and grandson of the stove, bless my whole family." The love song also said, "On the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, Master Si will go to heaven. Eating a candy bar in his mouth, the jade emperor has less rumors in front of him. " Ge Hong in Jin Dynasty wrote "Bao Pu Zi Wei Zhi" when he was practicing in Wudang Mountain: "On a moonlit night, the kitchen god also went to heaven." Therefore, before dark on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, in the streets and lanes, at the end of the village, there were many children selling pictures of the kitchen god and the kitchen map, because every household cleaned the walls in front of the kitchen and behind the kitchen, and then put on new pictures of the kitchen god to burn the kitchen map, so that Si Ming could ride on the flower horse and eat the kitchen candy and the kitchen cake. Couplets are posted on both sides of the new kitchen god statue, with the upper part saying "God speaks good things" and the lower part saying "lower bound ensures peace".

after dinner, put incense burners, candles, yellow paper, eight stove cakes, a plate of stove candy and other offerings on the stove, burn incense, light candles, and burn them for worship by the whole family. Some don't burn the kitchen horse, catch a big cock with a green tail, put knives and bowls on the ground in front of the kitchen door, and kill the chicken to catch blood. Leave three long pieces at the head of the chicken, chicken wings and chicken tail when taking off the chicken feathers, and say "red rooster, green tail, kitchen god rides on the sky". After the sacrifice, the whole family ate stove cakes and candy.

by the 197s, the custom of offering sacrifices to kitchen gods gradually faded away. Nowadays, there are still elderly people in mountainous areas who offer sacrifices to the kitchen gods and cook candy.

Cooking stove sugar

Cooking stove sugar is on the 22nd of the twelfth lunar month, and there are three kinds of cooking sugar: glutinous rice, sweet potato and corn. If glutinous rice and sweet potatoes can't be produced in the mountains in the south of the Yangtze River, they use corn to boil sugar. After the sugar is boiled, it cools and hardens. When eating, it is knocked down with a hammer, hence the name "beating sugar". Add sesame seeds, peanuts, etc. to the beaten sugar, stir-fry, put it in a mold, shape and cut into pieces, which is the stove candy. There are also corn flowers and cooked soybeans. Sacrifice to the kitchen god with sugar, which means "sticky mouth", so that the kitchen god can put in a good word.

stove cakes are made of glutinous rice bread filled with sugar, which is like a big copper coin, in the shape of a half-moon or a full moon.

hurry to get married

after the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, Si Ming-ye will go to heaven, and there will be no gods in the world. It's all "auspicious days in the ecliptic", so it's natural that you don't have to look at the day when you marry a daughter-in-law or a girl. The folk custom is called "hurry to get married". So from the early years until the 29th of the twelfth lunar month, no matter in the city or the countryside, no matter in the south of the Yangtze River or in the north of the Yangtze River, people rushed to marry their wives and girls. In the streets and lanes, you can hear gongs, drums, horns and firecrackers everywhere. Brides' sedan chairs often meet opposite each other, and the two brides hand out exchange gifts from the sedan chairs, which are called "greeting gifts" to express their congratulations to each other. These days, children are very busy, running around looking for a wife, picking up firecrackers, grabbing candy and touching red eggs. A few years ago, the custom of getting married in a sedan chair began to disappear. In recent years, young people feel fresh about ancient customs and sit in sedan chairs, followed by a series of cars. Ancient customs have become a new trend.

Dust the dust

There is a saying in Shiyan: "Dust the house on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month", which means to sweep away all the bad luck and bad luck except Chen Buxin. On this day, people dust in the morning, and spend the New Year at noon or at night to make it clean and hygienic.

In the early morning of the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, the whole family got up early and started to move the furniture to the yard or rice field. Large objects that cannot be moved are covered with cloth or paper. Pull down the curtains, take off the picture frame ... Men change old clothes, put on straw hats, tie brushes or feather dusters on the top of long bamboo poles, and go upstairs first and then downstairs; First, dust off the floating dust and cobwebs on the roof, roof and wall in turn, then clean the corners and edges. When the house is cleaned neatly, wash the furniture, dry it and dry it, and then restore it.

at this time, mothers and sisters can be busy. After dust removal, the whole family takes a bath and changes clothes, and the hostess and eldest daughter grab the sunshine to wash bedding and clothes. Wait until the 3 th night of the twelfth lunar month, and put the new clothes of the whole family on their respective bedside while keeping watch. After the family's bed has been arranged, they have to set up a bed and put on a clean bedding to prepare for the guests to sleep during the New Year.

Beat tofu

Shiyan is rich in soybeans, and almost every family will beat tofu during the New Year, and the time is chosen around the 25th of the twelfth lunar month. It's too early to beat tofu, and tofu will be sour; It's too late and too busy. Therefore, the Shiyan folk song "Xiao Lang goes to Sichuan" sings: "On the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month, every family plays tofu. Think of my husband outside, crying every day. " Why are you crying? One is to look forward to Lang's return, and the other is that it is too busy to make tofu alone.

"Tofu makes a hundred dishes", which can be made into soybean oil skin, tofu blocks, frozen tofu, smoked dried tofu, thousand pieces of skin, fried tofu dishes, lazy tofu and so on. Crispy fried rolls, a special dish in Fangxian County, have been popular in Shiyan in recent years and are a must for every family in the New Year. The outer cover of this crispy fried roll is soybean oil skin, the inner roll is filled with meat, and then it is fried. After the tofu is boiled, it is defoamed, and the surface is cooled to form a film, which is uncovered with a bamboo pole. The operation process is called "uncovering soybean oil". Soybean oil skin is high in protein, thin and bright, and resistant to breakage. It is very profitable to peel soybean oil, but it needs certain techniques of peeling, drying and harvesting. After the tofu is cooked, some of it is bleached or frozen with water, and some of it is fried and other fancy dishes. Shiyan proverb: "The Year of the Communist Youth League cannot be separated from tofu dishes", which is the truth.

beating tofu is a busy job. Soak soybeans first, soak them thoroughly, then grind them and push them. It's tiring to push the small mill by hand and feed water and soybeans to the mill eye while pushing. The kidnapper grinds one person to push, one person feeds the soybeans, and one person can't do it. After grinding the soybean milk, you have to use the "Tofu Dangzi" to filter the pulp and remove the residue. The so-called "Tofu Dangzi" is to tie a filter cloth at the four corners of a suspended wooden cross, then pour the ground soybean milk into the filter cloth, and the filtered soybean juice flows into the cauldron under the "Tofu Dangzi". Fill the stove under the pot with big wood blocks, start a big fire, cease fire when the soybean milk rolls, remove foam, air a few pieces of soybean oil skin, and then transfer the soybean milk from the pot to a big barrel. Then pour the gypsum juice prepared in advance into soybean milk, which is called "ordering tofu". The tofu is exquisite, and the gypsum juice is too tender and the amount is small; Too much, too thick, and the tofu is too old to taste good. When the soybean milk turns into bean curd, pour it into a wooden box, cover it with a thick board that fits into the wooden box, and press it with a big stone to squeeze out the water. This is called "pressing bean curd". Dried beans and thousands of skins are also made in this way.

There are many procedures and hard work to make tofu, and it is even more difficult to make tofu alone. Men go out and don't return at the end of the year. How can single women at home make tofu? It is easy to understand that the woman who expects her husband to return "cries one day" in folk songs.

Some fastidious families, who have eaten tofu for the past year, have to filter it twice, so they can't afford the soybean oil skin. The tofu made in this way is green in white, without a "honeycomb" and the entrance is tender.

Noisy Year

Noisy Year means to pay homage to ancestors before New Year's Eve every year, which means to celebrate the New Year with ancestors. Book 11 "Customs" of Qing Fangxian Annals: "Twenty-six days later, the ancestors were recommended with preserved wine, and the group ate together, which was called' noisy year'. ""preserved ",dried meat, preserved fruit. "Recommendation", straw mat. "Luan", the tree. That is to say, after the 26th day of the twelfth lunar month, every household should bring food and wine to the ancestral graves to worship their ancestors. When offering sacrifices to ancestors, choose a place under the big tree in front of the grave, spread a straw mat, and put on tables, fruits and buns. On behalf of the whole family, the grave-goers pay a New Year call and toast to their ancestors to show the reunion of Yin and Yang and the feeling of nostalgia.

steamed buns

Shiyan people usually steam buns around the 26th of the twelfth lunar month. The folk song goes: "On the 26th, every family was busy, and the basin was brought to the fire. Chop oil residue, mix flour sugar, chop firewood and steam it in a cage. " Steamed steamed buns are selected on the 26th day of the twelfth lunar month. First, it is close to the New Year, and steamed buns can be placed after the New Year. Second, in recent years, people are busier and busier, and they are too busy to eat. There are several cages of steamed buns, which can be used to cushion the bottom when they are hungry. Chinese New Year's steamed buns are usually filled with oil residue from lard refining, tofu, radish, vermicelli and dried bean curd, which are both oily and meaty. You can't use pure sugar to make sugar buns. Stir-fry the flour and mix it with sugar to prevent the sugar juice from flowing out when the buns are bitten open.

Chinese New Year steamed buns are not called steamed buns, but called "steamed buns for dinner", which is for good luck. Because "steaming" and "truth" are homophonic, and "steamed buns" and "grinding" are homophonic, it is unlucky to say "steamed buns" in the New Year.

there are 1 steamed buns of each type, including large, medium and small. The great God of Respect for the Family offered breakfast from New Year's Eve to the 17th day of the first month. The steamed buns are cracked and called "laughing", which means that there will be good things this year. Medium-sized steamed buns can be sacrificed to the ancestral graves, which can be eaten with the sacrifices, in order to ask the ancestors to protect themselves from disasters. The little steamed buns respect the land Lord, and then take them back. All the steamed buns should be topped with five plum blossoms, or wrapped with big red dates.

although it is "steamed for food", there are actually many steamed buns. Besides meat buns and sugar buns, there are other patterns, such as fish-shaped buns, snake-shaped buns and chicken-shaped buns. There are also children who are made in the family, and they are given to children to make them happy.

write couplets

Shiyan people celebrate the New Year, and generally paste Spring Festival couplets and door paintings. Spring Festival couplets, also called "couplets", originated from Taofu. "Taofu" is a rectangular mahogany board hung on both sides of the gate in the Zhou Dynasty. Records of Etiquette in the History of the Later Han Dynasty: "The peach symbol is six inches long and three inches wide. On the mahogany board, shentu and Yulei Er Shen were written. On the first day of the first month ... the peach symbol was made by households, and it was famous as immortal wood, which was feared by hundreds of ghosts." "History of Song Dynasty Shu Family" notes: "Meng Chang, the master of the later Shu Dynasty, ordered Zhang Xun, a bachelor, to write a poem about the peach board, and wrote a poem:' Welcome to Qing Yu in the New Year, and celebrate the festival in Changchun'. "This is the first Spring Festival couplets in China.

The legendary keeper is shentu and Yu Lei who can catch ghosts. The Book of the Yellow Emperor is quoted in Ying Shao's Custom Pass in the Eastern Han Dynasty: In ancient times, there were two brothers, Shencha and Yulei, who lived on Dushuo Mountain. There is a peach tree on the mountain, and the shade is like a cover. Every morning, they review the ghosts under this tree. If an evil spirit harms the world, tie it up and feed it to the tiger. Later, people painted shentu and Yu Lei on two mahogany boards and hung them on both sides of the door to ward off evil spirits. In the Tang Dynasty, the portraits of door gods became Qin Shubao and Wei Chijingde, and later became Zhao Citizen, the god of wealth, and Guan Yu, Wu Caishen, and then added the Taoist Raytheon.

Dui and goalkeeper are "brothers", and there is a custom of affixing Dui and goalkeeper in Shiyan urban and rural areas, officials and people. Rural people pay more attention to it than urban people. Even poor families should try their best to put on couplets and door gods during the New Year. In the twelfth lunar month, in order to prevent heavy snow from closing the mountain, the villagers carried a basket of corn early and went over the mountains to sell grain in the city. Those in low mountains pick a load of firewood or charcoal to go to the market. After selling money, the first thing is to buy incense, wax, paper mounting, couples and door gods. The red pair and the keeper are wrapped in the basket and hung on the shoulder pole, and they walk contentedly in the street, forming a folk picture scroll of buying new year's goods and pairs.

At this time, there were many stalls writing couplets and drawing door gods in the streets and towns of the county. Red paper and black ink are dried all over the floor before and after the booth. Illiterate people gathered around, asked the seller to read it carefully, found it appetizing, and picked it out and bought it.

Rich people who are ostentatious and ignorant of literature and ink often spend money to put on a show, and have invited scholars (mostly teachers) and painters to their homes for a party long ago. Painters bow their heads and paint, saying little; People who write essays and pairs shake their heads, think hard and be innovative. Half a day later, couplets and door paintings were spread all over the room. The host family was happy and shouted like a scholar: "Please sit down, distinguished guests and friends. You have worked hard for me and painted the door gods. I have some thin wine, please.