The dragon lantern performance in Hengyi Village, Linpu Town originated in the Spring Festival of 1945 and continues to this day. In this village, almost every villager took part in the Dragon and Horse Lantern Festival. Nowadays, in various large-scale cultural activities held in Xiaoshan, this amateur dragon and horse lantern performance team has made frequent appearances, such as this year's Lantern Festival and the just-concluded Dangshan Temple Fair, all of which have their wonderful performances. The relevant person in charge of the District Culture, Radio, Film and Television Press and Publication Bureau said that it is very rare for a village to have such a profound cultural heritage.

Burning locusts

In Xiaoshan County Records of past dynasties, almost all the Lantern Festival is a custom record decorated with lanterns. In fact, in the northern sandy land, there has never been a custom of putting lights on the Lantern Festival; Its unique festivals are like burning locusts, picking up purple aunts, eating rape and frying rice cakes. Let's talk about burning locusts again

In the 1960s, the sericulture industry in sandy land had declined, and the custom of inviting my daughter-in-law to harvest "silkworm flowers" basically disappeared, but the annual activities of burning locusts in the Lantern Festival were still very lively.

The so-called burning locusts means burning reeds or thatch on the ridge of the pond on the fourteenth night of the first month, or tying torches with hemp stalks and straw wrapped by yourself, running and burning in the field and shouting, "Wow! Wow! Gnome male-",gnome male-",hehehe, hehehe, hehehe, hehehe, hehehe, hehehe, hehehe, hehehe, hehehe, hehehe. It is said that the purpose of setting fire to grass in this happy way is to burn eggs to herald a good year, so it is called burning locusts.

Most people who burn locusts are little boys and young men, and there are fewer older men, such as men in their thirties and forties. No one organized or mobilized. At most, excited children encouraged each other during the day, but when it was dark that day, sporadic torches and fires appeared on the vast sand plain, and gradually there was a roar of "Hua Hua", followed by more and more fires and cries. In the blink of an eye, there are flowing torches everywhere. The firewood for burning locusts is mainly reeds and thatch left on the edge of the pond ridge. Whoever goes out late and can't burn the weeds and weeds will spend some firewood himself. Some children will tie two or three bamboo tips to make the torch burn, and even pour kerosene and diesel oil, so that they can hold the torch high and shout and run in the wheat field.

In the years of burning locusts in the sand, I have never heard of anyone catching fire because of it. Perhaps because there are many grass huts in the sand, even children and burning locusts pay more attention to fires. Occasionally, I heard someone swear. It's just that the naughty boy burned his straw pile or took several bundles of twined hemp stalks, but it seems appropriate to burn locusts, and no one will sympathize with his scolding.

Burning locusts has become a holiday custom, which is inseparable from frequent locust plagues in the history of sandy land. 1929 The recorded catastrophic locust plague in Xiaoshan also occurred in sandy land. Locust is like a grasshopper with a big head. It has developed hind legs and is good at jumping and flying. It feeds on Gramineae plants, and its hard mouthparts can eat the whole cotton and corn, leaving only one polished rod. They also have the habit of gregarious, and their reproductive ability is extremely strong. In the dry season, they spread very fast and often fly in the dark. Wherever they go, large areas of crops will be destroyed. There was no insecticide to control insects before, and the only way was to catch them artificially. Locusts lay eggs in short and curved ovipositor tubes, and the eggs are produced in pieces at the roots of crops. The main way to remove ovaries is to burn them. Lantern Festival and Spring Festival activities have ended, and spring ploughing production is about to begin. Taking the burning of locusts as one of the contents of the Lantern Festival naturally implies the intention of not forgetting the plague of locusts and taking agriculture as the foundation.

The old county annals all say: "Orientals lose because of their abundance, while Westerners lose because of their extravagance." As a sandy land in the east of Xiaoshan, burning locusts or being ignored by local historians fully demonstrates the "simplicity" closely related to people's livelihood; In contrast, the lanterns in Xitu are really a bit deficient.

Dragon boat temple fair with the characteristics of filial piety and folk language

During the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a woman named Cao E in Caojiabao, Shangyu. Her mother was from Jinjiabang Village, Xiaoshan. His father, Cao Xu, died in Shunjiang during the Dragon Boat Festival in the second year of Han 'an in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Cao E cried day and night by the river looking for 17, but she couldn't find it. On May 22nd, she resolutely jumped into the river to find her father. According to legend, five days later, she came out carrying her father's body, and her filial piety touched the whole village. In history, people built a temple to worship Cao E, a filial daughter. Xiaojinjiabang in Xiaoshan is her grandmother's home. Out of respect for this granddaughter's filial piety, Cao E throws a dragon boat every year on May 22nd of the lunar calendar to commemorate her, forming a dragon boat temple fair with unique characteristics of filial piety and folk language. The Dragon Boat Temple Fair lasted for three days and reached its climax on May 22nd.

Barn lamp

Lantern is a popular dance in Zhejiang Province. Almost all counties and cities have their footprints from plains to alpine islands. There is a lantern association with a history of 50 years in Jianshanxia Village, Daicun Town. The forms of lanterns are bamboo horse, running five horses, walking on stilts, chariot lanterns, lantern show, hand lanterns, small lanterns and lanterns. Sing folk songs in the performance. Some lanterns have dance performances, such as somersaults, tumbling, horse washing and groom training.

family reunion dinner on the lunar New Year's Eve

On New Year's Eve, families get together, and the meal we eat together is called New Year's Eve. If you don't eat this meal at home, you won't spend the New Year at home. Therefore, everyone should go back to eat this meal. Therefore, the traffic tension is reasonable.

This meal is very grand, there are certain procedures, and no mistakes can be made.

First of all, please ask the kitchen god bodhisattva. On the kitchen stove, pour three cups of wine, three bowls of rice, three pairs of chopsticks, three vegetarian dishes (there are also four vegetarian dishes), light a pair of candles, burn a column of incense, and melt a pot of gold ingots (wrapped in yellow paper). Housewives bowed three times, and after the ceremony, they took off.

Then, in the center of the living room, ancestor worship (called "boiled rice" in Xiaoshan dialect). It used to be a square table, but now it is mostly a round table. There is a stress on placing the table, and the lines of the table (the lines spliced by boards) should face north and south, which is called straight pendulum. Never put it in the east-west direction or horizontal direction (the east-west direction is used by bodhisattvas). Put a pair of candles in the south (please ask Bodhisattva to go north) and pour 12 cups of wine (13 cups in the leap month of the lunar calendar, the same below), which are placed in the east, north and west; Fill four bowls of rice and put them in the four corners; Twelve pairs of chopsticks are placed beside a small handleless wine cup; At least ten bowls of vegetables, eight meat and two dishes or six meat and four dishes are served, but in pairs, dried fruits and fruits can be used. The wine needs to be poured three times, so please come and enjoy it. Adults and children bow down in turn. After the ceremony, I will spend money on paper.

There are rules for changing paper money. Generally, there are four pots: one is for foreigners, one is for ancestors, the third is for the elders of the current dynasty, and the fourth is for the younger generation. If you melt the foreign guests first and leave them at the door, it means taking the money and leaving. After that, the money was replaced in turn, first yellow paper ingots, then silver ingots, as well as exquisite Buddhist scriptures and shrines. For a time, paper ash flew all over the sky and stuck between dishes, adding more colors.

Finally, sit around and have dinner together. At that time, the food was cold. But adults and children are hungry and can't think so much. Call five, six and talk about cups. You give me a big meal and I'll give you a dish. Very lively. Speak loudly when eating. The country is farming, parents are short of money, economic income, enterprise development, etc. Don't talk about anything, speak freely. This kind of deep local feelings, this kind of deep family attachment, is incomparable anywhere and at any time. Previously, the wine was only bulk yellow wine and Shaoxing Yuan red wine. There are many varieties and varieties now, and red wine has become popular in recent years. Three kinds of meat and one vegetable are essential: one of the meat dishes, silver ingot fish (braised whole fish, preferably carp and crucian carp), means more than one year. Second, dried bamboo shoots are roasted with meat and vegetables. Third, fried chicken with shrimps (or cooked chicken) is delicious. Vegetarian dishes are called eight-treasure dishes, which are fried with eight kinds of bean sprouts, winter bamboo shoots and sauerkraut. According to Xiaoshan dialect, it is called fish and meat, not entanglement. Of course, these are some traditional home-cooked dishes. What about now? I don't know!

After dinner, give out red envelopes (lucky money), eat melon seeds, rub jiaozi, set off firecrackers after the birthday, fold new clothes, New Pants, put them by the bed and go to bed. What about now? Generally, we watch the Spring Festival Evening, and some play cards and mahjong. We are happy to win, but we are also happy to lose. This is completely different from gambling mentality), karaoke, etc., and some younger people drive motorcycles and cars around.

Fashionable people, traveling abroad, or inviting three friends and four friends out for dinner, spend the night in the hotel room, save some procedures, but also enjoy themselves. It just lacks the charm of eating New Year's Eve dinner.

A semi-annual festival

There is a peculiar folk custom in the Tower Half-year Festival. Every year on June 14 of the lunar calendar, villagers will kill chickens and ducks to celebrate the half-year festival. Coincidentally, there is also this custom in northern Guangxi, but the time is the first day of the sixth lunar month. I think it's a six-month summary to reward the three armed forces. Congratulations on the bumper harvest and pray for better results in the second half of the year. This folk custom is little known, and it will take some time to popularize it.

Xiaoshan people also had the folk custom of "July and a half". A folk proverb says: On the evening of July 13th, the gate of hell in Fengdu was opened. According to legend, every year on the 13th day of the seventh lunar month (this year is Sunday, August 6th in the solar calendar, which is today), the ghost town of Fengdu has a five-day holiday, and the King of Yan allows ghosts to have outdoor activities, which, in fashionable words, is the "Golden Week" about the underworld. If ghosts have family and children among the dead, they will go home and enjoy the sacrifice; Homeless people wander around and even create disasters. Therefore, elders often warn their children and grandchildren: at this time, be careful not to make mistakes; Don't go out at night, lest you suffer. Of course, this is very superstitious. However, the hearts of elders are understandable.

The origin of this July and a half is said to be the end of the Han Dynasty, when there was a "five-door rice road", and the gods worshipped were "heavenly officials, local officials and water officials". Heavenly god blesses the people people, local officials atone, and water conservancy officials help Eritrea. Three yuan and three officials, the fifteenth day of the first month is the birthday of Tianguan, known as Zhengyuan Festival; July 15th is the birthday of the county magistrate, which is called the Mid-Autumn Festival. 10 15 is the birthday of Shuiguan, which is called the Next Yuan Festival. Therefore, July and a half is also called Mid-Autumn Festival. Folk sacrifice is not only to congratulate the birthday of local officials, but also to pray for ancestors to forgive their sins and bless them, get rid of suffering and return to humanity as soon as possible.

In this Mid-Autumn Festival, Xiaoshan people usually call it "July and a half". Parents, siblings and the whole family get together on a certain day (a few days before or after July 15). Of course, it is best to have chicken, duck, fish, seasonal dishes, vegetarian dishes and candles. Follow the example and worship the kitchen god, ancestors and silver ingots in turn. After that, everyone sat around and ate and drank.