In Taiwan Province Province, there is a very important and interesting traditional festival-Winter Festival. Taiwan Province compatriots used to call the solstice of winter "Winter Festival" and attached great importance to the lively winter festival. In the eyes of Taiwan Province compatriots, the Winter Festival is like a small China New Year. There is a saying in Taiwan Province that "the winter festival is as big as a year" and "the winter festival does not belong to the ancestors", which means that people who go out must go home to worship their ancestors, otherwise there will be no concept of ancestral home. It can be seen that winter festivals in Taiwan Province Province are heavier than those in Duo Long Province.
Taiwan Province's winter solstice customs: having a dinner party, making long noodles, sticking jiaozi on the door, eating meat, eating winter cakes, offering sacrifices to ancestors, celebrating winter and making rice cakes. I think there are five customs worth mentioning on the winter solstice. Let's take a look:
One of the winter customs on the solstice: nine-layer cake for ancestor worship.
In Taiwan Province Province, China, the traditional custom of offering sacrifices to ancestors with nine-layer cakes on the solstice in winter still remains. Glutinous rice flour is used to knead animals such as chickens, ducks, turtles, pigs, cows and sheep, which symbolize auspiciousness and good luck, and then steamed in layers in a steamer to offer sacrifices to ancestors to show that they do not forget their ancestors. Before and after the winter solstice or the agreed early date, people with the same surname and clan gather in the ancestral hall to worship their ancestors one by one in the order of generations, commonly known as "ancestor worship." After the ceremony, a grand banquet will be held to entertain the people who came to worship their ancestors. Everyone drinks heartily and meets again after a long separation. This is the so-called "eating ancestors". The ancestors of the Winter Solstice Festival have been handed down from generation to generation in Taiwan Province Province to show that they have never forgotten their roots.
In addition to paying homage to the immediate ancestors, all families with ancestral temples should hold winter ceremonies. Some people hold a grand banquet in the ancestral hall to entertain people who come to worship their ancestors. This is called "eating ancestors". Let's drink to our hearts' content and keep our long-lost feelings. This special family reunion activity has its positive side, that is, through ancestor worship activities, we miss our ancestral home in Chinese mainland and educate future generations not to forget our roots in Chinese mainland. Therefore, it is appropriate to say that the Winter Festival is a festival of homesickness, reunion and friendship.
Taiwan Province Province Winter Solstice Custom 2: Eating Winter Festival Round.
"Every family has a reunion. You know, this is the winter solstice of the Ming Dynasty. "Eating the Winter Festival reunion dinner is an important holiday custom in Taiwan Province Province. One or two days before the winter festival, every household is busy grinding rice paste. On the eve of the winter festival, every housewife will put a big dustpan in the hall to knead the filtered rice paste into a ball, and the whole family will sit together and celebrate the winter festival with a smile. This situation is no less than New Year's Eve. The winter festival circles in the dustpan are big and small, red and white, which are very dazzling. The older generation often said, "It doesn't matter if the festival circle is uneven in winter. This is the father-son gongsun circle, which is a symbol of the whole family, big and small, round and round! " Children like to make up chickens, dogs, pigs and other poultry and livestock with ready-made rice balls and have a good time. Farmers hope to have a "prosperous six animals", and parents will not interfere with their children.
In the early morning of the winter festival, housewives cook the winter festival dumplings with brown sugar and ginger, and then put them in bowls to worship their ancestors. The whole family knelt before the ancestral tablet, and the elders told us where their "roots" were, so that future generations would never forget their ancestors. In addition to ancestor worship in the hall, wellhead, stove and fields are also provided to pray for family safety, bumper crops and prosperity of six livestock. In this regard, the "Fengshan County Records" in Taiwan Province Province, which was rebuilt in the Qing Dynasty, records: "Anyone who makes rice balls at home during the winter solstice, worships his ancestors and respects his elders is abbreviated as New Year's Day." The section volume of the encyclopedia of folk beliefs in Taiwan Province Province also records: "When people in Taiwan Province Province celebrate the winter solstice, it is important to eat glutinous rice balls to extend the New Year and offer sacrifices to ancestral temples ..." Adults and children have jiaozi for breakfast after getting up.
Interestingly, in most areas of China, the Spring Festival is the standard for calculating age, while compatriots in Taiwan Province Province take winter festivals as the standard. Therefore, there is a saying among the people that "eat the winter festival and add one year". Therefore, even babies should symbolically lick sweet glutinous rice balls and feed them jiaozi soup. For relatives who are far away from home or can't go home because of conditions, their families must leave rice paste for them. When they come back, the whole family will celebrate the reunion, which is called "making up for the old year."
Taiwan Province Province Winter Solstice Custom III: Ox Festival
In addition, on the solstice of winter, farmers in Taiwan Province Province give their cows a holiday, let them drink to drive away the cold, and thank them for their hard work over the past year, commonly known as "Cow Festival", which shows how much compatriots in Taiwan Province Province attach importance to agriculture!
At first, there was no cattle industry in Taiwan Province Province, but later, due to the needs of production and life, cattle industry was introduced from abroad and southern Fujian, Chinese mainland. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Dutch occupied Taiwan Province Province and found that there were no cows in Taiwan Province Province. But they want to develop sugarcane cultivation in Taiwan Province province. If there are no cows, the efficiency will be very low. Therefore, 200 cows were specially shipped from the colony of Java Island for farmland and sugarcane cultivation. This is the origin of yellow cattle in Taiwan Province Province. The first batch of 200 cattle bought from Java Island was not enough, so the Dutch set up a "cattle raising company" in Taiwan Province Province to manage, train and breed cattle, and encouraged the aborigines to fence the captured bison and feed them after whipping and abuse. In this way, after half a year's rapid taming and one year's slow taming, bison can listen to people and participate in the cultivation. Buffalo in Taiwan Province Province were shipped from mainland China after the Qing Dynasty.
On this day, the owner of the cow will give the cow a holiday. In order to thank the cows for their hard work over the past year, they also glued glutinous rice balls, a holiday food, to their horns to show that the cows had a holiday. When the weather is particularly cold in winter, we should give the cattle alcohol to keep out the cold. Even in the 1960s, when materials were extremely scarce, the commercial departments in southern Fujian specially issued wine tickets for cattle to drink to keep out the cold, which was commonly known as "cattle wine" by local people. This kind of wine-based scene, where people and cows celebrate together, can be called a spectacle of the custom of protecting and respecting cows on both sides of the strait!
The fourth custom of winter solstice in Taiwan Province Province: Sticking door knockers in winter festivals.
Speaking of the solemn custom of putting a knocker on the winter festival, there is a touching and tearful legend circulating among the people in Taiwan Province Province: once upon a time, there was a family of three living like beggars somewhere in Taiwan Province Province. One winter festival, my mother died of hunger and cold. After her daughter cried, she decided to sell herself to bury her mother. When she left, her daughter and her father agreed that no matter where her daughter drifted, she would put two winter festival rings on her employer's knocker every winter, so that her father could easily find her.
The next winter, the daughter who worked as a maid in a rich family longed for her father. She has a plan and says to her boss, "Respect your ancestors and door gods in winter festivals, so that you will welcome the God of Wealth." Master has always been superstitious, I heard that makes sense, let her put two glutinous rice balls on the knocker of the gate. From cold to summer, the father and the daughter finally came together because of the winter festival circle stuck on the knocker. Later, they had their own home, but every winter festival, the father and the daughter still don't forget that bitter past, and always put a winter festival circle on the knocker.
One to two, villagers and neighbors followed suit, in order to pin their memories and blessings on their relatives who left home, hoping that they would go home as soon as possible. With the passage of time, they have added rich and humane customs to winter festivals.
The fifth largest custom in Taiwan from winter solstice: eating chicken to make up for winter.
In Taiwan Province Province, it is also common to make up the winter from the winter solstice. The day before the winter solstice, after dinner, every household rubs a circle in the hall. In ancient times, it was forbidden to say ominous words when rubbing circles. After rounding jiaozi, winter should be replenished. The rice cake is one of the tonics. Sweet rice cakes should be dried longan meat. Salted rice cakes include mutton rice cakes and red rice cakes. There are also eight treasures stewed with male muscovy ducks, cocks and turtles.
On the solstice of winter, the family's dinner is no less than the reunion dinner on New Year's Eve, and the dishes are particularly rich, including hot pot and glutinous rice balls. And maintained the tradition of "no chicken, no feast". In winter solstice, there is often the custom of eating chicken.
During the winter solstice, people will eat many traditional foods. In some areas, steamed stuffed buns, rice cakes and rice cakes are eaten, which are all related to local eating habits and customs. In fact, no matter what you eat, everyone's original intention is the same, to welcome the arrival of the winter solstice and celebrate the arrival of the New Year.