During the Spring Festival, Linxian and other places will burn firewood at the door to express their grief for the deceased. Lingchuan and other places should use all kinds of meals to pay homage outside the door and send their ancestors with common names. In some villages in the south of Shanxi, colored paper was cut and pasted on doors, and colored paper gourds were cut and pasted on hats. Call this day the alchemy day of Taishang Laojun, which can cure all diseases and keep peace all the year round. On stuffing day, Hongtong County and other places are used to inviting their son-in-law to eat pancakes. The custom in old Beijing is "small irrigation" on the 23rd and "big irrigation" on the 25th of the first month.
In old Beijing, almost every day in the first month of the lunar calendar is a festival, with many allusions, legends and folk customs. After the fifth day of the first month, the sixth day is the day when shops open, and the seventh day is the ancient "People's Day" (that is, everyone's day, which is a day to pray for the safety of the whole family and the children and grandchildren).
Bunker Filling Festival is an ancient festival. People worship the god of bunkers in this festival, hoping for a bumper harvest next year. According to legend, many years ago, after years of drought, there were no crops in the fields, but the imperial court still urged tax rent regardless of people's lives, and the bully landlords took the opportunity to run amok, making the people miserable. At this time, a warehouse official who showed the granary to the royal family saw the tragic scene in his hometown and resolutely opened the warehouse and released food to help the people. People are very grateful to the warehouse official for getting life-saving food. When the emperor knew about it, he sent someone to blame him. He set fire to the granary and died in the fire. This day is the 25th of the first month. Since then, in order to commemorate the granary official, people painted (built) a granary inside and outside the courtyard with fine charcoal ash or firewood ash on this day as a sign of filling the granary and to commemorate the granary official, which means filling the granary. Therefore, this day is called "Filling Festival".
This festival is very popular in the northern rural areas of China and the suburbs of Beijing. It is a custom in Beijing that the 23rd day of the first month is "small irrigation" and the 25th day is "big irrigation". There is a folk proverb in Beijing: "After the New Year, on the 23rd, fill the warehouse with rice and flour to make lamps. Take a broom, sweep the east wall, and pick up insects in good years. " He also said: "Tiancang, Tiancang, dry rice noodle soup", "brightly lit, incense burned all over, and every household has food in Man Cang." These proverbs have been passed down to this day.
Decades ago, I spent the Spring Festival in my hometown in the countryside. I saw and participated in the Spring Festival activities. On the 25th day of the first month, every farmer gets busy before the sun shines in the morning, and draws several different round cellars with plant ash in the farmyard or yard. At that time, people first put plant ash in a dustpan, with a dustpan in one hand and a small wooden stick in the other. They beat the dust, gradually dispersed it and painted it into a circular cellar, and drew a cross in the middle and a ladder-like figure on the edge of the circle. Sprinkle some grains such as wheat, sorghum, millet, beans or corn in each grid, and then press the grains with bricks, which is a metaphor for pressing the warehouse. In the center of the cross, put some noodles and copper coins, which means that the grain is rich and rich. Painting a ladder means that the grain depot is high, that is, the large depot is full, the small depot flows, and it is auspicious and wishful, and the good days are better.
Sacrificing the god of granaries was the custom of granaries and grain merchants in urban and rural areas at that time. Jin Shu? Tian said, "Tiancang, Lounan and Xingu have six stars." In the Qing Dynasty, Pan Rongbi's "Ji Sheng at the Age of Emperor Jingdi" also said: "Now that the new festival is over, the warehouse is empty and should be restored, so it is called filling the warehouse."
The way to make up the position varies from place to place. In Xinxiang, Henan Province, on 19, a "Tiancang" activity was held, and every household offered sacrifices to Cangshen. In Wu Yang, warehouses will be added on 19. At that time, people will light the lights and place sacrifices in places where food is stored, hoping for a good year. On this day, lights should be lit in the house, outside the door, at the top of the trough, in the chicken nest, on the stone tablet, in the water tank and other places. Newlyweds should light up the boxes, boxes, beds and beds at home and wish them an early birth. In Suide, Shaanxi, small positions cover positions on the 20th, and large positions cover positions on the 25th. In Xinmin, Liaoning Province, 25th is tonic day. On the morning of 24th, people spread circles in the yard with firewood ashes in the kitchen, which is called "hoarding". Fill a bowl of rice, insert various farm tools models made of sorghum stalks on it, and send them to the barn, which is called "filling the warehouse". This is "filling a small warehouse". On the 25th, new rice was added to the bowl, which was called "filling the old warehouse". It was not demolished until the 26th. In Yixian County, Liaoning Province, on the evening of 20th, grains, millet, wheat and beans were steamed to worship the gods of barns, boxes, wells and mortars, which were called "filling warehouses" or "adding warehouses". Later this custom gradually declined. 25th is "Irrigation Day", also called "Old Irrigation". In the kitchen, firewood ash is used to draw the shape of grain hoard on the ground, and some whole grains are put in the middle, which is called "filling the warehouse", which is stored with millet balls and burned incense to worship in order to have a good year. If the newly-married woman goes back to her parents' home, she must go back to her husband's house to hold a filling ceremony. Her family will send her some steamed food, called "steaming bucket", so that she can take it back, and her husband will prepare good wine and dishes for her. In Jinxi County, Liaoning Province, 25th is the day to fill the old warehouse. In the early morning of this day, ash will be scattered along the road from the garden to the granary in the yard, which is commonly known as "leading the barn dragon" In Tieling, Liaoning, the 23rd is "New Warehouse Day". On this day, the family of the newly married woman will send steamed bread to her daughter, which is called "replacement". The 25th is "Mother Warehouse Day", on which farmers offer sacrifices to the warehouse god.
The filling festival is held in Shanxi, and it should be held in the courtyard or the site with plant ash. People who pay attention to it will also draw patterns such as rakes, brooms and fans next to the ash cellar. The small full-day ash cellar symbolizes the bumper harvest of summer grain, so some summer grain should be put in the warehouse; The ash cellar on the big irrigation day symbolizes the harvest of autumn grain, and some autumn grain is put in. Then cover the grain with bricks and stones, which is called "pressing the warehouse" And lit firecrackers, exploded in the circle, meaning a bumper harvest. In the evening, you should sacrifice to the God of Heaven, and put lights in places related to diet, commonly known as "lighting lamps to burn incense, and Man Cang accumulates food". Among them, Luliang area in Shanxi is the most typical. First, pinch a life-core monument lamp for each family member, then pinch two dogs, a chicken and a fish, then pinch the population plate, warehouse officials, money, gold ingots, donkeys carrying charcoal, a small teacup and a hip flask. At night, light the floor lamp with oil and put it everywhere. When placing surface lamps, you should say some auspicious words loudly, such as "Master Cang has brought rice" and "Chicken dolls lay more eggs".
In Dezhou, Shandong Province, the ground was painted with ash the night before, which is called "big warehouse". A few five customs houses were put inside and covered with bricks or tiles. On the 25th, uncover the bricks and dry the grain in the sun. If there is no strong wind on this day, it is called "hoarding". On this day, farmers eat cakes, which is called "Yangfeng cake". Others scattered ashes in the courtyard on 25th, for example, in Weifang, Shandong Province, which was called "Tiancang Day". On that day, "women get up early to distribute ashes in court, and they all draw circles in layers", which is called "Andun". On the second day of February, the dragon looked up and scattered ashes in the court again, scattering grains in the middle, which was called "collecting and hoarding".
There are often some holiday eating habits in the sky. Weifang, Shandong Province even changed the sound of "Tiancang Day" to "throat filling day", thinking that food should be filled in the throat on this day, so the food on this day is richer than usual. On this day, northern Shanxi is used to steaming oat noodle nests because they are shaped like cellars. In the south of Shanxi, thin noodles are used to spread pancakes, which are wrapped in plates and rolled up for eating. In Shandong, most people eat jiaozi, and some people eat cakes. Jimo called this day "Dragon and Phoenix Day", which was made of bean noodles and sweet potato noodles, namely Wowotou. In Wucheng, Shandong, eating yellow rice cake in the morning means "not slipping"; Eating dry rice is called "Gu Shi Sui"; Eating jujube cake is called "Yangfeng cake"; Some people eat noodles, called "money rope", and put some cabbage leaves in it, which means a bumper harvest of cotton.
Tianjin Wei's old custom of "filling the warehouse" and "filling the warehouse" means filling the barn. According to legend, there was drought in the north for three consecutive years. Thousands of miles away, the grain is not collected, but the royal family still collects imperial grain regardless of the life and death of the people. Therefore, famine and hunger are everywhere for years, especially at the end of the year, the poor are desperate and countless people die of freezing and starvation. At this time, the granary officials who displayed the royal grain guarded the big grain hoard and watched the brothers and fathers starve to death, which was really unbearable. He decided to take the initiative to open the imperial warehouse to help the victims, so that people could rob the royal food and save one of the victims. But he couldn't find a job in the royal family, so he set fire to the warehouse on the 25th of the first month and set himself on fire. In memory of this unknown warehouse official, on this day, future generations filled the warehouses inside and outside the courtyard with fine charcoal ash or firewood ash to express their memory of the warehouse official. According to relevant historical records, the 25th day of the first month is the rice filling day, which is used to make noodle soup and steamed rice. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, fine ash was scattered in various places inside and outside the gate, which was called hoarding. Divide a little grain in the cellar and cover it with precious tiles and other things, which is called filling the warehouse.
Therefore, in the old houses in the north, whenever the warehouse is full, in the early morning, the elderly shovel up the screened charcoal ash and firewood fine ash with dustpan or wooden shovel, and beat them with wooden sticks in front of the door to form a round barn, some of which are decorated with lace, auspicious words and ladders for storing grain, and sprinkle grain in the barn, symbolizing the bumper harvest of grains to express that people fill the barn to save. In this way, the story of the replacement has been passed down from generation to generation.
The customs of celebrating this festival vary from place to place, but they are all related to diet, but the food is different from place to place. I don't know much about other places, so let's talk about the customs of Tianjin.
In Tianjin, covering positions is also called hoarding goods. During the Spring Festival in Tianjin, there is a custom of sticking "hanging money" on doors and windows (that is, something similar to a window pattern painted with red paper). In the early morning of the 25th day of the first month, every household will take down the hanging money posted on the doors and windows, wrap some whole grains with it and put them in the small circle drawn on the first day, then press a brick to symbolize that the granary is full, which can save a day's time, and finally collect the hanging money and burn it together. Some also hang the uncovered wallet directly, wrap some small change in it, and then put it in the corner of the cabinet, under the bed and other places that are not often encountered, and store it for one year until the warehouse is full in the second year, and then replace it with the newly covered hanging money.
Besides, on this day, we should eat soup cooked with fresh crucian carp with rice, and eat fish and rice in Man Cang, and have a good harvest. You also need to steam a large pot of steamed bread with different fillings such as bean paste and hawthorn, and knead it into cute shapes such as hedgehog and mouse. You also need to add a pair of small eyes to them with mung beans and red beans. Steamed steamed bread is as vivid as a handicraft.
Filling the position is actually more of a spiritual sustenance for people. The belly is the warehouse of people's restaurants. When you are full, you have enough drinks, enough strength, good spirits and high spirits. After "covering positions" and the first month, all the work will be on the right track, and we will start a year of hard work. Let's cheer up and welcome the harvest year together.