Ghost Festival in Youxian

There are four major ghost festivals in Chinese tradition, and in some places, the four festivals, namely, Shangsi Festival (March 3), Qingming Festival, Zhongyuan Festival, and Cold Clothes Festival, are collectively known as the four major ghost festivals. This is not the first month of the sixteenth this special festival, so that the first month of the sixteenth day is even more rare belongs to the Youxian region of the ghost festival, that is, to send the boat king old tradition handed down by the old generation of the night early close the door to sleep can not be alarmed by the boat king old man.

Customs of the sixteenth day of the first month

The sixteenth day of the first month of the first month of the year, in addition to some places have ghost festivals, there are many other customs.

Carrying a fence and dancing with torches

On the evening of the 16th day of the first month, we ate dinner early and started to carry a fence. The so-called carry fence, is to use a gauze bag with some quicklime, tie it to one end of the scale, people hold the other end of the scale, the gauze bag to the ground to throw, the ground left a white spot. The more white spots, the better this year's grain harvest.

A few of my buddies went to the collective kiln on the afternoon of the 16th day of the first month to bring in bundles of reed grass, and A-hwa stole a few cents from his family and bought a small whip from the store, so a few of us were earnestly tying up torches.

The old people said that the sixteen nights are most auspicious if they are scolded by others, commonly known as scolding bad luck, which can remove the bad luck of the year. So, when the adults went home, a few of our partners on the farm to the usual favorite scolding Auntie Wang's house to tease them scolding. The usual practice was a three-step process: knocking on the window, kicking the door, and setting off firecrackers.

The first month of the sixteenth year of the taboo

Yi, plug the hole, sweep the house, the rest do not take

忌, in general, there are no taboos on this day.