? Tanabata is one of the important traditional festivals in our country, which is an important festival for young men, women and couples. The importance of Tanabata for our countrymen is equivalent to that of Western Valentine's Day. Every year, before Tanabata arrives, major shopping malls, florists, and hotels will start promotions.
The Tanabata Festival was originally a female-oriented festival. On this day, women could engage in activities such as visiting friends, begging and praying for blessings, cutting women's red, and worshipping the Weaving Maiden, while men watched on the sidelines and made a scene, with men and women settling down as just a by-product of the Tanabata. As for why the ancients to the seventh of July as a women's exclusive holiday, has been said differently, but it is certain that with the number of "seven" in the Chinese culture of the symbolism related.
The origin of the Tanabata Festival only two claims are widely circulated, but the Tanabata Festival is still more customary, by the way, introduced three Tanabata Festival customs , the following with me to see it:
One, the origin of the Tanabata Festival? The origin of the Tanabata Festival?
? The story of the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden is said to be one of the origins of the Tanabata Festival.
The origin of the Tanabata Festival is related to the story of Cowherd and Weaving Maiden circulating in the folklore, and its earliest origin may be in the Spring and Autumn and the Warring States periods, such as the "Poetry Classic" - Da Dong: "Wrestling with the Weaving Maiden, the end of the day seven Xiang. Though it is a seven-襄, it does not become a clothing chapter; look askance at the Altair, not recognizing the clothing box." There is also Luo Chip's "Source of Things" in the Ming Dynasty, which says: "King Huai of Chu first set up Tanabata." But the Tanabata of that time was a sacrifice to Altair and Vega, and there was no back story. It wasn't until the Han Dynasty that its details were linked to the story of the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden, and it officially became a festival belonging to women.
A long, long time ago, there was an honest and kind-hearted young man named Niulang. When he was a child his parents died. Then he was driven out of his home by his sister-in-law. So he made a living by herding animals by himself. One day, a fairy fell in love with him from heaven and married him. They lived a happy life of farming and weaving. A boy and a girl were born soon after. Unfortunately, the gods in heaven soon found out such a fact and ordered the Queen Mother to bring the weaver back to heaven.
With the help of an old ox, the cowherd and his son and daughter flew up to heaven. Just as he was about to catch up with his wife, the Queen Mother took off one of her golden hairpins and turned it into a Milky Way to separate the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden. The Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden were separated forever on both sides of the Milky Way. Their faithful love touched the magpies, and thousands of them came to build a bridge to bring the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden together. The Queen Mother was eventually moved and allowed them to meet once a year on July 7 of the lunar calendar. Through history, Tanabata was given the beautiful love legend of "Cowherd and Weaving Maiden", making it the origin of the Tanabata Festival.
? The second is the origin of the Tanabata Festival, which is said to be the worship of time and numbers.
"The seventh day of the seventh month" as a holiday originated from the ancient worship of numbers and time. Ancient folk to the first month of the first, February 2, March 3, May 5, June 6, July 7, September 9 this "seven heavy" as an auspicious day. "Heavy day" in ancient China is considered to be "heaven and earth sympathy", "heaven and man are connected" days. [5] In these "heavy day", it is not difficult to see the worship of the ancients of the number, such as nine and five are important numbers, nine or five is a symbol of status. And "one" is the beginning of everything, is the symbol of achievement, status and honor. "Seven" is the number of beads in each column of the abacus, which is romantic and rigorous, giving people a mysterious sense of beauty.
"Tanabata" is the seventh day of the month and the seventh day of the week. In ancient times, the Chinese people the sun, the moon and water, fire, wood, gold, earth five planets together called "seven Yao". "Seven" in folklore as a stage of time, in the calculation of time is often "seven seven" for the end. The Japanese language still retains the "day of the week" in terms of the "seven observers". In Taiwan, the month of July is known as the month of "happiness with good fortune". The Chinese character for "seven" and "auspicious" harmonize together, and "seven-seven" means "double auspiciousness," making it an auspicious day. Because the shape of the character "喜" in cursive script resembles a hyphenated "七十七", it is also known as "喜寿".
The second? The custom of the Tanabata Festival?
? The first of these is the "Tree of Life", which is a traditional Chinese custom of the Chinese New Year.
This is the earliest way of begging for coquettish gifts, which began in Han Dynasty and flowed in later generations. It is a Chinese custom to wear a needle and beg for coquettish gifts. It is held every year on the seventh day of the seventh month. On the night of the seventh day of the seventh month, a woman holding a five-color silk thread and a continuous arrangement of nine-hole needles (or five-hole needles, seven-hole needles) while the moonlight on the moon continuous threading of needles and threads, will be the line of fast all through the person known as "to get coquettish". It shows the ingenuity and aspiration of the ancient Chinese working people.
The Xijing Miscellany said: "Han color women often wear seven holes on the seventh day of the seventh month needle in the lapel building, people have to practice." Southern Liang Zongmou "Jing Chu chronicle" said: "July 7, is the evening of the family women knot color building wear seven holes outside, or to gold, silver and stone for the needle." Yiyizi Zhi" said: "Qi Wudi up layer of the city view, July 7, the palace people more than boarding the needle. The world called the needle piercing building." Fifth Wang Renyu "Kaiyuan Tianbao remains" said: "Tanabata, the palace to brocade knot building hall, 100 feet high, on the can win dozens of people, Chen to fruits and wine sizzling, set up seating, to sacrifice the cow female two stars, concubines to nine-hole needle five-color line to the moon through the, over the person who got the coincidence of the marquis. Move the song of the Qing Shang, feast music up to the end of the day. The soil people's homes all follow the example." Yuan Tao Zongyi "Yuan's Yatei Records" said: "nine cited Taiwan, Tanabata begging for coquettish. To the evening, the courtesans on stage to colorful silk wearing nine-tailed needle, the first to finish for the coquettish, late finish is called the loss of coquettish, each funded to give the coquettish."
The Beggar's Nest has a special way of begging for coquettishness, the most famous is to wear a needle to beg for coquettishness, that is, who wears a needle and drew the line fast, who will "get coquettishness", slow said "lose coquettishness", lose coquettishness to lose coquettishness to be ready to give gifts to get coquettishness. The night of the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar that is the Tanabata Festival (or begging festival), according to tradition, the Chinese folk woman to the court cloth feast, pious kneeling to worship the Vega, begging for blessing of their own handyman, begging for wisdom and skillful craftsmanship.
? Tanabata Festival customs of the second: happy spider should be coquettish?
This is also an earlier way of begging for coquettishness, which is a little later than the needle begging for coquettishness, roughly in the North and South Dynasties. The Liang Zong Security Department of the Southern Dynasty said in the book "Jingchu Shoushi Ji" that, "On the eve of this year, we will display melons and fruits in the court to beg for coincidences. If there is a net on the melon, it is thought to be a charm."
Wang Renyu of the Fifth Generation, "Kaiyuan Tianbao Legacy" said: "July 7, each capture the spider in a small box, to the dawn of the open; depending on the spider web sparse and dense to get the coincidence of the Hou. The dense say coquettish more, sparse say coquettish less. Folk are also effective" Song Dynasty Meng Yuan Lao "Tokyo Meng Hua Lu" said, July 7 Eve "to small spiders in the Hap Zi, the next day to see, if the web is round is said to get coquettish." Song Zhou Mi "Qian Chun years and times" said; "to small spider storage Hop, to wait for the sparseness of the web for how long to get coquettish" Ming Tian Rucheng "Xichao music" said the Tanabata Festival "to small boxes of spiders, the next morning to see its web sparseness to get coquettish more or less." From this, the method of inspection of different generations, the North and South Dynasties, depending on the presence or absence of the web, the sparseness of the web of the Tang Dynasty, the Song Dynasty, depending on the roundness of the web, the later generations of the Tang custom.
The so-called "happy spider should be coquettish", that is, some fruit and food (to melon, golden melon, coquettish fruit, peanuts, jujubes, etc.) on the fruit bowl, which is usually in the needle begging for coquettish before the adults have made preparations. "Threading the needle begging for coquettish" later, we all keep our eyes open to see whether the fruit bowl "happy spider" in the web, who first found, who will be lucky.
The so-called happy spider, in fact, is a grain of rice large spider, summer and fall, in some flowers and trees, often see, occasionally a climb on the body or found in the house, are said to be the omen of good fortune, will generally be very careful to release, we will not be easy to get it dead.
But it's not easy to find a spider on a fruit bowl. Sometimes, in order to get the fruits and vegetables early, one of the children will secretly catch one and put it on the fruit bowl. Adults actually know, turn a blind eye, in the children "found" the happy spider cheers, while the fruits of the melon into the hands of each person, while saying: "eat, eat, year after year have coincidence, year after year have coincidence. "
? Tanabata Festival custom No. 3: Celebrate the birth of the cow?
The story took place in the Han Dynasty. After the Han Dynasty's kingdom had been passed down for hundreds of years, a man called Wang Mang overthrew the regime and became the emperor himself, and made the world a mess, and the people were not happy, so a lot of people rose up to revolt.
At that time, in the Henan region, there was a child named Liu Xiu, whose father died when he was nine years old, and was brought up by his mother. Every year, Liu Xiu's mother would beg for money from heaven during the Tanabata Festival, hoping to master more crafts and earn more money so that she could raise Liu Xiu. She often told Liu Xiu stories about the Tanabata Festival, and under the influence of the stories, Liu Xiu was also full of kindness and respect for the cows in the fields. He played with the cows every day and treated them like family. When he was herding the cows, he used to pick wild flowers to dress up on their horns.
When he grew up, the world was still a mess, and Liu Xiu looked on and led his brothers in rebellion. They were so few and ill-equipped that they couldn't even afford horses, so they had to ride oxen into battle. His enemies laughed at him for being an ox-riding general.
Liu Xiu didn't care about this, because he grew up with oxen since he was a child, and they worked well together, and they didn't lose to those who rode horses in battle. Later he beheaded a big official and took his horse over. After riding the horse, Liu Xiu realized that oxen do run too slowly, and in many cases, speed is what is needed to fight a war, and his oxen were getting older and older, so he had to let it go home, and from then on, he switched to fighting on horseback.
Liu Xiu fought this battle for more than ten years. His mother was so worried and afraid that her son would die in battle that she prayed to the heavens every day that her son would be safe and sound.
After many battles, Liu Xiu finally wiped out his enemies and became emperor himself. When he became emperor, he was well aware of the suffering of the people, and the first thing he did was to take a respite and try to improve the living standard of the people, and he became a much-loved emperor.
He couldn't forget his mother and the old ox that accompanied him, and when he rushed home to visit his mother after the affairs of the imperial court were over, he found the old ox wearing a wildflower on its head to greet him at the door. Liu Xiu was very touched and believed that his success and the old ox's dedication were inseparable. In order to commemorate the old ox, he asked his son to celebrate the ox's birthday every year during the Tanabata Festival, so this custom was slowly passed down.