The origin and customs of hibernation are as follows:

I. The origin of hibernation

From a large number of historical data, we can see that the original name of this festival after the spring is not "hibernation", but "hibernation". "

We can understand the historical reasons for changing the form of "qi hibernation" to "waking hibernation" and changing the position of the sequence of "qi hibernation" and "waking hibernation".

Han Wudi's grandfather, Han Wendi (Liu Heng, 179 a 157 years ago) period, in order to avoid Liu Heng's "Heng" name taboo, the Laozi five thousand words, "Tao, can be Tao also, non-Heng Tao also; name, can be name also, non-Heng name also" the "Heng" word. The word "constant" in Laozi's Five Thousand Words has been forcibly changed to the word "always". This has been used in the 5,000-word Tao Te Ching until now, and no one has ever corrected its name.

When Emperor Wu's father was named Liu Qi (156-141 BC), he changed the word "qi" from "qi hibernation" to "qi" in the twenty-four solar terms in order to avoid his father's name. From then on, "qi hibernation" became "jing hibernation". The original meaning of the name of the festival was gradually lost.

Two, hibernation customs

1, sacrifices White Tiger is the dissolution of right and wrong

Chinese folklore is the White Tiger is the mouth, right and wrong of the God, every year will come out to forage on this day, open mouth devouring, guilty of this year, often evil villain to you to raise the wind, blocking the development of your future, leading to a hundred things are not good.

Everyone in order to protect themselves, will be in the hibernation day sacrifice white tiger. The so-called white tiger worship is to worship the white tiger painted with paper, which is usually yellow with black markings and a pair of fangs at the corner of the mouth.

When worshipping, you need to feed the blood of a fat pig, so that it will no longer hurt people after eating, followed by raw pork smeared on the mouth of the paper tiger, so that it is full of oil and water, and can not open their mouths to say that people are right and wrong.

2, hibernation to mask the drum skin

Hibernation is caused by thunder. The ancients imagined that the God of Thunder is a bird's mouth, long wings, a big god, a hand holding a hammer, a hand even hit around the body of the many drums in the sky, issued a rumbling sound of thunder. On the day of the hibernation, the heavenly court has the god of thunder hit the heavenly drums, the earth also use this time to mask the drum skin.

3, "hit the little man" to drive away mold

Hibernation folk custom "hit the little man" hibernation symbolizes the beginning of February, will be a sound of thunder, wake up all the hibernating snakes, insects, rodents and ants, the home of the creepy crawlies and ants and will be up in response to the sound of the four around! The ants will rise again in response to the sound and go around looking for food.

So in ancient times on the day of hibernation, people will hold incense, wormwood, smoked four corners of the home to scent away snakes, insects, mosquitoes, rats and mildew, over time, gradually evolved into the bad luck to slap the head of the people and drive away the bad luck of the habit, that is, the "hit the little man" predecessor.

The characteristics of the hibernation season and customs of the poem:

Slightly rain new flowers, a thunder hibernation began. The fields are free for a few days, and the cultivation starts from then on.

Translation: A light spring rain fills the grass with new life, and a rumbling spring thunder starts the hibernation season. The farmers have a few days of free time in a year, and the labor in the fields is busy since the hibernation.

Appreciation and analysis: the first two lines of the poem hold the title of the poem "field family", from the spring rain and spring thunder to write, point out the spring plowing. "Slightly rain" with a white description, not a detailed description, but focus on the "new flowers" three words, both written out of all the trees in the spring rain of the thriving.