Tiancang Festival, also known as Tiancang Festival, falls on the twenty-fifth day of the first lunar month every year. It is said to be the birthday of Lord Cang. It is a Chinese folk festival that symbolizes a good harvest in the new year.
"Cangcang Festival" is also called "Tiancang Festival" because "fill" and "tian" are homophonic. Folks can divide it into old Tiancang and small Tiancang.
The twentieth day of the first lunar month is Xiaotiancang, and the twenty-fifth day of the first lunar month is Laotiancang. It is a traditional folk festival.
Some say that the Tiancang Festival is a day for worshiping stars, while others say it is a day for worshiping the land or the god of grinding.
The so-called filling warehouse means filling the barn.
The 19th day of the first lunar month is Tiancang Festival (also called Dadun), which is a day to worship the "Cang God".
When I lived in the countryside, I could hear the sound of firecrackers very early on this day every year, but in urban areas, it seems that not many people celebrate this festival today.
According to the custom of my hometown, I ate dumplings today.
I don’t know when the Timcang Festival originated. I just remember that when I was a child, every year on the 25th day of the first lunar month, I would see my grandpa get up very early, first worship the gods and offer incense, and then grandpa wash out some ashes from the stove.
Use a dustpan to carry it to the yard, and then use firewood ash to draw five large circles in the yard to represent the five granaries. Place corn, sorghum, millet and other different grains in the five circles, and place them on one side of the five circles.
The firewood ashes on the side are turned into a ladder pattern, which represents a full store of grain and a bumper harvest. After the granary is painted, grandpa will set off a firecracker, probably to celebrate the harvest!
According to relevant records, the dates of the Cangcang Festival vary across Henan. Some are on the 19th of the first lunar month, and some are on the 24th of the first lunar month. People in Lin County call them the "Little Cangcang Festival" and the "Big Cangcang Festival" respectively.
Warehouse Filling Festival”.
On the festival day, every family uses white flour to steam some steamed buns shaped like wheat ears, wheat stacks, wheat piles and cloth bags, and the whole family shares and eats them until they are full, which indicates that the whole family will not be short of food in the new year.
Many families make dumplings at noon and serve them with noodles, which are popularly known as "golden silk wrapped with ingots" to express "blessings" for a year. Rumor has it that "eating cloth bags, drinking good noodles, and making two stones per acre of land".
On this day, people also "fill" the food placed in the incense altar during the New Year into the granary, marking that the granary has been filled with food in the new year.
In the Yanshi area, people often spread ashes on the ground on this day and put some grain inside to show "filling the warehouse".
Some people "send away the poor" on this day and send the garbage thrown by the pass to the intersection.
In Shaanxian County, Fangcheng and other places, newlywed women whose parents' family "hides" during the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month have to bring some millet, wheat or other grains back to their husband's family on this day to "add to their wealth".
The Warehouse Filling Festival in various places in Henan is the end of the Spring Festival activities. After that, people go all out to spring plowing and production, and their families can also travel far away.
The children's song says: "There is nothing to look forward to if you look forward to adding more warehouses. Men go to collect dung and women spin threads." Those who visit relatives and friends during the Warehouse Filling Festival must go home on the same day. After the 1950s, the Warhouse Filling Festival has gradually become indifferent and is only held in
There are also people who treat each other with festivals in remote places. Tiancang, the official name of the star, belongs to Lou Su, and the "Tianwen Zhi" of the Book of Jin says: "The Tiancang Six Stars are in the south of Lou, and are hidden in Canggu."
Ye." To be more precise, the star hidden in "Canggu" is the "Stomach Star", as recorded in "Historical Records" Tianguan Shu": "The stomach is Tiancang."
Zhang Shoujie of the Tang Dynasty said: "The stomach governs the warehouse and is the home of grains."
Zhan: If it is clear, the world will be peaceful and the grain will be abundant; otherwise, it will be the opposite.
"It seems that the stomach star is responsible for the granary, which is related to the harvest and harvest, and people need to pray for it. The granary is not only related to celestial phenomena, but also related to the human body. This concept originated very early. The Yellow Emperor's Internal Canon "Su Wen" was written at the end of the Warring States Period.
"Linglan Secret Code" believes: "The spleen and stomach are the palace of the warehouse, where the five flavors come out.
"That is, because the stomach can accommodate grains, it is the official of the warehouse. Xu Shen's "Shuowen Jiezi" of the Eastern Han Dynasty also explained that the stomach is the palace of grains. The ancients compared their understanding of the human body with the celestial phenomenon and believed that the stomach star is the warehouse. As quoted above
The author of Guangxu's "Ningjin County Chronicles" said: "The Stomach Star is used as the sky warehouse, which is called human beings uniting the sky." "But in my hometown, we use gray paintings in the shape of a warehouse, put seeds in it, and still look up at the sky.
"And praying for good harvest" tells the origin of Tiancang Festival. Based on the theory of Tiancang, the ancients created the God of Cang. Guangxu's "Ningjin County Chronicle" quoted "Spring and Autumn Wei" as saying: "The gods of Tianlincang have both names.
" Later, the secular gods of the warehouse included Han Xin, Xiao He and others. The customs of Tiancang Festival are based on the above theory. The first thing is to build a warehouse to store grain. It is recorded in "Customs" in Volume 9 of Hebei's "Bazhou Chronicles" compiled by Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty.
: "On the 20th and 25th, surround the warehouse with stove ashes, scatter grains in the middle, and press it with bricks and stones. This is called filling the warehouse.
"This is the meaning of Tiancang hiding grain, to herald a good year. "Shuozhou Chronicles" of Shanxi Province in the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty (1723-1735) also records: "The ground is covered with charcoal ash, the kiln is dug out, and the kiln is built, which is called Tiancang.
"Zuocang, Tongzhi Hebei's "Yanshan County Chronicle" and others call it "dasharding". The custom of adding storage was derived from Zuocang. Daoguang (1821 ~ 1850) Shanxi's "Zhili Huozhou Chronicle" recorded: "Every
Families stock up on food and water, light lamps and burn incense to worship the Granary God.
" Datong County Chronicles of Shanxi Province by Daoguang also records "those who take advantage of this day to buy rice to add warehouses". This means filling "Tian Cang". Since you want to add warehouses, you are taboo about making money. Qianlong Shanxi "Eldest Son"
"County Chronicles" said that "it is forbidden to go out and enter in joy" on this day. "Hui County Chronicles" in Henan Province during the Qianlong Period said: "The twenty-first day is for filling warehouses, and the first nineteen days are for small filling warehouses."
We must be careful about the wealth, and we must not let people in and out lightly.
"Since we are building grain in warehouses to pray for a good harvest, we naturally think of preventing rats from consuming food. "Pingyang Prefecture Chronicles" of Shanxi Province during the Qianlong Period says that "the lights are not lit at night, and the common saying is to avoid rats." The second is to worship the warehouse god. "Jiexiu County Chronicles of Shanxi Province during the Jiaqing Period"
” said: “Making noodles and making people look like gods in warehouses.
"Yanjing's Chronicles of the Years" by Dunchong Fucha of the Qing Dynasty also said: "Every day on the 25th, grain merchants and rice vendors offer sacrifices to the Granary God, and firecrackers are at their peak."