Livestock sweet (livestock rituals) Introduction

"Sweet" through the "rituals", for the gods to sacrifice to the meaning of blessing. In ancient times, official sacrifices to the gods of heaven and earth were honored with "Taijiu" and "Shaojiu", and "Riji" (礼记). In the Book of Rites, it is written, "The gods of the heavens and the earth are all in the Taijiu, and the gods of the vassals are all in the Shaojiu." If the Son of Heaven sacrificed a whole cow, pig or goat, it was the rite of Taijinyuan; if the vassal sacrificed a whole pig or goat, it was the rite of Shaojinyuan. When the rituals of sacrifice were spread among the people, they were often called "animal sweet", and were commonly written as "animal ritual". In general, the folk sacrifice of livestock sweet, there are divided into three animals, four animals, five animals, of which the livestock sweet and big, small vice, so the three animals, there are also "small three animals," the name.

Folk if three animal sweet for the offering, such as three layers of pork, whole chicken, whole fish (or whole duck), known as "three animals". Folk customs have their own principles for arranging the three animals. In terms of facing the gods, the three layers of pork are the center animal, with the chicken on the left and the fish on the right. The head of the chicken is usually facing the god, Zhangzhou people and Quanzhou people will customarily place the head of the fish towards the god, while Tongan people will customarily place the tail of the fish towards the god to show the difference.

Folk custom in the general worship of the gods, livestock will not be fully cooked, to the whole side to worship, said the relationship with the gods half-baked. In addition, three animals are also used to pay respect to the ancestors after the completion of a new tomb. Folk customs in the worship of God's livestock rituals, taboo on the use of sick and dead animals and aquatic products, but also taboo on the use of beef, dog meat to worship. Folk have also been gradually influenced by Buddhism, emphasizing the compassionate not to kill people, change to beans or flour molded vegetarian three animal worship.

Among the three sacrifices, there is another commonly used "small three sacrifices", which are smaller than the "three sacrifices", such as a small piece of pork, eggs, fish (or dried beans); or a small piece of pork, dried noodles, dried beans (dried beans sound the same as "official", with the expectation of being a big official). Folk generally use small three animals in the elimination of disasters and thank the outside party (refers to the souls of the dead wandering party), sacrifices to the five ghosts, sacrifices to the white tiger brake, treating the generals, and funeral rites and road rituals.

Four animals are used as offerings, such as a large strip of pork, a whole chicken, a whole duck (or duck egg), and a taste of seafood (such as shrimp, sea-crab, shrimp rolls, and dried squid [or "chungan" in Taiwanese]). ( ) The arrangement of the four sacrificial animals: pork and chicken in the center, duck and seafood on both sides. They are generally used for celebrations, festivals, or the birth of a god. Because "four" is an even number, it is taboo to use four animals for funerals; and "four" harmonizes with "death" in Taiwanese, so it is more taboo for the general public.

Five animal sacrifices, known as the "five animals", are more solemn than the three, for the whole pig or pig's head and tail (if only the pig's head is used, then the pig's tail will be added to symbolize the whole pig), the whole chicken, the whole duck, the whole fish, and the shrimp (or pig belly, pig liver). The five animals are arranged in different ways, with the pig in the center as the "middle animal", the chicken and duck on both sides as the "side animal", and the fish and shrimp in the back as the "lower animal" or "back animal".

The five or three animals are mainly used to worship the Jade Emperor and the three gods, so they are customarily placed on the lower table. In addition to worshipping the God of Heaven and the Gods of the Three Realms, they are also used for wedding and funeral ceremonies or for returning wishes. Folklorists also emphasize the compassion of those who do not tolerate the killing of life, instead of beans or flour molded vegetarian five animal worship.

And folk beliefs and customs of multiple days Gongsheng worship Jade Emperor God (God of Heaven, God of Heaven), three yuan festival (on the first, in the first, the next yuan) to worship the three official Da Di (commonly known as the three world public), this time of the livestock offerings, in addition to the table dedicated to the ministry entourage and other deities of the five animals, the two sides are often coupled with the birth of a whole pig, the whole goat dolphin livestock to offer respect. This is the ancient ritual of Shaojuan. Later, because of the Buddhist belief in compassion and not overkilling, people gradually used vegetarian pig and goat instead of meat in their worship. There are many kinds of materials used to make them, including sachima, peanut candy, longevity noodles, red sliced cake, etc. Vegetarian noodle pig, vegetarian noodle goat.