About ten days before the festival, people began to be busy shopping for new year's goods, such as chicken, duck, fish, tea, wine, oil sauce, roasted seeds and nuts in the north and south, and fruit with sugar bait. New Year's rice should be prepared in advance before the New Year's Day, and placed in bamboo baskets, with fruits such as red oranges, Wuling, water chestnuts and gold ingot cakes on them, and pine and cypress branches inserted, which is called "New Year's rice". New Year's diet should adopt auspicious language. People in the south of the Yangtze River make tea for guests in the New Year, and put two olives in the tea tray or bowl cover, which is called "treasure-free tea". When eating in the new year, there must be fried vegetables, saying that eating "kissing hot"; Must eat bean sprouts, because soybean sprouts are shaped like "ruyi"; You must eat fish heads at every meal, but you can't eat them all. It is called "there are fish (surplus) every year". Overview of Hunan folk customs

As a social and cultural phenomenon, folk customs often reflect the material production level, lifestyle, ideology and mental state of society in the most initial and extensive form. This is the case in the world, China and Hunan. The emergence, evolution, inheritance and even extinction of Hunan folk customs have different characteristics in different historical periods and in every corner of Hunan, Hunan and Sichuan, which are consistent with the process of Hunan social development.

first, the main characteristics of Hunan folk customs

Hunan is located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, south of Dongting Lake, adjacent to Hubei Province in the north, Jiangxi Province in the east, Guangdong and Guangxi provinces in the south, Guizhou Province and Chongqing City in the west, belonging to the folk culture circle of the Yangtze River basin. Historically, it was inhabited by ethnic minorities such as Jingman, Yangyue and Nanman: in ancient legend, there were tribes such as Danyou, Jiuli, Sanmiao and Guandou in Hunan; In the pre-Chu period, there were Jingman, Huairen, Hufang, Yangyue, Xiangshi and Fengyi. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Chu people entered Hunan, where there were a large number of barbarians and Ba people. During the Han and Tang dynasties, barbarian forces spread all over the territory, and there were frequent large-scale military conflicts with the Central Plains Dynasty. During the Song Dynasty, Yao, Miao, Liao, Tong, Gelao and other ethnic minorities with complex ethnic groups appeared, which gradually evolved into Miao, Dong, Yao, Tujia and other ethnic groups since the Ming and Qing Dynasties. In addition, Bai, Hui and Uygur moved in one after another, and Hunan became one of the provinces with more ethnic minorities except Han, and a large number of ethnic customs became the most important feature of Hunan folk customs.

These social customs and living habits, which are completely different from those in Han areas, especially in the northern Central Plains, are often attacked and suppressed by the feudal ruling class and Han orthodoxy. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Communist Party of China and the people's government attached great importance to ethnic issues, formulated a correct line and a series of principles and policies, respected the customs and habits of ethnic minorities, protected their freedom of belief, and enjoyed the same equal rights as the Han people. From the viewpoint of historical materialism, it is not difficult to find that folk customs play a very important role in studying the history of human social development. For example, Nanman's "self-husband and wife" is essentially the embodiment of consanguineous marriage. The distinction between paternal line and matriarchal line in kinship terms is not obvious, and the adoption marriage of "brother accepts his sister-in-law, brother accepts his brother's sister-in-law" is the remnant of the original marriage to the servant, and it is by no means an animal behavior of "indecent steaming". The custom of staying married and robbing marriage is the legacy of the transition from matriarchal clan marriage to paternal clan marriage. However, the system of cousin marriage and uncle power, which once prevailed in western Hunan, reflects the matriarchal clan stage centered on women's rights that this area has experienced. In addition, hunting in the mountains, mutual assistance in changing jobs, gongs and drums, etc. are all the remnants of primitive materialism of primitive society's average distribution and collective labor, the blood donation of Miao and Dong people, and the Yao-Lao system of Yao people is the remains of primitive rural commune organization and military democracy. In fact, these ethnic customs in Hunan have all been experienced in the history of the Central Plains, but they are not documented or recorded, but they are missing because of the age. After the immigrants from northern Han nationality in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties to Tang and Song Dynasties and from eastern Jiangxi in Ming and Qing Dynasties, Hunan gradually completed the sinicization. This process of sinicization is not only a process of national assimilation, but also a process of conflict, collision and blending between Hunan local barbarism and Han vulgarity. From the historical and realistic situation, the influence of customs in minority areas is also considerable, and the former is widely preserved in the latter.

On the other hand, the main characteristics of Hunan folk customs are the characteristics of Chu culture. Chu people began to enter Hunan in the Spring and Autumn Period, and gradually unified Hunan. The primitive clan system of ancestors of all ethnic groups disintegrated one after another and entered the threshold of "civilization". Especially in the late Warring States period, with the fall of Chu Duying, a large number of Chu nobles moved south to Hunan, which further promoted the economic and cultural development of Hunan. Chu culture itself belongs to the category of southern culture, so the living customs of Chu people are closely related to Yuanxiang area in cultural factors. For example, the Chu people worship witchcraft, which is so close to the custom of worshipping ghosts and gods in the southern region. This combination has influenced the Hunan area, forming the folk characteristics of "believing in ghosts and gods and loving the shrine" in Hunan. In this respect, it is different from other regions: Qin people and Song people worship witchcraft, which is full of evil spirits; The Yue people and Huai people worship witches, which is more ghostly. However, the Chu people worship witchcraft, but it is more human. The gods in Qu Yuan's works-Xiang Jun, Mrs Xiang, Shan Gui, etc., are either beautiful or affectionate by nature, and they are all images of living people. Nuo Opera, Mulian Opera, Lantern Opera, etc. in all parts of Hunan are entertaining both gods and people. Up to now, the gods in Hunan people's minds have shadows in real life. The warrior temperament and martial spirit of Chu people, "Although Chu has three families, Qin will be destroyed", has been rooted in the bones of Hunan people and cultivated the special spirit of Hunan people. As early as the Northern Song Dynasty, Su Shi, a Sichuanese, discovered this connection. He wrote in Qu Yuan Tower: "Chu people grieve for Qu Yuan for thousands of years. Where is the spirit floating? My father is empty and hard to swallow. The legacy has become a race, lamenting Chu Shanlie. " Qu Yuan's sacrifice spirit of "knowing death is unavoidable, wishing not to love Xi", "hiding innocence and dying straight" and "although he died nine times, he still has no regrets" has inspired generations of Huxiang Yingjie. In the modern history of China, there are many generous and lamentable people in Hunan, and in the revolutionary movement, Hunan people shed their blood and blood. Some people with lofty ideals, such as Yang Yulin, Chen Tianhua, Yi Baisha, Xia Shouhua, Yao Hongye, Zheng Jiagai, etc., all chose Huai Shi to throw themselves into the water, which shows a kind of death value that is strikingly similar to Qu Yuan.

second, the division of Hunan folk customs

thousands of miles of different winds, hundreds of miles of different customs. Hunan folk customs are not only identical in regional cultural characteristics, but also different in local history, geography and many other reasons. As early as the Han Dynasty, when Yang Xiong compiled Dialect, he had pointed out that there were obvious differences between "between Jiangxi and Hunan" and "between Jiang and Yuan" and "between Yuan and Li", that is, the differences between the eastern region and the western region. Geographically, with the Xuefeng Mountains at the watershed of Zijiang River and Shenjiang River as the boundary, the playing and receiving basins in the west belong to the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, while the eastern Hunan-Zizi basins mostly belong to the hills in the south of the Yangtze River. Such a geological structure is bound to make the inheritance and exchange of folk customs within the two major parts of the East and West more convenient. There is a folk saying that "the spread of folk songs, separated by mountains and not separated by water", which is also applicable to folk customs. In a society with underdeveloped productive forces, mountains are the barrier of transportation, and water is the hub of contact. People always communicate with life, economy and other aspects through waterways. Judging from the evolution of administrative divisions in Hunan, the eastern and western regions have always been in different administrative regions. When Chu people entered Hunan, they set up Qianzhong County in the west and Jiangnan County in the east along the east and west banks of Dongting Lake. Hunan-owned drainage basin belonged to Changsha County in Qin Dynasty, Xiangzhou in Southern Dynasty, Hunan Observer in Late Tang Dynasty and Jinghu South Road in Song Dynasty. Chencheng Valley belongs to Qianzhong County in the Qin Dynasty, Wuling County in the Han Dynasty, Jingzhou and Zhengzhou in the Southern Dynasty, Jingnan Our Envoy and Guizhou Observation Envoy in the Late Tang Dynasty, and Jinghu Road in the Song Dynasty. These historical facts show that the eastern and western regions have their own relatively independent historical evolution process. From the perspective of ethnic composition, there were differences between the indigenous peoples in the two regions as early as the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. The Xiangzi River Basin was a Yangyue people, and the Yuanli River Basin shared some characteristics with the southwest of China. Ethnic differences are bound to show great differences in folk customs.

The regional differences in Hunan folk customs have resulted in the eastern region with Xiangzi River Basin as the region and the western region with Yuanli River Basin as the region. This difference can be investigated from the seasons, folk beliefs, marriage etiquette and folk songs as oral language.

The differences in seasons of the year can reflect various unique lifestyles, which is a concentrated expression of the differences in folk life. Although Hunan has a large * * character in customs at the age of 18, it is not difficult to see the different personalities in different regions. The Dragon Boat Festival is particularly valued in the Yuanli River Basin in the west, and the custom of racing is widespread everywhere. In quite a few places, there is a big Dragon Boat Festival and a small Dragon Boat Festival, that is, there is another big Dragon Boat Festival on May 15, which is said to be related to Ma Yuan, a general of the Eastern Han Dynasty. In the eastern Xiangzi River Basin, there is only a custom of racing, but there is generally no such folk activity in the hilly and mountainous areas in the south. On September 9th, Chongyang Festival received special attention in Yuanli District in the west. It was not only necessary to brew chong yang wine, but also to make Chongyang cakes as gifts to each other. In some places, there was even another Double Ninth Festival on the 19th. The eastern Hunan-funded river basin pays relatively little attention to this, and generally only goes hiking. It is quite common in the whole province to celebrate off-year holidays on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, but the time of offering sacrifices to stoves exists in a regional way. Most places in the Xiangzi River Basin are in Yong, only a few places are on the eve of off-year holidays or the following evening, while most places in the Yuanli River Basin offer sacrifices to stoves in advance on the evening of the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month. As the Buddha Bathing Festival on April 8th, Yuanli Valley is far less common than Xiangzi Valley, and there is almost no black rice as an important part of the Buddha Bathing Festival in the western region.

In terms of folk beliefs, the eastern Hunan-funded valley has the habit of worshipping Yue. "Every year in July, the Yi people go to pray for Nanyue people, fast and stop their luggage, pay homage to Yueyue Temple in August, and burn incense and wish them worship along the way. Those who stop at the temple in three, five and seven steps are called burning incense." The temple fair in Nanyue has thus become one of the most lively fairs in Hunan. Nanyue has a folk song of "not opening for half a year, but opening for half a year". However, in the Yuanli Valley in the west, there is no regional object of people's worship like Nanyue, and the vows are scattered, such as Wulei Mountain, Taifu Mountain and Xizhu Mountain, and there is no widely spread incense song in the east. Belief in folk gods is also quite different. In the Yuanli Valley in the west, the worship of Ma Yuan is very developed in history, and Fubo temples are everywhere. The worship of the bamboo king is also very common, and it has also developed into a heavenly king. However, there is no worship of Ma Yuan and Bamboo King in the eastern Hunan-funded valley.

in terms of marriage etiquette, the custom of singing halls is very popular in many places in the eastern Hunan-funded valley, and the custom of crying marriage is more prominent in the western Yuanli valley. There are both connections and differences between singing hall and crying marriage. Singing hall is mainly for companion marriage, and the theme of crying marriage is separation. Singing hall focuses on learning social life knowledge and emphasizing intellectual development. Weeping marriage takes family ties as a link to express feelings again. In terms of wedding procedures, in the eastern Hunan-funded valley, the husband usually does not greet the bride personally, that is, the groom goes to the Yue family to marry the bride. In some places, the new husband has to take refuge before the sedan chair arrives at the door, while in the western Yuanli valley, although strictly speaking, the husband still does not greet the bride personally, but there have been some changes. In many places, the groom goes to the woman's house to pay a goose ceremony on the wedding day, and then returns first with the sedan chair. In the Xiang-Zi Valley, the visitors are generally men, while in the Yuan-Li Valley, most of them are women, especially the bride's family and sister-in-law. Most of the newly-married couples in the Xiang-Zi Valley return home two or three days after marriage, and many places in the Yuan-Li Valley return home on the ninth day or a month later.

As a folk song with oral language and folklore, the Yuan-Li Valley in the west is quite developed, and there is a special form in Tian Ge. Most of the Xiang-Zi Valley does not have Tian Ge, or although there is one, it is underdeveloped. In the Yuan-Li Valley, there are Tian Ge, such as Qitian Drum, Chashan Drum, Qicao Gong Drum, and Digging Songs, which are combined by labor songs and folk songs, accompanied by gongs and drums or gongs and drums, and used in collective labor occasions in mountainous areas. Relatively speaking, Tian Ge in the Hunan-funded valley is inferior.

furthermore, after Hunan folk customs are divided into the eastern part of the Xiang-Zi Valley and the western part of the Yuan-Li Valley, the two regions can be divided into several communities according to their subtle differences. For example, the Xiang-funded watershed in the east can be divided into Changyue, Hengbao and Chenguiyong, while the Yuanli watershed in the west can be divided into Changcheng and Chenyong Yuanjing. Some folk customs are even different from one county. For example, in Lingling County in the Qing Dynasty, there was a difference between "the people were one day ahead and the people were one day behind". In Longshan area of western Hunan, Miao people celebrate the New Year on the 28th of the twelfth lunar month, while Tujia people celebrate the New Year on the 29th. In Huarong, northern Hunan, the locals eat the New Year's reunion dinner at noon, while the "southerners" who moved in at dawn, but most of them don't eat the New Year's Eve. Other customs, with their subtle differences, can exist in one township and one village.