"Four seasons and eight festivals" is a common mantra of Yiyang locals.

It turns out that the four seasons of the year-spring, summer, autumn and winter are the "four seasons". What about "Bajie"? It does not refer to the vernal equinox, autumnal equinox, beginning of spring, Long Summer, Summer Solstice, Winter Solstice, beginning of autumn and beginning of winter among the 24 solar terms, but refers to the eight traditional festivals popular among the people. They are Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Winter Solstice Festival (Double Ninth Festival) and New Year's Eve.

Second, China New Year and Spring Festival customs.

Spring Festival, commonly known as Chinese New Year. Originally, it only refers to the first day of the first lunar month. Now it generally refers to the "off-year" from the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month (formerly called "twelfth lunar month") to the end of the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first month. The Spring Festival is the most solemn traditional festival of the Chinese nation. It has four characteristics: first, it is widely spread among nearly 20 ethnic groups such as Han, Zhuang, Mongolian, Manchu, Dong, Yao, Bai, Li and Naxi; Second, it has a long history, and the old and new festivals complement each other; Third, simple customs, frequent etiquette and various forms; Fourth, the festival lasts a long time, lasting more than 20 days around the end of the year and the beginning of the year. Every day is a Spring Festival holiday, and the atmosphere is warm, festive, peaceful and intoxicating.

There are many etiquette customs and activities in this period, which are summarized as follows:

1, every family makes new year's goods.

2, home cleaning

Step 3 offer sacrifices to the kitchen god

Lunar calendar1February 24th (also known as "New Year's Day", or "Festival of Sacrificing Kitchen Stove" and "New Year") has the old custom of "Sacrificing Kitchen Stove God". It is said that Master Chef (also known as "Siming Bodhisattva") is a god of good and evil sent by the emperor and the Jade Emperor to supervise and reward people. Everyone has it. Every year, in the evening of off-year, they go to heaven to report the good and evil on earth to the Jade Emperor. Villagers who believe in Buddhism and Taoism set up sacrifices to see them off, which is called "sacrificial furnace". paste up Spring Festival couplets

Spring Festival couplets are one of the earliest and most widely used forms of couplets in China. It is often used to express people's joy and spirit of inheriting the past and opening up the future. Whenever the Spring Festival comes, every household should put up a Spring Festival couplets on both sides of the gate (now all doors and windows are pasted with Spring Festival couplets) and horizontal curtains. This adds more festive atmosphere to the originally lively and peaceful festival.

Spring Festival couplets are common forms of couplets and door pairs. In ancient times, it was called "peach symbol" and "door sticker". In ancient times, due to people's understanding level, natural phenomena or natural disasters could not be correctly understood. When encountering natural and man-made disasters, I always think that there are ghosts and gods at work. Therefore, in the twelfth lunar month, most people cut two pieces of peach wood into strips one or two inches wide and seven or eight inches long, with portraits of Shen Tu and Lei Yu painted on them and hung them on the doors. In fact, this is a combination of door gods and spring.

Step 5 hang new year pictures

On the occasion of the Spring Festival, in addition to posting Spring Festival couplets, every household in Huxiang has the traditional custom of hanging New Year pictures. One of the poems describing New Year pictures is particularly interesting: "Orchids and chrysanthemums are all over the wall, and flowers are all over the house." Attracted the birds to make noise in front of the eaves and went straight to the house to flap their wings. "This poem depicts the new atmosphere of folk New Year pictures by chanting New Year pictures.

6. Have a reunion dinner:

When relatives from other places come home, every family will arrange a particularly rich banquet at noon on New Year's Day. More than a dozen pots of delicious food, such as chicken, duck, fish, delicacies and seafood, are filled with big round tables. Liquor, beer and drinks are all available. A family sitting around the table, eating and drinking, is called "having a family reunion dinner".

7. Shousui and Guancaimen:

On the first day of the lunar new year, the reunion dinner is usually eaten slowly, eaten more and for a long time. Some people eat for 2-3 hours without a good end. Therefore, at ordinary times, some people blame others for eating slowly, saying that they are "eating New Year's Eve"-slow and not impatient at all. It's getting late after dinner. At this time, every household will pile a small piece of firewood in the hall or fire room, light a fire and light the lights inside and outside the house. There is a saying among farmers in Qixian Lake area: "Thirty fires, fifteen lights".

8. Happy New Year:

Paying New Year greetings is the most popular and humane traditional etiquette during the Spring Festival. At the beginning of the new year, people help the old and take care of the young and go out to visit relatives and friends.

9. Playing with dragons and lions and playing with flower drums:

10, Lantern Festival

The fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the first full moon day of the New Year, which is called Shangyuan (formerly Shangyuan Festival) and Lantern Festival.

March 3 rd, March 3 rd

The third day of the third lunar month is the "Shangsi Festival" in ancient China. Legend has it that this is the birthday of the Queen Mother of the West. In ancient times, the third day of the first three months of the lunar calendar was regarded as "Shangsi", and it was only after Wei and Jin Dynasties that it was designated as the third day of the lunar calendar. Ye Fan in the Southern Song Dynasty uploaded in the Book of Rites: "On the fourth day of the fourth month, the officials and the people went up to the east with clean water, saying that washing away dirt and phlegm was a great purity." It is said that the ancient people washed by the Qingshui River on this day for the purpose of health care. Later, it evolved into a festival of drinking by the water and having a spring outing in the suburbs. In the Song Dynasty, Wu wrote in "March of Lu": "Banquet in Qujiang, drinking in the capital." At present, the Han nationality in China and many ethnic minority areas still inherit the traditional festival of "March 3rd".

Fourth, Tomb-Sweeping Day

Tomb-Sweeping Day (also known as the Walking Festival) falls on April 5th of the Gregorian calendar (the fifth of the 24 solar terms in the lunar calendar). As a traditional folk festival, it began in the Spring and Autumn Period. Later, it gradually merged with the previous "Cold Food Festival" on 1~2, and became a festival to mourn ancestors, worship ancestors to sweep graves and have a spring outing.

Five, Dragon Boat Festival

Dragon Boat Festival, also called "Duanyang Festival", "Noon Festival" or "Mid-Autumn Festival". The fifth day of the fifth lunar month is a grand traditional festival for the Han people.

Sixth, Paradise Day

On the sixth day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar, people call it "June 6" for short, and it is called "the sky". From the Northern Song Zhenzong period (998- 1022), "God-given" means "God-given". Zhenzong designated June 6th, when the Book of Heaven was sent to other places for the second time, as the "heavenly day" and built the "Temple of Heaven" in Dai Temple.

VIII. Begging Festival

Jojo Day is also called Girls' Day, Girls' Day, or Valentine's Day in China. On the seventh day of the seventh lunar month. Originated from ancient folk myths and legends-the story of "Cowherd and Weaver Girl Meet Tianhe". It was first recorded in The Book of Songs Xiaoya Dadong.

Every year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, it is said that cowherd and weaver girl meet at the bridge of Tianhe. And only once a year. On a clear night, people can only see these two stars clearly. Because the Weaver Girl is clever and handy, women all over the world hope to seek wisdom from the Weaver Girl on this day. In festivals, there are folk customs such as drying things and begging for cleverness. In this festival, ancient people will also build colorful buildings in the yard, which is the so-called "Qiaoqi Building". Women set up incense tables, displayed melons and fruits, threaded needles and prayed for wisdom.

There are many ways to beg for wisdom. Some boarded the colorful building, facing the moon, and threaded a nine-hole needle with colorful thread. Those who wear well first are called "skillful", and those who wear well later are called "clumsy". In some places, put a bowl of water in the sun at noon that day and put the embroidery needle on the water. According to the shadow of the needle at the bottom of the bowl, determine whether it is clever or clever. Other places regard this day as "Girls' Day". The girl held the "Muxian Festival". In Jiangnan area, on this day, the five-color silk wrapped around children's necks is untied and thrown on the roof, which is called rope delivery. Valentine's Day in China is very heavy in Guangzhou. Every household displays melons and fruits, fragrant flowers of various colors, cosmetics and girls' costumes, and worships Seven Sisters (Maolan Seven Sisters) under the moon. People in Guangxi and other places store water on this day, which is called "Double Seven Waters". It is said that bathing with this water can ward off evil spirits and diseases, and achieve the effect of cleaning and beautifying. In ancient times, people in Taiwan Province and Fujian regarded the seventh day of the seventh lunar month as "Valentine's Day".

Now, people in China generally designate July 7th as Valentine's Day in China.

People in Qixian Lake area like folk stories and legends. It is said that Cowherd and Weaver Girl got married and had children in Qixian Lake. So the story of "Cowherd and Weaver Girl" was told vividly by everyone. On the evening of the seventh day of July every year, many people naturally get together to watch the Magpie Bridge meet the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. ...

People enjoy the cool while telling ancient and magical love stories. The breezy evening breeze took away the heat of the day, and the magical story expressed people's infinite longing and yearning for a better life. The most famous poem of the Tang Dynasty is Begging for Cleverness. Please see:

See Bixiao tonight on Tanabata, and cross the river bridge with the cowherd and the weaver girl.

Every family watches the autumn moon, and every family wears HongLing.

Nine, Mid-Autumn Festival

Mid-Autumn Festival is also called Mid-Autumn Festival and Reunion Festival. It is an ancient and traditional festival of the Han nationality. The fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month. This day is just half that of Sanqiu, hence the name "Mid-Autumn Festival". Ancient emperors had rituals of offering sacrifices to the sun in spring and the moon in autumn. The Mid-Autumn Festival began to enjoy the moon in the Wei and Jin Dynasties. In the Tang Dynasty, there were customs of enjoying the moon on stage, boating and drinking. During the reign of Emperor Taizong of the Northern Song Dynasty (988- 1003), August 15 was designated as the Mid-Autumn Festival. There are customs of offering sacrifices to the moon, Yue Bai, enjoying the moon and eating moon cakes. Today, together with the Spring Festival and Dragon Boat Festival, it is called the three traditional festivals in China. This festival is also very popular among many ethnic minorities.

Mid-Autumn Festival is the time when the air is crisp in autumn, sweet-scented osmanthus is fragrant, and melons and fruits are ripe. So the moon is closest to the earth, so there is a feeling that "there are many bright moons tonight, and the Mid-Autumn Festival full moon is particularly bright". Therefore, the "full moon" is a major feature of the Mid-Autumn Festival. The festival activities and folk psychology of this festival are very emotional and poetic. Although the customs of different regions and ethnic groups are different, they are similar in many aspects.

① Moon viewing in Yue Bai: Whenever the bright moon rises and the sun shines on the earth, people will set up tables and chairs in the open air or under osmanthus trees and bring round fruits (apples, grapes, dates, etc.). ) and round food (moon cakes, sweets, etc. ) Go to the dining table. The whole family gathered around the table, silently looked up at the bright moon and stood in awe for a while to show their sacrifice to Yue Bai. After that, the whole family sat around the dining table, enjoying delicious food and the bright moon. At this moment, literati or scholars often make great contributions to poetry, pursue it, and write poems correctly. Couples who can't go home for some reason are looking up at the round moon in a foreign land and thinking of their relatives in their hometown. Su Shi, a great poet in the Song Dynasty, wrote the poem "I wish people a long life, thousands of miles away", which is undoubtedly the best blessing for all lovers in the world who can't get together as scheduled. People are relatives of their hometown, and it's moonlight in how bright at home! . People regard the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival as a symbol of reunion, so those "strangers" will always "have it been frosted?" When they see "there is such a bright line at the foot of my bed" on the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, they can't help but "look up, I find it is moonlight, and it sinks back, and I suddenly think of home". Undoubtedly, the poem Silent Night by Li Bai, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, vividly expresses the infinite yearning complex of people who have been alone in a foreign land since ancient times for their relatives in their hometown, and profoundly reveals people's deep yearning for a happy life.

② Taste moon cakes: The custom of eating moon cakes in Mid-Autumn Festival began in Song Dynasty and was popular in Yuan Dynasty. According to legend, at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, there was a severe famine all over the country, and people everywhere rose up against the government. In order to secretly contact the uprising civilians, Zhang Shicheng, Taizhou put a secret leaflet with the words "Killing the Enemy Uprising on August 15th" in a moon cake and gave it to the civilians. After eating moon cakes, the uprising civilians knew the time and place of the uprising, so they responded with one voice and held a national uprising and won. Later, on August 15, the custom of giving and eating moon cakes to each other became popular, in order to express the memory of predecessors and the holiday wishes to relatives and friends.

(3) Worship Festival: On the Mid-Autumn Festival, it is popular among the people to visit relatives and friends and give gifts to each other, especially young men who want to take advantage of the Mid-Autumn Festival to visit their parents. Gifts are not important, and moon cakes are indispensable. There are sweets, wine, fruits, cakes and so on. It's better to be in pairs, which means good luck. For example, contemporary moon cakes include "Seven Stars Accompanied by the Moon", "Eight Immortals Reunion", "Dragon Play with Beads" and so on. They are all even numbers, all famous brands, and the prices are not cheap.

(4) Mid-Autumn Party: Every Mid-Autumn Festival, modern people gather in city squares or public green spaces to hold large-scale parties. The contents include cultural performances, martial arts competitions, bonfire parties, couples' masquerade parties, and collective wedding conferences. In other places, we camp on the hillside and by the lake, and hold buffet barbecue parties, open-air night markets and clothing trade markets by the sea. Rich in content and diverse in forms, it is dizzying. The scene is grand and lively. In some places, holiday parties entertain themselves and stay up all night.

Double ninth festival

The ninth day of the ninth lunar month is the Double Ninth Festival. Also known as "Double Ninth Festival" and "Cornus Festival". In the Book of Changes, nine is regarded as yang number, and two or nine phases are regarded as "double nine". Two yang are as important as "Chongyang". The word "Chongyang" first appeared in Qu Yuan's Songs of the South during the Warring States Period. "Set Chongyang into the Emperor's Palace and see the capital of Qing Dynasty on the 10th." It can be seen that the Double Ninth Festival has formed a custom during the Warring States Period. Double Ninth Festival was very popular in Han Dynasty. At first, the theme of the Double Ninth Festival was just "Climbing for refuge". In the process of inheritance from generation to generation, its content has become rich and colorful.

The ninth day of the ninth lunar month is a beautiful season with clear skies and crisp autumn in Wan Li. These days, people like to help the old and take care of the young, climb high and look far, and enjoy the boundless autumn scenery. Flying kites, enjoying chrysanthemums, eating Chongyang cakes, drinking and singing. "Picking chrysanthemums under the east fence and seeing Nanshan leisurely" is a description of the beautiful scenery in autumn. On the Double Ninth Festival, some places will hold temple fairs, fairs and other activities. Some schools organize students to go hiking in autumn. Some units also organize employees or retirees to climb mountains and climb competitions.

According to the suggestion of Oriental Fitness Longevity Center, 1986, the country designated the Double Ninth Festival as "Old People's Day". On this day, all units carry out activities to respect the elderly, mobilize the whole society to create a good living environment and social environment for the elderly, and truly achieve "a sense of security, a sense of thinking, a sense of worthiness and a sense of happiness". Respect for the elderly has become an important new content of the Double Ninth Festival.

Xi。 Laba Festival

The eighth day of the twelfth lunar month (called the twelfth lunar month in ancient times) is a traditional festival of the Han nationality. There is a custom of eating "Laba porridge". In the Han Dynasty, the third day to the day after beginning of winter was called "La Ri". In the Southern and Northern Dynasties, it was changed to the eighth day of1February, which was called "Laba Festival". People hold sacrificial activities on this day to pray for good harvest and good luck. Laba porridge is made by decocting adzuki beans, walnuts, pine nuts, persimmons, millet, yellow rice, glutinous rice, millet, water chestnut rice and peeled jujube paste, and adding peach kernels, almonds, melon seeds, peanuts, white sugar and brown sugar.

Laba Festival is also a Buddhist festival-"Taoist Festival". According to legend, when Sakyamuni was in distress near the Nilian River in Bihar, he was rescued by a shepherdess and became a Buddha under a bodhi tree. Since then, Buddhist disciples have promoted chanting activities on Laba Festival. And cooked with dried fruits and miscellaneous grains into "Laba porridge". Later, people rushed to follow suit, get together to eat and feed their relatives and friends. Today, people in most parts of the north and parts of the south of the Yangtze River, especially in the south of Dongting Lake, still keep the custom of celebrating Laba Festival and eating Laba porridge. Although there are some changes in raw materials, the concept of nutrition and fitness is more and more popular.