In ancient China, men were called pillars, and boys were regarded as the support and flag of the portal. There are also flagpoles at the February meeting in Taihao Mausoleum, and there are customs of "returning flagpoles" and "grabbing flagpoles". The so-called flagpole is to use a wooden pole to pass through a wooden box without a cover. The wooden box is square, the square symbolizes the earth, and the earth symbolizes women; The wooden pole passes through the unsealed roof to show indomitable spirit.
During the temple fair, in the sea of people worshipping their ancestors, the red and green boys were particularly conspicuous. Surrounded by their families, they happily reported good news to their ancestors and hoped to come. When the child reaches the age of 12, he will definitely come to "return the flagpole" after touching the "children's kiln" in Taihaoling or tying dolls and grabbing flagpoles. Dress children in red and green clothes, set off firecrackers and play suona. I am grateful to my ancestors for their gifts, report that they have a lucky son, and pray for their ancestors to bless their children and hope to succeed. There are also some people who pray for the son and come to "scramble" before the flagpole burns. This is called "grabbing the flagpole". The man who robbed the flag left happily, and the man who returned the flagpole came back with satisfaction, and everyone was very happy.
It is said that this flagpole ceremony for children to make wishes is very effective, and many families finally have a happy event through this custom of "grabbing flagpoles" and "returning flagpoles".
A middle-aged local mother said that she had never given birth to a child before. At the temple fair, Renzu and I prayed in the hall, "Tie a doll", and then I gave birth to a big fat boy. Children 12 years old to make a wish. Thank you, Renzu, and thank you, Grandma.
I don't know whether my mother's piety touched my ancestors and grandmothers, but this custom has a long history and reflects the reproductive worship left over from ancient times.
On the "February Festival", people can also see groups of women with Qinglong and Cai Feng flower baskets on their shoulders, knocking on bamboo boards and singing while dancing. Sometimes they are impassioned and sometimes they sing softly. What kind of dances and lyrics do they perform with almost religious piety?
Sacrificial dance "bear the classics"
Since ancient times, an ancient and unique dance has been left in the heritage of the "February Festival". Women are singing tunes while dancing:
With heaven and earth, there would be no human habitation, and God left only two ancestors and brothers and sisters. His brothers and sisters came to the world, handed down from generation to generation, and watched a catastrophe arrival. Thanks to Bai Master Roshi's crossing to Kunlun Mountain, the brothers and sisters in Kunlun Mountain got married, and it took a long time to have hundreds of children. Everyone in the world is a mother.
Most of the dancers are older women. At the annual meeting in February, they held high the yellow silk Qinglong flag and came to Taihao Mausoleum from all directions. The flower basket is called "ground pick" and is carried on the shoulder like a sacred object. They worship their ancestors first, and then perform "inheritance" in front of Tian Tongtang, Ren Xiantang and Fuxi Mausoleum. It is said that this is a rule handed down from the ancient Dragon Boat Festival. This "dragon flower" refers to Fuxi and Nuwa. The ancients believed that Fuxi was a big dragon and Nu Wa was a small dragon, and they carried out ancestor worship activities in the form of carrying flower baskets and chanting scriptures.
What kind of dance form is used to embody its inner spiritual essence?
Expert Ni Baocheng explained that this kind of dance is usually performed by four women together. One is the knocking board, called the beating board (the so-called knocking board is to knock with two bamboo boards); The other three people are dancing, also called "flower basket" or "track dance". "Trace" refers to the trace left by walking, and "stepping" refers to walking along that trajectory. This kind of dance has a long cultural history and is an eulogy and praise for reproductive culture. People who play the seesaw have words in their mouths, which are generally about human development, praising happiness, praising the combination of men and women, expressing their yearning for happiness and so on. And there are usually fixed lyrics. After that, the three women took beautiful and simple steps along a certain route. Dancers are usually dressed in black, with a five-foot veil on their heads and two streamers hanging from the back of their heads. Sometimes the ribbon will be intertwined with the dance steps, and then it will naturally separate.
What is the significance of this entanglement? Some clues can be found from the portrait of Fuxi Nuwa handed down from generation to generation. In the original relief showing the combination of Fuxi and Nu Wa, both of them are snake faces, face to face, but their tails intersect and are intertwined. Chuanjing reproduces the combination of Fuxi Nuwa in the form of ribbon winding.
"Collecting Classics" is an ancient custom of Wanqiu, the old capital of Taihao Fuxi family. As a form of offering sacrifices to Fuxi Nuwa, it has become a popular custom in Huaiyang. "Picking scriptures" is a ritual dance, so it has the nature of witchcraft dance. It can be said that Huaiyang is one of the important cradles of ancient witch dance.
Single crystal tune, which carries the information of ancestors, is a "living relic" of ancient culture, which has been circulated in Zhoukou for thousands of years like an epic. Nowadays, the popularity of "Shoujing Picking" in Zhoukou is no less than that of Liu Xiangsong and dance, but many modern elements have been added in form, dress and scripture, and only the dance of Qinglong, Cai Feng, Hualan and Xiaolong wagging their tails remains unchanged. "Chuan Jing" is the carrier of people's spiritual sustenance and emotional catharsis, as well as the carrier of people's fitness and entertainment catharsis, and it is also the ideal form of people's fitness and entertainment, which has become a persistent state of life. This ancient culture, like a "living fossil", has always remained in people's lives.
People will see many clay dolls at the February Temple Fair in Zhoukou. Is this an ordinary toy? Huaiyang folk artists have decorated these dolls with dot symbols for generations. Is there any special significance?