the Spring Festival; Chinese New Year
The first day of the first month is the Spring Festival, formerly known as New Year's Day. On that day, people get up early and put on new clothes, hats and shoes to say goodbye to the old and welcome the new. It is said that in the new year, you can walk lightly by putting on new shoes that have never been on the ground. After the host gets up, he opens the door by reciting auspicious words and sets off firecrackers at the door, which is called "opening the door gun". Generally, there are three guns when you open the door, so you should "take four and let three go" and leave one as a "backup gun". The "backup gun" in Ningbo dialect is published here. The higher the firecrackers are set, the louder the sound, which indicates good luck in the new year. If it is a "blow, blow, blow" squib, it is unlucky. You should say at once, "Oh, blow it, you will make a fortune this year." And add one immediately.
A big clan, a big family, worships the portraits of their ancestors in the ancestral hall or the middle hall (in front of the hall). Generally, the portraits of ancestors within five generations are synonymous with "for the frame", "for the shadow" and "for the golden purple". In some ancestral temples, men 16 years old can worship, except women. A pair of hair pin cakes (also called auspicious cakes) or two bowls are divided by the person in charge in turn. Young people of all families worship their elders in turn, which is called "worshipping the old". New Year's Eve has been divided into "lucky money", wrapped in red paper and pressed under the pillows of young people, so it is called "lucky money".
On that day, eating jiaozi in the morning means reunion. Some families are vegetarian all day. The biggest feature of this custom is to let household utensils "rest" for one day, that is, let housewives rest, not sweeping the floor, not asking for fire (not lighting others or cigarettes), not killing animals, not moving knives and scissors, not emptying toilets, not washing clothes, not abusing children or saying unlucky things. Don't say "early" when we meet in the morning, because you said it would attract more fleas this year. If you stumble, you should immediately say, "Oh, I dropped my gold ingot." This night, if you don't sleep and light a lamp before you faint, it means that lighting a lamp this year will attract more mosquitoes and flies. Before going to bed, put a "closing gun". Don't go out at night, commonly known as "Christmas Eve".
From the second day of the seventh lunar month to the eighth day of the eighth lunar month, every family goes out to visit relatives and friends. Generally, they go to relatives first, then go to distant relatives, take care of their husbands, nephews and uncles, and treat each other with banquets, which is called "Chinese New Year's dinner" and "Chinese New Year's wine".
The fifth day of May is the God of Wealth Day, which is the most important day for business people. It is called "opening the market" after "recruiting the God of Wealth". Some Buddhists walk on the Seventh Bridge on the seventh night of the seventh lunar month without looking back, and worship eight monks in the eighth lunar month, commonly known as "walking on the Seventh Bridge" and "worshiping eight monks".
In the meantime, folk entertainment activities include Dragon Lantern, Happy Lantern and big-head monk dance Dance. A little different from other places is "pretending to sweep the floor", that is, beggars (called "rich people" at this time) carry baskets, hold brooms decorated with red balls in their hands, pretend to sweep the floor, and sing slang songs: "Hold up the golden broom and Riggs (like a voice) will sweep it. Sweeping eastward, there are Qinglong, Qinglong rice jar and Huanglong barn in the boss's room; Sweeping to the south, the boss made a fortune in the house, Da Yuanbao made a raft, and Xiao Yuanbao made a boat. "
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Chinese New Year and other customs have remained unchanged, and many superstitious colors have disappeared. Organs and organizations held mass worship, carried out activities to support the army and the family, support the government and love the people, and expressed condolences to veteran cadres, workers, teachers, scientific and technological personnel, elderly people and workers in nursing homes who insisted on production during the Spring Festival. On the way, acquaintances meet, hold hands or shake hands and wish each other good luck.
On the fifteenth night of the first lunar month; Lantern Festival; night of the 15th of the first lunar month；Lantern Festival；yuanxiao
The fifteenth day of the first month is the Lantern Festival. Because it is the earliest full moon in a year, it is called Shangyuan Festival. 13 is a "light-on night", 18 is a "light-off night", and the period is the Lantern Festival. In some places, the Lantern Festival will be held and the "Lantern Festival" will be performed. Ancestral temples and people hang lanterns, which is called "Lantern Festival". There are many kinds of lanterns, the best is the serial lantern in December, and the most is the rabbit lantern, which means that the Jade Rabbit is accompanied by the Moon Palace (Guanghan Palace) Chang 'e, and the rabbit lantern on the ground echoes the "Jade Rabbit Dongsheng" to comfort its loneliness.
On the night of Lantern Festival, I am happy to eat Luhua soup. On the fourteenth night, there is the custom of "taking photos with snakes and insects". Children hold paper lanterns all over the corner, walls and kitchens, and some hold small gongs, banging and shouting, "Go, go, go to Maoshan (the place name of Yinxian Nanxiang) to feed grass seeds! Go, go, go to the mountains to eat rotten sweet potatoes! " On that day, farmers set fire to weeds in Tiantou, Tiancheng and other places to "drive away evil spirits", commonly known as "drive away bright insects". When tiancheng hay burns, it looks like a fire dragon, so it is also called "Tan Fire Dragon". This is a custom that combines ancient customs with pest control in agricultural production.
Snack, lanterns, firecrackers, jiaozi. Some Lantern Festival is combined with "social fire". Zhenhaixing ate "Shantou soup", similar to the current fruit soup. According to legend, a rich man was tired of eating delicacies, so he asked his maid to cook a new dish every day. A maid made a soup of five kinds of fruits, sweet, sour, bitter and salty, and then followed suit. That night, the girls met with the pigsty in the toilet, greeted Aunt Zi, that is, the aunt in the toilet, and helped her to predict her wisdom and marriage when she grew up. According to legend, this toilet aunt named He Mei, the concubine of Li Jing in Shouyang, Shandong Province, died of grief and indignation because she could not tolerate Li's wife. Later, she was regarded as a toilet aunt, commonly known as "girl in a jar".
After the 1930s, there were fewer and fewer lanterns. Since the late 1970s, some groups have held lantern exhibitions, with children carrying lanterns in the crowd.
Qingming Festival
Agricultural solar terms and customs are integrated. In the old society, willows hung on doors and windows, women had hair and willow tips on their heads, and children wore willow rings on their heads, meaning "thinking about youth (pro)". As the saying goes, "Qingming wears a willow, and there is an uncle in the afterlife."
The custom in Ningbo attaches great importance to sacrifice, especially to sweep graves to worship ancestors and cook clear soup and plain rice. Most of the wanderers at home and abroad go back to their graves. In the old society, the seasonal food for going to the grave was green cakes and mashed (black rice) cakes, and they sacrificed to their ancestors. Rich people also hire trumpeters to play. Weeds are removed when going to the grave, new soil is shoveled to press the top of the grave, and bamboo shoots are inserted with paper balls to show that future generations have done their filial piety to their ancestors, and at the same time, ancestors will bless the whole family for peace and prosperity. After the sacrifice, local farmers will get sesame cakes or cakes to take care of the graves. Because people are scrambling to get it, it is commonly known as "grabbing hemp". Sesame cakes should be cut into diamonds. In addition to tomb offerings and family offerings, there are also ancestral halls (also known as Taigongtian) and ancestor worship, and each room takes turns to worship ancestors. The person in charge bought food according to the menu, and invited the people to eat Qingming soup rice. The main course should be weighed. If it is not ready, put the equivalent money in an empty bowl and divide it among the people who eat it. The head and neck of the goose in the dish are eaten by the heads of families, which means that the "leaders" also divide bowls or pork according to people. Some exclude women, or reduce the number of flagons on the dining table for women (2 for men and 0 for women 1 pot).
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, we still used to sweep graves, cook soup and burn paper instead of sending flowers to commemorate the martyrs' ancestors.
Dragon Boat Festival
The Dragon Boat Festival on the fifth day of May is a traditional folk festival. Its real name is Dragon Boat Festival, also called Duanyang, and it is called "Hong Tong" in rural areas. Acorus calamus and wormwood are inserted at every door, commonly known as "Pu Jian kills thousands of demons, and the banner of wormwood attracts hundreds of blessings", and some even hang a garlic under the banner of wormwood. Acorus calamus roots can be cut into lovers' children and hung on the bed. According to legend, this day is the day when Qu Yuan, the doctor of Chu patriotic poet, died in the Miluo River. In memory of Qu Yuan, there are folk customs of hanging sachets, eating zongzi and racing dragon boats. The sachet indicates that Qu Yuan's moral integrity is fragrant. Zongzi, originally to prevent fish from eating Qu Yuan's body, evolved into holiday food; Rowing a dragon boat is a struggle to save Qu Yuan. On this day, the pharmacy settled the credit and presented realgar and spice powder to the old customers. Folk girls are busy making sachets of various colors, such as tiger-shaped, human-child shaped, chicken-shaped, zongzi-shaped, diamond-shaped and hydrangea-shaped. They are filled with cotton mixed with fragrant powder and hung on children's chests or bedspreads or cradles, which are said to ward off evil spirits. At noon on this day, there is the custom of drinking realgar soju to relieve all kinds of poison. First, expose realgar to the sun, then mix the chopped calamus roots, and each person will take a sip, indicating that it can detoxify. Some spray realgar shochu in the corner, and some write the word "snake" upside down on the wall. There is also the custom of eating "Huang Wu Six Whites" in rural areas. Cucumber, egg yolk, yellow croaker, Monopterus albus and Monopterus albus are called "Huang Wu", while tofu, water bamboo, Chinese cabbage, white striped fish, boiled chicken and boiled pork are called "Liubai" (slightly different from place to place). There are people who are not familiar with it. At noon on Sunday, there is the custom of eating snails to stew eggs and toads. It is said that toads, snails and centipedes caught before noon on Sunday can be used as medicine, so the Dragon Boat Festival is also called "Medicine Festival". Some people drill a small hole in the egg, put snail meat in the egg, seal it and stew it, which means it can cool and detoxify. Every family makes zongzi.
In the old customs, the son-in-law often prepares "Dragon Boat Festival Bear" as a gift for returning to her parents' home, ranging from four colors to eight colors. Among them, fish should be paired, and the head and neck of geese should be painted red. The louder the goose barks on the road, the better. The louder it speaks, the more it barks. It is called "Goose". On this day, adults tie five-color hand ropes on children's arms, which are called "health ropes". In the future, when abandoning the rope, sticky rice should be stuck and thrown on the roof tile for birds to live with, saying that children can live a long life without illness or suffering.
In the Republic of China, Zhang's "Ci in December" said: "In May, Duanyang painted a tiger, and Park Jian was possessed; Soak realgar wine in realgar wine, and Atractylodes lancea must be burned at noon. " Depicting the Dragon Boat Festival tiger and distributing the tiger is to use the tiger of the king of beasts to curb the five poisons of snakes, centipedes, lizards, spiders and scorpions, which is another custom in Ningbo. On that day, the word "king" was written on the baby's forehead in realgar (to show the king of beasts), and the children wore clothes with tiger patterns and sewed cloth tigers and tiger pillows. This is the so-called "peeling zongzi to make cloth tigers on the fifth day of the Dragon Boat Festival every year". A little different from other places, the Dragon Boat Festival tiger carving in Ningbo has many colors. On a piece of paper about four or five inches square, there is a tiger, a child, a tiger, two children, three or four children, two tigers, two children and two tigers, three or four children. Tiger's posture is different, with stories such as Li Cunxiao beating a tiger at the age of seven and Yang saving his father. In 1930s, some people collected more than 50 kinds of/kloc-0. Black printed "Dragon Boat Tiger" paper for children to play with red and blue is called "painting Dragon Boat Tiger". You can stick it on the door or wall to ward off evil spirits after painting.
After liberation, the superstitious color of the Dragon Boat Festival has been greatly reduced, and it is still ok to eat zongzi, hang sachets for children and hang Aipu. In recent years, unmarried young men (commonly known as hairy-footed son-in-law) spend more and more on giving Dragon Boat Festival gifts to women's families.
Chinese Valentine's Day; Qixi Festival
On July 7th, according to legend, cowherd and weaver girl on both sides of the Milky Way in the sky met at the annual Magpie Bridge, which was called "Begging for Cleverness Festival" and "Shaving Head Festival" by the people. In the past, women picked hibiscus leaves on this day, kneaded them into juice and washed their hair with water. According to legend, the Weaver Maid washes her hair with hibiscus leaf juice, so her hair is black. At night, women show melons and fruits under the moon, beg for embroidery skills, and thread needles under the moon to make people who can wear them quickly "better"; Look up at the starry sky, look for a group of seven stars, and read "Lock the stars, plow the stars, and seven clusters of rice stars with poles. Read it seven times and you will be smart". If you read it seven times at a time, you will become a beggar. There is also an appointment to lie on the ground of eggplant bushes and listen to the sound. It is a coincidence that everyone who listens to the voice thinks that the Weaver Girl has come. There are also three bench bridges, two of which are connected and the other is placed at the top. The girls helped each other across the bench and said that the seven women "walked the fairy bridge."
In this season, men have the custom of eating "chickens". At this time, farmers choose new chickens for sale, each weighing one catty to four ounces. In theory, it is only sold, and the price is slightly more expensive. The cooking method of chicken is different from usual. Stew in an iron pot with a clay pot, burn with red straw (early straw) and burn for three feet (pinch). Eat differently. If a person eats a chicken and drinks all the soup, it is said to be nourishing.
After liberation, the fairy tale of cowherd and weaver girl meeting is still widely circulated, and the activity of "seeking cleverness" is no longer accepted by people.
Mid-Autumn Festival
August 15 Mid-Autumn Festival is a big festival all over the country, but Ningbo 16 is the Mid-Autumn Festival. Mid-Autumn Festival originated from the ritual system of ancient emperors offering sacrifices to the moon in autumn, and later evolved into the custom of enjoying the moon and reuniting. "How bright the moonlight is at home!" Homesick wanderers, longing for family reunion. Ningbo takes 16 as the reason for the Mid-Autumn Festival. According to the Records of Yinxian Documentary Customs of the Republic of China, the Mid-Autumn Festival falls on August 15, and it is said that Fang Guozhen changed it at the end of the Yuan Dynasty based on his birthday (see Taoyuan Records). It is said that Shi's mother was born on 16th, so she changed hands. Legend has it that Shi Hao came back from Lin 'an for the Spring Festival. His horse slipped on the way home and his mount was injured. He stayed in Shaoxing for one night, so people are waiting for the Festival today. Another way of saying it is that his son Shi was the prime minister at that time, and his return trip was delayed because officials hosted a banquet for him. This statement has been corrected by Ganlong's Yinxian Annals. Yuan Jun's "Zhu Bei's Miscellaneous Poems" in the Qing Dynasty said: "Zhu Feng (referring to Shi Hao) lived in the Mid-Autumn Festival, and his customs remained unchanged for 700 years; Since then, I have come to the dragon boat race from time to time, and every family has watched the dragon boat sixteen times. " I still remember: "My hometown regarded the 16th as the Mid-Autumn Festival, which began when giving (that is), and I thought it was far from it."
In the Qing Dynasty, Wan Sitong's "Yin Xi Zhi Zhu Ci" said: "In previous years, Yin customs flourished, and the family did the same; Jiuying Lantern Festival in the western suburbs, painting boats in the Mid-Autumn Festival in the south. " There is a record in Yinxian Annals of the Republic of China: "The ancestral temples in various townships worship gods and race dragon boats, which is different from the dragon boat races in various places. Today, the wind of racing has stopped, and some people are acting and worshipping God. " Zhang Minguo's "December Ci Zai" said: "The Mid-Autumn Festival in August is full of moon cakes, and the festival is extended by one day; The east of the city is more prosperous than the west, and it advocates painting boats all night. "
The Mid-Autumn Festival shows reunion by eating moon cakes, while Ningbo moon cakes have unique flavor with moss and crystal moon cakes. At this time, the new duck is fat and tender, and the whole duck stewed taro is a new delicacy, commonly known as "duck flapping taro". Every Mid-Autumn Festival, every family gets together to eat moon cakes, and relatives and friends also give them to each other. Some groups hold parties. There are folk customs such as eating "duck taro" and dragging cakes with water.
Double Ninth Festival
The ninth day of September is the Double Ninth Festival. "Yinxian Tongzhi" contains: "Scholars climb high and admire their faces, and drink them with dogwood wine in flood season. Each family makes corn (there used to be a Peony cake, I don't know how to say it, but it is pictographic), and relatives send it to each other, which is called the Double Ninth Festival. A wine bowl was set to worship the ancestors. After the sacrifice, the whole family got together and enjoyed the delicious food. However, the wind of climbing mountains is not good. " There is also the custom of making zongzi and eating Chongyang cake. It is said that cake is homophonic with high notes, which means climbing high. Chrysanthemums are in full bloom in September of the lunar calendar, and chrysanthemum exhibitions are often held today.
New Year's Eve
At the end of the year, it is called "China New Year". New Year's Eve is called 30 years old, and the month is called 20 kuya. Saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new is the busiest day of the year. In the past, the "Spring Festival" was mostly about offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors and praying for good luck. Easy door gods, paste Spring Festival couplets, paste Qinglong paper with the words "Qinglong Qing Ji" on the door or walk the second fairy, and paste Qinglong paper on the farmhouse barn. On this night, cook a big soup rice to worship the ancestors. After the sacrifice, family members get together for dinner, which is called "Eating New Year's Eve". During the dinner, the elders served dishes for their children and said auspicious words to please the New Year. Don't move chopsticks on the whole fish before the Chinese New Year, which means "more than a year". After dinner, the elders give the children "lucky money" and put it under the pillow. This evening, I have to cut the dishes that need knives the next day (the first day of the first month). Sweep the floor, too When you sweep, you should sweep in from the outside. When sweeping, you should say "sweep in the gold ingot" and pour the kitchen garbage into the fireplace. After sweeping the floor, wash the broom, tie the Yuanbao rice cake to the handle, and show filial piety to Grandpa Broom and Grandma Broom. Put the wine on the stool with a rice sieve and worship on the bed in the bedroom, praying for the safety of the children all year round. Farmers still worship the "cave king" in the field, and the cowshed, pigsty and chicken house worship the gods, praying for a bumper harvest of grain and the safety of livestock. On the evening of 23rd, the kitchen god was sent to heaven, and on New Year's Eve, the roster was checked. The daughter-in-law had to spend the New Year at her husband's house. On this day, every water tank should be filled with water, and the rice tank should be filled with rice. Put a bowl of Yuanbao rice cake, Ruyi rice cake and a bowl of fish, meat and rice in the rice jar, which means that the jar is full. Lights are on in every room, and large families burn bright candles with high fever all night. Some people have a pound of dragon, phoenix and red candle from sunset to sunrise on the first day, which is called "receiving light". Buddhist women wait for dawn at night, or go to temples to wait for "sentry duty" at night.
After liberation, superstition was eliminated. Households clean up and prepare new year's goods. On New Year's Eve, I have a family dinner. In recent years, I watched TV after dinner and stayed indoors. Older people give their children "lucky money", and the amount tends to increase. On New Year's Eve 12 o'clock, firecrackers exploded to welcome the New Year.