All folk customs in Anhui

Gathering and scattered living. Folk customs in Xuancheng, Anhui

In the old days, most of the folk villages were inhabited by clans. For example, Hongcun Village and Xidi Village in Yixian County, Huangshan City still retain the architectural style of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The villagers' houses are connected together, facing mountains and rivers, facing south. There are clan ancestral halls in the village, and corridors are left in front of each house. The alleys lead to a main road in front of the village. A few villages have walls built against the mountains, and rivers are dug to protect the villages on the flat areas. The structure is similar to the old-style castles and cottages, which are easy to prevent fire, theft, and theft. It is difficult for strangers to enter the village, and it is difficult to find a way to escape after entering the village. Its disadvantages are traffic congestion and inconvenient access.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the collective buildings were gradually dismantled and each household liked to build separate houses, such as Liansan, Lianwu, and Lianqi (seven houses side by side). Building), or "three bright and five dark" style living rooms, with a hall in the middle, two rooms on the left and right, a front yard and a back yard. Most of the houses are made of mud bricks and tiles, and a few have blue brick walls; poor households build huts with mud walls to cover their roofs. After the 1990s, most households in rural areas have built two-story (a few are three or four-story) houses with red brick and cement board roofs. At the beginning of the 21st century, the government promoted immigration and town building activities, which meant that farmers scattered in each village would uniformly allocate land to build urban-style multi-story homes on both sides of the road, thereby developing the old house sites into fertile farmland to save land, water and material resources.

In the old days, cities and towns were built with rooms or stores facing east and west and north and south, with streets in the middle and corridors on both sides connected. Wealthy households built deep mansions with three or five stories in each entrance, with corridors and verandas connecting each entrance, a patio in the middle for lighting, and wing rooms on both sides for living rooms, with a front hall, a hall, a back hall, and a main hall in the middle to wait for guests. Or a place for family reunions. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, a small number of urban residents lived in unit buildings; after the 1980s, old city reconstruction began. Most of the streets were built with uniform high-rise buildings, and urban residents mainly lived in unit buildings. Since the 1990s, community construction has gradually become a trend.

Baizihui

People who believe in Buddhism go to the mountain collectively. Those with more than 100 people are called "Baizihui", those with more than 200 people are called Shuangbaizihui; those with less than 100 people are called Xiaobaizihui. Pilgrims wearing gray jackets, blue trousers, and yellow bibs with the words "Go to the Mountain for Incense" printed on them, walked up the mountain under the leadership of the incense leader, beating gongs, singing praises, and bowing at temples along the way. Most activities are most active on Ksitigarbha's birthday (the 30th day of the seventh lunar month), and they are always proud to rush to the Jiuhua Mountain Body Hall on this night to sit in meditation and "guard the tower" all night long. There are also some pilgrims who go up the mountain to offer incense to their deceased parents. They wear the deceased's shrouds and have the greatest wish to obtain Ksitigarbha's seal to offer sacrifices to the deceased. According to Buddhist mythology, with this seal, the deceased can move around the underworld without hindrance. privileges.

Pour in incense on New Year's Eve. Folk customs in Chizhou, Anhui

After the New Year's Eve reunion dinner, the residents of Jiuhua Mountain either watch TV to keep the year old or entertain themselves until the New Year's bell rings at midnight. Some of them are the whole family. When going out, some representatives of the family head first wash their faces and mouth, set off firecrackers and fireworks, which is called "traveling"; then they bring the incense, firecrackers and fireworks prepared in advance to the body palace (or to a nearby temple for those who are far away) to burn incense. On the way to offer incense, even if you meet someone you know, you should remain silent. You can only greet each other when you return home after offering incense. Burning incense on New Year's Eve is to pray for peace and prosperity in the new year. It is said that if you burn the first stick of incense, it is the most auspicious. It has now become a must-have custom during the local New Year.

Laba porridge. Folk customs in Chizhou, Anhui

The eighth day of the twelfth lunar month is regarded by the Buddhist community as the day when the Buddha became enlightened. Monks and nuns in the temple often eat glutinous rice, sesame seeds, Yiren, Guiyuan, red dates, shiitake mushrooms and lotus seeds. He cooked "Eight Treasures Porridge" with eight kinds of food, invited the people in the surrounding mountains to have the Holy Communion, and gave alms to the old and young to share as a show of respect for the Buddha. Later, it gradually became a folk custom to cook eight-treasure porridge (called Laba porridge) for consumption.

Dragon lanterns. Folk customs in Chizhou, Anhui

During the New Year or major festivals, residents of Jiuhua Mountain and nearby villages dance with dragon lanterns and lion lanterns to celebrate. The dragon lantern is made of bamboo strips tied into an arch, with one arch and one board. Each board is about 1.5 meters long, with candles burning inside. There are as few as nine boards and as many as dozens of boards (all are odd numbers). Each board is carried by one person, who dances and beats the gong. Playing drums and dragon lanterns is a large-scale collective activity for folk celebrations. Everywhere you go, there are thousands of spectators and it is very lively.

The Year of the Pig. Folk customs in Chizhou, Anhui

Official governments of all dynasties have attached great importance to maintaining the dignity of the Jiuhua Mountain Buddhist site, and have prohibited all kinds of harm, such as setting up stalls and building bricks on the Buddhist site. Traffic jams in hotels, slaughtering of pigs and sheep, and filthy teachings were all a warning sign, so a vegetarian-based lifestyle was formed. From the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, Jiuhua Street merchants settled in, mixed with mountain people. Buddhist prohibitions were not strict, and the prohibition on meat was relaxed. A mixture of monks eating vegetarian food and mountain people eating meat appeared, and they gradually became accustomed to it. However, in order to respect historical customs, local residents celebrate the Meat New Year first and then the Vegetarian New Year during the Spring Festival. In the year of meat, on the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month (the 27th day of the small month), local residents eat meat as a family. The next day, they clean the pots and bowls with plant ashes and start a vegetarian diet. On the 30th day (the 29th day of the first lunar month), we cook vegetarian dishes to celebrate the new year, eat vegetarian meals, worship ancestors, stay up late, entertain, or offer incense. The vegetarian diet continues until the third day of the first lunar month of the new year. The Hun Nian and Su Nian have become one of the important winter tour items in Jiuhua Mountain.

Huaibei Flower Drum Opera. Folk customs in Huaibei, Anhui

Huaibei Flower Drum Opera is a type of drama developed on the basis of folk songs and dances in Huaibei, Anhui. Flower drums are carried on the stage, and "flower drums" are also used as the main music when accompanied by the band, so it is called Huaibei Flower Drum Opera. Popular in northern Anhui and the border areas of Anhui, Henan and Shandong, it can be roughly divided into three routes: the North Route (Xuzhou, Caozhou, Dangshan, Xiaoxian, Kaifeng, Pixian), the Middle Route (Suxian, Lingbi, Sihong, Woyang, Mengcheng, Fuyang) and South Road (Bengbu, Huainan, Shouxian).

The original form of Huaibei Flower Drum Opera is a small folk song and dance. Working people entertain themselves during the slack season, sometimes accompanied by dances when performing these folk songs. These dances are based on the content of folk songs and imitate movements in production and life. Later, some folk acrobatics were absorbed into the dance, such as "Four Doors and Eight Branches", "Top Man", etc., which made the dance more action-oriented and more attractive. At the same time, he compiled and sang some short pieces with storylines, such as the Western section of the Three Kingdoms section, etc., and gradually changed from singing short sections to singing long sections, and from singing solo to performing by two people (one ugly person is always played by a man). Later, after long-term practice by the Huagu Opera people, the content of the libretto was changed, and scripted operas began to be sung. The number of actors also increased, and the singing and performing arts gradually improved. After liberation, they reached a rich and increasingly perfect state. the point.

Xiangshan Temple Fair. Customs and Customs of Huaibei City, Anhui

Every year on March 18th of the lunar calendar, there is the ancient Xiangshan Temple Fair. In ancient times, every spring and autumn, local officials in our city would hold sacrifices at Xiantong Temple in Xiangshan to pray for the gods to bless them safely and bring blessings to the people. People from surrounding areas come to this temple to offer incense around the 18th day of the third lunar month. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, temple fairs were transformed into material exchange conferences. At the peak, more than ten provinces and cities, hundreds of thousands of merchants and people attended the meetings. In recent years, attending temple fairs has gradually developed into a traditional cultural activity for leisure and outing.

Shu Xi. Folk Customs of Qianshan County, Anqing, Anhui

Also known as: Longshu Gong Xi

Origin: Qianshan County, Anqing

Materials: Water bamboo specially used for weaving Shu mats, and small-leaf water bamboo is the best

Technology: The water bamboo used for weaving Shu mats must be free of bulges, tails, knots, scars, and hairy areas. , harvested from November to February of the following year, and then go through more than a dozen strict processes such as cutting, scraping, boiling, and drying to prepare the Shu mat; during the process of compilation, ancient and modern calligraphy and paintings, landscape figures, flowers, plants, fish and insects, etc. can also be compiled. When you enter the table, you can see that the patterns weaved have clear layers and appropriate shades of colors, which are of extremely high artistic quality.

Features: Smooth and thin, tough and wear-resistant, non-corrosive, non-corrosive, endless folding

Excellent products: sleeping mats, pillow mats, sitting mats, table mats, screens, wall curtains, tatami mats etc.

Related poems: Li He: "I am just tired of dancing with thin clothes, but I know that the flower mat is cold."

Flower-stitched flowers. Folk customs of Wangjiang County, Anqing, Anhui

Origin: Wangjiang County, Anqing

Materials: Traditional cross-stitch patterns are mostly made of homespun cloth as the base. Nowadays, they are mostly made of plain cloth or silk cloth as the base. Embroidery threads are used to embroider the cloth eyes according to certain stitches. Become.

Acupuncture: There are two main acupuncture methods for cross-stitching, namely traveling flowers (also called spread flowers) and praise flowers (also called cross flowers).

Among them, there are many and complicated practices, sayings and other methods with strong feudal superstitions, which are too complex to be recorded. But the main purpose of having a wedding is to promote the emotional integration of the bride and groom, because in the old days, most marriages between men and women were arranged.

On the wedding day, gifts such as peanuts and fruits are often given to guests, which means wishing the bride to have a son soon and have prosperous descendants. On the day after the wedding, the bride gets up in the morning to visit her relatives and uncle. On the third day, I went to the kitchen, made dishes and presented them to the aunt, and made toilet gifts.

After a man and a woman get married, it is customary to "see three". That is, on the third day after the wedding, the bride must go back to her natal home to visit her parents, and the groom must go with him to visit his father-in-law and mother-in-law. The girl's family calls this "bringing the girl home" and "delivering the baby". On this day, the girl's family will prepare a banquet to entertain the new uncle (new son-in-law), and invite close relatives and elders to accompany them. During the dinner, there were some people playing tricks on the new uncle. The method is: when the new uncle is not paying attention when he is accompanying someone, add rice and vegetables to his bowl, and consciously put spicy and salty vegetables into the new uncle's bowl. Once the food is placed in the new uncle's bowl, the new uncle will eat it. It must be eaten and cannot be left, otherwise it will be disrespectful to the person who is accompanying you. If the new uncle is really difficult to obey, the guests will force the food into the new uncle's pocket according to the saying of "walking around when you can't eat". The purpose of doing this is to amuse the new uncle by watching him lose his composure. In addition, rouge, lipstick, etc. were forcefully applied to the new uncle's face and they were not allowed to be washed off. This kind of playfulness does not differentiate between men, women and children. Even if it is excessive, the new uncle must accept it happily, just for the sake of happiness.

Lu Opera. Customs and customs of Hefei people in Hefei, Anhui Province

Lu Opera: formerly known as "Inverted Seven Operas", it is one of the main local operas in Anhui Province and is popular in Jianghuai with Hefei as the center. The area and the Dabie Mountains include Lu'an, Huainan, Chaohu, Chuzhou, Wuhu and other places. Because Hefei was called Luzhou in ancient times, it was renamed in 1955. According to legend, Lu Opera has a history of about 200 years, and there were professional troupes during the Qianlong and Jiaqing years of the Qing Dynasty. In the early days, he mostly performed in street stalls, focusing on three small plays. It was initially based on the folk songs of the Dabie Mountains and the songs and dances between the Yangtze and Huaihe Rivers. During the development, it absorbed the singing styles and repertoire of Haizi Opera in Funan, Duangong Opera in Shouxian County and Fengyang, Hui Opera in Wuwei, and folk songs in Feidong, Chaohu and other places. Some troupes performed together with Hui Opera and Peking Opera, and were influenced by them and gradually developed into Lu Opera.

The singing tunes of Lu Opera are divided into two categories: main tune and coloratura. The main tunes include "Erliang", "Sanqi", "Han tune", "Shen tune", "Laosheng tune", "Lao Dan tune", "Chou tune", etc., which are the main singing tunes for singing this opera and excerpts, and also Special tunes that express different professions, good at narrative, lyrical, touching and touching. Huatiao is a fixed tune of small operas, mostly folk tunes, light and bright, used for singing daily life operas. The characteristics of the singing style are: constantly singing in falsetto, which is called "little voice"; singing in Chinese accent, that is, when the singing reaches a certain time, the actors on and off the scene will help sing in unison, and their voices are high-pitched to highlight the plot and chicken. To dye the atmosphere; each profession of Lu Opera has one or several unique singing tunes that cannot be used in other professions. The popularity of Lu Opera is influenced by the language, life and appreciation habits of people in different regions. Its singing art is divided into three groups: Eastern, Central and Western, each with its own characteristics.

The east road is centered on Wuhu and Dangtu, with soft and euphemistic singing; the middle road is centered on Hefei and Chaohu, with delicate singing; the west road is centered on Huoshan and Lu'an, with high-pitched and rough singing. The performing arts of Lu Opera include singing and dancing, which are lively and lively. After singing a section, they dance to the accompaniment of percussion instruments, with graceful postures and innovative tricks. The accompaniment of Lu Opera originally only used percussion instruments, but string and plucked instruments were added after the founding of the People's Republic of China. The percussion music is very rich, and it is almost a kind of performance with one prize of gongs and drums. It is known as "a performance full of gongs and drums and half a performance". The profession of Lu Opera is divided into different roles, such as the old student and the painted face, the clown and the old Dan, and the Cai Dan.

There are more than 200 repertoires of Lu Opera, which are divided into original plays, excerpts and coloratura plays. This play, including serial dramas, focuses on public cases, love and family joys and sorrows, such as "Qin Xuemei", "Hugh Lilac", etc. The excerpts are mostly independent and exciting parts extracted from the original play, such as "Gun Shooting in the Garden", "Hitting the Reed Blossoms", etc. Coloratura plays mainly reflect the life interests and love of working people, as well as some farces and satirical comedies, such as "Begging for Study Money" and "Borrowing Luo Yi".

"Borrowing Luo Yi" has also been put on the screen, and famous actors such as Wang Benyin, Ding Yulan, Wu Keying, Sun Bangdong, Bao Zhiyuan, and Li Daozhou have emerged.

Menge. Folk customs in Hefei, Anhui Province

Menge is a folk song popular in central and southern Anhui. The lyrics are usually "looking at the wind and picking up the willows". If you see a willow tree in front of someone's house, sing "There is a willow tree in front of the boss's door. I put down the willow tree to fight with the fence. I made a fence and measured the barley. I measured the barley to make soju. I made friends from all over the world." "It's humorous and full of local flavor. According to the content of the lyrics, it can be divided into labor songs, love songs, life songs, ritual songs, etc. According to the expression techniques, there are metaphors, exaggerations, descriptions, comparisons, etc. Men's songs are expressed in the form of singing from house to house on the streets, and during festivals such as playing with lanterns and rowing land boats. Menge also has the form of seated singing, where everyone pools money and sings in one place for a few days. It is like a storyteller singing a series of plays, such as "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai" and so on. Jia Deyun, who lives in Daying Village, Luogang Town, Baohe District, Hefei City, is a leader in Menge singers.

Jia Deyun was born in 1928. He had been fond of door songs since he was a child. Whenever a door song singer came from the village, he would follow the singer and hear the songs from one village to another. At the age of 12, he became a disciple of the great monk Wei (the name given to widowers who had no money to marry a wife in the old society) and sang the gate song. Since he has lived in the countryside for a long time and is familiar with the local spoken language, allusions, and folklore, the lyrics he creates are simple, fresh, natural, and catchy. After liberation, Jia Deyun went to work and attended literacy classes to learn culture. He was engaged in trade union propaganda work in his unit for a long time. He had rich stage performance experience, coupled with diligent study and extremely high talent, his works have reached a high artistic level.

The door songs created by Jia Deyun come from life, from the folk, and from his own experience. The door song "Planting Yangge" "If you don't do it when the neem tree blooms, you will stamp your feet when the polygonum blossoms bloom." The lyrics come from a famous saying to warn lazy people in the Jianghuai area, based on the different flowering seasons of two common plants in rural areas. , a metaphor for people seizing the farming season and not missing crops.

The door song "Little Changgong" uses a strong contrasting technique to highlight the inequality of wealth and poverty in the old society, and tells the miserable life of the little long-term workers: "In July, the sun is scorching, the owner is holding a light umbrella, and the sun is shining brightly. The little long-term worker is covered with goose feathers when the sky falls heavily, and the old man’s family is covered with silk quilts, and the long-term worker’s straw is used as a quilt cover.”

The door song “Wu Xiaolin’s Proposal” uses a variety of artistic techniques to express the love and affection between young men and women. A heartfelt expression of longing for freedom. The male singer "walked so many dark roads for my sister, touched so many cold walls, touched so many spider webs with my head, and stepped on so many cow dung piles with my feet." Four consecutive parallel sentences are used here, followed by exaggeration, "High The high hills have been trampled flat, and the grassy surfaces of small ridges have been trampled into pits.” After the woman answered the song, the man sang again: "As a husband, I stand afraid of being seen, squatting and getting bitten by mosquitoes. I swat four ounces of mosquitoes with my hand, and half a catty of ants stepped on by my feet." The lyrics are vivid and exaggerated without losing their truth. Contrast does not reveal traces of carving.

The props used in the Menge performance are extremely simple, one drum and one gong. In the 1990s, when Huangshan Audio and Video Publishing House was editing the Juade Cloud Gate Songbook, they boldly tried to use erhu, flute accompaniment, and added female vocal accompaniment, and achieved good results.

The tune of Jia Deyun's door song has the charm of Lu opera and the lingering sound of Jiangnan tea-picking tune. The tone rises and falls with the content of the lyrics, the charm is long, the lingering sound lingers, the words are earthy, and the sentences are home accents, giving people a beautiful enjoyment.