What are the customs and habits in Fuzhou?

Aojiu Festival and February 2

The 29th day of the first lunar month is a unique traditional folk festival in Fuzhou. "Aojiu Festival" is also known as "Later Nine Festival", "Xiaojiu Festival" and "Send the Poor Festival". Early this morning, every household uses glutinous rice, brown sugar, peanuts, red dates, water chestnuts, sesame, longan and other raw materials to cook sweet porridge, called "Yujiu porridge", which is used to worship ancestors or give gifts to relatives and friends. Married daughters must also send a bowl of "Aojiu porridge", some with Taiping, eggs, pig's trotters, etc., back to their parents' home to honor their parents. In addition, any person's age is nine, such as nine years old, twenty-nine years old... (called "Ming Jiu"), or multiples of nine, such as eighteen years old, twenty-seven years old, thirty-six years old... (called "Ming Jiu") Dark Nine"), you should also eat a bowl of "Taiping" just like celebrating your birthday, in order to seek peace and health. In the traditional concept of Fuzhou people, "Nine" is a difficult time. Fuzhou people have taboos when it comes to "Nine". They believe that "Nine" is a time of misfortune. Therefore, anyone who is "Nine" years old should eat too much. , we should also send "nine" to our parents, so that they can be safe and healthy.

Three days after the "Aojiu Festival", it is the second day of the second lunar month. This day is also a unique legendary festival in Fuzhou, referred to as "February 2". On February 2nd, people in Fuzhou do not eat sugary porridge but eat salty porridge instead. Salty porridge is a salty porridge cooked with glutinous rice, celery, onions, garlic, dried shrimps, oysters, shredded pork, etc. After February 2, the days of ordinary people's simple life began again. Since the second day of the second lunar month comes from cleaning and cooking the surplus food from the first month, some people will cook it if they have surplus food, and they will not cook if there is no surplus food. February 2nd promotes the traditional virtues of Fuzhou people not to be extravagant and wasteful, but to be thrifty and manage their families.

New Year's Eve "Debt Avoidance Drama"

Fuzhou Folk Troupe used to have a traditional class custom, that is, starting from the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month every year, it was necessary to "seale the box" ” (that is, sealing the opera box with a red note), which means that the troupe members will go home for the holidays to celebrate the New Year, and the performance will not officially start until the first day of the first lunar month of the next year.

The stage in the Wanshou Shangshu Temple, an ancient building in Taijiangwuwei, Fuzhou, is extremely lively with gongs and drums on New Year's Eve every year. In ancient times, Taijiang had developed commerce and trade, and there was an imbalance between rich and poor. Rich people's New Year's Eve is a feast of lights and tables full of delicacies. However, poor people are most afraid of creditors coming to collect their debts as the New Year approaches. Out of sympathy, some philanthropists raised funds and hired a Fujian opera troupe with high remuneration. They made an exception to perform at the Wanshou Shangshu Temple on New Year's Eve, and stipulated that they would stay up all night so that the poor debtors could gather in the temple to watch the opera. . If a creditor comes to the temple that night to press for debt, firstly, the crowd will be crowded and it will be difficult to find the person, and secondly, the poor people will crowd in and attack him. Therefore, the New Year's Eve performances at Wanshou Shangshu Temple are free for the poor to watch, and are commonly known as "debt avoidance plays." When the next day dawned, it was already the first day of the first lunar month, which was regarded as the Chinese New Year. It was inconvenient for creditors to ask for money from the poor, otherwise they would also feel unlucky.

Folk funeral customs in Fuzhou

In the early years of Fuzhou, there was a set of unwritten rules for funerals, which have been continued until now. Many of them have been gradually reformed and simplified, but there are still residual traces.

For funerals, when a person dies, he must "do seven". Every seven days is called one seven, and seven or seven forty-nine days. Every seven days, Taoist priests are invited to do the ashram, or monks and nuns are invited to chant sutras. A table is set up before the funeral, and soup and rice are sung and incense is lit every morning and evening.

Secondly, men must mourn after their parents die. In ancient times, the death of a father was called an orphan son, the death of a mother was called a mourning son, and the death of both parents was called an orphan son. It is very embarrassing to be in mourning, so there is a saying in Fuzhou that mocks people for their ugly appearance, "really like a lonely and mournful son", which means this.

When a person who is old dies, there are rules for posting plain posts (i.e. obituaries) and "screens". He calls himself an "unfilial man" on plain posts and screens. The first seven days of mourning usually begin. This day is called "Shangxiao". Before going to mourning ceremony, men have to get a haircut and shave their beards, otherwise they have to wait until 7:00 p.m. on July 49th to get a haircut. Men wearing linen clothes, a hemp hat, straw sandals, a straw rope tied around their waist, and two cotton balls hung on the hemp hat . When being buried, a filial man should hold a "filial son's staff", which is three feet long and covered with white paper. A filial son uses a stick, a wooden pole is used for father's death, and a bamboo pole is used for mother's death. This is the so-called "Chai Niangba (father), Zhu Niangnai (mother)".

"Having a Half-Duration"

The villages in the suburban counties of Fuzhou have long had a customary village celebration activity--Having a Half-Duration. The festivals in this village mostly take place during the off-farm time after the summer harvest and autumn planting every year, and they are all scheduled after the seventh month of the lunar calendar. The village celebration day is just after the halfway point of the lunar year. This year has passed the "half stage", so the village celebration activity is called "making half stage".

All neighboring villages have their festivals staggered once a year, so that each village can invite each other. Village celebration activities are non-stop, and the festive atmosphere is lively and lasting.

The villagers attach great importance to the banquet. In order to make the village celebration grand and dignified, they have made material preparations for the banquet as early as the first half of the year, fattening chickens, ducks, pigs and other livestock, and brewing wine. Rice wine; when we meet on the road, we always remind or tell each other, and the children in the village are even eager to do it.

At that time, the whole village was immersed in a joyful atmosphere, and the sounds of fist pumping and drinking could be heard one after another. Relatives and friends gather together to talk about family and friendship. At the banquet, people may discuss business, talk about mulberry and hemp crops, celebrate a good year with abundant crops and prosperous livestock, plan farming for next spring, and look forward to good weather and peace for the country and the people in the coming year. After several rounds of wine, the bright moon was in the sky. The guests had had enough wine and food and were ready to leave, while the guests from afar stayed overnight.