What are the customs or folk customs in Shunde?

The Spring Festival is a long-standing festival in China. Shunde people (including all Chinese) will do a general cleaning before the Spring Festival (see Figure 1), get rid of the old and welcome the new, and thoroughly clean their homes. During the Spring Festival Gala reunion, according to traditional customs, everyone will make dumplings (see Figure 2), fried dumplings, fried dumplings and steamed sponge cakes to eat. After the family reunion dinner in the evening, the children will go out to the street to do some work. On New Year's Eve, everyone has to wait until 12:00 before going to bed. This is staying up late on New Year's Eve.

During the day, everyone will go to the flower market (see Figure 3), walk around in the colorful world, buy some flowers to decorate the monotonous house, and add a touch of vitality to the home. Generally, people will buy a Huichun (i.e. couplet) and stick it on their doorstep

People who have time will go back to the countryside to visit relatives. Relatives and friends gather together to chat about daily life, career, and talk nicely. The children may be able to earn a lot of lucky money! Of course, setting off firecrackers is the favorite thing of naughty dolls. It is said that children in the past liked to throw firecrackers to scare the "lion" during the lion dance (see Figure 5), making the "lion" jump up in surprise and become very naughty.

2. The way of hospitality

When a guest arrives at home, the host will congratulate and bless each other with the guest. Then the host will serve tea to the guest and let the guest eat some candies and eat some melon seeds (see Figure 6) (Guangdong) The word "melon seeds" is pronounced "guayin", so the host lets you eat melon seeds, which also means making you rich), and the host often invites guests to dinner.

3. Funeral Ceremony

The funeral ceremony in Shunde is divided into three or seven periods (i.e. "periods"). Relatives of the deceased in the first phase will come to pay their respects (see Figure 7), light incense, offer white packets, put on mourning clothes, and mourn for a day (people who are over seventy-five years old no longer cry much after they die). On the second day, a lama (that is, a "monk") and a band were invited to perform beatings for three days and three nights, and finally sent to the crematorium for incineration.

In the second period, the family of the deceased will invite a "god" to their home, place the person's favorite meals in front of the deceased's grave, prepare a stack of paper money, and hold a wake-up ceremony for the deceased. , when the "God of Things" senses that the soul of the deceased has returned with a group of "soul friends", he will immediately stick the paper money on the deceased's soul. When "everyone" has eaten and drank enough, the paper money will automatically fall down. The second period is over.

4． Religious beliefs and religious festivals

Most Shunde people worship Guanyin Bodhisattva (see Figure 8), which belongs to Buddhism. Businessmen generally worship Guan Yunchang Guan Gong, whether at home or in their shop. There are also some local religious festivals:

1. In Xingtan, sometimes if you are lucky, you may see some people carrying the gorgeously dressed Guanyin Bodhisattva, parading through several streets. This festival is a temple fair, symbolizing good luck in the coming year.

2. Guanyin opens the treasury (see Figure 10 and 11): Every year on the 26th day of the first lunar month, it is the folk Buddhist festival "Guanyin Opens the treasury". It is said that Guanyin opens the treasury to give charity to the poor on this day every year, so some local places have their treasury opening day at the end of the year. The Guanyin Temple is crowded with people from poor families who burn incense and worship Buddha. Everyone hopes that Guanyin can help them and that the next year will be smooth and everything goes well. Surprisingly, this seemingly useless prayer has benefited many people.

5. Dragon Boat Festival Customs

The Dragon Boat Festival is a day to commemorate the great poet Qu Yuan. Back then, the patriotic Qu Yuan was so sad and angry when he saw the country declining step by step that he committed suicide by throwing himself into the Miluo River. People did not want his body to be eaten by fish, so they threw rice dumplings into the river. Over time, the Dragon Boat Festival was formed. In the local area, the Dragon Boat Festival is very important, so there are many special customs. Every Dragon Boat Festival, everyone makes rice dumplings (see Figure 12) (Method: buy rice dumpling leaves, blanch them in hot water to soften and remove bacteria, then use glutinous rice, red beans, mung beans, peanuts and seasoned pork Put it on the rice dumpling leaves, wrap it into a long shape, and finally put it in the steamer. The better the rice dumplings are wrapped, the smarter and more thoughtful you are.) Make dragon boat rice to eat. In addition, a grand dragon-drawing ceremony will be held here

6. Winter Solstice Festival

Winter Solstice is a very important solar term in the Chinese lunar calendar and is also a traditional festival. There are still many places that still have the custom of celebrating Winter Solstice Festival. Winter Solstice is commonly known as "Winter Festival", "Long Solstice Festival", "Yasui", etc. As early as the Spring and Autumn Period more than 2,500 years ago, our country had used Tugui to observe the sun to determine the winter solstice. It was the earliest formula among the twenty-four solar terms. The time is between December 22 or 23 of the Gregorian calendar every year. The locals say: "Winter brings Chinese New Year." In ancient times, the winter solstice was regarded as the Spring Festival. During the Chinese New Year, local people would buy good vegetables to worship their ancestors, especially whole chickens.

The winter solstice is regarded as the New Year's Day by Shunde people, and it's extremely lively!