Folk customs of Anji Spring Festival

Folk customs of Anji Spring Festival: killing pigs, celebrating the New Year, cleaning the ashes, preparing new year's dishes and celebrating the New Year's Eve.

1. Killing the Year Pig

There is still a hundred-year-old custom in Dongxiang village of Wanshan Special Zone in Guizhou Province-Killing the Year Pig.

In a blink of an eye, it's the twelfth lunar month of the lunar calendar. Every twelfth lunar month, it's the villagers in this Dong village who are busy killing Nian pigs. On the one hand, they celebrate the New Year and entertain relatives and friends. On the other hand, they can be salted into bacon to improve their life for a year.

But the villagers in Dong Village will not hire a butcher to help them kill Nian Pig at will, but they are very particular: choose an auspicious day and enter the twelfth lunar month, and the villagers in Dong Village will hire a gentleman as a good day to kill Nian Pig; Choose a butcher, and choose a capable butcher with good economic conditions and experience in killing Nian pigs in the village to kill Nian pigs. In this way, it is expected that the pigs will be fed smoothly in the coming year; Pick a helper.

2. Spend the Lunar New Year

After the Lunar New Year on the 23rd, the pre-holiday preparations will be started. From this day on, it means entering the Chinese New Year.

The main activity in the off-year is to offer sacrifices to the kitchen, also called offering sacrifices to the kitchen. The sacrifice to the kitchen was originally one of the five sacrifices in ancient times, and it was in summer. It is said that Fang La, the Yin son of the Han Dynasty, became rich by offering sacrifices to the antelope.

Therefore, it was changed to the twelfth lunar month. In the Tang and Song Dynasties, it was set on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month. In the Ming Dynasty, it was changed to "three people in the army and four people in the government" or "three people in the government and four people in the government". That is to say, the army and the government sacrificed stoves on the 23rd, and the common people sacrificed stoves on the 24th.

3. Cleaning the dust

is a thorough cleaning. As the saying goes, "Say goodbye to the kitchen, and the New Year is coming."

after the primary school, the first important agenda is to clean the ash. In terms of time, you can choose a sunny and warm day from the 24th to 26th of the twelfth lunar month.

Because in a year, due to various taboos and habits, thorough cleaning is rarely carried out, so on the day of ash cleaning, the whole family started to work together. Everything that can be moved, or things that have not been moved due to taboos, including tables, chairs, cabinets and clothes, were all moved, some moved to the yard, and some moved to the middle of the house.

the whole family swept and wiped, and cleaned the house up and down, inside and out, with a few bright windows.

4. Prepare New Year's dishes

Prepare the last day before the full festival on the 29th of the twelfth lunar month. Before that, offerings and staple foods for people's festivals have been prepared, and all that remains is to prepare New Year's dishes.

there are two kinds of new year's dishes: human food and divine offerings. Vegetables for human consumption include Chinese cabbage, radish, spinach, onion, coriander and so on. Chinese cabbage is stripped of old leaves, radish is cut into shredded radish, and spinach and coriander are also selected to go to Ye Er. In addition to the above, people in coastal areas also have asparagus dyed red. On the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month, in addition to making human food and God-given dishes into semi-finished products, it is mainly fried food.

5. New Year's Eve

The thirtieth day of the twelfth lunar month includes the twenty-ninth birthday, and Rongcheng is customarily called New Year's Eve.

Tiedui Rongcheng is commonly known as Tiechun couplets, but in a strict sense, Tiedui is slightly different from Tiechun couplets. Posting couplets is in the early morning. Mothers prepare new clothes and hats and put them on their children's pillows. When children wake up, they wear new clothes, open the door with their father with a paste basin, set off firecrackers first, blow away bad luck and poverty, and then post couplets.

The content of "Dui" has a strong sense of the times. In the Qing Dynasty, many people used such things as "the revival of one yuan, the rejuvenation of all things" and "the first spring in the Xiangyang family is always there, and the rich people celebrate more than enough". Even when Yuan Shikai was in power, the national emblem was turned into five colors, and the people's flag was set in all directions.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the content of "Dui" mostly praised the party's kindness, such as "Wan Li is green in the spring breeze, and the party is gracious to Kyushu" and "the scenery is unique here, and there are so many beautiful mountains and rivers".

Extended information

Evolution of organizational system in Anji County

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, class contradictions intensified, so the jurisdiction of Yan County was vast (including the whole territory of Anji County, a part of southwest Changxing County, the whole territory of Guangde County in Anhui Province and a part of Langxi County). In order to strengthen control, the feudal rulers in the second year of the Yellow Scarf Uprising, that is, the second year of the Han Emperor Zhongping (185).

Anji county was founded here.

in the first year of Tang Linde (664), Anji county was restored and transferred to Huzhou.

In the 26th year of Kaiyuan (738), the county government was moved to the north near the site of Ancheng Town.

After the Yuan Dynasty destroyed the Southern Song Dynasty, the imperial court relied heavily on the southeast region for food and property, so the taxes were heavy.

at the end of the yuan dynasty, peasant uprisings were surging, and Anji was occupied by Xu Shouhui department, followed by Zhang Shicheng department, and was occupied by Zhu Yuanzhang department in the 16th year (1356).

After that, Zhang and Zhu fought for more than 1 years.

On November 17th, 1911, the third year of Qing Xuantong, Anji and Xiaofeng counties responded to the Wuchang Uprising and immediately expelled the magistrate of Qing Dynasty.

in the first year of the Republic of China (1912), county offices were established in the two counties.

In the third year of the Republic of China (1914), the abandoned government set up a road, and Anji and Xiaofeng counties belonged to Qiantang Road.

in the fifth year of the Republic of China (1916), it was renamed the county government.

On May 1st, 1949, China People's Liberation Army liberated Anxian and Filial Piety counties.

in early June, the county committees and people's governments of Zhong * * * An and Xiao counties were established.

the custom of killing pigs in the new year

killing pigs is a big event in northeast farmers, because the average family is only once or twice a year, which is almost equivalent to a holiday.

There are people who are good at killing pigs in every village. They "handle knives", which not only do a clean job, but also don't "spoil" (waste) useful things, and tidy up the pig's meat, head, hoof, water (viscera), blood, bones and other parts in an orderly way, and classify them into different categories, each for its own use.

Of course, these pig-killing tricks should also be paid. Usually, a part of the head, hoof and water is given as a reward, and the pig-killer does not refuse, because this is a well-established practice.

On the day of killing pigs, the host family invites close relatives and friends to gather for a banquet, which is not only to connect feelings, but also to celebrate. There are restaurants specializing in "killing pig dishes" in Northeast China so far, which in some ways follow the folk custom.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Anji County

Baidu Encyclopedia-Killing Year Pig