Yangquan July photography address

Is it a real sheep? Here in Yangquan, we are used to steaming noodles and giving them to each other on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month. This custom is rare now. However, some people still go to worship their ancestors, but it is on July 14, and it seems that there is also July 15.

After beginning of autumn, there was a Mid-Autumn Festival in Shanxi, where people steamed noodles to eat. For modern people, the noodle sheep is not a pure food, but its simple and simple shape, fresh and refreshing noodle fragrance and the teaching of repaying kindness and filial piety have left a nostalgic and faint warmth in the hearts of a generation.

The folk production of noodle sheep in Shanxi began in the ancient Mid-Autumn Festival. "The Book of Rites and the King System" said, "Anyone who has four festivals is called the Spring Festival and the Summer Festival? Autumn festival is delicious, winter festival is delicious? . "In the early autumn of July, when the five grains are newly ripe, they worship the heavens and tell their ancestors to" taste "("Dream of China in Tokyo "). Sacrificial ceremonies also used pure and complete colors of cattle and sheep, saying that "sacrifice" was a national event in ancient times, and later gradually became a folk custom. In Shanxi, some folks are frugal and arrogant, and grain and livestock are integrated. Each family makes sheep sacrifices and then eats them separately. Today, even in Shangdang area in the west of the mountain, there are steamed sheep with different shapes and grains, which is said to be related to Shennong's invention of grains.

Autumn Festival is scheduled for July 15, and there will be hundreds of years of evolution after that. The western Han dynasty unified the family with filial piety and respected Confucianism alone. The story of "Zhong You is in charge of rice" advises people to "do their best and think about things when they die", and the autumn festival focuses on ancestor worship. In the Northern Wei Dynasty, Taoism combined the three officials and the three realms into one, and designated July 15th as the "Central Plains" as the day for local officials to forgive sins (the supreme secret) to relieve Taoism's suffering from good and evil. Autumn Festival is also called "Central Plains Festival". In Liang Wudi, Buddhism designated July 15 as the Orchid Festival, and preached Buddhism with the story of "Saving the Eye Mother" to alleviate the suffering of the deceased. In history, the three religions were integrated in this "filial piety" festival, while in the past, Shanxi folk worshipped many gods and paid more attention to reciprocity.

One of the manifestations of this ceremony is that every family steamed noodles, in addition to offering sacrifices to ancestors, but also to relatives and friends, which is Jin's characteristic. Sheep shepherd their relatives, and the Lord sends their nephews. This custom originated from the legend that agarwood split the mountain to save the mother, and my uncle sent pigs to send sheep, but the most popular folk story in the north and south of Shanxi is "the crow feeds back, and the sheep kneels and milks". According to legend, the second child grew to 16 years old and was so stubborn that his mother had to let him help his uncle herd sheep. The second child always kneels when he sees the lamb nursing, puzzled. My uncle said that the lamb kneels and suckles because it knows how to be filial to its mother. The second boy saw several little crows running around, bringing live food to the old crows. Uncle said that this is the crow feeding back and repaying the kindness of raising. The second little boy woke up and said to his uncle, "I'm going home." I will listen to my mother and be a filial person when I grow up. " Since then, every year my uncle will send two little sheep to remind him to make good progress. Neighbors followed each other's example and steamed sheep instead, which gradually became this folk custom.

Pingding and other places also send sheep to newly married girls. "Pacify Zhou Zhi" contains, "In the middle of Yuan Dynasty, sacrifice first, save fruit, and recommend steamed noodles. Make a sheep image with flour, steam it and send it to the woman's house. There must be four sheep. The son-in-law will cut a piece and tie it in the living room with red silk thread. It will not be replaced until the next year when the new sheep are sent, which means "there is food in the year of the old sheep". Then the son-in-law eats sheep's head, the daughter eats sheep's feet, and the rest is cut and distributed to cousins and neighbors.

Face sheep not only has the meaning of repaying kindness and filial piety, but also has been applied to life etiquette, which has the symbolic meaning of "lifesaver". In Shangdang area, when the children are full moon, grandmothers and uncles will send five goats of different sizes, and use the homonym "Wu" to indicate that they keep company with the sheep. Among them, the big sheep wears a lock, hangs a red line on three ancient coins, and there is a "goat stone" next to it, indicating that the child is tied. 12 years old, grandma will send 12 goats to pick up the trunk rings 12. After the unlocking ceremony, the child took a goat and found a neighbor's house to change a handful of salt, indicating that he could enjoy life alone from now on. In Shouyang, Huozhou and other places, this custom evolved into pinching 12 sheep on a noodle pot and putting it around a child's neck to unlock it, which is called "noodle sheep" or "mutton buns". In southern Shanxi and northern Shanxi, 12 species of animals have evolved, and some have become dragons and phoenixes.

Flour-faced sheep are also diversified in the Mid-Autumn Festival, and various kinds of flower, bird, fish and insect flour products are emerging, especially flour fish and flour people. Sheep belong to yang and fish to yin, so in the north of Shanxi, people give sheep to boys and fish to girls, making two identical sheep or fish tails, which symbolizes the intersection of yin and yang. If three sheep are placed, it means "three yang open Thailand" and wishes the doll to grow sturdily. Noodles are produced in Dingxiang, Shanxi, which is the most peculiar. One of them is a four-year-old baby, a few chubby dolls, whose legs and arms are intertwined. Full shape, exquisite conception, amazing.

There are many kinds of sheep, which eventually have to fall into the belly for safety, but they should be dried on the fire, and it is best when they are yellow and crisp. Today is different from the past. Is there anyone still eating this delicious food in my memory? But in front of my eyes, it seems that there are two little shepherd boys, "the crow feeds back, the sheep kneels and milks", and "Luz tries his best, and the rice is negative." Zhong You, who was not an official, sighed endlessly and hid his face. Gao Yu sighed, "The tree wants to be quiet but the wind will not stop, and the child wants to raise it.". Face sheep inherits, sublates and innovates, hoping to become a four-season delicacy that moistens the hearts of modern people.