Why does Shanxi put a pile of coal in front of individual shops and light it on New Year's Eve?

As the oldest custom, Shehuo has a history of thousands of years in China. It comes from primitive religious belief, is the product of ancient witchcraft and totem worship, and is a religious activity used by ancient people to worship God. "Society" is the god of the land, and "fire" can drive away evil spirits and take refuge. Sacrifice to social gods, singing and dancing, is intended to pray for good weather, good harvests, peace and prosperity for the country and the people, and all the best.

The word "social fire" first appeared in the Song Dynasty. The eighth volume of Dream of China in Tokyo records that on June 24th, the birthday of Erlang God in Huankou, there was a music shed on the terrace in front of Erlang Temple, and there was a "social fire on the terrace". During the Han, Wei, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui, Tang and Southern Song Dynasties, there were still large Nuo ceremonies in the imperial city on New Year's Eve, which were gradually replaced by social fires and melted into them. It can be seen that the folk social fire in the Song Dynasty is all-encompassing and full of weather. At that time, the social fire was composed of sacrifice, witchcraft, Nuo ceremony, acrobatics, music and dance, joining the army and folk acrobatics. From the first day to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the village community organized festivals and competitions to welcome the gods, including pole climbing, jumping, skipping, sumo wrestling, drumming, singing, cockfighting, nonsense, juggling, commercial puzzles, Hesheng, Qiao's bones and muscles, Qiao's sumo wrestling, prodigal son, zaju, learning to be like a student, throwing knives, pretending to be a student and so on. When performing social fire, masks are essential. On the first night, people carefully drew all kinds of faces so that they could perform on the stage the next day.

According to Shaanxi folk artists, during the Zhou Dynasty, Zhou Wuwang led the troops to cut down, and the army went to the foot of Qilin Mountain, but was blocked by Master Wen stationed at the foot of the mountain. Jiang Ziya also attend to not top, let the soldiers put on the mask of the magic will go into battle and shout abuse. They are all terrible and fierce, as if they had fallen from the sky. Master Wen didn't know whether it was true or not, so he thought it was God's will and pulled out the village and fled. After this incident was introduced to the people, the folk custom of painting faces to chase ghosts came into being, and it gradually merged into the social fire. Academic circles generally believe that the origin of Facebook is Nuo dance in Zhou and Qin Dynasties. Nuo is a religious ceremony in ancient times. "Nuo" was originally a legendary bird, and later it was personified and became a sacrificial performance. Nuo dance is a religious dance based on Nuo sacrifice in Zhou Dynasty. Nuo is characterized by wearing masks and singing and dancing. Wizards wear masks engraved with totems and dress themselves up as gods. Once a wizard wears a mask, ordinary people become "gods". Masks play a role in the transformation between man and god here, and are indispensable props for witchcraft.

This custom still exists in today's social fire. The traditional social fire in Baoji area can be talked and laughed before the actors "open their faces". Once you "open your face", you are not yourself and you can't talk casually. This is also a legacy of primitive witchcraft.

With the development of society, the social fire preserved in ancient times has been integrated and given new content, and its manifestations have been improved day by day, injecting elements such as folklore, opera stories and heroes. The core social fire performed by villagers in chencang district, Baoji City is to fix a 2-3-meter-high steel bar on a platform, and make various objects such as tigers, cotton and clouds on the steel bar with colored paper. Boys and girls dressed in ancient costumes dressed as drama characters put on various shapes on steel bars.

Social fire, which has lasted for thousands of years, has become an important cultural custom in the first month of each year in Baoji, Shaanxi Province. Baoji is also known as "the hometown of social fire in China".