Luoding's traditional customs

From the perspective of festival folklore, all the important festivals of the Han nationality, such as New Year's Day, Lantern Festival, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Tanabata, Magnolia, Mid-Autumn Festival, Double Ninth Festival, Winter Solstice, New Year's Eve, etc. It is also an important festival in Luoding. Its content and meaning are basically the same, but the only difference is the expression and life content formed by form, region, people's feelings and living habits. Of course, there are also many variations in inheritance.

Meng Lanjie, also known as Mid-Autumn Festival, is called Ghost Festival in Lingnan and Ghost Festival in Luoding. The Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated on July 15th. According to the Buddhist tripitaka, Mulian's mother fell into the Hungry Ghost Road, and the food would melt into charcoal at the entrance. Mulian would ask the Buddha for advice, and the Buddha would make it into a basin, where she would offer exotic fruits and vegetables, and then Mulian's mother would get food. In the Mid-Autumn Festival in the north, Buddhist temples hold orchid festivals, and people hang money paper to prepare vegetarian dishes to worship their ancestors. July 14 is the Mid-Autumn Festival in Lingnan. It is said that at the end of the Song Dynasty, when people were preparing for the festival, Yuan soldiers suddenly invaded and had to sacrifice to their ancestors one day in advance. From then on, people used to celebrate this festival on July 14. Luo Ding has another saying: People are used to celebrating this festival on July 15. On this day, the Yao people all came down from the mountain and robbed the sacrificial food provided to the social workers in Abel Tamata, so they moved the festival forward one day to let the Yao people catch their breath. Since then, the Mid-Autumn Festival has been changed to July 14. On this day, in addition to offering sacrifices to ancestors, every household will burn incense, paper clothes and pave the way in the corner of the field, so that ghosts and ghosts can have a full meal and seek peace of mind, commonly known as "giving seclusion."

Cattle and sheep are sacrificed in the north, chickens are sacrificed in Luoding, and chickens and pork are sacrificed by ordinary people. Chicken should be whole, cooked, cut into small pieces after sacrifice, seasoned, delicious and smooth, while maintaining the original flavor of chicken, commonly known as "white-cut chicken" Because chicken is endowed with grand significance, besides offering sacrifices, it is also used to entertain guests, so there is a saying that "nothing can be done without chicken"

August 15th of the lunar calendar is the Mid-Autumn Festival. Most places in Luoding celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15, but there are also many places that celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival on August 16 or 14. It is said that it is because the ancestors carried the bridge for a living (some avoided saying that the ancestors carried the bridge, but said that the ancestors were officials and sat on the bridge). Because they came home late, everyone opened a platform to worship the gods. And I didn't prepare anything (sacrifice), so I decided to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival on 16, which has been handed down from generation to generation. As for the Mid-Autumn Festival in August 14, I don't know why. Mid-Autumn Festival in Yue Bai, the village is still popular to invite the moon god. In the village, in the dead of night, people of all ages sit around the "underground hall" and one person asks God. It is said that the moon god can be possessed, and the possessed person plays the role of the moon god, usually a woman, a bit like western hypnosis. In addition, the village also put lanterns (Kongming lanterns) and formed a team composed of young people in the village to compete for the landing of Kongming lanterns. The lantern grab is not limited by the terrain, and it is more spectacular than the lantern grab.

Lantern Festival is very grand in the north. Lantern Festival, also known as Lantern Festival and Shangyuan Festival, is popular and popular. Luoding customs, such as adding a man to the family, putting lanterns on the second day of the first month of next year, hanging lanterns on the trees of the village community, paying a New Year call to relatives at sunset on 16, and watching "Grab the Spring Lantern", whoever grabs the Spring Lantern will be lucky.

The festival closely related to China New Year is the winter solstice. Winter solstice is one of the 24 solar terms in the summer calendar, which is of great significance in agricultural production. Because the sun shines on the tropic of Capricorn from the winter solstice, it is the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. After the winter solstice, the days get longer and the weather gets warmer every day. The so-called "cloudy in summer and sunny in winter", the first month of the weekly calendar is winter to Sunday, which is the first day of the year. In Luoding people's minds, the solstice of winter has the weight of Chinese New Year, and there is even a saying that "winter is greater than the year". Rural areas attach great importance to the winter solstice, and every household holds ancestor worship activities, which are very serious and taboo. Like Chinese New Year, they like to seek Universiade.

In terms of marriage customs, Luoding generally has the custom of crying marriage. Generally, after the wedding day is set, or half a month ago, or three or five days ago, the girl to be married will no longer show up outdoors, stay at home all day, gather the usually friendly sisters together and learn to sing the crying wedding song. Most crying weddings will officially start three days before marriage. When they cry, they don't just cry, but cry in the form of songs. There are also different ways to cry and marry. One is rhyming without words, which uses the strength, length and speed of crying to create a rhythm and rhythm. Occasionally, there are a few lyrics that express a feeling of getting married, called "singing marriage", which can express strong feelings and changeable rocks. This kind of crying marriage is more joyful than worrying, and there are often scenes of crying and laughing. The other is a veritable crying marriage. Weeping marriage was originally a popular form. Not crying or singing is not normal. Generally speaking, rural women are accustomed to the autocratic nature of this kind of marriage and think it is a common practice. They are neither happy nor disgusted with getting married. They think it is necessary to cry before marriage, so they follow the steps. According to the singing method, crying method and fixed lyrics handed down from generation to generation by mother, it must be sung for three days in a row, commonly known as "lyrics". The lyrics have a songbook, but the bride knows nothing about the future fate, and her heart is full of sadness, fear and hesitation. Therefore, whenever she sings a wedding song, she can't help but show her true feelings and cry for her parents, brothers and sisters, neighbors, even dowry and bridge. When her feelings are hard to contain, she cries for a long time and sighs for a short time, which makes the listener sympathize. The third is to marry. Because of the dissatisfaction with the arranged marriage, I can't get rid of the expression of grief and pain accumulated in my heart, and there is nowhere to tell and vent, so I vent it by crying. Cursing marriage is also an established custom. A girl who wants to get married can have the right to choose the way to curse marriage. Whether it is scolding parents, scolding brothers and sisters-in-law, or scolding matchmakers, it is beyond reproach. People who are scolded must never express their dissatisfaction, let alone talk back. The more vicious they curse, the more auspicious they are. The custom of crying marriage gradually died out with the independence and enlightenment of marriage.

Wedding and funeral wedding is called wedding and funeral wedding. Marriage was originally happy, but it was made sad, while funeral was originally a tragic expression of grief, but it was made hot and fierce. Luoding's funeral custom likes cheering and beating, and firecrackers explode in the funeral procession. The more firecrackers are burned, the more the scenery is buried. Therefore, funerals can be seen everywhere.

"Engagement at the age of three" is a custom different from that of a child bride. Generally, when a child is three years old, both parents switch jobs, and then they become engaged. Later, if the woman dies before marriage, the man must take her memorial tablet back to the ancestral temple to worship, and her grave will be swept by the descendants of the man's family. After that, if the man marries again, it can only be regarded as the second room.

Although Luoding custom is dominated by Han culture, the custom of being alienated by ethnic minorities is still very prominent in rural areas. The status of Han women is generally low, and the phenomenon that men are superior to women is very common. In rural Luoding, the status and authority of uncle's power are greatly respected. There is a popular saying in rural areas that "thunder is in the sky, uncle is underground". My uncle has the right to ask questions about his nephew, no matter big or small, such as nephew's marriage, separation, divorce, parents' funeral, etc. My uncle has the right to ask questions. For example, if the brothers are separated, the village head has no right to ask, and the uncle can preside over the arbitration. This phenomenon of attaching great importance to uncle power is obviously a remnant and tortuous reflection of matriarchal clan commune, which originated from Baiyue ancient folk custom. Guangxi Zhuang nationality still retains this kind of heavy uncle right.

"Qi Dashu" and "Qi's family" are polytheistic worship customs with strong primitive religious color. The people retain the primitive religious legacy of believing in witches and ghosts, blindly believing in polytheism and chicken divination. People not only worship their ancestors, but also worship all kinds of self-made gods, such as boulders on the mountains, trees on the roadside, even crawling insects, snakes, birds and animals, and steep peaks. They can all be named as spiritual gods with different powers or functions at will, and they bow down and bow down devoutly. There are also many taboos in daily life. In rural areas, when a child is born, it is necessary to find a big tree or boulder to "sign a deed". Everything related to the child, no matter how big or small, should be given to "Master Qi" or "Mother Qi" to burn incense and restore the spirit. This "tree worship" or "stone worship" is a polytheistic custom left over by the ancient Baiyue people and a primitive religious concept passed down from generation to generation.