What are the customs in Rudong?

A busy year

From "Laba" to the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, it is to prepare for the Chinese New Year in advance. Farmers began to make wine, and shops began to buy new year's goods (especially sacrificial supplies, such as incense sticks and paper horses) to supply Wang Shi. Handicraft workers aim at the market to process items needed for the Spring Festival, such as incense burners, candlesticks, pots and pans, children's toys and so on.

Ordinary people need to make or customize new clothes, new hats and so on. The market is becoming more and more active. In order to prevent fire and guard against theft, people began to "ring the bell" in the market town at night, and the atmosphere of the New Year became stronger every day.

On the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, "dust removal" began. That is to say, the furniture and household appliances inside and outside the courtyard are thoroughly cleaned and cleaned. Dust off the cobwebs in the corner of the roof and hang up the ash. Incense burners and candlesticks made of copper and tin are also polished with incense ashes. The indoor windows are bright and clean, and the home is completely new. The cleaning and hygiene work from 24th to New Year's Eve should be "four or four things", that is, dust removal, changing clothes, haircut and bathing.

After "dust removal", it officially entered the "busy year". Farmers began to slaughter pigs, sheep, chickens and ducks, dig ditches for fishing, steam steamed buns, pour rice cakes and make wine. People in the town also began to prepare Spring Festival dishes. Regardless of the urban and rural rich and poor, almost every family will speculate on "Fucai". Some also cook fish jelly beans, fried peanuts, broad beans, popcorn, fried rice, fried peanuts and rice sugar for children, and so on.

The old custom shop is closed from the first day of the first month to the fifth day of the first month. Before the end of the year, people should buy all kinds of goods during the festival, commonly known as "handling new year's goods". First of all, there are things like incense sticks and paper horses used to worship gods and ancestors, which are called "please make a fortune", and then door gods, couplets, wedding invitations, firecrackers, rice, noodles, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, cigarettes, wine and sugar. Spring Festival is the best selling season for tea and food. Many people want to buy as many colorful refreshments as possible with less money. In order to meet the needs of the masses, tea shops package all kinds of tea and food. The high-quality combination is called "Shangza" and the general one is called "Zhongza", which is cheap and good, and a kind of ingot-shaped bamboo basket packaging is popular.

From the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, shops began to settle accounts and collect debts until midnight on New Year's Eve. Friends and relatives also began to give gifts to each other, nothing more than fish, cakes, people, alcohol and tobacco, which are called "New Year gifts". Mao's son-in-law will give gifts to her parents-in-law, and there are many beautiful gifts. Mainly wine, sugar, fish, meat, and the rest are added at the discretion of luck, and the recipients are also rewarded.

Daogao

Farmers call steamed rice cakes inverted cakes. Steamed cakes have a cake mold, which is square and divided into several rectangular cells. The bottom plate is engraved with concave characters, which are generally "Fu, Lu, Shou, Cai", "No.1 scholar" and "Five scholars enter the subject". This kind of cake mold is rarely brought by rural farmers, and most of them are brought by steamed cake masters when they pour cakes for farmers. The residents of the town took their own rice noodles to the steamed cake shop for processing. The steamed cake master first takes a little edible "magenta" (a red additive), mixes it with rice flour crumbs, scatters it in the grooves of the cake molds, then puts a box with the same size on each mold, and pours the rice crumbs until the box is full. Then scrape the cover with a thin board and move it to the pot for steaming. There are several cake molds stacked on the steamer, and the hot water in the steamer is boiling. When the steam rises to the highest level, it is usually called round gas. Wait a moment, and you can put it down. At this time, a large piece of wet cloth was spread on the chopping board, and the cake fell on the wet cloth, hence the name "inverted cake". Small rectangular sticky cakes with red letters and red borders on all sides. When the hot air is exhausted, put your hands in cold water and put the wordless side of two cakes together to make a cake. This kind of cake is also called powder cake and box cake.

There is also a kind of Ciba, which is often steamed by farmers in Caobu and Xindian in this county during the New Year. It is long and square, with two red stripes embedded at both ends, much like cloth towels woven by farmers in the past, so it is also called "towel cake". In addition, farmers in Di Gong often steam a glutinous rice cake, which is very big, about 40 cm long, with a cross section of 15 cm square and a weight of about 2 kg. Steamed cake can be eaten many times.

steam mantou

At the beginning of the twelfth lunar month, farmers began to grind wheat into flour. At the end of the twelfth lunar month, choose a day to ferment steamed bread, which is to mix the prepared fermented water into flour. This starter must ferment well. There is a saying in the countryside: eat steamed bread well and punch more. This means that when talking about yeast, you must clench your fist and rub it hard, and some simply step on it with your feet, so that the yeast will be done well and the steamed bread will be round, tough and delicious. It's cold in winter, so put the prepared yeast in a bathtub or jar, cover it with cotton-padded clothes and pad it. In the evening, when the fermented product grows, you can steam the steamed bread. According to folklore, the most taboo steamed bread is coming. In this way, people's steamed buns are not so round and loose, and even very strong. Therefore, in rural areas, most people will not go to this one if they know who steamed steamed buns. If you really want to go, you just stand by and shout at your host and never enter the house. Rural steamed buns are also steamed by neighbors. The day before, everyone weighed the flour and brought it. It was fermented in a spacious house. When steaming steamed bread, bring a pot and firewood. Women knead dough and make steamed bread. If you steam stuffed buns, bring your own mixed stuffing. Every household's steamed bread has fallen out of its cage. Let's take out some for everyone to taste and see whose steamed bread is crisp and delicious.

Rural steamed buns are mostly steamed buns borrowed from other people's homes. As long as a dozen families have a steamer, they can turn around. In the twelfth lunar month, farmers who have a steamer will wash the steamer that has been idle for a year early and prepare to lend it to their neighbors. Cage owners arrange their work and rest time according to the agreement of each household, and steam until the 28th of the twelfth lunar month. As a token of gratitude, every family does not forget to put a drawer full of steamed bread when they return the steamer.

Please make a big contribution to the paper horse

The so-called "paper horse" is a sacrificial object in the old society, that is, a bodhisattva statue engraved on paper with wood, also known as bodhisattva paper. In the past, the "paper horse shops" all over the old streets of Digang were also a major feature of local commerce. Every year before the Spring Festival, every household goes to the "paper horse shop" to buy new year's goods, which is also called "please make a fortune". Large families in rural areas made a special trip to the streets at the beginning of the twelfth lunar month to invite new year's goods. Merchants in the town generally "please make a fortune" before the 24th of the twelfth lunar month. Some time-honored "paper horse shops" have relatively stable customers. These shops have detailed customer lists, which are well prepared, and they will also provide them with corresponding incense products on their own initiative as needed.

If you want a big meal, usually two people go shopping in the big countryside. After you ask for it, they take it home. At noon, the paper horse shop will treat you to a hearty lunch. Most towns are invited to their homes at night, carrying lanterns. Some people carry it home with baskets, while others carry it home with bamboo rafts. There are three specifications of paper horses: glossy paper is for the table, 65-sided paper is for the foreign table, the best is the golden dragon table, and the lower part is filled with a sacred cabinet, which is very spectacular. There is also a simple "paper horse" that is only half the size, with a little paper lining instead of "upper forehead". This is an economical "paper horse" that ordinary people can't wait for.

The number and variety of paper horses vary from person to person. Usually, there are also some industries that offer sacrifices to gods to celebrate their birthdays, which is what they need. For example, on the fifth day of the first month, please ask the God of Wealth to celebrate Marshal Zhao Gong's birthday. May 13, please "Guandi"; May 18, please "all day"; Please invite Guanyin on February 19, June 19 and September 19; June 24th, please ask Raytheon and so on. Usually, please "paper horse" when you are seated in the right place, with the same big incense and candles, firecrackers are ringing to pray for the blessing of the gods, so as to eliminate disasters and reduce happiness. In addition to the "paper horse", it is also necessary to provide incense, candles, ingots, yellow yuan and other sacrifices for the gods. Please come to the door at night and hang the lantern marked with the name of the hall at the door of the hall first. Then, the big ones are distributed in the sacred cabinets (cabinets with ancestral tablets and shrines).

On New Year's Eve, the bones of ancestors are hung up first, which is called "hanging capacity" (the bones of ancestors are kept by the eldest son). At the same time, the "paper horses" should be placed according to the rules, the "family hall" should be placed in a suitable position, and the others should be placed in order. Then, dates, persimmons, red cakes and holy steamed bread are served, incense candles are lit, firecrackers are set off and worship is performed. For the first time, the whole family should pay homage according to their seniority. If someone in this family lives outside, even if the traffic is tight, they should go back to their hometown to reunite with their families before the Spring Festival. The "hanging capacity" after the sacrifice, but also by the elderly to tell the family history in detail This is different from the "Tomb-Sweeping Day" and "July and a half" ceremony, but the most grand "ancestor worship" ceremony in a year.

People generally worship paper horses until the 18th day of the first month (when lanterns fall), that is, to thank God. At that time, the ancestors' bones were taken down and kept by the eldest son. Then all the "paper horses" on the sacred ark were put in the brazier in the middle of the courtyard and sent to the sky (incinerated) with cypress branches and yellow watches. Some people don't thank God for sending paper horses until the lights are turned off on the second day of February.

Spring Festival couplets

During the Spring Festival, every household should put couplets on the door. In the past, rural people often asked educated people to write Spring Festival couplets. In recent years, when the town is closed, it is often Mr. Xue who puts a small table on the street, with paper, pen and inkstone on it. All kinds of omnipotent Spring Festival couplets and blessings are hung behind him with strings for people to choose from. More people write Spring Festival couplets on the spot according to the requirements of buyers.

There are many kinds of Spring Festival couplets, which can be divided into door heart, frame pair, cross string, spring strip and bucket square according to the place of use. Posting Spring Festival couplets, commonly known as "posting couplets", is usually posted on New Year's Eve (or 29). The "door core" is attached to the center of the upper end of the door panel; The "door frame pair" is attached to the left and right door frames; "Cross-dressing" is attached to the crossbar of the lintel; "Spring strips" are posted in corresponding places according to different contents; "Dou Jin", also known as "door leaf", is a square diamond, often attached to furniture and screen walls. Most of the rice cabinets and grain depots in the farmhouse, pigsty and sheep shed outside the house are upside down with the word "Fu" in a square and diamond shape, or the words "Lucky for Wealth and Treasure" are combined into one word based on the word "Gold", and some of them are connected up and down to express the desire to pray for wealth.

The legend of Hades is that Shen Tu and Lei Yu can catch ghosts. Later, people painted the portraits of Shen Tu and Lei Yu on two mahogany boards and hung them on both sides of the door to ward off evil spirits. Because the ancients believed that peach wood was the essence of five trees and could subdue all ghosts. Door gods in rural areas are mostly printed on stones or wood. Qin Bao Shu has a white face and a bright face, holding an iron mace and sticking it on the left; Wei Chijingde has a dark face and an angry face. He holds Strafe in his hand and sticks it on the right. In addition to Qin, there are Zhao Yun, Ma Chao and Xue. In addition to military commanders, there are also folk door gods and praying door gods. The door gods of civil servants are mostly related to promotion and wealth, while praying for the door gods is linked to having more children and more happiness and prolonging life. Sometimes the two are paired. For example, the guardian of the heavenly official (or the champion) is often paired with the goddess who sent the child. In addition, there are XiShen, Hehe Erxian, Liu Hai and Lucky Boy. Doorman's paintings are also colorful. Some wear tiger helmets, some wear dragon robes to hang, some have New Year pictures, and some mascots are added, such as Jue Lu, Bat, BMW, bottle saddle and other festive patterns, homophonic "Jue Xi, Ma Baoping" to pray for good luck. Door gods and Spring Festival couplets are both evolved from peach symbols. From the earliest exorcism, it has gradually become a special form for people to express their good wishes.

Happy notes

It is a special ornament of Rudong Spring Festival, which belongs to paper cutting and hand carving. Cut it into a rectangle with red paper and the bottom is spike-shaped. The small one is about half a foot wide, nearly a foot long, and the big one is as wide as one foot three and can be as long as two feet. About a quarter of the top is uncut, and about an eighth of the left and right sides are uncut. The rest are the core of happy notes. Carved patterns are mostly diamond or moire continuous patterns with hollowing out in the middle. The lower edge of the invitation is carved into a row of bulging diamonds, just like small lanterns. The heart of the edition is engraved with the words "good luck, good luck, longevity, happiness and wealth", "good luck in the new year", "good harvest" and "good luck". Generally, only one word is engraved on one sheet, and four or five sheets are a set. In addition to the general words of blessing and greeting, the letterhead is also engraved with figures, mascots and other patterns. Loud treble is used in the concierge, the gate and the central hall of the main hall. Small notes are usually attached to the lower edge of general gates or lintels, fluttering with the wind, echoing Spring Festival couplets and door gods.

New Year's Eve is called "Thirty Nights" in the East. On this morning, in the preparation for the New Year, we should "check for leaks and fill gaps" and burn scriptures to worship ancestors at noon. In the afternoon, I began to post blessings, couplets and invitations. The evening celebrations reached a climax. The dinner that day was the most abundant in the whole year. All the dishes that have been prepared are put on the table, and the family has a reunion dinner. On New Year's Eve, local people cook more "Yuanbao rice". After cooking, they served the rice, and then simmered the rice crust until it was golden yellow, which looked like an ingot, also called "Yuanbao rice crust", and saved it for next year for good luck.

On New Year's Eve, local farmers often light sesame stalks "roasted gold ingots" in kitchen pots, burn "Tianlitou Stone" with pig heads, and even go to the fields to light dried rice roots and weeds. This is called "simmering hundreds of insects", so that there will be fewer insects and more harvests in the coming year. In the town, people light lanterns in front of the door (they don't stop until the lights are turned off on the 18th day of the first month), burn cypress branches, insert sesame stalks (commonly known as "cash cow" and "rising sun"), light pagodas, set off firecrackers and pray for peace and good luck. Some large families also order "big incense" (actually sandalwood, also called Indian incense), which is full of intoxicating fragrance.

In the past, on New Year's Eve, every family had to "hoard things", and put a white stamp on the house and yard with a special round-bottomed small pu, that is, hoard things, indicating that money and food are full, and at the same time, it also means that the town house can ward off evil spirits.

After dinner, elders should give their children lucky money. In the past, lucky money was wrapped in red paper and put on a pillow, and you could spend it at will the next day. At the same time, there are things like peanuts and dates hidden on the pillow, which are called aging fruits. When giving lucky money, adults tell children to speak smoothly and don't talk nonsense from tomorrow (New Year's Day). Some people also wipe their mouths with toilet paper before going to bed to seal their mouths. It means that if a child says something unlucky at the beginning of the new year, it is equivalent to farting. Moreover, during the Spring Festival, "children's words are unscrupulous" and they have not been investigated, let alone abused children.

the Spring Festival; Chinese New Year

On the morning of the first day, the person in charge got up first. After washing, incense and candles are lit in front of the paper horse statues and ancestors' happy faces (portraits) on New Year's Eve, offerings are placed, and firecrackers are set off at the door, which is called "opening the door to make money" and "connecting heaven and earth". Then, women and children got up and put on new clothes, shoes and hats. In the smoke of cigarettes, the younger generation knelt down to the elders in turn to pay New Year greetings.

After these ceremonies, the family had a family reunion dinner. Most family reunions are vegetarian. Shepherd's purse and tofu are essential, which means "gathering wealth" and "replacing wealth". After the reunion dinner, the children went out to play There are some lively places in the street, full of people, singing western scenery, putting Wuxi clay figurines, kneading dough and pulling cages (shaking diabolos), which is very lively.

After the reunion dinner, adults play cards or chat at home. Generally don't go out to visit relatives and friends. When you are away from home and meet people on the road, you should say "congratulations" to each other and wish each other "a rich New Year". On the first day of junior high school, women don't sew clothes to mend shirts, take brooms, sweep the yard, pour sewage and remove dust from the furnace, which is called "Jubao".

On the second day of the first month, the owners of some industries and shops (such as fish shops and grocery stores) go to the shops early in the morning to burn incense, light big candles and worship the god of wealth. When you burn the market, you should offer Yuanbao chicken (rooster), and put a chicken feather in the head, wings and tail of the chicken to show good luck, pig head and catfish (its homonym means "more than one year"). The boss kowtowed to the statue of the god of wealth and prayed for prosperity in the new year and the new year. After the big store set up the offerings, the boss, the shopkeeper and all the staff kowtowed to the Bodhisattva Paper Horse in Lishi and set off firecrackers at the same time. Have dinner at noon and Lee's wine (fishing line has dinner at night). On this day, when the apprentice enters the store, he should first pay New Year greetings to the master and mistress, who will give them red envelopes respectively. Some families, after worshipping God the next morning, began to visit relatives and friends, pay New Year greetings and eat New Year's wine. When visiting relatives and friends, bring gifts, such as tea, cakes, cigarettes and alcohol. New Year greetings and drinking wine can last until the first half of the first month. Some relatives and friends who don't often walk around on weekdays also take the opportunity to catch up with each other and express their affection and friendship at this time.

On the third day of the first month, several shops opened one after another, but they only opened for half a day and closed in the afternoon. The first business you do, big or small, is called "making money" It should be wrapped in red paper, lit with incense and offered to the statue of the god of wealth.

Most theaters and theaters also started singing on the second and third days. In order to increase the atmosphere of Chinese New Year and improve the box office rate, Dragon and Phoenix are often staged and sung for many days.

On the fourth day of the first month, merchants take stock of goods to prepare for the official opening. When recording, you should first weigh the straw rope (a symbol of 1000 yuan). The grocery store counts the paper ingots first, and then the goods in stock.

The fifth day is God of Wealth Day. Early in the morning, all the shops went to the store to worship the God of Wealth, lit incense candles, burned sesame stalks, cash cows (pine and cypress branches), yellow yuan and paper ingots, burned the paper horse of the God of Wealth invited back for the New Year, and removed the table dedicated to the God of Wealth on the 30th. This is the end of the new year's sacrifice to the gods. At the same time, the store officially opened, and invited the employees in the store to have the God of Wealth wine with the whole family in the evening.

As soon as the shop opened, there came people who jumped the Black Dragon, the God of Wealth, Taoism and Jiaguan. These people are wearing paper hats and costumes of the God of Wealth, some wearing official faces (masks), or alone, or in company with two or three people, holding gold ingots and silver ingots with the words "Lucky for Wealth" and "Fighting for Gold by the Day" and dancing in front of the store. Most of the lyrics are "the main family is rich like a tide, and the gold and silver treasures are moving", which makes the shopkeeper elated and busy taking out copper coins for charity. These people took copper coins, said "Congratulations to the boss for making a fortune", and then went to another shop to continue begging.

Turning on the lights, turning off the lights and Lantern Festival The whole process from the 13th to 18th day of the first lunar month is called Lantern Festival or Lantern Festival. "Put the lanterns round and put them on the water" is a dietary custom to celebrate the Lantern Festival in Rudong.

The 13th day of the first month is commonly known as "putting lanterns". From this day to the evening of the 18th day of the first month, people will light lanterns in front of the bodhisattvas they worship, or hang lanterns on their doors. Eating jiaozi on the day of lighting shows that the prelude to the Lantern Festival has been opened; The fifteenth day of the first month is a sunny day, and every family will have dinner and eat cooked mushrooms and water chestnuts. It is said that eating for one year will not cause throat diseases. There are two kinds of making Yuanxiao: one is solid without stuffing; The other is stuffed, which can be boiled, fried and steamed. The stuffing is vegetarian, sweet and salty. Sweet ones are red bean paste, jujube paste, sesame chips and peanut crisp, with sugar, lard and osmanthus; Salty is the stuffing of vegetables or fresh meat, which has a unique style. If you use dumplings without stuffing as dessert, you should add sweet-scented osmanthus sugar, distiller's grains or red beans and lotus root starch, which is sweet in the mouth and can also drive away the cold. In short, eating Yuanxiao on the Lantern Festival is intended to bless the family's reunion and harmony. Eating peanuts, nuts, children's riding lights, rabbit lights or portable lights after meals is the climax of the Lantern Festival. In rural areas, burning weeds in the fields is called "whistle fire". Until the 18th day of the first month, it is called "Little Lantern". In the evening, noodles are used to worship ancestors, and the bodhisattva paper that is no longer worshipped at ordinary times is incinerated, and the offerings are removed. You should eat noodles when you turn off the lights. The noodles you eat when you turn off the lights must be long and thin. It is hoped that the Lantern Festival will last for a long time and have the meaning of prolonging life.

On the second day of February, it will be "great light". On this day, only noodles were used to worship the gods and ancestors, and then the lanterns fell and burned, and the New Year's activities were all over.

During the Lantern Festival, the streets and alleys of Rudong Town are full of laughter and crowds. The folk proverb "Thirteen or four gods watch the lamp, fifteen or six people watch the lamp, seventeen or eight ghosts watch the lamp" says that there are many people watching the lamp, and people, ghosts and gods are happy. There are many kinds of lanterns, such as figure lanterns, such as "Zhong Kui hits the bat", "Liu Hai hits the toad", "Goddess scattered flowers" and so on. There are animal lights such as triumphant and unicorn pine nuts. There are lanterns such as lotus flowers, and all kinds of lanterns are beautiful. Accompanied by colorful lights, there are many acrobatics, such as boating on the lake, jacquard, walking on stilts, throwing flower baskets, fishermen fighting with mussels and so on.