Lujiang customs 14: Lujiang people's living customs and old etiquette

When rural farmers sow their seedlings for the first time every year, the old custom is to sacrifice to Shennong and the land. In the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, they had to get up early to pull out seedlings and set off firecrackers, eat Yuanxiao noodles early and hold a banquet in the afternoon. I wish a good weather and a good harvest in a year. On the day of transplanting, the villagers were invited to drink "yellow mud wine", eat four pieces of rotten meat, transplant rice and shout (that is, sing) yangko, cut grass and shout folk songs. Keel waterwheel (wooden) is used for farmland irrigation. When boiling water, it is customary to count the revolutions (that is, every car is full of water), and when it is counted, it will sing in a certain tone, with a loud voice, high mood, cadence and refreshed. Many farmers also like to shout folk songs when plowing. When the rice and wheat are ripe, farmers first cut a small piece of rice or wheat to "taste the new", indicating that the crops are about to be harvested; Picking rice in autumn, playing hehe, shows the joy of harvest. Eat summer tea (mung bean porridge) between classes to prevent heatstroke and cool down. Big farm work (including building houses) is done through neighbors, relatives and friends, or by asking people for help, so that we can concentrate on it on sunny days. The diet is mainly rice, with miscellaneous grains such as flour and sweet potato. Usually 1 meal dry rice (Chinese food) and two meals porridge (breakfast and dinner) in rural areas; Eat 4-5 meals in busy farming season, and have the habit of eating "summer tea" and "topping" (add 1 meal in the morning and afternoon). Most people like to drink tea and have the old habit of having morning tea and breakfast. Pickled vegetables in winter, especially in rural areas, pickled mustard, cabbage, radish and so on. As the main course, urbanites marinate spiced dried radish. I am used to pickling fish, ducks and pork legs in winter and making sealed chicken, fish and sausages. Villages in rural mountainous areas are scattered in disorder, and residents in polder areas often build houses along polder banks. Village names such as Li Laowu, Zhangzhuang, Zhaoyun and Xia Yuan are all named after clan surnames. Accustomed to several generations living under one roof, houses more than 20 years ago were generally earthen walls and grass roofs, low and humid, warm in winter and cool in summer. Lujiang people's old customs Lujiang people greet each other when they meet. When they want to meet at dinner, they will ask if they have eaten. When asking questions, the word "excuse me" is often used to call the elderly or elders "old people", while the peers between men and women call them "gangster families", and some elders call the younger generation "gangster families", but men can't call women "gangster families". Lujiang people are always hospitable. On weekdays, tourists shake hands and talk happily. At the reception, they offered cigarettes, poured tea, sat with them and stayed for dinner. When entertaining guests, please ask the elders to take the lead, while the others sit around the table. When they bid farewell, they also said, "The hospitality is poor. I hope to come often in the future." There are also habits of giving wedding gifts, birthday gifts, funeral gifts and meeting gifts. Marriage mainly depends on the words of matchmakers and the lives of parents. Old-fashioned foreign-related marriage, cousin marriage, menstruation cousin marriage, finger-belly marriage, cradle marriage, child bride, etc. The traditional wedding sequence is a whole set of procedures, such as fate, visiting relatives, blind date, hiring media, handing out Geng stickers, receiving bride price (a festival in North Korea), getting married the next day and choosing a date. On the wedding day, put couplets on the door, put "Double Happiness" on the window, and invite friends and relatives to get together to celebrate the wedding. Paint the recruits' faces red with matchmakers such as pots and straw ropes to show happiness. Before the woman gets on the sedan chair, she has the habit of "crying to marry". The girl wants to "cry", mainly because her parents are reluctant to part with their children and accompany their brothers and sisters. There is a folk saying that "a scholar laughs when he falls off the list, and a woman laughs when she marries." Choose the right time to send a sedan chair, light a pair of candles above the main hall, worship the ancestors, cover the red hijab and carry it on the backs of elders or brothers. Dowry includes dates, cakes, peanuts, etc. , meaning "early birth" and so on. When you get to the man, close the door first, then pay homage to the bride and send her into the bridal chamber. That night, there were customs such as noisy rooms. After three days of marriage, people of all ages, regardless of age, have noisy rooms. On the third day of marriage, all the relatives and friends of the woman went to see the man. A month later, the bride and groom went back to their parents' home for a back-door meal. Her parents made a "full moon" and sent hemp baskets, scissors, needles and other needlework. Be pregnant in October and give birth once. Before her daughter goes into labor, her parents send "tea rush" or invite her to eat "rice rush". After giving birth, I will hold a "happy egg" to report good news to my parents-in-law and relatives and friends. On the ninth day after the baby was born, she washed the "Nine Dynasties", and her parents sent baby clothes such as chicken, eggs, sugar and rice noodles, and relatives and friends came to congratulate her. Bathe the child with dry wormwood water and throw a lot of copper coins into the bathtub. After washing, the children roll their heads with boiled eggs, worship the quartet and pat their heads with shallots, symbolizing their intelligence and longevity. 1 year-old held a "grasp the week" ceremony, pens, ink, sugar, rouge, toys, etc. Put them all in bamboo mats, and let the children grab them at will, which indicates the future. Lujiang has the habit of having a birthday. Every year, family members celebrate their birthdays by eating eggs and noodles to celebrate their longevity. At the age of 59, they held a grand event to celebrate their 60th birthday, commonly known as "doing nine but not ten". The funeral etiquette in the county is very complicated. When people are dying, they will burn paper foil, put on "old clothes" and set off a string of firecrackers. When they died, the relatives and friends present were crying, so they parked the bodies on the door panel of the hall, and then some neighbors and relatives "watched the old" and died. After the deceased entered the coffin, a mourning hall was set up, an obituary was issued, and his son and daughter-in-law wore hemp Dai Xiao. The coffin is kept at home for 7 days at the longest and 3 days at the shortest. The funeral was sent to the cemetery or buried, and it was "restored" on the third day after burial. Funeral for the dead over 60 years old is called "a white happy event". During the funeral, anyone can beg for a bowl of rice. After eating, they can quietly take away the bowls and lamps, which means they can live longer in the future. The popular season in China is the lunar calendar, which mainly includes Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day, Dragon Boat Festival, June 6, July 30, Mid-Autumn Festival, Double Ninth Festival, winter solstice, cooking closed (the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month), Lunar New Year (the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month) and New Year's Eve. The Spring Festival is the most grand. From the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, every household began to prepare for the Spring Festival, removing dust, steaming Baba, making rice and sugar balls with ginger juice, and frying jiaozi. The most important thing is to eat New Year's Eve dinner. On New Year's Eve, every family cleans up, and all the doors are pasted with Spring Festival couplets. Scholars write couplets, and the poor buy red paper. Intellectuals are invited to write couplets and cook three "sugar eggs" to show their respect for culture. Cook soup (chicken, meat) on the morning of the 30th, and adults and children will eat meat and drink soup to relieve their addiction. The whole family gets together. Before meals, ancestor worship activities were held, benches were placed on the backs, and ancestors were seated one by one. The first wine is for ancestors to drink first, and then the whole family begins to eat New Year's Eve. There are many dishes on the table, and there are fish on the table, mostly silver carp. Can't move chopsticks, symbolizing "more than a year". After the New Year's Eve, the elders give their children lucky money, stay up all night at night, light the ever-burning lamp and wait for the moment to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. Don't eat (rice), sweep the floor and take out the garbage for three days in the New Year, saying that it is to retain wealth. On the first day of the first month, open the door and fire the "opening gun". Everyone put on new clothes and went out in groups to pay New Year greetings to their elders and relatives. On the second day, the son-in-law usually goes to his parents' house, the nephew goes to his uncle's house, and the nephew goes to his uncle's house to pay New Year greetings. During the New Year in China, people are beaming, meet and greet each other, and friends and relatives pay New Year greetings to each other, drink "wine from previous years" and eat spiced eggs. Happy new year, tea and eggs move forward. "The seventh day" exorcises evil spirits, and firecrackers are set off in the morning. Women don't move needles or scissors. There is a folk saying that "I won't go out for seven days, I won't return on eight days, and I will go home on the ninth day of the ninth month." The fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the Lantern Festival, which is called "off-year" and there is a saying that "the fifteenth day is as big as a year". Eat Yuanxiao for breakfast to show reunion, and have lanterns in the evening, including dragon lanterns, shrimp lanterns, lion lanterns, dry boats, flower drum singing and other forms, especially dry boats, flower drum singing, impromptu words, seeing the scenery, one person sings first, two "Orchid Sisters" help to sing, and the audience sings together. Sometimes the two sides compete with each other and the crowd is empty. The Dragon Lantern in Huangtun, the Shrimp Lantern in Sheng Qiao, the Flower Drum Opera in Southern Shandong and the Lion Lantern in Fanshan are all famous. Every family must first light up, pick up the lights, set off firecrackers and give gifts (cakes, cigarettes, money, etc.). Sometimes, large families put expensive gifts on the roof beams, let the lion lanterns pass the "Eight Immortals Table" and the dragon lanterns play "Dragon Ball". After the Lantern Festival, people's entertainment, visiting relatives and friends and other activities are less and less. There is a folk saying that "after eating for half a month, everyone gets things done" and "Happy New Year in the first month and good farming in February". Lujiang people also have lively Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival. The fifth day of the fifth lunar month is the Dragon Boat Festival, which is a traditional festival in memory of the patriotic poet Qu Yuan. It is popular to eat zongzi wrapped in mung bean cake and taste "three fresh" (peach, apricot and mulberry). Every household inserts wormwood and calamus grass at the door to ward off evil spirits, burns Atractylodes rhizome to smoke mosquitoes, flies and insects at noon, drinks realgar wine at noon, eats realgar fried broad beans, hangs "Dragon Boat Festival Brocade" (including garlic and camphor) for children, takes the girl back to her mother's house, gives her a quilt, straw hat, towel and fan, and makes a big white coat for her mother. Dragon boat races are held every year in Lujiang Water Town, and people of all ages compete for the first prize (red silk, cakes, silver dollars, etc.). ) The 15th day of the eighth lunar month is the Mid-Autumn Festival. At this time, the agricultural harvest is a foregone conclusion, farmers celebrate the harvest, relatives and friends send moon cakes to each other, exchange greetings, eat dumplings for breakfast, and children go out to catch stone crabs. Chinese food is used to Chinese chestnut roast chicken, fish and shrimp as delicacies, drinking and having fun, enjoying the moon in the evening and tasting moon cakes, water chestnuts and peanuts. , and family reunion. The atmosphere is harmonious.