Laizhou dough sculpture legend

"Shengchong" is the main variety of Laizhou dough sculpture. In the rural areas of Laizhou, Yantai, it was first used to worship ancestors, and it was generally put in a grain depot, indicating that the harvested grain could not be eaten. Later, as a symbol of celebration, it was widely used in festive days such as China New Year and moving to a new house.

Legend has it that once upon a time, there was a family in Laizhou village who married a daughter-in-law in the cold winter. This family lived a relatively rich life, and invited eight strong men to carry eight big sedan chairs to pick up the bride. It snowed heavily this day and it was very cold. On the road, there is a god bug shivering with cold. When the bride saw that it was pitifully cold, she picked it up and hid it in her arms to keep warm. However, the sedan chair became heavier and heavier on the road. Eight strong men managed to replace the left shoulder with the right shoulder and finally carried the sedan chair back to the groom's house. Everyone happily welcomed the new wife into the new house. The bride thought about the bugs in her arms and asked her mother-in-law where the grain shop was. Mother-in-law is happy, thinking that the new daughter-in-law can keep the house, so she leads the daughters-in-law around one by one, while the new daughter-in-law quietly puts the bugs hidden in her arms into the grain depot.

A few days after marriage, the new wife has been thinking about bugs. One day, the new wife came to the granary with her mother-in-law, opened the granary and saw that the worm was alive and well. The new wife persuaded her mother-in-law to open the warehouse for three days to help the people in the village and let them get as much food as possible from the granary. The whole village was overjoyed, carrying the burden and pushing the donkey with the car. It was very lively. Three days later, the new wife led her mother-in-law to the granary, but the grain in the granary did not decrease at all. It is said that this was done by a genius in order to repay the new wife for saving her life. From then on, in order to commemorate this kind of insect, and also for good harvest and good weather, people made them look like insects with flour, put them in grain depots, and offered sacrifices at weddings, Spring Festival and other festive occasions, and called them "climbing insects". The word "saint" is the rise of "sheng", some of which are called "holy insects", and the word "saint" is the saint of "saints"; Others are called "leftover worms", and the word "leftover" means "leftover", which means that food is Man Cang and life is rich.