Folk customs in Shuanghe town

The Origin of the Place Name of "Shuangshi"

"Shuangshi" is the place name of Synthetic Town, 6 kilometers south of the town government, and now it is the location of Shuangshi Management Zone. Because it is the center of synthesis, the synthesis farm is located in Shuangshi from 1963 to 1977. Shuangshi has primary schools, tea factories, machine repair plants, grain processing plants, timber yards, shops and so on. The resident population is nearly one thousand. The place name of "Shuangshi" is said to have been chosen by a foreign geomancer to build a temple during the Shunzhi period of the Qing Dynasty. After the completion, he saw two big stones of the same size on the left side of the temple, so he named the temple Shuangshi Temple. Later, this place has been called "Double Stone".

The origin of synthetic market

The synthetic market is located at the foot of Fenghuang Mountain at the northwest end of Synthetic Town, 7 kilometers away from the town house in the southeast, bordering Xinxing County in the west and Gaoming City in the north. This is a small market where three counties meet. A street in Xuji extends from east to west, with more than 30 shops and a permanent population of 200. There are businesses, banks, hospitals and schools. Every year, the second, fifth and eighth days of the lunar calendar are market periods, and business is booming. This market was built in 1927. At that time, it was built by merchants in Heshan, Xinxing and Gaoming counties, hence the name "Synthesis".

The origin of Shuanghe people

Before the Yuan Dynasty, this land was a desolate and uninhabited wasteland. It was not until the early years of the Ming Dynasty (Yongnian) that ancestors began to move to Kaicun, Shan Ye, west of the northern foot of Suyun. During the years of Yongle, Hongzhi, Wanli and Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty, the ancestors who moved southward settled in this fertile soil one after another and synthesized derivative interests. At that time, it was a spontaneous migration of a surname. Mai, Zhong, Liang, Su, Wu, Lu and Ye * * *, a total of seven surnames, were the earliest ancestors who moved in.

During the Qing Dynasty, some Hakkas and locals who originally lived in Meixian District, Xingning, Wuhua, Longchuan, Heyuan, Huiyang and Huidong in Meizhou City, Nanxiong and Shixing in northern Guangdong Province became disaster relief areas in the south. At that time, there were 29 surnames such as Liu, Chen, He, Hu, Huang, Deng, Wen, Zhong, Lin, Xu, Shi and Zhou. This is the work of Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty, and some of them are from the early Republic of China. They moved here and settled in scattered villages. So far, there are 42 villages with 36 surnames.

Synthetic folk festival customs

Double (including synthesis) folk festivals are generally the same as those in other places, but they are unique. There are more than a dozen * * * in a year, which have been used since before liberation, and each festival has its own customs.

Spring Festival (the first day of the first lunar month). When Shuanghe people celebrate the New Year, there are many kinds of rice cakes, such as zongzi, steamed cakes and soup bowls. Hakkas also have a kind of "silver tower paste" (made of glutinous rice, soaked in water after steaming, and sliced when they want to eat), which symbolizes silver and wealth and is the characteristic of Shuanghe people's Spring Festival new year's goods.

On the vernal equinox (the second day of the second lunar month), people in this town are used to making mugwort as a festival. Artemisia argyi is a kind of herb, which grows in the field in winter and has white flowers. It has the function of removing moisture. In February and March every year, the temperature is strong and people are easy to get sick. Picking, drying, mashing, and rice flour make Artemisia argyi show that all diseases have been eliminated.

Tomb-Sweeping Day (Qingming Festival). Most Shuanghe people visit graves and worship mountains in Tomb-Sweeping Day, which is a day to mourn their ancestors. The offerings are mainly roast pigs or cooked chickens, cooked duck eggs, pork, glutinous rice and cakes.

Ox King Festival (the eighth day of the fourth lunar month). In the past, Shuanghe Benevolence made a living by farming, and plowing cattle was the lifeblood of farmers. In order to express love for cattle, this festival custom was formed. On Cow King's Day, people collect a kind of plant called Paederia Japonica, and make cakes (Paederia Japonica cakes) with its fresh leaves and powder as holiday products. Because of its rich fragrance and the efficacy of clearing away heat and toxic materials, some people dried and sealed chicken manure powder and cooked it into cakes with yellow sugar from time to time for children to eat. The paste cake is sweet, smooth and delicious, and it can also prevent summer sores, killing two birds with one stone.

Dragon Boat Festival (the fifth day of the fifth lunar month). The couple celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival, and the locals are different from the Hakkas. Some locals are used to May 1st, while Hakkas are used to May 5th. However, locals and Hakkas are used to wrapping zongzi seeds on the Dragon Boat Festival, which has been the case for generations. There are two kinds of zongzi, one is quadrangular zongzi, the other is alkaline zongzi, which needs to be eaten with white sugar or yellow syrup.

Ueda Festival (a day in July of the lunar calendar). Also known as the clothing burning festival, the so-called "clothing burning" refers to burning clothes and meals for deceased relatives and praying for blessings and happiness. The so-called "going to the fields" means that people go to the fields at the time of summer harvest and after the hard life of summer sowing, so they have to celebrate, so it is called "going to the fields". Two people do Ueda Festival, and most of them make Seto powder for the festival.

The Mid-Autumn Festival (the 15th day of the eighth lunar month) is the biggest festival after the Spring Festival. The couple celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival and started making Seto noodles on August 14. They put Seto powder into the cooked beef and lotus root soup and cooked it for a while. It's delicious. On August 15, we will enjoy the moon, taste moon cakes and various festivals. During festivals, local husbands and Hakkas are used to making a kind of cake called "taro seed cake", which is chopped with taro, fried and steamed with sticky rice noodles. It tastes smooth and delicious. This festival means that family members get together and get together like taro.

Double Ninth Festival (the ninth day of the ninth lunar month), Double Ninth Festival, the sky is high and the clouds are light, so synthetic people like to climb mountains on this day. Shuanghe Town has Cliff Eagle Ridge in the north, Phoenix Mountain in the west, Dajinding in the south and Su Yun in the east, all of which are good places for Chongyang to climb and overlook.

Winter solstice festival (winter solstice in November of the lunar calendar), speaking of winter solstice, it is already a leisure season of "autumn harvest and winter storage", and everyone makes soup and medicine. There are geese and ducks for dinner, and the food is rich. Locals also say that "winter is bigger than years".

Reunion Festival (the last day of November in the lunar calendar, also known as Lunar New Year's Eve) is the last time of the year. On New Year's Eve, every family gets together to have a reunion dinner, talk about the achievements of the past year and welcome the arrival of the new year.

Of course, there are other festivals in Shuanghe, but the main one is the one mentioned above. With the progress of people's thoughts and the development of science and culture, every folk festival custom will gradually "discard its dross and preserve its essence".