Customs of Yaozhou, Tongchuan, Shaanxi Province

The folk customs of the Spring Festival are similar all over the country. Shaanxi has simple folk customs, and the Spring Festival has strong local flavor and local characteristics. In ancient times, the year was not on the 29th or 30th of the twelfth lunar month, but on the 29th of the twelfth lunar month, that is, Laba. La Worship was moved to the end of the Southern and Northern Dynasties. In the Republic of China, when the solar calendar was changed, the year of the lunar calendar was called the Spring Festival, because it was always after beginning of spring, so it was called the Spring Festival.

People in Shaanxi still call the Spring Festival "Chinese New Year" today, and a story about Chinese New Year has been handed down. In ancient times, there was a beast called Nian, whenever the cold winter approached the night of the New Year. Eating people outside makes people fidget. In the struggle with Nian, people found that this fierce beast was most afraid of fire and noise, so people thought of a way. As soon as Nian appeared, they lit a fire and jumped into the bamboo cracks. I saw a raging fire and heard firecrackers explode in 2000, and fled without a trace. Later, a Chinese New Year reunion was gradually formed. The customs and habits of observing the old age, hanging red lights, posting couplets, setting off firecrackers and eating New Year's Eve.

In rural Shaanxi, the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month is the Lunar New Year, and the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month is called "off-year". In some places in the countryside, it is called "offering sacrifices to stoves", that is, offering sacrifices to the "kitchen god" who dominates good and bad luck in order to have ample food and clothing. After the Spring Festival, people will prepare for it. Ordinary farmers kill pigs and sheep, grind rice and noodles, make tofu, buy vegetables, hang vermicelli and prepare all the food needed for the New Year. From the 27th to 29th of the twelfth lunar month, Guanzhong people pack steamed buns. Every household is short of several cages of steamed buns. It is a custom to eat them after the fifteenth day of the first month, and not to roll noodles before the fifteenth day of the first month. Women go to the streets to buy clothes, shoes and socks for the elderly and children, while the elderly buy red paper, New Year pictures, mingbi, white linen paper and other Chinese New Year etiquette supplies.

Two days before New Year's Eve, Shaanxi, whether it is Guanzhong, southern Shaanxi, northern Shaanxi or urban and rural areas, must "sweep the house", and people in the city call it general cleaning. Before and after every house, outside the kiln, even the corners should be cleaned. Then paste white paper and red window grilles on the window room. In the early thirties, every household posted couplets and door gods, and hung New Year pictures in the house. This year has finally arrived.

Entering the twelfth lunar month, people began to get busy, and they were busy until the thirtieth of the twelfth lunar month, when the Chinese New Year officially began. Before dinner on New Year's Eve, every household should clean and tidy up the house, yard, front and back of the house, and affix red couplets (yellow or green couplets for mourners), door gods, window grilles and so on. And put corresponding couplets on the gate, bedroom, stove and barn. When everything was ready, they started lighting candles, burning incense, setting off firecrackers and offering sacrifices to their ancestors. After that, the whole family gathered at a table to eat "reunion dinner", commonly known as "reunion dinner". In the evening, all the houses are brightly lit, the fires are blazing, the young and the old stay up all night, and the furnace is "guarding the old", commonly known as "sitting on the roots of the year". At the same time, the whole family should take a bath, change clothes and pack jiaozi in turn to prepare for the Chinese New Year. At midnight (equivalent to today's 23: 00- 1: 00), thousands of firecrackers rang in unison, meaning "catching stars" and "welcoming the god of wealth", and some even put on incense tables and bowed down. It is said that the god of wealth will go to the house where firecrackers ring first. Then, the younger generation kowtows to the elders to pay New Year greetings, and the elders also give the children "lucky money" prepared in advance. People separated from their families began to rush to pay New Year greetings to each other and stayed up all night until the morning of the first day.

From the first day to the tenth day, Ankang people also have the custom of predicting the prosperity of grain and livestock by watching the weather. According to legend, the weather is predicted every day. That is, the first day I see chickens, the second day I see dogs, the third day I see sheep, the fourth day I see pigs, the fifth day I see cows, the sixth day I see horses, the seventh day I see people, the eighth day I see cereals (crops), the ninth day I see fruits (fruit trees) and the tenth day I see vegetables. Commonly known as "the tenth day of the Spring Festival is sunny, the harvest year is happy and peaceful, the tenth day of the Spring Festival is cloudy, and rice is as expensive as gold".

Lanterns were everywhere in the first month.

In the moon, colorful lanterns, every household welcomes the Spring Festival. All kinds of colorful lights constitute a major landscape of Shaanxi customs.

On the fifteenth day of the first month in Xi 'an, "Zhang Deng" can be traced back to the Han Dynasty. On the fifteenth day of the first month, this day was called Shangyuan Festival in ancient times, and the night of this day was called "Yuanxiao", also called "Yuanxiao". Every night, Emperor Wendi decorated lanterns and went out to enjoy them with people. Since then, the tradition of decorating lanterns on Xi 'an Lantern Festival has sprung up like mushrooms after rain, which shows that people can live a good year of social stability and adequate food and clothing, and it has been passed down to this day. Xi 'an's city walls and Revolutionary Park hold lantern exhibitions almost every year. In recent years, the lantern festival on Xi 'an city wall is getting bigger and bigger every year. From carrying forward China's traditional culture, abandoning evil and doing good, respecting the old and loving the young, wishing the year "good weather", the society "good luck" and the people "wealth and longevity" to the typical story that the 13th Dynasty established its capital here, it has formed a pleasing folk custom and historical picture scroll. The audience can not only read the historical records of Xi dynasties from the Lantern Festival. In order to enrich the content of Lantern Festival, Xi 'an invited foreign lanterns to make Lantern Festival this year. A large-scale light exhibition from Zigong, a southern light city, which integrates sound, light, shape, color and movement, appeared on the city wall. The Revolution Park once hosted the first large-scale Spring Festival Lantern Festival in Xi 'an after the reform and opening up, and became the traditional venue for the Spring Festival Lantern Festival in Xi 'an. In addition to the light show, amusement parks and resorts such as Weiyang Lake, Taoyuan in the Eastern Jin Dynasty and Anbanpo Lake in Xi 'an also introduced folk gongs and drums, social fires, fireworks and operas, and held garden activities on the fifteenth day of the first month.

In northern Shaanxi, the lights will be turned on on the fifteenth day of the first month. Villages and towns set up Jiuge Square in the open space, and people go to "turn Jiuge", also called "turn the lights". The Jiuqu Square was planted with 3,665,438+0 sorghum stalks, and 367 oil lamps (which have been replaced by colored lights) were hung on the stalks. There is no repeated road in the square. Some people call it Jiuqu Yellow River Array. Playing gongs and drums and suona together at night can turn nine songs. The "Zhuanjiuqu" lasted for three nights from the 14th to 16th of the first month. There is a local saying that "Zhuan Jiu Ge" can live to 90 years old. Playing with flowers is also a special activity of the Lantern Festival. This is a kind of self-made fireworks, which melts copper and iron into molten copper and molten iron, then pours wet sand on the board and throws it into the sky together, and then scatters when it falls. This kind of ancient fireworks is more interesting than some modern fireworks.

Lantern is a traditional folk handicraft in Longxian County. Strange shapes, including sky lanterns, dragon lanterns, gossip lanterns, flower basket lanterns, flower drum lanterns, toad lanterns, cabbage lanterns, red gauze lanterns, cupping lanterns, riding lanterns, beaded lanterns and so on. During the Spring Festival, relatives and friends should exchange lanterns to celebrate the New Year. My uncle sent a lamp to my nephew until he was twelve years old. The last year's lamp delivery was called "Finish the lamp". On the fifteenth day of the first month, the Lantern Festival is very lively. There are thousands of lights in the street. The lantern market decorated the county with colorful lights, and the crowds who bought and watched lanterns were bustling. Every household should hang sky lanterns in the yard, door lanterns on the doors, and even people who live in buildings should hang lanterns on the balcony. Children walk around the street with lanterns in droves, which is called "lantern-riding", while adults carry cupping lanterns and take offerings to their ancestral graves, which is called "ancestors hanging lanterns".