The origin and story of Tanabata, what are the customs of Tanabata?

A long time ago, there lived a family in the mountains. All the old people have passed away, leaving only two brothers at home. The boss married a daughter-in-law. She has a bad heart and always wants to monopolize the family business left by the old man. One day, Erxiao took the dog to herd cattle. When he arrived in the field, he patted the cow on the back and said, "Whoa, whoa, I'm going to sleep. Don't run around." The old ox seemed to understand people's words, lowered his hair and let out a few "moo, moo" cries, swinging his tail and eating the draft around him. The second pupil fell asleep lying on the grass. Missed noon, my sister-in-law brought a jar to deliver food to her brother-in-law. When she saw the second pupil sleeping, she gave him a good kick. The second child woke up and saw that it was a sister-in-law. He quickly got up and stood on the ground like a chicken. Sister-in-law put the rice jar on the ground and said angrily, "Don't worry, sleep with the cow, and I'll settle accounts with you if the cow is lost!" " Say that finish, she twisted her ass and left. The second child's stomach is hungry. He just picked up the jar and was about to eat it. The big cow around him hit the jar and it broke into pieces. When the big black dog saw the rice on the ground, it opened its mouth and ate it. Soon, he licked the rice on the ground The second child is scared when he looks at the broken jar and feels that it is not good to go home. He sighed; "Oh, how can I be so miserable!" As soon as the second child sighed, the big black dog fell to the ground with a plop, bleeding from his nose and mouth, and soon died. Only then did he realize that his sister-in-law had poisoned the rice. Second thought: It seems that I can't live with this pest, or I will die at her hands sooner or later. When the sun was about to set in the western hills, he drove the cows home. As soon as I entered the yard, I turned my head and saw my brother coming back from the outside. My second child's heart is sour and his eyes are crying. Seeing my brother so sad, my brother doesn't know what happened at home. He asked, "Why are you so sad?" "I broke the rice jar sent by my sister-in-law. The dog ate the rice on the ground and died." Hearing this, my brother understood that nine times out of ten, fighting can't beat a woman at home because it's difficult. The second child cried and said, "Brother, let's separate." It made my brother see that he wanted to split up. For one thing, his brother is still young, and for another, he has gone out to do business. It's impossible without help at home. If we make do together, I'm afraid something will happen to my brother. The second boy saw his brother in a hurry and said, "Brother, I don't want anything at home, just that cow." The two brothers said in the yard that they were separated, and the daughter-in-law was really happy when she heard it. She grabbed the door frame and said to her husband, "Let's live our own lives in the future. I took the lead in following my second brother! " "My brother has tears in his eyes and can't say a word. The next day, the second primary school drove away with an ox cart. Walking around, getting farther and farther. Second thought: How long will it take to go on like this? Let's live here! He stopped the ox cart, cut off many branches and built a shed on the hillside. The shed was set up, and the cow and I settled here. That cow is the lower bound of Taurus in the sky. It followed the second primary school for more than a year and died that night. After the cow died, he gave the second boy three dreams in succession. In the dream, he said to the second novel, "Tomorrow at 3: 30, I will go back to heaven. After I leave, you peel off my skin and put it on you on July 7 to ensure that you can go to heaven. The Queen Mother has seven daughters. They went to Tianhe to take a bath that day. Remember that the fairy in green is your wife. You can't let them see you. When they are all in the water, you run back in your clothes and she will chase you. She won't leave as long as you go home. The next day, Erxiao saw that the cow was dead. He didn't eat or drink, but cried when he touched it. Later, the cowhide was peeled off, leaving the cowhide to bury the cow. He knelt in front of the cow grave and cried. On July 7th, Erxiao put on cowhide and immediately floated off the ground to the bank of Tianhe River. He waited quietly in the Woods. After a while, the seven fairies of the Queen Mother came. They took off their clothes one by one and plopped into the water. Take a good look at the green skirt, run over, grab it and run. The third fairy saw someone holding her clothes and jumped out of the water to run after her. Follow the slow pace and catch up with the second house. The third fairy asked the second child why she took her clothes, and the second novel wanted her to be his wife. The third fairy repeatedly said that heaven forbid, and the second fairy repeatedly said that the world is better than heaven. The third fairy was very moved when she saw that the second primary school was good-looking, so she agreed to him. After that, the third fairy came down to earth. She plays with flowers at home every day, and people call her Weaver Girl. The second primary school goes out to sell cloth every day to earn money. The young couple live a comfortable life. After three or five years, the three fairies and two pupils gave birth to a man and a woman. One day, the second primary school went to work in the field, and a heavenly drum sounded in the sky. The Jade Emperor sent heavenly soldiers to take the Weaver Girl away. When the second child came home, he saw two children crying. I don't know where my daughter-in-law is, and I'm in a rash. When I asked the child, the older child pointed in the air with his hand, and the second thought the Weaver Girl had left. He quickly picked up two children and put on cowhide to catch the weaver girl. The second boy was impatient and ran after him. Seeing that he was about to catch up with the Weaver Girl, he annoyed the Queen Mother: "Well done, second boy, are you going to catch up with the Lingxiao Hall?" She unplugged the silver tube from the beginning, drew a line between the second primary school and the weaver girl, and immediately drew a Tianhe. The second primary school couldn't cross the river, so it stamped its feet, and the two children in the basket called Niang. The Weaver Girl and the Second Primary School are crying. It's no use crying. The second boy wanted to leave a message for the Weaver Girl, so he took out the cow button and threw it at the Weaver Girl, and the Weaver Girl held it in her hand. The weaver girl thought about it, but there was nothing to send. She took out her loom and threw it by the second. The weaver girl's hand is weak, so she throws the woven fabric askew. Until now, Vega on one side of Tianhe has a button star in her arms, and there is a shuttle star next to Altair on the other side. Tanabata-cultural customs 1, seeking clever use of needles

This is the earliest way to beg for cleverness, which began in the Han Dynasty and flowed to later generations. "Miscellanies of Xijing" said: "Women in the Han Dynasty often wear seven-hole needles in Jinkai Building on July 7, and people have the ambition of Xi." The Chronicle of Jingchu Years Old by Liang Zongmou of the Southern Dynasties said: "On July 7th, it was a woman of Xijia family, who was wearing a colorful building with seven holes, or with gold and silver as needles." "Geographical Records" said: "Emperor Wu of Qi began to visit the city on the first floor. On July 7, court officials tried to thread the needle several times. The world calls it the needle-piercing building. " The Five Dynasties Wang Renyu's "Kaiyuan Tianbao Legacy" said: "On Qixi Festival, the palace was made of brocade, which was hundreds of feet high and could beat dozens of people in the world. Chen baked melons and fruits with wine, set a banquet, worshipped cows and girls, and each of his concubines wore a nine-hole needle, with five-color lines facing the moon. This is a wonderful time. It's fun to play the song of Qing business. The home of the natives is effective. " Yuan Taozong Yi's Record of Ye Ting in Yuanshi County said: "Chinese Valentine's Day is a place of ingenuity. In the evening, the ladies-in-waiting went on stage to wear Kyubi no Youko needles with colored silk. The person who finishes first is smart, and the person who finishes late is called a loser. Everyone contributed a gift. " 2. Spiders should be smart

This is also an early way of seeking cleverness, and its popularity is a little later than that of seeking cleverness with needles, which generally began in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Liang Zonggu of the Southern Dynasties said "A Record of Jingchu Times"; "In the evening, Chen Guaguo begged for cleverness in court. If you have a happy subnet on melon, you think it is corresponding. " Wang Renyu's "Kaiyuan Tianbao Legacy" in the Five Dynasties said: "On July 7, we caught spiders in small boxes until dawn; Think of cobwebs as sparse and dense. Secret people have many clever words, while rare people have few clever words. So are folk works. " A Dream in Tokyo by Meng Yuanyuan, a poet of the Song Dynasty, said that on the seventh day of July, "Put a spider in the zygote and watch it the next day. If the net is round, it is just a coincidence. " Song Zhou Mi's "When I was one year old" said; "How long does it take to store small spiders in the house and wait for the density of the net?" Tomita Rucheng's "Joy of the Xi Tide" said that on Tanabata, "It is very clever to put spiders in a small box and see the density of their webs the next morning." It can be seen that the methods of testing ingenuity in past dynasties are different. The existence of the visual network in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the thinness of the visual network in the Tang Dynasty, and the roundness of the visual network in the Song Dynasty, followed the customs of the Tang Dynasty in later generations.

Needle injection is very skillful

This is a variation of the custom of needlework on Qixi, which originated from needlework and is different from needlework. This is a popular Valentine's Day custom in China during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. In the Ming Dynasty, Dong Liu and Yu Yizheng said in A Brief Introduction to the Scenery of the Imperial Capital, "On the afternoon of July 7th, I lost my magic needle. When a woman comes into contact with water, the water film looks strange, and the embroidery needle floats and looks at the shadow of the underwater needle. There are clouds, flowers, birds and animals, shoes, scissors and eggplant shadows, which are called clever begging; Its shadow is as thick as a hammer, as thin as silk and as straight as axis wax, which is wrong. "Records of Zhili" also said that in Liangxiang County (now southwest of Beijing), "on July 7th, women begged for cleverness, threw needles into the water, took the shadow of the sun to inspect the work, and still begged for cleverness at night". Please quote ten thousand miscellanies in An Examination of Old News in the Sun: "On July 7th, a woman in Yan Dou threw a small needle into the water with a bowl of water. Or scattered like a flower, moving like a cloud, as thin as a line, as thick as a cone, all because of the ingenuity of the diviner. "4. Seek children through upbringing.

In the old custom, a few days before Tanabata, first spread a layer of soil on a small wooden board, sow the seeds of millet to make it bear green seedlings, and then put some small huts and flowers and trees on it to make it look like a small village where people live in heaven, called a "shell board", or soak mung beans, adzuki beans and wheat in a magnetic bowl and tie it with red and blue silk threads. All parts of the south are also called "bubble cleverness", and the sprouted bean sprouts are called smart buds. Even the needles are replaced by smart buds and thrown on the water to beg for cleverness. Wax is also used to create various images, such as the characters in the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, or the shapes of animals such as vultures and mandarin ducks, which float on the water, which is called "floating on the water". There are also baby dolls made of wax, which women can buy home and float in the water and soil to show their good luck to their children, which is called "metaplasia". 5. Sacrifice "grinding and drinking music"

Moeli is a little clay doll, a children's plaything on Valentine's Day in old China. Its image is mostly a lotus leaf half-arm skirt, holding a lotus leaf. On July 7th every year, in Kaifeng, "the tiles outside the Dongsongmen Gate of Panlou Street, the tiles outside the Xiliangmen Gate of Zhou Zhou, the tiles outside the North Gate, the tiles outside the South Suzaku Gate and the tiles in Xingjie Ma are all plastic puppets". In fact, the grinding and drinking music after the end of the Song Dynasty is no longer a puppet, on the contrary, it has become more and more exquisite. Moeli varies in size and posture, and the largest is as high as three feet, comparable to a real child. The materials made are ivory carving or bergamot carving, and the dressing of grinding and drinking music is extremely beautiful. There are painted wood carvings as column seats, or red sand cages as covers, and the toys in hand are mostly decorated with precious stones. The cost of grinding and drinking music is often as high as several thousand yuan. 6. Worship Weaver Girl

"Worship the Weaver Girl" is purely a matter for girls and young women. Most of them make an appointment with five or six people, at most a dozen people, with friends or neighbors in advance to hold it together. The ceremony was held in the moonlight, with tea and wine on the table. Fruits, five sons (longan, red dates, hazelnuts, peanuts, melon seeds) and other sacrifices; There are also some flowers, tied with red paper, inserted in the bottle, with a small incense burner in front. Then, the young women and girls who make an appointment to attend the worship of the Weaver Maid will fast for one day, take a bath and come to their host's house on time. After burning incense in front of the case, everyone will sit around the table and meditate on their thoughts while eating peanuts and melon seeds. If a girl wants to be beautiful or marry a husband, and a young woman wants to have a baby early, she can silently pray to the Weaver Girl. Play until midnight. 7. worship kuixing

It is said that July 7th is Kuixing's birthday. Kuixing literature, literati who want to be famous especially worship Kuixing, so they must worship him on Tanabata and pray for his success in the exam. Kuixing is mainly Kuidou, the Kuixing in the twenty-eight nights, the first star of the Big Dipper, and also the Kuixing or champion. In ancient times, scholars were called "the greatest scholars in the world" or "winning the championship in one fell swoop" because Kuixing was in charge of the exam. According to folklore, Lord Kuixing is ugly, his face is covered with spots and he is lame. Someone wrote a limerick to make fun of him: if you don't publicize it, why decorate it? Even lead, don't cover it. Marrying Ma Gu into two beauties is no worse than coming to the hive. Leave claws under the eyebrows, and geese step on the sand beside their noses and mouths. It's just a nap in front of the eaves, and the wind blows plum blossoms on your forehead. Xiang Jun's jade toe is the strangest, with one high and one low. I want to dance when I take a leisurely walk, and the degree of fluttering is like a mouth. Only the road in the world is dangerous, and I am so tired that I am surprised. Don't laugh, the waist branches are often half folded, and the temporary swaying is also colorful. However, the champion was ambitious, worked hard and went to high school. When the Emperor visited him, he asked him why his face was covered with spots. He replied: "Ma's face is full of stars"; Asked why he was lame, he replied "hop on one foot". The emperor was very satisfied and accepted him. Another completely different legend says that Lord Kuixing was knowledgeable before his death, but unfortunately he failed every exam, so he threw himself into the river in grief and indignation. Unexpectedly, he was saved by turtle fish and ascended to heaven to become a champion. Because Kuixing can affect the test luck of scholars, every year on July 7th, his birthday, scholars should solemnly worship. 8. printing books? 6? 1 Sha Yi

It is reported that Sima Yi was highly valued by Cao Cao because of his high position and power. In view of the political darkness at that time, he pretended to be crazy and hid at home in order to protect himself. Wei Wudi was still worried, so he sent a close friend to let history secretly explore the truth. It was July 7, and Sima Yi, who was pretending to be crazy and selling stupidity, was also drying books at home. Make history back to leave Wei Wudi, Wei Wudi immediately ordered Sima Yi back to the office, otherwise you can be taken into custody. Sima yi only obediently obeyed and returned to the DPRK. Another kind of people, in troubled times, express their depression through depravity. They despise etiquette and oppose custom. Liu Yiqing said in volume 25 of Shi Shuo Xin Yu that on July 7th, everyone printed books, and only Long Hao went to bask in the sun. When people asked him why, he replied, "I print books." On the one hand, it despises the custom of printing books, on the other hand, it also boasts about the talent in its belly. Drying your belly is also drying books. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the custom of hanging clothes in the Han Dynasty created opportunities for rich children to boast about their wealth. Ruan Xian, one of the "Seven Sages of Bamboo Forest", looked down on this style. On July 7, when neighbors were hanging clothes, they saw that the shelves were full of silks and satins, which was dazzling. Ruan Xian unhurriedly picked up a worn-out dress with a bamboo pole. Someone asked him what he was doing, and he said, "I can't avoid customs and tell you!" " From these short stories, we can see how prosperous the custom of drying books and clothes on Tanabata is. 9. Happy birthday to Niu.

Children will pick wild flowers on Tanabata and hang them on the horns, which is called "Happy Birthday to the Cow" (it is said that Tanabata is the birthday of the Cow). 10, eat fruits properly.

Appropriate fruit is the most famous festival food on Tanabata. Proper fruit, also called "Kiki Fruit", has many styles. The main material is oil surface molasses. "Dream of China in Tokyo" refers to it as "laughing boy" and "eating fruit patterns", and the patterns include holding incense and winning prizes. During the Song Dynasty, the unique fruits of Qixi were already sold on the streets of the city. If you buy a catty of proper fruit, there will be a pair of dolls in armor, such as door gods, which are called "General Fruit food". The way to make a proper fruit is to melt sugar into syrup in a pot, then add flour and sesame seeds, mix well, spread it on the table, let it cool, cut it into squares with a knife, especially fold it into spindle-shaped dough, and fry it until golden. Handy women will also create various patterns related to the legend of Qixi. In addition, the melons and fruits that can be used skillfully can also be varied. Or carve melons and fruits into exotic flowers and birds, or embossed patterns on the surface of melon skin. Appropriate fruit is called "flower melon", and flower melon is the most common Qixi food. However, in history, different dynasties had different dietary customs. For example, soup cakes were popular in Wei Dynasty on July 7th. In the Tang Dynasty, festival foods included cakes on July 7th, which was designated as the book-drying festival. Each of the three provinces and six departments gives a certain amount of banquet money, which is called the "book-printing party". Tanabata is also a day suitable for dispensing medicines. It is said to be a secret recipe with pine and cypress as medicinal materials. This magic pill was made with dew on July 7th. Taking one pill can prolong life for ten years, and taking two pills can prolong life for twenty years. In addition, there are bait pine nuts, arborvitae seeds, stacked lotus leaves and so on. , are called the medicine of immortality. The more practical prescriptions are dried Sophora juice for hemorrhoids, fried bitter gourd for eyes, and pedicled melon for diarrhea. Only those who have tried know how effective it is.