Folk customs of Changchongkou Town

During the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, farmers in Mianyang lived on wheat, millet, flour and rice. In general, during the slack season, farmers have two meals a day, one porridge and one meal, and eat vegetables; When farming is busy, it is mostly three meals a day; In the transplanting and harvesting season, the "premature" (breakfast) before work and the "midnight snack" (dinner) after work are added. Residents of market towns mainly eat rice, noodles, miscellaneous grains and vegetables, mostly three meals a day. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, both urban and rural residents took rice as their staple food and also ate flour and noodles. In case of disaster, advocate "melon and vegetable generation".

The villagers mainly eat fresh vegetables, followed by bean products, and sometimes eat meat and fish. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the diet structure of residents increased and eating meat became more common. Citizens and villagers like steamed vegetables. Fish, meat, vegetables, radishes, taro, lotus root and ribs can all be steamed with flour, among which steamed beef, pork, chrysanthemum and steamed eel are the most delicious. There is a saying among the masses that "eating meat is better than drinking soup". It is respectful to drink soup to improve your life or entertain guests. There are many kinds of soups, including chicken soup, sparerib soup, keel soup, miscellaneous bone soup, hoof flower soup, heart-lung soup, beef soup and so on. Most of them add lake lotus root, vermicelli, kelp or radish, put them in a big casserole and simmer slowly. Chicken soup, keel soup and sparerib soup are the best. After 1970s, sweet soups, such as tremella soup, lotus seed soup and orange petal soup, became popular.

Self-made pickles and dried vegetables can adjust the surplus and shortage of vegetables and food, which is economical and practical and has been necessary for every family since ancient times. At the beginning of the winter solstice, pickled meat, pickled fish and some sausages are also made; Pickled mustard tuber (home vegetable) spring pickles; Sun-dried bean paste and wheat paste in summer; Pickled douchi in autumn; Moldy in winter and rotten milk. Radish, beans, chickpeas, sword beans, peppers, ginger, oil melons, mustard leaves and tubers. Can also be made into pickles, pickles and dried vegetables. Among all kinds of home-cooked dishes, lobster sauce pickled with early soybeans is the most distinctive, which has become the staple food on the table and a good gift for relatives and friends. "Spicy Baba" is also a home-cooked dish of local residents. Lotus root, radish, eggplant, wax gourd, pumpkin, taro stalk, pork and pig offal can all be made into "Chili ba" The method is: cleaning, chopping, air drying, mixing with appropriate amount of pepper, salt and rice flour, putting into a water tank or jar, and sealing and storing. When eating, take out the kang and cook it, and then serve it with the rice.

Local flavor food is very distinctive. Distiller's grains, also called Shuijiu and Fuzhi Liquor, are four-season foods that everyone loves and everyone will cook. During the Spring Festival, farmers often cook sesame candy and make sesame leaves, sesame slices, crisp cakes, crispy magnolia slices, lotus leaves, jiaozi and twist. Ciba is a good product for the Spring Festival. Farmers use it in large quantities and soak it in wax (monthly) water, and the taste will not change after about March. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, all marriages followed the ancient six-ceremony engagement procedures (receiving gifts, asking names, Naji, receiving gifts, inviting Japan and welcoming relatives). Generally, men and women are about 18 to 20 years old, and they can get married with their parents' consent. When they get married for the first time, they will send a matchmaker (Yue Lao) to communicate and inquire about this marriage. After the man agrees, he will inform her family. If appropriate, three days later, please ask the matchmaker to take money, jewelry, gifts or cattle and sheep to the woman's house to order the birthdates stickers of Geng Zi, which is called "Hundred Games", and the woman's house will return the clothes, hats and other items to the man's house as "Geng Hui", which is a banquet hosted by both Japanese men and women for the matchmaker. From now on, gifts will be given every Friday (Duanyang) and August 15th (twelfth lunar month). Before marriage, the man prepares clothes, jewelry, gifts, etc., and goes to the woman's house with the matchmaker to determine the wedding date, commonly known as "VIP". A few days before the wedding, the man should kill the pig the day before, prepare the wedding banquet, write invitations and receive guests six days in advance, and host a banquet to entertain the guests on the wedding day and present gifts (wrapped in red paper) to congratulate them. On the day before the wedding, the man must prepare eight kilograms of fish, meat and wine, as well as the decorations and clothes that the woman needs, and carry them to the woman's house in a suitcase, commonly known as "Ding". The bride's dowry accompanies her daughter to get married, and the richest is up to fifty or sixty liters (the amount of dowry is called "Lifting"), and the poor family has only one burden.

When getting married, the in-laws must be acted by all the family members of the man's elder generation, with red flags waving, vocal music leading, gongs and drums accompanying and firecrackers ringing. The rich have sedan chairs, official sedan chairs or big boats, while the poor generally receive them by boats and cars. Etiquette is simple. After the married man left, the groom told his ancestors that he was going to marry him.

When the bride-to-be arrives at the bride's house, the conditional portal prepares a banquet to entertain the guests. Wearing a golden dress, the bride said goodbye to her parents and entered the sedan chair. Relatives and friends greeted her with whips, gongs and drums were loud, and the bride's sedan chair arrived at the man's house. The bride is supported by the Golden Lady in the sedan chair and goes into the house with the man (groom) to pay homage. After the wedding, the bride enters the new house and drinks with the groom. After the banquet of relatives and friends, there is a wind that disturbs the new house, commonly known as "three days without recognizing the size." The next day, nine virgins were invited to pay for the bride. After six bowls of vegetables, the bride sat down and changed her clothes, and went into the kitchen with fragrant paper and a counselor. On the third day, accompanied by the groom, the bride thanked her relatives and friends with egg tea to show her respect, and they "sent" money. Women stress three obedience and four virtues, while men stress three cardinal principles and five permanents, and honor their parents together. After marriage, Zhou Yue's newlywed husband prepares gifts for the bride's mothering, commonly known as "Huimen", which is the outline of an old-fashioned wedding. Old-fashioned marriage is the life of parents, the words of matchmakers, and some refer to the belly as marriage; There are even buying and selling marriages, stealing relatives, changing relatives, and getting married by close relatives. Early marriage is very common. There are "little husbands" who get married at the age of twelve or thirteen, and neither man nor woman can make their own decisions. A few officials and big businessmen marry three wives and four concubines.

By the time of the Republic of China, marriage had changed. The groom wears a robe and a hat, the bride wears a cheongsam, and all other manners remain the same.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, a new type of wedding was held, and men and women were free to fall in love and get married independently. 195 1 year, the state promulgated the marriage law, and the marriage between men and women is protected by law. Parents are not allowed to interfere in their children's marriage. Many young men and women hold new-style weddings, receive bride price irregularly, and don't waste money by hosting banquets. They are introduced by two people. After a period of time, both men and women get along and hold a letter of introduction from their unit according to the age stipulated in the Marriage Law.

Weddings are held on double days or major festivals (New Year's Day, Spring Festival, March 8th, Labor Day and National Day), and friends and relatives are invited to attend the wedding. Weddings are simple and generous, and some young men and women take advantage of the wedding to travel, calling it "tourist marriage", "worship", "returning to the grave" and "receiving bride price" and other old basic abolition, but they are engaged. The common people said, "When it comes to ostentation and extravagance in marriage, it is required to be higher every year. In the 1960 s, candy biscuits; In the 1970s, "three turns to one machine" (watches, bicycles, sewing machines, radios); Television sets, washing machines and electric fans in the 1980s; Automatic washing machine, digital color TV, stereo, Sanjin (necklace, earrings, ring) and buildings in the 1990s. The Spring Festival was called the New Year in ancient times. New Year's Day originated from the day when prehistoric people celebrated the New Year. In ancient times, cereal crops were only planted in one season. The ancients said that when the cereal crops were ripe, they were "years" and when the crops were harvested, they were "years". With a slight extension, it was used as the name of the year. The end of the Year coincides with the slack season between "autumn harvest and winter storage" and "spring ploughing in Xia Yun", so it is also called "one sacrifice". The first day of this year is the beginning of a new year. People should certainly pray and celebrate the New Year, which is the China New Year of our ancestors. According to ancient documents, the Chinese calendar existed in the Xia Dynasty, which means that the custom of Chinese New Year began in the Xia Dynasty. The ancients celebrated the Spring Festival today, starting with the promulgation of the solar calendar by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, which set the New Year on the first day of the first month and passed it down from generation to generation.

Before the Revolution of 1911, the first day of the first month was called Xinzheng, New Year's Day, Zheng Dan and Sanyuan. It is a modern thing to say "Chinese New Year" as "celebrating the Spring Festival". After the Revolution of 1911 (19 12), it was changed to the Gregorian calendar year. Because there can't be two "years" in a year, the first day of the first lunar month is no longer called "year", but the Lunar New Year is the biggest and most grand festival in a year and can't be cancelled. Because it was around beginning of spring, it was renamed Spring Festival, which is different from New Year's Day in Gregorian calendar. 1949 After the establishment of People's Republic of China (PRC) (PRC), the Gregorian calendar was also adopted, so the word Spring Festival was inherited. Only when the first day of the first month coincides with "beginning of spring" is the real Spring Festival. As the folk saying goes, "It's a once-in-a-century event in early spring".

During the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, the Spring Festival was grand, and the first day of the first lunar month was the Spring Festival. In the early hours of the morning, the traditional folk custom is that the whole family, men, women and children, put on new clothes and carry sacrifices, each of them goes out with a stick of incense, sets off firecrackers, bows to the sky and prays for the New Year, which is called "Out of the Arabian Nights" and shouts: "Open the door and make a fortune", "Go well" and "Treasure is rolling in". After entering the room, light candles, burn incense, melt paper and hit the chin. First worship the "god's seat" of the ancestors, and then pay a New Year call to the family elders. Then, sit and eat rice cakes, sweets and tea. After dawn, the villagers exchanged New Year greetings with each other, wishing them congratulations on making a fortune and calling it "the years of running". Later, give the new deceased a "burning kiss". Burning paper, flogging and worshiping in ancestral graves. From the beginning, you can't sweep the floor, carry water or splash water for good luck. Market merchants are closed for three days. On the third day, the "door god paper" was burned to move water, break ground and open the door.

During the Spring Festival, there is a custom of offering sacrifices to parents on the first day, to father-in-law on the second day, to uncle and uncle on the third day, and then to other relatives and friends. The younger generation pays New Year greetings to the elders, and the elders should give their children "lucky money". Friends and relatives treat guests, which is called "inviting guests" (or "spring guests"), and playing gongs and drums in the same village and street for entertainment, which is called "drumming for the New Year", as well as playing lights, acting and other entertainment activities.

After the founding of New China, the first day of the first lunar month is still the Spring Festival, which is one of the grand traditional festivals among the people. During the Spring Festival, superstitious customs and habits were gradually broken. At 0: 00 on the first day of the lunar new year, firecrackers exploded in the streets and villages, and fireworks soared into the sky to welcome the reunification of the Yuan Dynasty. After dawn, the party and government organs and organizations held a "group worship", and then paid New Year greetings to the families of martyrs, hero model families and five-guarantee households. In rural areas, in addition to paying New Year greetings to relatives and friends according to traditional habits, many villages also organize performances such as lotus picking boats, lions and dragon lanterns to pay New Year greetings to the masses. During the Spring Festival, men, women and children can compete for entertainment according to their own tastes. Such as skating, dancing, ball games (badminton, table tennis, basketball, etc. ) Playing chess for young men and women, gateball, old people, and playing with grandson solve riddles on the lanterns. The fifteenth day of the first lunar month is a traditional folk festival, and the Lantern Festival is also called Shangyuan, Yuanxi, Yuanye, Lantern Festival and Half Moon Festival. Because the first full moon of the New Year rises on the fifteenth night of the first lunar month, it was called Yuanxiao in ancient times.

During the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, as a way to celebrate family reunion, Yuanxiao breakfast was called "Tangyuan", "Half Moon Tuan" or "Tuanzi" (with rice flour as the skin and meat, bean products and vegetables as the stuffing, commonly known as "reunion"). Before dinner, you must worship your ancestors and set off firecrackers. The banquet was as rich as New Year's Eve. On the night of the Lantern Festival, every household celebrates the Lantern Festival. A group of teenagers dressed as men and women, singing tea picking tunes or flower songs, playing with lions, dragon lanterns, stilts, floats and mussels, decorating and dancing. Firecrackers have been going on for a long time, and tourists are all over the streets and lanes, which is very lively. Another daughter, Ying Zigu (Seven Sisters), predicted good or bad luck, ran around the field with a torch to "drive away the dog" and lit candles in the garden, which was called "lighting silkworms" and "hanging high lights" to ward off evil spirits.

Lantern Festival is the main activity of Lantern Festival, so it is also called Lantern Festival. In the old society, children with two surnames, two villages or market towns, or children on both sides of the river competed for lanterns until late at night.

After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), the Lantern Festival was held as usual, and the traditional food "Yuanxiao" retained its local flavor. Those activities of "inviting God", "welcoming Aunt Zi", "herding dogs", "hanging lanterns" and "raising silkworms" are even rarer. Night activities have added new content. Every village organizes performances such as dragon lanterns, lions and lotus boats. Every household is brightly lit, and some organizations set off fireworks. At that time, drums and music were ringing, firecrackers were deafening, and cadres and the masses welcomed the festival, filled with a lively atmosphere of unity, joy and harmony. Qingming has two different conceptual categories: one is solar terms and the other is festivals.

Qingming, as a solar term, is one of the 24 solar terms of the lunar calendar and belongs to the astronomical calendar category. The time starts when the sun reaches 15 on April 5 of the Gregorian calendar every year. "Hundred-year-old Questions" said: "At this time, everything grows clean and bright, hence the name Qingming." It means that by Qingming, the climate is warm and the vegetation is lush, changing the cold and yellow scene in winter. In agricultural production, they are busy plowing and sowing in spring. An agricultural proverb says, "Qingming is connected with Grain Rain, so don't delay seed soaking and ploughing."

As the content of the Qingming Festival, there are two things: forbidding fire and cold food and offering sacrifices to sweep graves. First, the prohibition of fire and cold stems from the ancient people's worship of the stars in the sky. Second, the prohibition of fire and cold food is to protect forest fire prevention in the era of slash-and-burn in ancient times.

In the Zhou Dynasty, there were two customs: forbidding cold food by fire and offering sacrifices to tombs, but there was no definite date at that time, and forbidding cold food by fire had little to do with Tomb-Sweeping Day. Cai Yong's "Cao Qin" at the end of Han Dynasty linked the custom of forbidding fire with the legendary festival of burning corpses (the loyal minister of Jin State in the Spring and Autumn Period), but the date of forbidding fire was May 5. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Tomb-Sweeping Day banned fire and cold the day before. In the 20th year of Kaiyuan in Tang Dynasty (732), Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty officially issued a imperial edict, which listed cold food and grave sweeping as five rituals. Since then, cold food, grave sweeping and Qingming have become one.

On the third month of the lunar calendar (April 4th, 5th or 6th in Gregorian calendar), Tomb-Sweeping Day is a festival of "going to the grave to worship ancestors". On that day, green willows were inserted for vegetable rice to worship the ancestors. Three or four days ago, Tomb-Sweeping Day went to the ancestral grave, went to the grave, burned paper money, incense, flogging and worship; Hanging by inserting floating money or hanging banners (commonly known as "Qingming hanging") is called "hanging Qing" (mourning for relatives) and also called "going to the grave". There must be a memorial service before the "Spring Festival" day (the fifth day after beginning of spring) when there is a new grave for the dead, and there is a custom of "leaving a new grave without a club". Where there are people living in concentrated communities, there is "Tian Hui". On this day, everyone held flags and umbrellas and went to the ancestral land to offer sacrifices. After that, a family member attends a dinner party, which is called "eating Tomb-Sweeping Day". Children fly kites, such as the Monkey King, centipede, dragonfly, seven stars, six horns, lanterns, moths and other kite competitions.

After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), it is no longer the custom of holding a tomb sacrifice collectively by the same clan. In the 1950s, large-scale land leveling was carried out in rural areas, and most graves became fertile fields. In the 1970s, many mourning halls, pavilions and ashes storage places were built in rural areas. Since 1980s, fewer and fewer urns have been put into mourning halls and pavilions. In Tomb-Sweeping Day, various organs and groups went to the tomb of the martyrs to sweep graves, lay wreaths in memory of the martyrs and observed a three-minute silence to express their condolences. On this day, the school led students to offer flowers, plant trees, carry out revolutionary tradition education and have a "spring outing" by the way. As in the past, urban and rural residents have the custom of burning incense, melting paper and flogging when they go to the ancestral graves to offer sacrifices.