What is the purpose of carrying the flag in Chaoshan?

In recent years, a large number of beautiful young ladies dressed in various gorgeous costumes and wearing a bun have appeared on various short video platforms, holding a banner embroidered with various patterns and slogans. This seems to be a very popular video to participate in street activities and has become a hot topic on a big platform. These videos are generally titled Chaoshan traditional culture and Chaoshan customs, and most of them are not explained in detail below. In addition to Chaoshan, my own people can understand it, and friends in other places are all confused, which makes many netizens mistakenly think that they are going back to their parents' home to get married.

Chaoshan culture is limited to Chaoshan area. Foreign friends really know little about Chaoshan customs and culture, are unfamiliar with Chaoshan culture and are full of curiosity. Many friends from other places expressed their desire to know about the cultural customs in Chaoshan area, but they never knew where to learn. At the same time, some netizens questioned whether the traditional culture of Chaoshan people is nothing but carrying flags all day. Don't Chaoshan girls have to study and go to work? 365 days a year is a holiday? Some people joke that carrying a flag is called wrangling. As an authentic Chaoshan person, today I will give you a general introduction to the origin of flag-carrying activities, what customs it is in Chaoshan area and what its significance is.

The origin of the flag, we have to say that Chaoshan people "worship the master", and the "master" here is not an official, but a local tyrant and squire. The "grandfather" in Chaoshan population refers to the patron saint, national hero or person who has made great contributions to the local area after his death. In order to remember other great achievements, the local people specially shaped the golden body and built temples for their sacrifice. Chaoshan people generally refer to these temple fair customs as "Laoye Palace". Chaoshan area belongs to the place where many gods worship. The "Lord" in Chaoshan does not refer to a certain god, but only to all gods, including some goddesses. Chaoshan rural areas live in groups with surnames, forming villages or villages. Every village or village has at least one or two grandfathers' palaces, ranging from four to five or even more. There is seldom a single ancestor in each grandfathers' palace, but most of them are dedicated to various ancestors. Every master has his own duties and tasks, guarding the countryside and ensuring the safety of one party. It can also be understood that "Laoye Palace" is a multifunctional service hall. The "master" in the temple is in charge of the village's three decline and six prosperity, which is the blessing of the villagers.

The most common "grandfathers" enshrined in Grandpa Palace, such as Mazu, Pearl Empress (Mazu in Chaoshan area), Buddha (God), Duke Guan Di, Bo Gong (Grandpa Fude), Emperor Bao Sheng, Lord Rowen, Shuangzhong Wang (Xu Yuan, Zhang Xun) and Mukeng Wang (Jiezitui), are the "masters" in Chaoshan. Meanwhile, Chaoshan is a very diversified and inclusive place. After thousands of years of changes and baptism, it was later influenced by Buddhist culture. After a long evolution and integration, this strange phenomenon of "Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism" was formed in Chaoshan area, and the peaceful coexistence of "Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism" was realized. Although Master's beliefs originated from Taoism and Buddhism, the difference between Master and Buddhism and Taoism is that Master never accepts Christians and does not preach or teach Taoism. Each village has its own owner, and the owner of each village only provides the villagers in the village to pay homage.

The "host" is similar to the northern temple fair. Most of them are concentrated in January and February of each year. Every village or village has a special day or lucky day selected by the patriarch. Usually dress up the statue of the "lords" in the "lords' palace", please go down to the temple and carry it out of the lords' palace with eight sedan chairs, and put it in the ancestral hall in the village, or set up a temporary "lords' shed" during the parade in Asheng (Square), and hold a worship ceremony first, commonly known as worshipping the lords. On this day, every household will come to the shed of the old man with three sacrifices, fruits, Chaoshan Nine and so on. At the same time, there will be traditional auspicious plays in traditional Chaozhou opera on the stage, which Chaoshan people call dressing up as a fairy. After the worship ceremony, the young people in the village carried the statue of the "master" in a big sedan chair and visited every place in the village according to the pre-planned route. When the procession passes by their door, the villagers will set up incense tables, set off firecrackers and burn incense to worship at the door to show their welcome to the master. "Camp owner" means patrolling the territory to protect the people and praying for peace and prosperity in the new year. It's actually a New Year greeting ceremony. After the parade, an auspicious procession will be selected, and the statue will be carried back to the temple and placed there, and the whole activity will be successfully concluded. Although Chaoshan people all speak Chaoshan dialect, there are differences in dialects in different regions. In some places, "British grandfather" is called "British grandfather".

Patrolling ancestors is rare. Generally speaking, ancestor worship is to prepare sacrifices to worship at the ancestral temple. Only a few villages have the custom of asking ancestors to patrol when they worship their ancestors. The ancestors of these villages are mostly meritorious ministers and national heroes, so they are qualified to patrol.

In addition to riding the flag, the main creative team of Chaoshan traditional folk parade camp. There are also young and middle-aged people carrying the statue of Old Master Q in eight sedan chairs, singing gongs to clear the way, performers (avoiding and keeping quiet), honor guards, Chaoshan gongs and drums team, singing and dancing, flower basket team, buma dance, Chaozhou opera figures, floats, dragons and lions. At the end of the line, the boss (clan elder) over 60 years old wears Tang suit. The flag is just one of the flags: the Wufeng flag, the wedding flag (carried by the groom who just got married last year) and the zenith flag (carried by the father who just gave birth last year). The roles in the parade are basically played by villagers in the village, ranging from hundreds to thousands. The youngest child in the team is five or six years old, and the oldest is eighty or ninety years old. The old, middle-aged and young people span several generations to participate in the grand event. The whole team stretched for several kilometers and traveled all over the streets and alleys of the village, performing programs while cruising. During the cruise, there are traditional Chaozhou opera performances and iron puppet shows in the evening. The iron puppet show in Chaoshan is called "skinning monkeys"/making paper shadows. There may be some differences in Chaoshan area, and the population size of each village is different. The composition of all parades depends on the strength of each village, and each place has its own characteristics. Although the team is different, the ceremony is similar.

Why do "camp owners" parade mostly from 1 month to February every year? On the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, the master will report to heaven, and on the 4th day of the first month, the master will descend to heaven. After the fourth day of the first month, all parts of Chaoshan began to choose auspicious days to welcome the holy driving trip, praying for peace, prosperity and good weather in the new year. Some villages hold parades every year; Some villages hold a small celebration every year (only worship, no parade) and a big celebration every few years. Many netizens are curious about why Chaoshan people have endless festivals and activities every day. In fact, each village is held once or twice a year at most, some villages are held once every three or five years, and some villages are even held once every ten or twelve years. Chaoshan is an area including Shantou, Chaozhou and Jieyang. These three cities add up to thousands of villages. If every village is held once a year, there will be thousands of activities every year, and it is easy to make people think that Chaoshan people are celebrating festivals every day.

Many people think that Chaoshan people are feudal and superstitious, and they worship God from morning till night. In fact, this is not a feudal superstition, but a belief and unbelief. "Master" belongs to the local folk belief, and it is also a cultural heritage, bearing the memory of everyone in Chaoshan. In fact, Chaoshan people worship grandpa for a reason: they worship heroes instead of grandpa. In fact, most of the ancestors of Chaoshan population are famous heroes in history who defend their country and resist foreign enemies. Han heroes were absolutely not allowed to appear in the Qing Dynasty. In order to avoid the ban of the Qing Dynasty and show the majesty of heroes, people mythologized heroes and put on the mysterious veil of fairies, which made the stories of heroes more legendary and passed down from mouth to mouth.

Chaoshan area has been a battleground for military strategists since ancient times, and people have suffered from war all the year round, so Chaoshan people are heroes and respect heroes; On the other hand, Chaoshan, located in coastal areas, has been suffering from typhoons, floods and other natural disasters. Chaoshan people generally go out to sea to fish and farm, which can be said to rely on God's grace to eat. In case of typhoon, flood and other disasters, the crops that have been planted for half a year may be confiscated. When fishing at sea, the sea is very stormy. Every time you go out to sea, it will last for a few days to a month or two. At home, the women in the family can only pray silently at home that "the old man will congratulate the family on their safe return". Therefore, grandpa has become the spiritual pillar of the people in the troubled Chaoshan area. Whenever he encounters any difficulties, he will hold on to the belief that "you have grandpa to protect everything" (you have grandpa to protect everything) and overcome the difficulties. Every year, the village sages in each village will take the lead in donating money to sponsor the parade. Some old people's palaces will also set up a charity hall to help the poor. Now young people are working and studying outside; Some bought houses outside, but they didn't necessarily go back to the village for the New Year, and their contact with their hometown became less and less. However, no matter how busy the village owner is, he will rush home to join in the fun (lively), and at the same time invite relatives and friends to watch and have dinner, and present the offerings of worshipping God to relatives and friends to "eat with confidence". "Master" has virtually become a bridge between relatives, friends and people. Camp owners can also be said to be an intangible exhibition activity, and many projects in the parade are listed as provincial and national intangible cultural heritage.

Every year, there are at least tens of thousands of such folk customs in Chaoshan area. The biggest parade included the Shuangzhong Cultural Festival held in Chaoyang to commemorate Xu Yuan and Zhang Xun, who defended Suiyang City. Jieyang City God Temple Association; Qinglong Temple Fair in Chaozhou; Chenghai salt stove is a drag on god, and it is called the bloodiest camp owner in Chaoshan; In Gurao Town, the Grand Marshal of the Song Dynasty paid homage to Wen Tianxiang who fought against the invasion of Yuan soldiers and all the generals who died. It is held in Tomb-Sweeping Day, Mid-Autumn Festival and winter solstice festival. The town is jointly organized by several villages every year and rotates once every ten years. These activities are not held in one village, but in the whole town or street. Every village in the jurisdiction will carefully prepare some programs to participate.

Welcome everyone to our Chaoshan to watch it in person and feel the charm of Chaoshan traditional culture.