Fujian Anxi Festival Customs

Spring Festival custom in Anxi, Fujian

In the traditional sense, the Spring Festival refers to the La Worship sacrificial ceremony from the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month or the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month to the 15th day of the first lunar month, with New Year's Eve and the first day of the first lunar month as the climax. During the traditional Spring Festival, people in various regions of China will celebrate the New Year with activities with local characteristics. Most of these activities are mainly about offering sacrifices to gods and buddhas, offering sacrifices to ancestors, saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new, and praying for a bumper harvest. Anxi County, Fujian Province is no exception. Celebrations with southern Fujian characteristics are used to show the festive and grand Spring Festival.

I. Introduction to Anxi

Anxi County is located in the southeast coast of Fujian Province, upstream of Xixi River in Jinjiang, northwest of the Golden Triangle of Xiamen (Gate) and Zhangzhou (State), and belongs to Quanzhou City. 24 50'-25 26' north latitude and117 36'-11817' east longitude. The total area is 3057.28 square kilometers, and the total population of the county is 654.38+0.08 million (in March 2008), among which the non-agricultural population is 654.38+0.37838. Except for a few She residents such as Guanqiao, Shang Hu, Jiandu and Hokuto Konishi Hok, the rest are Han people who speak Minnan dialect.

Second, preparation years ago

1, send the kitchen god to heaven

In China, the Spring Festival usually begins with the sacrifice of stoves on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month. The activity of offering sacrifices to stoves in Anxi County was held on the 24th day of the lunar calendar. In the past, almost every kitchen had a kitchen god. People call this god "the Bodhisattva who commands life" or "the stove commands life". It is said that he is the "Nine-day East Chef Commanding the Kitchen Palace" sealed by the Jade Emperor, who is responsible for managing the kitchen fires of various families and is worshipped as the patron saint of the family. Kitchen God, also known as Kitchen God, Kitchen God, Kitchen God Bodhisattva and so on. The belief in kitchen god comes from the worship of fire in ancient society. The ancients believed that Yan Di and Zhu Rong, the great gods related to fire, were kitchen gods, who were in charge of people's diet. Food is the most important thing for the people, and people worship the kitchen stove mainly to appreciate and celebrate the merits of the kitchen god.

Kitchen God has been staying at home to protect and supervise his family since last year's Eve. On the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, the Kitchen God will ascend to heaven and report the good deeds or evil deeds of this family to the Jade Emperor in heaven. The ceremony of sending the kitchen god is called "sending the kitchen stove" or "resigning the kitchen stove". According to the report of Kitchen God, the Jade Emperor entrusted the family with the fate of good fortune and bad fortune in the new year. So for a family, Kitchen God's report is really interesting.

Sending stoves is usually held at dusk. The family went to the kitchen first, set the table, incense the kitchen god in the shrine on the kitchen wall, and present honeydew melons made of caramel and flour. Let the kitchen god be sweeter before he goes to heaven, so that he can speak well in front of the jade emperor.

2. Clean the dust in the house

After the Kitchen God was sent away, every household began to dust and sweep the floor. Because of the homonym of "dust" and "Chen", sweeping dust in the Spring Festival means "getting rid of the old and not being new", and its original intention is to sweep away all bad luck. Every time the Kitchen God is sent away, people begin to carry out a comprehensive and meticulous cleaning of their homes, and the happy atmosphere of welcoming the Spring Festival is everywhere. There is a rather strange story about this custom:

Legend has it that the ancients believed that everyone was attached to a three-corpse god. Like a shadow, he followed people's whereabouts and was inseparable. Three dead gods are a guy who likes flattery and gossip. He often tells stories in front of the Jade Emperor and describes the world as ugly. Over time, in the jade emperor's impression, this world is simply a dirty world full of evil. Once. The secret report of the three dead gods tells us that the world is cursing the Emperor of Heaven and wants to rebel against him. The jade emperor was furious and made an imperial edict to quickly find out what happened in the world. Anyone who hates and insults the gods has made a mark on the spider web under the eaves. All the marked families were beheaded, leaving none. Seeing that the plan was about to succeed, three resin gods took advantage of the gap and flew down to earth. Indiscriminately, they marked the eaves and corners of every household to make the tomb palace extinct. Just as the Three Corpses God was doing evil, the Chef God discovered his whereabouts and was frightened to disgrace, so he quickly sought out various Chefs to discuss countermeasures. So, I came up with a good idea. From the day when the kitchen is delivered on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month to the day when the kitchen is picked up on New Year's Eve, every household should tidy up the house. If any household is not clean, Kitchen God will refuse to enter the house. According to the instructions of the kitchen god before he ascended to heaven, everyone cleaned the dust, dusted the cobwebs, cleaned the doors and windows, and thoroughly cleaned their houses. When Wang Lingguan visited the lower bound on New Year's Eve, he found that every household had bright windows and bright lights, people were reunited and happy, and the world was beautiful. Wang Lingguan was surprised that he could not find a sign indicating bad behavior. He rushed back to heaven, told the Jade Emperor that there was peace and happiness on earth, and prayed for a happy New Year. The Jade Emperor was greatly shocked after hearing this. He made a decree to detain the Three Corpses God, ordered him to be slapped for 300 mouths, and put him in prison forever. Thanks to the help of Kitchen God, this human disaster was spared. In order to thank the Kitchen God for helping people to solve disasters and bless Zhang Xiang, the folk dust-sweeping always starts from the kitchen and is busy until the New Year's Eve.

Third, some customs from New Year's Eve to the first day of junior high school

1, New Year's Eve dinner

Worship the bodhisattva in the morning, worship the ancestors at noon, and have a reunion dinner at night. On New Year's Eve, no matter how far apart and how busy the work is, people always hope to go back to their hometown for a reunion dinner. . Sometimes I really can't go home, and there will always be a place for him at home and a pair of bowls and chopsticks to show my reunion with him. As the saying goes, hit a thousand and scold ten thousand, and eat at thirty nights. New Year's Eve dinner has always been the highlight of China people's Spring Festival, and Anxi is no exception. Its New Year's Eve dinner pays great attention to food, besides fish, meat, vegetables and rice cakes. Among them, "longevity dish" has local characteristics. Supplemented by a whole green vegetable (long-leaf vegetable shaped like lettuce leaves), it symbolizes longevity.

2, lucky money

Generally, on New Year's Eve, the elders will give the prepared lucky money to the younger generation. It is said that lucky money can kill evil spirits, because "old" and "special" are homophonic, and the younger generation can spend a year safely with lucky money. The amount of lucky money ranges from tens to hundreds. Some parents will put 168 RMB into a red envelope as a birthday present for their children, symbolizing "Go all the way". This 65,438+068 is generally carried with you and can only be used after one year.

Step 3: keep your age

Keeping the old year is the custom of staying up late to welcome the new year on the last night of the old year. Also known as New Year's Eve, the common name is "Enduring the Year". There is an interesting story about this custom.

In ancient times, there was a fierce monster scattered in the mountains. People call them nian. Nian has a ferocious appearance and a ferocious nature. It specializes in eating birds, animals and scale insects, and changes its taste every day, from kowtowing insects to living people, which makes people talk about "Nian". Slowly, people mastered the activity law of "Year". It turns out that every 365 days in 2008, I went to places where people lived to taste fresh food, and the time of haunt was after dark. When the rooster crowed at dawn, they returned to the mountains. After calculating the date of the ravages in a year, men and women regard this terrible night as the "Year's Eve" and come up with a set of methods for the "Year's Eve": every family prepares dinner in advance, turns off the stove, ties up all the barns, seals up their doors, and hides in the house to eat the "New Year's Eve"-because this dinner is fierce. After dinner, no one dared to sleep, so they sat together and got up the courage to chat. This gradually formed the habit of staying up late on New Year's Eve.

4. Zheng Zheng (zhēng) (source)

After the New Year's Eve, people usually get together to chat, play poker, drink tea and watch the Spring Festival Gala. As soon as the first child arrives (0: 00), firecrackers will explode, and people will set up a box in the hall at home, and put offerings such as three animals, fruits, green tea, gold, firecrackers, essence (paper money used by the gods) (in each dish of offerings). When worshipping, the head of the household will hold a crescent-shaped tablet on behalf of the whole family to express the wishes of the New Year to the gods (including the time of worship) After reading his wish, he held the tablet twice, then let go and let it fall to the ground. If the plaque is as shown in figure 1 (one is right and the other is wrong), it means that God agrees with your good wishes and will bless you in the coming year. If as shown in Figure 2 (two heads), it means "love to laugh", that is, there is no agreement but no objection, and God smiles at your request. At this time, worshippers should elaborate their New Year's wishes again and ask God's permission again. If it is shown in Figure 3 (two tails), it means that God does not agree with your request. At this time, worshippers should ask again in another way. With God's permission, people will set off firecrackers and burn scriptures to God. At this point, the rectification activities have been successfully completed.

Crescent tablet

After the worship, people will make tea to respect the elders, express the affection of the younger generation to the elders, and share some fruit for everyone to eat, so that relatives and friends can be sweet and beautiful at the beginning of the new year. After the toast was too sweet, everyone went back to their rooms to sleep.

5. Attack Gun City and Politics

In the past, on the morning of the first day of junior high school, the government would hold tug-of-war competitions, intelligence competitions, village basketball games and other activities in middle schools, and people went to watch them one after another. The most notable activity is the "attack on cannon city". During the competition, there will be a string of firecrackers hanging on the upright bamboo pole, and the contestants will light another string of firecrackers and throw them at the firecrackers on the bamboo pole. The referee will decide the first prize (150 yuan cash), the second prize (100 yuan cash) and the third prize (50 yuan cash) according to the quantity and accuracy of the contestants' throwing guns. People actively participate in this activity, not only to add to the lively atmosphere of the New Year, but also for those bonuses, and more importantly, to look forward to good luck in the coming year.

Now, this kind of activity is gradually disappearing, and people often welcome guests at home or go out to visit friends. So "politics" replaced the previous activities. In the morning, men, women and children get up to wash their hands and put on new clothes that have already been prepared. For breakfast, the family eats egg noodles, and the eggs are shelled, which is intended to remove mildew and welcome good luck. Noodles symbolize longevity (avoid eating porridge to avoid "rain halfway" when visiting relatives and friends). After breakfast, I went out to visit my neighbors and relatives and greeted them with a smile. When you meet for the first time, you should say "congratulations" to each other, commonly known as "He Zheng", which also means to pay a New Year call to the Lantern Festival. When guests come to the door, they should provide candy, candied fruit, or drink sweet tea and coffee to make them "sweet" to show a sweet start.

In addition, in the first day of junior high school, women prepared more tributes, scriptures, firecrackers, incense, candles and so on. Go to Ming Ding Temple, a temple close to home, to burn incense and pray, or go to Qingshui Rock, a famous prayer place further away, to pray for more happiness and longevity for their families in the new year.

6. Son-in-law Day

On the second day of the first month, Anxi folk custom called it "Daughter-in-law Day". It is said that in the early hours of the day before yesterday, my daughter's home was dressed up and returned to her parents' home with chicken, pig's trotters, noodles, pork bellies, cakes, rice fruits and sweets and biscuits. The son-in-law leads the family to pay New Year greetings to his father-in-law's mother-in-law. At the banquet, the father-in-law and sons have a table, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law have a table, and many cousins have a table or tables, enjoying the happiness of reunion.

7. Patrol lights

In Anxi, people think that men are "lights" and Minnan dialect is pronounced "Ding". Most men used to patrol the lights. With the changes of the times, women can also patrol the lights now.