Why give red eggs when giving birth in northern Fujian?

There is a folk song circulating in China: "Red eggs, full strings, eat your happy buns this year and eat your red eggs next year." Steamed buns are an auspicious wedding custom food. It is said that it is lucky for relatives to take it home to eat. Therefore, this ballad belongs to the auspicious language of blessing. Literally, the two red eggs at the beginning and end of this sentence have different meanings. The former "red egg" appears as a sacred object and has the function of praying for the blessing of the son. Then a "red egg" becomes a sign of the good news of a child's birth, and it is also an object that plays a role in announcing. Distributing eggs dyed red with pigments to relatives and friends is a popular way to express happiness all over the country. It is often used in wedding, childbirth, "full moon" and other festive occasions to show celebration and auspiciousness. Then why do people send "red preserved eggs" to express happiness? This paper will discuss the folk meaning of "Red Egg" according to this folk song. The custom of red eggs is the legacy of human reproductive worship culture in primitive society. Eggs can hatch chickens, so people can have children by eating eggs. So the ancients used "chicken" instead of eggs. This kind of thinking based on the understanding of egg function can be deduced from a series of specific behavior patterns. Young Bai women in Heqing, Yunnan often go to the pond for education before spring ploughing. The beggars took two boiled red eggs in their hands, bathed in the pond, wiped their bodies with them, and shared them with their husbands when they got home. This kind of behavior of the red egg rubbing against the body is very similar to the folk song "A string of faces of the red egg" sung at the beginning of this article. So, why do eggs with the function of incubating children have to be dyed red again? In this regard, the "reproductive worship theory" has also made a different explanation from the "spawning myth theory", thinking that red is a festive color and that it is an inheritance of the early people's concept of menstrual blood worship.

The custom of red eggs also originated from the application of witch doctors to ward off evil spirits. The ancients regarded chicken as the length of a hundred birds and thought it had the power to subdue demons. For example, in the Spring and Autumn Annals, the cloud "Yu Hengxing is a chicken"; The Spring and Autumn Notes said: "Chicken is the product of Yang, the image of the south, and fire yang is the essence, so Yang crows". These all reflect the ancient people's understanding of the divinity of chickens. Chickens come from eggs, and eggs are born from chickens, so eggs naturally have divinity. In the old society, the folk custom of divination with eggs was still popular; The ancients also believed that when celebrating, there must be evil spirits interfering with each other, or diseases attacking people in certain solar terms and hours, so we should be careful not to eat eggs. For example, the custom of "eating eggs on March 3" in some areas of the Central Plains and Southwest China today, as well as the popular folk tradition of sharing red eggs with newlyweds on their wedding night, can be inferred that the custom of red eggs actually comes from the witchcraft of eggs to ward off evil spirits.

To sum up, the red egg is an auspicious thing in China, which means blessing and happiness. The folk songs at the beginning of this article are the best wishes of all relatives and friends for the couple's life and for their children and grandchildren before marriage or ceremony.