We often enjoy the arrival of the festival and say to each other, "Happy X-S and X-Year!" But in Chaoshan area, what does the arrival of the festival mean for a housewife? Procure festival food, livestock, money, paper, incense and candles; worship the door god, the god of wealth, the god of heaven, and worship the ancestors. Braised, fried, fried, fried, and boiled; tea cups, wine glasses, bowls, plates, and chopsticks. . . . . .
Since the end of the year, I have been busy preparing various ingredients, making red cakes, rat quilt cakes, soup dumplings, wheat cakes, radish cakes, etc., to welcome the New Year's Eve. The incense and candles have to fall three times, and these three times have to wait for the notification from the boss in the village. Whenever you can go up, you must unify the time and wait for the notification of fireworks. Therefore, you must come and go between home and God, and dare not relax. On the first and fifteenth day of each month, some people also ignore the fifteenth day and advance the morning worship of the first day of the lunar month to before 11 o'clock the night before. After all, livelihood is the first priority. Such a complicated worship project also requires considerable funds. After the winter solstice, you have to search the calendar and find a good day that matches all your family. Take off the bamboo branches and leaves, tie them to the end of a long bamboo pole, clean the roof and corners of the house one by one, and then remove and wash the sleeping bed, quilt, clothes, etc. at home, and stew, fry, fry, fry and cook; tea cups, wine glasses, bowls, plates, and chopsticks. . . . . . The Zhongyuan Festival is the hot summer and the weather is unbearable. The worship is held in the open air. At most, a bamboo shed with plastic cloth on the roof is imaginable. It is easy to imagine how much sweat the housewives have to shed on this day. After the guests were full of wine, the hostess was busy cleaning up the residue, and there were fireworks in front of the gods, and gongs and drums rushed to raise lanterns to participate in the camp lantern activities. So he hurriedly put the bowls and chopsticks aside, took out the incense, candles and lanterns, called his son and daughter to go to the gods, and lit the lanterns. On the morning of Mid-Autumn Festival, of course, it is a regular worship of the gods of the door god, the kitchen god, the god of wealth and other gods, but while worshiping, you have to be busy cooking sweet soup, frying fish, setting tables and chairs, etc. Today, you also have to worship your ancestors. There are also some considerations when worshiping ancestors. Normally, you don’t need to worship rice on the wedding festival. If it is a silver paper festival, you have to worship rice.
After preparing one by one, I pray devoutly and my family will be healthy. For the mistress of the family, being healthy and going out safely is the top priority, and it is the first thing they say when they kneel down every month. For this reason, they spent most of their lives busy with incense, candles, money and paper.
A few days ago, my neighbor told me that the second day of May was her father’s memory, and that day was the first day of her child’s entrance exam, so she would definitely be too busy on that day. I couldn't help but take a breath of coldness when I heard this. On the 15th day of the lunar month, every household worships the Kitchen God, the God of Heaven, and the Landlord. This is a custom that cannot be shaken. The fifth day of the fifth month is the Dragon Boat Festival again. In addition to worshiping the gods, we also worship our ancestors. Sacrifice to ancestors is even more solemn than worshiping the gods. With a square big table, families with conditions must even place the Eight Immortals Bed. Respectfully invite you to the furnace of the ancestors, place foreign oil lamps for sacrifices, and place chopsticks, tea cups, and wine glasses layer by layer, and serve tea and wine. Sweet bowls and vegetarian bowls are a must, as well as various seafood sparse fruits that need to be purchased and cooked before worship. So it was not easy for my aunt to have five days from the first day of the fifth month to the fifth day of the fifth month. Three days out of the five days made him busy, and it happened that the child was even more busy!
I often think, it’s really not easy for Chaoshan women. In addition to the fifteenth day of the first and fifteenth day of each month, there are so many festivals that require them to work hard. Year after year, many women are getting older among the big gold, small gold, silver ingots, and green red.
First month
On the first day of the first lunar month, worshiping ancestors. This day is the first day of the year. How can you forget to share joy with your ancestors when everything is renewed? This tradition is probably found in all parts of the country. For example, in "Dream of Red Mansions", it talks about the grand scene of a large family in the Jia family sacrificing the ancestors. However, the Chaoshan people's ancestor worship ceremony was more complicated. The sacrificial ceremony on the afternoon of New Year's Eve only kicked off. Since then, the first and second day of the first lunar month have lasted until the third day of the Chinese New Year, and the ancestor worship ceremony has ended.In this most solemn and lasting ancestor worship ceremony of the year, women only acted as chores, but they couldn't get on the table. From old age to old age and still not dry, the men appear one by one, stand respectfully in the order of seniority, pick incense, candles, and bow, and are sincere and respectful.
The ancestral hall has the custom of collective worshipping ancestors. The time for worshipping ancestors is unified. Each family takes turns to be on duty. Those on duty must be responsible for cleaning the ancestral hall and preparing wine and rice. This has its disadvantages and advantages. It is easy to do it when not on duty, but everyone lives far away from the ancestral hall, and the movements are fast and slow when preparing offerings. Housewives are under pressure to hurry up. They had to prepare various ingredients from the end of the year 25 or 26, making red cakes, rat quilt cakes, soup dumplings, wheat cakes, radish cakes, etc., to welcome the New Year's Eve. Now some families invite their ancestors to sit in their homes and worship each one. This way, the housewives save a lot of trouble and the worship time can be adjusted appropriately. Most people have also simplified the four-day ceremony to worship only on the afternoon of New Year's Eve.
Folk customs, the gods go to heaven on the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, celebrate the festival in the heavenly court, and report to the Jade Emperor about the good and evil of the world over the past year, receive the wealth and health signs of each household in the next year, and return to the world on the fourth day of the first lunar month. On this morning, every household burns incense and returns to the gods. There are some considerations to receive God. You must not be too early. The gods have not arrived yet, nor too late. Let the gods wait for a long time. After all, the fortune of a year must be collected on this day. How dare the housewives neglect?
Seeking peace on the ninth day of the first lunar month. Housewives should go to the "Tongji (that is, a person similar to a charlatan or witch who is entrusted by the gods and conveying the will of the gods and Buddhas)" in their hearts to report the zodiac sign of their family, seeking the peace of the family this year and what kind of money each needs to eliminate disasters in each month of the year. Then on the ninth day of the first lunar month, pray to the gods, make wishes for their families, seek peace for the year, and give thanks at the end of the next year.
Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the first happy festival of the year, worshiping gods and ancestors is necessary. In addition, the Lantern Festival is also a Lantern Festival. The tide sounds of "Lan" and "Ding" are the same. Any family who had married or had a male child would happily go to the ancestral hall to hang a lantern with a surname on the surname. This lamp carries the joy and expectation of each family for the lantern. The more families of "Dacongzhu" have more men in their families, the better the reputation in the village.
Almost every village and every surname has a custom or a "funny" (i.e., the Youshen Competition) day that you can sign every year, is mostly set in February. This day or two days of hard work is the most lively festival of the year. One or two days in advance, each household will kill chickens and geese, and make red cakes, sweet cakes, various fresh fruits, and various money papers and flower baskets. big families also competed with all pigs, all sheep, sugar lions, big flower baskets, and big fireworks. . . . . . In short, each of them will do their best to show their strength to relatives, friends and the same clan.
early in the morning that day, everything was ready, a pair of big lanterns on the door building and the magic lamp of the Kitchen God in the kitchen were lit red. Just waiting for the fireworks to ring three times, every household picked the tribute to the gods and placed it on the Eight Immortals table. At this time, the gongs, drums and firecrackers were noisy in front of the gods, and a shed of "paper shadows" and a shed of "people plays" were performed by Lu Maozheng returning to the kiln. The villagers burned incense and knelt down and prayed for good luck for the whole year. By noon, the houses had already filled up with guests. On this day, the male host usually put down his work, was busy greeting guests, and preparing various dishes, but it was still not easy for the female host. The incense and candles are going up and down, and these three falls are going to be informed by the boss in the village. Whenever they can go up, they must be unified and wait for the notification of fireworks. Therefore, they must come and go between home and God, and dare not relax.
The excitement will last until that night. After the guests are full of wine, the hostess is busy cleaning up the residue. There are fireworks in front of the gods, and gongs and drums are urgently urging the families to propose lanterns to participate in the lantern camp activities. So he hurriedly put the bowls and chopsticks aside, took out the incense, candles and lanterns, called his son and daughter to go to the gods, and lit the lanterns. The gong and drum team, the bidding team, the master team, the lantern team, and the vast camp lantern team have traveled all over the temple road.
February
February 1st day to pay peace. Each member of the family belongs to the zodiac sign, what taboos are there in that year and month, and what money they need to make up for will be written on a red note in advance, and the housewives follow the instructions one by one. February is usually not a special holiday. Except for the days like the Buddha's birthday and the birth of the master almost every month, some housewives now do not have much energy to do too much because they are working, so some not very important father-born children are ignored. On the first and fifteenth day of each month, some people also ignore the fifteenth day and advance the morning worship of the first day of the lunar month to before 11 o'clock the night before. After all, livelihood is the first priority. Such a complicated worship project also requires considerable funds.
March
March is Qingming Festival. In addition to worshiping ancestors at home, you also have to go up the mountain to visit the graves. Bring tributes, incense, candles, money paper, sickles, oil and brushes, while worshiping, hoeing and removing weeds on the grave, and paint oil on the engravings on the tombstones to express their remembrance of ancestors.
After Qingming Festival, the housewife can take a breath. The big festival is about one or two months to Dragon Boat Festival.
April
April is relatively leisurely. Except for the first and fifteenth days of the lunar month, it is considered the name of the birth of Shakyamuni Buddha on the eighth day of the lunar month, referred to as "the birth of Buddha". April is Xiaoman season, the farming is busy, the spring rice has just started to bear ears, and the field management work will be in place, and the medium rice is about to be ready to be sown. If the labor force is concentrated on the ground, will it slow down the worship of God? Buddha's birthday is an important day in Buddhism. For Chaoshan families who believe in "masters", they are just an ordinary master. They prepare one pound of plain noodles and a simple bow to three animals, pork, eggs, and fish.
May
Dragon Boat Festival originated from Qu Yuan, but the filial Chaoshan people also placed their respect for Qu Zi to remember their ancestors on this day. Therefore, worshiping ancestors on this day is also one of the biggest festivals of the year. There are many varieties of fruits in this Jiehou, and in addition to brown balls, fruits also account for a large proportion of the tributes. At this time, there was also a lot of rain. People called this rain water Longqiu Water. Drinking this water can remove malnutrition. Therefore, many people choose to treat children's malnutrition on this day to drive away parasites in their bodies.
June
A few days before the sixth day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar, there were many vendors selling peach and willow branches in the market. The sixth day of June is the day when the "ghost carries watermelon" in Chaoshan folk customs. On the fifth day of the lunar month, every household must put peach branches and willow branches on the doors and windows, and close the doors and windows early, and there is a terrifying atmosphere everywhere. That night the ghost came out to wander around and saw someone who had planted peach willows, so he didn't dare to enter. The families who had a new mourning back then could not get involved. They had to carry watermelons to the village intersection for their new mourning family this night, and they would shout the name of the new ghost while walking. Legend has it that after this sacrifice of the Ghost, the soul slowly ran towards the Naihe Bridge and left in a new life.
July
July 15th Zhongyuan Festival, it is true that I can remember my ancestors who have long passed away on this day. The clear tea and wine are lingering in the cigarettes, and the stories of ancestors come to my mind. Another important worship that will make the housewives busy on this day is "Worship of the Orphan Master". "Gou Master" here means lonely ghosts, they are lonely and lonely, and the undead have not enjoyed the offerings of their loved ones. Set up a bamboo shed at the intersection, and the housewives placed the offerings on them and inserted the incense on the ground beside the road. There are two essential offerings, namely a large bowl of rice covered with two dried radishes; the other is boiled water spinach. It seems that no one can tell why we have to cook these two dishes.
Ghost Festival Zhongyuan Festival
The most important money paper on July 15th is "solate clothes". The souls get "alone clothes", and from now on, they have food and clothing, and leave with peace of mind, and don't harm others. Since they worshipped the lonely ghosts, the housewives basically did not let the children come out to help. It was the hot summer and the weather was unbearable. The worship was held in the open air. At most, a bamboo shed with plastic cloth on the roof was built. It is easy to imagine how much sweat the housewives should sweat on this day.
July is quite troublesome for my family. In addition to worshiping on the first and fifteenth day of the lunar month and the birthdays of the two members of the family, there is also a grandfather's death day, which will also be held for sacrifices on this day.
August
After the month, it is August, the annual reunion festival in Mid-Autumn Festival in August. The Chinese nation takes filial piety first, and visits and gifts to elders can be ignored in other festivals. Only the Mid-Autumn Festival and the Spring Festival are indispensable. Therefore, this collective gift-giving behavior of the people also brought huge business opportunities. For the arrival of this day, the major businesses have put in full effort and laid the foundation for the atmosphere, making the festive atmosphere stronger.
Housewife began to get busy for about ten days before the festival, preparing to give gifts to elders and offerings to worship gods and ancestors. The cigarettes, tea, wine, pastries, supplements, etc. that are given to elders should be carefully selected according to the identities, hobbies, etc. of different elders. When worshiping Moon Girl on the Mid-Autumn Festival, you have to offer flower baskets and various kinds of money. What can you prepare first? On the day before the festival, we will purchase fruits, meat, fish, vegetables, ginkgo and taro that make sweet soup one by one. The Mid-Autumn Festival is the first season for grapefruits to ripen. Almost every family buys a golden and fat grapefruit. When worshiping the moon, they put the red letters on the grapefruits, which are very happy. On this day, mothers will buy some pencils and notebooks for their children, and put them on the table when worshiping Yue Niang, begging her mother to bless her children to study and improve.
On the morning of the Mid-Autumn Festival, of course, it is a regular worship of the gods such as the door god, the kitchen god, the god of wealth, etc., but while worshiping, you have to be busy cooking sweet soup, frying fish, setting tables and chairs, etc. Today, you also have to worship your ancestors. There are also some considerations when worshiping ancestors. Normally, you don’t need to worship rice on the wedding festival. If it is a silver paper festival, you have to worship rice. Every time I worship my ancestors, I would light a cigarette and put it on the fragrant bones, because the old lady smoked when she was alive. The old lady was alone in the past and fucked her children for the rest of her life, so she gave a cigarette to express her deep nostalgia for her.
Mid-Autumn Festival
Mid-Autumn Festival’s most distinctive worship is of course the Moon Girl. At seven or eight o'clock in the evening, Yue Niang rose slowly in the sky, and people on the ground placed fruits in the direction where Yue Niang was, burning incense and bowing. Smoke curled in front of every house, and the music of "The Moon of the Fifteenth" floated everywhere. I remember when I was a child, when adults worship Yue Niang, the children built a small brick kiln next to them, added some firewood, and enjoyed watching the burning flames. At around 11 o'clock in the evening, a cool breeze blew and couldn't help but shivered. Although it is Mid-Autumn Festival, the scorching sun is no less than summer. Everyone is wearing short-sleeved clothes. Until this cool breeze on the Mid-Autumn Night, autumn in the south has really come.
September
For every ancestor's death, there are people who worship each ancestor, and there is nothing to do on Double Ninth Festival. However, if you cannot afford it because your family is poor or are afraid of trouble, and you usually don’t worship the death anniversary of your ancestors, then you will invite all the spirits to worship them well on this day. My mother's village was born on September 13th, and it was also a very grand program. She also had to perform three days and three night dramas (personal dramas, all of which were performed in Chaoshan traditional Chaozhou operas), and she also had to prepare for the three animals and five fruits to worship together.
Double Ninth Festival
Double Ninth Festival is already late autumn, but the autumn in Chaoshan area is not desolate at all. The autumn is clear and the climate is pleasant. At this time, travel and flying kites are all excellent times. Autumn is also a season of ripening. The heavy wheat ears dance in the wind, indicating the joy of harvest, and October winter is in sight.
October
October winter, with fewer typhoons and less rain, unlike the weak in June winter, so after the harvest, the housewives did not forget to make the "Five Grain Mother Cake" carefully, and came to the field on October 15th to thank the God of Wu Grain for his kindness. Now there is basically no farmland to plant in the urban and suburbs, but devout people like my mother-in-law will still burn incense and worship the Five-King Mother Goddess at home on this day of the year. After the worship, they will put a plate of sand field oranges and incense burners in the rice jar, and they will not be collected until that night.If the offerings worshipped by the Mother Goddess of the Five Grain are eaten by the child, the child will be "scared", that is, he is not smart and does not improve his learning. This is what my mother-in-law said, the rules passed down from generation to generation. I guess are you afraid that your children are too diligent in farming and not putting their studies first?
November
After a long period of rest, the winter solstice is coming, and the winter solstice is celebrated for the New Year. While the housewives sigh that the year has passed, they are busy preparing for a big cleaning. This is a "Guanmu" (i.e., ritual), which must be completed before the winter solstice before the worship of " sending gods and ". Search the calendar and find a good day that matches all the family. Take off the bamboo branches and leaves, tie them to the end of the long bamboo pole, clean the roof and corners of the house one by one, and then remove and wash the sleeping bed, bedding, clothes, etc. at home, and turn them over and dry them. After a busy life, my home is completely refreshed.
Food dumplings
"Sending God" is different from the farewell of God on December 24th. This "Sending" here is to thank the gods for their favor over the past year, and probably means giving gifts. "Sending God" must be carried out before the winter solstice, and auspicious days are selected, and five pig heads and various offerings are prepared, worshiping the Kitchen God, and burning the "peace talisman" that I asked for last year. Some people also set the day of sending God to God on the Winter Solstice, so the housewives were busy sending God and worshiping ancestors on the Winter Solstice. To this end, they prepared glutinous rice flour and other powder ingredients early in the morning and organized the "dried dumplings" and "drinks" of the whole family the night before. As soon as the round dumplings were released, the reunion of New Year was strong. After eating dumplings, everyone became one year old.
During the Winter Solstice Festival, every household must insert a tree (banyan tree) and bamboo leaves at their doorstep. When worshiping the Kitchen God, they must also insert bamboos in the incense burner. In Chaozhou dialect, the banyan sound is called "Cheng" (Cheng), which probably means "being confident in your heart". In the next year, everything is confident and everything you want is fulfilled, and you are very sincerely looking forward to it.
December
0 The 24th day of the lunar calendar, the gods came to heaven, which has been mentioned above. To add to it, among the money papers that are worshipped on this day, there is one thing that is only used in this day of the year, which is "paper horse, paper crane", a kind of money paper with paper horse, paper crane painted on it, held in your hand, ignited, and threw it in the air as a parabola. When the paper horse is almost burned, let go and let it fall slowly to the ground, leaving a small pile of ashes. This paper horse and paper crane is the mount sent to the gods to the heavenly court, and also needs to prepare horse head ropes, horse water, horse materials, and horse grass. This time the gods traveled to the world, with mountains and mountains stacked, clouds and fog heavy. They had to feed their mounts to a fat and strong body so that they could return on time.
00 The flavor of the year is getting stronger and stronger. All kinds of clothing stores and shoe stores were doing well as early as the beginning of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar. By the end of the year, most of them had stopped purchasing goods and began to clear up and sell. In the streets and alleys, Spring Festival couplets, candy, feed, braised meat, and fruits are sold. . . . . All merchants are crowded with people, which is another great business opportunity. Housewives are busy at the beginning of the month "sweets" for family members, especially children, and shoes, and if relatives or friends have children, clothes are also the best gifts for them. By the half of December, they focused more on purchasing holiday items and giving gifts to elders. After December 24th, all kinds of "human favors" have been sent out. The family members who study and work have their annual leave one by one. The housewives and their families are busy washing the doors, windows, and bowing for the bowls, plates, and chopsticks needed to pay homage. Some families with more diligent men in the family will also refresh the doors, windows and window tile. When the end of the year, my father and brother brushed the doors and windows, and my mother and I collected and washed all kinds of miscellaneous items. The whole family is busy and feels infinitely warm.
On the afternoon of New Year’s Eve and on the morning of the first day of the New Year, we will share the atmosphere of the New Year with our ancestors. You have to finish your meal early on New Year’s Eve, and you will have more wealth in the coming year. On the New Year’s Eve reunion table, there should be a dish of "celery garlic". Chaoshan Minyan "celery garlic, you have money to eat" and "diligence", "garlic" is counted. He is careful in budgeting, thrifty, and the way of managing a family in Chaoshan people. The other one is "clut", which is the right time during the Spring Festival, with a lot of flesh and blood, and is very fresh and sweet in the mouth.The most important thing is this clam shell, but money, "clam shell money". After the reunion table was over, the housewives carefully placed the clam shells behind the door and needed to wait for the first day of the lunar calendar to be removed.
is the early worship of the ancestors on the first lunar month
on the first lunar month. Pour three cups of wedding wine and three cups of sweet tea for the ancestors in the sky to celebrate the Spring Festival together. On the morning of the first lunar month, fewer people will go out to pay New Year's greetings. After paying homage to the ancestors of the first year of the lunar calendar, the housewives' work finally came to an end. They cleaned up at home and started their New Year's greetings. The second day of the first lunar month is the "Son-in-law Day". In the old days, after a woman got married, it was difficult to have the chance to return to her mother in one year. Only on the second day of the first lunar month, she happily went back to her parents' home to greet her New Year, reunite with her parents and brothers, and meet with her sisters in the boudoir. Therefore, this day is also a "daughter meeting". Now this custom is still preserved, and daughters and sons-in-law will choose to go back to their parents' home to pay New Year's greetings and eat the "son-in-law table".
The customs of the year have been elaborated. Would such tedious sacrificial activities be amazing?
As a genuine Chaozhou woman, I know the heavy responsibility on my shoulders. Over the years since I got married, I often call myself a "semi-housewife". My mother-in-law is responsible for the important work of worship at home and buying vegetables and cooking in daily life. I am only responsible for the housework of my young couple and children. I often feel tired and can't do many things I want to do. But one day, the burden of a whole family falls on me and I become a "whole housewife". I am deeply afraid of the arrival of this day. Can I do these things my mother-in-law is doing now? Can I deal with my energy and financial resources?
Attachment: Chaoshan folk song "December Song" is also known as " First Monthly "
The first month of the first month, the new son-in-law, go to the living room.
February 2nd, my mother entered the temple.
March 3rd, Taozi Lizai is enough for you to bear it.
April 4th, Taozi Li Zai is willing to carry you.
May 5th, dragon boats, full of oars.
June 6, the new rice is swollen.
July 7, many years of black, longan.
(big word may not be displayed, see the picture below)
August 8, cloud cake, raw.
October 10th, sharp pole, inserting everywhere.
On November 11, every household buys paper and pen.
December 12th, collect the batches and prepare for the New Year.
Source: Xiangu
Statement: This article does not represent our views and is for readers' reference only. The copyright of the article belongs to the original author. If there is any infringement, please contact us to delete it. The Nanao Bistron team is committed to spreading Chaoshan culture and promoting the spirit of the Chaozhou people. It also spares no effort to provide accommodation, catering, play and other services in Shantou Nanao Island . I don’t know how to play when I come to Nan’ao Island, so I can consult the editor.
