Four Seasons and Eight Festivals is a very meaningful Chinese idiom, which generally refers to spring, summer, autumn, and winter (four hours); The beginning of spring, the spring equinox, the beginning of summer, the summer solstice, the beginning of autumn, the autumn equinox, the beginning of winter, and the winter solstice (eight festivals). However, there is another direction in folklore, which is summarized as follows:
In folklore, "Four Seasons and Eight Festivals" is also known as "New Year's Festival", which is a general name for the annual festival.
The "eight festivals" are generally the Spring Festival, Qingming Festival, Summer Solstice, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, October Dynasty, and Winter Solstice. Collect the customs of the eight festivals in the Jintan area for reference.
Spring Festival
On the first day of the first lunar month, it is called the first day of the new year, "New Year" and "New Year", etc., and the village calls it "New Year" and "New Year". According to legend, as far back as the Yao Shun era, there was a custom of celebrating the beginning of the year and welcoming the New Year. In the first year of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (104 BC), the first day of the first lunar month was officially designated as the New Year. In 1912, it was named the Spring Festival. In the early morning of the Spring Festival, almost every household in the territory sets off firecrackers, commonly known as "opening the door to the fire". After breakfast, the village goes door-to-door to greet the New Year, first to the elders in the village, and the elders will give the juniors a small cake or a large cake, and the cake also has New Year's money. Meet with each other, say new jubilee to each other, and say some auspicious words. Prepare cigarettes, tea candies, melon seeds, peanuts and the like at home to entertain visitors. Eating noodles at lunch means health and longevity, and you can eat leftovers every other day (i.e., every other year) at night. It is forbidden to sweep and not use knives and scissors. In the second year of junior high school, I began to visit relatives and friends. Traditionally, the second nephew worships the year of his mother-in-law, and the third year of the junior high school is the year when the son-in-law worships his mother-in-law. When the doors open in the morning of the first and second days of junior high school, firecrackers will be set off. It is called "opening the door and exploding the battle" and "closing the door and exploding the war", which contains auspicious meaning. On the fifth day of the first month, firecrackers are set off to "welcome the God of Wealth" and other customs. With the improvement of life, now the New Year's greetings will be paid by phone and WeChat video, and red envelopes will be sent on WeChat.
Ching ming festival
Around the 5th day of April in the Gregorian calendar, wicker sticks will be inserted on the lintel of each house in the village and on the stove. Before the Qingming Festival, every household in the territory should worship their ancestors and round the grave (clean up the weeds around the tomb and cultivate soil for the tomb). Qingming or before Qingming will worship ancestors at home, burn incense and burn coins, called "passing Qingming". When worshipping ancestors, there are meals on the table, the bowl is singular, there are meat and vegetables, generally there are braised fish, braised pork, braised chicken, tofu, green vegetables, will also be offered according to their own habits. Onions, garlic, and leeks cannot be put on the table. When the village tomb is not moved, before the Qingming Dynasty will go to the grave, the new tomb of less than three years will press the tomb cap on both sides of the tomb, the grave hat will advance money paper, and then burn the dead money and offerings, the new tomb of the third year will be the long tomb into a circle, and the round grave head will press the tomb cap to advance money paper, floating on the paper money. After the flat grave is moved to the cemetery, go to the cemetery in advance to sweep the grave, and flowers will be placed in front of the grave.
summer solstice
Around June 22 of the Gregorian calendar, there is a custom of eating wontons in Zhedang Village, "eating bowls of wontons, a stable summer". In the old days, there was a legend that if you don't sit on the threshold on this day, you can avoid "boiling summer".
dragon boat festival
The fifth day of the fifth lunar month is the Dragon Boat Festival, also known as the Duanyang Festival. There is a custom of eating zongzi and inserting mugwort in the territory. The rice dumplings are wrapped in reed leaves to shape small feet, and salted duck eggs are boiled together. On the day of the Dragon Boat Festival, the family's calamus leaves and mugwort branches are hung in front of the door, which is said to ward off evil spirits. In the old days, it was necessary to put on the "bell to catch ghosts", paste the "disaster chapel charm", prepare wine and food at noon, drink realgar wine, draw a "king" character with realgar between the eyebrows of children, sprinkle realgar wine on the four corners of the wall, or dip mugwort branches in the water to cook zongzi, all over the wine house, it is said that it can repel mosquitoes and insects (centipede) and so on. At noon, mugwort leaves are lit in the house to smoke and eliminate mosquitoes. After the 21st century, there are fewer and fewer zongzi, and many young people like to buy zongzi, salted duck eggs, and the types and shapes of zongzi are also diverse. In addition to keeping the custom of wrapping zongzi, eating salted duck eggs, calamus leaves and mugwort branches hanging in front of the door, there are also eating new geese, and the new son-in-law brings gifts such as fish and meat, geese, tobacco and alcohol to his parents-in-law, called "Zhang Duanwu", and there are also children who buy gifts to their parents and honor their parents.
Midyear Festival
The fifteenth day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, commonly known as "half of the seventh month", is also called "Ghost Festival". When worshipping ancestors, in addition to fish, meat, tofu and vegetables, a bowl of "sugar nest" will also be made. Legend has it that on July 15th, the day of the hellish ghosts, every household burns paper money all the way. The "sugar nest" is the ancestor who brought Zhou Ji to the "lonely soul and wild ghost". The ancestors are sacrificed in the seventh half of July, and it is called "over the seventh and a half months" in the territory.
mid-autumn festival
On the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, the territory has always attached importance to the eight and a half months, and people outside the country want to go home to spend a good night with their families, so it is also called the reunion festival. In addition to making their own scones, they also buy moon cakes for the festival. Before the festival, the son-in-law wants to buy gifts such as moon cakes and fruits for his parents-in-law, called "Zhang August and a half". In addition to buying moon cakes and fruit gifts, you also need to buy fresh lotus root, fish, tobacco and alcohol, etc., to give gifts to your parents-in-law. There are also juniors who give moon cakes to their elders. In addition, there is a custom of making scones in the village, and most of the scones are made of freshly ground rice flour, kneaded and stuffed, and fried in an iron pot. Today, the family is reunited. At night, people put a small table under the moon, put an incense burner on the table, and put on the offerings such as scones, moon cakes, and fruits and seasonal food water chestnuts and lotus roots, burn incense and light candles, and call it "moon worship".
October Morning
On the first day of the tenth lunar month, "October Dynasty" and "Winter Clothes Festival", in the old days, people would sacrifice and burn on this day to commemorate the deceased relatives of immortals, which was called sending winter clothes. Today, only the custom of eating glutinous rice is left.
winter solstice
Around December 22 of the Gregorian calendar. This day begins on the first nine days and is the shortest day of the year. There is a saying that "the winter solstice is as big as the year". On the winter solstice, every family in the territory will worship their ancestors, and there is also the custom of eating pumpkin (pumpkin) porridge, and the number nine cold winters start from the winter solstice.
Reading 12