Suqian customs-traditional festivals
Sacrifice stove
On the 24th of the Xia calendar (lunar calendar), it is the festival for the stove, which is also called the "Xiao Nian". It's the beginning of the "busy year". Everyone sweeps dust and cleans furniture. Buying New Year's goods one after another, bake the stove cakes (large and round thick cakes), bake pancakes, steam buns, make dumpling fillings, cook dishes, etc. The prepared pancakes and buns are often enough for one month. Dumpling fillings are used for making dumplings during the Spring Festival. With the improvement of living standards, most urban residents directly buy pancakes and steamed buns, and do not need to prepare for one month. The custom of sticking to the statue of Stove Lord and worshiping Stove Lord and Grandma has been abolished, but the custom of eating Stove cakes is still a "busy year" and continues to this day.
New Year's Eve
The last day of the Xia calendar (lunar calendar) year (December is 30 for big and twenty-nine for small ones).
New Year’s Eve, commonly known as "Thirty Nights". All relatives who are away from home must rush home to reunite. The "busy year" ends on this day. Before dinner, every family posted Spring Festival couplets, put the word "Fu" upside down on household utensils, set off firecrackers to light incense candles, and used paper money to worship the ancestors. Dinner dishes were particularly rich, with trowels as the staple food. After the meal, the young and old gathered together to "Farewell" . Then the younger generation kowtows to the elders, and the elders give the younger generations "New Year's Money". The housewife presided over making dumplings and soup gardens, and began to "watch the year" until the New Year bell rang in the early hours of the morning, and families set off firecrackers to welcome the New Year, cheering and laughing all night long.
Chinese New Year
On the first day of the first lunar month of the Xia calendar, it is dawn, and each family sets off firecrackers. Lunch is earlier than usual. Dumplings (commonly known as Yuanbao) and glutinous rice balls made on New Year’s Eve are boiled and served to the gods and ancestors. The younger generation bowed their heads to the elders for New Year greetings. It is the day when men, women and children wear new clothes and meet each other to celebrate the new year. Government agencies and units organize collective New Year greetings and organize supporters and superiors. The female relatives only return to their parents on the second day of the first lunar month to pay a New Year greeting to their parents. The old customs of banning sweeping and banning knives and scissors still exist on the first day of the new year. With the continuous development of society, celebrating the Spring Festival is mainly to carry out cultural and entertainment activities, and there is noisy drums everywhere and it is very lively.
Fortuna Day
According to legend, the fifth day of the first lunar month is the God of Wealth Day. Every family will set off firecrackers to welcome the God of Wealth, and eat dumplings and noodles, which is called "string skewered ingot". On that day, the store officially opened for business, called the "Qing Cai Shenmen". Today, private shops are still generally following.
Lantern Festival
The 15th day of the first lunar month of the summer calendar is the Lantern Festival. In ancient times, it was the blessing day of Shangyuan Tianguan, so it was also called "Shangyuan Festival". This is the traditional "City God Festival". The crowd spontaneously gathers at the Chenghuang Temple in the north end of Xiang Yu's hometown, waiting for the city god master to "go out". Lord Chenghuang is a wooden statue. The "out tour" is accompanied by a wide variety of entertainment programs, including stilts, dry boats, lions, black donkeys, and mussel spirits. The gongs and drums, the Huqin, the trumpet, the flute, and the flute sounded together, sang and played, and played programs such as "Journey to the West", "West Chamber", "Water Over the Golden Mountain", "Empty City Planning", "Eight Immortals Celebration" and so on. The statue of the city god "went out" via East Street and Caishen Temple to the north to the "Emperor Fengxianyoubo Palace" to rest. Then everyone carried the statue of the city god back to the city's south city god temple. In the evening, a variety of hand-tied paper lanterns were exhibited in the front school military field of the Kek Lok Temple. Nowadays, the evening has been replaced by the Lantern Festival Lantern Festival and various cultural and entertainment activities.
"Go North" on the 16th of the first lunar month
On that day, traditional folks eat "horseshoe cake" to pray for "high rise". After dinner, people set off firecrackers all the way, from south to north, through the school military field light market, until the Maling Hill "Baizitang" (now the north end of the second guest house), the terrain is getting higher and higher, and "walking north" is like step by step. Sheng, the legend can cure all diseases, as the saying goes, "Walking north on the 16th day of the first lunar month, the waist will not hurt and the legs will not be sore." Some parents without sons took the opportunity to burn incense and worship God in Baizitang to pray for their children, and paid for a male clay baby to take home, which they called "buckle Baizi". With the continuous development and progress of society, the old custom of worshiping gods and begging for children has long ceased to exist, but "walking north" still continues.
February 2
On the second day of the second month of the Xia calendar, it is commonly known as the sun "the dragon raises its head", that is, all insects emerge. The common people eat bean sprouts and use bean sprouts as a metaphor for scorpions to eliminate disasters. In rural areas, this day is regarded as the "Lord of the Land's Birthday." Every family draws big circles and small circles in front of the door with grass ash, which means that this year's harvest will be full of small detours. Farmers gathered in front of the Didi Temple to worship. Today, the custom of offering sacrifices to the landlord has disappeared, but the custom of eating bean sprouts continues.
Ching Ming Festival
The Qingming Festival in the Xia Li and the three days before and after are the festivals for worshipping ancestors and sweeping the graves, also known as "Ghost Festival". During this period, willows were planted in front of every house, and wine and vegetables were prepared to lead children and grandchildren to sweep the graves of their ancestors. Incinerate paper foil. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, government agencies, schools, and organizations collectively visited the cemetery of martyrs to sweep the tombs and laid wreaths for revolutionary traditional education. The custom of offering sacrifices to ancestors and adding graves to paper in folk families continues to this day.
Dragon Boat Festival
The fifth day of the fifth month of the summer calendar is the Dragon Boat Festival, also known as the Dragon Boat Festival. In the morning, moxa sticks and calamus are inserted in front of every house. Every family eats rice dumplings. Children wear tiger shoes. Wrists and ankles are tied with colorful woolen yarn. Waiting for the "Baicaotou" soaked in hot water to take a bath, which means to prevent poisonous insects and diseases. In the afternoon, the young and old go to the canal bank to watch the "dragon boat" in groups. The custom of "rowing a dragon boat" continued until the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and other customs have continued to this day.
Mid-Autumn Festival
The fifteenth day of August in the summer calendar is the Mid-Autumn Festival. After dinner, every family enjoys the moon in the courtyard, offering moon cakes, water chestnut, pomegranate, and persimmon as offerings. This day is the day of family reunion, so it is also called the Reunion Festival. The next day (August 16), every family takes their married daughter back home to reunite.
Big winter
The summer calendar and the winter solstice are called "big winter", as the saying goes, "new winter is as big as a year." It is a day to offer sacrifices to ancestors, and a sumptuous dinner is like the New Year. After the winter solstice, the days are getting longer, and from the next day there is a saying that "the day grows a line".
In addition, there is also the "Dragon Clothes" on the sixth month of the lunar calendar; the seventh month of the lunar calendar, the cowherd will meet the weaver girl; the seventh lunar month, the first day of the tenth lunar month, and the Ching Ming Festival are the same as the Ghost Festival, and every family burns paper money to worship the ancestors. Pay homage to the grave. This custom is still continuing within a certain scope; the Chongyang Festival is celebrated on the 9th day of the lunar calendar. In 1988, the Jiangsu Provincial People’s Government designated the Chongyang Festival as the Respect for the Elderly Day, mobilizing the whole society to care for the elderly and forming a respect for the elderly; For "Laba", every family usually eats "Laba porridge". Rice and beans are used to cook porridge with red dates, osmanthus, lotus seeds, peanuts, etc., to show the abundant harvest of the end of the year. This custom is now indifferent.
(Huaihai Tourism Net)
