New Year Customs in Chongqing

Introduction of Chongqing Festival Customs

Compared with other parts of China, the folk customs of Chongqing people formed over thousands of years are similar, such as New Year greetings, watching lanterns on the 15th, worshipping ancestors in Tomb-Sweeping Day, enjoying the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival, hanging wine, catching a temple fair, sitting in a sedan chair and flying kites. However, as there are five Tujia and Miao Autonomous Counties in Chongqing, these two warm and traditional ethnic groups have their own unique folk festivals.

The ingenious Tujia people have extraordinary talent in dancing. Every year from the third day to the fifteenth day of the first month, Tujia people hold grand sacrificial ceremonies, prayers and festivals. Men, women and children put on festive costumes and danced a cheerful and warm swing dance. For a time, my ears were full of drums and music, and my eyes were dancing. Brave Miao people have a soft spot for singing. The annual "Catch Autumn" is a traditional festival for Miao people's congresses to show their heartfelt wishes. Young men and women can also express their feelings by singing at the Autumn Festival.

Sacrifice, prayer and festival activities

Tujia people in Qianjiang area have large-scale sacrifice, prayer and celebration activities from the third day to the fifteenth day of the first month every year, during which they have to dance with their hands. During the grand event, it was very lively. Hundreds of Tujia people in Fiona Fang, men wearing Xilankapu and women wearing gorgeous clothes, came here in droves. In front of the wave hall, lanterns are decorated, and the wizard wears a crown hat and eight skirts around his waist, holding bronze bells and knives and conducting while dancing. Three guns were fired, drums and music were ringing, and suddenly songs were everywhere, and men and women were singing and dancing all night. "There are thousands of lights, thousands of people are empty, and a song is lingering." Hand-waving dance originated from the ancient Bayu dance, and its movements include simple pendulum, double pendulum and rotating pendulum. Performance etiquette, labor scene or fighting action, the rhythm is bright, the dance is beautiful, and the original atmosphere is shocking.

Miao people "chase after autumn"

Miao people are good at singing and dancing. Miao songs are either loud and passionate or elegant and euphemistic. When people don't meet each other, everyone can sing, greet with songs, describe with songs, and express their feelings with songs. Song is the shadow of Miao people, and it is also a great matchmaker for young men and women to express and communicate their feelings. At the wedding, songs are even more indispensable. The host will sing a song to the matchmaker thanking the guests and the media. Everyone will sing blessing song to the newlyweds, and relatives and friends will sing songs, duets and nursery rhymes to each other for three days and nights.

"Catch Autumn" is an annual traditional festival of Miao nationality. On this day in early autumn, the Miao people in the village put on holiday costumes and flocked to Akita from all directions. The field was full of gongs and drums, singing, swinging, climbing knives and ladders, dancing lions, playing dragon lanterns, jumping monkeys and singing, which was very lively. Young men and women use "chasing autumn" to find lovers, and singers and actresses sing their hearts out.

In addition, Miao festivals include March 3rd, June 6th, July 7th, Miao Festival, Sheep and Horse Festival and so on.

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folk culture

Bayu culture is a part of China traditional culture with a long history. "Yanhuang" began in the Yellow River Basin, and from Yu Xia, the legends of our ancestors began to spread southward. Yu was born in three places, all in the Yangtze River valley, namely, Sichuan, Jiujiang, Jiangxi and Anhui. According to a large number of historical records, Yu was born in Guangrao County, Wenshan County, Sichuan Province, and married Tushan in Jiangzhou. Gujiangzhou is Chongqing today. After the Qin dynasty destroyed Pakistan and established Sheba County, Ba people entered the process of sinicization by leaps and bounds. For more than 3,000 years, Chongqing has left the mark of China traditional culture everywhere. At the junction of Chongqing and Hubei, there are the hometowns of Qu Yuan and Wang Zhaojun. Fuling Zhouyi Garden is the birthplace of Neo-Confucianism in Zhu Cheng. Dazu stone carving, which brings together a large number of grotto art treasures in China during the Tang and Song Dynasties; Hechuan Fishing City preserves the ancient battlefield site where Nanjing soldiers and civilians fought against Mongolian invasion. Poets of past dynasties, such as Li Bai, Du Fu, Liu Yuxi, Su Shi, Lu You, Guo Moruo, etc. I have written many famous sentences here. Bayu people have formed a folk custom for thousands of years, such as watching lanterns during the Spring Festival, worshipping ancestors during the Tenth Five-Year Plan, enjoying the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival, hanging wine, catching up with temple fairs, sitting in sedan chairs and flying kites. It covers weddings, funerals, entertainment and games, the concept of ghosts and gods, taboos of sacrifice, seasons and seasons, industrial and commercial transactions, etc., which are similar to those in other parts of China. Chongqing's colorful local dramas, folk arts, paintings, handicrafts and mass festivals can also reflect the customs of Bayu.

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Chongqing Tujia new year's eve dinner

It is essential to "buckle meat" and "pour sea pepper"

Just entering the twelfth lunar month, Xu, a farmer in Hongxing Village, Banxi Township, Youyang Tujia and Miao Autonomous County, Chongqing, is busy. In order to prepare this New Year's Eve dinner, it is impossible to prepare some essential traditional main courses ten and a half days before. Among them, the most important ones are "deduction of meat" and "reclamation of pepper". Xu said that "pork-cutting" seems simple, but it really takes some effort to be really fat but not greasy, tender and refreshing. "Sea pepper" is to mix glutinous rice flour with seasoning, then fill it into the hollowed-out sea pepper, and then marinate it in a pickle jar for half a month. On New Year's Eve, take it out and fry it in oil before serving.

Xu told reporters that Tujia people attach importance to these two dishes because it is rare to eat meat several times a year, and glutinous rice is also a rare thing. Therefore, every household regards these two dishes as an opportunity to show their skills on the New Year's Eve, and it is also a reward for their families who have worked hard for a year.

Surprisingly, kelp once became the main course of Tujia New Year's Eve. Because of the difficulty in eating salt and poor medical conditions in Tujia areas in the past, people often suffer from big neck disease due to iodine deficiency. In order to supplement iodine for their families, Tujia people put a kelp on the New Year's Eve dinner to supplement the iodine needed by the human body. Under the conditions at that time, kelp was really delicious for Tujia people, and it was impossible to eat it often, so it became a good dish for New Year's Eve. Nowadays, kelp has already withdrawn from the "stage" of the New Year's Eve.

After Tujia people have eaten the New Year's Eve dinner, each family will light a handful of firewood. Everyone will sit around and listen to the old people telling stories, and they will stay up until dawn, named "Shoutian Ridge" to express their love for the fields.

The continuous migration of Hakkas makes them more attached to their native land. The nostalgia for the landscapes, customs and customs of their hometown has enabled them to unite closely and overcome difficulties and hardships again and again. Traditional customs have become a powerful link to maintain Hakka people. Among the Hakkas in Sichuan, the traditional customs and habits of Hakkas have been maintained for two or three hundred years.

Hakka people attach great importance to the Lunar New Year. Every household hangs colored lights, sticks door gods, and sticks auspicious words on granaries and poultry and livestock pens to show the bumper harvest in the coming year. Conditional Hakka towns and villages,1-will have a lantern dance in February. The types of lanterns are dragon lanterns, lion lanterns and clam lanterns, which are the custom of colored lanterns handed down by Hakka people in their original places.

In addition, there will be a large-scale celebration-dragon dance, which can be divided into colorful dragons, fire dragons, water dragons, disjointed dragons and Shangchuan dragons. Among them, Shangchuanlong is the most distinctive. Shangchuanlong was brought to western Sichuan by Jiangxi immigrant Liu in the early Qing Dynasty. Liu people hold dragon dances every year to celebrate the New Year and pray for good weather. Shangchuanlong is huge and magnificent. Dancing is operated by 30 to 50 people, and the faucet weighs 30 to 50 kilograms. It is very skillful in playing with dragons, and there are many ways.

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The custom of catching the new year in Chongqing

The festival with the most national characteristics of Tujia nationality is the New Year Festival. The most national song and dance in the festival is "Sheba Day".

Tujia people in the wave activities recall the hardships of their ancestors' pioneering work, cherish the memory of their ancestors' achievements and show the life scenes of Tujia ancestors. The whole activity has a strong trace of ancestor worship.

Chinese New Year: Tujia people worship their ancestors very much and call the ancestor worship day "Chinese New Year".

However, the time of "Chinese New Year" varies with surnames, clans and regions. For example, the surnames of You Shui He Xi Peng, Shi Di Peng, Bai, Li, Ma, Cai and Tian are March 3; Murata, the leading village in Youshui Town, was named on April 8th. Li's surname is the first day of July in Keda, Tan, Youshui and other townships.

After the Chinese New Year, an ancestor worship ceremony will be held in the ancestral hall, first to respect the local king and then to respect the ancestors of the family. In the ancestral hall, firecrackers rang, shovels roared, horns rang, and "ho-ho" bursts. Its grand occasion is incomparable to other festivals, and later it gradually changed to family sacrifice. Sacrifice to the king of the earth, there are Peng Gong, Tian He Xiang Laoguan; There are also sacrifices to Ran Xuanwei, Tian Xuanwei, Yang Xuanwei and Ma. In offering sacrifices to their ancestors, Yang offered sacrifices to Yang Zai's heirs, Li offered sacrifices to the third ancestor of the word "Tian", and some of them were eight kings such as Peng and Xie.

After the sacrifice, I visited the village, visited relatives and friends, and entertained guests with songs, which really lasted for three or five days.

Catch up with the Spring Festival: Tujia people generally celebrate the Spring Festival one or two days earlier than Han people, and some celebrate it six or seven days earlier, which is called "catching up with the Spring Festival". The time of "catching up with the Chinese New Year" varies according to the surname and clan. Take Youyang County as an example; Peng's surname is in Laozhai Township, and the twelfth lunar month has passed the "catch-up year"; Peng's surname is in Houxi Township, and the twelfth lunar month has passed "catching up with the New Year"; Li in Daxiang and Tanxiang passed the "Catch the Year" on the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month. The way of "catching up with the New Year" is not exactly the same. During the Chinese New Year, Li in HKUST and Shatan Township is forbidden to kill chickens and pigs, and it is forbidden to light oil lamps at night, but only candles, which will last all night. When some Peng surnames are already "catching up with the Spring Festival", men have to cook in the morning. When the meal is ready and the ancestors are worshipped, wake the women and children up. After dinner, the whole family went out to play. Tujia people usually cook with pots and pans. After dinner, "they cut the meat into pieces, add seasoning and cook a layer of meat", radish and the like. When the "New Year's Eve" is ready, we must sacrifice to our ancestors first. When offering sacrifices, burn incense and candles, burn money and turn paper into paper, kneel three times and knock nine times, miss the merits of ancestors and pray for blessing.

In the new year, we should first feed fruit trees, plowshares, cowshed, pigsty and henhouse, and stick "lucky money" to pheasants, grinders and hoes, so that crops, livestock, melons and fruits will flourish and financial resources will flourish.

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Keeping old age on New Year's Eve is the most important custom, which was recorded in Wei and Jin Dynasties. On New Year's Eve, the descendants of China people still attach great importance to staying up late with their families, getting together for drinking and enjoying family happiness, which is a custom. After the first cock crow, the new year began. Men, women and children wear holiday clothes. First, they celebrate the New Year's birthday for their elders. Then they visit their relatives and friends and congratulate each other. At this time, the land of China is shining everywhere. From the first day to the fifteenth day, people are immersed in a festive atmosphere of joy, peace and civilization.

"One night for two years, five classes are divided into two days."

On New Year's Eve, it is a common custom for the whole family to get together, have New Year's Eve dinner, chat around the stove, bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new year. According to historical records, this custom originated in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. "It's night, it's forbidden to set off firecrackers in the mountains, and voices can be heard outside. In the house of ordinary people, sitting around the stove, Da Dan can't sleep. " Then it gradually became popular. At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong, wrote a poem "Shousui": "Cold words and winter snow, warm with spring breeze." To this day, people in China are used to keeping vigil on New Year's Eve, setting off firecrackers outside, sitting around the fire or watching TV indoors, talking and laughing.

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All the ethnic minorities in Chongqing still retain their traditional customs. Tujia people living in Qianjiang District have traditional festivals and folk activities, such as celebrating the New Year, singing Nuo opera, dancing and dancing lanterns. Chinese New Year is a day for Tujia people to sacrifice their ancestors, and waving dance is a folk activity evolved from sacrifice. Every year from the third day to the fifteenth day of the first month, Xiushan Tujia people spontaneously form a lantern team. People carry lanterns and walk around the village, beating gongs and drums to receive New Year's greetings. Xiushan Lantern Song "* * * Yang Shoudan" enjoys a good reputation at home and abroad.

Ganqiu Festival is a Miao festival in the border areas of Chongqing, Guizhou and Hunan. Every year on "beginning of autumn", Miao people invite friends to accompany them, and the whole family goes out dressed up and gets together in Akita. The drums and gongs were loud and the songs were lingering. It's dizzying to swing, climb ladders, dance lions, play dragon lanterns and sing songs on the stage. Every year from the first day of the first month to the fifteenth day of the first month, it is the "Mountain Treading Festival" of the Miao people in Nanchuan. Men dance and women sing, and young men and women use blowing sheng to talk to each other and find partners. Every festival, all ethnic groups are singing and dancing, which is very lively. In addition, there are ethnic customs and activities such as Sheep and Horse Festival, Mars Festival, Weeping Wedding, and Jumping Mourning. Colorful folk customs have become an important tourism resource in Chongqing.