What are the Spring Festival customs of Bai people?
On the day of beginning of spring in the old days, the county magistrate took his family with him, wore a formal dress to the national altar, and greeted the Spring Emperor and the Mang God with five parsley (commonly known as spring vegetables) and spring wine, which was called "Spring Festival". After the sacrifice, symbolic whipping, commonly known as "spring beating", broke the clay sculpture of spring cattle, and people scrambled for the clods of spring cattle and put them in their own fields, praying for crops to avoid pests and get a bumper harvest. After the "spring break", Baixiang people went back to their hometown to burn incense and celebrate the festival, in order to be safe all the year round, and the Spring Festival began.
The 30th day of the twelfth lunar month is the last night of the year, which is called "Wang Ji the Sheep" or "Dophuket Plus" in white language, that is, the New Year's Eve Festival in China. Bai people regard this day as an important festival of the Spring Festival. In order to have a good holiday, Bai people, who are famous for their cleanliness and hygiene, will unpack and wash their bedding and clothes on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, and clean up their homes inside and outside, which is called "[cogongp] p", which means to clean up the bitterness of a year.
On this day, the Bai family will also hold "SonxZop" and present candy to the kitchen god, which means keeping his mouth shut. From then on, he should avoid swearing, angry words and unlucky words. He also said that the Kitchen God should be locked up and not allowed to speak ill of the Jade Emperor. You must wash your feet after dinner on New Year's Eve. There is a simple folk proverb, "Wash feet on New Year's Eve, eat and drink in a hurry", which means that after washing feet on New Year's Eve, no matter what you do, you will walk in front of others.
On New Year's Eve, every Bai family will post Spring Festival couplets, which are based on their own authors, with rich contents and elegant dictionaries to show their family background, family style and sentiment. Anyone who doesn't have a dead person at home will put up red couplets. If there is a funeral at home for less than three years, paste green or yellow Spring Festival couplets to show the memory and mourning for the deceased during the Spring Festival. Spring Festival couplets are very common in Baixiang, with a high level. Known as "every family couplets flowers", known as "hometown of couplets" reputation. His calligraphy attainments and couplets were praised as "the first in China" by writers Bai Hua, Lee Joon and Peng Jingfeng.
On New Year's Eve, Bai people also have the custom of "planting sacred trees". Residents usually plant a young pine, cypress or chestnut tree as a "god" in the courtyard on New Year's Eve. Later, this custom gradually lost the role of "God". Most Bai families bring saplings to the front of their houses or other places, but the custom of planting trees in every household has been preserved on this day.
Setting off firecrackers is a particularly important activity for Bai people to bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new year on New Year's Eve. At the same time, on New Year's Eve, there will be an annual sacrifice. The annual festival mainly includes pig's head (pig's tongue should be cut off to show no annoyance), pig's tail, rooster and raw fish, with tofu, monk's rice, sake and green tea. Worship the gods in the sky first, and then worship the altar, ancestors, door gods, well gods and beast gods. After the annual sacrifice, the Bai people also have the custom of sealing doors and wells. After the door is closed, there will be no more visitors from door to door that night.
After the festival, the whole family will get together for dinner. The dishes on New Year's Eve are not only rich, but also have certain implications. For example, pig's head meat must be matched with pig's tail, which means "one head and one tail"; Fried konjac with garlic seedlings means "smooth"; Stewed mushrooms mean "round and full"; Stewed lotus root means "Mrs. Tong Tong"; Stewed fish, meaning "Jiqing has more than (fish) and so on.
After the New Year's Eve, the younger generation will kowtow to their ancestors and elders, which is called resignation. Then drink tea, eat fruit and watch TV vigil under the lamp. This is called watchkeeping. At this point, the New Year's Eve Festival is over.
Bai people's Spring Festival activities from the first day to the fifteenth day of the lunar calendar mainly include: opening doors, burning incense, grabbing water, offering vegetarian sacrifices on the first day, traveling, enjoying Spring Festival couplets, sweeping graves to worship ancestors, swinging, inviting spring guests, chasing dolls' streets, offering sacrifices to young girls, offering sacrifices to gods, making dragon lanterns, playing bull dances and celebrating the Lantern Festival.
In the early morning of New Year's Day, the man set off firecrackers, opened the gate, sang loudly "Open the door, Happy New Year, Happy New Year to Kyrgyzstan" and called for opening the door. The main leaders of the White House took firecrackers, incense wax and offerings to temples such as the City God Temple and the main temple to strive for the first incense burner. Those who can win the first column "Touxiang" show that they are prosperous all the year round. Young men bring paper-scented firecrackers, set them off at the edge of a stream pool or a mountain spring, and take clean water home to drink, which is called grabbing water; Whoever grabbed the first water means that everything went well at first.
On this day, Bai people also offer sacrifices to gods, kitchen gods, altar gods, clan gods, well gods and door gods one by one with fried glutinous rice balls, dried rice slices, dried Toona sinensis buds, monk rice, vegetarian tea and vegetarian wine, and then go to our main temple and Kannonji to offer sacrifices to our Lord and Guanyin, which is called vegetarian sacrifice. On this day, everyone goes out to travel except housewives; When you go out, you should choose a favorable direction and stick a vertical note that says "Go well", so that you can be safe for one year.
From the second day of the Lunar New Year, every family can go to the grave to worship their ancestors. You can also sacrifice your teeth, worship the god of wealth, and worship the god of wealth to show "grabbing" wealth; You can also invite guests in the spring to entertain newlyweds, close relatives and friends, as well as new and old friends from all over the world, and set up a banquet; You can also sing social operas, play the flute, play cow dance and enjoy Spring Festival couplets. , to carry out various competitive and recreational activities; Of course, the most lively thing is to worship the first month, that is, to pay a New Year call. First of all, we should pay New Year greetings, that is, the younger generation of a family pays New Year greetings to their elders first, then to their closest relatives in Five Blessingg, and finally to their in-laws and relatives outside Five Blessingg.
Gifts for New Year greetings are generally four-color gifts such as bait, brown sugar, cigarettes and tea. Newlyweds must bring Ciba and Happy Fruit. In addition to sweet tea, bitter tea, melons and fruits, popcorn, rice candy and eight bowls of banquets, elders also give their children "lucky money". In the meantime, eating breakfast from the first day to the fourth day has certain rules: eating glutinous rice and brown sugar pancakes on the first day, eating shredded fish bait on the second day, eating jiaozi on the third day, and eating "rolling cattle" on the fourth day (glutinous rice cakes are cooked in water and covered with fried oat noodles and brown sugar, which is a kind of special food layered on top of each other), and you can eat them casually after the fourth day. From the first day to the fourth day, food should be sent to each other within five clothes to show affection.
In Jianchuan Bai's New Year's Eve, the most distinctive and rich local ethnic characteristics are "Doll Street", "Daughter's Day" and "Sydney Flower Festival"