The Origin of Duan Jie Shui Nationality
Shuizu Duanjie is a traditional festival popular in Sandu County, Guizhou Province, and it is one of the national intangible cultural heritages. The festival of the aquarium is called "borrowing end" in water language. "Duan" means "the beginning of a year" or "New Year"; "Borrow" means "eat".
Shui people have their own calendar, and the festival usually lasts for 49 days from1February to February of the following year (from early October to mid-November of the lunar calendar), which is called the longest festival in the world.
On the eve of the festival, Shui people will make new rice, brew new wine, sew new clothes, and prepare all kinds of food and fruits for ancestor worship and entertainment. On New Year's Eve, people hang bronze drums or big leather drums in the court and beat them heartily to show that they bid farewell to the old and welcome the new.
Early in the morning of the first day, each family set up a fast and offered fish (the aquarium regards fish as a vegetarian dish), new glutinous rice, new rice wine, tofu, dried bamboo shoots, pumpkins, peanuts, fruits, sugar and vegetables. Among them, steamed or stewed "leek fish" and "kang (roasted) fish" are essential sacrifices.
Pre-Festival Activities and Festival Sacrifice of Shui Nationality's Duan Festival
Before the Aquarium Festival, cleaning and washing utensils is the first task. Before, there was no detergent, dishes and chopsticks should be ground with firewood, tables and stools should be scrubbed with straw, and so on. In this way, the oil can be completely removed, and the room should be clean and bright, and there can be no traces of spider silk. Special attention should be paid to the cleaning of shrines, and hard objects should not be touched or damaged to avoid offending the gods.
Aquarium can't use broken bowls and chopsticks on the table. All tables and stools should be scrubbed clean, especially those used by ancestors, and should be washed with special care. God began to clean the house, wash dishes, tables and stools, catch fish every day, slaughter pigs and cows in the morning, and lay a board to break fish in the afternoon.
Every household should raise fish to worship their ancestors during the aquarium festival. There are three main ways to wrap fish in leeks for the festival: the first way is to cook fish. After the fish is wrapped, put it in a big pot, add some leeks, vegetables and ginger, add some salt and spicy grains, add some water, cover the pot, and then cook it on fire. The second is steamed fish.
Put a steamer on the cauldron frame, then put a steamer on the steamer, and put the tied fish neatly in the steamer. The third is "braised" fish, which is the most exquisite cooking method. Set up a pottery urn, spread some leeks and vegetables on the bottom of the urn, sprinkle some prepared spicy grains on it, and then put the wrapped fish neatly into the urn in turn.
Sprinkle some homemade rice wine on each layer of fish, and then spread a thin layer of leeks, vegetables and spicy grains on the fish until the clay pot is full.