Zodiac folk custom

The folk customs of Zodiac animals are rich and colorful, focusing on the four seasons, life etiquette, entertainment, clothing and diet. , with a long history, local conditions, rooted in traditional nationality and demand-oriented utilitarianism. The 25th day of the first lunar month is the "Cang Cang Festival", and grain merchants and rice vendors offer sacrifices to the "Cang Shen" rats. In the Qing Dynasty, Pan's "Ji Sheng at the Age of Emperor Jing" said: "This new festival is over, and it is appropriate to restore it." No lighting is allowed on the night of the filling festival, and the mouse marries a woman that night. However, the day when a mouse marries a woman is not uniform everywhere. On that day, people fried soybeans mixed with brown sugar and retreated to a corner. In Shaanxi, salt and rice grains are scattered in the corner, which is called "mouse sharing money". In southern Jiangsu, take off your shoes as a bride's sedan chair and peel as a gift box. Marrying a mouse is also an important theme in New Year pictures and paper cutting. The sedan chair, lanterns and drum bands in the picture are like the grand occasion of human marriage. Sedan chairs play with mice, but the appearance of the bride and groom varies from place to place, and there is even a reproductive god in the shape of mice. Lu Xun recalled in Dog, Cat and Mouse, "The night of the fourteenth day of the first month was the night when I refused to fall asleep easily and waited for their ceremony to come out from under the bed." Qinghai's "steaming blind mice", on the 14th day of the first month, kneaded twelve mice with flour, steamed them in a steamer without pinching their eyes, put them on the table for the Lantern Festival, and burned incense to beg the mice not to hurt crops. Whipping spring cattle, also known as "beating spring", is intended to persuade people to farm. Zhou Li?' "Today" contains "Unearthed cattle send air conditioning", which is scheduled for the beginning of spring. People dressed as "Ju Mang God" whipped local cows, and local officials held a ceremony to burn incense to announce the start of the New Year's work. After using paper cows, the belly is filled with grains in advance, and scattered after whipping, symbolizing that "the grains are abundant and the grains flow all over the ground". Every year in the Qing Dynasty, local governments were given maps of the gods of Spring Cattle Mountain. In the picture, the color of each part of the spring cow is designed according to the relationship between the branches of the five elements and yin and yang, as well as the age, clothing and posture of the mango that plays the role of almanac. Vertebrate cattle appeared at the funeral. Tie a colorful magic cow, and the owner leads a dozen young people with spears. After the drum sounded, the master's uncle and the youth stabbed the cow in turn, and it was auspicious for the cow's head to face the master's house when it landed. Zhejiang Jinhua likes bullfighting. Chen Qiyuan's Notes on Yongxianzhai in the Qing Dynasty said: "Two households, each with a strong man, have four wings and two cows stand side by side, and the king is watching. All along, they have been fighting with each other, asking about the gap, and each has its own ingenious ideas. "Miao people have the marriage custom of snatching oxtail. On the wedding day, the woman brings the cow to the scene, the bride cuts off the cow's tail, and the groom immediately grabs the cow's tail, which needs to be taken before the woman's parents arrive, otherwise the marriage will fall through. People think the tiger is the patron saint of children. Newborns wash their bodies with tiger bones to get rid of diseases. The children are wearing tiger hats and shoes. In Shaanxi, my nephew gave a yellow tiger at the full moon, and when he entered the door, his tail was broken, indicating that he had a pimple. In Shanxi, my nephew gave me a tiger pillow for my birthday, which can also be used as a toy. It is also popular to give cloth tigers to children as toys during the Dragon Boat Festival. Cloth tigers need to highlight their bravery. Children of the Oroqen nationality in Northeast China wear Tiger Claw and tiger teeth to ward off evil spirits. " Painting a tiger on the door ",taking the tiger as the door god to come to the town house, has been popular since the Han Dynasty and can be traced back to the Zhou Dynasty at the earliest. In the old days, it was popular in North China to hang the New Year's picture "The Map of the God and Tiger in the Town House" in the main hall, saying that "the god and tiger went down the mountain, and the demon descended to the world. Good people bought it, and the four seasons are safe. "Fighting tigers like people originated in the Han Dynasty. The tiger played by human beings fought against human beings and was replaced by lion dance after the Tang Dynasty. The Hakka area still retains the custom of dancing tigers, which evolved from fighting tigers. Taiwan Province Province also dances tiger dance at temple fairs or Mazu's birthday. Tiger Bullfighting is a folk dance in Dongying. The main plot is divided into four parts: "Hungry tiger looking for food", "Tiger and monkey playing with each other", "herding cattle" and "saving cattle", which shows the fierceness of the tiger and the calmness and courage of the cattle, and is still flourishing today. In Song Dynasty, Chen had the custom of "hanging rabbit's head" on the first day of the first month. In addition, there is a picture of giving away rabbits. In the picture, six children gather around the table, and people holding auspicious pictures of rabbits stand on the table, wishing the donated children a safe life in the future. Rabbits are associated with Mid-Autumn Festival. Ji Kun, a Ming Dynasty man, wrote in "The Legacy of Kaoting": "The Mid-Autumn Festival in Beijing is mostly in the shape of a mud rabbit, dressed like a human figure, and children worship it. "Male prostitute three feet big and one inch small, rabbit head, medicine pole in hand. Most of his shapes are die-printed, painted and beautifully dressed. On the Double Ninth Festival, rabbits are eaten in the north and used for cooking. " "Gathering women to forget" says: "There is a banquet around the Double Ninth Festival, which is called welcoming frost. Free food between banquets is called frost-free "A daughter in a certain place in Shanxi eats rabbit-shaped steamed buns symbolizing men and fish-shaped steamed buns symbolizing women before getting married. Before Shandong fishermen went out to sea in Qingming, their wives stuffed rabbits into their husbands' arms for safety. Dragon dance, also known as the Dragon Lantern Festival, includes bamboo dragon, cloth dragon, paper dragon and iron dragon. Cheng's Dream of Liang Lu said, "On the night of Lantern Festival ... Jackie Chan was tied on the grass, covered with green curtains, and there were thousands of lights and candles. Look ... >>

The custom of the "animal year" of the zodiac is the twelfth year of the lunar calendar, commonly known as the year of the zodiac. For example, people born in the Year of the Monkey, 2004 is their birth year. In traditional customs, the Year of the Animal is usually considered as an unlucky year. The folk song "Tai sui commits the year of birth, Tai sui takes the lead." Without happiness, there will be disaster "is the best portrayal of the unlucky year of birth." Therefore, people usually refer to the "year of birth" as the "year of threshold", that is, spending the year of birth is like stepping into a threshold. Every animal year, in all parts of the northern Han nationality, no matter adults or children, they should wear red belts, commonly known as "tying red", and children should wear red vests and red shorts, thinking that this is the only way to avoid disasters. This custom is still popular everywhere today. During the Spring Festival, red and yellow ribbons of "auspicious belt" and "auspicious knot" are sold everywhere in the market. People in the Year of the Animal tie them around their waists and wrists, which can eliminate disasters and turn evil into good.

The word "animal year" can be traced back to the Western Han Dynasty, and originated from China's zodiac and "red worship" mentality. In ancient China, people used the combination of heavenly stems and earthly branches, such as A, B, C, D, Zi Chou and Yin Mao, to remember the year of birth. In order to facilitate memory and calculation, people use twelve kinds of animals, such as rats and cows, to correspond to the twelve earthly branches, and one of them is used as a year's zodiac every year. The birth year of the Han nationality is put forward according to the cycle of the zodiac, which is closely related to the zodiac. When a person is born in the lunar calendar, then every year of this zodiac will be the year of his birth. Because of the cycle of the zodiac, every two years, people will meet their own birth years and introduce them in turn. The birth years of life are 2 years old, 24 years old, 36 years old, 48 years old and 60 years old. Many ethnic groups in our country have the custom of attaching importance to the 60th birthday of the elderly, commonly known as "flower armor". Hua Jia is the sixth animal year in a person's life, and it is also the reincarnation of the year of dry support. We should celebrate it well to express people's desire for longevity, health and auspiciousness.

The taboo of "Monument to the Core of Life" has a wide influence among the people. In the folk customs of the north and the south, there is a tradition of hanging red in the animal year to avoid evil spirits and disasters. So people especially love red in every animal year. The emphasis on red in the animal year should come from the worship of red in the traditional culture of Han nationality in China. The concept of red to ward off evil spirits and red auspiciousness has existed since primitive society. Red is the color of the sun, blood and fire. With the changes of the times, this thought of respecting red has not changed. Red couplets, red wedding dresses, red hijabs, red candles, new family red lists for old weddings of Han people, and so on. Whenever and wherever, people should use red to add joy. Han people regard red as a symbol of happiness, success, loyalty and justice, especially red has the function of exorcising evil spirits and protecting the body. Therefore, on New Year's Eve, people put on red underwear early, or wear red belts and some accessories tied with red silk to welcome their birth year. It is believed that only in this way can we avoid disasters. These red things that ward off evil spirits in this animal year are what people often say, "this life is red."

People also have the custom of offering sacrifices to the "god of life" in the year of the zodiac in order to prolong life. The god's view of the core monument of life comes from Taoism. Taoism has absorbed the popular saying of "the stone tablet of life" and put forward the theories of "the stone tablet of life", "the year of birth" and "the year of birth". Anyone born at the age of 60 is called the core monument of life. Chen Yuan, also known as the animal year. As a local religion in China, Taoism has a natural kinship with heavenly stems and earthly branches and the Chinese Zodiac. As for the core monuments of the God of Life, some places are called "Ming Shou Xing Jun" and some places are called "Chen Yuan", which are collectively referred to as the God of Sixty Children. People born in different years within 60 years, headed by Jiazi Year, can find their own core monument. For example, Yue Fei, a national hero, was born in A.D. 1 103, and the core monument of his life was named "General Wei Rener, not yet mature". Taoism believes that if Chen Yuan is enshrined in the core monument of life, and Chen Yuan is enshrined in the core monument of life in the animal year or the normal year, it will eliminate disasters and gain happiness, which has become a custom that has been passed down to this day.

The animal year should be counted from the first day of the first month. For dogs that passed their animal year in 2006, it is very lucky that next year will be a good animal year. Grasp it well, everything will be smooth and there will be new development. However, although it is an auspicious animal year, don't forget not only to wear red underwear, but also to tie a red rope if it is convenient. Can be tied to the wrist, neck and waist according to personal preferences and habits. Generally, you don't wear a red rope. You can wear it all year round until the New Year comes. Jade ornaments or gold ornaments can be hung on the rope. Although it is especially important to remember that red underwear and * * * must be given by others, because it is said that if you buy them yourself ... >>

China Folk Culture Zodiac A: Yes. Absolutely!

The Book of Songs is the earliest record of the zodiac in the existing literature. The Book of Songs? Xiaoya? There are eight words for "auspicious day", which means auspicious day, and it is a good day for prancing hunting. This is an example of a horse in the afternoon. It can be seen that the corresponding relationship between earthly branches and twelve kinds of animals has been established and spread around the Spring and Autumn Period. The bamboo slips 1975 unearthed from tomb1in Shuihudi, Yunmeng County, Hubei Province, further proved that the zodiac had existed before and after the Spring and Autumn Period. There is a chapter on "Thief" in the bamboo slips unearthed in Japan, which talks about the appearance characteristics of thieves, and records: "Son, mouse, thief wants his mouth, ... ugly, cow, thief with big nose and long neck, ... yin, tiger, thief, if he wants his beard, his face is black." Hair, rabbits, thieves are big. Chen, [original leak] The thief is a man, green and red ... Third, the worm is also black. At noon, the deer is also a thief with a long neck and a small Q, and his body is incomplete. ..... No, horse, thieves have ears. ",ring also, thief round face ..."

It is difficult to study the origin of the zodiac.

As an ancient folk cultural phenomenon, scholars have different opinions about the origin of the zodiac. Some people think that the zodiac and earthly branches are homologous and can be traced back to prehistoric legend times. In Historical Records, the Yellow Emperor's statements of "building Jiazi for life" and "making every effort to cure Jiazi" are the embodiment of this statement, and scholars believe that Jiazi here refers to the zodiac. Zhao Yi, a scholar in Qing Dynasty, believed that the zodiac originated from nomadic people in northern China. He said in "An Examination of Jade Cong": "At the beginning of the custom of covering the north, there was no ugliness on the 12th, but in the next year, it spread to China, and it was worthy of your ears." (see Qing? Zhao Yi's Language Congkao). Some scholars even think that the zodiac was introduced to China from Babylon. The representative of this view is Guo Moruo, who wrote in The Study of Oracle Characters? Shi Zhigan said, "Twelve statues are found in Babylon, Egypt and India, but they are not very old, nor are they more than 100 years after the Western Dynasty. The original intention is that this was made in the Western countries during the Han Dynasty, imitating the Babylonian zodiac and then spreading to the surrounding areas. " It is believed that the Chinese Zodiac was formulated by Middle Eastern residents imitating the Babylonian Zodiac, and was introduced to China when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty communicated with the western regions. The above viewpoints are different, so I dare not judge right or wrong subjectively. However, it is proved by a large number of documents that the Chinese zodiac really originated in China, and it is the crystallization of animal worship, totem worship and early astronomy of China ancestors.

What is the zodiac? How did this folk culture come into being? The Zodiac, also known as the Zodiac, is twelve kinds of animals in China, which match the zodiac with the year of birth, including rats, cows, tigers, rabbits, dragons, snakes, horses, sheep, monkeys, chickens, dogs and pigs.

Source: The ancestors of primitive society often used some animal, inanimate or natural phenomenon as the patron saint and symbol of this clan, that is, totem. The mixed image of man and beast in Shan Hai Jing is an ancient totem god. The totem of Xia nationality is bear or fish, the totem of Shang nationality is blackbird, and the totem of Zhou nationality is dragon, bird, turtle, dog and tiger. Zodiac animals are imaginary except dragons, and the rest are daily visible. It can be divided into two categories, namely "six animals" (horses, cows, sheep, chickens, dogs and pigs) and "six animals" (rats, tigers, rabbits, dragons, snakes and monkeys). The former was domesticated by people for economic purposes, while the latter disturbed human life to a certain extent, and ancestors were afraid of it. Therefore, these animals are worshipped as the name symbols of this clan.

Hope to adopt

What are the zodiac animals in China? Introduction to China Folk Culture. Zodiac animals are integrated into people's lives as ordinary creatures in China, and their natural habits are endowed with many cultural meanings, from animals to gods, which are respected and worshipped by people. Only the combination of natural creatures and cultural gods can form a complete impression of China Zodiac animals.

The Chinese Zodiac, also known as the Chinese Zodiac, is twelve kinds of animals in China that match the twelve earthly branches according to the year of birth, including rats, cows, tigers, rabbits, dragons, snakes, horses, sheep, monkeys, chickens, dogs and pigs. The origin of the zodiac is related to animal worship. According to Qin bamboo slips unearthed in Yunmeng Sleeping Tiger Land in Hubei Province and Fangmatan in Tianshui, Gansu Province, a relatively complete zodiac system existed as early as the pre-Qin period. The earliest handed down document that recorded the same Chinese zodiac as today was Lun Heng written by Wang Chong in the Eastern Han Dynasty. The zodiac is an intuitive representation of the twelve earthly branches, namely, Zi (mouse), Ugly (ox), Yin (tiger), Mao (rabbit), Chen (dragon), Si (snake), Wu (horse), Wei (sheep), Shen (monkey), You (chicken) and Xu (chicken). In modern times, more people regard the zodiac as the mascot of the Spring Festival and become a symbol of entertainment and cultural activities.

February 2nd, the traditional festival of the China Zodiac,

On the second day of February, the dragon looked up.

. Dragon boat race.

Dongfang shangying

(mantra)

Dragon. Ranked fifth in the zodiac: Chen Long.

What animals are there in the zodiac in Xiao Zhong? Folk traditional animals generally refer to large mammals raised by human beings, so there are: cattle, horses, sheep, dogs and pigs. However, some exclude sheep and dogs.

What is the gatekeeper in the zodiac? The loyalty, legends and reality of traditional dogs abound. Dogs are often used by families as doormen and nursing homes, especially at night when their hearing is particularly sensitive.

10 ask a folk question about the taboo of the zodiac. The date of cutting is 7: 00 a.m. on Lunar New Year1February 17. At this time, people who belong to the zodiac need to avoid it. In fact, it is important to pay special attention to the fact that the person who helps you tailor cannot belong to a horse.

On the wedding day1February 19, the monkeys who pick up the bride need to avoid it.

Is the Zodiac a traditional culture in China? Hello, it's a chicken. Such people escape: they often muddle along in life. You don't like to give in to difficulties or contradictions, and you are always eager for miraculous solutions. When you need to make a decision, you are often at a loss. * ... The above is for reference only, I hope I can help you ... *