What are the customs or folkways in Shunde?

Spring Festival is a festival with a long history in China. Before the Spring Festival, Shunde people (including all China people) will have a general cleaning (see photo 1) to go out to welcome the new year and thoroughly clean their homes. At the Spring Festival Gala, according to the traditional custom, people will eat jiaozi (see Figure 2), oil angle, fried dumplings and steamed muffins. After the reunion dinner in the evening, the children will sell idleness in the street. On New Year's Eve, people don't go to bed until 12: 00, that is, they keep watch.

During the day, everyone will visit the flower market (see Figure 3), visit the colorful world, buy some flowers to decorate the monotonous house and add a little vitality to the home. People usually buy a pair of Spring Festival couplets and stick them on their doorstep.

People who have time will go back to their hometown to visit relatives, and relatives and friends will get together to talk about family and career. A talkative child may earn a lot of lucky money! Of course, setting off firecrackers is naughty dolls' favorite thing. It is said that children used to throw firecrackers at the lion dance (see Figure 5) to scare the "lion", which made the "lion" jump up and be very naughty.

Step 2 entertain

When guests arrive home, the host will congratulate and bless each other, then the host will offer tea to the guests and let them have some sweets and melon seeds (see Figure 6) (in Cantonese, "melon seeds" means "melon seeds", so the host will let you eat melon seeds, which has another meaning of making you rich), and the host often stays for dinner.

3. Funeral

The funeral ceremony in Shunde is divided into 37 days (the "period"). In the first stage, the relatives of the deceased came to pay their respects (see Figure 7), lit incense, offered brix, put on mourning clothes and mourned for one day (people over 75 don't cry much when they die), invited lamas (that is, "monks") and bands the next day, knocked for three days and three nights, and finally sent them to the crematorium for incineration.

In the second stage, the family members of the deceased will invite a "god of all things" to their homes, place their favorite meals in front of the coffin of the deceased, and prepare a pile of paper money to hold a wake ceremony for the deceased. When the "God of Everything" feels that the soul of the deceased has returned with a group of "soul friends", they will immediately put paper money on the coffin of the deceased, and when "everyone" is full of food and drink, the paper money will automatically fall.

4. Religious beliefs and festivals

Guanyin Bodhisattva (see Figure 8) is enshrined in most houses in Shunde and belongs to Buddhism. Businessmen, whether at home or in shops, generally worship Guan Yu of Guan Yunchang. There are also some local religious festivals:

1. In Xingtan, sometimes you are lucky. You may see some people carrying the gorgeous Guanyin Bodhisattva and marching several streets. This festival is a temple fair, symbolizing good luck in the coming year.

2. Guanyin opens the library (see figure 10 and figure 1 1): The 26th day of the first lunar month is the folk Buddhist festival "Guanyin opens the library". It is said that Guanyin opens a museum on this day every year to help the poor, so at the end of the year in some local places, their Kannonji is crowded with people from poor families who burn incense and worship Buddha, and everyone expects Guanyin to help themselves. Unexpectedly, this seemingly useless prayer has benefited many people.

5. Dragon Boat Festival custom

Dragon Boat Festival is a day to commemorate the great poet Qu Yuan. At that time, the patriotic Qu Yuan watched the country decline step by step. He was very angry and threw himself into the Miluo River. People didn't want his body to be eaten by fish, so they threw zongzi into the river. Over time, the Dragon Boat Festival was formed. In the local area, the Dragon Boat Festival is very popular, so there are many special customs. Every Dragon Boat Festival, everyone will wrap zongzi (see figure 12) (practice: buy back zongzi leaves, blanch them with hot water to soften and sterilize them, then add glutinous rice, red beans, mung beans, peanuts and seasoned pork, wrap them into strips, and finally put them in a steamer. The better the zongzi is wrapped, the smarter and more thoughtful you are. In addition, there will be a grand dragon-rowing activity here.

6. Winter solstice festival

The winter solstice is a very important solar term, and it is also a traditional festival in China's lunar calendar. Up to now, there are still many places where the winter solstice festival is held. The winter solstice is commonly known as "Winter Festival", "Dragon Solstice Festival" and "Asian New Year Festival". As early as 2500 years ago, during the Spring and Autumn Period, China had determined the winter solstice by observing the sun through the soil return, which was the earliest of the 24 solar terms. The time is between February 22nd and 23rd of Gregorian calendar 12. The locals said, "Winter is the New Year." In ancient times, the winter solstice was the Spring Festival, and local people would buy good food to worship their ancestors, especially whole chickens. The solstice in winter is regarded as a small year by Shunde people, which is very lively!