The Spring Festival comes first in a year. The citizens began to prepare for it half a month in advance. The first thing to do for each and every family is to make general cleaning, and then do special shopping constantly, meanwhile, farmers slaughtered pigs and sheep, toasted buns and fried dough cakes in deep oil. All families are very busy making things ready for celebration. On the Eve couplets are pasted on gate posts and door panels. When evening comes, people burn joss sticks, light candles, welcome back kitchen-God, and hold a memorial ceremony for their ancestors.
It is an important link of customs to stick couplets in the Spring Festival. No matter rich or poor, most of families stuck couplets, pictures of door-god as well as paper cut for door or window decorations, after general cleaning on the Eve. Brilliant red and glittering, is an audio-visual sign of the festival and brings with it jubilant atmosphere. All couplets have substantial content of good intentions.
In old days people here had custom of staying up or all night on the lunar New Year's Eve, which, they said, could help to prolong life. When ladies of a family cooked the Eve dinner, men taught their children family regulations and historical stories.
15th of the 1st lunar month is the Lantern Festival. Towns people eat sweet dumplings made of glutinous rice flour, meanwhile, farmer families steam sacrificial buns shaped as ox to pray for protection of live stocks and development of production and also sacrificial buns shaped as mouse without eyes meaning they won't be able to waste grain.
30 days after spring begins it is the Waking of Insects. By then weather has turned warm, snow and ice melted, life returned to the earth and hibernated insects awoke. On that day most of families eat fried eggs. It is said the fragrance can help to open human's apertures, moisten lung and treat indigestion. In the country, farmers let cattle and horses to drink vegetable oil or radish soup with lard to stimulate their appetite.
The 3rd day of 3rd lunar month was made the Festival of Cold Dish in memory of Jiezituei who offered a piece of flesh of his leg to allay the Jin prince when they were forced to leave their native land. Afterwards, the prince became the king and asked Jiezituei to be in power, he refused and lived a secluded life together with his mother on a mountain. In order to drive him out, the king ordered to set the whole mountain on fire. But things went contrary to his will, Jie killed himself by bumping against a tree. The king was badly sad and regreted deeply. He buried him and his mother on the mountain and named Mountain Jieshan, built temple and gave order that fire was forbidden and people could only eat cold dishes on that day, expressing his grief .
Pure Brightness Festival comes on 5th of 4th lunar month when grasses sprout and fields become green, people visit graves to honor the memory of the dead, especially of their ancestors. Kids fly kites and youths have spring outing on the day.
The 8th of 4th lunar month is birth day of Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism. People go to temple fair, donate and bathe Buddha.
The Dragon Boat Festival is on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month, a day in memory of Quyuan. Families eat pyramid-shaped dumplings made of glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves and cakes made of glutinous rice flour. Besides outing in gardens, people pick and hang on doors mugwort plants, branches of willow as well as flowers of narrow-leaved oleaster for sake of epidemic prevention and avoidance of misfortune. Young ladies made fragrant bags of various shapes decorated with colorful silk yarn, in which are sweet grass, borneol and musk. They hang them on chest to avoid epidemic disease, present to each other to promote friendship or as tokens to express loving affection. |
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