New Year Customs in Northern Shaanxi
People in the Yellow Land attach great importance to festivals. There are many festivals throughout the year, but the most important one is the Spring Festival. People who have worked hard for a year put all their joy and hope in the New Year.
In the twelfth lunar month, with the rising tide of the year, we enter the busy year. The hardest working people at this time are the farm women. They have to be busy with food and clothing for the whole family, washing and washing inside and outside, steaming buns, making rice wine, frying cakes and pressing tofu, and cleaning inside and outside. Going to the market to buy new year's goods is a matter for men. They sold their chickens and sheep in exchange for cigarettes, wine, sugar, and tea to entertain friends, bought new clothes for their parents, pulled floral cloths for their children, and even bought a few firecrackers.
On the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the Kitchen God will be sent to heaven. The Kitchen God is a small god sent to the world by Heaven and cannot be regarded as "good", but this makes him the closest to the people. The enshrined "Kitchen Lord and Granny" are like couples in the human world: the Kitchen King's niche is mostly located on the north or east side of the stove, and they are dressed in red; The Kitchen God is sitting between two big red roosters. There are 365 days in a year. Three meals a day, observe and record the consistency of each pot.
“If you have money but don’t have money, you can’t celebrate the New Year with fur.” This is a saying that has been popular here for a long time. As the Spring Festival approaches, it is a rule in northern Shaanxi that men shave their heads and women cut their hair.
Women in northern Shaanxi are even more dexterous. They have learned the art of paper-cutting from their mothers since they were young. The colorful paper is turned and cut in their hands, and in a short time it turns into peonies, pomegranates, and giant pomegranates. The rooster... looks pretty or not, and whether the window grilles are cut well or not is also the standard for local people to discuss marriage. Whichever house has well-cut window grilles will surely win the envy of the whole village. New Year's Eve is called "the end of the moon" in northern Shaanxi. This day is also the busiest day for the locals. After putting up the window grilles, couplets are put up, on the front door, on the second door, on the windows, on the intersection, and on the door, "Go out to see happiness". The stone rollers were labeled with "Green Dragon and Good Luck", and even the chicken coops were labeled with red couplets with "The more chickens and eggs are bigger", red lanterns were hung at the door of every house, the red lanterns, red couplets, and dolls also wore red clothes. The countryside is full of joy and prosperity.
It is getting late, and smoke is rising from every household in the village, and the farmers have begun to prepare for the New Year's Eve banquet. This meal is very particular, not to mention chicken, duck, fish and meat, but also the home-made mutton stewed in pink soup and home-brewed yellow rice wine, usually in even numbers, with ten large bowls and eight large plates, full to the top, picture There is more than enough every year. After setting off firecrackers, burning incense, and bowing to the gods and ancestors before the New Year's banquet, the New Year's banquet officially begins, with large chunks of meat eaten, large swigs of wine, and wine songs sung from time to time. This meal takes a long time. If you go out for a walk at this time, you will be infected by the laughter and laughter coming from every house. There is also the custom of keeping vigil on New Year's Eve, the whole family plays together, and adults put firecrackers, garlic, noodles and New Year's money under the children's pillows. An everlasting lantern should be hung in the courtyard. It is customary for older people to put something to eat in the pot at home. This is called "zhaoguo", which means that they will not have to worry about eating and drinking for a year. Putting a kitchen knife or ax at the door is called "zhaoguo". "Door" can exorcise evil spirits and avoid evil spirits, and ensure peace in all seasons.
When the chicken crows for the first time, people rush to set off firecrackers to welcome the Kitchen God, and start making bread dumplings with some coins in the dumplings. Whoever eats the dumplings will have good luck and good luck.
On the first day of the Lunar New Year, you don’t go out. On the second day of the Lunar New Year, you visit relatives and go back to your parents’ home. On the third day of the Lunar New Year, every village performs Yangko and is a bustling event. After eating enough meat, drinking enough wine, and holding back enough energy, the young people went to celebrate the New Year by dancing the Yangko - along the gate. Early in the morning on the third day of the Lunar New Year, the organizers went around carrying gongs and drums to stir up excitement. When young people heard the sound of gongs and drums, they rushed over one after another, painting their eyebrows with ink, slapping their faces with rouge, young people pretending to be old, and men pretending to be women. In fact, they were all young men. . He wears a white sheep's belly handkerchief on his head, wears a white shirt and green trousers, and carries a willow drum on his waist, giving him a majestic air. There are exactly 28 people in total, and they respectively represent the 28 stars in the sky. As the cannons are fired, the Yangko team first worships the temple, worships the gods, and entertains the gods, and then performs Yangko along the gate to celebrate the New Year. Every time he goes to a house, the umbrella head will be inspired by the scenery and improvise appropriate lyrics to sing to the owner. Whether it is good or bad depends on the mouth of the umbrella head. When there is happiness, he will congratulate, when there is difficulty, he will express sympathy, encouragement and condolences, and when there is a funeral, he will sing the most sorrowful lyrics. It transforms joy into joy, anger into joy, and sorrow into joy. The hosts who sang Yangqi several times were very happy, and sometimes the hosts who could sing also responded with a few lines. From time to time, the umbrella head dances back and forth in front of the house with the six-sided wooden bucket in his hand at the owner's request. Legend has it that the six-sided wooden bucket in the umbrella head's hand is the Kuimu bucket in front of the Queen Mother's door, which can ward off disasters and ward off evil spirits. The host kept toasting everyone with cigarettes and wine, and gave them drunken dates and peanuts. Before leaving, the yangko team will also ask for some lamp oil and cloth (the oil is used for the Murakami Lantern Festival, and the cloth is used for making clothes for those who cannot have children.) As the host sends off guests and firecrackers sound, the yangko team twists in again Went to the next courtyard...
Temple fairs in northern Shaanxi gradually spread across urban and rural areas. Every year starting from the first day of the first lunar month, Baiyun Mountain on the bank of the Yellow River gathers pilgrims. There is an endless stream of people offering incense and paying homage, and people go up and down the mountain. Become a busy city.
It is even more interesting to visit the small temple fairs in the countryside of northern Shaanxi. These temple fairs are scattered in four villages, and some have fixed locations and times. On this day, neighbors from four villages will gather here to celebrate the temple fair. In some cases, this is not the case. Temple fairs take turns, and it may take several or dozens of villages to have their turn once. In front of the temporary temple and stage, people from all villages gathered. There is a saying in northern Shaanxi that "there are two busy shifts in the first month."
In the first month of the year, the busiest people are the wind music troupes and the small theater troupes. Every village needs the help of the wind music troupe to make the festival loud and prosperous. The villages are celebrating the temple fair, and the theater troupes are needed to add to the fun. Once the theater troupes come, they will sing. For three days, I started dressing up on stage in the morning and sang until midnight when the moon was shining brightly. Everyone dispersed and everyone was eating and drinking on the stage. Starting from the first lunar month, they can be found wherever there are temple fairs.
In the small temple opposite the stage, incense is curling into the clouds, and there is an endless stream of pilgrims. They are folks who come from all over to burn incense and kowtow. The temple honors the Jade Emperor, Emperor Guan and the Queen Mother. The big play on the stage opposite was also invited for them, hoping that the gods could bless the people in all seasons, drive away diseases and disasters, and have children and good fortune. In the open space between the temple and the stage, there are people from all over the neighborhood. The old people have integrated into the play, and the young people and babies are milling around, watching. The grocery stalls are colorful. The gongs and drums of juggling and storytelling are deafening. The food stalls are steaming hot and the sumptuous local snacks attract people visiting the temple fair. Mutton buckwheat noodles, buckwheat bowls, and buckwheat noodles are all made from local authentic buckwheat noodles. Balls of buckwheat noodles are placed on the noodle pressing bed. The master puts his whole body on the pressing rod and presses hard. Only the thin and round buckwheat noodles fall into the boiling pot. The master puts the cooked buckwheat noodles into the pot. Pick up the noodles, put them into bowls, pour the previously stewed mutton sauce, sprinkle with coriander, minced chives, sesame oil, chili oil and other condiments. It is delicious. There are also donkey intestines, fried fortune cakes, water chestnut cakes, oily fruits, haggis, rice noodles and flat food on the stall... If you can taste them one by one, they will have a unique and attractive flavor.
The Lantern Festival is the most lively day during the Spring Festival in northern Shaanxi. The yangko team went out in the village and walked around the gate, and everyone came back at this time. Eating yuanxiao, performing yangko, performing nine tunes, watching lanterns and placing flowers are unique activities in this land.
The fifteenth day of the first lunar month is also the Taoist Shangyuan Festival. Heavenly officials grant blessings and local officials pardon sins. This is what the villagers value most. Every house is decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations, and the streets and alleys are filled with loud gongs and drums, the sound of firecrackers, and laughter. People enjoy themselves. The annual Yangko performances in various market towns and counties push the New Year festival to a climax. It can be said that the alleys are empty, and there is a huge flow of people. The streets and alleys of the market towns and counties are filled with Yangko, waist drums and social fires selected from each township and village. Wen Changzi, Wu Changzi, rowing land boats, herding bamboo horses, dancing Yangko, and singing Taoist sentiments. The sound of the suona makes people intoxicated. There were crowds of people everywhere, squeezing from one side of the street to the other, and either their hats or their shoes were squeezed out. The children were afraid of being crowded, so they were held high above their heads by the adults and watched the annual event with everyone.
The Fire Tower is a major sight here on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. At the village head, on the street, and in front of the door, large pieces of coal are built into the shape of a pagoda. I heard from the locals that the largest fire tower needs three or four cars of high-quality coal to build it. Whenever the bright moon rises, the whole village sings and dances around the burning coal tower. Beside the blazing flames, the suona players are intoxicated. Crazy, the cowhide drums are sonorous and powerful, and the sound of singing and laughter echoes over the Loess Plateau. From time to time, adults would pick up underage children and burn them on the fire. This is called burning all kinds of diseases, which ensures that they will not get sick and stay safe.
The night sky during the Lantern Festival is even more gorgeous, and the flower-making poles in the rural areas of Mizhi Suide are even more intoxicating. Hundreds of kinds of flowers are tied horizontally and vertically on a tree with a thickness of more than 30 meters. Numerous fireworks and firecrackers of all kinds were erected in an open space in the village. When the clan leader gave an order, a fire dragon flew straight into the sky. The flower poles suddenly burst into flames, and the night sky was rendered colorful, which was extremely spectacular. The hospitable farmer brought out steaming rice wine and sang the intoxicating Xintianyou over and over again.
Lights, songs and biting cold wind echo in this place covered with thick loess. This is the first month of northern Shaanxi.