Everyone in Jingmen knows that there are many interesting activities during the Spring Festival. Whenever entering the twelfth lunar month, urban and rural farmers are busy preparing materials for the New Year. Many families send messages to relatives who work in other places, asking them to go home for the New Year and have a reunion dinner. At the same time, they will also send New Year cards to relatives and friends, send blessings and encourage each other. Among them, the most popular are rural farmers and market town residents, such as killing pigs, curing bacon, drying sausages, pickling chickens, harrowing, making rice cakes, grinding glutinous rice balls, making rice wine, grinding bean cakes (making mung beans, soybeans and wheat with rice as the main raw material), spreading them into big cakes, and cutting them into strips to dry.

Prepare Laba water, that is, the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. Farmers' families fill large and small water tanks with water and seal them for use in the spring and summer of the following year. It is said that this Laba water can cure all diseases; The second is to cool off in summer; Three old people drink to cure all diseases, and children drink to keep healthy.

Drink Laba porridge on Laba Festival. Laba, the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, is the day when people eat Laba porridge. The ingredients of Laba porridge have long been recorded: Laba porridge is cooked with rice, yellow rice, coix seed, mung bean, millet, red beans, peanuts and red dates. If possible, you can add some walnuts, almonds, sugar, red ponds and raisins for spot dyeing. On the seventh day of the twelfth lunar month, the fruit is peeled and washed, and porridge is boiled until dawn.

Jingmen people will also make all kinds of rice cakes during the Spring Festival. On the basis of the original production, according to the customs and tastes of Jingmen, Jingmen people make glutinous rice flour and glutinous rice slurry, which are processed by stone mill and made of white sugar after drying. Flour is delicate, sticky, tender and smooth, sweet and delicious, with bright color, and cannot be boiled, fried and stored for a long time. You can also make rice cakes with glutinous rice flour, lard, sesame oil, rose, osmanthus fragrans, mint and lotus seeds. There are many kinds of refreshments, such as "pastry", square, cake, oil and sugar. Of course, with the changes of the times and the development of the economy, Jingmen people can make all kinds of good and beautiful food, just like all over the country. In addition to some old traditional foods, some new holiday foods have been added, such as eating jiaozi on New Year's Eve, which is a custom in the north. Now the north and the south are connected, the taste is the same, and it has also entered the Chinese New Year cuisine. Some Jingmen in the north can also be found, and some places in Jingmen will do it. Now, there is a saying among Jingmen people that "delicious food is not as good as jiaozi".

"Sweeping the dust" is also a meaningful activity. As the saying goes: dust off and welcome the new. There is a folk saying that after the Lunar New Year's Eve, the sanitation in front of, behind and inside the house began to be cleaned up from the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month. Sweep the dust, also known as sweeping the floor year. Originally, it was a religious ceremony for ancient working people to drive away epidemic ghosts for good luck, but sweeping away dust and pollution reduced diseases and was beneficial to people's physical and mental health. In this regard, Wu, a poet in the Song Dynasty, made it very clear under the chapter "Except Night" in Meng Lianglu Volume VI, "In December winter, people, big or small. Sweep the floor, remove dust and dirt, clean the family ... pray for peace in the new year. "

In Jingmen, an ancient place, especially the farmers and residents in urban and rural areas, the respect for the kitchen god has a long history. Although it is a superstitious activity, people naturally worship it. The 23rd of the twelfth lunar month is a good day for the kitchen god to go to heaven. On this day, early in the morning, every household invited the "Commander Bodhisattva" enshrined in the kitchen door. Some are carved with wood, others with Shi Zhuan. Please put the Buddha statue on the table, burn incense and wax, pray and bow down, recite Amitabha, and make a confession for the good things that Kitchen God has done to keep the fireworks safe for the whole family this year, and then pray for Kitchen God to go to heaven.

Sticking Spring Festival couplets and hanging New Year pictures during the Spring Festival is a folk custom and traditional culture with a long history in China. In ancient times, it was called peach symbol, door pair and door couplet, which was recorded in ancient Chinese books. The word "master" was first seen in Li Ji Mai Drive: Zheng Xuan's Note, Tea Release and Master's Ceremony. But it is only an abstract concept, and there is no specific name yet. Later generations think that this is Cheng qin's "ancient warrior" or Jing Ke.

Shounian, also known as Shoucai. Both urban and rural residents in Jingmen have this custom. They don't sleep on New Year's Eve, especially the elderly. When they are busy at night, the host makes a fire in the hall and the whole family sits around the fire. Some people play cards and drink tea, talk about the fruits and experiences of the hard work of the whole family over the past year, and exchange greetings and blessings. They can't pour water on the ground or sweep the floor this evening. Some people say that sweeping the floor on New Year's Eve means "sweeping away good luck".

The most distinctive folk custom-folk songs

Jingmen folk songs are widely distributed and varied, and their musical structures are generally divided into single-voice, multi-voice and couplet. The mode feature is mainly sound-seeking. From the content, there are modern folk songs and traditional folk songs; As far as form is concerned, there are mainly chants, folk songs, Tian Ge, minor, light tones, folk songs and so on.

Modern folk songs came into being during the first and second revolutionary civil wars, and there were a large number of folk songs in War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, the war of liberation, the socialist revolution and construction. In different historical periods, most folk songs have sung the characteristics of the times and the aspirations of the people to varying degrees, which has played a certain role in promoting social civilization and progress.

Traditional folk songs mostly reflect the working people's resistance to the old society, satirize and ridicule the ruling class, and also tell the suffering of the working people and expose the injustice of the world. In feudal society, due to the shackles of feudal ethics, women's status was the lowest, so some contents related to marriage, love and family were also produced in folk songs.

Since the proletariat stepped onto the historical stage, the creation of folk songs has entered a brand-new stage, with distinct class nature and distinctive people's nature, which shows the revolutionary mood and optimism of the people under the leadership of the proletariat. After the national liberation, with the rise of socialist construction, Jingmen folk songs have made new development, and many new folk songs have appeared, which have played a positive role in publicity and education and enriching people's cultural life.

First, the spread of folk songs

Jingmen folk songs are divided into three areas according to folk songs, Tian Ge, chant and minor: mountainous area, hilly area and Heping plain area.

Folk songs are mainly popular in the mountainous areas in the north of the city, and there are some other kinds of songs. Hilly areas bordering mountainous areas are the main rice producing areas. Besides some Xinmin songs and minor tunes, there are many Tian Ge, which are various in form, rich in content and beautiful in tune. There are many labor songs and rich minor in plain areas. The lights in all three areas have been adjusted. At present, only Zhanghe Town and Li Xi Town have folk songs.

Second, the types of folk songs

(1) Folk songs:

Folk songs are popular in Jingmen mountain area and some hilly areas. Mainly farmers go up the mountain to cut firewood, and when children go up the mountain to herd cattle, they sing solo and start duets. There are many flat tones and few high notes, both of which are feather-seeking modes, and the content and form of lyrics are not limited. Most adults sing love songs, such as "I love my sister's good works" and "As soon as the sun rises". Shepherd boys often sing teasing and teasing songs; They are a group, a mountain, from far to near, proud of singing more, ashamed of singing less.

(2) Tian Ge:

1. Yangko planting: Yangko planting is a kind of Tian Ge, which is mainly sung in the seedling season (lunar month). It's a rice field song. For example, "Flowers Noisy Leaves" in the south of the city is one of the lead singers of planting yangko. The song is beautiful and pleasant, with two modes, Zheng and Yu. The lyrics are taken from the lyrics of popular minor, and they are divided into A and B teams or men's and women's teams for question and answer or singing. Sometimes they will take advantage of the situation, mainly to eliminate the fatigue of growers and improve the speed of planting seedlings.

2. Planting seedlings and gongs and drums: According to relevant data, planting seedlings and gongs and drums were produced as early as before the Ming Dynasty. The poet Tang Zeng wrote a poem: "Shicheng is full of fog, chickens and dogs are full of mulberry trees; The stars in the sky come to Xiakou, the trees in the clouds meet Jingmen, the snow in the clouds is irreconcilable, and there is still a village in Lujia Mochow. When I am free, I am happy to watch strange customs, beat drums and transplant willow roots. " It was sung during the planting season. Two singers, one with a gong and the other with a drum. Stop singing and fill the door with gongs and drums. As soon as the growers went down to the field, the singer sang on the ridge. When the grower reached the center of the field, the singer followed the crowd into the field and sang in front of the grower. Mode is mode, and most of the lyrics are selected from ancient books and operas. Mainly to eliminate the fatigue and distraction of growers, let growers concentrate and improve the work efficiency of planting seedlings.

3. Pulling weeds and gongs and drums: Generally, three people (one drum and two gongs) form a team to sing for those who pull weeds in paddy fields. There are many gongs and drums for pulling grass, among which the most popular ones are Drum Beating, Dragon Holding the Column, General Hunting, Guanyin Sitting on the Lotus, Water Snake Spitting Toad, Daguai, Xiaoguai (all sung in the morning), Clouds Blooming and Magpies Disturbing the Forest. When rakers line up in the field and start pulling weeds, drummers will follow them and sing back in front of rakers.

In the morning, most people sing long historical stories (drummers call them "original works"), and in the afternoon, they sing short and funny jokes such as "Flower Songs", which makes people happy and exciting.

4. Weeding songs: Weeding songs are mainly sung in the season of weeding (May to June in the lunar calendar). Yangko (Yangko) in Tuanlin and Wuli areas in the south of the city is very representative. The tunes are high, most of them are tones, and some of them have a lot of lyrics. When singing, Team A and Team B lead and join together, accompanied by two or one suona. There are different lyrics in the morning, morning and afternoon. Sing a few polite words just after work in the morning, such as lyrics such as "guests go to work early" and "congratulations to the boss on good crops"; Sing the right song in the morning and urge the boss to get off work in the afternoon. Other Tian Ge singers, such as Guess Place Names and Count Toads, are also singing in weeding, mainly to make people adjust their spirits and improve the efficiency of weeding.

5. Cutting grass gongs and drums: Cutting grass gongs and drums mainly refers to cutting hay. Two singers, one with a gong and the other with a drum, sing four sentences in each paragraph, and the end of each sentence is full of gongs and drums. Lyrics. Sing the ancients, sing the ancient books.

(3) no.

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1. Clam chant: Clam chant is mainly sung when playing mud, with one leading singer and everyone singing in chorus. The main purpose of chanting songs is to strive for unity and consistency. There are more than ten kinds of songs in Jingmen, mainly Shaanxi songs, slow songs, one-word songs, two songs and twenty-four songs. It has a strong sense of rhythm and a wide range of lyrics. Some people sing ancient books and dramas, and some sing at will.

2. Carrying trumpets: porters who mainly sing in towns, with few lyrics, mainly sing interludes and strong sense of music rhythm. There are many kinds of songs, such as "heavy songs" when lifting weights and "shaking songs" when shaking bags.

3. The boatman's chant: The boatman's chant was a song of shipping workers before liberation. It is called by fiber drawing workers that the pace is unified and the strength is consistent. Popular in Jianghan Plain, there are more than ten kinds of fiber drawing, boating and crossing the river.

4. Oil-pressing bugle: It is the song of the workers in the oil-pressing workshop. Before liberation, oil extraction was mostly done by hand, and the movements ranged from pulling the pole (singing lyrics) to sending it out (singing "hey"). Generally, two people work, one forehand and one assistant. A lead, b boom once, the action is consistent, the greater the force, the higher the oil yield.

5. Farming chant: It is popular in Li Xi, Yanchi and Zi Ling in the north of the city, mainly because farmers shout rhythmically when plowing, ploughing and rolling. Shouting on the farm can make the scalpers listen to you, and people are not tired.

(4) Lighting

song

Jingmen's lantern songs are mainly sung when performing stilts and floats in the Spring Festival every year. There are three people walking on stilts, one man and two women; There are three people in the float, a woman driving the boat, an old man punting, and an old woman driving the boat with a broken banana fan. Regardless of stilts, there are gongs, drums, cymbals, golden gongs and horses on board. When one person leads the singing, everyone has a helper, and sometimes everyone sings together. The lyrics are divided into two paragraphs, and there are also four paragraphs with more sentences. The song is cheerful and warm, and the festive atmosphere is strong.

(5) Folk songs

"Mourning drums" is called "sitting at night" by mountain people. Generally, after the death of an old man, four, six or eight singers are invited by the host to sit in a circle in the mourning hall, and the two of them play drums together and sing while knocking. Start singing the first slow and sad song; At about midnight, the second song is sung with gongs and cymbals, and at dawn, the third song is played with gongs and cymbals (the singer calls it turning to Yang), which is faster. Lyrics come from ancient books or deeds before singing. One person can sing, or two people can sing, and the cycle is constant, mainly to accompany the dead for the night.

Social folklore

1. Marriage custom: the position of champion

In Jingmen, Hubei Province, the "number one scholar" does not mean the "number one scholar" admitted to Beijing during the imperial examination period, nor is it the "number one scholar" admitted to the college entrance examination now. It refers to the "lunch" that young men in feudal society ate on their wedding day, "accompanying the groom" or "taking the exam" or "accompanying the champion", so it is called "the champion's seat" and also called "accompanying ten brothers". In some rural areas, the wedding day of a man is called "too late". Before the expiration, his elders called him "wretched" and others called him: after the expiration, he became an "adult". Even if he is young and ignorant, he should pretend to be an adult.

On the wedding day, it was very lively and exquisite. The house is clean and tidy. Rich families should decorate their houses, while poor families should decorate their new houses. They want to invite butchers to kill pigs, chefs to hold banquets, speakers to welcome guests, tea artists to make tea, and big pairs of happy faces are posted on the doors, which is a jubilant atmosphere.

Before the banquet begins, the groom should shave his hair and beard, put on a melon hat with red beads, put on a newly sewn gown and new shoes and socks, and pay a New Year call to his ancestors. At about two o'clock in the afternoon, in the middle of the hall, there is a square table and four benches. Mr. Li sat the groom's invitation in the middle of the table, put on a new one (dressed the groom), and then invited his brother, uncle and cousin to accompany him. Generally speaking, it is better to be unmarried. There are three people sitting up and down, and two people sitting on each side, which is exactly ten people. They are called "Ten Brothers". Drinking is very particular. Ask the groom whether to drink "one year" (i.e. 12 cups) or one month (i.e., 30 cups). On this day, the groom was overjoyed and relatives and friends came to propose a toast. When the dishes reach four bowls, eight bowls and ten bowls, the trumpet master will come to play the tuba to congratulate him. When the groom comes for the third time, he will take out a "seal", which is money for Xi; The chef is also busy delivering "kidney flower soup", and the groom will also give "rewards". When drinking, you should "give orders", that is, "recite poems from sentences", and those who can't speak will be punished for drinking.

On this day, the patriarch or teacher will give the groom a name, commonly known as "tuba". Write your name on a delicate wooden box with couplets on both sides. At night, the number will be called, and the number will be held by a eloquent person. When going up the stairs, people who shake the number will sing songs such as: "Last step, glory, last two steps, happiness from now on, last three steps, three yuan, last four steps are famous all over the world ..." Hang the number plate on the wall of the hall.

2. Fertility customs:

1. Xijiu (Mi Zhu)

After giving birth to a child, the bride's family should "send rice to make a wish". "Sending a meal and toasting" is generally carried out on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, commonly known as "washing nine". After the date is fixed, grandparents, uncles, aunts and uncles will spend a sum of money to "send meals". Anyone who gives birth to the first child plays "lifting boxes". This box is made of wood, with three squares and a lamp. The box is painted bright red with a bar in the middle for two people to carry. There are two buckets of rice at the bottom of the box and 200 fried dough sticks in the middle. The upper floor is filled with large and small fabrics, necklaces, longevity locks, eggs, brown sugar and so on. The top of the box is tied with rope, and the outside is sealed with red paper, with festive greetings written. My grandfather led the team and a group of people went. Wealthy families are very particular about "bright boxes". The bright box is inlaid with glass, and the contents are transparent and can be seen by passers-by to show its brilliance. Besides food, the cloth is twisted silk and satin, and I asked Suona to see me off. Grandparents should bring a "chair bag". Middle-and lower-class families use a basket to pick things to send "rice blessings". The quantity of gifts is small and the quality is poor. There is a pine and cypress branch on the basket, which means "poor" but "dear". Please don't laugh at your friends and relatives. Poor families only use small baskets to pick what they can, and the polite words are "I'm afraid I won't come if I'm not afraid of empty hands" and "I'm grateful".

The "washing nine" rule is more particular. Grandpa, grandma and others arrived, set off firecrackers and held a big wedding. Grandpa, uncle and other male guests were invited to the guest room, while grandma, aunt and other female guests were invited to the main room. After smoking cigarettes and offering tea, Mr. Li Nuo sent someone to distribute some fried dough sticks to all the guests to show the generosity of the host. When eating, the seats are very particular. The elders sit in their seats and the younger ones sit down. There are large and small seats on the table, with the relatives sitting first and the sparse ones sitting first. The table is full of delicious food and the toast is constant. At breakfast the next day, because they are all "relatives", three eggs were added to the distiller's grains to show their gratitude, and the food was more casual.

Pregnant women in the second month have many taboos. Pregnant women and women who come to "good things" can't enter the inner room, saying that they are afraid of "kicking their chests." After the child's "full moon", the young couple went to visit their parents with their children and gifts, also called "leaving the nest" to show their gratitude for "sending rice".

Step 2 capture the customs of the week

In Jingmen, Hubei, children are called one year old when they are born, and one year old is called "grasping the week". Some people call it "centenary", which means that children should live a long life, while others call it "long tail" and "eating noodles", with different names and the same content.

"Catch the Week" is a relatively convenient way to treat guests and get together. The specifications are not too high and the manners are not very particular. On the day of "Catch the Week", the host's house was clean both inside and outside, so I don't need to elaborate. One or two women were invited to light the fire. Rock Tea is proud of its family, and pays attention to children's gfd and dressing, especially new clothes, new hats, new shoes and socks, and even old clothes. The guests are mainly grandmothers, aunts, aunts, but also family members and relatives. Grandma gives more gifts, followed by aunts and aunts. Most of the gifts are children's clothes and toys, and some are paper money and silver dollars. After lunch, choose a spacious house with two square tables in the middle, covered with cloth or mats, put one or two things given by the guests at one end of the table, and put the children at the other end of the table, so that the children can climb forward and grasp what they like with their hands. This is the most interesting scene, and it is also the moment to really "grasp the week". Relatives and friends get together to see what children take without any guidance and hints, and predict their life development and interests in this way.