Chaoshan celebrates lanterns when a boy is born
Chaoshan celebrates lanterns when a boy is born. Our country is vast and rich in resources, and different places have different customs. Whenever there is a festival, various ceremonies will be held in various places. To celebrate festivals, there are many customs in Guangdong and Guangxi that are worthy of everyone’s understanding. Next, let’s take a look at what it means to celebrate the birth of a boy in Chaoshan. Happy lanterns for the birth of a boy in Chaoshan 1
Every year from the 11th to the 18th day of the first lunar month, every household in Chaoshan, Guangdong has the custom of lighting up lanterns and hanging ceiling lights. "Ding" is a homophone, and "Shang Deng" and "Tian Zi" are close pronunciations. Therefore, celebrities believe that "Shang Deng" is a good omen for Tian Zi. On the day of the Lantern Festival, everyone carries small lanterns and paper and silver incense, goes to the temple in the village to light a fire, and goes home to hang them in their home Buddhist niches and bedroom beds. This is called "hanging a happy lantern."
In addition, if someone else gave birth to a boy during the Lantern Festival last year, then starting from the 13th day of the first lunar month of that year, this person must stir up a pair of red lanterns and display them on the lantern screen. Write your name on the big red paper and hang it happily on the lantern stand of the family ancestral hall in the countryside. This means that there is a new baby in the family. From now on, every night, relatives will go to the ancestral hall with their children and light their own little lanterns. Candles make the small lantern glow red, while accepting the celebrations of the surrounding villagers.
Regarding the origin of hanging wedding lanterns, it is said that in the Yongping Year of Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty (AD 58-75), because Emperor Ming advocated Buddhism and it coincided with Cai Min’s return from Indonesia to seek Buddhism, he was called Indonesian Mongolian. Every fifteenth day of the first lunar month in Hutuo Kingdom, monks gather to pay homage to the Buddha's relics. It is an auspicious day to visit the Buddha.
In order to better promote Buddhism, Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty issued an order to "light lanterns to show the Buddha" in the palace and temples on the fifteenth night of the first lunar month. Since then, the custom of putting out lanterns during the Lantern Festival has spread from being only held in the palace to becoming a folk custom. Every fifteenth day of the first lunar month, both nobles and common people must hang up lanterns, and the towns are brightly lit all night.
The custom of setting off lanterns during the Lantern Festival developed into a spectacular lantern market in the Tang Dynasty. At that time, Kyoto, Beijing, and Chang'an were already the world's largest cities with a population of millions. Social development and prosperity. Under the emperor's personal initiative, the Lantern Festival and Lantern Festival became more and more luxurious. After the mid-Tang Dynasty, it has developed into a popular shopping festival.
In the prosperous Kaiyuan period during the reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty (AD 685-762), the lantern market in Chang'an, Beijing, operated on a very large scale, burning 50,000 lanterns of various colors. The emperor ordered people to build a very large lantern tower. , with 20 rooms in total, 150 feet high, bright and magnificent. This is the "hanging wedding lantern" that continues to this day.
In the Song Dynasty, the Hanging Lantern Festival was better than the Tang Dynasty in terms of scale and exquisite lighting, and the activities were more folk-oriented and had a stronger national style. After that, the Lantern Festival Lantern Festival continued to develop in each generation, and the duration of the Lantern Festival became longer and longer. The Lantern Festival in the Tang Dynasty was "one day before and after the Lantern Festival". In the Song Dynasty, two days were added after the 16th day of the lunar month. In the Ming Dynasty, it was increased to ten days from the eighth to the 18th day of the lunar month.
In the Qing Dynasty, when the Hui people took over the Central Plains, the palace no longer held the Lantern Festival, but the Chinese folk Lantern Festival was still grand, and the date was reduced to five days, which continues to this day.
, has become an indispensable custom for Chaoshan people. It can also be said that hanging wedding lanterns is the most solemn and prosperous traditional festival for Chaoshan people and an important part of Guangdong Chaoshan folk culture. Chaoshan Baby Boy Wedding Lanterns 2
The Origin of Hanging Happy Lanterns
In the Song Dynasty, the Hanging Happy Lantern Festival surpassed the Tang Dynasty in terms of scale and fantasy and exquisite lighting, and the activities were more folk-oriented , the national characteristics are stronger. In the future, the Lantern Festival has continued to develop, and the Lantern Festival has become longer and longer. The Lantern Festival in the Tang Dynasty lasted "one day before and after the Yuan Dynasty". In the Song Dynasty, two days were added after the 16th day of the lunar month. In the Ming Dynasty, it was extended to ten days from the eighth to the eighteenth day of the lunar month.
In the Qing Dynasty, when the Manchus took over the Central Plains, the palace no longer held lantern festivals, but the folk Lantern Festival was still spectacular. The date was shortened to five days and continues to this day.
Lamps have the meaning of light and giving birth to children in Taiwanese folk. Lighting lanterns means illuminating the future. In Taiwanese, lanterns and ding are homophones for giving birth to boys. Therefore, in the past, women would deliberately walk under the lanterns during the Lantern Festival. , hoping to "walk under the lamp to give birth to a boy."
In rural areas of Chaoshan, families who had given birth to a boy in the previous year would light up lanterns on Lantern Festival night and hold a banquet in the ancestral hall to celebrate the birth of Ding, which is commonly known as "making a Ding table". There are two kinds of banquet styles for banquets. One is called "Dragon Boat Banquet", which uses many square tables connected together. Guests gather around to eat on both sides, just like rowing dragon boats; Anyone you know or don't know can come in and eat, and then leave after eating. The host will put the dishes on the table again and entertain the arrival of another group of guests, one after another.
This latter type of banquet is usually done by richer and more generous families. In the old society, fashionable people had a strong sense of comparison and were obsessed with saving face. Anyone who gave birth to a boy would pay great attention to running the table and take pride in doing so decently.
Even poor families, in order not to lose face, borrow money from everywhere, resulting in heavy debts, or they reluctantly sell their brothers and use the money earned to pay for the heavy office expenses. This is what people often call "having a baby." The origin of the saying "selling Ah Da".
After liberation, due to the progress of the times and the advancement of ideas, although the trendy people still had the custom of holding a small table for the Lantern Festival, they mostly changed it to their own homes, and they were limited to entertaining closer relatives and friends. Good friends, wealth and frugality depend on others and no one cares about them.
On the day of the Lantern Festival, there are many activities in villages setting up altars to worship gods. The temples and ancestral halls were all brightly lit and filled with smoke. Devotees and believers rushed to pay homage first. They were extremely crowded and lively. The chickens, geese, ducks, candies, rice fruits, candles, Daji (Teochew orange) and other sacrificial objects placed in front of the altar are regarded as sacred objects. The men and women who visit the temple gather sacrifices one after another and take them home. This is called "seeking for happy things".
People believe that using these magical objects can bring peace to the family and increase wealth and children. Those who take the sacred objects back home will have to return or return more of the sacred objects next year. So some people took advantage of the crowding and secretly took away the sacrifices in front of the altar and went home to eat, which means "eating to prosper".
On the day of the Lantern Festival, people in most villages set up a colorful shed in the open spaces of ancestral halls and streets and alleys. Inside, a giant Maitreya Buddha is made of clay, with its breasts exposed and a big smile. Maitreya Buddha's bare head, shoulders, navel, thighs and other parts are decorated with male and female "mud children". People stood outside the bamboo railing more than ten feet away, using copper coins to aim at the clay child on Maitreya Buddha.
Those who win will be given the money to be happy children. However, in some areas that are more difficult to hit, such as the top of the head, ears, etc., those who hit will be given one to two or three; those who do not win will have the copper coins returned to Maitreya Buddha. owned by the owner of the shed. This is an activity enjoyed by young and old alike. It is said that those who are hit by "boys like children" will give birth to boys in the future.
Therefore, young couples who have recently married, or father-in-laws and grandmothers who have just married a daughter-in-law and are eager to have grandchildren are also actively participating in this activity. Once he hits the target, the owner of the shed and the people around him will cheer and congratulate him. I even took the "boy" home with joy and sweetness, thinking that winning the jackpot was a good omen and that I would surely have a son early this year and make a fortune.
Every household has the custom of lighting lights and chandeliers. Because "deng" and "ding" in Teochew dialect have the same pronunciation, lighting up lanterns and having children are close pronunciations, so Chaozhou people believe that lighting up lanterns is a good omen for having a baby. On the Lantern Festival, people carry lanterns and prepare paper and silver incense candles, go to temples in the countryside to light fires, and hang them on shrines and bedside at home. This is called "hanging happy lanterns." Chaoshan gives birth to a boy with lanterns 3
The lantern-lighting ceremony is divided into several steps
1. Turn on the lights.
The time to turn on the lights is between the eighth and the twelfth day of the first lunar month every year. The specific date is selected by the Feng Shui master in the village, but it cannot be later than the 12th of the first lunar month. Feng shui masters calculate and determine the auspicious day to turn on the lamp based on the birth date of the lamp holder that was born first. After the date is determined, the ancestral hall will be responsible for notifying each lamp head family.
Before turning on the lights, you must first build a light shed. The lamp shed is made of wooden boards, eight meters long, four meters wide and four meters high. It looks like a wooden house of more than thirty square meters. After entering the door, the wooden boards on the left and right sides are also carved with dragon and phoenix patterns and pictures of the Eight Immortals celebrating their birthdays.
On the day when the lights are turned on, at dawn, those with lamps will beat gongs and drums to go to the "Hongsheng Temple" in the village. Elderly people over 60 years old should wear long robes, bring down the statues of Hong Shengye, Hong Shengma and the Golden Boy enshrined in the temple, hang red cloth on the statues, and then welcome them into the lamp shed. , enshrined in the center above the lamp shed. An offering table is placed in front of the statue, with a large incense burner, fried dumplings, tea, fruits and other offerings.
The lamp holders are held by the elders and first go to the ancestral hall to hold a lighting ceremony. The lighting ceremony is held one by one in each family according to the order in which the lamp holders were born. Each family first places their own offerings on the offering table. The offerings include pork, chicken, fried dumplings, tea, wine and fruits. Put incense candles in the incense burner. At this time, the elders will light the oil lamp and put it into the lantern prepared in advance. The lantern is a long octagonal lantern, two feet in diameter and three feet in height.
The eight sides of the lantern are painted with pictures, such as "Fairy Fairy Sends Her Son", "Five Sons Enroll" and other patterns. Then everyone hung the lighted lanterns on the main beam of the ancestral hall. Finally, the family members hold the lamp holder and kneel down to worship the ancestors, while beating the gong. Usually the father of the lamp head is responsible for beating the gong.
After praying three times, the ceremony in the ancestral hall is over. Next, go to the lamp shed to worship God. The ritual of worshiping gods in a lamp shed is basically the same as that in an ancestral hall. After worshiping the lantern shed and returning home, each family has to hang a lantern on the main beam of their house. The style of the lamp is the same as that of the ancestral hall, but smaller. At this point, the lighting ceremony is completed. From now on, every morning and evening, Dengtou’s family members will go to the ancestral hall and lamp shed to offer incense, bow, and refuel the lamps. The lights should be hung until the 19th day of the first lunar month and cannot be extinguished during this period.
2. Seize the cannon head.
This is a celebration and entertainment activity during the lighting ceremony. The time was the morning of the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, and the place was in the village square.
The villagers stacked two Eight Immortals tables, placed a stool on top, and stood the cannon on the stool, with a colorful head hung on the head of the cannon. After the firecrackers were lit, they immediately soared into the sky. There was only a sound in the air, and the lottery prizes fell from the sky. The villagers rushed forward, scrambling to grab the prize.
Whoever wins the prize will have a good omen this year and will also receive a prize. Nine shots are fired in one gun. The Mo family's house in Shawei Village is divided into four houses, and the people in one house who have won the lottery will have a dinner together to celebrate. The people in the house who received prizes this year will return the same number of items next year as prizes for next year's cannon.
3. Remuneration gift.
The sixteenth day of the first lunar month is the day when the reward ceremony is held. On this day, a pot-choi feast will be held in the square outside the ancestral hall. At about five o'clock that afternoon, three firecrackers were set off outside the ancestral hall. When the men in the village heard the three firecrackers, they would automatically come to the ancestral hall for the pot choi feast without further notice.
There are fifteen kinds of raw materials for making a large pot of vegetables such as radish, mushrooms, yuba, celery, pork, dried squid, squid, and duck meat. The weight of each raw material is determined according to the weight of all the men in the village. The total number of people in Ding is calculated as four taels per person. The families with lamps will share the money collectively and hand it over to the ancestral hall. The ancestral hall must check and weigh everything, and then arrange for someone to make it after ensuring that it is accurate.
The production method is to first make fifteen main dishes of different styles and flavors from fifteen kinds of main ingredients, and then use radish as the first dish. Fifteen dishes are put in a large wooden basin one by one, and each table has one basin, which is called a big basin feast.
4. Round lamp.
This is an important procedure in the lamp lighting ceremony. The time is the 19th day of the first lunar month. This morning,
Dengtou’s family brought the lamp holder to the ancestral hall, placed large pots of vegetables, fried dumplings, wine, fruits and other offerings on the table in front of the ancestral tablets, lit candles, set off firecrackers, and hugged each other. Kneel down and worship your ancestors with a lamp, burn incense and drink wine; after worshiping, take the offerings outside the ancestral hall door, place them on a table, worship the sky in the same way, and then worship the earth inside the ancestral hall door. god. After the round lantern ceremony is over, the lanterns hanging in the ancestral hall and at home can be taken down and burned.
5. Dragon Boat Festival.
This is the last ceremony of the lamp lighting ceremony. After the round lantern ceremony is over, the men of the clan will carry a dragon boat and go to each house to worship. The dragon boat is made of bamboo slices and straw, more than 5 feet long and 2 feet wide. Every household is required to throw unwanted items onto the boat. After worshiping, the dragon boat is taken to the beach and burned, which means that all the filth of the year has been sent into the sea.
At this point, the entire lamp-lighting ceremony is completed. The next day, which is the 20th day of the first lunar month, all the lamp-bearing families will go to the lamp sheds to pay their respects to the gods. Led by the clan leader, everyone beat gongs and drums, set off firecrackers, and returned the statues of Hong Sheng Ye and Hong Sheng Ma back to Hong Sheng Temple. Then, under the leadership of the clan leader, the clan members will dismantle the lamp shed and store the removed wooden boards in the ancestral hall for use when lighting the lamps next year.
As an important life ritual activity, the lamp-lighting ceremony has been passed down from generation to generation in the original villages in Futian area. It has a history of hundreds of years and contains very profound historical culture. It also reflects the ancestors' worship and reverence for the survival and reproduction of human beings, and has anthropological and folklore value.
At the same time, family and family are the cells that constitute society and play an important role in society. The lighting ceremony can enhance the harmony of family and family and carry forward the traditional national virtues of patriotism, love of hometown, respect for the elderly and love for the young. Building a harmonious community plays a certain role.
Due to the special geographical location of Futian area, there are many people from various villages and families who have settled in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and abroad. The lantern lighting ceremony serves as a link to closely connect them.
To this day, after people who have settled abroad have given birth to a boy, some of them have to come back to their family’s ancestral hall to light lanterns, let their children recognize their ancestors, participate in Lantern Festival activities organized by their hometown, and eat The traditional pot dish has certain positive effects on promoting domestic and foreign economic and cultural exchanges, strengthening close ties with overseas Chinese and compatriots in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, and enhancing national cohesion.