A popular coming-of-age ritual among Chaozhou folk is to go out of the garden, which is similar to the ancient hairpin ceremony. Boys who are 16 years old and girls who are 15 years old must hold a simple ceremony on the seventh day of the lunar calendar (Qiqiao Festival) or the 15th day of July (Hungry Ghost Festival), and choose another date according to the child's birth date.
On this day, parents should prepare three sacrifices, fruits, wine and food, and take their children to bid farewell to the gods of parents-in-law and mother-in-law (i.e., the gods who protect children), indicating that the children have grown up and should no longer worship them in the future. It is very interesting to worship parents-in-law and mother-in-law. The so-called parents-in-law and mother-in-law are actually the "gods" on the bed. At this time, a large basket (woven bamboo utensil) with shallow edges should be placed in the center of the bed to simply fill it with rice. Drag three sticks of incense, place twelve bowls of sweet potato rice balls, twelve cups of black bean wine, red peach fruit, fat fruit and three animals (fish, pig's head, three birds) in front. The three birds offered by boys are roosters, symbolizing vitality, and those offered by girls are hens, praying for children in the future.
Children who go out of the garden have to take a bath in the flower water planted with flowers, wear new clothes sewn by their grandparents, wear red clogs given by their grandparents, and eat chicken heads. Legend has it that during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty (the first year of Xijing was 1522), Lin Daqin, the champion of Chaozhou, could not afford red shoes when he was studying at a young age, so he wore red leather clogs. One day, when he came home from school, he saw an old man asking passers-by to respond with a "rooster bun". Those who responded well would be rewarded with a rooster. Lin Daqin thought for a moment and said loudly: "Sheep's chin." The old man couldn't help but said that's right! Then he gave him the rooster he had brought. Lin Daqin's father was very happy and secretly praised his son for his outstanding achievements. He slaughtered the rooster, cooked it and chopped off its head to reward Lin Daqin to show that he was the best. Later, Lin Daqin won the first prize and became famous all over the world. Since then, Chaoshan people have believed that eating chicken heads is a good sign, so they wear red clogs and hold a big rooster like Lin Daqin when their children go to school; they feed their children chicken heads when they go out to the garden.
As the saying goes: "Fifteen years old, sixteen years old", which means that after fifteen or sixteen years old, one enters adulthood. The family is like a garden, and the children have to jump out of the garden wall and go outside. We are truly embarking on the journey of life, so we call it "Out of the Garden". There is a poem that goes:
Twelve flowers bathe in the water, and red leather clogs are used to walk in beauty;
My parents-in-law worship deeply on the bed, and jump out of the garden to become adults. There are many large and small temples built in Liuhuang city and countryside, the most common ones are "Bo Gong Temple", "Guandi Temple", "Sanshan King Temple" and so on. Each temple enshrines a god, commonly known as "Master". There are so many Liuhuang temples and so many believers that they are all located in the urban and rural areas of this county.
Every year on the eighth day of the year, on the first and fifteenth day of each month, or on the birthday of a certain "master", the housewives of every household in Liuhuang must prepare three animals early in the morning, no matter how busy they are at work. It has become an unshakable custom for women to bring peach incense candles to temples for worship. Especially when Mazu was born on the 23rd day of the third lunar month, citizens and villagers in cities and towns near Liuhuang started on the evening of the 22nd, bringing old and young, dressed in red and green, carrying baskets, holding incense and candles, carrying fruits, and killing pigs. Sheep, flocks and herds, flock to Mazu Palace to worship.
The Liuhuang people’s custom of worshiping gods has become a beautiful landscape of the Liuhuang folk belief. The Eight Festivals of Liuhuang's reign refer to eight important folk festivals, namely Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Zhongyuan Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Winter Solstice and New Year's Eve. Customs vary from place to place, but Yan Liuhuang has its own characteristics. Only its features are described below.
Spring Festival: You must bring tangerines with you when paying New Year greetings, and people call it "good luck". When returning the gift, you must also give back good luck, which is called "good luck and good fortune". When entertaining guests, the "four golden points" must be served, that is, chicken heads, chicken feet, chicken buttocks and chicken are placed on a chicken plate. When the guests are eating, they should eat as much chicken as possible, but never eat anything else.
Lantern Festival: Liuhuang rural areas use bamboo tubes to light kerosene lanterns.
Qingming Festival: Liuhuang's tomb sweeping must be done from three days before to three days after the Qingming Festival.
Dragon Boat Festival: Liuhuang faces Hanjiang River. In the past, people often raced dragon boats and ate brown balls, among which "mast palm" was the most distinctive.
Zhongyuan: In the past, sacrifices were held in front of the mother's palace to offer sacrifices to orphans.
Mid-Autumn Festival: Liuhuang has a saying that "when the moon is full, people are also round". Many overseas Chinese and people abroad choose this day to go back.
Winter Solstice: Commonly known as the Winter Festival, people eat Winter Festival circles. When making Winter Festival circles, the whole family sits around a "miro" (shallow, rimmed basket) pavilion, each taking the dough and kneading it into The auspicious winter festival circles that look like marbles are put into the "Miluo", and the more large and small they are, the better. This is called the "father, son, grandson," round, which symbolizes the completeness of the family at the end of the year.
New Year's Eve: A family dinner called "around the stove" to express a happy reunion. No matter how far apart the family is, they must rush home to reunite before New Year's Eve. After "circling the fire", the elders will give "New Year's money" to the juniors, and the juniors who can make money will also give red envelopes to the elders. There should be no making noise on this day, and you should not break plates, bowls and other utensils. If you break them, say auspicious words such as "Open your mouth, you will be rich" to make up for the mistake, which symbolizes that the whole family will be complete throughout the year. The water tank at home should be filled with water, and the rice tank should be filled with rice. To symbolize "more than enough every year". It is night when lights are lit indoors and outdoors all night long, and every household stays together to wait for the arrival of the New Year, which is commonly known as "keeping the New Year's Eve up". At midnight, every household sets off firecrackers.
Others include the Double Ninth Festival, which is the ninth day of the ninth lunar month.
On this day, many people from both urban and rural areas of Liuhuang go to Fenghuang Mountain to watch the sunrise; the fifth day of the tenth month of the lunar calendar is the day when grains are produced. Farmers prepare vegetables, fruits, beans, and millet fruits, and kill pigs and geese to worship the God of Cereal. According to legend, the Lord is Shennong; when the stove god is sent to the stove, that is, on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, each household prepares various offerings and puts them in front of the stove to worship and send the stove god to heaven to report his duties. On the fourth day of the first lunar month, the house is cleaned, a jar of water and straw are prepared, and incense is placed on the stove to welcome the return of the Kitchen God, which is commonly known as "God falling to the sky." There are four major rituals in Liuhuang's life, namely: birth ceremony, leaving the garden, wedding and funeral. Since ancient times, there have been differences between traditional and simplified ones. The main local characteristics are:
Birth ceremony: Pregnancy is said to be "happy" and "identified". There are many taboos in Liuhuang during pregnancy, such as no funerals, no sewing, no nailing on walls, no starting construction, and no eating of shrimp, goose, Muscovy duck, mutton, beef, etc. The full moon is called the "arrival month". Relatives and friends send pork and eggs to congratulate them. The host invites relatives and friends to have wine and food. Only then can the baby be delivered to the delivery room and see the sky, and only then can the mother be delivered of the delivery room. Grandma wants to give me new shirts and trousers, new waist pockets, new backpacks, and a new cradle. Every year after the baby's first birthday, parents have to give him a "birthday birthday" and usually let him eat eggs. The age of 51 is called "Shangshou", and it is necessary to "make a big birthday". There are complex and simple ones. The traditional one should hold a big banquet and invite relatives and friends to have wine and food. "Making a birthday" is a memorial ceremony for the birth ceremony.
Out of the Garden: See "Out of the Garden".
Wedding: In ancient times, "six rites" were performed, namely, marriage proposal, marriage, engagement, betrothal, date request, and wedding reception. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, weddings have been reformed, and most of them are free love marriages. However, with the improvement of people's living standards, luxury is advocated for weddings. In urban weddings, guests are often entertained in restaurants and restaurants, while in rural areas, banquets are held in large quantities, and some are With dozens of tables occupied, Liuhuang people pursue an atmosphere of "the more lively the better".
Funeral ceremonies: There are differences in the traditional and simplified ones in urban and rural areas. There are six standard procedures: one is mortuary, leaving the body in the ancestral hall or hall; the other is mourning, reporting the death to relatives and friends; the third is After viewing, the children have to bid farewell to the deceased, and the deceased woman has to wait for family members to see the coffin before closing the coffin; the fourth is mourning, relatives and friends go to the mourning hall to pay homage, the family keeps vigil day and night, and mourns in the morning and evening; the fifth is Chushu, also known as Chushu. "Funeral funeral"; Sixth means returning the soul, leading the deceased back to the door of the house, where the family members line up to greet them. From now on, the "first seven" to the "finishing seven" will be worshiped. The villagers in the Chabei area of ??Liuhuang Town are all from Fujian and Jiangsu and Zhejiang, so they belong to a Hakka settlement. There are many unique features in its customs and habits, such as the hospitality of the villagers, which is much better than that of people in plain areas; the language is also different from other Hakkas, with a heavier and more local accent; the amount of women and labor is no less than that of local men. .
(1) Marriage. Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, marriages in the Chabei area were all subject to the words of the matchmaker, the orders of the parents, and the fortune tellers. In some high and cold mountainous areas, poor families adopt "child brides", who are betrothed for life since childhood, while a few wealthy families have three wives and four concubines. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the People's Government promulgated a new "Marriage Law" to prohibit and abolish the unreasonable old marriage system, dissolve child brides and son-in-law contracts, widows can remarry, and men and women are equal and can marry freely. During the Great Leap Forward and the People's Republic of China, each village dispatched a large number of young men and women to participate in collective farm work. During the labor process, they established feelings for each other and established a husband-wife relationship. For example, Hu Caifang of Chabei Village and Liu Tongpi of Zhanxi Village all worked in the farmland. A wedding was held on the construction site. They all fall in love and get married freely without spending any money. In the mid-1970s, Chabei Township stipulated that collective weddings be held, and all men and women in the township got married at the same time, breaking the old habit of adjusting marriages to the time of day. In the 1980s, new wedding arrangements became popular, such as travel weddings and no banquets. But with the improvement of people's living standards, wedding etiquette has become more important.
(2) Funeral. Before liberation, due to historical traditions, rich families performed Buddhist rituals during their funerals, which was called "seven or seven to eliminate disasters." They asked geologists to choose burial sites and spent money like water; while poor families used money to borrow money and were frugal and simple. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the People's Government publicized the eradication of superstition and called for the abolition of feudal customs. In larger villages such as Xinan, Daxia, Jingang, Chabei and other villages, villagers voluntarily organized elderly people's associations and advocated simple arrangements for funerals, which played a more effective role. The role of helping each other and changing customs.
(3) Festive. Local villagers get married, take a daughter-in-law, give birth to a child, move into a new house, or celebrate a birthday. On any festive day, relatives and friends of the host family, as well as elders in the village, gather together to drink wedding wine and eat wedding candies, which is very lively. In the late 1970s, some people invited a movie to be watched by villagers on festive days to add to the festive atmosphere.
(4) Folk customs.
Invitation. Whenever villagers do something good, they must send out "invitations". "Invitations" are divided into two categories, namely full invitations and half invitations. Twelve-board large posts are called full posts, while simple posts are called half posts. The whole invitation is for foreigners, relatives, friends and elders, and the other half is for locals and people of the same clan. When the host has a happy event and needs to hold a banquet, such as marrying a wife, marrying off a daughter, giving birth to a child, celebrating a birthday, etc., he must send invitations to relatives and friends. Generally, those who receive invitations cannot refuse. They must attend the banquet when the time comes, but they must bring Give gifts to express congratulations. For "announcement of funeral", there is no need to send out invitations, but send a special person to make a verbal notification. After the notification is completed, the person being notified must give the notifier a red envelope and snacks. When eating snacks, four small boxes must be placed on the table. CD to express gratitude to the informant and wish the informant peace.
Character. There are still some ancient superstitions and customs left in the local mountainous area. Whenever someone in the villagers' family is sick or has an ominous sign, they need to ask a "divination" master to tell fortunes or draw talismans, and drive out ghosts (commonly known as book-sending ghosts).
Second burial.
A strange funeral ceremony for the deceased is still popular in the Chabei area. After an ordinary person dies, he or she will ask a geographical fairy to find an auspicious place for burial (also called a large burial place). After a few years, Feng Shui will be done for the deceased. If the time for the deceased is unlucky, it will take 60 years. Can be used for Feng Shui.
The first burial is called a big burial or burial. After choosing a place on the mountain, a hole is dug. The hole is dug into the form of an air raid shelter. A tunnel larger than the coffin is dug according to the mountain and the coffin is placed in it. Then the seal is sealed and the tomb surface is repaired.
After a few years, the grave surface is opened, the coffin is taken out, the bones are taken out, and the bones are put into clay pots in order of the human body. The clay pots are called gold pots. If the bones of the deceased are completely decayed, a handful of soil should be collected and placed in a gold jar. Then put the lid on the jar and place it into the Feng Shui hole dug in advance. Then hire a plasterer to build a permanent tomb with lime. The size of the base of the tomb not only shows the identity of the deceased, but also represents the wealth and social status of the deceased's family.
If the age of the deceased and the time of death are unlucky, the locals call it "stiff neck", and the descendants and relatives of the deceased cannot cry, as it is expected to bring bad omens to future generations. The feng shui must be repaired within a hundred days after the funeral. Otherwise, it will take 60 years before the funeral can be carried out, and within these 60 years, descendants will not be allowed to visit the grave.