Hakka customs generally include national traditional festivals, local sacrifices and rituals.
Major festivals
☆ Spring Festival: It is the most solemn festival with New Year greetings and entertainment activities.
Beginning of spring: It's spring.
Lantern Festival: The 15th day of the first month is the traditional Lantern Festival in China. Eat, play and enjoy the Lantern Festival in solving riddles.
☆ February 2: Festival.
☆ Qingming: Hakka grave-sweeping customs mostly start from the vernal equinox, and Qingming reaches its climax.
☆ Dragon Boat Festival: Hakka people generally call it May Festival. The main contents of the festival are eating zongzi, realgar wine and dragon boat racing.
☆ July Festival: Ghost Festival.
☆ Mid-Autumn Festival: commonly known as August Festival. Eating moon cakes and enjoying the moon are generally the same.
☆ Double Ninth Festival: Hakka people call it "September Festival".
☆ Solstice of winter: Hakkas have a saying that "winter is a big festival".
Marriage customs and habits
Act as a matchmaker/middleman
In the past, young Hakka men and women could ask a matchmaker to introduce their marriage after they were sixteen. Generally, the man's parents entrust the woman's home as a matchmaker, and some women's homes let the matchmaker visit the man's home first.
Miko Kan
Both men and women talk through the central media. If both sides are interested, they will agree on a time to "see their sister".
Write a Geng post
After both parties agree, they will inform each other of the date of birth. When you go back, please ask the fortune teller to "check the eight characters". If the eight characters hit it off and don't collide with each other, write a Geng post (common name wedding list) and put it on the incense table. If there is no writing on the wall within three days, the marriage is settled (if the eight characters don't match, the man will return the Geng Tie to the woman's house).
Make a red list
Also called "opening a red wedding invitation", or talking about gifts. The man's parents, clan relatives and matchmaker go to the woman's house together and draw out the bride price that the man wants to give to the woman's house. Some red lists should also include gifts for husbands, such as hats, silver flowers, clothes, shoes, socks and so on. In the process of opening a red bill, the two sides will bargain and finally finalize it through negotiation. After the red list is opened, men and women will exchange rings, handkerchiefs and other tokens. Finally, the man came to the woman's house and went back after lunch. Engagement is also called "gift", that is, formally confirming marriage again. Young men and their parents are going to the woman's house to deliver pig's head, fish and meat. , as well as the woman's parents, brothers and sisters, uncles and grandparents will appear. After lunch, girls will come out to meet and call each other "parents" and "parents-in-law" and "mother".
Watch the door
That is, the woman goes to the man's house to see her family, some before the ceremony and some after it. In addition to girls and their parents, the woman will also go. More than a dozen people, big and small, don't bring gifts, even if they bring a little, the man dare not pick them up.
date of forwarding
After the marriage is settled, the man should ask the fortune teller to choose a date to go home, including the date and time when the bride goes out and the time when she goes home. In addition, the date when the woman cuts the red skirt and the man makes the bed should also be chosen at the same time.
Send vegetables and raise dowry
One or two days after the bride goes through the door, the man's family should ask the clan to send the bride price and the fish, meat, poultry, noodles and other things stipulated in the red list to the woman's family, and bring the bride price and furniture back to the man's family when they come back.
Pick up the bride (in a sedan chair) for the wedding.
Also called picking up relatives or visiting. On the day before the wedding, the man's family will go to the woman's house to pick up relatives, including a drummer band, firecrackers, a sedan chair, a censer (going to the woman's ancestral temple, temples and social workers to burn incense), a porter, a chicken guide (a male and a female) at one end, wine and Song Ming at the other end, and the woman will bring the clothes worn by the bride and a wooden basket.
When the parents arrive, they eat snacks first, and then they take them to the ancestral temple to burn incense to worship their ancestors. At noon or in the evening, the woman's family will hold a banquet.
The bride usually leaves at midnight or midnight. She is getting brighter and brighter, which symbolizes that she is moving towards the light. If she had gone out at night, she wouldn't have had such unlucky things as carrying a coffin. In front of the wedding procession are lanterns, followed by drummers, sedan chairs in the middle, and people who accept the wedding ceremony in the back.
When the bride arrives at the man's house, she will wait at the gate or the house next door if she hasn't arrived at the prescribed time. The introductions are usually at 7: 00 or 8: 00 in the morning, and some even have to wait until noon. When entering, the bride will kick open the door of the sedan chair, and the man's bridesmaid will lead the bride out of the sedan chair and then "cross the fire" at the gate. Before entering the gate, the bride will cross the fire with fir branches.
(of the bride and groom) salute to heaven and earth.
After the bride entered the hall with the drums, she began to worship. There are incense tables in the hall, with parents and elders in the east, consorts in the west, relatives in the north and younger generations in the south. Before meeting the bride, the husband will hang red on the groom and cover him with a five-foot red cloth.
I read aloud: "I have five feet of red in my hand, and I only beat the groom, so that the groom can have a son and his son can be the champion." When visiting the church, the groom stands on the left and the bride stands on the right. Li Sheng said: One worships heaven and earth, the other worships ancestors, the third worships Gaotang, and the four couples respect each other as guests.
Finally, relatives meet and give the bride a red envelope. After the ceremony, the bridesmaid led the bride into the new house with red roses, and the bride and groom scattered wedding candy from the door to the hall with firecrackers. Then the bride and groom propose a toast. The maid of honor held a chicken in a tray and said while drinking, "Round and round, pearls are connected together" and "Guanyin gave birth to your son early"; Husband and wife make up and grow old together. This kind of etiquette is not common in Meizhou and has been replaced by modern wedding mode. )
Hold a banquet at noon, eat a wedding banquet, invite guests with firecrackers, once every half hour, and let the banquet ring three times when you start sitting. Then, the gift students signed up for the table, and two people took the table. According to seniority and personal relationship, arrange them to sit at the table first, and then others can sit at the table casually. The male and female guests are seated separately, and the bride and groom want to propose a toast.
(of relatives and friends) teasing the newlyweds on their wedding night.
Some people make trouble in the lobby, some people make trouble in the new house, some people make trouble in the lobby first and then in the new house. During the noisy period, firecrackers will be set off every few minutes until midnight.
(of a newlywed wife) going to her parents' home with her newlywed husband.
Also known as the "turnstile". Generally speaking, on the third or fifth day after marriage, the woman will send the bride's sisters and other women to invite the bride and groom to be guests, and the matchmaker and the bride and groom's sisters will also go. ***7- 14 people have lunch and come back the same day.
Send the full moon one month after the wedding, the bride's family will come to send the full moon and send chickens, vegetables, seeds, seeds and beans at the same time. It means that the grain is abundant and the fortune is prosperous.
Traditional festival customs
1. Birth etiquette
It marks the celebration and blessing of a person's birth and is the beginning etiquette in life.
Accelerate delivery
When a married daughter is about to give birth, usually one or two days before the baby is born, her family will come to her daughter's house with chicken, eggs, noodles and dry powder. To "live" is to wish her a safe birth. When my mother was gone, my sister-in-law was born and gave a banquet at noon.
After the baby is born, the son-in-law will bring chicken, eggs and rice wine (some of which have dozens of pounds) to Yue's house to report the good news, and the grandmother's house will invite guests, and relatives and friends will attend to congratulate him. Grandparents will give back chickens and red eggs.
Make three dynasties
When a child is born for three days, it has to be "three dynasties". Give the child a bath first and invite the midwife to eat. Grandma will send a rooster, eggs, noodles, glutinous rice flour and so on. To make "three dynasties wine" and entertain grandma and in-laws. Some places will also send red eggs to relatives and friends, and relatives and friends will send back chicken, eggs, noodles and other things before the full moon.
Celebrate the birth of a baby when he is one month old.
One month after a baby is born, it is a "full moon". Grandma will give the baby a rooster (big capon in many places) and eggs, as well as clothes, quilts, hats, collars, windbreakers, skirts, silver bracelets and braces. Female relatives, such as uncles and aunts, usually send chicks, eggs, clothes, cloth and so on. And aunts and aunts.
One hundred years old.
Children born 100 days, also want to celebrate. On this day, the grandfather and uncle of the woman's family will celebrate with the rooster, and other relatives will generally give red envelopes to the baby.
One year old.
When the child is one year old, he should be a "week" to celebrate the child's "week". The first birthday is more grand than the full moon, and more guests come to celebrate.
2. Adult etiquette
Hakka rite of passage can be divided into two types: male and female. The adult ceremony for men is called "crown ceremony" and the adult ceremony for women is called "ceremony". There seems to be no such etiquette now, at least in my place (Meizhou, the world's guest capital).
3. Birthday etiquette
Celebrate sb's birthday
Like other customs, Hakkas have a small birthday every year and a big birthday every ten years, but big birthdays are more common. From the age of ten, it can be called a birthday, and it lasts until you are in your forties and fifties and sixties. Eating noodles and poached eggs on your birthday means that you will live to be 100 years old. (This custom has also been simplified, only birthdays: over 60 years old)
Congratulate (the old man) on his birthday.
On her birthday, the married daughter will give a rooster, as well as a shroud, hat, cake, shoes and socks, from head to toe. Father's birthday, will also send a whole set to mother, in addition to birthday axe, firecrackers, candles, roosters, peaches, noodles, cakes, wine and meat. Others come to celebrate their birthdays. Generally, relatives and friends send birthday wishes, birthday couplets, or gifts.
In many places, birthday ceremonies are held for elderly people over 70 years old, with many descendants and good family circumstances.
Hakkas' birthdays and birthdays are all gifts from insiders themselves, and congratulations from home are given first, then invited; Except in-laws and close friends, send invitations, not invitations.
4. Build a house and move to a new house
Hakka people regard building a new house and moving to a new house as one of the major celebration activities, which should be celebrated grandly.
When building a house, please ask Teacher Kan Yu to determine the location of the house and the orientation of the door. When the column is on the beam, it should be decorated with lanterns and pasted with red couplets. After the completion of the new house, you should "exorcise evil spirits" and "eliminate evil spirits" the night before you move in.
When moving into a new house, you should bring lanterns (or oil lamps), fire cages, scales, etc. When you enter the house, you should also bring a nest of chickens and steam them into the new house to show that the new couple is prosperous and beaming. When you move to a new house, you should hold a "house wine" to entertain relatives and friends, builders and helpers. There should be leeks, tofu, pig intestines, pig blood and rice cakes in the dishes, which means long time and high fortune.
Hakka wine custom
Hakka people are very hospitable. Whenever relatives and friends come, they like to treat them with their own brewed rice wine, also called "water wine". If it is distilled from the first altar, it is called "nine niang". This kind of "wine girl" is delicious, although the degree is not high, but it has great stamina and is easy to intoxicate. When they drink, they pay great attention to etiquette.
Hakkas like to use the Eight Immortals Table, commonly known as the Eight Immortals Table, which is a wooden table for eight people to sit together. When seated, they attach great importance to the arrangement of seats, and generally sit in the order of their relatives and friends. The size of the banquet hall is arranged in this way. For example, there is only one table in the main hall. At this time, the left side facing the gate is the first, and the right side is the second. Then from left to right, the preface is interspersed, and the right side facing the main hall is the smallest. If two tables are arranged, the table on the left is big, the table on the right is small and the seats are staggered. If three tables are arranged, it is called "first class". In this case, the chief is respected. If five tables are arranged, the general arrangement is "plum blossom seats".
When you pour wine for the first time between banquets (also called wine screening), you should pour wine first in the order of generations, and then pour wine for yourself. After pouring wine, don't point the hip flask at the guests, but at yourself, otherwise it's impolite. When toasting, the toaster should stand up, press his chest with his left hand (showing respect and sincerity), raise his glass with his right hand and say a few auspicious words, and take a sip first to show respect. If someone is late, they will be fined 1-3 drinks, and half a cup for ladies. If you leave halfway, you have to drink 1-3 cups to leave.
When drinking, Hakkas have the custom of guessing boxing to increase the fun and excitement of various banquet occasions, whether vulgar, elegant, simple or complicated. There are also some rules when guessing boxing. For example, you can't play with your thumb, middle finger and index finger at three o'clock. After a while, the thumb should be sideways, not upturned. When playing the second game, if you use your thumb and forefinger, you should play sideways. You can't point your index finger at each other as polite as a light mauser gun.
Hakkas' drinking orders are very learned. The number of guesses ranges from zero to ten. If you guess the total number of fingers made by both sides, you are the winner. If both parties guess or fail at the same time, they also use the name of "four characters". If they guess "one", it is called "one product promotion"; When guessing "two", it is called "two families are reconciled"; When guessing "three", it is called "Samsung is shining high"; When guessing "four", it is called "getting rich in four seasons"; When guessing "five", it is called "five-child test"; When guessing "six", it is called "six six goes smoothly"; When guessing "seven", it is called "seven clever pictures"; When guessing "Eight", it is called "Eight Immortals' Birthday"; When guessing "nine", it is called "nine long"; When you guess "ten", it's called "perfect". So it's auspicious.
When drinking and guessing boxing, we usually take three glasses of wine as a group. The loser drinks, and after three glasses of wine, he passes. If the afterglow is not over, you can have another group or groups. If you need to ask someone to substitute boxing for wine, you should negotiate with each other and get their consent. In addition to guessing boxing and fighting wine, there is also the finger number of fighting wine. It is customary to designate a person as the person in charge of the dinner party. According to the total number of fingers given by everyone, whoever counts will have a drink. For example, if everyone sticks out six fingers, then the drinker is the sixth. In addition, there is also a "rotating spoon" to compete for wine. Put a spoon in the table and turn it by yourself. When the spoon stops turning, whoever the handle of the spoon points to will have wine to drink. In addition to "guessing singles and doubles", put one or two coins in the palm of your hand for others to guess singles and doubles, and the loser drinks.
Hakka's wine list is varied, and educated people like "word list" (including local specialty list, agricultural proverb list, etc. ), "Shi Ling" and "your legend" (most of them are ingenious and involve interest, which makes people laugh. ), including speculation. Hakka people like to use wine rules, a popular entertainment game for the masses, to increase their spirits and eliminate loneliness and drowsiness until they get drunk.
Traditional customs of the times
Celebrate the Spring Festival
Like most parts of the province, Hakkas regard the Spring Festival as the biggest and happiest festival of the year. People began to prepare for the Spring Festival very early. 9. Sweet potato slices and rice cake slices will be dried in 10 for frying and frying in the New Year. As soon as the "winter solstice" arrives, we will start steaming wine. Nearly 30 days ago, every household would steam sugar cakes, make rice fruits, kill pigs, make tofu, kill chickens and so on. Welcome the New Year with great joy.
Sacrifice to the kitchen god
1February 23rd, after the evening of 23rd, the kitchen stove should be cleaned, and the old kitchen stove should be removed and burned. New pictures will be posted on the morning of the 30th, as well as wine, meat, candy, sugar cane, rice fruit and so on. It should be placed, and incense, candles and paper cannons should be lit in front of the kitchen stove.
Enter the year limit.
Lunar calendar1February 25th, people will enter the "Year Pass" and step up preparations for the new year. Everyone who goes out will rush home for the New Year. After entering the fixed number of years, we should educate our children not to scold each other and not to say unlucky things. Before and after entering the new year, we should choose an auspicious day to clean the dust and clean the house. We should clean the tables and benches in the kitchen, clean the bedding and mosquito nets, and celebrate the New Year cleanly.
New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve, that is, New Year's Eve, is the warmest and happiest day of Chinese New Year. On this morning, every family should worship bodhisattva and god. On New Year's Eve, portraits of ancestors should be hung in each hall, and red Spring Festival couplets should be posted at the gate. Red notes should be posted on barn doors, in front of livestock fences, on furniture beds and beside water tanks, which are called "sealing the year" or "becoming popular". Adults and children should take a bath, put on new clothes and celebrate the New Year cleanly. Each hall will also be decorated with tables, incense tables, chickens, fish, meat, fruits and so on. To worship their ancestors.
On New Year's Eve, we have a family reunion dinner with rich dishes. Put more bowls and chopsticks on the table to invite our ancestors back for the New Year. Before meals, sift the wine for your ancestors, sprinkle it on the ground, and then start eating. During the dinner, the old people and children eat chicken legs to show respect for the old people and young people.
stay up late or all night on New Year's Eve
After the reunion dinner, the cooker should be cleaned to prevent vegetarianism on the first day of the first month or all day. At night, we should keep the old year, say goodbye to the old and welcome the new. Every room should be brightly lit all night. This is called "lighting the old fire". In some places, cowshed and pigsty should also be illuminated. Parents should give their children lucky money, and some places give old people lucky money.
Open the gate
On the first day of the first month, the city gate was opened at the auspicious moment stipulated in the general book, and firecrackers exploded one after another.
Pay new year's call
I am a vegetarian on the morning of the first day of the first month. After dinner, people greet each other with auspicious words. The children are wearing new clothes. They are very happy and love to play. Some of them are vying to pay New Year greetings to the elderly: "My grandparents and uncles have money, and all the candied fruit is given to ya (me)."
On the second day of the first month, visit relatives to celebrate the New Year. In particular, the newly-married son-in-law (the Yue family will post an invitation with a book) will go to her parents' house to pay a New Year call. Generally, young couples go together, and a son-in-law goes alone; Some came back the same day, and some stayed for five or six days. When you go, you should bring little hens, rice fruits, candy, incense sticks and firecrackers, and then burn incense, light candles and set off firecrackers in front of the ancestors of the Yue family. At noon, the Yues treat, and the son-in-law should be drunk, not drunk or enthusiastic.
Eat old rice.
On the third morning, I ate "New Year's Rice" (some steamed on the 29th night of the previous year, some steamed on the second night of the first month), put chopsticks on the rice, put a few pairs in the family, insert a leafy branch, and put some fruits such as oranges and grapefruit. Before eating the New Year's Eve, you should put the rice on the "Sun" shrine to worship the gods and ancestors. There are many dishes to prepare for the New Year's Eve, including chicken and meat, which is similar to having a reunion dinner on New Year's Eve. You can't kill animals in the third grade, but chickens should be killed in the second grade or kept during the Chinese New Year.
Exceed the annual limit
The fifth day of the first month of the year. The portraits of ancestors in the hall should be put away, the paper curtains should be taken down and burned, and those who go out on business can start.
the Lantern Festival
On the fifteenth day of the first month, Lantern Festival, also known as "Shangyuan Festival", every household should prepare dishes and wine for the New Year. To celebrate the Lantern Festival, the Spring Festival amusement activities will reach a climax.
From the beginning of the Lunar New Year to the fifteenth day of the first month, entertainment activities are constantly going on in various places, mainly Youlong lanterns and lion dances, and some activities begin on the first and second days of the first month. Dragon lanterns and lions will be posted in advance before they arrive, and red envelopes and snacks will be given when they arrive. Dragon lanterns, lions, etc. It will not only perform in every household, but also pay New Year greetings to gods and ancestors in various temples and ancestral halls in the village. During the first market after the Spring Festival, all kinds of dragon lanterns, boat lanterns and lion lanterns will be performed at the party, which is called "opening the market". During the Spring Festival to the Lantern Festival, there are also some recreational activities in various places:
Send spring cattle
Generally, on the first day of New Year's Day, teams of three or five people will send pictures of spring cattle to all households, including playing suona, drumming and knocking cymbals. They will play at every door, send "Happy New Year" red stickers, and the host will give them red envelopes.
Daocaolong
Piece by piece, filled with incense, the children danced in front of the cowshed in the kitchen and pigsty to congratulate the family on safety and the prosperity of the six animals. Every family should give red envelopes, the children will be happy, and the master will ask for good luck.
Bat lamp
The children also danced from house to house, "The fire dragon came into the room and asked you for candles" and "Congratulations on getting rich and buying a house". Bat lights don't accept red envelopes, just candles.
Ship lamp
Lights are like boats, and singing is performed on land. Rehearsal before the Spring Festival, gongs and drums team, playing ten times to cooperate. When we arrive at the village, we will have some snacks and then perform in the open space. The boatman and the boatman can sing tunes such as Pregnant in October, Ancient People in December, Guazi Ren, and A Flower. The boatman just rows a boat and can't sing. In the evening, I will "open the heavenly officials" in the ancestral hall, sing "God bless the people" and so on, and finally have a drink and dinner.
Lion lamp
There are Nuo people, lion heads, lion tails, monkeys, sand monks and gongs and drums teams. After the lion, monkey and sand monk sing, they will perform martial arts, boxing, knife dancing, playing with sticks and jumping on the table. Lions will hire a master to coach martial arts before the Chinese New Year.
Spring Equinox
At the vernal equinox in February, people began to pay homage to their ancestors. This day is also called "Spring Festival". Before sweeping the grave, a grand ancestor worship ceremony should be held in the ancestral hall, pigs and sheep should be slaughtered, drummers should be invited to play, and the ritual students should read the eulogy and quote three praises. At the beginning of the spring equinox grave sweeping, the first thing is to sweep the graves of ancestors and distant ancestors. The whole family and the whole village have to be dispatched on a large scale, and the team often reaches hundreds or even thousands. After the ancestral graves of Kaiji and Yuanzu were swept, they were divided into rooms to sweep the graves of ancestors in each room, and finally each family swept the graves privately. In most Hakka areas, ancestor worship and grave sweeping in spring begin at the vernal equinox or earlier, and must end in Tomb-Sweeping Day at the latest. There is a saying everywhere that after the Qingming Festival, the tomb door is closed, and the ancestors' spirits are not needed.
Qingming Festival
Qingming Festival in March, ancestor worship. In addition to the vernal equinox, most Hakka areas sweep graves to worship their ancestors, and some places are also sweeping graves in Qingming. On this day in Tomb-Sweeping Day, there are places for offering sacrifices to altars, such as the roadside land Bogong.
Dragon Boat Festival
The fifth day of May is the Dragon Boat Festival. Every household buys meat, kills ducks, makes zongzi and makes rice fruit for the festival. Dragon Boat Festival is a big festival. In many places, people who work outside will go home for the New Year.
Ghosts'Festival
July 15 is the "Ghost Festival" in Hakka area. In some places, it is necessary to celebrate the festival one day in advance, which is called "14 people on July, and ghosts on July 15". In some places, Hakkas also worship their ancestors in July and a half.
Mid-Autumn Festival
Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15, commonly known as "August Festival", is also a big festival. Eat moon cakes, enjoy the moon and celebrate the reunion. Every household has to buy a dining table, buy pork, kill chickens and ducks, and cook rice and fruit for the holidays. On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, families get together for the holidays, eat moon cakes and enjoy the moon after dinner.
Double Ninth Festival
The ninth day of September is the Double Ninth Festival, also known as the Double Ninth Festival, commonly known as the "September Festival", which is a big festival at the end of the year. There is a saying that "there is no big festival after the Double Ninth Festival", and many people who go out have to rush home for the New Year. On this day, people in many places will take their children to climb mountains. Some people fly kites on the mountains, which means they can avoid evil spirits and plagues. Many old people say that this custom was brought by ancestors from the northern Central Plains and passed down from generation to generation. On this day, some old people and women go to temples to burn incense and worship Buddha.
Winter solstice
The winter solstice is in November of the lunar calendar, also known as the "winter solstice". On the solstice of winter, we should eat pork and beef, make rice fruit and soup pills, and the rich should eat pilose antler and ginseng to make up for the winter.
Folk entertainment
Hakka folk entertainment is very rich in content. The main festivals are Yangko, Dragon Boat Race, Lantern Ride, Dragon Lantern Dance, Lion Dance, Teacher on stilts, Lantern Greeting, Lantern Ride, Drumming, Musical Instrument Concert, Performance and Fireworks. Usually there are folk songs, ditty singing, piano playing, guzheng playing, erhu playing, flute playing, chess playing and gobang playing.