What are the customs of the Spring Equinox?

The Spring Equinox is one of the 24 solar terms. In folk activities, it is generally regarded as the official beginning of outing. It is the New year of Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and other countries. It has a history of 3000 years, as well as festivals and sacrificial ceremonies. Ancient emperors had the ritual system of offering sacrifices to the moon in autumn and spring. Let's take a look at the Spring Equinox's customs.

Vertical egg

On the Spring Equinox's day every year, tens of millions of people around the world are experimenting with "erecting eggs". It is difficult to prove why this so-called "Chinese custom" has become a "world game". However, it is simple and interesting to play. Choose a smooth, symmetrical fresh egg that is just four or five days old and stand it up lightly on the table. Although there are many losers, there are also many winners. The Spring Equinox has become the best time for the vertical egg game, so there is a saying that "the Spring Equinox arrives, the egg is pretty". The upright egg is very beautiful.

Eat spring vegetables

In the past, the surname of Xie in Cangcheng town of Kaiping, which used to be Siyi (plus Wuyi in Heshan), has a non-festival custom called "the Spring Equinox eats spring vegetables." "Spring vegetable" is a kind of wild amaranth, which is called "Artemisia annua" by villagers. On the Spring Equinox's day, the whole village went to pick spring vegetables. When searching in the fields, most of them are green and thin, about the length of a slap. The spring vegetables collected are usually "boiling soup" with fish fillets at home, which is called "spring soup". There is a jingle: "Chun Tang irrigates the viscera and washes the liver and intestines." The whole family, young and old, are safe and healthy. " One year since spring, people still pray for peace and health in their homes.

Send spring cattle

The Spring Equinox then arrived, and at that time there were pictures of spring cattle sent from house to house. The picture shows the second opening of red paper or yellow paper printed on the annual lunar calendar solar terms, as well as a pattern of farmers ploughing fields, called "Spring Niu Map". The people who send the pictures are all good folk singers, who mainly say something about spring ploughing and auspiciousness when they do not violate agriculture, and every time they go to a house, they are even more in love with the scene, say what they see, and make the host happy and give money. Although the words come out casually, every sentence has a beautiful rhyme. It is commonly known as "spring", and people who say spring are called "spring officials".

Sticky sparrow mouth

The Spring Equinox, on this day, farmers are in accordance with the custom to have a holiday, and each family has to eat Tang Yuan, and they have to cook more than 10 or 20 or 30 Tang Yuan, which are not covered by heart, and put them on the edge of the field with a thin bamboo fork, which is called Sparrow mouth, so as not to destroy the crops. The Spring Equinox is also a good time for children to fly kites. Especially on that day of the Spring Equinox. Even adults are involved. The types of kites include Wang word kite, silver carp kite, squint moth kite, Lei Gong insect kite and Yueerguang kite. The big kites are two meters high and the small ones are two or three feet high. There are kite sellers on the market, most of them are small and suitable for children to play, but most of them are pasted by themselves, which is bigger, and they have to compete with each other to see which one is high.

Spring sacrifice

In February, the Spring Equinox began to sweep the tomb to worship his ancestors, also known as the Spring Festival. Before sweeping the tomb, a grand ancestor worship ceremony should be held in the ancestral hall, killing pigs and sheep. Please play the drummer, read the sacrifice by Li Sheng, and lead three sacrifices. When the Spring Equinox began to sweep the tombs, he first opened the graves of his ancestors and distant ancestors, and the whole clan and the whole village had to go out on a very large scale, often reaching hundreds or even thousands of people. After sweeping the tombs of Kaiji ancestors and distant ancestors, they were divided into rooms to sweep the graves of their ancestors, and finally each family swept the private graves of the family. In most Hakka areas, ancestor worship and tomb-sweeping in spring began with the Spring Equinox or earlier, and the Qingming Festival should be finished at the latest. There is a saying that the door of the tomb will be closed after the Qingming Festival, and the heroic spirits of our ancestors will no longer be used.

Worship God

The folk festival before and after the Spring Equinox is the birthday of Kaizhang Sheng King on February 15: Kaizhang Shengwang, also known as "Chen Sheng Wang", was Chen Yuanguang, a warrior of the Tang Dynasty, who made meritorious service to Zhangzhou and became the patron saint of Zhangzhou after his death. On the birthday of Quan Yin Bodhisattva on February 19, believers pay homage to various Quan Yin temples on their birthday. February 25 Sanshan King sacrifice Day: Sanshan King refers to the mountain gods of Dushan, Mingshan and Ganshan in Jieyang County, Chaozhou Capital, Guangdong Province. In the early years, spring was the patron saint of Chaozhou Hakka immigrants, so the believers were mainly Hakkas.

The day of sacrifice

In the Zhou Dynasty, the Spring Equinox had a memorial ceremony. The Book of Rites: "sacrifice the sun on the altar." Kong Yingda Shu: "it is called the Spring Equinox." Ritan is located in the east of Ritan Road, southeast of Chaoyang Gate in Beijing, also known as Asahi Temple. It is the place where emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties offered sacrifices to the Daming God (Sun) on the Spring Equinox's day. The Asahi is engraved in the Spring Equinox's imperial calendar. In every year of A, C, E, Geng and Ren, the emperor sacrifices himself, and the rest of the year is sacrificed by officials.