Chapter 4 Four Chinese festivals

It didn't take long for Zhu Pin to understand that ordinary Chinese people never lack festivals.Often celebrating the changing seasons or honoring ancestors, these festivals replaced the Saturday rest day in the Western world in ancient China.Because there is no concept of week in Chinese life, it is these festivals that become an opportunity for Chinese people to get rid of work, relax, rest and have fun. Because the ancient Chinese calendar was based on the lunar calendar (the Western calendar was not used in China until the Republic began), festivals fall on different days in each year.The Chinese lunar year has a month of 29 or 30 days, so the 15th day of each month is always full moon. There are only 354 days in 12 months, which is less than the Gregorian year, so a special month is needed to make up for it after the year.

The astronomers of the old empire were well aware that the Gregorian year had 365 days, but the peasants' almanacs were based on the Gregorian calendar.They can always give a suitable date for the winter solstice or summer solstice, "beginning of autumn" or "the coming of the harvest season".These seasonal days used by farmers basically corresponded to the Western calendar. The Chinese keep track of time through the solar and lunar years, but festivals were and are based on the lunar calendar. The celebration of the New Year takes place between January 21st and February 19th every year, and it is probably the most important festival for the Chinese, and New Year's Eve is the day when all debts from the past year are written off.The celebratory time was spent in banquets and visits.Those blessings go to ancestors, parents and friends.Every member of the family is one year older in the coming year.According to the old customs in China, a child is considered one year old when it is born, and two years old after the first New Year. (This is the common desire of the Chinese people, who desire to be bigger, and then bigger, to be 60, 70, 80 years old, as big as possible.) In the last 10 days of the year, the Kitchen God should return to the sky to report every day of the year. performance of family members.

Zhu Pin knew that this festival was a few days before the New Year. Once he came home from school and found a Kitchen God with his mouth wide open in the kitchen.The Kitchen God is printed on a piece of red paper.Someone also slathered paste around his mouth.Zhu Pin asked the cook about the meaning of the picture. "He is the Kitchen God. Today he will return to Heaven for a 10-day vacation and report to the Jade Emperor what we have done in the past year." "Who put paste on his mouth for what?" "I wiped it, and now he can't talk." She pursed her lips and smiled, her eyes sparkled when she looked at the Kitchen God on the wall, "Master, this will make him do good deeds. The other gods are also very good, but The Kitchen God knows everything that happens in the family. He knows everything the family members do during the year. We can't let him talk, every family does."

For most working people, there are only three or four days in the New Year.But in theory the New Year actually ends with the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first month.This is often a very important festival, with giant paper dragons parading through the streets, people setting off fireworks, and during the nightly lantern show, each family competes for the most uniquely designed and most beautiful lamps. The important Chinese New Year also includes Easter, which is called Tomb-sweeping Day in China, which means "tomb-sweeping day".On this day, everyone goes to the countryside to pay homage to the tombs of their ancestors. This is an important event, especially for women in the family who rarely have the opportunity to go to the countryside for leisure.

Before each tombstone, there is usually a platform where sacrificial items such as wine and flowers are placed.The elders of the family kneel and recite the sacrificial rites.The wine was then sprinkled on the ground as a sacrificial offering, and the ritual was burned so that the dead could receive it, and some also burned "paper money," folded paper money with silver tinfoil attached to the center so that their relatives could use it in the underworld.Like many other nations, the Chinese are a super-spiritual nation, and paper money is a super-spiritual expression that fills people's spiritual needs.People can't be sure whether these paper money are the currency of the underworld, but people like to think so for sure.You've done what you can and you'll feel better because of it.It's akin to an American's reverence for the Unknown Soldier.No one believes that a martyr realizes the honor he has received, what matters is what he brings to the living.

Tomb-sweeping is often raucous simply because it is a ritual.Some orphans, widows or unfortunate women and girls who live in hardship also regard this occasion as an opportunity to confide their troubles and pains to the dead.So this cry is very sincere and very touching.A daughter-in-law who lost her husband, who is required to live with her husband's family according to Chinese custom, would cry to her husband's spirit during a grave visit: "My dear husband, if you hadn't left me, my Life is not as bitter as it is now." Her vicious mother-in-law didn't like to hear this, but there was nothing she could do about it.

July 7th is the day when Cowherd and Weaver Girl meet. It is an important Valentine's Day, a festival to celebrate romantic love.Cowherd and Weaver Girl are two constellations separated by the Milky Way.Legend has it that Niulang is a handsome and hardworking boy, and Zhinu is a quiet girl who is good at needlework, until one day they met.At that moment, the Cowherd forgot to herd the cattle, and the Weaver Girl's heart flew out of the needle thread.Her golden robe was thus incomplete.The Jade Emperor soon discovered why, and in a fit of rage he ordered the lovers to be separated and never to see each other except on July 7th of the year.

For a whole year, boys and girls have to endure the loneliness and loneliness of separation. They spend their days like years, waiting for the day when they meet in a year, waiting for this one night that really belongs to love among all the nights.The magpies witnessed all this and were deeply moved by the grievances of the lovers, so they took stones from their nests and built a bridge over the Milky Way (the River of Paradise), so that the two lovers could meet each other in July. When the day comes on the 7th, we will meet at Magpie Bridge. This festival is especially special for women and young girls who, locked in their boudoirs in olden times, do not see a smile on their faces at the mention of this festival because the legend symbolizes their repressed love.In ancient times, this festival was only celebrated by unmarried girls and boys.Boys and girls in costumes decorated with red silk come to open places, and if a magpie chirps above their heads, it is considered a good omen of love.Sometimes there are competitions for girls to sew in the moonlight.It's also a good sign if they succeed.

It is purely by chance that Zhu Pin caught up with the Yulan Basin Festival (also known as "Hungry Ghost Festival" or "Ghost Festival"). This is a Buddhist festival, usually in mid-July, for those who died in foreign countries without carrying out a decent ritual. A prayer for the buried person.There are no annual grave offerings for these souls.Offerings are placed in open spaces during Obon festivals, sometimes along busy streets.In some cities, the holiday is celebrated on the streets and employees of shops also have a day off. The unnamed lover's tomb is in the far southwest corner of the outer city, and now Beijingers like to go there for trysts.For some reason, this unmarked tomb has attracted many literati.It is said that a beautiful woman who committed suicide is buried here, and her mother ruined her love.Due to the long history, the epitaph has long since fallen off: her name and the date of her life cannot be verified.The tomb is by a desolate pond, covered with grass and shrubs, no one cares about it, let it go.But on All Souls' Day many people especially young lovers bring theirs.I wish to come to the tomb of Wuming and express my deep respect to the sweet love of Wuming hundreds of years ago.The most famous is the poem engraved on it, which should be written by the girl's lover, and the poem is still faintly visible.The beginning of the poem is full of infinite sadness: the world is like a sea of ​​sorrow, and life has countless grievances.The short song is swallowed, and the full moon is incomplete.

Poetry contains a great tragedy: the tragedy of two lovers long ago, whose names are unknown, but whose story is closely related to everyone. Some visitors bring picnic baskets for lunch here.The setting sun is reflected in the calm waters of the shrub-covered ponds, crows cry in the air, fruit offerings for the dead are laid out, and paper money is burned.Sometimes a bunch of bonfires are lit, and as night falls, people sit and watch the bonfires, praying silently and slowly flying into the sky with the light smoke.The moon is out, and another couple may be on the way.The ashes are churning, and the flames will flicker.The lovers are either silent or whispering, sitting in the bright moonlight world, immersed in the beautiful scenery.In the distance - in the country and nearby villages, or by the roadside - the same fire lights up the night.This is the most moving and lonely scene that Zhu Pin has ever seen.

The next month is the Mid-Autumn Festival.In Chinese minds, this word means Mid-Autumn Festival.In the past few weeks, Zhu Pin has eaten too many mooncakes.An aunt in his club opened a shop, and the mooncakes made here are the same as those made in Guangzhou.These mooncakes are round and filled with Wangyou fruit, mung bean paste or sweet rice dumplings in the center.Mooncakes come in different sizes, the largest being ten inches in diameter, and they are named after the country's different levels of examination.In ancient times, people looked forward to seeing who would get the biggest moon cake, just like seeing who got the first in the national examination. Mid-Autumn Festival is an important day of gathering and celebration.A grand luncheon was held in the clubhouse, and it was at the luncheon that Zhu Pin met Mr. Zhu, an important member of the Kuomintang government.Mr Zhu was educated in England and always wears a suit in public.He was the most distinguished member of the Guangdong Club in Beijing, but he was not given the most honorable seat in the meeting.Seats are arranged according to seniority, an uncle in his seventies sits at the top, the uncle is arranged to sit in the most honorable position, and Mr. Zhu sits next to him. Mr. Zhu and Zhu Pin hit it off right away. Seeing the young student leave his hometown, Mr. Zhu invited Zhu Pin to his house.Zhu Pin said that it was a great honor to know such an outstanding uncle from his hometown.When Mr. Zhu was about to leave, he invited Zhu Pin again.Little did Zhu Pin expect that what he would see was one of the oldest and wealthiest families in Beijing.