1. Kill the Year Pig
Tujia people have always had the tradition of feeding the Year Pig, and it is the time to kill the Year Pig in the twelfth lunar month. Killing the pig can not only lead a good year, but also ensure eating meat all year round. Whose young pig killed several heads and killed many times, which is also a symbol of the disparity between the rich and the poor. Killing pigs depends on the date, and must not conflict with the family's genus, otherwise it will be considered bad for the family. For example, there are dogs, tigers and chickens in the family, and the day of killing pigs cannot be one of these genera. Look forward to the day and then ask the butcher, but also ask the men with strong neighbors to help, and then pay the butcher the knife-edge money according to the number of heads.
As the saying goes, "The frog eats and jumps, and the pig barks", and the pork that has not been drained is the best. On this day, the host family will invite people and close relatives and friends to have a "bubble bath" banquet. After a ruined banquet, all the remaining meat was made into bacon. The custom of curing bacon by Tujia people is also related to the humid climate in mountainous areas. After smoking, it is easy to preserve, and the meat looks good. When stewed and fried in a pot, the fragrance floats for several miles.
2. Busy year
On the twentieth side of the twelfth lunar month, Tujia people in Enshi began to be busy with the Spring Festival. Housewives are busy baking bean skins, making fermented glutinous rice, beating tofu and pushing glutinous rice balls. Whether a wife can do it depends on whether she can cook good tea and rice. Playing Ciba is a technical activity, but also a physical activity, which requires the participation of men who can do Ciba and have greater strength.
Bean skin, fermented glutinous rice, tofu, glutinous rice balls, and Ciba are all made from our own grain. As long as people are diligent and capable, they don't have to worry about nothing. In addition, we have to go to the market to buy something to celebrate the New Year. I'm going to send a few samples for the New Year. Being a family member is already cost-effective. I know what to buy. Candy, cakes, noodles, wine and other new year's greetings must be bought. Picture a lively and festive fireworks, incense wax paper for sacrifice must be bought. Those with better conditions will also buy some dry goods and fresh vegetables that are not available at home, and then buy some new clothes for the old and young at home. Whether the new year's goods are prepared adequately or not can show whether a family is rich or not.
3. celebrate the off-year
Tujia people in Enshi have the custom of celebrating off-year and offering sacrifices to the kitchen god on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month. When the kitchen stove is delivered, in order to make the kitchen god say something nice to heaven, people worship him with gum candy and stick his teeth so that he can't talk nonsense. Or smear the kitchen door with alcohol, so that the kitchen god can't talk nonsense. On new year's eve, bring back the kitchen god.
Tujia people believe that there are gods three feet above their heads, and they feel that they have eyes watching everything, that is, "people are doing, and the sky is watching". If you have awe in your heart, you will inevitably master the sense of proportion. This is actually a good self-discipline.
According to folklore, this day is the day when mice marry girls, and the mice can't care about the grain in the granary, so they hide one by one. It is rare for the host family to take a day off without fighting with rats, just having time to clean the house. This kind of fine work undoubtedly falls on the wives. First of all, set up a long ladder and use a long broom to clean the sun dust on the roof beam, mainly the stove house and the fire pit house, which is a masterpiece left by smoky fire. When cleaning, wear a straw hat or a headscarf on your head to prevent the sun dust from falling on your hair. Then, clean the cobwebs and sundries in the house, sweep the ground and clean the furniture. Later, the bedding on the bed will be removed and washed clean. The men cleaned the weeds in front of and behind the house. After a busy time, it was refreshing inside and outside.
3. Tujia New Year
Tujia people in Enshi have the custom of having a reunion dinner on the first day of New Year's Eve, which is also called celebrating the New Year. Legend has it that during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, Tujia soldiers were ordered to go out to crusade against the enemy. In order to smash the enemy's plot to sneak attack during the New Year, they had a reunion dinner one day in advance and suddenly launched an attack the next day, defeating the enemy. In order to commemorate the victory against Japan, the custom of Tujia people celebrating the New Year one day in advance has been inherited since then. The history of Tujia people's struggle for the survival and development of the nation and for resisting aggression has been passed down through such a festival folk custom, which is epic and plays an important role in establishing national self-esteem, enhancing national pride and national cohesion.
Now, it's usually on New Year's Eve to have a reunion dinner. For older families, group tours began on the 28th of the twelfth lunar month and lasted until New Year's Eve. The food in the League Year is very rich, so there should be leftovers. In some families, stewed hooves, stewed pig's head meat and steamed New Year's rice will be eaten until the fifteenth day of the first month. Some people intend to sprinkle a handful of millet in previous years' meals, and when they eat New Year's dinner, the children at home say "a lot of millet" for good luck. There must be a fish in the dish of the Year of the Communist Youth League, so as to make it "more than every year" lucky. It is a true portrayal of Tujia people's yearning for a better life to seek good luck.
set off firecrackers before the reunion dinner. As long as you hear whose firecrackers are ringing, you can conclude that this family is in the League Year. In recent years, the whip has been banned, and this link has been reduced. If you are in the countryside far away from the city, the firecrackers in the Year of the Communist Youth League will crackle one after another, and the usually cold and quiet countryside will suddenly come alive. Then, the ceremony of "calling ancestors" was held, that is, the ancestors were invited to go home for the New Year. This ceremony was completed by the head of the family. First, put a few cups, bowls and chopsticks on the table, order some food from the bowl, add some rice, put chopsticks on the edge of the bowl (usually taboo), pour some wine in the cups, call them one by one, then start burning paper, then pour the wine on the ground, and finally pour some tea on the ground. In the process of calling ancestors, we should talk to our ancestors as if they were alive, but we can't see them through a barrier. At the end of the ceremony, the whole family goes to the table for the New Year. Unless there are special circumstances, no one can be less, which means that the whole family is round and harmonious.
After the reunion dinner, men put up couplets and hang lanterns. The women carried the clothes that their families had bathed and changed that day to the place where running water was used for starching. When it gets dark, family members lead their children and grandchildren to worship their ancestors' graves, lighting incense sticks, burning paper, setting off firecrackers and kowtowing. Sacrifice is to make the younger generations remember their ancestors and inherit the fine traditions and precious spiritual wealth of their ancestors.
In the evening, the family sat on the kang or brazier, chatting and laughing, enjoying themselves. The old man with a story set up a dragon gate array, and the children opened their eyes one by one. It was really unbearable for adults to sleep in their arms. This is called "shou sui". Those who can stay up all night.
On the first day of the first month of the first month, just before dawn, the man in charge got up early in the morning to set off firecrackers and carry water for the seedlings. Whoever gets up early means who is diligent. On this day, all ages are not allowed to sleep late, and the sleepy children are forced to be woken up by their parents. The purpose of doing this is to warn family members not to be lazy, and hard work can make them rich.
4. New Year greetings
The custom of New Year greetings of Tujia people in Enshi is different in six counties and two cities in Quanzhou. Some places worship their clansmen years ago and their husbands years later. In some places, they don't go out on the first day and the second day, and they worship their husbands on the third day and the fourth day. In some places, there is also a saying that it is not too late to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival.
Generally speaking, younger generations pay New Year greetings to their elders, and peers and friends pay New Year greetings to each other. In New Year's greetings, Baba is indispensable, followed by noodles, sugar and wine. The number and thickness of samples show the weight of the relationship. Married girls have to carry a hoof when they return to their parents' home to pay New Year's greetings. If the hoof is small, or there is no back, it means that the girl's life is not very good. The elders don't pay New Year greetings to the younger generation, but only return gifts or give their children lucky money.
New Year's greetings are the best time for interpersonal communication. By walking around each other, we can not only connect feelings and achieve the goal of harmony, but also pass on information to each other, and maybe we can find career opportunities from them.
5. New Year's Entertainment Activities
Tujia people in Enshi can't celebrate the New Year without group entertainment. From towns to villages, the masses have a high degree of participation, mainly playing with dragon lanterns, lions, rowing lotus boats, playing the ring and playing tricks.
the more distinctive thing is to drive the dogs on the fifteenth day of the first month. Maogouzi (commonly known as the fox) likes to steal chickens, so he must be driven away. First make torches from bamboo tubes or candles from Muzi oil for later use, then cut branches to build a shed, put in grass-tied dogs, and pile up unbroken bamboo tubes and artillery leaves (see the fire bubbling and popping). When it gets dark, all the men, women and children go out, insert lighted torches and candles on the side of the house and the roadside, and then burn the dog shed. The crowd here makes a "oh-ho" sound, and the crowd over there shouts "Drive the dog away!" At this time, the mountains and plains were ablaze with flames and shouts, which were deafening and lively.
Interesting folk entertainment requires close cooperation among participants, which harmonizes the neighborhood. What barriers exist at ordinary times will be eliminated by participating in such activities.
With the development of the times and the progress of civilization, some traditional folk culture has disappeared. Disappear because there is no need to exist. For example, offering sacrifices to the kitchen god and the door god. Through decades of reform and opening up, the Tujia people's ideas have changed greatly. They think that relying on God is unreliable, relying on * * * to produce the party and relying on themselves is reliable. Some customs disappear because the objective object disappears, so there is no need to exist. For example, drive a dog. Since the mid-197s, the fur dog disappeared, so there is no need to keep the custom of "chasing the fur dog". Although some customs have been handed down, they have been simplified. For example, during the New Year's greetings, people used to pick or carry things, no matter how far away. Later, it was changed to money, and then nothing was brought, just a mouth, and the family played for one day.
the birth or disappearance of any kind of cultural phenomenon has both historical inevitability and realistic objectivity. Only when it can be closely linked with people's lives can it have vitality and be easily followed and passed on.