Spring Festival, commonly known as "Chinese New Year", is the most important traditional festival among the people, and the time is from the first day to the third day of the first lunar month. Just after midnight on New Year's Eve, every household burns incense and sets off fireworks.
In Huda Town, Minhou County, during the New Year, relatives and friends will sit around a table to catch up and hold a "mobile banquet". In the corner of your yard, you greet your relatives and friends, sit around, eat, drink and talk about music. This is the most authentic hometown flavor!
On the first day, everyone got up early, dressed in new clothes, and the younger generation paid New Year greetings to their elders. In the past, there was a custom of offering sacrifices. Some people eat vegetarian dishes to show their piety and respect for God.
Lantern Festival: Greeting God
The fifteenth day of the first lunar month is a traditional folk Lantern Festival, formerly known as Shangyuan Lantern Festival. Minhou Festival lasts from 1 1 day in the first month to1day. The old days were also the most prosperous period of folk activities of "welcoming God".
On the first 1 1 day of the first month, it is called "color festival". In the evening, the children began to play with lanterns, commonly known as "welcome lights". On the Lantern Festival, various clans hold sacrificial activities in ancestral temples and family temples.
Let the guests leave: Shadi Village is more unique. At the banquet, if someone outside shoots in to congratulate, the guests who come first will leave, let the guests behind set up the banquet, and those who leave will go to other happy relatives and friends' houses to congratulate, and the banquet will last until dawn.
Obsession 9: Cooking porridge
Although this glutinous rice sweet porridge is ugly, its taste is absolutely outrageous! The 29th day of the first lunar month, commonly known as "Aojiu Festival", is also called "Houjiu Festival" or "Filial Piety Festival". On this day's breakfast, we cooked glutinous rice porridge with peanuts, red dates, longan meat and other condiments and recommended it to our ancestors. On this day, the married daughter will send the sugar porridge back to her family to honor her parents.
Qingming: Steamed fruit
On that day, every household in the folk steamed "pineapple fruit" (also called Qingming fruit). On this day, everyone worships their ancestors together. When you come back, break a pine branch and put it on the door or sacred table to show that you can bring back the soul of your ancestors. This custom is still very common.
Making summer: frying "summer cakes"
On the day of "Long Summer". Everyone fried "summer cake", cooked "bowl cake" and cooked "fixed edge paste". This custom is still popular among people.
Dragon Boat Festival: Minjiang River Boat Race
The Dragon Boat Festival is from the first day to the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, also known as the Five-Day Festival. On holidays, every family inserts Aipu, makes zongzi, drinks realgar wine and orders realgar wine. Children hang sachets. Wear a red Chinese corset and apply realgar to your mouth and nose to ward off evil spirits. Villages and towns along the Yangtze River have the custom of holding dragon boat races. Dragon boat training or preliminaries will be held on the first day, and races will be held on the Minjiang River or its tributaries on the fifth day.
Sending Festival: On the Dragon Boat Festival, there is also the custom of "sending Festival", that is, the married daughter uses pig's trotters and noodles as gifts to honor her parents. This custom is mainly popular in Jingxi, Shang Jie, Zhuqi, Baisha, Hongwei, Liyang, Hu Da, Tingping and other mountainous and semi-mountainous towns.
Tanabata: Divide beans
On the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, it is called "Chinese Valentine's Day", also known as "Begging for Qiaojie Festival". Tanabata is a unique custom in Fuzhou (including Minhou County). According to legend, during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the magistrate Ba Li popularized ridged beans, and the harvest before the festival was suitable. Farmers will fry the ridge beans and give them to relatives and friends to taste new ones, so as to promote harmony and friendship in the neighborhood, which is called "attached beans". This habit still exists in some areas.
Mid-Autumn Festival: Enjoy the moon and eat moon cakes.
August 15th of the lunar calendar is the Mid-Autumn Festival, also called Mid-Autumn Festival. On that day, every family prepared moon cakes, steamed cakes and fruits, and prepared a family banquet to celebrate the reunion. Relatives and friends feed each other moon cakes. In the old days, there was a folk custom of building a tile tower and burning firewood in it at night. This custom is not popular now, but it is still common to prepare family dinners, drink reunion wine, eat cakes and enjoy the moon.
Chongyang: climb high and taste cakes and fruits.
The ninth day of the ninth lunar month is called "Double Ninth Festival", because nine is the number of yang, and the ninth day of September is the weight of two yang, so it is called "Double Ninth Festival". In the old days, there was a folk custom of climbing to admire chrysanthemums and drinking and writing poems. Minhou people also have a special snack on this festival, called "Jiuzhong Fruit", also called "Gaodengguo". Some villages prepare feasts on this day, and some towns and villages also have the custom of offering sacrifices to sweep graves.
Solstice of winter: when rubbing rice
Also known as the Winter Festival and the eve of the Winter Festival, families sit around and light red candles and firecrackers. Breakfast in winter vacation is round and mixed with brown sugar, sesame seeds, peanut powder and bean paste, which is called "meal time". This habit is still widespread today.
Sacrifice to the kitchen god
December 24th of the lunar calendar is the day of "offering sacrifices to stoves". According to folklore, the Jade Emperor sent the Kitchen God down to earth to supervise the behavior of every household. Every year on the fourth day of the first lunar month,1February 24th was sent to heaven to leave a message. People hope that the kitchen god will say a good word when he leaves the sky, so he will make vegetarian sacrifices such as fruits, vegetarian dishes, kitchen candy and kitchen cakes every year, burn incense and set off firecrackers as a farewell dinner for the kitchen god and the kitchen god. Now, rural families still have a simple ceremony of offering sacrifices to the stove on this day.