Return To 1977 Chapter 473: May Day
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Wednesday, May 30, 1979.
This day is the fifth day of the fifth lunar month and is the traditional folk festival "Dragon Boat Festival" in my country.
The original name of "Dragon Boat Festival" is "Dragon Boat Festival", which began in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. It is said that because Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty was born on the fifth day of August, in order to avoid the taboo of the word "five", "Duanwu" was changed to "Dragon Boat Festival".
This festival can be said to be the festival with the most names in our country. According to statistics, there are more than 20 aliases recorded in history.
For example, "Duanyang Festival", "Chongwu Festival", "Chongwu Festival", "Tianzhong Festival" and "Tianchang Festival". In the Ming Dynasty, it was also called "May Festival" and "Girl's Day". In history, there were also names such as "Bath Orchid Festival", "Di La Festival", "Won Festival", "Health Festival", "Poet's Festival" and so on. .
People in the old capital continued the Ming Dynasty's custom and commonly called it "May Day".
As for the origin of this festival, people today generally say that it is to commemorate the great poet Qu Yuan.
But this statement is not accurate.
Because just from the many holiday aliases listed above, it is not difficult to see that the activities of the "Dragon Boat Festival" are quite complex.
In fact, there are great differences between the north and the south, and each place has different forms of sacrifice and celebration. Similar to "Dragon Boat Race", "Calling the Soul of Qu Zi", etc., they are only local activities.
And speaking from historical allusions, the "Dragon Boat Festival" is not only to commemorate Qu Yuan, but also to commemorate Wu Zixu, Gou Jian, Cao E, etc.
Going back to its origins, it should be said that the original intention of this festival is that before the intense heat comes, people hold a series of sacrifices and prayer activities to ward off plague, poison, evil spirits and disasters. It is a comprehensive folk festival across the country.
This is also the commonality of traditional festivals in our country for thousands of years. Every traditional festival expresses people's yearning and hope for peace and happiness. Talents form spontaneously and are passed down from generation to generation.
Taking the way of celebrating festivals in the old capital as an example, the "Dragon Boat Festival" definitely lives up to its name as one of the three traditional festivals alongside the "Spring Festival" and "Mid-Autumn Festival". Because just counting the time, it will be noisy from the first day of May to the fifth day of May.
Basically every family, starting from the beginning of May, will post "Zhong Kui's Picture of Driving Ghosts" and "Zhang Tianshi's Picture of Driving Five Poisons" around the house.
Some people also cut gourd flowers, paper tigers or scorpions, snakes, centipedes, toads, geckos and other simple five poison patterns out of red paper. They are lined with white paper and pasted on the lintel together with the Tianshi Talisman and Zhong Kui picture. . It is said to be able to drive away demons and avoid evil spirits.
Changpu and mugwort leaves should be hung on the courtyard gate. Pu leaf is shaped like a sword, which is called Pujian. It is a sharp weapon to ward off evil spirits. The aroma of mugwort leaves is fragrant. Cut and braided into moxa tiger, it can remove impurities.
At the same time, offerings should be made to the Buddha. Starting from the morning of the first day of May, incense and candles are burned and three halls are set up for offerings, including three to five bowls of rice dumplings, three to five bowls of Wudu cakes, and one plate each of cherries, black mulberries, and white mulberries. Burn incense and kneel down every day without interruption. Contributions cannot be withdrawn until noon of the Dragon Boat Festival.
In terms of accessories, the women in the family wear red velvet "lucky flowers" on their heads, and the eldest girls who have not left the palace wear "pomegranate flowers" on their heads. In addition, small tigers, gourds, cherries, mulberries, melons, beans, onions, and garlic should be made from colorful silk ribbons. They should be threaded with colorful threads and tied to the child's hairpin, back, or chest.
The little girls also folded cardboard strips into diamond-shaped "browns", wrapped them with colorful silk threads, and wore them on their bodies.
The above are commonly known as "gourd", "life-extending thread" and "long-life thread". At the latest, on the sixth day of May, when the east turns white, it must be picked off, along with the paper-cut gourd affixed to the lintel, and thrown outside the door, which is called "throwing away disasters."
Only disasters are thrown away. Only after the May Festival can disasters and troubles be eliminated, poisons and evils can be eliminated, and it will be safe until next year's Dragon Boat Festival.
On the fifth day of May, there are some other specialties.
In addition to drinking realgar wine, eating five poisonous cakes, mung bean cakes, rice dumplings, mulberries, etc., people also use realgar wine to write the word "王" on boys' foreheads and wear "tiger charms" on boys. Married girls must go back to their parents' home on this day to celebrate the festival, which is called "hiding from the Dragon Boat Festival".
Finally, it’s all about entertainment. On that day, all the theaters in the city will perform festival plays, such as "Hunyuan Box", "The Legend of Five Poisons" and "Water Flooding the Golden Mountain". There is also a saying of "Xiyou avoids disasters".
On the morning of the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, ordinary people in old Beijing will go to the "Temple of Heaven" in groups, which is called "avoiding poison".
The Temple of Heaven is a holy place for praying for good luck and a scenic spot. It relies on the power of the gods to avoid poisonous diseases and can also have fun. It really kills two birds with one stone.
After the afternoon, people often continue to the "Goldfish Pond", or to the "Gaoliang Bridge", "Manjing", "Caoqiao" and "Jishuitan" to "drink and swim". Sitting on the ground is very much like a Western picnic, and people often don’t return home until the evening.
It’s just that this way of celebrating festivals that has been inherited for thousands of years finally came to an abrupt end after the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
As the new society got rid of feudal superstition through changing customs and "breaking the four olds" movement, at the same time with the rise of modern festivals such as New Year's Day, Women's Day, Labor Day, Youth Day, Children's Day, and National Day.
Soon, not only the "Dragon Boat Festival" disappeared, but also the "Qingming Festival", "Double Ninth Festival", "Qiao Qiao Festival", "Little New Year", "Shangyuan Festival" and "Hungry Ghost Festival". , "Xiayuan Festival" and so on. Only the "Spring Festival" and "Mid-Autumn Festival" have been retained.
This phenomenon does not actually mean that modern festivals are superior to traditional festivals and can completely replace our nation’s traditional festivals. Rather, it should be said that when going through a special stage of society, people are forced to make a helpless choice based on reality.
After all, festivals require money to support them. But for the living standards of most people in our country, traditional festivals are expensive and involve many things, and are far less trouble-free and cost-effective than commemorative modern festivals.
Besides, the country has a clear policy preference. Not only does it not give holidays for traditional holidays, it even cancels the original holiday of the Spring Festival. However, there are holidays on New Year's Day, Labor Day, and National Day.
In this comparison, transmission festivals and modern festivals are comparable even in time management. The overall victory of modern festivals is inevitable.
But the opposite is also true. Once people's living conditions improve, the economic level improves, and working hours shorten. The monotonous commemoration and celebration methods of these modern festivals cannot satisfy people's desire for celebration and their need for richness in life.
The profound cultural connotations and colorful celebration methods of traditional festivals will be remembered again and return to people's lives.
This is the case for the Hong family this year. It can be said that the Hong family has had many happy events this year. After the whole family was rehabilitated, both Hong Lucheng and Wang Yunlin received retirement benefits, and their old house and savings were returned. They really have leisure and money.
The most important thing is that the son Hong Yanwu is increasingly reassuring his parents. Not only is everything done beautifully, but the reputation among neighbors is also getting better and better. Now I have a beautiful partner, and my wedding is scheduled for next year.
This made Wang Yunlin unable to control the joy in her heart, so she naturally wanted to find an opportunity to bring the whole family together to have a good time.
In fact, in mid-May of the Gregorian calendar, she happened to see farmers on the outskirts of Beijing secretly selling reed leaves and horsegrass, and she became interested. I quickly bought a lot of money, and then went to the market to find good Jiangmi and Miyun jujubes.
So after several transactions that were either legal or somewhat illegal, she gathered together the ingredients to make the rice dumplings and opened them at home.
In terms of taste, the zongzi fillings are both meat and vegetable, sweet and salty. Zongzi in the north are mainly sweet, while those in the south are less sweet and more salty. The content of the materials is the part that best highlights the local characteristics.
In the past, during the solar terms, "Daoxiang Village" and "Wufangzhai" in Beijing would sell rice dumplings with fillings such as eight-treasure rice dumplings, chicken rice dumplings, ham rice dumplings, fresh meat rice dumplings, etc., but these were basically prepared for southerners.
People in Beijing only eat three kinds of traditional rice dumplings.
One is pure rice dumplings. White rice dumplings made purely from glutinous rice, steamed and eaten with sugar. The other type is jujube rice dumplings, the fillings are mainly jujubes and preserved fruits. The third type is bean paste rice dumplings.
In addition, a kind of rice dumplings using yellow rice instead of glutinous rice is also popular among the people in the capital.
The filling is made of red dates. After steaming, you will see bright red dates embedded in the yellow glutinous rice. Some people euphemistically call it "gold-wrapped agate".
But in fact, it has a nice name. The reason why yellow rice and jujube rice dumplings are popular is that they are cheaper than glutinous rice rice dumplings. According to the concept of old Beijing people, this kind of rice dumplings are eaten by "Xiali people".
So Wang Yunlin only made glutinous rice dumplings, pure rice dumplings, jujube dumplings, and bean filling dumplings, which totaled more than one hundred and twenty.
Before the festival, three neighbors each gave away twenty of these rice dumplings, and Hong Yanwen, who was in college, took ten away. He also asked Hong Yanwu to send ten to "Tang Xin'er". The rest are kept at home for personal use, most of which are pure rice dumplings.
Hong Yanwu also jokingly called his mother "high style" for this, but he only understood the truth once he tasted it.
The pure rice dumplings left by Wang Yunlin are not ordinary, but are soaked in cheese overnight and then cooked. Eat it dipped in osmanthus juice and rose juice, it's delicious.
According to Wang Yunlin, this is a Qing palace practice, called "milk (zi) rice dumplings". On the market in Beijing, only the "Beihai Fangshan" from the Republic of China period has been sold a few times.
After wrapping the rice dumplings, it’s time to wait for the day of the Dragon Boat Festival, when the whole family goes home for dinner.
Wang Yunlin regretted that it was not a weekend, otherwise according to her opinion, it would be best for the whole family to go on a trip together. But she didn't expect that as soon as her idea came to light, she asked Hong Yanwu, who came back to get the rice dumplings, to deal with it.
What was Hong Yanwu’s idea? The whole family is going to the old house to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival.
As of now, the "flower hall and courtyard" of the old house have been almost tidied up. Now Mr. Shan and his people are busy cleaning up the two courtyards where Hong Yanwu's grandfather and uncle once lived.
The "Huatingyuan" is also connected to the Hong family's garden. Isn't that very cheap?
After hearing this, Wang Yunlin went to the old house to take a look. Her son was right, and it was even fully habitable.
In this case, this matter will be settled when we come back. Wang Yunlin informed the whole family that they would go to their old house to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival.