Xiaoman solar term is tomorrow. As the second solar term in summer, Xiaoman will get hotter and hotter as soon as it passes. On such a summer day, people still don't forget to carry out the customary activities in Xiaoman season. What are the customs and activities in Xiaoman?
What are the activities of Xiaoman solar term
1、 Grab water
In the old days, the irrigation and drainage of waterwheel was a major event in the countryside. As the saying goes: 'Xiaoman moves three carts (three carts refer to silk carts, oil carts and waterwheel). 'the water wheel starts when it is full. Previously, farmers held a "water grabbing" ceremony with village polders as a unit. They were walking in the Haining area, which meant a drill.
Most of the elderly deacons gathered the families, set the date, and arranged for preparation. At dawn, they set out to light torches and eat wheat cakes, wheat cakes, and wheat balls on the base of the water tanker. When the deacons took the drum Gong as their name, they set foot on the water tanker installed in advance on xiaohehan. Dozens of them set foot together and poured the river water into the field until the river was bright.
2、 Sacrifice to the three gods
Xiaoman has a custom in our history called sacrificial three carts, which three carts are water carts, ox carts and silk carts.
What is the name of the God of water wheel? It is said that the God of water wheel is the white dragon. In front of the water wheel, the farmers set fish and incense on the base of the water wheel to worship. The special thing is that there is a cup of white water in the sacrifice, which is poured into the fields during the sacrifice. It means to wish the water source prosperous. The above old customs show that farmers attach importance to water conservancy and irrigation.
In the south of the Yangtze River, there is a saying that Xiaoman moves three cars. It is the image summary of Xiaoman farming in Jiangnan. The so-called "three carts" are water wheel, spinning wheel and oil wheel. In the agricultural proverb, people use "man" to refer to the abundance of rain. Xiaoman is the season for top dressing of early rice and transplanting of middle rice in the south of the Yangtze River. If the field is not full of water, it will cause the ridge of the field to dry and crack, which will affect the crop harvest.
Therefore, in dry years, people will consider early and arrange skillfully to drive the water truck to irrigate the paddy field with manpower or animal power. In the past, when walking along the edge of the paddy field in the remote ancient town of Jiangnan, we often saw buffaloes blindfolded, turning the wooden wheel of the water wheel to drive the keel water wheel to lift water, or walking with human feet alternately.
3、 Silkworm God's birthday
Xiaoman Festival is said to be the birthday of the silkworm God, so on this day, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, which are famous for sericulture, are also very busy. Xiaoman Festival is in the early summer. Cocoons are formed and are waiting to be picked for reeling. Planting mulberry and raising silkworms are traditional sidelines in rural areas in the south of the Yangtze River. The whole body of silkworms is a treasure and the source of household food for the villagers. People are full of expectation and gratitude for it. So this festival is full of strong silk folk customs.
According to records, in 1827, the Silk Industry Office of Shengze in the south of the Yangtze River built the xiancan temple, in which a theater building was specially built, and a box building (equivalent to the box of the theater) was set on the side of the building. The stone square under the stage can accommodate ten thousand people to watch the opera.
In the three days before and after Xiaoman's death, the Silk Industry Corporation funded the performance and invited each class to perform the grand drama. However, there was a taboo in the performance industry, that is, no drama with the plot of illegitimate children and dead people could be performed. Because 'private' and & lsquo; & lsquo; death 'were the homonym of' silk ', the performances in the three days were auspicious dramas repeatedly decided by the directors of the Silk Industry Corporation.
Introduction of Xiaoman activities and customs
4、 Eating bitter herbs
The spring wind blows, the bitter vegetables grow, and the wasteland is the granary. Bitter cabbage is one of the earliest edible wild vegetables in China. ZhouShu: a bitter dish show on the day of Xiaoman. "The book of songs": picking bitter, picking bitter, under the first Yang. It is said that in order to survive, Wang Baochuan once ate bitter vegetables in hanyao for 18 years. In the old society, every spring when the peasants were young and yellow, they relied on bitter vegetables to satisfy their hunger.
Bitter vegetables, with bitter taste, although the adverse mouth, better than jejunum. During the long march of that year, the Red Army used bitter vegetables to satisfy their hunger and overcome difficulties one by one. There was a song in Jiangxi Soviet Area: bitter vegetables, yellow flowers, wild vegetables and grain. The red army went to the battlefield and killed the enemy bravely to win the battle. Kucai is known as' Red Army dish 'and' Long March dish '.
Bitter herbs are all over the country. In medicine, they are called Patrinia villosa. In Ningxia, they are called bitter herbs. In Western Shaanxi, they are called bitter herbs. Li Shizhen calls them tianxiangcao. Mr. Nie Fengqiao, a famous Chinese gourmet, discovered the bitter cabbage with yellow flowers in Ningxia in 1958. It is called 'sweet bitter cabbage'. Its leaves are big, its stems are crisp, and its bitterness is sweet. It has many advantages compared with the common bitter herbs with blue flowers.
Bitter vegetables, bitter with astringent, astringent with sweet, fresh and refreshing, cool and tender fragrance, rich in nutrition, contains a variety of vitamins, minerals, choline, sugars, riboflavin and mannitol needed by the human body, with the functions of clearing heat, cooling blood and detoxification. Compendium of materia medica: if you take it for a long time, you will feel at ease, benefit Qi, lighten your body and endure aging. In medicine, bitter herbs were often used to treat febrile diseases, and the ancients also used them to sober up.
Ningxia people like to blanch bitter vegetables, cold wash cold mix, mix salt, vinegar, spicy oil or mashed garlic, cool spicy, eat steamed bread, rice, make people appetite. Yellow rice soup can also be used to pickle bitter vegetables into yellow, sour and sweet, crisp and refreshing. Some people also boil the bitter vegetables with boiling water, extrude the bitter juice, and use it to make soup, stuffing, hot frying and noodles, with different flavors.