From the perspective of festival folk customs, all important festivals of the Han nationality, such as New Year's Day, Yuanxiao, Qingming, Dragon Boat Festival, Chinese Valentine's Day, Bon Lan, Mid-Autumn Festival, Double Ninth Festival, Winter Solstice, New Year's Eve, New Year's Eve, etc., are also Luoding. The content and meaning of the important festivals are roughly the same. The only difference is the expression and content of life formed by the form, region, people's sentiments, living habits, etc. Of course, there are many variations in the inheritance.
The Menglan Festival, also known as the Ghost Festival, is called the "Ghost Festival" in various places in Lingnan and the "Ghost Festival" in Luoding. The Ghost Festival is celebrated on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month. According to the Buddhist Tripitaka, Mu Lian fell into the realm of hungry ghosts because of his mother, and the food turned into charcoal when entering his mouth. Mu Lian sought advice from the Buddha, and the Buddha ordered him to make a Ullambana basin with strange materials. The fruit and vegetables were placed on a plate as an offering to the Buddha, and then Maudgalyana's mother could eat. During the Hungry Ghost Festival in the north, which lasts for several days, Buddhist temples hold U-Olan festivals, and people hang money and paper on clothes and prepare vegetarian food to offer sacrifices to their ancestors. In Lingnan, July 14th is the Hungry Ghost Festival. It is said that at the end of the Song Dynasty, when people were preparing to celebrate the festival, Yuan soldiers suddenly invaded, so they had to sacrifice their ancestors one day in advance. Since then, people have become accustomed to celebrating July 14th. There is another saying in Luoding: People originally celebrated the festival on July 15th. On this day, the Yao people came down from the mountains and snatched the sacrificial food for the landowners in the field. Therefore, the festival was moved forward one day. Let the Yao people make a fuss and change the Hungry Ghost Festival to July 14th. On this day, in addition to worshiping ancestors, every family also burns incense and paper clothes in the corner of the field and makes road sacrifices to let the lonely ghosts have a good meal and seek peace between humans and ghosts, which is commonly known as "Shiyou".
In the north, cattle and sheep are used for sacrifices, and in Luoding, chickens are used for sacrifices. Most people use chickens and pork for sacrifices. The chicken should be cooked whole, chopped into small pieces after sacrifice, and seasoned with seasonings to make it taste delicious and smooth while maintaining the original flavor of the chicken. It is commonly known as "white-cut chicken". Because chickens have a grand meaning, in addition to offering sacrifices, chickens are also used to entertain guests. Therefore, there is a saying that "no feast can be complete without chickens."
The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on August 15th of the lunar calendar. Most places in Luoding celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15th, but there are also many places that celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 16th or August 14th. . It is said that because our ancestors made a living by carrying bridges (some people avoid saying that their ancestors carried bridges, so they said that their ancestors were officials and sat on bridges), because they returned home very late, every family opened a platform to worship the gods. But I didn't prepare anything (sacrifice), so I decided to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival on the 16th, which has been passed down to this day. As for celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 14, I don’t know why. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, every family worships the moonlight. It is also a fashionable custom in the village to invite the moonlight god. In the village, young and old, they sit around the "underground hall" in the dead of night, and one person prays to the god. It is said that the moonlight god can possess people, and the person who is possessed by them will do so. Then they play the role of the moon god, usually women, a bit like Western hypnosis. In addition, fire lanterns (Kongming lanterns) are also set off in the countryside, and young adults in the village form teams to compete for the landing of the Kongming lanterns. There is no terrain restriction when competing for Kongming Lanterns, so it is more spectacular than competing for fireworks.
The Yuanxiao Festival is very grand in the north. The Yuanxiao Festival is also known as the Lantern Festival and the Shangyuan Festival. It is a custom in Luoding, for example, if a male is added to the family, the lanterns will be lit on the second day of the first lunar month of the next year. The lanterns will be hung on the big tree in the village altar. The lanterns will be set on the 16th. When the lanterns are turned off, relatives will come to congratulate and watch the "spring lantern grabbing". If you grab the "Spring Lantern", you will have good luck.
A festival closely related to the Chinese New Year is the Winter Solstice. The winter solstice is one of the 24 solar terms in the lunar calendar and is of great significance in agricultural production. Since the sun shines toward the Tropic of Cancer on the winter solstice, it is the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. After the winter solstice, the daylight hours gradually lengthen and the weather changes. It is warm every day. As the saying goes, "the summer solstice is a yin birth, and the winter solstice is a yang birth." The weekly calendar uses the winter solstice as the first month, which is a certain day at the beginning of the year. In the minds of Luoding people, the winter solstice has the importance of celebrating the new year. There is even a saying that "winter is greater than the new year". In rural areas, the Winter Solstice is taken very seriously. Every family holds ancestor worship activities very seriously. They avoid taboos just like the Chinese New Year and like to seek good luck.
In terms of wedding customs, Luoding generally has the custom of weeping to marry. Generally, after the date of welcoming the new year is set, or half a month and a half, or three or five days before, the girl to be married will no longer appear outdoors and spend the whole day Stay at home and invite sisters who are usually friendly together to learn to sing wedding crying songs. Most of the crying weddings officially begin three days before the wedding. When crying weddings, you don't just cry, but cry in the form of songs. There are also different ways of crying when getting married.
One type has rhyme and no words, using the strength, length, and speed of the cry to create a rhythm and rhyme. There are also a few lyrics here and there to express a feeling of being married and reluctant to leave, which is called " "Singing for marriage" can express strong emotions and changeable circumstances. This kind of "crying for marriage" is more joyful than sorrowful, and there will often be scenes of crying and laughter. The other is a real crying marriage. Crying to marry is originally a form that has been passed down from generation to generation. If you do not cry or sing, it is not in line with the "ritual" abnormality. Ordinary rural women are accustomed to the autocratic nature of marriage and regard it as the norm. They are neither happy nor disgusted with getting married. They believe that crying at marriage is something they must do before getting married, so they follow the steps and follow the instructions of their mothers from generation to generation. According to legend, the singing method, crying method and fixed lyrics must be sung for three days in a row, which is commonly known as "singing words". There is a sung version of the word song, but the bride knows nothing about her future destiny, and is filled with ambivalent feelings of sorrow, fear, and hesitation. Therefore, whenever she sings a wedding song, she cannot help but express her true feelings, crying for her parents, brothers, sister-in-law, and sisters. , cry for neighbors, and even lose control of it, cry for dowry, cry on the bridge, when the emotion is uncontrollable, they will cry long and sigh, making the listeners sympathize, and cry with them, making the original life The lively scenes of festive events are often made miserable by the sound of crying. The third type is scolding for marriage. Because they were dissatisfied with the arranged marriage and could not get rid of the sadness, resentment, and pain accumulated in their hearts, they had nowhere to complain or vent, so they vented their anger through crying marriage. The way of scolding in marriage is also a conventional custom. A girl to be married has the right to choose the method of scolding her parents, brother and sister-in-law, or the matchmaker. There is nothing wrong with it. The person being scolded must not express dissatisfaction. What's more, You can't talk back. The more vicious the scolding, the better the luck. The custom of crying in marriage gradually disappeared as marriage became more independent and enlightened.
Weddings and funerals are called weddings and funerals. Weddings are meant to be joyful, but they are made sad, while funerals are meant to be tragic to express grief, but they are made sad. The funeral customs in Luoding are lively and lively. Luoding's funeral customs like to clear the way with drums and music, blowing and beating, and the funeral procession blasts firecrackers. The more firecrackers burned, the more glorious the funeral is. Therefore, you can see the ground covered with red during the funeral.
The "three-year-old betrothal" is a custom that is different from that of child brides. Generally, when the child is three years old, the parents exchange their marriage certificates and the marriage contract is concluded. After that, if the woman dies before the wedding, the man must place her on the memorial tablet. She was brought back to the ancestral hall to be worshiped, and her grave was also visited by descendants of the husband's family. After that, if the man marries again, he can only be counted as a stepmother.
Although Luoding customs are dominated by Han culture, customs alienated by ethnic minorities are still very prominent in various rural areas. Generally, the status of women in Han people is low, and it is very common for men to be superior to women. In the rural areas of Luoding, uncle Quan's status and authority are greatly respected. There is a popular saying in the countryside: "Thunder God in the sky, uncle in the ground". Uncles have the right to intervene in all matters involving a nephew, no matter how big or small. For example, the uncle has the right to intervene in the nephew's marriage, family separation, divorce, parents' funeral, etc., such as the separation of brothers, the village chief has no right to intervene, but the uncle Then you can preside over the arbitral tribunal. This phenomenon of special maternal authority is obviously the remnant and tortuous reflection of maternal power during the matrilineal clan commune period. It originated from ancient Guangdong folk customs. The Zhuang people in Guangxi still retain this maternal lineage with special maternal authority. Remnants of clan communes.
“Building trees” and “Stones” are polytheistic worship customs with strong primitive religious colors. The people still retain the primitive religious customs of believing in witches and ghosts, and blindly believing in polytheism and divination. In addition to worshiping their ancestors, people also worship a variety of self-created gods, such as huge rocks on the mountain, big trees on the roadside, and even crawling insects, snakes, birds and beasts, and steep mountains. They can all be named with different powers at will. Or the spiritual god who acts, sincerely bow and bow. There are also many taboos in daily life. In rural areas, when a child is born, one has to find a big tree or boulder to "sign a deed". All matters related to the child, big or small, must be burned incense to the "deed master" or "deed mother". This kind of "deed to the big tree" or "deed to the stone" is a polytheistic worship custom left over from the ancient Guangdong people. It is a primitive religious concept passed down from generation to generation.