The first day of the first lunar month is the Spring Festival. The day before the Spring Festival is called "New Year's Eve" and "New Year's Eve". Folk slaughter the fattest chicken, stir-fry traditional dishes such as braised pork, barbecued pork and hibiscus meat, prepare a sumptuous dinner, have a family reunion and celebrate drinking. Every household puts up couplets, door gods and market money. In the evening, the whole family, old and young, chat and play under the ever-burning lamp, which is called "Shousui", and some of them stay up all night. At dawn, every household went to the hall to burn incense, set off firecrackers and set off fireworks. Men, women and children all put on new clothes and were beaming. The younger generation greeted their elders in turn with "Happy New Year" and wished them such auspicious words as "Congratulations on getting rich" and "Longevity". The elders give their children "lucky money" at the interest rate, wishing the younger generation "wisdom" and "all the best". On this day, no killing, no treat, no production. From the second day of the Lunar New Year, friends and relatives exchanged greetings and entertained guests with wine and meat for several days. I don't sweep the floor on the second day of the first grade, and I didn't sweep out the "poor ghost" (garbage) until the "poor ghost day" on the third grade. While sweeping, I dictated: "Poor ghosts come out, and wealth comes." Some places don't sweep the floor until the seventh day.
The fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the Lantern Festival. Every household lights lanterns in front of the door at midnight snack, and lanterns of all sizes are hung on various social altars. This lantern was given by the person who married in the first year. Beggars go to the altar in the middle of the night to steal lanterns, burn incense and make a wish to the country gods. At that time, they will give them back to God. On this day, every household will kill chickens and burn "finished lantern" paper to sacrifice to gods and ancestors. That night, people went to the wild vegetable field and picked several bags of vegetables from others, which was called "stealing green" and heralded a good sign. In Shahe, Dungu and other places, in addition to stealing green, there are people rolling on the ground planted with green hemp: they think green hemp can cure low back pain. These bad habits are gradually disappearing now.
On this day in Tomb-Sweeping Day, every household in urban and rural areas buys pork, wine, kills chickens and geese, cooks glutinous rice, prepares incense paper and other sacrifices, burns incense in front of ancestral graves, uproots weeds around the graves, puts a shovel of new soil on the top of the graves, and puts white paper on them. Some villages that talk about the old saying cut a branch, put a note on it and put it on the top of the grave, which is called "hanging paper". Since liberation, in Tomb-Sweeping Day, government officials, school teachers and students have paid tribute to the graves of revolutionary martyrs with wreaths or flowers to express their grief. In recent years, the custom of sweeping graves has become popular again, and some cadres and workers working in other places and compatriots from Hong Kong and Macao have also returned to their hometowns to sweep graves.
On the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, that is, the Dragon Boat Festival, every household should insert mugwort and calamus and eat zongzi. Children in Shahe and Dungu go to the river to "row dragon boats". Eating zongzi is related to mourning Qu Yuan, and this custom has been passed down to this day.
Mid-Autumn Festival is commonly known as "July 14th Festival". Customs are similar everywhere. Generally speaking, people who speak Xinmin dialect only celebrate for one day (14), and people who speak old dialect celebrate for two days (14, 15). Every morning, at noon and at night, we worship our ancestors three times, cut clothes with blue, green, black and white paper, and burn gold ingots and paper money. Before the festival, the shepherd boy made a flute with a bamboo tail, commonly known as "Dunankuo", playing a bleak tone and calling his ancestors home for the festival. Therefore, the masses call Mid-Autumn Festival "Ghost Festival". This custom continues to this day, but it is simpler than in the past, and many villages have disappeared.
On the evening of the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, people decorate moon cakes, fruits and taro. Burn incense and enjoy the moon for the moon fairy in front of your house or in the courtyard. In recent years, county residents and some families have brought moon cakes, fruits, soda and tape recorders and players to enjoy the moon in parks or suburbs.
The Double Ninth Festival is on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month. There is a custom of sweeping graves in rural areas. Like Tomb-Sweeping Day, we sweep our ancestors' graves, but some villages in Chengxiang, Longping, Yashan, Shuiming and Italy sweep their graves in October of the lunar calendar.
On the solstice of winter, many people like to eat glutinous rice flour, pork, salted fish and garlic, and knead them into balls for cooking, which is called "falling into jiaozi". Some people give it as a gift to relatives in the province. There is no such custom in Xintian and Matian.
Before the liberation of Kitchen God's Day, every kitchen had a "Kitchen God's Seat" with couplets on both sides, such as "Virtue can control fire and selflessness can reach heaven". Every New Year's Day, when offering sacrifices to the gods and ancestors, we should also worship the "Kitchen God". The 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month is Kitchen God's Day every year. It is said that the kitchen god plays things in the sky, and people must worship the kitchen god and pray for the happiness and well-being of the whole family. After the festival, the farmers cleaned up and prepared to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. This custom has been passed down to this day.