Breaking five and returning to the ban festival

 

Breaking five and returning to the ban festival

 

There are too many taboos in China. The folk customs of the Spring Festival taboos can be said to reflect the people's dissatisfaction with these taboos, so they hope that the taboos will be lifted. The fifth day of the first lunar month is China's Taboo Day. Although it involves the Spring Festival taboos, it actually reflects the desire for freedom. The desire for the return of humanity.

According to folk custom, many taboos five years ago can be broken on this day. According to the old custom, it is necessary to eat "water dumplings" for five days. In the north, it is called "boiled dumplings". Nowadays, some people only eat it for three or two days, and some eat it every other day, but there is no one who doesn’t eat it. This is true from the prince's mansion to the small households in the streets, even when entertaining guests.

Women no longer stay taboo and start visiting each other to pay New Year greetings and congratulate each other. Newly married women return to peace on this day. It is said that it is not suitable to do anything on the fifth day, otherwise you will be in trouble during the year. In addition to the above taboos, the five customs of Po Wu are mainly to send away the poor, welcome the God of Wealth, and open markets for trade.

According to Chinese folk customs, the fifth day of the first lunar month is the day to worship the God of Wealth. Needless to say, the market economy has taught those bosses that they must worship the God of Wealth, compete for market profits, seize the road, and receive the God of Wealth on the fifth day of the first lunar month.

In order to get rich, ordinary people will also burn incense sticks and pray for the God of Wealth to appear.

But not many people know about the "Po Wu" folk custom in traditional Chinese culture. "Breaking five" means "breaking the ban", and "breaking the ban" means "opening the ban". There are so many taboos in China, why don’t we study more about which ones should be banned and which ones should not? The folk custom of "Broken Five" will give us a lot of inspiration.

Every Chinese New Year, people open their doors and windows at 50:00 on the first day of the lunar month, burn incense, set off firecrackers, and light fireworks to welcome the God of Wealth. After receiving the God of Wealth, everyone also eats Lutou wine, often until dawn. Everyone is full of hopes of getting rich, hoping that the God of Wealth can bring gold and silver to their homes and make them rich in the new year. But the God of Wealth did not appear, at least not for the poor.

The fifth day of the first lunar month is another day to "send away the poor". If ordinary people cannot receive the God of Wealth, they must at least send away the poor on this day. So there was a custom of carrying a paper bag, sweeping the dirt from the house into the bag, and sending it out to blast it with cannons. It was even necessary to "send the poor daughter-in-law out". Maybe "giving the poor" can't give away the poor. No one today is so stupid as to carry a paper bag outside the door to empty out the garbage that has been accumulated for five days.

People began to put their emotions on "Po Wu". What is "Po Wu"?

There is such a saying:

In some places, the fifth day of the Lunar New Year is called "Yuan Nian", which means that the New Year is over and it is time to make a summary and draw an end on this day. In fact, this is a variant of "Po Wu", which is due to the fact that the true origin of "Po Wu" is not known.

According to this theory: After Jiang Ziya became a god, he named his wife who betrayed him a "poor god" and ordered her to "return as soon as she is broken." According to myths and legends, Jiang Ziya's wife was a very annoying husband-carrying woman. After she was made the Poor God, she became even more annoying. I haven't heard of anyone liking the Poor God, right? So people "break" her on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year and tell her to "go home immediately", that is, to go back immediately!

Another way of saying:

The fifth day of the lunar month is the birthday of the God of Wealth, so people hold feasts, set off firecrackers, and engage in various celebration activities on this day, which means to welcome the arrival of the God of Wealth. However, it is suggested that on that day, if the rich want to get rich again, they must spend money to support the poor, otherwise they will go bankrupt. "Xin Po Wu" means that the rich must spend money to support the poor on the fifth day of the lunar month, otherwise a national curse will be triggered, so that the rich will not be able to receive the God of Wealth and the poor will not be able to send away. The consensus of the people can rewrite folk history.

There are different traditional customs of "breaking five" in China.

On the fifth day of the first lunar month, a custom called chasing the "five poor" is popular in many places. People get up at dawn, set off firecrackers, clean the house, blast out all unlucky things, all monsters and monsters, and keep them as far away from us as possible. Cleaning is a thorough cleaning. Sweep trash out of every house. From the 30th day of the twelfth lunar month to the fifth day of the first lunar month, cleaning is generally not allowed. Sweeping is also allowed, but only in the house, and garbage can only be placed in the corner of the house. Especially on the first day of the Lunar New Year, you can't move it with a broom. If you move it, your good luck will be wiped out. But on Powu, it was time to do a thorough cleaning. After the garbage was swept out of the door and swept to a corner, he also put the firecrackers from the house outside. Then he brought a huge firecracker, placed it on the garbage pile, lit it, and with a bang, the ceremony was completed. People said: Now, all the impoverished ghosts have been driven away! So eat.

This custom is similar in Guanzhong, East Prefecture and West Prefecture. But after the cannon was fired, the food eaten was not the same. In Long County of Xi'an Prefecture, the whole county eats Chuantuan, which is said to be a paste-like food that can be used to stick and remove all unsatisfactory things. It is said that in some places in the Weihe River Valley, Tuantuan is also eaten during the New Year, but it is not Powu, but the 30th of the twelfth lunar month, such as Sanyuan County and Wugong County. This is the same as Long County. In Long County, there are three meals of Chuantuan during the Chinese New Year: the 30th of the twelfth lunar month, the fifth of the first lunar month, and the seventh of the first lunar month. Bin County also eats tuantuan on the fifth day of the first lunar month, which is said to "eat the poor and eliminate the roots of poverty", and also "fill the poor pits" and "fill the poor pits". It is also appropriate to use food paste such as dough to fill it. People from Binxian County said that they can’t eat meat and wine anyway. Chunhua County, located in the Weibei Plateau, also eats tuantuan on this day, which is also said to be used to fill poverty holes. On this day, you are not allowed to go out to visit relatives, saying that you do not want to let relatives get stuck in poverty.

The most interesting thing is Fengxiang County, which is the birthplace of the Qin people. Powu also gets up early, cleans up, and sets off fireworks, but the food and the food they eat are very different. They eat dumplings. It's not called dumplings, it's called boiled horns. Wrap it overnight and cook it the next morning. Also stuffed with meat. The wonderful thing is that when making dumplings, you have to light an incense stick and go around and around the basin holding the dumpling fillings before making the dumplings. why is that? Fengxiang people said: This is the "five poor" and the like who are gathered together, wrapped up, cooked and eaten. The people of Qin were heroic and thorough in their affairs. In doing so, they not only drove away the "five poor", but also wanted to kill them all. It was a bit like "eating their flesh and sleeping on their skin".

Tianjin people also call the fifth day of the first lunar month "Po Wu". On this day, every household eats dumplings, and the chopping board must make a clanging sound for the neighbors to hear, to show that they are chopping "little people." Tianjin people attribute unsatisfactory things to "villains". Only by getting rid of "villains" can they have good fortune and success. Setting off firecrackers on the fifth day of the lunar month also means to avoid evil and avoid disasters.

In some places in Shandong, "Po Wu" is called "Five Horse Day", and the cloudy and sunny days on this day are used to predict the bad luck for mules and horses that year. It is said that the clear sky on this day means the prosperity of mules and horses. According to Dongfang Shuo's "Zhushu", the first day of the first month is chicken, the second day is dog, the third day is pig, the fourth day is sheep, the fifth day is cow, the sixth day is horse, the seventh day is human, and the eighth day is grain. I don’t know how Shandong turns an ox’s day into a horse’s day.

In the days of spring, in some areas, before the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, women are not allowed to go out to visit relatives, and are not allowed to use rulers or scissors to do needlework. They are also not allowed to cook rice, noodles and lettuce. After the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, women are no longer taboo.

In Powu in Linqing area, the family unit holds a ceremony to send off the family to the family hall. Before dawn, people all cooked dumplings, made offerings, burned paper, kowtowed, and then put away the tablets of the gods and masters. Just waiting for the three cannons to go off, the men of the whole clan gathered together with incense paper and firecrackers and lined up in front of the queue. Visiting the graves is called sending ancestors home. Along the way, those carrying the offerings carried the offerings, and those setting off the whips set off the whips. When they came to the cemetery, they burned incense and kowtowed, shouting: "Grandpa, grandma, we're home!"

Yinan also removes their family members on this day, and some people even eat fried cakes and sweep the yard. It is said that sweeping the yard on this day will not attract ants. In Kenli, Shouguang and other places, firecrackers are set off on this day and the whole family gathers for dinner to signify the passing of the New Year.

In southwestern Shandong, on New Year's Day, scissors are wrapped with thread and placed under the bed mat, and can not be used until the fifth day of the Lunar New Year. Women in Linyi and Zoucheng are not allowed to go out, comb their hair, or touch needlework on this day. It is said that touching needlework will attract scorpions and centipedes. It is common to eat dumplings at noon on this day, and you can also eat noodles. There is a saying that "eating noodles on the fifth day of the lunar month will cost one stone per acre."

The "Five Poor" in Chinese folk custom are also called "Five Ghosts". It refers to the five types of poor people: "poor in intelligence, poor in learning, poor in literature, poor in fate, and poor in friendship". It was once seen in Han Yu's "Song Qiongwen". This poet said, "All these five ghosts are my five troubles", so I have to send them away. No matter how literate people think in their hearts, their writing is always relatively peaceful. Although it is a serious problem for me, I should send it away politely. When he got to the people, he told the truth, "evicting the five poor people" and "filling the poor holes", and also used firecrackers and brooms, so you can't be polite. After all, this is not a treat or a gift. Killing them all is the most impassioned and vivid one among them.

Whether it is giving away the poor or breaking the five, it is all to drive away the poor and seek wealth. What is the root cause of the inequality between rich and poor? Is it caused by the poor man and the God of Wealth? Can "Poor God of Mammon" replace "Das Kapital"? It seems that it is really difficult to conquer all the demons and monsters.