The origin of setting off firecrackers

 

The origin of setting off firecrackers

 

Whether it is celebrating the New Year, getting married, getting promoted in school, building a building, opening a store, etc., as long as it is a celebration, Chinese people are used to setting off firecrackers to celebrate.

Setting off firecrackers to celebrate the New Year has a history of more than 2,000 years in China. The earliest firecrackers were made by burning bamboo. Because the bamboo burned and made a crackling sound, it was called firecrackers.

Speaking of the origin of firecrackers, there is an interesting legend. The "Shenyi Jing" says: "There is a mandrill in the western mountains, which is more than a foot long and has one foot. It is not afraid of people. It causes people with cold and heat. It is called a mandrill and scares people. Later generations imitated its shape and used gunpowder to make it." It is the earliest record of the origin of firecrackers, indicating that people burned bamboos and exploded them in order to scare away mandrills that would harm people. It is said that mandrills are most afraid of fire and noise, so every New Year's Eve, people "burn bamboo and explode it" to scare the mandrills away. In this way, year after year, the custom of setting off firecrackers, lighting red candles, and beating gongs and drums to celebrate the New Year has been formed.

There are many stories about the origin of firecrackers in folklore. According to legend, in ancient times, there was a ferocious monster with a huge body, horn-like tentacles on its head, and round eyes. Live like two lanterns. A mouth so big that it can swallow a person in one mouthful.

The name of this monster is "Nian". It lives in a cave for many years and is the overlord of the mountain. When tigers, lions, and black bears see it, they run away in fear; when goats, monkeys, and hares hear its roar, they collapse to the ground.

He hunted animals on the mountain for years, and when he was full, he lay snoring in the hole and slept. Whenever the severe cold is about to end and the new year is coming, Nian will run down the mountain and enter the village to eat people. Therefore, humans are also very afraid of it. When a child cries, as long as the mother says "it's new year", the child will be too scared to cry.

But at that time, there were two cattle herders, one named Ashan and the other Ashui. They were good partners and very courageous. They often drove their cattle up the mountain to graze. The family members said to them, "My children, there is a year on the mountain, so I can't go there!"

"Don't be afraid!" Ah Shan and Ah Shui said with a plan: "Let's carry our bows and arrows. If the New Year comes, we will climb up the tree and shoot it to death!"

Having said that, the two of them went up the mountain several times, but Xingxi never encountered Nian. In a blink of an eye, it was the 30th day of the twelfth lunar month, and it was dusk. Ah Shan and Ah Shui drove the cattle home. It was so strange that the cows mooed in panic and huddled together. What has happened here?

"Hey, let's go!" Ah Shan and Ah Shui waved their bullwhips and whipped them several times. Suddenly, a strange cry of "gawa" was heard, and a monster was so frightened that it ran towards the road in front of the village.

Ashan said: "Ashui, look, a Nian has escaped!"

"It's really strange. Nian is a ferocious beast. Why is he so frightened and running away when he sees us?" Ah Shui found it quite strange.

"Well," Ah Shan said decisively, "let's chase him and take a look."

The two little shepherd boys were so bold. They kept waving their whips to urge the cows to move faster. The crackle of the bullwhip made Nian run away faster.

"Oh, that's right!" Ah Shan suddenly realized, "So Nian is afraid of the sound of bullwhips!"

Ashan and Ashui drove the cattle into the village and saw Nian rushing to Eunuch Wu's house from a distance.

A bright red dress was hanging in front of Eunuch Wu's house. Nian was so frightened that he turned around and ran towards the back of the village.

There is a village over there too. At this time, night fell, and Nianyi saw lights flashing brightly in the windows of every house, which made him dizzy, and he turned around and ran away.

At this time, Ah Shan and Ah Shui had already driven the cattle into the shed and chased after them. They deliberately swung their whips so loudly that Nian screamed in horror and ran up the mountain.

Ah Shan and Ah Shui saw all this clearly. When they returned to the village, they said to the villagers, "It turns out that the New Year is afraid of noise, red, and fire. We know its weaknesses and can resist it in the future."

After hearing this, the villagers quickly came up with a good idea. Everyone lit a bonfire in front of the village. Ah Shan and Ah Shui threw in bamboos one by one, and the fire made a crackling sound.

A few years ran down the mountain. When I saw the bonfire and heard the noise, I ran back again. In this way, the night passed, and the villagers were safe and sound.

The next day, the first day of the first lunar month, the villagers took out tangerines, peanuts and other delicious things to eat together and congratulated each other: "Congratulations!"

From then on, people called the first day of the first lunar month "New Year". Whenever this day comes, every household puts up red Spring Festival couplets, sets off firecrackers, lights red candles, and wears red clothes, using "red" as a symbol of good luck. It is said that these customs gradually evolved from the methods used to resist the "year" in the past.

In ancient China, people believed that firecrackers had the function of warding off evil spirits and frightening disasters. However, with the gradual fading of backward consciousness, the custom of setting off firecrackers rarely contains the element of exorcising ghosts, but only adds a happy atmosphere to the festival.

There was no gunpowder or paper at that time, so people burned bamboo with fire to make it burst and make sounds to drive away the god of plague. This was of course superstitious, but it reflected the ancient working people's desire for peace and tranquility. Later, through continuous chemical experiments, alchemists discovered that saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal combined could cause combustion and explosion, so they invented gunpowder. Someone put gunpowder in a bamboo tube and set it off, making the sound louder, which fundamentally changed the ancient custom of burning bamboo. In the Northern Song Dynasty, fireworks wrapped with gunpowder in rolling paper appeared among the people. There were also distinctions between single and double blasts. They were renamed "firecrackers" and later "firecrackers".

Fireworks began to be produced in the Song Dynasty, and the production process is very complex.

Legend has it that Zhang Tianshi's niece is very old and not yet married.

During the Chinese New Year this year, Zhang Tianshi asked his sister: "How old is my niece this year?"

His sister said, "She's not young anymore, she's twenty-seven or eight years old."

Zhang Tianshi asked: "Do you have a husband's family?"

Sister said: "Yes, it's in Dongxiang."

Zhang Tianshi said: "You have your husband's family, so why don't you send her out?"

My sister said: "There is a goblin in my eastern mountain. If someone marries a bride, the goblin will go to that house and make trouble. In the end, it will eat the groom."

When Zhang Tianshi heard this, he said: "Sister, in a few days you can find someone to look after the situation and send my niece to get married. I have my own way."

On the day of the wedding, as soon as it got dark, every house was closed for fear that the goblin would come and cause trouble. The goblin really came from Dongshan. As soon as he saw that the door of the new house was open, he happily went inside. When the fairy arrived at the new house, she saw that there were still lights in the house. As soon as the fairy touched the bride, her belt suddenly turned into a fire dragon, which caught the fairy and burned her. After a while, the fire dragon burned the goblin to death.

At dawn, the bride called her parents-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law and groom. The family hurriedly caught the new daughter-in-law to ask questions. The new daughter-in-law said: "When I came here, my uncle gave me nine belts. These nine belts are nine dragons, seven are green dragons, two are fire dragons, and six are green dragon handles." Two fire dragons entangled the goblin and burned them at the door and window, killing the goblin like this."

When everyone heard this, they hurriedly bought firecrackers to celebrate the victory of burning the goblin. From then on, every family dared to send their daughters out to marry their sons.

Since then, the custom of setting off firecrackers and pasting green dragons on married women has been passed down to this day.

In the Tang Dynasty, firecrackers were also called "exploding poles". They probably burned a longer bamboo pole section by section, making continuous blasting sounds. Nanchang poet Lai Hu's poem "Early Spring": "The New Year has only half-opened the paper, and the small pavilion is still gathering ashes. It writes about the scene of burning bamboo poles during the Spring Festival. When talking about fireworks, we will also talk about Li Tian."

Li Tian lives in Masi Village, Fuli Town, Liling, Hunan Province. He was born on April 18th in the 15th year of Tang Yuanhe's reign (AD 820). Legend has it that the master once devoted himself to studying the story of burning bamboo to drive away evil spirits and ward off evil spirits in "The Chronicles of Jingchu". He never tired of it, and finally came up with a witty saying, which was the first time he invented firecrackers with saltpeter. Therefore, "China Industry" says: "The manufacturing of firecrackers in Hunan Province began in the Tang Dynasty, flourished in the Song Dynasty, and originated in Liling and Liuyang." The magical and wonderful firecrackers and fireworks have a long history and have created endless wealth and eternal civilization for the world. The first ancestor, Li Tian, became the founder of Chinese fireworks. His achievements lasted for thousands of years and he blessed all generations. Generations of people drink from fireworks and remember their origins, and they are well-known.

The traditional Chinese firecracker production process is divided into three parts: barrel production, gunpowder production and fuse production.

The first is the production of the cannon body.

In the workshop, the firecracker body is called a "tube". Paper cutting is to cut the firecracker paper used to make the tube according to certain specifications; then roll the cut firecracker paper into an empty tube. The main tool for pulling the tube is to pull the tube. The stool is made of solid wood; a layer of colored paper is placed on the outside of the empty tube. Initially it was for waterproofing, and later it was more for decorative purposes. The paper for the tube is mostly red paper produced in Baoqing (Shaoyang), or Guanghong paper. Paper, wax paper; tie the paper tube into a hexagonal cake shape with hemp rope to facilitate counting the number of tubes.

The tied paper tube is very long and needs to be cut short. Use a broad knife to cut it from the waist of the cake, and cut one tube into two tubes. Fill the cut paper tube with soil, add saltpeter, and use an iron drill to cut each tube. Build it tightly, and then drill holes into each bobbin to place the leads; cut each lead hole into the lead wire; then, after cutting the lead wire into the lead hole, tie the bobbin at the leading end tightly to prevent the lead wire from loosening.

After the individual firecrackers are made, they are tied together with cotton thread. Because they are shaped like a whip, the name firecrackers come from this.

The second step is to make gunpowder.

Extract the saltpeter from the soil. The traditional tools for making salt are very simple, just a big iron pot, and the raw material is soil. It is said that it is best to use soil from the kitchen, because frequent cooking and cooking will precipitate a lot of saltpeter. After putting the soil into the iron pot, keep adding water to boil it. After a day or two, a layer of white saltpeter will form on the edge of the iron pot. The newly boiled saltpeter particles are very large. The next step is to crush them in a grinding tank. , the heavy grinding wheel was initially pulled by oxen, and later it was slowly changed to water power. A simpler method is to use a rice pounding tool to break the particles, which is called nitrate flushing; the ground nitrate still cannot be used directly, and it needs to be Grind the saltpeter into a fine powder using a grinder like a soybean grinder. The prepared saltpeter, mixed with sulfur and soil, is the gunpowder for firecrackers.

The third step is lead production. Although the paper used to make firecrackers is purchased, the paper used to make the leads is produced in-house. There will be a pulp tank in the workshop to make paper from wood pulp; the entire paper is cut into long paper strips; One end of the long paper strip is fixed, the paper is unfolded, and an iron rod is dipped in saltpeter powder. Shake your hand, and the saltpeter powder on the iron rod will fall on the paper to form a long strip. Rub your hands, and a lead will come out. Paste leads: Such leads are still loose. Workers have to dip their hands into wet rice paste and rub their hands on the leads. The leads will not fall apart after being dipped in rice paste. Then they need to fix the leads one by one. Dry on a fan-like dryer.

Every Spring Festival, the lanterns are bright and the gongs and drums sound. The sound of firecrackers comes and goes, playing the New Year's song to the boiling earth. The lights in the sky are brilliant and the flowers are blooming, creating a happy chapter for the festival. But what is the interpretation of dreaming about setting off firecrackers?

According to Zhou Gong’s dream interpretation:

• Dreaming about setting off firecrackers is a good sign and your life will be happy.

• Dreaming about setting off firecrackers indicates that your studies will improve.

•Unmarried men and women dream of setting off firecrackers, indicating that their love fortune will increase.

•A married woman dreams of setting off firecrackers indicates a happy and harmonious family.

Setting off firecrackers during the Spring Festival has a long history as a custom for Chinese people to celebrate the Spring Festival. Although this kind of activity can add a happy atmosphere to the festival, the smoke and dust released by setting off firecrackers and the sparks splashed out can easily cause environmental pollution, cause fires, and some violent Firecrackers cause some casualties every year. With the advancement of society and people's civilization, the disadvantages of the custom of setting off firecrackers during the Spring Festival have attracted attention from all walks of life. In the past, many cities in my country have enacted regulations prohibiting the setting off of fireworks.