Northern Shaanxi New Year customs Yangko makes the New Year

The year in northern Shaanxi is a day full of loess flavor. At the end of the New Year in northern Shaanxi, there is a sense of tranquility in the red fire. What is floating in the sky is the "Xin Tianyou" from the yellow soil. The millet porridge boiled in the pot is rolling with the spirit of loess. Every household is pasted with lifelike window grilles. Women use it to dream a dream that is no longer young, and men use it to tie a person's heart.

It seems that only the Chinese New Year in northern Shaanxi can truly deserve the three words "celebrating the New Year"-a bit rustic, but with the festive flavor of descendants of the Yellow Emperor. It is not enough to summarize the New Year customs in northern Shaanxi as prosperous and lively. There is also a passion in the flavor of the New Year, which is a New Year custom that burns with passion.

From the first day to the fifteenth day of the lunar new year, Spring Festival couplets, paper-cuts, yangko songs, and waist drums cannot be missing. Yellow dust fills the sky, gongs and drums shake the ears. As thick as the yellow soil is, the happiness created by the people here is as beautiful as it is.

In the eyes of many people, the year in northern Shaanxi is no longer the year of northern Shaanxi people, but the year of the entire northern farming nation. It is a legend that has been performed for thousands of years.

As the place with the most complete preservation of the traditions of the farming nation in China, the four major traditional crops of ancient China, rice, wheat, millet, and millet, can be found in northern Shaanxi and its shadow can be seen. The Spring Festival is called "Year" by farming people. In their imagination, Year is the day to enjoy a bumper harvest after the harvest season ends and the beginning of sowing hope for the next year.

The New Year for people in northern Shaanxi is a spring festival, a new year, and a renewal of everything. In northern Shaanxi, many ancient traditional customs are still maintained. These traditions of bidding farewell to the old New Year and welcoming the New Year are as always observed by northern Shaanxi people.

Entering the middle of the twelfth lunar month, people on the yellow soil began to get busy when flour was ground, cake noodles were pressed, and crispy chicken and meat were made with rice wine. On every festival day, people in the village will also make large purchases, including incense, paper (yellow paper, hemp paper), firecrackers, and calendars. No matter how poor a family is, these four items are indispensable for the New Year. After the 20th day of the twelfth lunar month, going to markets, practicing yangko, pushing and rolling, cooking New Year meals, cleaning, cleaning clothes and quilts, pasting New Year pictures, pasting window grilles, writing couplets, and wearing new clothes are like a ritual that has become a common fun for people.

The New Year in northern Shaanxi is dyed in red, and the main theme of the New Year custom is composed of red notes. Red lanterns, red window grilles, red couplets, and red firecrackers are the red on the face. Red is also reflected in every part of life: Red quilts, red insoles, red trouser belts, red underwear, red flags, red war drums, red silks, red fans, red umbrellas, red belts, red jackets, red lipstick worn by girls, red gloves worn by suona hands, red strips tied on trombone and drumsticks, red braised pork to eat, red west phoenix to drink, red sun to sing, red pentagonal patterns to twist, red apples, red dates, red eggs to be enjoyed by people in trouble, red paper bags for children to wrap New Year's Eve money, red scarves for women, etc. Where the red color is the most gorgeous, the New Year's spirit will be the strongest; where the most prosperous, the people will be the happiest!

On the evening of New Year's Eve, families in northern Shaanxi gather together to celebrate the New Year. At this time, peers in a family often go together to congratulate their elders on the arrival of the New Year. On the morning of New Year's Day, every household has posted Spring Festival couplets, and people wear new clothes to pay New Year greetings to their elders. According to custom, the first day of the New Year is a holiday for the family, mainly paying New Year greetings within a family. On the second day of the Lunar New Year, people began to visit relatives. In the eyes of people in northern Shaanxi, New Year greetings are a sacred ceremony, which is a reflection of the mentality of respecting others and fearing heaven in northern Shaanxi folk customs. Fear of heaven is because there are unforeseen events in the sky, so we use various unique methods to pray for peace from heaven for a year; Respect for others is to give wishes to the elders in the family and to the elders in the same village to celebrate their longevity.

On the third day of the Lunar New Year, people sounded gongs and drums and danced yangko, and the New Year really kicked off.

The earth-shaking gongs and drums sounded, and the fiery red ribbons were swaying wantonly in the air. The exaggerated steps and swaggering posture were a kind of catharsis and a kind of survival.

The Yangko teams in northern Shaanxi are all commanded by "Umbrella Head". The quality of the umbrella head often directly determines the level of the Yangko team. A good umbrella head can not only coordinate the rhythm of the Yangko team, but more importantly, it must be eloquent and be able to speak out.

One year in the rural areas of Suide, the Yangko troupe went from house to house to "arrange door-to-door". When they arrived at a household, people found that there was only one earthen kiln and the yard was very small, so that more than half of the people could not enter. Faced with such a situation, it is not easy to compose a yangko that expresses joy and passion on the spot. But as soon as I entered the courtyard, the umbrella head touched the umbrella, the gongs and drums stopped, and a yangko song burst out:

Please stand up and listen to me:

You really didn't dial this place;

Looking at the kiln, the courtyard is narrow,

Just in time to catch a golden colt!

Zhong (He): Hey, hey, hey

Just in time to catch a golden colt!

The natural and simple mass language, the ups and downs of artistic techniques, and the one-stop singing form made the owner of the courtyard laugh, and the singers and villagers inside and outside the courtyard laugh.

The most exciting thing in northern Shaanxi is "Yangko", which is the most exciting program during the Chinese New Year. Standing on the high plateau, listening to the sounds coming from deep underground, and looking at the villagers standing on the kiln roof and roadside, it is also a kind of enjoyment.

When you are tired of watching Yangko, you can taste some snacks from northern Shaanxi. The fun of the New Year is all in these delicious snacks. For those who are used to eating big meals in the colorful lights of big cities, it is indeed a rare enjoyment.

During the Chinese New Year, every household in northern Shaanxi cannot live without coarse grains. People often use coarse grains to describe the richness and enjoyment of life. The coarse grains in northern Shaanxi are mainly grains, with both beans and potatoes. There are more than a dozen types of millet in northern Shaanxi alone. There are soft millet used to steam cakes and make wine, and hard millet used to make dry yellow rice. Millet is also divided into rice grains, grain grains, wine grains, etc.

The words "Little rice feeds me when I grow up" and "millet plus rifle" make millet in northern Shaanxi a spiritual image. Eating a small meal of rice in northern Shaanxi during the New Year is the most beautiful enjoyment.

Compared with the past, most of the millet rice in northern Shaanxi today is "second rice". In order to satisfy people's increasingly picky tastes, housewives have come up with various ways. Small rice has changed from simple millet in the past to two rice between rice and millet. Northern Shaanxi people eat small rice, often on a local unique braised vegetables, this braised vegetables are made of pork slices, potato chips, sour cabbage, wide noodles, kelp, both meat and vegetables, rich in nutrition.

Northern Shaanxi is the center of the Loess Plateau, deep mountains and valleys, inconvenient transportation, but to a certain extent, it has preserved the ancient diet customs.

"Eat a mouthful of small rice and taste buckwheat noodles before you can eat the foundation of northern Shaanxi." The buckwheat noodles in northern Shaanxi cannot be separated from mutton. The most beautiful is mutton soup, which is poured on buckwheat noodles. The more you eat, the more beautiful it becomes.

In fact, the most beautiful and practical thing in northern Shaanxi is millet soup."The rolling rice soup and steaming steamed buns serve us good food and drink." It was at this time that millet soup in northern Shaanxi became famous. It can be seen that millet soup has a quite high status in northern Shaanxi's diet.

In northern Shaanxi, the sky smells of loess in the New Year. Here, we can truly find a peaceful home of our hearts and become a real self.