Manchu Spring Festival customs
During the Spring Festival, Manchu is called "Anie Ye Neng Ye Can Ye". The earliest record of the Manchu Spring Festival is in "Records of the Bohai Kingdom","People gather together and have fun during the New Year, and those who are good at singing and dancing move forward in generations, with scholars and women accompanying each other, singing more harmoniously." After the Qing Dynasty, although the Manchu people and the Han people communicated on Spring Festival etiquette, they still maintained their own characteristics. After more than three hundred years, we can still see the distinctive national style during the Spring Festival of the Manchu people in Northeast China. Even today, when the Spring Festival ritual is simplified to pure eating and drinking, the Spring Festival is still celebrated in Manchu families in Northeast China.
When the New Year is approaching, every family has to clean the courtyard and put up window grilles, couplets and blessing characters. Before the festival, we will also make Saqima, a traditional Manchu pastry. Saqima is made from raw materials such as refined flour, eggs, sugar, sesame seeds, green red and melon kernels. It is beautiful in color, fragrant in taste and delicious. It is a favorite holiday with a unique national flavor. In addition to Saqima, the Manchu people's holiday foods include sticky bean buns, sticky fire spoons, saqima, white meat and blood sausage, bean flour rolls, suzi leaf cakes, yellow rice dried rice, hot pot, etc. During the New Year, Manchu people like to drink alcohol, mainly from their own "rice wine" brewed with yellow rice; when guests come home to pay New Year greetings, the drink they drink is "rice tea" brewed with fried yellow rice and sorghum rice.
After the 15th day of the twelfth lunar month, the Manchu people would choose one day to kill New Year pigs and sacrifice sacrifices to their ancestors, Duke En and their ancestors. New Year pigs must not have white hair. After being bundled, they must be carried to the ancestral altar. Before killing, wine is poured into the pig's ears. If the ears move, it means "taking the animal". If they do not move, they must pray until they move before they can be killed. After killing, the pig was first chopped into eight pieces, placed in front of the ancestral memorial tablet, burned tarzi incense, and the whole family kowtowed. Only after the ceremony can you eat meat. When eating the first meat meal, the whole family had to sit around the pot instead of using the table.
In the old days, almost all celebrations to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, and pray for blessings and welcome good fortune were held on New Year's Eve. At this time, the whole family had to change into new clothes. The clothes were usually made of silk, damask, silk or linen materials of various colors and patterns. Some embroidered the cheongsam into a set of patterns, and more layers of fine lace were inlaid on the skirt, cuffs, neckline, and hem. Manchu men and women all like to hang ornaments on their waists or on the placket of their clothes. Men have fire sickles, ear spoons, toothpicks, glasses boxes, fan belts, and women have sachets, purses, etc. Most of them are sewn with satin, with a wide variety of colors and exquisitely made.
On New Year's Eve, the Manchus first had to receive the gods. After receiving the gods, they placed a horizontal tree at the gate to prevent ghosts from entering. Door gods are also hung on New Year's Eve to ward off evil spirits and avoid ghosts. This is the result of absorbing Han customs. Door gods are roughly divided into "General Door God","Fulu Door God","Panzi Door God","Baby Door God", etc. Palace door gods are hidden in the Forbidden City in Shenyang today. On New Year's Eve,"divine paper" was also distributed, and then younger men went to various families in the tribe to "bid farewell".
On New Year's Eve, the Manchu people will begin to worship their ancestors. First of all, in front of the ancestral board in the main hall of the home, 13 cups of homemade rice wine and 13 plates of homemade cream snacks must be served, with new tags posted on the board. In front of the "Soruo Pole" in the southeast corner of the courtyard, the same offerings as those in the room are also served. The ancestral niche hanging on the west wall cannot be moved at ordinary times. It must be invited down and opened at noon that day. Then, the elders of the family presided over the ceremony and led the whole family to worship. The whole family stared affectionately at the portraits of their ancestors and the names of their ancestors from past generations. After a long time, they placed them back in place.
Afterwards, offerings were offered to the ancestors, including rice, vegetables, wine, dried and fresh fruits, snacks, etc. The parents carefully poured the fragrant powder into the long and thin incense trough on the incense table, and then lit it. The aroma was fragrant and the cigarette was straight up. After the ancestor worship is over, the whole family will go to the house of the highest-ranking parent to pay New Year greetings. When it was midnight, firecrackers were set off to pick up the ancestors home. In the colorful red flowers rain, parents led the whole family, old and young, to kowtow to their ancestors. Such rituals are still maintained even in Manchu homes in large cities and are performed solemnly and meticulously.
On New Year's Eve, the whole family, old and young, sat in sequence and ate New Year's Eve dinner. Generally speaking, Manchu people eat dumplings on New Year's Eve, commonly known as "Chuai Yuan Bao". The Manchu people pay attention to making dumplings with more pleats. When cooking dumplings at midnight, some dumplings are wrapped in copper coins, so that those who eat them will have good luck. The dumplings should be placed in rows horizontally and horizontally, which means a smooth financial future in the coming year. When cooking dumplings, you need to burn "apricot strips" firewood at the bottom of the pot, because "apricot" and "Xing" are homophonic. When the dumplings rose from the boiling pot, the person who cooked the dumplings shouted: "The little day is up, the little day is up!" The whole family must shout,"Get up! Get up!"
On the morning of the first day of the first lunar month, after eating dumplings, the old man sat upright on a chair,"Mom, grandparents, happy New Year." The younger generations respectfully pay New Year greetings in front of them, and the old people take out red envelopes to commemorate the New Year. In the old Manchu tradition, this detail was always a kowtow. Close relatives of the clan also pay New Year greetings to each other, while relatives and friends invite each other for a banquet to reminisce and talk about new things together.
On the fifth day of the lunar new day, the Manchu people will hold a ceremony to break the fifth day. They still eat dumplings on this morning. The dumplings cannot be boiled in water. They must be steamed, in order to achieve prosperity. When making dumplings, you must crush the dumpling skins. Because the old rule is from the first day to the fifth day of the lunar calendar, no water is poured, no ash is poured, and no cabinets are opened. But from the sixth day of the lunar new day, I can live freely without following this rule.
and Manchu people celebrate the New Year. From New Year's Eve to the 15th of the first lunar month, lanterns on the "Solo Pole" and under the eaves are lit all night long to show that the red lights are shining high. If the lights go out, it means unlucky. Some people even turn on the lights until the second day of February. There are also lantern festivals on the 15th of the first lunar month. The Manchu Lantern Festival is also the Lantern Festival. On this day, every household hangs various colored lights and holds lantern festivals.
In rural areas, some families also need to "check the month" on this night: make 12 small lamp bowls of soba flour, mark the month on the sides of the bowls, put a soybean grain in each bowl, and then place it in a pot to steam. The swelling of the beans in the bowl means waterlogging in that month, while the small beans indicate drought, and the small ones mean good weather.
Today, although many Manchu families celebrate the Spring Festival in much the same content as the Han people, the characteristics of their own nationality are still retained in Manchu settlements, especially in Manchu families that emphasize tradition.