1. Food customs

Three meals a day include rice porridge, one thin and two dry. Rice can be divided into rice, corn rice and sweet potato rice; rice porridge can also be divided into rice porridge, corn porridge, sweet potato porridge, mung bean porridge and polenta. In mountainous areas, sweet potato rice, sweet potato porridge, and steamed sweet potatoes are often the staple foods in winter and spring. In recent years, urban residents have also regarded sweet potatoes as a healthy food and often eat sweet potato porridge. Nowadays, breakfast is mainly pasta, and most of them are eaten in restaurants. The dishes are a combination of meat and vegetables, and the seasoning is spicy. The traditional habit of preferring home-made salty dried vegetables and self-cured fish and meat has gradually changed in recent years. People mainly eat fresh vegetables and live fish and meat, and eat less pickled dishes.

Wine is generally not required for home-cooked meals, but is a must during festivals or when guests are visiting. Some middle-aged and elderly people enjoy having a drink during lunch and dinner. In rural areas, people often drink home-brewed grain wine, glutinous rice wine, and sweet potato wine, and bottled wine is prepared for banquets. In recent years, the majority of drinking water at home is canned purified water, and bottled drinks are often taken when going out.

2. Clothing and customs

Ruichang residents have always been frugal and fond of beauty, and their clothing changes with time. Before the 1980s, most men wore Chinese tunic suits, while women mainly wore casual clothes. Fabrics such as terry, polyester, and wool were fashionable. After the reform and opening up, residents' clothing changed rapidly. The outerwear styles are complex and trendy, and the fabrics are of various grades. Suits are more common among young men in spring and autumn. The fabrics are strong, straight and non-ironing as fashionable. Underwear is made of cotton as a healthy fabric. Mao suits are only occasionally worn by a few elderly people. Wealthy people began to pursue high-end and brand-name clothing, and poor residents rarely lacked clothes, and ragged people were rarely seen. Young ladies love to wear gold and jewelry, and it is not uncommon for older women to wear gold earrings and rings.

3. Traditional Festival Customs

Spring Festival: The first day of the first lunar month is the traditional Spring Festival, commonly known as the "New Year's Day". It is the most important festival among the "three festivals a year". At midnight on that day, thousands of households set off firecrackers to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new; when the doors open at dawn, firecrackers are set off again to show "opening the door to good luck." However, old habits such as "going out to heaven" and worshiping heaven and earth have gradually disappeared. After breakfast, when going out to meet people, they say "New Year's greetings" and "Congratulations on getting rich" to each other to wish each other a happy New Year. Starting from the second day of the Lunar New Year, relatives and friends pay New Year greetings to each other, which usually lasts until the fifth or sixth day of the Lunar New Year. This custom is still popular today.

Lantern Festival is the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, also known as Shangyuan Festival, and it still belongs to the category of "New Year" in a broad sense. On this day, urban and rural residents eat more "Yuanxiao" (rice dumplings) for breakfast or dinner to signify the successful end of the Spring Festival. A folk proverb goes: "After eating the Yuanxiao cake, everyone will make crops." At night, the streets in the city are lit up with lights, and the halls, bedrooms, kitchens, and bathrooms of residential buildings all have lights that stay on all night long. It is a traditional custom to play with lanterns throughout the Spring Festival evening, and the Lantern Festival is the most popular, so it is also called the Lantern Festival. At night, dragon lanterns, lion lanterns, lotus picking boats, marquee lanterns, waist drum troupes, martial arts performance teams, etc. are all set out all night long. Everywhere you go, you can hear the sound of gongs, drums, firecrackers, lanterns and songs. The content of the lyrics is mostly about blessing the country and the people, and a prosperous life. This custom is still popular today, but most of the people who participate in playing with lanterns are middle-aged, elderly and women. Young people go out to work after the Chinese New Year and have no time to play with lanterns.

Qingming: It is one of the twenty-four festivals of the lunar calendar. Ruichang residents still worship their ancestors and sweep their tombs during the three days before and after Qingming Festival. In some places in rural areas, the clan head is used as the unit. The clan members gather together to hold temple or tomb sacrifices for their ancestors, and then have a family dinner together, which is called "eating the Qingming Festival". Before and after the Qingming Festival, many schools also organize students to lay wreaths at the Revolutionary Martyrs Memorial Tower or tombs to commemorate the martyrs and carry out revolutionary traditional education.

Dragon Boat Festival: The fifth day of the fifth lunar month is the Dragon Boat Festival, also known as the Duanyang Festival. During the festival, relatives and friends send each other salted eggs, sugar, wine and other gifts. On this day, moxa sticks and calamus are placed on both sides of every door, which is said to "ward off evil spirits". Eat rice dumplings, steamed rice cakes, salted eggs or preserved eggs for breakfast, and have a family dinner together at noon. In the old days, realgar wine was still popular, but now it is rare. Villages around Chihu often hold dragon boat races before and after the Dragon Boat Festival. It was originally intended to commemorate the patriotic poet Qu Yuan, but has now become a mass sports activity.

Hungry Ghost Festival: The 15th day of the seventh lunar month is the Ghost Festival, also known as "July 15th". The old custom of burning burdens for ancestors on the evening of the 14th and 15th still exists, just as a way to commemorate their ancestors.

Mid-Autumn Festival: The 15th day of the eighth lunar month is the Mid-Autumn Festival. Moon cakes are the best gifts for relatives and friends during the festival. On that evening, people of all ages often sit around a banquet, talk about the past and the present, and taste moon cakes, which is called "moon appreciation." Agencies and groups also hold Mid-Autumn Festival symposiums, tea parties and other activities during this period to increase communication between them.

Double Ninth Festival: In ancient times, September was regarded as the Yang number, so the ninth day of the ninth lunar month was the Double Ninth Festival. In the old days, people also had the tradition of worshiping their ancestors on the Double Ninth Festival, which was called "autumn sacrifice", but it is now rare. There are also some literati who have the habit of climbing high, drinking alcohol and composing poems. Today is Senior Citizen's Day. Some government agencies organize retired personnel to visit historical sites or carry out cultural and sports activities; some schools organize outings or camping for students.

New Year's Eve: The last day of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar (the 30th day of the lunar month and the 29th day of the lunar month, some people eat the New Year's dinner one day in advance). It is called "New Year's Eve", which means saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new. In the old days, on New Year's Eve, people had to prepare three animal sacrifices to worship their ancestors, which was called "returning blessings to the new year." This has disappeared now. Nowadays, the whole family reunites, sets off firecrackers and has a reunion dinner, which is called "celebrating the New Year". Still very popular. In recent years, urban residents have also ordered New Year meals at restaurants to save trouble. After the meal, the elders give "New Year's money" to underage children. Nowadays, some younger generations also give "New Year's money" to the elderly who have no fixed income. In the evening, in the old days, the whole family would sit around the stove and drink tea, staying up all night, which was called "watching the New Year's Eve." Today, I like to watch the CCTV Spring Festival Gala and light firecrackers until midnight before going to bed.

4. Marriage Customs

The old custom of arranged marriages based on the words of the matchmaker and the orders of the parents has long since disappeared, and free love and independent marriage among young men and women has become the mainstream. The old habit of intermarriage between cousins ??and cousins ??no longer exists; nowadays, long-distance marriages are relatively more common. The number of rural young people going out to work is increasing day by day, and it is not uncommon for them to marry young people from other places.

Folk weddings still focus on bride price, betrothal gifts and dowry, and increasingly focus on richness and luxury. It has become common for dowries to include color TVs, refrigerators, and motorcycles, and it has also begun to appear that rich families marry their daughters to accompany them in cars or houses. It is no longer rare to use a sedan to welcome a bride, but it is common for people to use a sedan to welcome a bride and take photos of the whole process. The decoration of new wedding houses is becoming more and more luxurious, with high-end furniture and complete household appliances.

In the old days, it was popular to make noises about the newlyweds on wedding nights. In addition to throwing tents (popped rice, dates, candies, etc.) and congratulations, they also teased the newlyweds in various ways. Nowadays, the old habits are changed, civilized, singing, Dance, or perform theatrical performances, etc.

5. Birthday customs

Birth birthday celebrations are popular in Ruichang. Young people call it "birthday" and old people call it "birthday". Three days after the baby is born, he invites relatives and friends to a banquet, which is called "making three dynasties." Young people also adopt foreign customs when celebrating their birthdays, such as singing birthday songs, blowing out candles, and eating cakes. When the elderly turn 60 years old, they celebrate their 60th birthday (every five or ten years thereafter) and invite relatives and friends to celebrate or have a family gathering, where they eat longevity noodles and drink longevity wine. In the old days, younger generations had to pay homage to the birthday star, but this is no longer the case. However, it is common for the younger generation to honor the elders by giving them clothes, or requesting songs to celebrate the birthday of the birthday girl on the local TV station.

6. Funeral customs

When a person dies, his or her children who are away from home must rush home and wait by the bedside, which is called "sent off" or "sent off old age". After breathing, it turns into paper money, which is called "getting up money". Then the funeral is announced to relatives and friends, who then send funeral gifts such as wreaths, firecrackers, or cash, and attend the funeral. Children wear mourning clothes, and most of them wear black gauze or white flowers, while fewer and fewer wear white mourning clothes. When an employee of an agency or unit dies, the unit where he or she works usually presides over the issuance of an obituary notice, a memorial service or a farewell ceremony to the body. In recent years, under the strong promotion of the municipal government, the deceased in urban and rural areas have been changed from coffin burial to cremation. But most of them are still buried after cremation, but the coffin is replaced by an urn. There are also some people who place the urn of the deceased in the coffin for burial (this is mainly the case where the coffin was already purchased).

7. Other customs

When people in Ruichang complete a new home or purchase a new house and move into a new house, they usually hold a banquet to celebrate, and relatives and friends give gifts and money to congratulate them. When government agencies, enterprises and institutions build office buildings, or even when bridges and roads are completed, ribbon-cutting and other celebration ceremonies are held, and banquets and gifts are held just like the private sector. Since the resumption of the college entrance examination, parents of students admitted to colleges and universities have to prepare banquets to entertain teachers, relatives and friends, and relatives and friends go to the banquets to send congratulatory gifts.

8. Folk paper-cutting custom

Ruichang is known as the "hometown of paper-cutting".

Folk paper-cut art is an ephemeral art. The reason why it can be spread and evolve over such a long period of time is mainly achieved by "inheritance", that is, the older generation has taught some folk cultural concepts and artistic symbols in paper-cut (ie. Patterns) and their own innovations and experiences in paper-cut creation are passed on to the next generation. This next generation may belong to their own family or to someone else's family. It is passed down from generation to generation in a completely open manner regardless of remuneration, thus Inherited, integrated, developed and evolved to this day. Its inheritance pipeline is completed through rural working women.

1. New Year’s Eve customs: The Chinese New Year is the most important festival among the lunar New Year and traditional folk festivals. A large number of festive activities have led to the widespread application of folk paper-cutting. Every household is decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations, and the halls and living rooms are decorated with paper-cut flowers. Most people use paper-cut patterns such as "plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum, lotus root and lotus, golden rooster crowing, fish leaping over the dragon's gate" to express their good wishes for good luck in the new year, success in doing things, plenty every year, peace and blessings in all seasons, and so on.

2. Marriage customs: According to the old wedding customs in Ruichang, before proposing a marriage, the matchmaker will definitely find an opportunity to let the woman show her talent in paper-cutting and embroidery to the man. After meeting the couple, the woman will take the initiative to give the man a pair of exquisitely embroidered stockings or cloth sandals as a token of love. There was once a folk song circulated in Ruichang: Good songs make good wine, good rice forges good cakes, and when asking for marriage, you need a clever sister, Linglong can cut flowers." Commonly used paper-cut embroidery content in weddings includes "Butterflies playing with pumpkins, magpies playing with pumpkins, Patterns such as plum picking, cowherd and weaver girl, dragon and phoenix showing auspiciousness, mandarin ducks playing in the water, Guanyin sending children, golden boy and jade girl, durian blooming with hundreds of seeds" and other patterns pray for a hundred years of good union, long life together, early birth of precious children, and many children and good fortune.

3. Birthday customs: Celebrating birthdays has always been very popular in Ruichang. It starts when a person is born, first celebrating his birth, celebrating the full moon, celebrating his first birthday, celebrating his tenth birthday, and then starting from his thirtieth birthday, every tenth birthday Daqing. During birthday celebrations, the "birthday star's" clothes, hats, shoes, birthday hall, birthday tent, etc. are all decorated with paper-cut works. The main paper-cut embroidery contents are Qilin sending children, cranes in spring, and pine and crane extensions. Years, longevity, longevity, longevity, etc.

4. Funeral customs. The death of the elderly is a "white wedding" in Ruichang customs. Not only does it affect the entire village, but it also often disturbs relatives and close friends during the funeral, including the decoration of the mourning hall, the making of the crane in the mourning room, the clothes and hats of the deceased, and various symbolic funerary objects. etc., all contributed to the large-scale application of paper-cut works.

5. Witchcraft customs: In the history of Ruichang, it was also a place where witchcraft was prevalent, and witchcraft activities continued into the 20th century. In the mid-1950s, witchcraft activities were carried out to deal with various major diseases. The fundamental reason was due to the underdevelopment of medicine in the past. The wizards ordered the artists to cut out "paper figures, paper boats and cranes" in advance. Or "Zhongkui catches ghosts, tigers climb up mountains, lions play ball, smallpox queen" and so on. Then, the wizard chants incantations while using relevant paper-cut works to perform key skills, so as to achieve the so-called exorcism and cure for the sick. Diseases and evils can be turned into good fortune.

6. Farming customs: Among many farming activities, they are generally purely production activities, but there are two activities in Ruichang that are closely related to paper-cutting.

Firstly, every time it is the season to pick new tea, almost all female villagers from every household go to the mountains to pick tea. On this day, they will dress up and be "fully armed" with various hand-made paper-cut and embroidered costumes. This kind of low-intensity physical labor is regarded as a rare social and entertainment opportunity by the village girls. They talk, play and sing to each other. At this time, if a man passes by, they will sing or laugh. Conduct "provocations" and deliberately show your most beautiful side in order to win the admiration of men.

The second is to plant rice seedlings. There is a saying in Ruichang: "Adults look at rice transplanting, and children look at the New Year." It can be seen that. The importance of planting in the hearts of farmers. The method of planting in the countryside is similar to picking tea, but it is a men's business. If a female villager passes by at this time, the men will make fun of them. They scolded them. When the rice fields are opened, bunches of paper-cut flowers must be planted on the edge of the field to celebrate.

In Ruichang, "craftsmanship" is generally respected, and the craftsmanship of paper-cut artists. It is not tied to money, so the reputation of paper-cut artists is even more extraordinary and they are loved by people.

Because of this, in the vast rural areas, paper-cutting and embroidery have naturally become "compulsory courses" for unmarried girls. What is particularly worth mentioning is that there is an unwritten custom in rural marriages. The male family generally has two criteria for choosing a spouse. One is rough work, and the other is rough work. Rough work means that women must have a healthy body and can do farm work. Another line of work is that they are good at paper-cutting and embroidery. People regard this as a criterion for assessing whether a young woman has a high IQ. Otherwise, she can only be regarded as a second-class girl, and it is impossible for a second-class girl to marry into a good husband's family or choose a good husband. These are also important reasons why Ruichang folk paper-cutting continues to thrive. Precisely because the craft of paper-cutting is inherited in various families and performed individually, there is no pedigree and no evidence.