Hakka people have their own charming customs. Most of the traditional customs retained by the Hakka were brought by immigrants from the Central Plains during the Tang and Song Dynasties. In the long-term historical development, the Hakkas have integrated and assimilated some indigenous ethnic minorities, and at the same time absorbed and integrated their customs into their own customs. They also absorbed their good customs through interactions with other ethnic groups in other areas. In addition, the Hakka population is large and the territory is vast, resulting in "different customs in ten miles and different customs in hundreds of miles". Therefore, the inheritance and variation of Hakka customs are particularly colorful and diverse.

Despite this, the basic connotation of Hakka customs is consistent or similar, so it is quite cohesive and keeps the Hakka people together. Hakka customs reflect the traditional habits, morals, religious beliefs and other social life matters of the Hakka people. Or the sacrifices to gods and ancestors, or the narratives, entertainment and competitions of festivals, or the numerous taboos, clothing, production... In their customs, the Hakka people express their love for their relatives and their respect for the great achievements of their ancestors. It is an expression of admiration, admiration for national righteousness, and feelings of township party gatherings and greetings with relatives and friends.

With the development of the times, Hakka customs are also constantly evolving and developing. Some are still popular among the people now, while others were popular among the people in the past. Among them, some of them have a strong superstitious color, but as part of the custom research content, they still have cultural and academic value, which only requires the familiar ears of the viewer.

1. Festivals and annual customs of the Hakka people

The annual customs of the Hakka people generally include the national traditional festival customs, the worship of local gods and miscellaneous gods. . Through these folk customs, we can explore some of the sources of Hakka folk style.

Main annual festivals:

1. Spring Festival: The Spring Festival can be roughly divided into three stages: from the beginning of the new year to New Year’s Eve as the preparation stage; from the first to the fifth day of the new year as the New Year celebrations stage; from the sixth day of the Lunar New Year

to the Lantern Festival is the entertainment stage. The more special activities include sending New Year's greetings, shooting coal, steaming New Year's rice, eating New Year's wine, watching the New Year's Eve, opening the door, paying New Year's greetings, and recreational activities.

2. Beginning of Spring: The beginning of spring. At this time, people generally prepare incense tables, burn incense and light candles, set off firecrackers and high-altitude cannons, and paste red notes such as "Welcome the Spring and Bring the Blessings" and "The Spring Comes to Blessings", which is called "Welcome the Spring".

3. Lantern Festival: The fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the traditional Chinese folk Lantern Festival. During the Lantern Festival, we eat Yuanxiao, play with lanterns, admire lanterns, and guess lantern riddles. Hakka folk cities and villages are decorated with various lanterns everywhere, which is very beautiful. It is a custom in Tingzhou that before the Lantern Festival, mothers will give lotus lanterns to their daughters who are married but have not given birth to children. The lanterns are similar to the sound of "ding", which means "send a daughter, add a child". Lantern Festivals are similar in different places.

4. Waking of Insects: There are two folk customs in Tingzhou related to hygiene. One is to fry beans or boil taro in hot water, and the other is to sprinkle some lime on the cabinet legs, table legs, column legs, wall legs, etc. Both are for pest control.

5. Spring Society and Autumn Society: It has long been a custom in rural areas to worship the God of Earth and the God of Grains on Society Day. They often welcome gods, "support the community" and hold rituals, praying for a prosperous year.

6. Qingming Festival: Hakka tomb-sweeping custom usually starts from the Spring Equinox, reaches its climax during Qingming Festival, and lasts until around Grain Rain, which lasts about a month. First, the graves of other people are buried, and then the graves of the family are buried. Tomb-sweeping after the Beginning of Summer is called "sacrifice to wild ghosts".

7. Dragon Boat Festival: commonly known as the May Festival among Hakka people. A few days before the festival, glutinous rice is wrapped in bamboo leaves to make rice dumplings, which are given to each other by relatives and friends. The main contents of the festival include eating rice dumplings, realgar wine, dragon boat racing, bathing with "medicated water", and hanging peach branches on the door to ward off evil spirits.

8. Entering the ambush: Many people in urban and rural areas cook "immortal jelly" to eat.

9. Eat new food: try new rice. Usually after the minor summer heat, there is a new eclipse on Mao. In the countryside, freshly cut rice is ground into rice, and rice is cooked to offer sacrifices to the Grain God and ancestors. Then everyone eats and tastes the new wine together. Cities generally buy a small amount of new rice and cook it with the old rice, plus newly-launched vegetables, etc. Offerings include bitter melon, loofah, eggplant, etc. As the saying goes, bitter melon blesses everyone, Sijia blesses the whole family, young and old, and eggplant blesses the wife.

10. July 7th: There are Hakka legends about "Qixi Festival Begging for Skills" and "Cowherd and Weaver Girl", but there are few customs related to this. There is an activity among the people to sit outside at night and watch the celestial phenomena. Some women have "sororities." Folks in Tingzhou have the custom of inviting their husbands to dinner.

11. Hungry Ghost Festival: also known as Ghost Festival. The Hakka Hungry Ghost Festival falls on the 14th day of the seventh lunar month. Changting is commonly known as the "July Festival" or "July Half". People eat meat on the 13th day of the 7th month and eat vegetarian food on the 15th day of the lunar month. There are old customs such as steaming cakes to "make a marriage", "bringing the grandpa and grandma in", "burning buns", "burning night incense", etc. Tingcheng originally had the custom of going up the knife ladder. The superstitious color of the Hungry Ghost Festival is strong, and the old and modern customs are gradually weakening.

12. Mid-Autumn Festival: Commonly known as the August Festival among the people. Customs such as eating moon cakes and admiring the moon are generally the same everywhere. On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, there are still several folk customs related to the moon, which are similar to witchcraft, such as "crouching on flowers, pecking at the moon girl, jumping on poles, spinning water bowls" and so on.

13. Double Ninth Festival: Hakka people call it "Nineteenth Festival". Some mountain villages also call it "Douwei Festival" and consider it the last important festival of the year. In the countryside, it is common to fry various pastries and kill chickens and ducks, while in cities it is simpler to add snacks. It is a traditional custom to climb high and drink chrysanthemum wine.

14. October and a half: Xianyuan Festival on October 15th, also called the Winter Festival. Foods such as glutinous rice cakes, rice crackers, taro buns, and tofu are often made in rural areas, which is called "finishing winter". In some places, there is a custom of performing rituals to worship gods.

15. Little New Year’s Eve: On the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, there is a saying of “sending the Kitchen King to heaven”. Sugar melons are often used to worship the Stove, in order to "sweeten the mouth of the Stove Lord and perform more good deeds in front of the Jade Emperor".

It is the main festival of the year for the Hakka people.

2. Marriage and festive customs of the Hakka people

The marriage etiquette and customs of the Hakka people are heavily influenced by ancient customs, and are still mainly for the purpose of carrying on the family line. Hakka people pay attention to "marrying with a clear matchmaker" when marrying men and women. The formal marriage relationship in Hakka society is a "marriage with marriage", and the practice of raising children is not popular.

Although Hakka society inevitably has the stereotype of favoring boys over girls, overall, the relationship between men and women is relatively equal. For example, Hakka women and men work equally hard at home. Therefore, when a woman is in her natal family, she is equal to her brothers; when she gets married, her parents attach great importance to her marriage, and her husband's family must follow traditional etiquette and follow the rules in order to marry a good wife. Hakka people's marriage methods follow the ancient "six rites". With the changes in society, although there have been changes, they are still generally handled according to the old system. The Six Sacrifice Ceremonies: "Promise the bride, present the marriage agreement, tell the date and send the betrothal money, plate the dowry, receive and send off the bride, visit the hall and eat a bowl of chicken with noodles." It is very similar to the ancient "Six Rites". In the wedding ceremony, there are still old customs such as making arrangements and consummating the marriage.

On the third day after the bride gets married, her parents' family entertains her daughter and son-in-law, which is called "inviting three dynasties". On this day, the daughter cannot stay at her parents' house and must rush back to her husband's house. In some rural areas, the mother's family invites some women's relatives and friends to their daughter's home in a few days; or the mother's family invites her daughter home to make full-moon wine (during the full moon of the wedding). The male and female parents-in-law each choose a date and hold a banquet to invite each other, which is called "visiting", in order to strengthen the communication between the two parents' families.

Inviting guests to a wedding banquet, commonly known as "wedding banquet", is a very grand ceremony, especially in the past. Among them, the woman's guests at the man's house are called "big guests"; the man must set off firecrackers in front of the door to greet them, and the banquet cannot start until they arrive. The groom should hold the pot at the head table of his maternal uncle, and he should take turns pouring wine from his maternal uncle. Guests are seated at the table according to their seniority, distance, age, and age. Relatives from the outside are respected and members of the same family are humbled. On the upper left of the hall is the chief, and on the right is the second. The elderly sit at the top, accompanying guests at the bottom, and so on.

Other forms of marriage, such as child bride-in-law, bridal marriage, transfer of relatives, exchange of relatives, remarriage, etc. Some are now gradually becoming rarer and disappearing.

3. Clothing, food, housing and transportation customs of the Hakka people

1. Clothing

Hakka clothing is simple, practical, spacious and simple. They generally like to wear plain colors, especially blue, black and white are the most popular. The texture is mostly coarse cloth, bleached blue satin and black ready-made clothes, and self-woven summer cloth for tents. Grass cloth is also used to make summer clothes. During the Qing Dynasty, almost all men, women, and children wore "side-breasted shirts" with long sleeves, straight collars, and cloth buttons. The placket was opened diagonally from the collar to the right side, and the inner placket was filled with pockets.

The trousers are all "big crotch trousers", which are wide and large, and are connected to a four or five-inch wide waist. The waist is not open, and the excess part is folded in front of the belly and tied with a belt. Trouser legs, also known as trouser legs, are about 0.3 meters wide. Women's clothes are decorated with scrollwork on the collar and lace on the placket, cuffs and trouser legs. In the late Qing Dynasty, upper-class men often wore long gowns when going out or meeting guests, and sometimes added a mandarin jacket to the gown. A kind of apron commonly worn by rural women to "cover the belly" can actually cover the chest. The hem is wide

and reaches both sides. The upper end is sewn with flower embroidery, and a "neck chain", "waist chain" and "tooth brand" are added. ",

etc. silver jewelry. The girl wears her braids and the young woman wears her hair in a bun. In addition, women with small feet also wear embroidered shoes and Lopa attire. Peasant women do not bind their feet, but old women also wear ropa.

During the Republic of China, men's side-breasted shirts were gradually phased out, while long shirts and mandarin jackets increased. Later, the Chinese tunic suit appeared and became popular among the intellectual community. Workers mostly wear short-breasted shirts, commonly known as gowns. Women still mainly wear side-breasted shirts, and only a few educated women wear cheongsams or blue and black skirts, with sleeves significantly shortened to the top of the palm. Men who have gone to school often wear Western-style trousers with belts or suspenders, while women's trousers have always been dominated by large crotches. In terms of shoes and socks, cloth shoes were mostly worn in the Qing Dynasty. They were homemade by women in the family. Women's shoes were embroidered. Women with small feet had pointed toes and were only 14-15 centimeters long. Wear bare feet more often on rainy days; wear clogs and cloth shoes, which are called "shoes"; or cloth shoes with thickened soles and coated with tung oil. When traveling far or going up the mountain to cut grass and cut firewood, wear straw sandals. In the Republic of China, only a few people wore rubber boots, rain boots, and leather shoes imported from other places. A pair of rain boots is often used by the whole family. In the old days, socks were sewn with cloth, and in the late Qing Dynasty, gauze-woven socks began to appear.

In the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, upper-class men wore ceremonial hats with tops. Ordinary men wore cylindrical paw hats made of cotton, and later they often wore hemispherical woolen hats. Women wear handkerchiefs in cold weather and rarely wear hats.

2. Diet

Hakka people have three daily meals, most of them eat porridge in the morning and evening, and dry rice during the day (noon). Rural breakfast porridge with cereals. Changting calls miscellaneous grains "coarse grains". In the past, it was "coarse grains for half the year". During bad harvests, grains were mainly eaten, and sometimes sweet potato dregs were eaten to satisfy hunger. Wheat is rarely grown, so noodles are only used as a snack during the New Year or when entertaining guests. Sometimes when there was no harvest in spring, the newly harvested wheat was ground into coarse powder and made into wheat soup to survive. After the 1950s, it was rarely eaten like this. Some villages in Changting, Shanghang, and Wuping have a kind of Tibetan sweet potato, which is pickled in salt water and has a unique flavor.

As home-cooked dishes, dried pickles and dried radishes are available all year round, and are most commonly served with seasonal green vegetables, amaranth, blood fern, cabbage, mustard greens, quinoa and sweet potato. Every household can make some side dishes, such as pickled vegetables and radish seeds, which are crispy, delicious and full of local characteristics. There are also bean paste, bean curd, etc., which are common dishes.

In addition to cooking and porridge, rice can also be used to make dried noodles, bowl cakes, cage bed glutinous rice, etc. Fengan is famous for its whiteness, tenderness, softness and toughness. There are also glutinous rice glutinous rice cakes and rice crackers made from large grain rice. There are varieties such as cakes, balls, jelly, and fruits, and their tastes are sweet, salty, and alkaline. On every festive day, every household prepares it. It is suitable for worshiping gods, paying guests, and giving gifts to relatives and friends. It is also a traditional food during rural festivals.

Flavored snacks include meatballs and lantern cakes. Meats, such as roasted chunks and white-chopped chicken are the most famous and are the main dishes at the banquet. Braised pork and dry steamed pork are traditional dishes.

Changting’s homemade wine is well-known for its pure and sweet taste, low alcohol content and not easily intoxicating. Women and children like it. The wine lady is even more sweet and delicious, served with steamed eggs, which is beyond words. Bowls are often used for drinking tea, mainly to quench thirst. Sometimes they are used to make soup and rice, which is often said to be "coarse tea and light rice."

Tingzhou people have no preference for sweet, sour, bitter and spicy. Many people like to eat fried food because they think it is crispy and delicious. The cooked dishes are salty and have a strong taste.

3. Living

The architectural characteristics of Hakka houses are mostly four types: hall, kitchen, and pavilion. It is mainly a bungalow with civil structure, with upper and lower halls, two symmetrical horizontal houses on the left and right, and patios on the front, back and left. There must be a shrine on the emperor's wall in the center of the hall to worship the ancestors, and there are side rooms between the halls. A typical building has a terrace in the front, a garden in the back, four gates, and a gate tower.

The rooms on both sides of the hall are bedrooms. The hall is used for dining and entertaining guests on weekdays, and for offering sacrifices during festivals. The horizontal rooms are mostly used as kitchens, grain barns, and storage of farm tools, furniture, and miscellaneous items. The bathtub is mostly inside the house, while the pig and cattle pens and toilets are outside the house. For various buildings, city gates generally use brick and wood structures, while rural areas mostly use wooden frames and earthen walls, and there are also many pure wood buildings in remote mountain villages. In the countryside, there are also huge buildings with "nine halls and eighteen wells" and "earth castle" buildings with tall walls built to protect against invaders. The houses of the She people are mostly thatched huts with bamboo fences. This house format has been used for more than 1,000 years and is still very common in rural areas. It facilitates families to live together and brothers to live apart. The houses in the city were originally mainly bungalows with upper and lower halls or three or four halls. The houses in the city may have been ancestral halls. Later, part of the facades evolved into shops. The arcades on Changting Shuidong Street are quite characteristic of southern cities.

According to the Chinese Folklore Dictionary: The traditional Hakka housing style in southwestern Fujian and northwestern Guangdong and Guangdong is group courtyard housing. Because Hakkas have lived in groups for a long time, they form groups. Most of them are civil structures. The outer walls are made of rammed earth load-bearing walls with a thickness of more than one meter, combined with the internal wooden frames, and a number of partition walls are added that intersect perpendicularly with the outer walls. There are generally no windows under the outer wall, so it looks like a fortress. One is a large courtyard with a flat front and a rounded back, and the interior is composed of three parts: the middle, the left and the right. The courtyards overlap and the houses vary; one is a square, rectangular or circular brick building and earth building with a diameter of more than 70 meters, with more than 300 three-story annular houses nested in it. The houses in the outer ring are four stories high. The ground floor is used for kitchen and miscellaneous rooms, the second floor is used for food storage, and the third floor or above is used for living. The other two rings of houses are only one storey high, with a central hall for clan meetings, weddings, funerals and other activities. When brothers separate, they are divided equally in principle, but the eldest son never leaves the stove. If there is a toilet, it belongs to "Manzi" (the youngest son). The valley proverb goes: "The eldest son sits on the stove, and Manzi sits on the dungeon.

Three , Hakka folk entertainment customs

Hakka folk entertainment is very rich in content. The main festivals include Yangko, dragon boat racing, boat lanterns, dragon lantern dance, lion dance, high-legged dancers, lanterns, horse lanterns, and flower drums. , Jiulianlian, tea lanterns, broadsword dance, Dacheng music and dance, Taoist dance, musical instrument recital, acting, Shifan music, carrying puppets, setting off fireworks, and welcoming the gods; the usual activities include singing folk songs, singing ditties, playing the piano, playing the zither, and Erhu, flute, chess, six-piece chess, playing cards, throwing lottery tickets, playing mahjong, gardening, fishing, etc. Such as the Dabu Hakka "zither" music

The characteristics mark Zhongzhou and Han Dynasty. The ancient vowel of water has formed its own unique style and has a set of basic rules, which reminds people of the enthusiasm and different customs of Hakka music.

Children. Games played include playing sheep, hide-and-seek, taro planting, winter melon planting, shuttlecock playing, rope skipping, chessboard throwing sandbags, checkers, etc.

The popular operas mainly include Peking Opera, Qi Opera, etc. Nanchu opera, puppet show, Han opera, Waijiang troupe, drama, etc. After 1949, Changting also introduced opera, Yue opera, tea picking opera, Huangmei opera, etc.

1. As the name suggests, Yangko is a kind of labor. Therefore, it was originally a form of singing, and later dance and drama performances appeared. Now these three forms and Yangko are widely popular in all parts of the country. Folk dance forms such as land boats and bamboo horses are generally called Yangge. Some people call stilts Yangge and ordinary Yangge "ground Yangge". 2. Lion dance is a treasure trove of Chinese folk dances. The bright pearl has become one of the favorite dance forms of the working people for more than 1,000 years. The lion dance, which is popular in Tingzhou, has two forms: "Wenshi" and "Martial Lion". Every year in the first month, lion dance performers. They usually go from house to house in urban and rural areas to congratulate the New Year and perform performances. After the performance, the heads of households often give red envelopes as a reward. It focuses on martial arts and is very skillful, mainly showing the majesty, bravery and vigor of the lion.

3. Dragon dance is an activity to wish good luck in the year and a good opportunity to connect with relatives and friends. The body is generally dyed in cyan and yellow, which are called "green dragon" and "yellow dragon" respectively.

Some people were playing dragon lanterns while setting off fireworks and firecrackers. Sparks were everywhere, and the dragons were seen rolling in and out among thousands of sparks, making them look bright and golden. Coupled with noisy drum music, it created a warm festive atmosphere.

Liancheng Gutian Lantern Festival Dalong Tour is a traditional and largest mass cultural activity for local farmers. It is held from the 14th to the 16th of the first lunar month every year. Each dragon lantern is burned in one day and one night. During the Lantern Festival, the two surnames of Bao Village, Hua and Jiang, take turns to produce dragons. There are at least 100 boards, called the main dragon. The dragon's head and tail are equipped with sacred blunderbuss, big gongs and drums, and Shiban bands. It is an unprecedented grand occasion.

4. Lantern dance. Among the activities of the Lantern Festival, lantern dancing is the most popular, and it is called differently in different places. Some are called "showing lanterns", some are called "grating lanterns", and some are called "making lanterns" or "flower lanterns". Changting's "Lamp Stepping" mainly reflects love, and is danced by a man and a woman or a man and two women. This dance is simple, relaxed and humorous. The performers of "Lantern Dance" are mostly children. The performers are placed in the middle of the lantern and hang the lantern on their shoulders with a rope. There are 4 or 8 people lined up during the performance.

5. Step on the boat lantern. Boat lanterns are generally performed during the Spring Festival and Lantern Festival. Although the names vary from place to place, the forms of expression are basically the same, such as "land boat", "land boat", "fishing boat", "lotus picking boat", "flower boat" Ship lights" etc. In some areas of Fujian, it is also called "land boating". They are all "land boats" in the same form, but they are different in the content and shape of the boat.

6. Nine links. Also known as "Overlord's Whip" and "Dalianxiang". The performances are mostly singing and dancing, the tunes are mostly folk songs from the region, and the content mostly expresses the love between men and women. It has the form of small performances and singing by two or three people, as well as group dances that involve walking in various formations and arranging various scenes while fighting; there are also those who hold the king's whip and those who hold props such as fans and bamboo boards dancing together. It is loved by youth and children.

7. Others: such as stilts, lottery throwing, string puppets, tea lights, broadsword dance, Dacheng music dance, Taoist dance, etc., which will not be described in detail.

5. Hakka funeral customs

Compared with other customs, funeral customs are more solemn and solemn. The Hakka people are very thoughtful about this, even too red tape. The funeral services are lavish, the etiquette is extravagant, the feast is sumptuous, the soul is drunk and drunk, drums and music are played to mark the farewell, and so on. In some places, old customs still exist.

When the patient is dying, the "shroud" made in advance is put on the patient, which is called "wearing the shroud". In the past, there was a saying of "Six on top and four on bottom", that is, wearing six layers of clothes on the upper body and four layers of trousers on the lower body.

Hakka custom attaches great importance to farewell. Those who are away from home try their best to get home in order to see her one last time before she dies, to show her filial piety. After a person dies, he immediately burns the sedan chair and paper, and his family, children, and children cry out in grief. It's for "sent off to the end".

Announcement of mourning: Immediately after the patient dies. A filial son goes to his maternal uncle's house and uncle's house to report the funeral, and an obituary notice is posted in front of the door or at a nearby intersection.

Place a memorial hall: hang a white cloth in front of the body, set up an incense table, and place a memorial plaque or portrait. In the morning and evening, the souls cry, register the gifts or "candles" sent by relatives and friends, and hang the tents on both sides of the filial piety hall in order.

Stiff Neck: Move the body, spread a white cloth on the floor of the hall, put the body on it, put a new tile on the head, and put a cloth triangular pillow on the tile, and send someone to wait day and night; choose a day and time to put the body into the coffin It's called "incoming materials". Every morning and evening, when relatives and friends come to express their condolences, the bereaved female family members mourn beside the coffin in the tent. In the evening, relatives and friends attend the wake at Xiaotang, which is commonly known as "staying with the deceased at night".

The time of mourning should be chosen, usually in the morning. In the old days, there was a "mourning" on the first day, with people staying up all night and playing drums and music loudly. During the funeral, a memorial ceremony is held first, and then the coffin is raised for the funeral. Pay attention to ostentation to show your children's filial piety.

Burial: Place the coffin in the cemetery. The choice of cemetery should pay attention to "feng shui". The appearance of the tomb is very similar to the Hakka dragon house, which is a manifestation of the Hakka ancestor worship. On the third day after the burial, relatives wear mourning clothes and go to the grave to cry, pay homage and burn paper money, which is called "three dynasties".

Doing Seven: After a person dies, a memorial ceremony is held every "Seventh" day, commonly known as "Doing Seven". Usually only "five-seven" is done. Finally, a memorial ceremony is held and the spirit house (paper house) is burned, which is called "Wanqi" to mark the end of the funeral.

From now on, when a sacrifice is held on the first anniversary, it is called Kai Xiaoxiao; when a sacrifice is held on three years, it is called Kai Daxiao. During the mourning ceremony, red couplets were put on the door and hall, and everything returned to normal.

According to Hakka custom, after a few years of burial (usually ten years), the grave is dug, the remains are baked over charcoal fire, and the limbs are bent and packed into a special pottery urn according to the human body structure, which is called "gold inspection". ”, and then reburied, this is the permanent and real grave.

For people who died abnormally, there are some special funeral customs. For example, more emphasis is placed on asking monks and Taoists to pay homage and chant sutras to save the soul of the dead.

6. Hakka’s beliefs and taboos

In addition to traditional Buddhism and Taoism, the Hakka’s religious beliefs include Christianity and Catholicism that were later imported from the West. In addition, Hakka people worship their ancestors and believe in ghosts and gods. Most of them believe in Buddhism.

1. Buddhism

Buddhism was introduced to Changting by Master Huikuan in the fourth year of Tiancheng in the Southern Tang Dynasty (929). In the second year of Qiande of the Song Dynasty (964), Master Dingguang came to Changting to teach.

In folklore, the above two divisions drove away bandits and defended the city for the people; they prayed for farmers to pray for rain to avoid drought; they protected people's lives and eliminated tiger damage. Huikuan was known as "Fuhuxiang" division".

2. Taoism

The popularity of Taoism in the Hakka area goes hand in hand with Buddhism. In the past, when medicine was immature and plague was rampant, Taoist priests built jots to pray to the God of Plague. When smallpox was prevalent, people prayed to the Pox God. Smallpox has been extinct due to the plague in our country. However, in the countryside, rituals such as making rituals for dragons, praying for blessings, erecting talisman, raising soil, installing fetuses, exorcising evil spirits, suppressing evil spirits, and using talisman water to treat people are still carried out. It happens all the time.

3. Catholicism

During the Shunzhi period of the Qing Dynasty (1653), the Italian priest Ai Julius came to Changting and preached in Laogujing.

4. Christianity

In the spring of the 18th year of Guangxu’s reign in the Qing Dynasty (1892), Zhou Zhide, Chen Qiuqing and others founded Christianity in Changting, Hui’an.

5. Folk worship gods.

Hakka temples often have many secondary gods in addition to the main gods. The gods are also enshrined inside, which fully demonstrates the nature of Chinese folk beliefs - polytheism and idol worship, and most of them belong to soul worship. There are three main types of local gods and local gods in the Hakka area: Mazu, the Three Mountain Kings and Yiminye. The people in Changting who believe in gods are not necessarily religious believers. Some people worship the statues regardless of their religion. It is very common to burn incense with immortals and Buddhas in Changting. The main ones are the Eight Immortals, mainly Lu Dongbin, the God of Wealth, the King of Hell, the Jade Emperor, Wenquxing (Kui Xing), the True Lord Bodhisattva, the Door God, the Stove King, the Five Grain Emperor, Sakyamuni Buddha, All the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in the Western Heaven.

6. God-welcoming games

The Hakka God-welcoming games in urban and rural areas were very popular in the old days and lasted for twelve months throughout the year; on the first and fifteenth day of each month, faithful men and women would burn incense at home or in temples. Light candles and set off firecrackers to show respect. Every year on February 19th, June 19th, and September 19th, urban and rural women bring incense, candles, noodles, cakes, etc. to various temples to "have gatherings" to commemorate the birth, enlightenment and Nirvana of "Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva". Every household is filled with relatives and friends during the God-Welcoming Games, and every household has to provide food and accommodation. Some people enjoy it and prefer to live frugally in order to pray for a good harvest and safety for people and animals.

7. Other beliefs and taboos

Hakka folk also have beliefs about heaven, earth, sun and moon, thunder, lightning, wind and rain, time and direction, etc. There are also different beliefs about animals, plants and utensils, such as snakes, swallows, grasshoppers, brooms, lamps, etc. They also have their own explanations for some human behaviors, such as kicking toes, changing teeth, eyelid twitching, and dreaming. In terms of divination and witchcraft, many people still retain the custom of using witchcraft to treat illnesses. Such as "catching four eyes", "feeling frightened", "drawing talisman", "asking the gods", "fuhua" etc.