Sacrifice is a traditional ritual of seeking blessings and eliminating disasters from the gods, which is called auspicious ceremony. In primitive times, people thought that the human soul could exist without the body. The sacrificial handle is the derivative of this soul concept. The initial sacrificial activities were relatively simple and barbaric. People use bamboo or clay to shape gods' idols, or draw images of gods such as the sun, the moon, stars and beasts on rocks as appendages to worship objects. Then food and other gifts for God are displayed in front of idols, the host prays, and the worshippers sing and dance to God. After entering the civilized society, the abundance of material makes the ceremony more and more complicated, and the sacrifice is more and more exquisite and standardized. "Guanzi Light and Heavy" said: "It takes 92 days from beginning of spring to long summer, which is called the summer solstice, and the wheat is ripe. The son of heaven worshipped in Taizong and flourished wheat. ..... From summer to early, 46 days, late summer and early autumn, the millet is ripe. The son of heaven was worshipped in Taizu, which was full of millet. ..... 92 days, this is called autumn. Autumn has come and the grain is ripe. The son of heaven worshiped Tai Jiao and left his country for 138 miles to the west. Dressed in white * white clothes, with a jade pendant and a tin supervisor, he led princes, doctors and scholars, followed the people, and called for offering sacrifices to the moon. ..... From autumn to early, in 92 days, the son of heaven traveled 92 miles north to the altar, dressed in black * black, and saluted the princes, ministers and doctors, calling it a birthday sacrifice. "
Sacrificial custom:
In ancient times, the sacrificial customs in Linze mainly included offering sacrifices to gods, ancestors and Confucius.
Sacrifice to god. Every year in the third month of the lunar calendar, Tomb-Sweeping Day, Liaoquan, Shahe, Banqiao and other places will hold "Lord Huang Cheng" to parade out of the government. It means that the city god went out to inspect the good and evil on earth. Every year, the local leaders take turns to preside over the activities, and Taoist priests are invited to blow trumpets and chant Buddhist scriptures. The wooden city god (idol) in the temple is carried out in eight big sedan chairs, guarding the front and hugging the back, and ringing gongs to clear the way. Liaoquan sent the idol to the palace in the west of the city, and Shahe sent it to the temporary color shed outside the east gate. Banqiao sent the puppet city god to Xiwan Temple and Beiwan Temple for three days, and then carried it back to its original place. It is said that the wooden town god of Banqiao Zhangjiakou bunker has worn out shoes and clothes. Actually, it was all rats.
Liaoquan, the former county seat, holds an activity of offering sacrifices to Fengshen the day before "Long Summer" every year. The ceremony was held in the evening. The activity was hosted by the county government at Caotan outside the west gate. During the day, Taoist priests were invited to chant Buddhist scriptures, and at night, the county magistrate personally became a Taoist priest, and the police took a prisoner to prison. After setting up a hall to burn incense, worship and recite eulogy, the prisoner was taken to the dug pit, and the "executioner" pretended to cut off the prisoner's head with a knife. In fact, pig's head or sheep's head is replaced by pig's head and buried in the pit, and then the prisoner is taken back to prison. Its original intention is to pay homage to Fengshen with "living people" and pray that there will be no strong winds after the "long summer" and wish the crops a bumper harvest that year. Sacrifice ancestors first. March "Tomb-Sweeping Day" and July 15 are the days to commemorate our ancestors (as mentioned above). On the day of commemorating ancestors, some famous families will continue their genealogy in the tombs, and some will re-establish "family rules". If some descendants steal cattle and horses, they will be punished at the grave, some will be beaten forty times with a stick, and some will be punished at the grave for an hour to serve as a warning to future generations.
Some people who have been away from home for several years or decades return to their hometown, and whenever they go to the grave, they will burn paper for sacrifice, which is called "talking about ancestor worship first". In order to show off their parents and honor their ancestors, some rich people who earn money outside spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to rebuild their ancestral graves and rebury their ancestors, invite monks and nuns from all over the house to cross over the dead, and hold a big banquet to entertain guests. Their prestige is so high that their neighbors admire them.
The "starting a grave" in rural areas is also called moving a grave. Some farmers buried their ancestors beside their fields so that they could guard their fields. In a few years, the ancestors will go to the ancestral graves to wrap their bones in red cloth and bury them in new graves. Some families can't have boys, or students can't read. Someone said, "The money is in the door, and the children and grandchildren are in the grave." Some farmers give birth to college students, saying that it is a good place to build graves. When you get rich, say that Zhuangzi has built a treasure house of geomantic omen. Some people believe it and move their ancestral graves over and over again, beating Zhuangzi to this place and then moving to that place. After several struggles, exhaustion of physical strength, high debts, no college, no wealth, but give up. However, there are no "tossing" families, some graduated from college, some became rich, and some people were envious.
Sacrifice Confucius. August 27th of the lunar calendar is Confucius' birthday, and schools (mainly rural middle schools or primary schools) and Confucian scholars get together to hold commemorative activities. Liaoquan and Shahe are held in Wenchang Palace or Confucian Temple, some in Kuixing Building, and most in schools. A memorial hall was set up to honor the memorial tablet of Confucius Wang Xuan, a great sage. Confucian scholars arranged it according to the order of their elders and younger generations, and burned incense to worship in turn. The ceremony is read by the singer, such as Qin Le, firing a gun, making a confession, chanting sacrificial rites, burning incense and changing tables. Those with higher social status are pushed to be the main sacrificial people and preside over sacrificial activities, and the expenses are generally shared by the people and borne by the participants.
In addition, there are activities of offering sacrifices to the Dragon King, the Land God, the Kitchen God and the God of Wealth in rural areas. There are also various sacrificial activities in temples, temples, shrines and temples around the country. Its meaning is to pray for peace, bless one party's peace, have good weather, or eliminate disasters and diseases. There are also activities such as carpenters offering sacrifices to Lu Ban, blacksmiths offering sacrifices to the old gentleman, lumberjacks offering sacrifices to Yin Xian, and vendors offering sacrifices to the God of Wealth. There are also oil mills, vinegar mills, dyeing mills, shoemakers, shoemakers, noodle makers and so on. , have their own sacrifices, don't elaborate.