The role of rats in folk customs

Liu Zongyuan, a writer of the Tang Dynasty, wrote a fable about a person born in the first year of his son, "Mouse, the god of the child, because I love the mouse". There is another example similar to the characters in Liu Zongyuan’s fables, see "Qing Barnyard Records": "Which surname in Yancheng is the owner who thinks that he is his own destiny? For a long time, the rat has a great habit of living, jumping in and out of the beam every day, and not afraid of people."

There has been a rat marriage festival in history . Generally on the 25th night of the first lunar month, every household does not turn on the lights that night. The whole family sits on the kang in the main room without making a sound. They eat food such as "mouse paws" made with noodles in the dark. The silence is to facilitate the marriage of mice. , So as not to offend the mouse and bring hidden dangers to the coming year. Taiwan residents think that Lu San is a young year. Legend has it that the night of the third day is the rat’s wedding day. The “ rat marrying ” in the folk paper-cutting is a reflection of this belief. Therefore, the lamp is not lit late at night and the ground is sprinkled with rice and salt. People have to go to bed in the morning. Does not affect the happy event of the mouse.

In the old days, there was a custom of avoiding mice in Shanghai. Rats go out for food and stumble to the ground. They are called "rats lost." It is said that most of the people who see them are unlucky. If they are sick, they must be eliminated. The method is to beg for white rice along the street, which is called a hundred rice, go home to cook, and it can be resolved after eating. ( Chinese Zodiac http:///shengxiao/)

In the Jianghan Plain, Hubei Province, Xiaochuye is regarded as the day when the rat gets married, and it is commonly known as "the mouse adds a box." On that day, every family would put the flour cakes with flowers in a dark place, pounding rice and grinding noodles were forbidden, and adults and children were not allowed to make noise. If a rat is disturbed, it will cause trouble in the coming year. There is a custom of "steaming blind mice" in some areas of Qinghai. Every year on the 14th day of the first month of the lunar calendar, the family’s noodles are made into twelve mice, without pinching their eyes, and then steamed in a steamer . They are served on a table during the Lantern Festival , and the lamps are lit to burn incense, begging the mice to eat grass roots and not harm the crops. , To ensure a bumper harvest this year. On the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar, the Korean ethnic group conducts rat-fire folk activities on this day. The children of the farmer threw straw on the ridge and set it alight to achieve the purpose of burning weeds and driving away voles. This folklore activity is conducive to extermination of rodents and insects, and plant ash can also enrich the fields. In addition, Zi-ri is a rat , and people are psychologically satisfied with their symbolic right to use the rat fire on this day.