世界传统文化研究院诠释正月十二习俗

世界传统文化研究院

正月十二是中国传统农历节日之一，中国民间传说，正月十二是老鼠娶媳妇的日子，也有的说这一天是老鼠的生日。那正月十二的传统习俗有哪些呢？

 

1、搭灯棚

民间俗称“十二搭灯棚”。意思是从即日起人们开始准备庆祝元宵佳节，选购灯笼，搭盖灯棚。有童谣云：“十一嚷喳喳，十二搭灯棚，十三人开灯，十四灯正明，十五行月半，十六人完灯。”

 

2、烤老鼠火

在石家庄南部一些地区的民间，至今还保留沿承着正月十二[有的为正月初十]烤柏火的风俗习惯。黄昏时分，人们在自家门前，点燃柏枝，烟雾中弥漫着一股清香，一家老幼围坐火边，谓曰：烤柏火、烤老鼠火、烤百龄火(柏树俗称百龄)。

 

烤柏火寓意为“败祸”，可以避瘟驱邪，人们将不用的旧家什，统统烧掉，用烧后剩余的柏枝雕成“柏锁”，系上绳子，挂在婴儿脖子上，以求长命百岁。谐音“烤百火”“烤百龄火”，孩子们走街串巷奔走各家，烤百家火，不生百病，一年无灾无恙。

 

3、过老鼠节

传说，正月十二是老鼠娶媳妇的日子，也有的说这一天是老鼠的生日，于是人们围绕着老鼠创造出各种各样“节目”，不但表达了老百姓对老鼠的憎恨，还驱赶了父老乡亲们一年的辛苦劳累。这一天的汉族民俗活动有藏剪刀，收旧鞋，捏老鼠嘴等。

 

1)早上敲遍墙角旮旯

“打、打、打旮旯，十个老鼠九个瞎，留下一个拨眼的，眼里长个萝卜花!”正月十二早上太阳还未升起来，徐庄村各家各户的大妈、大婶们就带着孩子们嘴里一边念叨着，一边手拿着木棍敲打着可能藏老鼠的地方，土坑的坑洞里、墙角的老鼠洞里、墙根的砖缝里、木柜底下的布鞋里、牲畜棚里、柴房里、厕所里……凡是屋子里旮旯都要敲打个遍。

 

2)藏剪刀

早饭过后，该村各家的媳妇姑娘们都要把平时用的剪刀藏到抽屉里、褥子底下，而且还要用红绳或红绸把剪刀捆包起来。据徐庄的村民们说，老鼠节这一天大人孩子都不能用剪刀，只要听不到剪刀的“咔喳”声，家里一年就听不到“咔喳咔喳”老鼠嗑东西的声音。媳妇姑娘们将剪刀藏起来，就是怕孩子们拿到剪刀玩耍。

 

　3)收旧鞋

同时，各家各户的孩子们背着筐头挨家挨户收旧鞋，村中的老百姓也乐意把 “邪”( 鞋)送出去。平时，该村老百姓将穿坏了的旧鞋不当作废品卖掉，而是专门等到老鼠节这天给上门收旧鞋的孩子们。据徐庄村村民韩大为大爷介绍，老鼠除了打洞外，还习惯藏在人们不穿的旧鞋里做窝、生育小老鼠。孩子们被收到的旧鞋再垒成老鼠洞的形状烧掉，象征着将各家各户的老鼠“一窝烩”。

 

4)捏老鼠嘴

在中午家里要包饺子，包成的饺子要捏成老鼠模样的，有嘴、有耳朵、有尾巴，还用绿豆当作眼睛，捏成的饺子简直就是一只只老鼠非常逼真，俨然是一件件面塑艺术品。这天，家家户户之所以包饺子，是因为包饺子就是“捏老鼠嘴”，把老鼠嘴捏死，老鼠就不能“咔喳咔喳”嗑东西了，“一年家中没有老鼠”。

 

4、吵老鼠耳朵、嚼老鼠眼

正月十二的晚上，家家户户都习惯喝小米面或玉米面粥，意思是“迷老鼠眼”让老鼠看不清东西。而且晚饭后，人们还要炒花生，意思是“炒(吵)聋老鼠的耳朵”。同时，因为花生和老鼠的眼睛很像，吃花生也叫嚼老鼠眼，意思是“让老鼠变瞎”。

 

5、“点丁”日

在客家民俗中，元宵节要结灯挂彩喜庆团圆，而在正月十二，各村就要召集能工巧匠搭棚点灯了。由于客家话中，灯与丁同音，所以正月十二又是“点丁”日。

 

The twelfth day of the first month is one of the traditional Chinese lunar festivals. According to Chinese folklore, the twelfth day of the first month is the day when a rat marries a daughter-in-law. Some say it is the birthday of a rat. What are the traditional customs on the twelfth day of the first month?

 

1, take the light shed

Commonly known as the "twelve take the lamp shed". From that day on, people begin to prepare to celebrate the Lantern Festival, buy lanterns and build light sheds. There are nursery rhymes cloud: "eleven shout chirp, twelve take the light shed, thirteen open the lights, fourteen lights are bright, fifteen line months and a half, sixteen people finish the lights."

 

2. Roast a rat fire

In the south of Shijiazhuang in some areas of the folk, still retain along bearing the twelfth day of the first month [some for the tenth day of the first month] the custom of baking Bai fire. At dusk, people light cypress branches in front of their homes, and the smoke is filled with a faint fragrance. The whole family sits around the fire and calls it: roast cypress fire, roast mouse fire, and roast bailing fire (commonly known as bailing).

 

Bake fire meaning "disaster", can avoid the plague and exorcise evil, people will not use the old furniture, all burned, burned with the remaining cypress branches carved into "cypress lock", tied a rope, hanging on the baby's neck, in order to live a long life. Homophonic "bake fire" "bake fire", the children run from house to house, bake fire, do not have a hundred diseases, a year without disaster.

 

3. Celebrate the Rat Day

According to legend, the 12th day of the first lunar month is the day for a rat to marry his wife, and some people say it is the birthday of a rat. Therefore, people create various "programs" around the rat, not only to express the common people's hatred of the rat, but also to drive away the villagers' hard work for a year. Folk activities of the Han nationality on this day include hiding scissors, collecting old shoes, pinching a mouse's mouth and so on.

 

1) Knock every corner in the morning

"Hit, hit, hit a corner, ten mice nine blind, leaving an eye, eyes long a turnip flower!" The twelve in the morning the sun is not rising, day Xu Zhuang village households aunt, aunt are chanting with the children in the mouth side, one hand holding a stick against the possible hidden mouse, holes in the hole, the corner of wall brick, of a mouse or a rat hole in the cloth shoes under seam in wooden fence, livestock shed, wood room, toilet... Knock every nook and cranny in the house.

 

2) hide the scissors

After breakfast, the village daughter-in-law girls are usually used to hide the scissors in the drawer, under the mattress, but also with red rope or red silk scissors wrapped up. According to villagers in Xuzhuang, neither children nor adults are allowed to use scissors on this day. As long as the scissors do not click, the click-click-click-mouse will not be heard in the family for a year. The daughter-in-law hid the scissors, lest the children should play with them.

 

3) collect old shoes

At the same time, children carrying baskets go from house to house collecting used shoes, and people in the village are willing to give away the "evil" (shoes). Usually, the village people will wear out the old shoes not as scrap to sell, but wait for the mouse day to collect the old shoes for the children. According to Xuzhuang Village villager Han Dawei, in addition to making holes, rats are also used to hide in the old shoes that people do not wear to make nests and give birth to mice. Children are burned by rearranging old shoes they receive into the shape of a mouse hole, symbolizing the "brood" of rats from one house to another.

 

4) Pinch the mouse's mouth

At noon at home to make dumplings, dumplings made into the shape of a mouse, a mouth, ears, tail, and mung beans as eyes, knead into the dumplings is a mouse is very realistic, just like a piece of dough sculpture art. On this day, every family make dumplings, because make dumplings is "pinched mouse mouth", the mouse mouth pinched to death, the mouse can not "Ka Ka" crack things, "a year in the home without mice".

 

4, noisy mouse ears, chewing mouse eyes

On the night of the 12th lunar month, every family has a custom of eating millet or corn flour porridge, which means "blind mice". And after dinner, people also stir-fry peanuts, which means "stir-fry the ears of deaf mice." Also, because peanuts are like the eyes of a mouse, eating peanuts is also called chewing a mouse's eye, which means "to make a mouse blind."

 

5, "dot the dot" day

In Hakka folklore, the Lantern Festival is a festive reunion, and on the 12th day of the first month, villages will call together skilled craftsmen to build sheds and light lanterns. As the Hakka dialect, the lamp and Ding with the same sound, so the twelfth day is "dot Ding" day.