Academic speculation on the "taste of the year": Xuzhou Spring Festival folk customs in the context of intangible cultural heritage
The Spring Festival is the most solemn traditional festival of the Chinese nation. Its cultural core is to achieve the integration of social relations and strengthen cultural memory through a series of ritual activities.
Regarding the phenomenon of "dilution of the taste of the New Year" that is generally felt by the public, looking at it from the professional perspective of intangible cultural heritage protection, it is actually the natural evolution of traditional folk customs in the transformation stage of modern society.
Take the Xuzhou area as an example. Its annual customs system is not only a celebration of time, but also a living cultural chronicle containing local historical memories, folk belief systems, and social network.
Sacrificial rituals and spatial narrative: Belief practices on New Year’s Eve
The starting point of Xuzhou’s traditional annual customs is deeply rooted in a rigorous set of annual rituals.
The related activities of worshiping ancestors carried out before eight o'clock on New Year's Eve demonstrate the core ethical meaning that is upheld by Chinese civilization and is called "careful pursuit of the past". As a sacred form of expression, it highlights the important expression of blood identity at the family level.
The subsequent behavior of staying up late and watching the CCTV Spring Festival Gala together constitute a new folk ritual in the modern context. This ritual connects the private space of the family with the public cultural space of the nation.
The dumplings with plain fillings that appear at midnight are not only a symbol of taste buds, but also contain the symbolic meaning of "plainness". It is a metaphorical practice used by people to pray for good luck and peace in the new year.
There are changes in the order of visiting relatives and friends on the second day of the Lunar New Year, there are taboos related to staying home on "Red Dog Day" on the third day of the Lunar New Year, there are so-called "giving away the poor" on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, and there are rhythmic arrangements for opening the market on the sixth day of the Lunar New Year. These all reflect the ancients' philosophy of "harmony between nature and man" and their meticulous planning of the order of production and life.
On the ninth day of the Lunar New Year, we hold sacrifices to the heavens, and on the eleventh day we are busy preparing for the Lantern Festival. This completely outlines a Spring Festival time spectrum that begins with home sacrifices and then develops into community carnivals.
Multiple carriers of local art: folk art and social fire performances
The traditional Spring Festival for Xuzhou people is a concentrated performance venue for folk art.
On that New Year's Eve, there was a custom of couplets that pervaded daily utensils. This custom existed, and there was also the popular art form of paper-cut window grilles in the countryside. These all demonstrated the practical and decorative characteristics of folk art.
What is more sociologically significant is the folk social activities with village communes as units. There are "visiting meetings" in the suburbs, "Yingshen Meeting" in Tongshan, and "township meetings" in Pizhou. Their origins are self-organized cultural performances in rural society.
With the help of various acrobatic competitions such as lion dance, land boat, bamboo horse, and flower drum, various village communities have achieved exchanges of cultural capital, demonstrated community cohesion, and created a kind of rural etiquette that is not written in the form of words, as well as a symbol of unity.
The "opening cannon" fired near the early morning is the most straightforward way for people to express their acceptance of the arrival of spring in the new year. The sound it makes and the smoke that spreads together shape the collective memory of the festival's auditory and olfactory experiences.
Cultural Codes on the Tip of the Tongue: The Skills and Symbols of Traditional Food
Xuzhou’s Spring Festival food carries profound craft traditions and symbolic meanings.
This technique involves adding sesame seeds to flour and then rolling them into a diamond shape. It is a delicate expression of pasta making techniques and is referred to as the fried sesame leaf technique.
The golden-yellow croquettes contain vegetarian balls and meat balls, which present a "charred outside and tender inside" appearance. This is not only a taste enjoyment, but also a metaphor for abundance and completeness.
What deserves special attention is the position that sausages occupy in Xuzhou’s New Year customs. The saying “It’s not a Chinese New Year without sausages” elevates sausages to the level of a festival symbol.
It is not only a New Year’s gift for families, but also a visual representation of the balcony landscape and the abundance of life.
These traditional snacks, as a taste heritage, are the bonds woven by taste buds that connect generations. Their cooking processes and taste preferences jointly create Xuzhou people’s unique and landmark sense of place, while also building cultural identity.
Heritage activation and space reconstruction: Xuzhou practice of contemporary intangible cultural heritage protection
In the face of the modernization process, Xuzhou’s Spring Festival culture has shown positive inheritance adaptability .
Taking the 4th Annual Customs Culture Festival as a representative, the organizers placed the intangible cultural heritage exhibition in the renovated Xuzhou Folklore Museum, which includes the Yu Family Courtyard, Zhai Family Courtyard, etc., achieving a spatial symbiosis between the tangible cultural heritage, that is, the architectural complex of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and the intangible cultural heritage.
At the New Year's goods fair, Yaowan mung bean roast was presented to the public, Xuzhou meat was also presented to the public, baked buns were also displayed there, and Peixian turtle sauce dog meat was also presented here. These are all traditional skills and intangible cultural heritage items. Their concentrated appearance creates an immersive "Xuzhou flavor" experience venue.
At the same time, the cultural department promoted innovation in the repertoire of local opera (Liuqin Opera) and achieved living inheritance by organizing children's plays, symphony concerts and other different art forms, as well as the first performance of the large-scale modern Liuqin opera "Blood Autumn Wind".
These measures to promote calligraphy and painting exhibitions into communities and police camps embody the concept of culture benefiting the people. They are also in line with the principle of equalization of public cultural services.
Academic textual research and reflection of the times: archaeological discoveries and new sports customs
The exhibitions held during the Spring Festival have also become a crucial opportunity for the public to engage in archeology and historical education.
The first public exhibition of Han Dynasty ruins and cultural relics such as the Wanniu Mountain Tombs has prompted archaeological results to come out of the ivory tower, allowing citizens to intuitively touch the historical depth of Pengcheng's Han Dynasty and feel its richness in that historical dimension.
The attempt to present cultural relics in a state that makes them seem alive and to present culture in a way that seems to be alive and active has greatly enhanced the public's awareness of cultural heritage protection.
In addition, the Archery Hall of the Xuzhou Olympic Sports Center has been opened, transforming "shooting" from the ancient "Six Arts" into a modern urban leisure sports experience, adding healthy and energetic contemporary significance to traditional festivals.
This means that Xuzhou Spring Festival culture, while adhering to the roots of the so-called rituals, is continuing to expand the part called the leaves of the times. In the protection of intangible cultural heritage and innovative development, it is exploring a path of cultural inheritance that not only respects the historical context but also conforms to contemporary aesthetics.
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