Making a Spring Ox

糊春牛

This custom in Shaanxi is practiced right before the Start of Spring. The local government hires some skilled artisans and gathers them to build the frame of an ox out of bamboo strips and the legs with wood. Then they paste some paper and paint onto it—and, voila! The image of an ox is complete. It is said that if more red and yellow paper is used, then there will be a good harvest that year; if black paper is pasted, then the year will be poor. When the paper ox is ready, there is a ritual to paint the eyes. After that, people will set up an altar for it and worship it.

陜西人有立春前糊春牛的風(fēng)俗。當(dāng)?shù)卣畷?huì)聘請(qǐng)一些能工巧匠，讓他們聚在一起，用竹篾綁成牛的骨架，然后用木頭作為腿，接著糊上紙張并涂上顏料，這樣一個(gè)牛的形象就完成了。民間認(rèn)為，如果糊上更多的紅黃色紙，那么當(dāng)年的農(nóng)作物將會(huì)獲得豐收；如果糊上黑色的紙，則預(yù)示著當(dāng)年收成不佳。春牛制作完成后，會(huì)有一個(gè)開(kāi)光點(diǎn)睛的儀式，然后人們會(huì)設(shè)立香案并頂禮朝拜。