Birthdays are undoubtedly a special and solemn moment in a person's life. After all, it's our own holiday, and out of the 365 days of the year, only one day is entirely for us.
On birthdays, we always want to be lively, inviting friends to party, lighting candles, cutting cakes, and every corner of the house is filled with laughter and reverberation. I can't help but feel excited - today is my day!
However, in reality, there is a lot of attention to being paid to celebrating birthdays. Our ancestors left many rules that are worth following.
For example, the ages of seventy-three and eighty-four are usually not suitable for celebrating birthdays with great fanfare. Because in folklore, both numbers are associated with bad luck, and there are not many people who can reach this age, so celebrating a birthday may bring bad luck.
For another example, the ninety age is also very taboo to celebrate birthdays, because "nine is not ten", this indication is not optimistic, rather than the pursuit of "consummation", it is better to deal with it in a low-key manner. Of course, people under sixty don't count yet. A Jiazi in the 60th year of the lunar calendar has to go through a complete reincarnation, and only after this age can a person be considered "longevity".
If the parents are still alive, it is also an act of indecency to celebrate a child's birthday. Because giving birth to a child is a difficult and dangerous "hard day" for the mother, the child's birthday celebration violates the righteousness of "filial piety".
In traditional Chinese culture, the ages of seventy-three and eighty-four are considered unlucky. The mention of these two numbers intimidates many older people, fearing misfortune.
The origin of this taboo is related to two ancient sages, Confucius and Mencius. Confucius, known as the "Master of All Ages", had a bumpy and hard-working life, losing his wife at the age of 67, and he eventually died at the age of 73. Mencius was slightly older than Confucius, but he only lived to be 84 years old. The stories of these two saints have been widely circulated and have become models in the lives of ordinary people.
People deduce from this that since a great man like Confucius and Mencius only lived to be in his seventies, it is obviously extremely difficult for ordinary people to live past these two ages. Therefore, "seventy-three, eighty-four" has gradually become a difficulty in the eyes of many elderly people, and is regarded as the two major hurdles in the journey of life, "Hades does not ask himself to go". Once these two ages are reached, birthdays are usually not celebrated, but are spent in a low-key manner to try to avoid unnecessary bad luck.
Although it is difficult to justify this traditional taboo with science, it has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the older generation and has become an important reference for them to face life. We should respect this cultural Xi, understand its connotations, and treat it with caution.
In traditional Chinese culture, there is a special phenomenon: even those who have passed 90 years of life usually avoid overly enthusiastic celebrations on their birthdays. This Xi stems from the traditional wisdom and cultural heritage deeply rooted in the hearts of the older generation.
They believe in the proverb "no more than ten", and believe that although the age of 90 is only one step away from reaching the coveted "100 years", it is important to avoid over-celebrating this important milestone. They warn that excessive pursuit of perfection can backfire;There will always be shortcomings in life, and this is a natural thing. Therefore, on their birthday, they prefer to maintain a pious anticipation rather than overjoy.
In addition, when a person reaches this advanced age, the functions of the body inevitably begin to decline, and life enters a more volatile and uncertain stage. At such a time, a grand birthday celebration can easily be seen as a farewell to life, which is an unlucky omen for many elderly people, and it is difficult to accept.
Moreover, there are very few people who can live to this age. If you celebrate your birthday with great fanfare, it may cause criticism and jealousy from others, and cause unnecessary attention and distraction. Many cautious seniors are reluctant to be the focus of this attention, preferring to live the day in a low-key manner. Therefore, the traditional taboo of "passing nine but not ten", as well as the reverence for the impermanence of life, make most people over 90 choose not to celebrate their birthdays excessively. This Xi is not only their respect for life, but also the wisdom that young people should understand and respect.
In traditional Chinese culture, people under the age of 60 are considered to have not yet attained the true "longevity", so their birthday celebrations should be appropriately humble. This concept derives from the Chinese civilization's unique "Sixty Jiazi" chronology, which considers the sixty combinations of the heavenly stem and the earthly branch as a complete life cycle.
Sixty Jiazi "What is it?".It is related to the Ganzhi chronology unique to ancient China. There are ten heavenly stems and ten earthly branches, and they are combined in pairs to form sixty different combinations. A cycle every sixty years, which is regarded as a complete cycle of life. Such as Jiazi, Yichou, Bingyin, etc., until Guihai, a total of 60 combinations. This cycle is regarded as a reincarnation in history, and the Chinese nation uses it as a unit to calculate the age.
Therefore, the ancestors believed that only after sixty years of reincarnation could a person be truly called longevity. Celebrating birthdays excessively before the age of 60 is not only inappropriate for etiquette, but also violates this notion. While this conventional wisdom may seem archaic, the wisdom it contains is worth pondering.
When the parents are alive, the birthday of the child should not be too public, which is part of the traditional "filial piety" culture of the Chinese nation. This culture requires children to treat their parents first and respect their birthdays and birthdays while they are alive. If a child celebrates before his or her parents' birthday, this is a certain indication of disrespect for their parents and is inappropriate.
Of course, this does not mean that children cannot celebrate their birthdays while their parents are alive. It's just that the way of celebration should be low-key and subtle, avoiding excessive publicity, which is a basic embodiment of "filial piety".
In the ancient Chinese tradition, whenever people enter the "ninth year" such as the age of 59 or 69, they usually choose not to overdo the birthday celebration and maintain a low-key posture.
The reason behind this Xi stems in part from the special status of the number "nine" in Chinese culture. Nine, as the largest yang number, symbolizes the apex and the limit. But in the journey of life, everything is fluid and changing, and nothing is eternal. Therefore, the ancients believed that it is more prudent to remain humble and restrained on the important occasion of the ninth day of the year, not to celebrate the birthday too much, so as not to backfire.
At the same time, in the intuitive sense of numbers, nine is followed by zero. Zero symbolizes zero, which means that all efforts and achievements may be undone. Such a shift is seen as a pivotal turn in life's journey, suggesting that life may be going downhill from there. This is one of the reasons why the elderly avoid celebrating their birthdays on the ninth day of the year.
These notions are largely interpreted from a philosophical and linguistic point of view. From a practical point of view, the Xi of "every nine birthdays" also helps the elderly to face their age correctly and avoid feeling that they have entered the late stage of life due to the arrival of special age, which will affect their physical and mental health. Although there are superstitious elements in this traditional culture, it also contains profound truths that deserve to be re-examined and understood in the context of the new era.
Although they may contain some superstitious overtones, they reflect more of the unique cultural wisdom of the Chinese nation.
In contemporary society, we are guided by science and reason, and should not be obsessed with superstition. However, we should adopt an open and inclusive attitude towards these traditional cultural Xi and look at them from a development perspective.
Because these are the crystallization of the collective wisdom of the Chinese nation, they contain rich historical and cultural connotations. We should inherit and carry forward the essence of these cultures, so that they can radiate new vitality and vitality in the context of the new era. List of high-quality authors