In northern Shaanxi, there is a special folk custom: worshiping the land. This folk custom can be listed at the forefront of various folk customs. It can be said that every elderly person in northern Shaanxi adheres to this folk custom from the heart to the action year after year. This folk custom is not only an important element of the core of northern Shaanxi's farming culture, but also an integral part of the intangible cultural heritage. Unfortunately, such folk customs are not only facing the danger of dissolution among the people, but also facing the dilemma of ignorance, turbid thinking and even indifference among cultural people. Deep soil for the folk custom of worshipping the land: For the people of northern Shaanxi who have relied on the land for their livelihood for generations, whether from the heart or from the action, the reverence for the land, the attachment to the land, and the service for the land are rare among people in other geographical blocks, especially for the farmers in northern Shaanxi. In the farming era, the villagers from generation to generation rolled and crawled in the land, multiplied and thrived, and the land became their lifeblood. Born: landed on the fine loess; live: every bite of food comes from the loess; die: melted into the thick loess. Even the posthumous mark must be piled up into a round pile of loess to commemorate. Looking at the county annals of northern Shaanxi, fighting hunger and filling the stomach has almost become the main theme of every county annals; looking up at the ridges, gullies and depressions in northern Shaanxi, everyone knows that this land has historically relied on the weather for food. If the weather is good and the rain is abundant, the farmers' hard work and sweat for a year will not be in vain, but the vicious circle of nine droughts in ten years cannot be easily broken by humans. Such geographical advantages, such weather, and such harvests determine that the people of northern Shaanxi have a strong land complex, as strong as the original liquor, as strong as ink that cannot be dissolved. It is impossible to separate it from their cultural character, and it is not easy to delete it from their customs and habits. Experience the colloquialisms in the countryside of northern Shaanxi: "suffering", "suffering man", "suffering man", "suffering death", "suffering ghost", etc. These names are generally the habitual names that wives use to refer to their men, and this name is always associated with "suffering" and "death". Yes, the land is like a giant devil's hand, holding the farmer tightly in its palm for a lifetime. Every time he works on the land, it is the dripping of sweat, the effort of strength, the watering of blood, and the kneading of the farmer by the giant hand of fate. There is absolutely no comfortable and happy eating delicious food, but always self-awareness and sighing after being tired. Therefore, the villagers had to express their expectations with Xintianyou: Flowers bloom on the cliff and red on the cliff, and the suffering people hope for a better life. The vivid labor scene can better illustrate the problem: the farmer makes a living on the land all his life, even if he is over 70 years old, he still works on the land, and his labor energy on the land shocks people's souls. When farming on a mountain with a slope of 60 degrees, he would use his hoe to remove the weeds on the edge of the land, and he would dig down the loose soil on the cliff above his head, to increase the comfort of the land for planting and the suitability of the crops. When outsiders did not understand his deep affection for the land, they were not only puzzled by his actions, but also surprised and even ridiculed him on the spot: Is it worth it for you to work like this? Are you afraid that you will be exhausted? Are you waiting for others to give you an award? But the farmer will gently reply to you: People comfort the land, and the land comforts the belly. If not, can you harvest good fruits? Yes, this scene is not just one person, but a group, and almost every household of honest farmers has had or is still experiencing it. As long as you are old, who has not lived like this year after year! They will not waste a plowshare of land, and they will not be perfunctory with a plowshare of land. They understand that every plowshare of land is related to the livelihood of a family. Yes, if there is only a little help, who would be willing to work on this steep slope and gully all day long, panting and sweating? It is the special living environment and the specific geographical environment that force the farmers to do this. No wonder the new generation of farmers say they don't want to work on the land, as long as they go to the city to work, one by one, they run faster than the other. They use folk songs to express their voices: as long as they can escape from this pitiful land, it doesn't matter if they live a few years less. With this understanding, it is not difficult for us to understand that among today's young people, we rarely see the scene of "burning incense and paper when the cows go out" to worship the land. In the old days, every time the Waking of Insects came, farmers drove the cows and plows, first walked out of the circle on their own land, then burned incense and paper in the circle, knelt on their knees devoutly, and kowtowed three times deeply, in order to worship the land and pray for more grain, and formed a habit and solidified into a folk custom. Now, among some older farmers, this custom is still preserved: when eating in the fields, the first bite of food is offered to heaven and earth, rather than enjoying it yourself. When making New Year's food during the Spring Festival, the first bite is also dedicated to heaven and earth, and there are words in the mouth. In the countryside, this custom is still circulated among some farmers. The strong custom of worshiping the land by the people of northern Shaanxi is not only preserved in the order of enjoying meals, but also in some buildings. In some villages, the simple land temples built, and the earth god caves left on the walls of the caves built by rural people, always habitually burn incense at the end of the year, and also post Spring Festival couplets. The worship of the land by the people of northern Shaanxi is not only reflected in the practical level, but also in the spiritual level: during the Spring Festival, there is a folk custom of worshiping the land god with yangko. The lyrics of the yangko include: People rely on the land to support their lives, the land allows people to produce more food, bless the land to be fertile and wide, and hundreds of millions of crops grow in the land. The land grandfather is a god in the underground, and he is in charge of all matters, big and small. The land three realms respect you. The land grandfather is warm-hearted, and you will help anyone who has difficulties. He is a matchmaker under the big locust tree, and the weaver girl in the sky is paired with the cowherd. In fact, these things have already entered the level of folk customs, and are a manifestation of a strong land complex. This folk custom may not be able to be put on the elegant stage, but it has a sense of "roots" in it. Land is the root of survival, the root of life, the root of livelihood, and the root of life. This folk custom of worshiping the land almost highlights the Shaanxi people's awe, gratitude, and prayer consciousness for "roots" to the top of various folk customs. There are many related to this, such as the offering ceremony or dedication ceremony during threshing, the worship activities at the temple during the Spring Festival, and so on. The family and the country are one, which is similar to the function of the Ditan Temple in Beijing. Unfortunately, young people nowadays no longer have this sense of "roots". The dilution and dissolution of this "root" consciousness is a folk phenomenon: hunger, eating, solving food and clothing, tending to be well-off, wasting food and wasting land. When some people do not know the rural life and the hardship of farming, and easily classify this folk custom as backward or even superstitious, more villagers, more knowledgeable people, and more cultural celebrities are looking for some of the most precious things we have lost from these folk customs of worshiping the land. In fact, people in the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties in China have had the custom of worshiping the land; two thousand years later, the Qing Dynasty built the Earth Altar to worship the land. The long-standing worship of the land in China has been a kind of respect for the land from the bottom of people's hearts. Treating the land as if it were themselves has become a part of personification and humanization, and an important symbol of folk culture. The worship and respect for the land has been pushed to the extreme by some people who have been away from their hometown for a long time: the wanderers cannot return to their hometown for various reasons, so they try every means to get the villagers to bring a bag of hometown soil, which is mostly taken from the well platform of their hometown, and also from the fields that nurtured their own mountain village. The soil is carefully packed, or placed next to their pillows, or placed in front of their desks, and is offered with incense on major festivals. When some wanderers miss their hometown and the yellow earth so much that they can't help it, they even chew a mouthful of the yellow earth and burst into tears before they can stop missing it. This kind of worship consciousness, worship complex, and worship behavior for the land are incomprehensible to outsiders, and cannot be appreciated or resisted with the heart, but such touching actions have really happened. So, a worry naturally came to my mind: a large number of young people have withdrawn from the land, which is not worth making a fuss about, but what is worrying is that when more young people don't know the difficulties of farming and the deep cultural meaning of these folk customs, wasting food seems to have become "a new folk custom" and wasting land seems to have become a popular disease. This is not just a problem of quick success and instant benefits, nor is it just a natural derivative phenomenon from the industrial civilization era to the information age, but a collective consciousness of worshipping the land by the people has weakened and lost, and the sense of gratitude for the land has disappeared. On the surface, what has been lost is a folk custom, and on a deeper level, what has been lost is a culture, virtue, and tradition that carries and nurtures us. The touching and embarrassing experience of the custom of worshipping the land is very intriguing. From a cultural perspective, folk customs related to this need to be treated dialectically and scientifically, and those that slide into superstition must be firmly opposed, such as blindly magnifying the effect of the land god. Whenever there is a difficulty, it is not based on science, but on the gods. We must not only oppose it without hesitation, but also ban it. We must also strictly prevent some sorcerers, witches, and those who use the banner of religion from taking advantage of the people's worship psychology to cheat money and things, which is incompatible with advanced culture. On the other hand, for the non-superstitious part, for the behaviors or customs that truly reflect the cherishment of the land and the scientific use of the land, it is necessary not only to preserve it, but also to study it, because it is an intangible cultural heritage, because it is conducive to our establishment of a correct view of the land, a scientific awareness of using and saving grain, and to our exploration of the cultural psychology and regional characteristics of farmers from generation to generation through folk customs, and to our learning of the spirit of northern Shaanxi. Exploring and focusing on this kind of folk custom is intended to serve the present and the society. Focusing on the current advocacy of thrift and diligence and opposition to extravagance and waste, we will get something deeper, more necessary and more precious from the custom of worshipping the land. Such effects and meanings are like the light that is invested in our souls. They not only warm us, but also let us know the connotation of the past farming culture, so that we can better step on the land under our feet, like stepping on our own bodies, and walk our future path well! (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.) (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.)