Spring Festival Customs
Sweeping dust - Folk proverb says: On the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month, dust and sweep the house. In the north, it is called sweeping the house, and in the south, it is called dusting. Indoors and outdoors, behind the house , thoroughly clean the clothes, clothes and utensils, and welcome the new year cleanly.
Door painting - According to the "Book of Mountains and Seas": When Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty Li Shimin was ill, he often dreamed of it. Hearing the sound of ghosts crying and howling, they could not sleep at night. At this time, two generals, Qin Shubao and Yu Chigong, volunteered and stood on both sides of the palace gate, fully clothed. As expected, the palace was safe. Li Shimin thought that the two generals were working too hard. Feeling so sorry, he ordered a painter to paint their majestic images on the palace gate, calling them "Door Gods". According to Cai Yong's "Doctrine" of the Eastern Han Dynasty, people in the Han Dynasty had already posted "Shen Tu" and "Yulei" on their doors. The statues of gods evolved into wooden New Year pictures in the Song Dynasty. Later, people imitated them, and after several evolutions, they formed their own unique style, which is now the New Year picture in China. "Picture".
Spring couplets evolved from the "peach stems" of the Warring States period more than 2,000 years ago. According to "Huainanzi", peach symbols (ie peach stems) are carved from peach wood. The incantation of destroying and bringing blessings is engraved on it, which is changed every year. Meng Chang, the emperor of Shu after the Five Dynasties, had a whim to cut the peach trees into pieces during the Spring Festival. He took up a pen and wrote a couplet on it: "New Year's Day." "Festival No. Changchun". These are the earliest Spring Festival couplets in China. As for the official birth of the name Spring Festival Couplets, it was in the Ming Dynasty. After Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, established his capital in Jinling, he issued an edict on New Year's Eve: "The home of the public officials and the common people, "One must write a Spring Festival couplet to decorate the New Year." Later, the Spring Festival couplets were promoted and are still followed today. During the New Year, every household must post Spring Festival couplets.
Firecrackers - The custom of setting off firecrackers during the Spring Festival began in the Han Dynasty. According to the "Jing Meng Sui Sui Ji" written by Zong Nao from Nanliang: "On the first day of the first lunar month... the cock crows, and before the firecrackers in front of the court, the demons and evil spirits from the mountain are expelled. "In ancient times, when setting off firecrackers, bamboos were put into the fire and burned. As the air inside the bamboo heated and expanded, it made a "cracking" sound to ward off evil spirits and pray for good fortune and happiness in the coming year. After the Tang and Song Dynasties, it was the time to set off firecrackers. Firecrackers made of gunpowder.
New Year greetings—according to Lu Rong's "Shu Yuan Miscellanies" of the Ming Dynasty, the custom of New Year greetings was first practiced in Kyoto in the Ming Dynasty, and people had to pay homage to each other regardless of whether they knew each other. In the Qing Dynasty, it was fashionable to give "New Year greetings" to relatives and friends during the Spring Festival, which is to put New Year greetings in exquisite and beautiful decorative boxes to show solemnity. Today, "New Year greetings" have become a tradition among Chinese people. It is a custom for close friends and colleagues to visit each other’s homes and visit each other to greet each other.
In ancient times, it was popular for literati to send New Year greeting diamonds to each other. New Year greeting diamonds are now called New Year greeting cards. According to Zhao Yi's research in the Qing Dynasty, there was no paper in the Western Han Dynasty, and the names and surnames were cut into thorns, which were called "name thorns". Later, they were embroidered with red wool threads as "name cards". Using paper instead of wood was called "Mingzhi". In the Six Dynasties, it was called "Mingzhi", and in the Song Dynasty, it was also called "hand thorn" and "men thorn". "Red List".
The Spring Festival is an ancient festival in my country and the most important festival of the year. How to celebrate this festival has formed some relatively fixed rules over thousands of years of historical development. Many customs and habits are still passed down to this day.
Sweeping dust
"On the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month, dust and sweep the house." According to "Lu Shi Chun Qiu", our country started in the era of Yao and Shun. There is a custom of sweeping dust during the Spring Festival. According to folk saying, since "dust" and "chen" are homophonic, sweeping dust during the Spring Festival has the meaning of "removing the old and spreading the new", and its purpose is to sweep away all bad luck and bad luck. This custom entrusts people's desire to destroy the old and usher in the new. Whenever the Spring Festival comes, every household must clean the environment, clean all kinds of utensils, remove and wash bedding and curtains, sweep the Liulv courtyard, dust away the dust and cobwebs, and dredge open ditches and ditches everywhere. It is filled with a joyful atmosphere of being clean and welcoming the new year.
Spring couplets
Spring couplets are also called door pairs, spring posts, couplets, couplets, peach charms, etc. Describing the background of the times and expressing good wishes with neat, dual, concise and exquisite words is a unique literary form in my country. Every Spring Festival, no matter in the city or in the countryside, every household will select a red Spring Festival couplet and paste it on the door to mark the festival. Increase the festive atmosphere. This custom originated in the Song Dynasty and became popular in the Ming Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty, the ideological and artistic quality of Spring Festival couplets have been greatly improved. The characteristics of these works are discussed.
There are many types of Spring Festival couplets, which can be divided into door center, frame pair, horizontal draping, spring strips, and square couplets according to their use places. on the upper center of the door panel; "frame pair" is affixed to the left and right door frames; "horizontal" is affixed to the crossbar of the door; "spring strips" are affixed to the corresponding places according to different contents; "doujin" is also It is called "door leaf" and is square and diamond-shaped. It is often attached to furniture and screen walls.
Pasting window grilles and pasting the word "福" upside down
In the folk, people also like to put various paper-cuts - window grilles - on their windows. Window grilles not only enhance the festive atmosphere, but also integrate decoration, appreciation and practicality. Paper-cutting is a very popular folk art in my country and has been loved by people for thousands of years. Because it is mostly pasted on windows, it is also called "window flower".
With its unique summary and exaggeration techniques, window grilles vividly express auspicious symbols and good wishes, decorating the festival with prosperity and splendor.
At the same time as pasting Spring Festival couplets, some families have to paste large and small "福" characters on their doors, walls, and lintels. Posting the word "福" during the Spring Festival is a long-standing folk custom in my country. The word "福" refers to blessing and luck, expressing people's yearning for a happy life and their wishes for a better future. In order to more fully reflect this yearning and wish, some people simply paste the word "福" upside down to express "happiness has arrived" and "blessing has arrived". Folks also use the word "Fu" to make various patterns in detail, such as longevity stars, longevity peaches, carps jumping over dragon gates, good harvests, dragons and phoenixes, etc.
New Year Pictures
Hanging New Year pictures during the Spring Festival is also very common in urban and rural areas. The thick black and colorful New Year pictures add a lot of prosperity and joy to thousands of households. New Year pictures are an ancient folk art in my country, reflecting the people's simple customs and beliefs and reposing their hopes for the future. New Year pictures, like Spring Festival couplets, originated from the "door god". With the rise of woodblock printing, the content of New Year paintings is no longer limited to monotonous themes such as door gods, but has become rich and colorful. In some New Year painting workshops, "Three Stars of Fortune, Luxury and Longevity", "Blessings from Heavenly Officials", "Five Grain" Classic color New Year pictures such as "Prosperous Harvest", "Prosperity of Six Livestocks", "Welcoming Spring and Receiving Good Luck" can satisfy people's good wishes of celebrating the good year. There are three important producing areas of New Year paintings in our country: Taohuawu in Suzhou, Yangliuqing in Tianjin and Weifang in Shandong. They have formed three major schools of Chinese New Year paintings, each with its own characteristics.
The earliest New Year paintings collected in our country today are the woodcut New Year paintings of the Southern Song Dynasty called "Slimming with the Dynasty and the Beauty of the Country", which depict four ancient beauties: Wang Zhaojun, Zhao Feiyan, Ban Ji and Luzhu. The most widely circulated among the people is a New Year painting of "Mouse Marriage". It depicts an interesting scene of a mouse marrying a bride according to human customs. In the early years of the Republic of China, Shanghai Zheng Mantuo combined the calendar with New Year pictures. This is a new form of New Year pictures. This two-in-one New Year picture later developed into a wall calendar, which is now popular all over the country.
Keeping the year old on New Year’s Eve is one of the most important annual customs. The custom of keeping the year old has been around for a long time. The earliest record can be found in the "Fengtu Zhi" of Zhouchu in the Western Jin Dynasty: On New Year's Eve, each person greets each other with gifts, which is called "giving the new year"; "Dividing the year old"; everyone stays up all night waiting for dawn, which is called "keeping the year old".
“One night is two years old, and the fifth watch is divided into two days.” On New Year’s Eve, the whole family gets together, has New Year’s Eve dinner, lights candles or oil lamps, sits around the fire and chats, waiting to bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new year. At this time, the all-night vigil symbolizes driving away all evil plagues and looking forward to good luck in the new year. This custom gradually became popular. In the early Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem about "keeping the year old": "The cold leaves the winter snow, and the warmth brings the spring breeze." To this day, people are still used to staying up late on New Year's Eve to welcome the new year.
In ancient times, staying up late had two meanings: older people staying up late meant "saying goodbye to the old year", which meant cherishing time; young people staying up late meant to prolong the life of their parents. Since the Han Dynasty, the transition time between the new and the old year has generally been at midnight.
Firecrackers
There is a Chinese folk saying of "opening firecrackers". That is to say, when the New Year arrives, the first thing every household does when they open the door is to set off firecrackers to ward off the old and welcome the new with the beeping sound of firecrackers. Firecrackers are a specialty of China, also known as "firecrackers", "firecrackers" and "firecrackers". It originated very early and has a history of more than 2,000 years. Setting off firecrackers can create a festive and lively atmosphere. It is a festive entertainment activity that can bring people joy and good luck. With the passage of time, the application of firecrackers has become more and more widespread, and the varieties and colors have become more and more numerous. During major festivals and happy events, as well as weddings, house construction, openings, etc., firecrackers must be set off to celebrate and for good luck. Now, Liuyang in Hunan, Foshan and Dongyao in Guangdong, Yichun and Pingxiang in Jiangxi, and Wenzhou in Zhejiang are famous hometowns of fireworks in my country. The firecrackers produced are of various colors and high quality, and are not only sold well across the country, but also exported to the world.
New Year greetings
On the first day of the New Year, people get up early, put on their most beautiful clothes, dress up neatly, and go out to visit relatives and friends, pay New Year greetings to each other, and wish each other New Year’s greetings. Good luck in the coming year. There are many ways to pay New Year's greetings. Some are led by the head of the same clan and several people go from house to house to pay New Year's greetings. Some are colleagues inviting a few people to pay New Year's greetings. There are also people who gather together to congratulate each other, which is called "group worship". Since it was time-consuming and laborious to visit someone's home to pay New Year's greetings, some upper-class figures and scholar-bureaucrats later used various stickers to congratulate each other, thus developing the later "New Year's greeting cards."
When paying New Year greetings during the Spring Festival, the younger generation should first pay New Year greetings to the elders, wishing the elders longevity and health. The elders can distribute the New Year's money prepared in advance to the younger generation. It is said that the New Year's money can suppress evil spirits, because "year" and "evil" are related to each other. "Homophonous" means that if the younger generation gets the lucky money, they can spend their first year in peace. There are two types of New Year's money. One is made of colorful ropes threaded into a dragon shape and placed at the foot of the bed. This record is found in "Yanjing Years' Notes"; the other is the most common, which is given by parents wrapped in red paper. Children's money. New Year's money can be given to the younger generation in public after paying New Year's greetings, or parents can secretly put it under the child's pillow when the child is asleep on New Year's Eve. Nowadays, the custom of elders distributing lucky money to younger generations is still popular.
Food customs during the Spring Festival
In ancient agricultural societies, from about the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, housewives would be busy preparing food for the New Year.
Because pickling cured meat takes a long time, it must be prepared as early as possible. Many provinces in my country have the custom of pickling cured meat, among which Guangdong Province’s cured meat is the most famous.
Steamed rice cake. Rice cake has become a must-have seasonal food for almost every household because of its homophonic pronunciation of "year high" and its varied tastes. The styles of rice cakes include square yellow and white rice cakes, which symbolize gold and silver and convey the meaning of getting rich in the new year.
The taste of rice cakes varies from place to place. Beijingers like to eat red date rice cakes, mince rice cakes and white rice cakes made from glutinous rice or yellow rice. Hebei people like to add jujube, red beans, mung beans, etc. to rice cakes and steam them together. In northern Shanxi and Inner Mongolia and other places, it is customary to eat fried rice cakes made with yellow rice flour during the Chinese New Year. Some are also filled with bean paste, date paste and other fillings. Shandong people steam rice cakes with yellow rice and red dates. Northern rice cakes are mainly sweet and can be steamed or fried. Some people even eat them dipped in sugar. The rice cakes in the south are both sweet and salty. For example, the rice cakes in Suzhou and Ningbo are made from japonica rice and have a light taste. In addition to steaming and frying, it can also be sliced ??and fried or cooked in soup. The sweet rice cake is made from glutinous rice flour with ingredients such as sugar, lard, rose, osmanthus, mint, and sujung. It is finely made and can be steamed directly or dipped in egg white and deep-fried.
The night before the actual Chinese New Year is called Reunion Night. People who are away from home have to travel thousands of miles to get home. The whole family will sit together to make dumplings for the New Year. The dumplings are made by mixing the dough first. Make dumpling skins, and then use the skins to wrap the fillings. The content of the fillings is varied, including various meats, eggs, seafood, seasonal vegetables, etc. Eat with soy sauce of vinegar, minced garlic, and sesame oil as condiments. There are also ways to eat fried dumplings and baked dumplings (pot stickers). Because the word "和" in noodles means "合"; the characters "dumpling" and "Jiao" in dumplings are homophones, and "合" and "Jiao" also mean getting together, so dumplings are used to symbolize reunion and joy; and they are also used to symbolize reunion. The meaning of Jiaozi is very auspicious; in addition, because dumplings resemble ingots in shape, eating dumplings during the Chinese New Year also has the auspicious meaning of "bringing in wealth and treasure". The whole family gathers together to make dumplings, talk about the New Year, and have fun.
What is the year? Nian is the image of heavy and drooping ears of grain, which is a symbol of harvest. The so-called "when the grain is ripe, it means Nian".
What is the year? Nian is a monster that stays in the deep sea all year round and only climbs ashore on New Year's Eve. As soon as it
came ashore, there was flooding wherever it went. Later, people put up red paper on their doorsteps, burned firewood in the yard, and used kitchen knives to chop vegetables and meat, making a thunderous sound. It frightened "Nian" and fled back to the sea. So on New Year's Eve
I posted couplets, hung lanterns, wore new clothes, chopped stuffing to make dumplings, and made a fire and burned firewood at night--
< p>This is the year.So how did ancient people celebrate the New Year? Let's first listen to this "New Year's Song"——
Twenty-three sacrifices to the Kitchen God,
Twenty-four to write couplets,
Two Make tofu on the fifteenth day,
cut new year meat on the 26th day,
…………
Kowtow on the first and second day of the lunar month,
Playing with balls on the third and fourth days of the lunar month,
Monkey dancing on the fifth and sixth days of the lunar month,
…………
“It’s a great year, a busy half year "The ancients began to be busy with "year matters" from the twelfth lunar month until they passed Yuanxiao, and the year was over.
So let’s trace the “year steps” of the ancients and let’s worship the stove first -
The Stove Lord is the most prominent among the gods worshiped during the New Year.
The custom of worshiping the stove has been around for a long time It is the expression of ancestors' gratitude and reverence for fire and stove.
In legends, Huangdi, Yandi, and Zhurong are all kitchen gods. The popular kitchen god in later generations had the surname Zhang and the courtesy name Ziguo. He looked like a beautiful woman. He had a wife named "Qingji", six daughters named "Chacha", and several generals. In addition to his
responsibility to control the fire, he also has to investigate what is done in the world and report
the Emperor of Heaven. People also "bribe" the Stove God with wine grains, malt sugar, sticky cakes, etc.
At the same time, they also murmur blessings, asking him to speak good words to God.
This custom has been passed down to this day, but the time is on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month.
The food sacrifices have also been simplified into "Zao Tang Zao Cake", but if you pay attention
p>
If you do, you will definitely hear grandma and mother telling the Stove King:
Say good things to God, but don’t say bad things...
Amidst the sound of firecrackers At the end of the first year, the spring breeze brings warmth to Tusu.
Thousands of households are always replacing old talismans with new peaches.
——Wang Anshi
Firecrackers were originally a tool of witchcraft, used to drive away demons and ghosts. The original firecrackers were not firecrackers like today, but real bamboo, that is, burning bamboo to make a crackling sound to scare ghosts and monsters. Tusu means Tusu wine, which means to eliminate ghost energy and revive human souls. It is said that drinking this wine on the morning of Yuan Day will prevent you from getting sick for a year. From now on, the wine drank during the Spring Festival will be collectively referred to as "Tusu wine".
Taofu, also known as "Peach Edition", is the predecessor of Spring Festival couplets. The ancients believed that peach wood is the essence of the five woods and can control hundreds of ghosts. Therefore, since the Han Dynasty, there has been a custom of using peach as a tool for defeating enemies. Peach wood is used to make peach figures, peach seals, peach boards, peach charms, etc. Ward off evil spirits.
It is said that the transformation of peach symbols into spring couplets was due to Meng Chang, the leader of Shu in the Five Dynasties. Paper Spring Festival couplets only became popular in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Today's Spring Festival couplets are intended to exaggerate the atmosphere of the New Year and wish good luck. They have lost the driving role of the old Spring Festival couplets and are rich in content and diverse forms.
After writing the couplet, it’s time to prepare the food for the New Year. There are many foods during the New Year, such as rice cakes, New Year’s Eve dinner, New Year’s dumplings, etc. In addition
There are also foods with a strong witchcraft flavor, such as peach soup, cypress wine, pepper wine, and Wu
Xinpan. Peach soup is a soup cooked with peaches, cypress wine is a wine made from cypress leaves. Pepper wine is a wine made from pepper seeds. The ancients used it on the first day of the first lunar month.
< p>Drinking means to ward off evil spirits and pray for blessings. The five-spicy dish is a dish with five spicy foods such as onion and ginger. It is also called the spring dish. It is commonly said that it can ward off evil, remove plague, and unblock the five internal organs. It also has the meaning of welcoming new things.The hotel is sleepless under the cold light, and the guest's heart becomes desolate.
My hometown is far away tonight, and I will see another year of frost on my temples tomorrow.
New Year's Eve is the night of reunion. It is difficult for Chinese people to understand the knot of reunion. Even if they are far away from home, they still have to rush home on New Year's Eve to have New Year's Eve dinner and watch the New Year's Eve. Home on New Year's Eve is a particularly warm and sweet space. Historically, even prisoners in prison were released and returned home for reunions. The whole family sat together at the table and began the process of "reunion" and "watching the year together"
. First, there is a "reunion dinner". After the meal, the whole family sits together to watch the New Year.
At this time, the younger generation bows to their parents and grandparents and bids farewell to the new year.
The elderly have to share the new year's money. New Year's money is also called "Sui's money", "Sui's money", and "Sui's money". It was originally used to ward off evil spirits and help children celebrate the New Year.
Used to express family affection and love.
After the reunion dinner, there is also a "supper", where the family eats
snacks, laughs and plays, or talks to the drizzle, and waits for the dawn
, this is staying up late. In addition, on New Year's Eve, there are customs such as listening in the mirror,
lighting the field of silkworms, selling silkworms, and making ash heaps to predict the good and bad luck of the year and pray for a new year. Young children
are smart and everything goes as they wish.
“During the New Year in the countryside, from the twelfth lunar month to the first half of the first lunar month, the sound of gongs and drums lasts for a month and a half. The sound is monotonous, but it touches the hearts of every Chinese. At this moment,...I found that the winter jasmine flowers were blooming. "
Yes, the jasmine flowers are blooming, and the new year is here!
The ancients divided the first eight days of the new righteousness into six kinds of animals, people and grains. The first day of the first lunar month is Rooster Day, which is an auspicious day.
The ancients used chickens to ward off evil spirits. The method was to kill a chicken and put a picture of a chicken on the door. Starting from New Year's Day, people begin to be busy
paying New Year's greetings. New Year greetings have been popular since the Han Dynasty. On the first day of the first lunar month, officials went to the palace to pay homage, and the emperor and his ministers enjoyed themselves together. By the Ming and Qing dynasties, New Year greetings in officialdom had developed into a formal etiquette, often involving "looking at the door and throwing a jab", regardless of whether they recognized it or not.
There are poems to prove it:
I don’t ask for a meeting, but for a visit, and the famous papers come from the morning to fill the house.
I also throw in a few pieces of paper with others. The world is too simple but not too empty.
In folk belief, the first to fourth day of the Lunar New Year are the carnival days of the New Year, and normal life resumes on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year.
The fifth day of the Lunar New Year is also called "Powu". The customary activity on this day is to "give away the poor". For businesses, businesses open on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year.
The activities of the first lunar month gradually calmed down until the fifteenth day...