Customs of celebrating the New Year
The five thousand years of history of the Chinese nation have accumulated a rich and diverse customs of celebrating the New Year. We cannot list them all here, but can only pick out a few. Let's go looking for these customs and "year" together!
The legend of the "Nian" beast
Do you know the origin of "Nian"? Do you know why every household puts up Spring Festival couplets and sets off fireworks during the Chinese New Year? Let me tell you slowly.
In ancient China, there was a monster called "Nian", with long tentacles on its head and extremely ferocious. "Nian" lives deep on the bottom of the sea all year round, only climbing ashore every New Year's Eve to devour livestock and harm people.
Therefore, every New Year's Eve, people in villages and villages help the old and young to flee to the mountains to avoid the harm of the "Nian" beast. On New Year's Eve this year, people in Taohua Village were helping the elderly and the young to take refuge in the mountains. An old man begging came from outside the village. He was holding a cane, a bag on his arm, his silver beard was flowing, and his eyes were like bright stars.
Some of the villagers sealed the windows and locked the doors, some packed their bags, and some drove the cattle and sheep. People everywhere shouted and horses neighed, creating a scene of rush and panic. At this time, who still has the heart to take care of this old man begging? Only an old woman in the east of the village gave the old man some food and advised him to go up the mountain quickly to avoid the Nian beast. The old man stroked his beard and said with a smile: "If my mother-in-law lets me stay at home all night, I will definitely drive the Nian beast away." ”
The old woman was shocked and looked closely, and saw that he had white hair and a childlike face, and was energetic and extraordinary. But she still continued to persuade, and the old beggar smiled and said nothing. The mother-in-law had no choice but to leave her home and take refuge in the mountains.
In the middle of the night, the "Nian" beast broke into the village. It found that the atmosphere in the village was different from previous years: at the east end of the village, the old woman lived in her husband's house, with red paper on the door and brightly lit candles in the house. The "Nian" beast trembled all over and screamed strangely.
"Nian" glared at her mother-in-law's house for a moment, then screamed and rushed towards her. As he approached the door, there was a sudden "bang bang bang bang" explosion in the courtyard. "Nian" trembled all over and did not dare to move forward. It turns out that "Nian" is most afraid of the color red, fire and explosions. At this time, the door of my mother-in-law's house opened wide, and an old man wearing a red robe was seen laughing in the courtyard. "Nian" turned pale with fright and ran away in embarrassment.
The next day was the first day of the first lunar month, and the people who had returned from the refuge were surprised to see that the village was safe and sound. At this time, the old woman suddenly realized and hurriedly told the villagers about the beggar's promise to the old man. The villagers rushed to my mother-in-law's house. They saw red paper on the door of her house, a pile of unburned bamboos in the yard were still popping, and a few red candles in the house were still glowing... They were overjoyed. To celebrate the auspicious arrival, the crazy villagers put on new clothes and hats one after another, and went to the homes of relatives and friends to say hello. This incident quickly spread in the surrounding villages, and people all knew how to drive away the "Nian" beast.
Since then, every New Year’s Eve, every family has posted red couplets and set off firecrackers; every household has brightly lit candles and watched the New Year’s Eve. Early in the morning on the first day of the Lunar New Year, we also visit relatives and friends to say hello. This custom spreads more and more widely and has become the most solemn traditional festival among Chinese people.
Six Essentials to Welcome the Spring
The Six Essentials to Welcome the Spring: Sweep, Paste, Invite, Keep, Worship, and Play.
Sweeping, dusting, is the year-end cleaning. Because "dust" and "chen" are homophonic, sweeping dust in the New Year means "removing the old and creating the new", which is to sweep away all "poor luck" and "bad luck".
Paste, paste Spring Festival couplets, New Year pictures and the word "福".
Please, please, Kitchen King and God of Wealth.
Shou, stay up late. In ancient times, staying up late had two meanings: the older people staying up late meant "saying goodbye to the old year", which meant cherishing time; the young people staying up late had the purpose of extending the life of their parents.
Bai, New Year greetings and New Year greetings. New Year greetings are to kowtow to the elders; New Year greetings are to congratulate each other.
Playing dragon lanterns to pray for the blessing of the dragon, hoping for good weather and good harvests.
Sweeping Dust
Every year from the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month to New Year's Eve, our country folk call this period "Spring Day", also called "Sweeping Dust Day". Sweeping dust is the year-end cleaning. It is called "house sweeping" in the north and "dust dusting" in the south. Sweeping dust before the Spring Festival is a traditional habit of our people. Every Spring Festival comes, every household has to clean the environment, wash all kinds of utensils, remove and wash bedding and curtains, sweep the Liulv courtyard, dust away dirt and cobwebs, and dredge open ditches and ditches. From north to south, everywhere is filled with the atmosphere of joyful hygiene and cleanliness to welcome the New Year.
Interestingly, there is a rather strange story about the origin of sweeping dust in ancient times. Legend has it that the ancients believed that there was a three-corpse god attached to each person's body. Like a shadow, he followed the person's whereabouts and was inseparable. The Three Corpses God is a guy who likes to flatter and gossip. He often spreads rumors and causes trouble in front of the Jade Emperor, describing the human world as ugly. Over time, in the Jade Emperor's impression, the human world was simply a dirty world full of sin. once. The three corpse gods secretly reported that the world was cursing the Emperor of Heaven and wanted to rebel against the Heavenly Court. The Jade Emperor was furious and issued an edict to quickly detect the chaos in the world. Anyone who resented the gods or blasphemed the gods would have their crimes written under the eaves and covered with spider webs to mark them. The Jade Emperor also ordered Wang Lingguan to go down to the realm on New Year's Eve. Anyone who met a marked family would be killed and no one would be spared. Seeing that this plan was about to succeed, the three corpse gods took the opportunity to fly down to the mortal world. Regardless of the crime, they viciously marked the eaves and corners of each house so that Wang Ling Palace would kill them all. While the Three Corpse Gods were doing evil, the Kitchen Lord discovered his whereabouts and was shocked. He hurriedly found the Kitchen Lords of various families to discuss countermeasures. So, they came up with a good idea. From the day when the stove is delivered on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month to the New Year's Eve, every household must clean the house. If the household is not clean, the Stove Lord will refuse to enter. Home. Everyone followed the Stove Lord's instructions before he ascended to heaven, sweeping away the dust, dusting away the cobwebs, cleaning the doors and windows, and making their homes look brand new. When Wang Lingguan went down to inspect the world on New Year's Eve, he found that the windows of every house were bright and clean, the lights were bright, people were reunited and happy, and the world was extremely beautiful. Wang Lingguan couldn't find any sign of bad deeds, and felt very strange. He rushed back to heaven and reported to the Jade Emperor about the peace and happiness in the world and praying for a happy new year. The Jade Emperor was greatly shocked after hearing this, and issued an edict to imprison the three corpse gods. He ordered that they should be slapped three hundred times and imprisoned forever in the heavenly prison. This human disaster was saved thanks to the Kitchen God's rescue. In order to express gratitude to the Stove Lord for eliminating disasters for people, people always start sweeping the dust after delivering the stoves, and they are busy until New Year's Eve.
The legend of posting door gods and Spring Festival couplets
At the beginning of the new year, the first thing to do is to post door gods and couplets. On the 30th (or 29th) of the New Year, every household goes to the streets to buy Spring Festival couplets. Those who are in the mood also spread paper and ink to decorate the doors inside and outside the house.
The door god is said to be the god Cha Yulei who can catch ghosts. Yingxuan's "Customs" of the Eastern Han Dynasty quoted the "Book of the Yellow Emperor" and said: In ancient times, there were two brothers Shen Cha and Yu Lei who lived on Dushuo Mountain. There is a peach tree on the mountain, with shade like a canopy. Every morning, they inspect the ghosts under this tree. If an evil spirit harms the world, it is tied up and fed to tigers. Later, people used two peach boards to draw portraits of Shencha and Yulei, and hung them on both sides of the door to ward off ghosts and avoid evil. However, the door gods recorded in the real history books are not Shen Cha and Yu Lei, but an ancient warrior named Cheng Qing. It is recorded in Ban Gu's "Book of Han·Biography of King Guangchuan": On the door of the palace of King Guangchuan (Quji) there was a portrait of the ancient warrior Cheng Qing, wearing short clothes, large trousers and a long sword. In the Tang Dynasty, the position of the door god was replaced by Qin Shubao and Yuchi Jingde.
Door couplets are also developed from Taofu. It turns out that people used peach boards to draw portraits of Shen Cha and Yu Lei and hung them on the two doors. Later, the portrait was changed to a "menmu" with only words written on it. However, two words were written on each side of the door, which expressed limited content. People felt that it was not enough, so they hung two more peach boards (later switched to paper) on both sides of the door, and wrote more words that could fully reflect the meaning. The pair of wishes. After Zhu Yuanzhang established Nanjing as his capital in the Ming Dynasty, he ordered every household to post couplets and renamed the couplets as Spring Festival couplets, all written on red paper. Legend has it that once, Zhu Yuanzhang personally visited the people and found that only one household did not post Spring Festival couplets. After asking, it turned out that this man was a castrate and illiterate, so he wrote a couplet for him personally: "With both hands, he split the path of life and death, and with one knife, he cut off the root of right and wrong." Due to the vigorous promotion in the past dynasties, Spring Festival couplets have become a special form of folk literature and art in our country and have enjoyed everlasting prosperity.
Pasting the word "福" upside down
During the Spring Festival, every household must paste the word "福" (福), large and small, on their doors, walls and lintels. Posting the word "福" during the Spring Festival is a long-standing folk custom in my country.
The current meaning of the word "福" is "happiness", but in the past it meant "blessing" and "luck". Posting the word "福" during the Spring Festival, whether now or in the past, expresses people's yearning for a happy life and their wishes for a better future.
In order to more fully reflect this yearning and wish, people simply paste the word "福" upside down, which means "happiness has fallen" and "blessing has arrived".
There is also a folk legend about the word "福" stuck upside down. Zhu Zhang, Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, used the word "福" as a secret sign to prepare for murder. The kind-hearted Empress Ma decided to avoid the tragedy of killing, so she ordered everyone in the city to put a label with the character "福" on their doors before dawn. Naturally, no one dared to disobey Queen Ma's will, so every door with the word "福" was posted. One of the families was illiterate and actually pasted the word "福" upside down. On the next day, the emperor sent someone to go to the street and found that every family had pasted the stickers with the character "福", and one family had the character "福" upside down. The emperor was furious after hearing the report, and immediately ordered the imperial guards to kill the entire family. Empress Ma realized what happened and told Zhu Yuanzhang, "that family knew you are coming today, so had purposely turned the label with the character "福" upside down. Doesn't that mean "luck arrives"?" As soon as the emperor heard that it made sense, he ordered Let him go, and a catastrophe is finally eliminated. From then on, people began to paste the character "福" upside down, firstly to bring good luck, and secondly to commemorate Queen Ma.
New Year Pictures
During the New Year, in addition to pasting Spring Festival couplets and cutting window grilles, people also like to hang New Year pictures in the living room and bedroom. The New Year paintings add a joyful festive atmosphere to every household.
New Year pictures are an ancient folk art in my country. Like Spring Festival couplets, they originated from the "door god". Spring couplets developed from the names of Shen Tu and Yu Lei to text, while New Year pictures still developed along the direction of painting.
With the rise of woodblock printing, the content of New Year pictures is no longer limited to the door god, but gradually invites the God of Wealth to the home, and then in some New Year painting workshops, "Three Stars of Fortune, Luxu and Shou" and Colorful New Year pictures such as "Blessings from Heavenly Officials", "Abundance of Grains", "Prosperity of Animals", "Welcoming Spring and Receiving Blessings" can satisfy people's good wishes of celebrating the good year.
Because Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty advocated pasting Spring Festival couplets during the Spring Festival, New Year paintings became popular due to his influence. There are three important production areas of New Year paintings in the country: Taohuawu in Suzhou, Yangliuqing in Tianjin and Weifang in Shandong; forming the formation of our country There are three major schools of New Year paintings.
The earliest New Year pictures collected in our country are the woodcut New Year pictures of the Southern Song Dynasty, "Slender and Slender with 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 the New Year painting "The Mouse Wedding", which depicts an interesting scene of a mouse marrying a bride according to human customs. According to folklore, New Year's Eve is an auspicious day for rats to get married. People should put some food under the bed or in the stove as a gift to the rat groom to pray for a good harvest in the coming year.
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 and became popular all over the country.
Keeping the New Year's Eve
Chinese people have the custom of eating New Year's Eve dinner, offering sacrifices and keeping the New Year's Eve on New Year's Eve. The New Year's Eve dinner starts with the New Year's Eve dinner. This New Year's Eve dinner should be eaten slowly, starting from the time when the lanterns are turned on. Some people have to eat until late at night.
The custom of staying up late on the New Year's Eve not only expresses a feeling of nostalgia for the passing years, but also expresses good hope for the coming New Year. The ancients wrote in a poem "Shou Sui": "Invite the Ajong family to keep the year old, and the wax torch passes red to the blue gauze; Thirty and sixty years have passed by, but I cherish my years from this night." It is human nature to cherish the years. Therefore, the great poet Su Shi wrote the famous line "Keeping the New Year's Eve": "There will be no time next year, and worries will be wasted; if you work hard today, you can still be proud of your youth!" This shows the positive significance of keeping the year old on New Year's Eve.
On this night of "two years in one night, and two years in the fifth hour", the family reunites and gathers together happily. The whole family sat together, and the table was filled with refreshments and fruits. When making offerings during the New Year, a large plate of apples is indispensable. This is called "peace and peace". In the north, some families also offer a bowl of rice, which is cooked years ago and served during the New Year. It is called "every other year's rice", which means that there are leftovers every year and can't be eaten all year round, so this year they still eat the old rice. This pot of rice and millet is usually mixed with rice and millet to make it yellow and white. This is called "gold and silver, and the pot is full of gold and silver".
In many places, the cakes, melons and fruits prepared during the observance of the year are all intended to bring good luck: eating dates (early spring), eating persimmons (all goes well), eating almonds (happy people), and eating longevity fruits (immortality). Not old), eating rice cakes (getting taller every year).
Red envelopes (New Year’s money)
It’s Chinese New Year, you must be very happy when you receive the New Year’s money! But do you know why Chinese people send “red envelopes” during the Chinese New Year?
Distributing red envelopes to underage juniors (according to Chinese concepts, married people are considered adults) is a way to bring blessings and good luck to them. The money in the red envelope is just to make the children happy and its main meaning is in the red paper as it symbolizes good luck. Therefore, it is impolite to open red envelopes in front of the elders who distributed them.
When paying New Year greetings during the Spring Festival, the elders should distribute the New Year's money prepared in advance to the younger ones. It is said that the New Year's money can suppress evil spirits, because "Sui" and "Evil" are homophonic. age. There are two types of New Year's money. One is made of colored rope threaded into a dragon shape and placed at the foot of the bed; the other is the most common, which is money given to children by parents wrapped in red paper. 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.
Why eat dumplings during the Chinese New Year
The folk custom of eating dumplings during the Spring Festival was quite popular in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Dumplings are usually made before 12 o'clock in the evening on New Year's Eve and eaten at midnight. This is the beginning of the first day of the first lunar month. Eating dumplings means "Gengsui Jiaozi", and "子" means "子". "Shi" is homophonic with "dumpling", which means "happy reunion" and "good luck".
There are many legends about eating dumplings during the New Year. One is to commemorate the founding of the world by Pangu and the end of chaos; the other is that it is homophonic with "hundun", which means "full of food". In addition, there is also a folk saying that eating dumplings is related to Nuwa's creation of human beings. When Nuwa created humans, the ears of loess people could easily freeze off due to the freezing weather. In order to keep the ears in place, Nuwa pierced a small eye in the human ear and tied the ear with a thin thread. Put the other end in the mouth of the loess and bite it to complete the ears. In order to commemorate Nuwa's achievements, the common people made dumplings, shaped into the shape of human ears with dough, filled with stuffing (thread), and eaten with their mouths.
Dumplings have become an indispensable program food during the Spring Festival for the following reasons: First, dumplings are shaped like ingots. People eat dumplings during the Spring Festival to "bring in wealth". Second, the dumplings have fillings, which facilitate people to wrap various auspicious things in the fillings to express people's wishes for the new year. When making dumplings, people often put Jin Ruyi, sugar, peanuts, dates and chestnuts into the fillings. Those who eat as they wish and eat sweets will have sweeter days in the coming year; those who eat peanuts will be healthy and live longer; those who eat dates and chestnuts will have children early. In some areas, when eating dumplings, people also eat some non-staple food to show good luck. For example, eating tofu symbolizes the happiness of the whole family; eating persimmons symbolizes everything going well; and eating three fresh vegetables. It symbolizes the prosperity of the three Yangs. Taiwanese people eat fish balls, meat balls, and cabbage to symbolize reunion and prosperity. There are many types of dumplings depending on their fillings and preparation methods. Even though they are the same kind of dumplings, there are different ways to eat them: Daur people in Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang cook dumplings in vermicelli broth and then eat the dumplings with the soup; some areas in Henan put dumplings and noodles together Boiled, the famous day is "gold thread wears ingot".