Sacrifice to the Stove (the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month)
The Spring Festival in my country usually kicks off with the sacrifice to the Stove. In the folk song "Twenty-three, Tanggua Guan" refers to the sacrifice to the stove on the 23rd or 24th of the twelfth lunar month every year. There is a saying of "officials, three people, four boatmen and five", which means that on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the government, Generally, people hold sacrifices to the stove on the 24th, while people on the water hold sacrifices to the stove on the 25th.
Sacrificing stoves is a custom that has great influence among Chinese people and is widely spread. In the old days, almost every kitchen had a "Kitchen Lord" statue in the kitchen. People call this god "Si Ming Bodhisattva" or "Zao Lord Siming". Legend has it that he is the "Jiutian East Chef Si Ming Zao Wangfu Lord" conferred by the Jade Emperor. He is responsible for managing the kitchen fires of each family and is regarded as the protector of the family. worship. Most of the Kitchen King's niches are located on the north or east side of the kitchen room, with the statue of the Kitchen King in the middle. Some people who don't have a niche for the Kitchen King stick the statue of the god directly on the wall. Some statues only depict the Kitchen God alone, while others include two men and women. The goddess is called "Grandma Kitchen God". This is probably an imitation of the image of a human couple. Most of the statues of the Kitchen God also have a calendar for that year printed on them, with words such as "Master of the East Chef", "God of Human Supervision", "Head of the Family" and other words written on them to indicate the status of the Kitchen God. The couplets "God says good things, and the lower realms keep you safe" are pasted on both sides to bless the whole family.
The Kitchen God has been staying at home since New Year's Eve last year to protect and supervise the family; on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the Kitchen God will go to heaven to report the family's good deeds to the Jade Emperor in heaven. Or evil deeds, the ceremony of sending off the Kitchen God is called "Sending the Stove" or "Citing the Stove". Based on the report of the Kitchen God, the Jade Emperor handed over the good and bad fortunes that the family should receive in the new year to the hands of the Kitchen God. Therefore, for the family, the Stove Lord’s report is indeed of great interest.
Sending stoves is usually held at dusk and into night. The family goes to the kitchen first, sets the table, offers incense to the Kitchen God in the shrine on the kitchen wall, and offers sugar melons made with malt sugar and noodles. Then tie bamboo strips into paper horses and fodder for livestock. Offering caramel to the Stove Lord is to sweeten his mouth. In some places, sugar is spread around the Stove Lord's mouth, and while applying it, he says: "Say more good things, but don't say bad things." This is to stuff the Stove Lord's mouth with sugar to prevent him from saying bad things. In the Tang Dynasty book "The Chronicles of the Year under the Chariot", there is a record of "smearing wine lees on the stove to make the commander (Kitchen Lord) drunk". After people coated Stove Lord's mouth with sugar, they took off the statue and went up to heaven with the paper and cigarettes. In some places, sesame straw and pine branches are piled in the yard at night, and the statue of the Stove God that has been worshiped for a year is taken out of the shrine, along with the paper horse and straw, and set on fire. The yard was brightly illuminated by the fire. At this time, the family kowtowed around the fire and prayed while burning: This year is the 23rd again, and I send the Stove King off to the west. There are strong horses, there is fodder, and the journey is smooth and safe. The sugar melon offered is sweet. Please say good things to the Jade Emperor.
When giving gifts to the Kitchen God, in some places there are still several beggars who dress up and go from house to house singing songs and dancing to the Kitchen God, called "giving the Kitchen God a gift", in exchange for food.
The custom of sending stoves is very common in the north and south of my country. Mr. Lu Xun once wrote the poem "The Gengzi Sending Stoves": Chickens are given glue and candies, and clothes are provided with petals and incense. If there is nothing growing in the house, there are only a few yellow sheep.
He said in the article "Sends to Zao Lord": "On the day when Lord Zao went to heaven, a kind of candy was sold on the street, the size of an orange. We also have this kind of thing, but Bian It's like a thick little pancake. It's called "glue teeth". It's intended to stick to Zao Lord's teeth so that he can't talk bad words to the Jade Emperor. The allusion to "Yellow Sheep" in the poem comes from "The Book of the Later Han·Yin Shi Zhuan": "During the reign of Emperor Xuan, those in Yinzi Fang were extremely filial and benevolent. In the morning of the twelfth lunar month, when the kitchen god appeared, Zifang worshiped and received the food. Qing: The family had a yellow sheep, so they worshiped it. Since then, they have become extremely rich, and have prospered since then. Therefore, they often sacrifice the yellow sheep to the stove during the twelfth lunar month. "Yinzi Fang saw the kitchen god Yan. , killed the yellow sheep as a sacrifice, and later got good luck. From then on, the custom of killing yellow sheep to offer sacrifices to the stove has been passed down.
In the Tang and Song Dynasties, the offerings to the stove were quite abundant.
As time went by, the custom of making offerings to the Stove Lord on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month to pray for the safety of the family was formed. After the custom of worshiping stoves spread, starting from the Zhou Dynasty, the imperial palace also included it in sacrifice ceremonies, and the rules for worshiping stoves were established across the country, and it became a fixed ritual.
Sweeping the Dust (Twenty-third to New Year’s Eve)
After the Stove Ceremony is held, preparations for the New Year begin formally. Every year from the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month to New Year's Eve, Chinese folk call this period "Spring Day", also called "Dust Sweeping Day". Sweeping dust is the year-end cleaning. It is called "sweeping the house" in the north and "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 Corpse 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 find out the chaos in the world. Anyone who resented the gods or disrespected the gods would have their crimes written under the eaves. Then let the spider build a web to cover it as a mark. 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 helping people eliminate disasters and blessing Zhang Xiang, the people always start sweeping the dust after delivering the stove, and they are busy until New Year's Eve.
The custom of "dusting and sweeping the house on the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month" has a long history. According to "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals", my country had the custom of sweeping dust during the Spring Festival in the era of Yao and Shun. According to folklore: since "dust" and "chen" are homophones, sweeping dust in the New Year has the meaning of "removing the old and spreading the new", and its purpose is to sweep away all "poor luck" and "bad luck". This custom entrusts people with their desire to destroy the old and establish the new and their prayers to say goodbye to the old and usher in the new.
Spring Couplets (Thirty)
As a unique literary form, Spring Festival Couplets have a long history in our country. It began during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, was particularly prosperous during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and has developed for more than a thousand years today.
Early before the Qin and Han dynasties, Chinese folk had the custom of hanging peach charms on the left and right sides of the door during the Chinese New Year. Taofu are two large boards made of peach wood, on which the names of the legendary ghost-conquering gods "Tu" and "Yu Lei" are written respectively, which are used to drive away ghosts and suppress evil spirits. This custom has lasted for more than a thousand years. It was not until the Five Dynasties that people began to inscribe couplets on peach boards to replace the names of the ghost-conquering gods. According to historical records, the couplet "New Year Na Yuqing, Jiajie Changchun" written by Meng Chang, the lord of Later Shu, on his bedroom door on New Year's Eve in 964 AD is the earliest Spring Festival couplet in my country.
After the Song Dynasty, it has become quite common for folk to hang Spring Festival couplets during the New Year. Therefore, in Wang Anshi's poem "Yuan Ri", "Thousands of households are as bright as the sun, and new peaches are always replaced by old charms." It is the Spring Festival couplets at that time. A true portrayal of the grand occasion. Since the appearance of Spring Festival couplets is closely related to Taofu, the ancients also called Spring Festival couplets "Taofu".
In the Ming Dynasty, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang vigorously advocated couplets. After he established his capital in Jinling (now Nanjing), he ordered ministers, officials and ordinary people to write a couplet on their door before New Year's Eve. He personally wore casual clothes and went on tour, going door to door to watch and entertain himself. The literati at that time also regarded composing couplets as an elegant pleasure, and writing Spring Festival couplets became a temporary social fashion.
After entering the Qing Dynasty, during the Qianlong, Jiaqing, and Daoguang dynasties, couplets flourished just like the rhythmic poetry of the Tang Dynasty, and many famous couplets appeared.
With the development of cultural exchanges between countries, couplets were introduced to Vietnam, North Korea, Japan, Singapore and other countries. These countries still retain the custom of posting couplets.
New Year Pictures (Thirty)
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. They reflect the customs and beliefs of the people and express people's hopes for the future. New Year pictures, like Spring Festival couplets, 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, "The Picture of 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 Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, advocated posting Spring Festival couplets during the Spring Festival, New Year paintings were also influenced by it and became popular. Three important production areas of New Year paintings appeared 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 pictures.
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. However, the most widely spread folk painting in my country is a New Year painting of "The Mouse Marriage". This painting depicts an interesting scene of a mouse marrying a bride according to human customs. The composition of his paintings is lively and lively. This painting left an indelible impression on Mr. Lu Xun. As he said, this entertaining and educational "Mouse Marriage" not only arouses the interest of adults, but also has a stronger artistic impact on children.
It is said that 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. Some old ladies often tease their children before going to bed: "Hide your shoes quickly, don't let the mice steal them and use them as a sedan chair." This is where the saying comes from. Therefore, the New Year painting "Mouse Marriage" can particularly arouse the excitement of children.
New Year’s Eve Dinner (New Year’s Eve)
New Year’s Eve is an extremely important day for the Chinese. On this day, people prepare to get rid of the old and welcome the new, and have a reunion dinner. In ancient China, some prison officials even let prisoners go home to reunite with their families for the New Year. This shows how important the "New Year's Eve dinner" was to the ancient Chinese.
The annual reunion dinner fully demonstrates the mutual respect and love among Chinese family members. This mutual respect and love makes the relationship between the family closer. The reunion of the family often brings spiritual comfort and satisfaction to the head of the family. The old man sees his children and grandchildren in the house, and the whole family talks about their family life. The past care and efforts in raising the children are finally not in vain. What a happiness. The younger generation can also take this opportunity to express their gratitude to their parents for their upbringing.
When the children are playing and setting off firecrackers, it is also the busiest time for the housewives in the kitchen. The New Year’s dishes have been prepared a few days ago, and the New Year’s Eve dinner is always cooked on New Year’s Eve. Make it. In the north, dumplings for the New Year's Day are also made on the 30th night. At this time, every chopping board was busy chopping meat and chopping vegetables.
At this time, the sound of chopping boards came from every house, the sound of firecrackers came from the streets and alleys, the "crackling" sound of abacus and the mellow sound of accounting reports came from the small shops, mixed with the chatter and laughter everywhere, one after another. , filled with ears, intertwined into a cheerful New Year's Eve movement.
Speaking of the sound of knives and anvils on New Year's Eve, "Yanjing Local Records" written by Deng Yunxiang records a very desolate story on New Year's Eve: The poor in the old society lived in difficulty, and thirty nights was a barrier. There is a family where the husband has not come back with the money until late in the evening. "The house has already run out of bottles of millet and there is nothing for the New Year. The woman has put the child to sleep at home and is helpless. She hears the sound of chopping boards next door and is in extreme pain. She doesn't know what to do." Can the husband come back with some money or things? He didn’t know how he would spend the new year tomorrow, and he was afraid that there would be no chopping board in his house to make people laugh, so he took a knife and chopped the empty chopping board, and while chopping, tears fell down..., this The story makes people feel sad indeed.
Eating New Year’s Eve dinner is the most lively and joyful time for every family. ***The feeling of fulfillment that comes with having a reunion dinner is indescribable. People not only enjoy the table full of delicacies, but also enjoy the happy atmosphere. There are big dishes, cold dishes, hot stir-fried dishes, and snacks on the table. Generally, two things are indispensable. , one is hot pot. The other is fish. The hot pot is boiling, steaming, warm and sultry, indicating that it is prosperous; "fish" and "yu" are homophonic, which symbolizes "abundance for good luck" and also means "abundance every year". There are also radish, commonly known as cabbage, which is used to wish good luck; lobster, fried fish and other fried foods are used to wish prosperity for the family, just like "fire cooking oil". Finally, there is a sweet dish, wishing you a sweet and sweet day in the future. , even if you don’t know how to drink, you should drink a little bit. In ancient times, when drinking during the New Year, great attention was paid to the quality of the wine. Some wines are no longer available, leaving only many attractive wine names, such as "Grape Fermented Fermented Wine" and "Lanwei Wine". , "Yichun Wine", "Plum Blossom Wine", "Peach Blossom Wine", "Tusu Wine", etc. Among these wines, the longest-lasting and most common one is Tusu Wine. But where did the name of Tusu Wine come from? What is it made of? There are different legends.
Tusu is the name of a kind of grass. Some people say that Tusu is a kind of wine brewed in this kind of house in ancient times. It is Tusu wine. It is said that Tusu wine was created by Hua Tuo, a famous doctor in the late Han Dynasty. Its formula is made by soaking rhubarb, atractylodes, cinnamon twig, fang, pepper, aconite, aconite and other traditional Chinese medicines in wine. Its effects on warming the Yang, dispelling wind and cold, and preventing diseases caused by epidemics were later spread by Sun Simiao, a famous doctor in the Tang Dynasty. Every year in the twelfth lunar month, Sun Simiao always distributed a packet of medicine to his neighbors and told everyone about the medicine. Making wine and drinking it on New Year's Eve can prevent the plague. Sun Simiao also named his house "Tusu House". From then on, drinking Tusu wine became a custom during the Chinese New Year. Most people always start drinking from the oldest ones; but when drinking Tusu wine, it is just the opposite, starting from the youngest. That is to say, when a family gathers to drink Tusu wine, the younger ones start first, followed by the older ones. After that, everyone drank a little. The poem "Chu Ri" by Su Zhe, a writer of the Song Dynasty, said: "I drink Tusu at the end of the year, and I don't realize that I am more than seventy years old." "This is the custom I'm talking about. Some people don't understand the meaning of this habit. Dong Xun explained: "The younger ones get older, so they are celebrated; the older ones lose their years, so they are punished. "This custom was still very popular in the Song Dynasty. For example, Su Shi said in the poem "Outside the City of Changzhou on a Wild Day": "But if you are poor and sad, you will grow strong, and you will drink and slaughter Su at the end without hesitation." "Although Su Shi was impoverished in his later years, he was very optimistic. He believed that as long as he was healthy and did not care about his old age, he would not have to refuse the final penalty of drinking Tusu wine. This unique drinking order often made people feel emotional in ancient times. , so it left a deep impression on people. Until the Qing Dynasty, this custom still existed. Although this custom is no longer popular on a large scale, the custom of drinking these medicinal wines during festivals or ordinary times still exists.
There are many different dishes for New Year's Eve dinners, including dumplings, wontons, noodles, and Yuanxiao, etc., and each has its own specialties. Northerners are accustomed to eating dumplings during the New Year, which means "Gengsui Jiaozi" in the new year. Because the white flour dumplings are shaped like silver ingots, serving them in pots symbolizes "making a fortune in the new year, and the ingots rolling in".
When making dumplings, some people also wrap a few coins that have been sterilized in boiling water, saying whoever eats them first will earn more money. The custom of eating dumplings was passed down from the Han Dynasty. According to legend, the medical sage Zhang Zhongjing saw that the ears of the poor were rotten by the cold during the twelfth lunar month of winter, so he made a "Quhan Jiao Er Decoction" to treat frostbite for the poor. He used mutton, chili peppers and some cold-warming medicinal materials, wrapped them in dough to make ear-shaped "Jiao Er", cooked them in a pot, and distributed them to the poor. After eating, people felt their whole bodies warm and their ears warm. Later, people followed suit and it has been passed down to this day. Eating wontons during the New Year means taking the beginning of the new year. Legend has it that the world was in a state of chaos before it was created. Pangu created the world, and then there were four directions in the universe and long noodles, also called longevity noodles. Eating noodles in the New Year is a wish for a hundred years of longevity.
Shou Sui (New Year's Eve)
Chinese people have the habit of keeping the year old 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. According to Zong Mao's "Jingchu Years' Records", the custom of eating New Year's Eve dinner has existed at least in the Southern and Northern Dynasties.
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 is passed on 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.