on the first day of the first lunar month as the beginning of the year. Every year after midnight (twelve o'clock) on the 30th day of the twelfth lunar month (the twenty-ninth day of the small month), the Spring Festival officially arrives. As the Spring Festival approaches, people buy new year's goods, and on New Year's Eve, the whole family gets together to have a New Year's Eve dinner. Post New Year pictures and Spring Festival couplets to welcome the new year. With the founding of New China, the Spring Festival celebrations have become more colorful. It not only retains the past folk customs and eliminates some activities with feudal superstition, but also adds a lot of new content. Give the Spring Festival a new flavor of the times. On December 23, 1949, the People's Government of the People's Republic of China stipulated a three-day holiday for the Spring Festival every year. China is a multi-ethnic country, and each ethnic group celebrates the New Year in different ways. The customs and habits of the Han, Manchu and Korean people during the Spring Festival are similar. The whole family gets together, people eat rice cakes, dumplings and various sumptuous meals, decorate with lanterns, set off firecrackers and wish each other well. Celebrations during the Spring Festival are extremely rich and varied, including lion dancing, dragon dancing, stilt walking, and land boat racing.
In some areas, people continue to worship ancestors and gods in the past, praying for good weather, peace and a good harvest in the new year. The ancient Mongolians called the Spring Festival "White Festival" and the first month Baiyue, which means good luck and good luck. Tibetans celebrate the Tibetan New Year. The Hui, Uyghur, Kazakh, etc. people celebrate the "Aid al-Adha". The Spring Festival is also a grand festival for the Miao, Tong, Yao and other ethnic groups. [2]
Legend
Stay up late and stay up late on the New Year
Stay up late
Stay up late on the last night of the New Year The custom of welcoming the new year is also called staying up late on New Year's Eve, commonly known as "staying up late". Looking into the origin of this custom, there is an interesting story circulated among the people: In ancient times, there was a ferocious monster that lived scattered in the deep mountains and dense forests. People called them "Nian". It has a ferocious appearance and a ferocious nature. It specializes in eating birds, animals, and scale insects. It changes its taste every day, ranging from kowtowing insects to living people, making people talk about the "New Year". Later, people gradually grasped the activity pattern of "Nian". It would rush to crowded places to taste fresh food every three hundred and sixty-five days, and its appearance time would always be after dark, until the rooster crows and dawn. , they returned to the mountains and forests. After calculating the exact date when the "New Year" would wreak havoc, the people regarded this terrible night as a critical moment and called it "New Year's Eve". They also came up with a whole set of ways to celebrate the New Year: every night on this day, every family would Each household prepares dinner in advance, turns off the heat and cleans the stove, fastens all the chicken pens and cattle pens, seals the front and back doors of the house, and eats the "New Year's Eve dinner" in hiding, because this dinner has the unlucky meaning of It means that the meal is very sumptuous. In addition to having the whole family gather together to dine together to express harmony and reunion, they must also offer sacrifices to their ancestors before eating, pray for the blessings of their ancestors’ gods, and spend the night safely. After dinner, , no one dared to sleep, they sat huddled together and chatted to strengthen their courage. Gradually, we formed the habit of staying up late on New Year's Eve. The custom of keeping the year old arose in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and many literati in the Liang Dynasty wrote poems and essays about keeping the year old. "One night lasts two years, and the fifth watch divides two years." People light candles or oil lamps and keep vigil all night, which symbolizes driving away all evil plagues and diseases, and looking forward to good luck in the new year. This custom has been passed down to this day.
The theory of Wannian’s creation of the calendar
According to legend, in ancient times, there was a young man named Wannian. He saw that the seasons were very chaotic at that time, so he planned to fix them. . But he couldn't find a way to calculate time. One day, when he was tired from going up the mountain to chop firewood, he sat under the shade of a tree to rest. The movement of the tree shadows inspired him. He designed a dial to measure the sun's shadow and measure the time of the day. Later, the dripping spring on the cliff inspired him, and he made a five-layer clepsydra to calculate time. As time went by, he discovered that every three hundred and sixty days, the four seasons cycled around again, and the length of the days repeated themselves. Picture of the longevity star
The king at that time was named Zu Yi, and he was often troubled by the unexpected weather conditions. After Wan Nian found out, he took the sundial and the clepsydra to see the emperor and explained to Zu Yi the principles of the movement of the sun and the moon. After Zu Yi heard this, Long Yan was overjoyed and felt that it made sense. So he left ten thousand years to build the Sun and Moon Pavilion in front of the Temple of Heaven, and built the sundial platform and leaky pot pavilion. He also hopes to accurately measure the laws of the sun and the moon, calculate the accurate morning and evening times, and create a calendar to benefit the people of the world. Once, Zu Yi went to learn about the progress of the Ten Thousand Years Test Calendar. When he climbed to the Temple of the Sun and the Moon, he saw a poem carved on the stone wall beside the Temple of Heaven: The sun rises and sets three hundred and six times, starting all over again. There are four seasons of vegetation and trees, and there are twelve circles in one year. Knowing that the Wannian Calendar had been created, I personally went to the Sun and Moon Pavilion to visit Wannian. Wan Nian pointed to the sky and said to Zu Yi: "Now is the end of the twelve months. The old year is over and the new year has begun. Please pray to the king to set a festival." Zu Yi said: "Spring is the beginning of the year, so let's call it the Spring Festival." It is said that this is the origin of the Spring Festival. Winter passed and spring came, year after year, and after ten thousand years of long-term observation and careful calculation, he worked out an accurate solar calendar. When he presented the solar calendar to his successor, his face was covered with silver whiskers. The monarch was deeply moved. In order to commemorate Wannian's achievements, he named the solar calendar "Wannian Calendar" and named Wannian the sun, moon and longevity star. Later, people hung pictures of longevity stars during the Chinese New Year, which is said to commemorate the ten thousand years of great virtue and respect.
Posting Spring Festival couplets and door gods
It is said that the custom of posting Spring Festival couplets began in the Hou Shu period more than a thousand years ago, which is evidenced by history. In addition, according to the records of "Jade Candle Collection", "Yanjing Chronicles" and other works, the original form of Spring Festival couplets is what people call "Peach Talisman". In ancient Chinese mythology, it is said that there is a world of ghosts. There is a mountain in it. There is a large peach tree covering three thousand miles on the mountain, and there is a golden rooster on the treetop. Whenever the golden rooster crows in the morning, the ghosts who wandered out at night will rush back to the ghost land. The gate of the ghost realm is located in the northeast of the peach tree. There are two gods standing by the gate, named Shen Tu and Yu Lei. If a ghost does something harmful to nature at night, Shen Tu and Yu Lei will immediately discover it and catch it, tie it up with a rope made of awning reed, and send it to feed the tiger. Therefore, all the ghosts in the world are afraid of Shen Tu and Yu Lei. So people carved their images out of peach wood and placed them at their doorsteps to avoid evil and harm. Later, people simply engraved the names of Shen Tu and Yu Lei on peach boards, believing that doing so could also suppress evil and eliminate evil. This kind of peach wood board was later called "Peach Run". Qin Shubao and Yuchi Gong
In the Song Dynasty, people began to write couplets on peach boards. One was to keep the meaning of peach wood to suppress evil, the other was to express their best wishes, and the third was to decorate the door for beauty. Couplets are also written on red paper, which symbolizes joy and auspiciousness, and are pasted on both sides of doors and windows during the New Year to express people's best wishes for good luck in the coming year. In order to pray for the good health of the family, people in some places still retain the habit of sticking to the door god. It is said that if two door gods are posted on the door, all monsters and ghosts will be intimidated. Among the people, the door god is a symbol of righteousness and force. The ancients believed that people with strange looks often have magical talents and extraordinary abilities. They are upright and kind-hearted, and it is their nature and responsibility to catch ghosts and demons. Zhong Kui, the ghost-hunting master that people admire, has such a strange appearance. Therefore, the folk door gods always have angry eyes and ferocious looks, holding various traditional weapons in their hands, ready to fight any ghosts who dare to come to the door. Since the doors of Chinese houses usually have two doors opening opposite each other, door gods always come in pairs. After the Tang Dynasty, in addition to the previous two generals Shen Tu and Yu Lei, people also regarded the two Tang Dynasty generals Qin Shubao and Yuchi Gong as door gods. According to legend, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty was ill and heard ghosts calling outside his door, making him restless all night. So he asked the two generals to stand guard by the door with weapons in hand, and the next night there were no more ghosts to disturb him. Later, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty asked people to draw the images of these two generals and paste them on the door. This custom began to spread among the people.
The Legend of Taofu
Taofu
Wang Anshi of the Song Dynasty wrote in the poem "Yuan Ri": "Thousands of households always bring new peaches every day. "Replace the old talisman.", describing the brightness of the first day. The words "peach" and "talisman" in the poem are intertextual, which means that the old peach charms are always replaced with new peach charms - removing the old and replacing the old with the new. There is a beautiful legend about Taofu. A long time ago, there was a beautiful peach forest on Dushuo Mountain in the East China Sea. There was a huge peach tree with luxuriant branches and leaves that stretched for three thousand miles. The peaches were big and sweet. People ate the peaches from this tree. Peaches can become gods. One dark night, a ghost with a green face, fangs, red hair and green eyes wanted to steal the fairy peach. The two brothers Shen Tu and Yu Lei, the owners of the peach forest, used peach branches to defeat the ghosts and tied them with straw ropes to feed the tigers watching the mountain. From then on, the names of the two brothers made ghosts and monsters fear them, and after their death, they became gods who specialized in punishing evil ghosts. In later generations, people used peach boards one inch wide and seven or eight inches long to draw images of the two gods Shen Tu and Yu Lei and hang them on both sides of their doors to drive away ghosts and evil spirits. This kind of peach boards were called "Peach Talisman". With the changes of the times, the peach charms themselves also changed. Later, people wrote the names of the two gods on the peach charms instead of portraits. Later, it developed into "inscribed peach charms", that is, with the same number of words, symmetrical structure, and corresponding meanings. Short poems were inscribed on peach symbols, which was the predecessor of Spring Festival couplets.
Ancient New Year’s cards
The New Year’s cards popular in modern society have been implemented in ancient my country. As early as the Song Dynasty, the families and relatives of the royal family, nobles, scholar-bureaucrats, and relatives had used special New Year greeting cards, called "Ming Ci" or "Ming Tie." It is to cut plum blossom paper into cards about two inches wide and three inches long, and write your name and address on them.
Put it outside the house in winter. Because of the severe cold weather, the sugar melon solidifies and has some tiny bubbles inside. It tastes crispy, sweet and crispy, with a unique flavor. Real Kanto candy is extremely hard and cannot be broken when dropped. It must be split with a kitchen knife when eating. The material is very heavy and fine. The taste is slightly sour, and there is absolutely no honeycomb in the middle. Each piece weighs one tael, two taels, or four taels, and the price is also more expensive. There are two kinds of sugar melons, those without sesame seeds and those without sesame seeds. They are made of sugar into the shape of melon or pumpkin. The center is hollow and the skin is less than five minutes thick. Although the sizes are different, the transaction is still calculated based on the weight. Large sugar melons have It weighs only one or two kilograms, but it is used as a cover, and few people buy it. After the Stove Festival is held, preparations for the New Year begin formally. Sweeping dust is the year-end cleaning. It is called "house sweeping" in the north and "dust dusting" in the south. Sweeping dust and doing hygiene before the Spring Festival is a traditional habit of the Chinese people. Thoroughly clean the outside and inside the house, in front of and behind the house, to welcome the new year cleanly. 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", China 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.
The twenty-ninth day of the twelfth lunar month and the thirtieth day of the twelfth lunar month
Every year on the night of the last day of the twelfth lunar month and the last day of the lunar year (the moon is 30 days old and 29 days short), it is called It's called "New Year's Eve". It is connected with the Spring Festival (the first day of the first lunar month) and is a day for people to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. Since the big month in the lunar calendar has thirty days and the small month has only twenty-nine days, the date of New Year's Eve is also different. But this day is often called "New Year's Eve" regardless of whether it is the 29th or 30th. On New Year's Eve, the whole family reunites for the New Year's Eve dinner (the last meal of the year in the lunar calendar). After the New Year's Eve dinner, there is a custom of giving out New Year's Eve money and staying up late (keeping up the New Year's Eve), which means keeping up the New Year's Eve dinner from the last day of the Lunar New Year to the first day of the next year. one day. During the Zhou and Qin Dynasties, at the end of each year, the palace would hold a "Da Nuo" ceremony, beating drums to drive away the ghosts of plague and disaster, which was called "Zhuchu". Later, the day before New Year's Eve was also called Xiaochu, that is, Little New Year's Eve; New Year's Eve is New Year's Eve, that is, New Year's Eve. Setting up the heaven and earth table. Legend has it that this night is when the gods in the sky descend to the realm, so there is a custom among the people to receive the gods. The Heaven and Earth Table is a temporary altar table specially designed for New Year's Eve and is mainly used to receive gods. Households that do not have a large Buddhist hall generally pay special attention to it because they usually make less offerings to the Buddha. At the end of the year, they have to pay a large reward to the gods and Buddhas. The content of the Heaven and Earth Table is different from that of the permanent Buddhist hall. Except for the hanging money, incense candles, five offerings, and large offerings, most of the worshiped idols are temporary, such as "100%", which is a woodcut A picture album of divine statues; "Eighteen Buddhas and Gods in the Three Realms of Heaven and Earth", a full-scale divine code printed with watercolor woodcut on large yellow paper with rough edges; portraits of the three stars of fortune, wealth and longevity, etc. Some of the above statues are burned immediately after receiving the gods, such as "100%", while others are not burned until the fifth day of the festival, or even during the Festival of Lights. The location of the heaven and earth table is not uniform. If the main room is spacious, it can be placed in the house; if there is no space in the house, it can be placed in the courtyard. Eat New Year’s Eve dinner and watch the Spring Festival Gala (6 photos) When the children are playing and setting off firecrackers, it is also the busiest time for housewives in the kitchen. The chef made it on the 30th day. 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 sound of abacus and accounts came from the small shops, and mixed with the laughter everywhere, one after another, filled with ears, intertwined into a cheerful New Year's Eve movement. Eating New Year's Eve dinner is the most lively and happy time for every household during the Spring Festival. On New Year’s Eve, the table is filled with sumptuous New Year’s dishes. The whole family is reunited, sitting around the table and enjoying the reunion dinner. The sense of fulfillment in my heart is really indescribable. People not only enjoy the table full of delicacies, but also enjoy the happy atmosphere. There are big dishes, cold basins, hot stir-fries, and snacks on the table. Generally, two things are indispensable, one is hot pot. One is fish.
The hot pot is boiling, steaming, warm and sultry, indicating that it is prosperous; "fish" and "yu" are homophonic, symbolizing "abundance in auspicious celebrations" and "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". The last part is usually a sweet dish, wishing you a sweet life in the future. Even if you don’t know how to drink alcohol on this day, you should drink a little bit. There are many famous New Year's Eve dinners, which vary from north to south, including dumplings, wontons, long noodles, Yuanxiao, etc., and each has its own specialties. Northerners are accustomed to eating dumplings during the Chinese New Year (the custom of eating dumplings was passed down from the Han Dynasty), which means "Gengsui Jiaozi", the alternation of the old and the new. And because the white flour dumplings are shaped like silver ingots, serving them on the table 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. 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, and that the four directions of the universe were created only after Pangu created the world. Long noodles are also called longevity noodles. Eating noodles during the New Year is a wish for a hundred years of longevity. Although watching the Spring Festival Gala is not an ancient custom, after the 1980s, due to the popularity of television, the Spring Festival Gala has become an indispensable cultural "feast" for Chinese people. Every year, more than one billion people around the world attend it. Watch the Spring Festival Gala on TV or the Internet. Since the Han Dynasty, the time when the new year changes from the old year to the new year is generally midnight, and keeping the year old on New Year's Eve is one of the most important annual activities. The custom of keeping the year old has been around for a long time. The earliest record can be found in the "Feng Tu Zhi" written by Zhou Chu in the Western Jin Dynasty: On New Year's Eve, each person gives gifts to each other, which is called "giving the year old"; , the blessings are complete, which is called "dividing the year"; everyone stays up all night, waiting for the dawn, which is called "keeping the year old". "One night brings more than one year (5 photos) to two years, and the fifth watch is divided into two days." On New Year's Eve, the whole family gets together to have New Year's Eve dinner, light candles or oil lamps, sit around the fire and chat, waiting for the time to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. , staying up all night 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, keeping the year old had two meanings: the elders keeping the year old meant "saying goodbye to the old year", which meant cherishing the time; keeping the gods to the gods was to distinguish the old and new years, but the time to keep the gods was not uniform. Some ceremonies begin as soon as Zizheng arrives, some begin to receive the gods at "Zizheng" time, that is, at midnight, and some begin after "Zizheng". After offering sacrifices to the stove, all the gods returned to the heavenly palace and ignored the secular affairs of the human world. At midnight on New Year's Eve, that is, when the new year came, they came to the human world to take care of affairs. The ceremony of receiving the gods is held in front of the heaven and earth table, and is presided over by the eldest member of the family. Because the directions in the heaven where the gods live are different, the directions from the lower world are naturally different. As for which god to pick up and where the god comes from, you must check the "Constitution" in advance and lead the whole family to hold incense and pick up the god according to the direction in the courtyard. After kowtowing according to the direction, stand still until the incense is gone, kowtow again, and finally remove the incense roots, idols, ingots, etc., and put them into the money and grain basin that has been prepared in the courtyard to burn them, along with pine branches, sesame straw, etc. Firecrackers burst out when receiving the god. After receiving the god, sesame straw is spread from the street door to the door of the house. People walk on it and make a crackling sound, which is called "stepping on the new year" or "stepping on the evil spirit". Since "broken" and "haunted" have the same pronunciation, it means starting to drive away evil spirits in the new year. In the old days, since the opening of the Wealth Gate at midnight during the Spring Festival, people would send gifts to the God of Wealth. Holding a piece of paper printed in their hands, the God of Wealth would shout outside the door: "Here comes the person who sends the God of Wealth!" At this time, the owner of the house expressed his welcome. When the God of Wealth comes, he will give the reward to the visitor. The person giving the gift to the God of Wealth should say some auspicious words, such as "The gold and silver treasures are rolling in!" "There are a pair of golden lions on the left and a pair of golden phoenixes on the right." In addition, there are people wearing red robes, gauze hats, beards, and yellow bags on their bodies, pretending to be the God of Wealth, followed by a few gongs and drums, distributing images of the God of Wealth from house to house in order to collect rewards.
Every time they come to someone's door, they sing "The left compartment is full of gold and silver, the right room is full of treasures" and other auspicious words. It is not until the owner happily takes the statue of the God of Wealth and gives them some money that they thank them repeatedly. , and beat more vigorously for a while. Amidst the sound of gongs and drums, they moved to other houses.
The first day of the first lunar month
Setting off firecrackers (11 photos) The first day of the first lunar month was originally called "New Year's Day". The original meaning of "Yuan" was "head", which was later extended to "beginning". This day is the first day of the year, the first day of spring, and the first day of the first month, so it is called "Sanyuan"; because this day is also the dynasty of the year, the dynasty of the moon, and the dynasty of the sun, it is also called the "Three Chaos"; And because it is the first new moon, it is also called "Yuan Shuo". The first day of the first lunar month is also known as Shangri, Zhengchao, Sanshuo, and Sanshi, which means the beginning of the year, month, and day. New Year's greetings On the first day of the New Year, men all get up early, put on their most beautiful clothes, dress up neatly, and go out to visit relatives and friends, pay New Year's greetings to each other, and wish each other 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 pay New Year greetings at home, some upper-class figures and scholar-bureaucrats later used name stickers to congratulate each other, thus developing the later "New Year cards". When paying New Year greetings during the Spring Festival, the younger generation should pay New Year greetings to their elders and wish them longevity and health. The elders can give the prepared New Year's money to the younger generation. It is said that the New Year's money can suppress evil spirits, because "Sui" and "祟" are homophonic, so the younger generation can be normal after receiving the New Year's money. Have a happy one year old. 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.