Customs during the Spring Festival include lion dance, floating colors, dragon dance, traveling gods, temple fairs, visiting flower streets, admiring flower lanterns, traveling with gongs and drums, vernier flags, burning fireworks, praying for blessings, tossing spring, and also walking on stilts , land boat racing, Yangko dancing and so on. During the Spring Festival, people stick to New Year's red cards, stay up late on the New Year's Eve, have reunion dinners, pay New Year greetings, etc. all over the country. All these activities have a common theme, which is "saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new."
Spring Festival folk customs are diverse in form and rich in content, and are a concentrated display of the essence of the life and culture of the Chinese nation. Various New Year celebrations are held across the country. Due to different regional cultures, there are differences in customs or details, with strong regional characteristics. Introduction to the custom
1. Sacrificing stoves
Folk sacrifices to stoves originated from the ancient custom of worshiping fire. For example, it is said in "Shi Ming": "Stove. Creates and creates food." The duty of the Kitchen God is to control the stove fire and manage the diet. Later, it was expanded to examine the good and evil in the world to reduce blessings and disasters. Sacrificing stoves has a history of thousands of years among Chinese people. The belief in the Kitchen God is a reflection of the Chinese people's pursuit of the dream of "having enough food and clothing".
2. Paste Spring Couplets
According to literary works such as "The Jade Candle Collection" and "The Years of Yanjing", the original form of Spring Festival couplets is what people call "Peach Talisman". Another source of Spring Festival couplets is spring stickers. The ancients often posted the word "Yichun" on the first day of spring, and later gradually developed into Spring Festival couplets. Spring couplets are also called door-to-door couplets, spring posts, couplets, antithetical couplets, peach charms, etc. It depicts the background of the times and expresses good wishes with neat, dual, concise and exquisite words. It is a unique literary form in China.
Every Spring Festival, no matter in urban or rural areas, every household will select a red Spring Festival couplet and paste it on the door to add a festive atmosphere to the festival.
3. New Year’s Eve dinner
Also known as New Year’s dinner, reunion dinner, etc., it specifically refers to the family dinner at the end of the year and New Year’s Eve. The New Year's Eve dinner originates from the ancient year-end sacrificial ceremony, where people gather together for a meal after paying homage to gods and ancestors. The New Year's Eve dinner is the highlight of the year. It is not only colorful, but also very special. Before eating the family reunion dinner, worship the gods and ancestors first, and then start the meal after the worship ceremony is completed.
On the banquet there are usually chickens (meaning planning), fish (meaning plenty every year), oysters (meaning good market), nostoc (meaning getting rich), yuba (meaning abundance), and lotus roots (meaning wealth). Wisdom), lettuce (meaning wealth), sausage (meaning longevity), etc. for good luck. The Chinese New Year's Eve dinner is a family reunion dinner. It is the most sumptuous and important dinner at the end of the year.
4. Keeping the year old on New Year’s Eve is one of the annual customs. The custom of keeping the year old has been around for a long time. The folk custom of keeping the New Year's Eve is mainly manifested in lighting the New Year's Fire in all houses, family gatherings, and keeping the "Sui's Fire" from extinguishing, waiting for the moment to bid farewell to the old and welcome the New Year. On New Year's Eve, the lights are kept all night long, which is called "burning lanterns to illuminate the New Year" or "lighting the New Year fire". All houses are lit with candles, and candles are specially lit under the bed. The lights are burned everywhere, which is called "illuminating the waste". , it is said that after being illuminated in this way, the wealth of the family will be abundant in the coming year.
5. Temple fair
Visiting the temple fair is one of the folk activities during the Spring Festival. The Guangfu Temple Fair and the Beijing Ditan Temple Fair are both known as the two major temple fairs in China. It covers theme activities such as puppet gathering, Chinese unique skills, martial arts conference, and Lantern Festival Lantern Festival, and contains rich content such as blessing culture, folk culture, food culture, business and leisure culture.
6. Burning firecrackers
Chinese people have a 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 burn firecrackers, and the beeping sound of firecrackers is used to drive away the old and welcome the new. The original purpose of firecrackers was to welcome gods and ward off evil spirits. Later, with its strong festive color, it developed into a symbol of bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new. Burning firecrackers can create a festive and lively atmosphere. It is a festive entertainment activity that can bring people joy and good luck.