Some Chinese New Year customs in Wenzhou, my hometown, may no longer be popular or only popular in some areas with the progress of the times, but as a way of life, we can take the opportunity to learn about the folk culture in traditional festivals, and we can also tell them to our children during the holidays. Thank you for your collection.

Wuma Street-Zen Street is full of Chinese New Year's breath

At the end of December of the lunar calendar, Wenzhou is called "31th", that is, the last day of the year. However, because December of the lunar calendar is either 29 days or 31 days, New Year's Eve is not fixed, but generally floats on these two days, so people generally call it "dusk on the 29th or 31th".

after "returning to winter", the whole family will have a wine dinner, or invite friends and relatives to eat and drink heartily, which is called "Year-old wine".

Because New Year's Eve is the dividing line between the old and new years, drinking wine at different years means that the old and new years are divided on this night. Therefore, no matter how rich or poor, every family should try to make this meal as rich as possible.

vermilion goblets are filled with special food

Wenzhou people are very particular about eating "Fennian wine", which is also the most auspicious. Generally, ten kinds of cold dishes should be filled in ten vermilion high-legged red bowls on the table, which is called "Shiquan". In addition to chicken and meat, there should be peanuts (called fruit), oranges (called good luck), carp (called jumping the dragon gate), tofu (called innocence at home), etc., and each bowl must have a carrot disc covered at the top to show its appreciation. In addition, "taro" and "fish" are generally indispensable in the big dishes served in the middle. These two dishes indicate that the family will make ends meet and gradually become rich. The first dish on the table must be rice cake, which means "high every year".

When eating the New Year's Eve wine, the elders will also take the opportunity to sum up the success or failure of the whole family for a new year and strive for new progress. This bamboo branch poem records the scene of the whole family eating wine at the end of the year:

a family reunion in one room,

a fish, melon and eggplant mixed fruit plate.

I will teach you to listen to confessions frequently, and

every family has a good time.

Children who press the age to beg for copper coins

On New Year's Eve, the elders string copper coins with red paper and give them to the next generation, or put them under the child's pillow, which is called "lucky money". "Wenzhou Zhuzhi Ci" Day: "The child is so happy that he is like a fairy in the sky. Firecrackers are bought under the eaves, laughing and celebrating the New Year.

New Year's Eve is full of red lanterns and candles.

On New Year's Eve, it is necessary to place the lighted red candles in front of and behind the house and in every room, such as the water tank and the barn. This is called lighting "New Year's lanterns", which makes the home look bright and warm and full of Chinese New Year ceremony. A dainty family uses a small tin lampstand, and most people cut carrots and insert red candles. This custom is still circulating today.

You can use this small red candle to watch the New Year's Eve and stay up all night.

After drinking wine for the New Year's Eve, people find their own entertainment, such as going, chess, crossword puzzles, solving the nine-ring puzzle, rolling dice and playing five levels. People often stay up all night, which is commonly called "watching the New Year's Eve" or "watching the New Year's Eve".

Meng Haoran, a poet in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, came to Wenzhou in the twelfth lunar month in the 19th year of Kaiyuan (731). On New Year's Eve that year, he had a New Year's Eve dinner with fellow countryman friend Zhang Zirong, and he also wrote "Zhang Shaofu House in Yuecheng, a New Year's Eve party": among them, "Continue to draw candles, keep the old year and then have a long feast. The phrase "old plum blossom sings, new cypress wine spreads" can be seen in Wenzhou thousands of years ago, and some old customs that are adhered to now have been formed.

On New Year's Eve, the whole family can watch the TV Spring Festival Gala, or grab a red envelope on WeChat to welcome the arrival of the first day of the first month.

Visiting relatives and visiting relatives on the first day of the first month is busy

The Spring Festival is a holistic festival, and there are basically theme activities from New Year's Eve to the first day to the tenth day to the Lantern Festival. There is a folk saying in Wenzhou that "the first day worships the temple gate and the second day worships the father-in-law", so it can be seen that visiting relatives in the New Year is the main activity of the first month. The first day of the first month is one of the most important days. Old Wenzhou has formed a set of rules for eating, speaking and doing.

the food is sweet, and the first breakfast on the first day of the first month is the most important, and most housewives dare not neglect it.

In Wenzhou, many families will steam muffins (a kind of cake cooked and steamed from glutinous rice flour). When eating, cut the sponge cake into thin slices, and then cut the fat in soy sauce meat into thin slices, sandwiched between two pieces of sponge cake, sweet and salty; Some people eat dumplings, or cook vermicelli or longevity noodles with boiled eggs on them. These foods all contain the symbolic meaning of "high year after year" and "reunion". Some people cook the "Chinese New Year's rice" specially left on New Year's Eve, and eat mashed cakes and muffins.

The happy "red" is the color of the New Year

In Wenzhou counties (urban areas), although the emphasis of breakfast on the first day of the first month is different, the meanings of "auspicious and colorful" are almost the same.

For example, in Rui 'an and Pingyang, some people eat steamed rice cakes dipped in sugar, and some people have to drink a bowl of brown sugar soup first, and then eat longevity noodles and eggs. In Taishun, housewives also make sugar tea first, steam sugar cakes, and serve the head of vegetables (salted radish) to the family. "The head of the mouth is sweet, and the color is good": relatives reward, and auspicious words give birth to fragrance.

Dongtou once had the custom of "worshipping tea" in the first month, that is, the sweet tea cooked with red dates, longan, rice cakes, etc. was called "red date tea" to take its auspicious meaning; After drinking tea, we should also burn "longevity noodles" for good luck and wish the whole family a long life.

In Yueqing, most people also eat auspicious foods such as red dates and glutinous rice balls for breakfast. Yandang is the only place where they eat zongzi on the first day of the first month: on New Year's Eve, each family cooks a pot of rice zongzi, and the whole family will eat it when they get up early on the first day of the year. It is said that eating zongzi is because of the homonym of "Zongzi" and "Zongzong", which means remembering the ancestors; Second, because zongzi has the same sound as the word "zhong", it gets the meaning of fame.

In urban areas, during the Spring Festival, guests also have the custom of offering "Yuanbao tea", that is, putting two fresh olives in the tea, which not only makes the tea taste fragrant, but also floats in the yellow-green tea soup, which is shaped like Yuanbao, commonly known as "Yuanbao tea", and contains lucky and rich colors for the New Year.

On the first day of the first month, people say "good"

On the first day of the first month, some people will take "gold ingots" made of brown sugar rice cakes, wrap them with red ropes and evergreen branches and leaves, and go door to door to "send gold ingots". Generally speaking, the "sending gold ingots" is composed of two people, one of whom is auspicious and the other should be "good". After a few auspicious words, the host often presents rice cakes or small change. Wenzhou people also have a popular saying for this reason: "On the first day of the first month, send ingots, and speak every sentence well." In addition, there are many forms of sending auspicious words in various counties (urban areas) of our city, such as "buying skills", "lotus" and "Tao Qing".

It's not too late to pay a New Year's call.

People in Wenzhou say "New Year's call", and in Cangnan it's called "exploring the first month". Wencheng is called "the year of appearance". In the old days, if children under one year of age were taken to "look" their grandparents, they had to choose the date of March 69 for good luck.

"On the first day of the first month, people pay homage to their husbands". According to the old custom, Wenzhou people do not visit relatives on the first day of the first month. Fu Zhang, a magistrate of Rui 'an County, also recorded in his diary that on the first day of the lunar new year, he generally did not visit relatives except for incense. In the second day of junior high school, he visited more than ten families in one breath.

On the second day of junior high school, families come to congratulate each other on the new year's eve. If they meet on the way, they will give a long greeting (say hello by nodding and shaking hands now), and some will cross their chests to say "Happy New Year". This method is not unique to Wenzhou. According to "Xia Nai Diary", during the Chinese New Year in 1942, Xia Nai rushed back to Wenzhou from other places and stayed out because of traffic problems. He spent New Year's Eve in a small hotel in Ganzhou. On the first day of the first month of the first month, he wandered around the streets of a foreign land. When he saw pedestrians wearing brand-new clothes, he bowed and shouted "Congratulations, Congratulations" when he met acquaintances. His face was full of smiles.

Mr. Wang Shaoji's old New Year's greeting scene

"New Year's greeting" has rules. Generally, the younger generation goes out to their elders' homes to pay a New Year's greeting, and then the peers worship each other. Newlyweds call it "New Year's greetings" when they first visit Yue's family, while younger generations call it "New Year's greetings" when they visit funeral homes. The New Year greeting time is generally from the second day to the tenth day or extended to fifteen. However, Wenzhou people also have a saying that "it is not too late to celebrate the New Year with a heart".

When visiting relatives, you usually bring gifts on the first day of the first month. Before 1951s, the gifts were relatively simple, mostly longan, litchi, red dates, yuan dates, brown sugar, dried persimmons, etc. They were wrapped in special papyrus with red paper (some printed with lace words to congratulate the New Year), so they were called "paper Peng Bao", also known as "Gao Bao" and "Hong Bao".

during the spring festival, most of the relatives and friends who come to pay a new year's visit will stay for drinks and wine, which is commonly called "New Year's wine", that is, a spring banquet. During the Spring Festival, Xia Nai's Diary also recorded many times that he went to his relatives' home to have a spring banquet.

according to the old custom, if relatives don't even go to pay New Year's greetings, it means "breaking off their relatives" (meaning no more contact), so some old relatives (relatives of the previous generation) have to take turns to pay New Year's greetings. Although they don't have contacts in the four seasons and eight festivals, they must go to worship the New Year during the Spring Festival.

the "Ten Days Festival" in the Spring Festival

the first day, chickens and birds with five virtues

the second day, dogs and animals raise everything

the third day, dogs and pigs arch

the fourth day, sheep, sheep, sun, and sunshine

the fifth day, cows, horses, and horses break the fifth day in Niu Geng Spring

the sixth day. She created chickens on the first day of the first month, dogs on the second day, pigs on the third day, sheep on the fourth day, cows on the fifth day and horses on the sixth day. On the seventh day, Nuwa made little clay figurines in her own image with loess and water. Therefore, the first day to the sixth day is the day of six animals. In fact, Nu Wa's making life is just a beautiful legend, and the spread of "Six Livestock Day" is also an expression of the common people's hope that "six livestock will prosper and their family business will prosper".

People regard chickens as mascots, so the first day of the new year is designated as "Chicken Day". Chickens are called "birds with five virtues", and The Biography of Han Poems says: The red crown on the head is Wende; There is a distance behind the foot to fight, which is a martial virtue; It is brave to dare to fight before the enemy; It is benevolent to have food that calls for the same kind; Dawn is faith.

as for dog day, according to the book of rites, dogs are "animals of the supreme yang" and can keep all things; "Fat Pig Arch" is an auspicious language about the third grade, symbolizing that the coming year will be auspicious. On the fourth day of the first month, people can't kill sheep. If the weather is good, it means that sheep will be raised well this year, and people who raise sheep will have a good harvest. Mari was called "fattening" in ancient times. On the sixth day of the sixth day, there was a custom of going to the fields to prepare for spring ploughing and "being poor" to send people out. People often started working or doing business on this day.

Fat Pig Arch

But some folklore experts say that in Wenzhou, Cattle and Sheep Day is on the sixth day. In rural areas of Wenzhou, such as Rui 'an and Wencheng, there is a custom of lighting columns. That is, on this day, in addition to giving livestock a good "meal", candles should be lit in the cattle and sheep stalls at night, and incense should be inserted to pray for the prosperity of six livestock.

The seventh day of the first month is "People's Day", and it is a bit customary for Wenzhou to shine lights on people. For example, in Wencheng and other places, lights will be lit in each room that night to pray for prosperity. In the old days in Yongjia, people held incense baskets in their hands and went to temples to light candles and burn incense, praying for the gods and buddhas to protect the population.

On the eighth day of the first month, it was called "Valley Day" in ancient times, which is a bit like the custom of lighting a barn. In the old days, in the mountainous area of Wenzhou, people opened warehouses to light lamps that night and burned incense in front of them, wishing the crops a bumper harvest.

the ninth day of the first month is called "the sun" in ancient times. In Dongtou, there is a custom of worshipping God, usually from late night to early morning on the ninth day of the first month. Usually, those who make a wish to heaven also make a wish on this day, commonly known as "thank you for your wish"

One day, there is still land. On the tenth day of the first lunar month, people think it is the birthday of the earth. On this day, the traditional folk custom in China is to light lamps, burn incense and respect paper in the corners of houses and water jars, and it is forbidden to move stones and stone tools such as grinding, grinding and mortar, which is believed to hurt crops.

It has also been said that "Six Livestock Day" is not a festival, but it also shows the good wishes of farmers in the old days. Therefore, in the first few days of the first month, the custom of pasting red notes and lighting incense on pigsty, sheep pen and cowshed is still popular today.

taboos related to the Spring Festival in the old days

"It's unlucky to rest on New Year's Day, the kitchen doesn't need a kitchen knife, and vegetables are cooked on New Year's Eve, and you don't sweep the floor with a broom"-Xia Nai's diary on February 5, 1943.

"Fu" is very popular in the Spring Festival

During the Spring Festival in Wenzhou, there is also a saying among the people that "people eat on the 31th and have fun on the first day of the first month". In other words, on New Year's Eve, restaurants strive to be rich, and generally do not do housework on the first day of the first month. This is also one of the taboos of the old New Year or the first day of the first month.

During the New Year, there are taboos such as no quarrel, no knife and axe, no killing, and no debt collection (even asking parents for change). It is said that quarreling will lose color; The knife and axe is a murder weapon, which is unlucky to move; And you can't say unlucky things, beat and scold, etc.

In Rui 'an and Yongjia, children whose parents can't bear to beat and scold them in the New Year are called "opening the year", and one year will not be smooth. In Pingyang, there used to be taboos such as not picking feces, emptying toilets and knocking on the site for five days, but now these customs have basically disappeared. In the past, there was a custom of "the first month was slow" in rural areas, but now the atmosphere has changed and this traditional custom has been nearly broken. In some areas, people go out to work and work in groups on the second day of the first month (some even send their families out); Some shops have also broken the convention and opened their doors on the second and third days of junior high school.