"Spring Festival", there are differences in the reference to each generation. Han Dynasty refers to the day of spring, the North and South Dynasties refers to the entire spring, to the modern era refers to the first day of the first month. It is China's longest history, the richest activities, ceremonies, the most grand, the most spectacular scene, the most exquisite food of a traditional festival, the country's 53 of the 56 ethnic groups (excluding Tibet, White, Dai) are to hold a grand family or clan feast to celebrate, so it is also known as "the first day of the great celebration of the feast".
Origin of the Spring Festival
According to historical records, the Spring Festival in the Tang Yu called "Zai". Xia Dynasty called "year", the Shang Dynasty called "sacrifice", the Zhou Dynasty called "year". The original meaning of "year" refers to the growth cycle of grain, grain a year a hot, so the Spring Festival once a year, contains the symbolism of celebrating abundance. It is also rumored that the Spring Festival originated from the "La Sacrifice" at the end of the primitive society. At that time, every time when the waxing and waning of spring came, the ancestors would kill pigs and slaughter goats, sacrificing to the gods, ghosts and ancestral spirits, and praying for good weather in the new year to avoid calamities. They painted their faces with vermilion sand, wore bird feathers, sang, danced, ate and drank, and were very lively.
The rituals of paying homage to one another began in the early Han Dynasty, and were recorded in the Tongdian.
Customs of Spring Festival food
※Eastern Han Dynasty, ancestor worship is an important activity and custom of the Spring Festival. According to Cui Ti's "Four People's Monthly Orders", "The first day of the first month is the first day of the first month. The rate of wives and offspring, clean sacrifice to the ancestors. And the ritual day, into the wine Shen Bibi, is the family of inferiority and superiority, no big and no small, in order to be listed in the ancestor before the children and women, great-grandchildren, each on the pepper wine in the parents, said goblet lifting life, Xin Xin as well."
※ South Dynasty period, the Spring Festival, the whole family to congratulate each other, drinking feasts, and recreational activities. According to the Liang man Zong懔 "荆楚岁時记", "the first day of the first month, .......young and old are all properly dressed, in order to pay their respects. The first day of the first month, all the children and elders were properly dressed, and they paid tribute to each other in turn. Into the tusu wine, gum teeth molasses, under the five Xin plate." There are also games such as drawing chickens, burning firecrackers, hanging from ropes, and begging for wishes.
※ Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties in the Spring Festival food customs in the ceremonial component gradually increased. According to the Southern Song Dynasty, Wu Zicollection "Dream Liang Records" records: "the soil of the great masters are exchanged congratulations, the fine people of men and women are also freshly dressed, to and from the festival", "Fantianlu Conglu records" records: "men and women in order to worship the elders, the masters of the young out to visit their friends and relatives, or not only to send their children on behalf of the congratulations, known as the New Year's Day"; "Qingbo Magazine" contains: "painting chickens, burning firecrackers, hanging rope, begging for wishes, and other games. Qingbo Magazine": "Song Yuanyou years, New Year's greetings, often using servants to hold the name of the prick on behalf of to". Friends and relatives to pay tribute to the New Year, the host family must set up a banquet, wine and meat unusually rich. According to the "jia tai wu ji zhi" records: "new year's day men and women at an early age, the master of the house set up wine and fruits to propitiate, men and women order to worship, finished is full dress, at relatives congratulations, set up wine and food to pay, day old leave, where five days and finished." to the qing dynasty, "the emperor jing years and seasons jisheng" cloud: "the scholar and the people's home, add clothes and crowns, clean belt, worship god and ancestor; burn kozogangbi, taste cool family reunion, offer pepper plate, pouring cypress wine, help steamed cake, sip powder soup. When they go out to welcome the joy, they visit the temple of medicine and shadow, and make invitations to congratulate the festival. Road meets friends and relatives, then drop the carriage long bow, and wish the day of the new jubilee Nafu", for the spring to come to pay homage, "even if it is not close to the thick, but also must be served three cups of festive wine. If the relatives forget, why not get drunk! It is said that the new festival, walk a thousand homes as well as sitting in a family. And the cars and horses are noisy, chasing after joy after day, can be said to be extremely winning a moment also carry on.
Chinese New Year food customs
Han Chinese New Year food customs, generally to eat rice cakes, dumplings, patties, dumplings, eggs, big meat nine, whole fish, wine, Fukuo orange, apples, peanuts, melons, sweets, tea and dishes; and accompanied by dusting, washing bedding, prepare New Year's Eve, posting couplets, stickers, sticker, sticker cutouts, sticker, point candles, light a fire, firecrackers, the New Year's Eve, to the New Year's money, New Year's greetings, visiting relatives,
Ancestral graves, flower markets, social fires, and many other activities, the ultimate in heavenly joy. Such as the New Year's Eve dinner, especially pay attention to: First, the whole family must get together, for some reason did not return to the person must stay a seat and a set of tableware, reflecting the meaning of reunion; Second, the meal is sumptuous, pay attention to the "mouth", the rice cake called "step by step," dumplings called "Wan Wan Shun", and "Wan Wan Shun," a dumpling. The rice cake is called "Bu Bu Gao", the dumplings are called "Wan Wan Shun", the wine is called "Chang Liu Shui", the eggs are called "Da Yuan Bao", and the goldfish is called "Nian Nian Yu"; The fish is not allowed to be eaten, it is called "watch the balance", and must be reserved for the first day of the year. Northern regions without fish, mostly carved a wooden fish instead; Third, the seating order, mostly grandparents on top. Grandchildren in the center, the father's generation under, regardless of gender, old and young, all have to drink. Eating closed doors, lively and enjoyable and stop.
New Year's Eve feast dishes have their own characteristics. In the old days, Beijing, Tianjin, the average family to do rice, stewed pork, beef and mutton, stewed chicken, and then do a few fried dishes. Shaanxi banquets are generally four big dishes, eight big bowls, four big dishes for fried dishes and cold dishes, eight big bowls to braised vegetables, roasted vegetables. Southern Anhui only meat dishes are braised meat, tiger skin meat, meatballs, meat, steamed meat, stewed meat and pork liver, pork heart, pork belly products, in addition to a variety of fried meat, fried meat, and so on. The eastern part of Hubei Province for the "three steam", "three cakes," three pills. "Three steam" for steamed whole fish, steamed whole duck, steamed whole chicken; "three cakes" is fish cake, meat cake, sheep cake;
"Three pills" is fish balls, meat balls, lotus root balls. In Harbin, people usually stir-fry 8, 10 or 12 or 16 dishes, the main ingredients of which are chicken, duck, fish and vegetables. Gannan New Year's Eve dinner is generally 12 dishes. Some places in Zhejiang, generally for the "Ten Bowls", for "ten full ten blessings" of the color, to chicken, duck, fish and various vegetables. Nanchang area in Jiangxi Province, generally more than ten dishes, pay attention to four cold, four hot, eight dishes, two soup.
Everywhere on New Year's Eve, there are one or more essential dishes, and these dishes often have some kind of auspicious meaning. For example, the Suzhou area, the table must have bok choy (then Anle dish), soybean sprouts (Ruyi dish), celery (diligence). Xiangzhongnan region must be a kilogram of carp, called "reunion fish", there must be a 3 kilograms of pork elbow, called "reunion elbow". Wanzhong, southern Anhui table with two fish, a complete carp, only to see but not allowed to eat, both to honor the ancestors and said that the annual surplus, the other is a silver carp, you can eat, symbolizing even the grandson, prosperous people. The first bowl of Qimen family feast is "in and", made of tofu, mushrooms, asparagus, shrimp, fresh meat, etc., meaning "peace and prosperity".
The Hefei table has a bowl of "chicken scratch beans", which means "catch money and get rich". Butler to eat a chicken leg, called "grab money claw", means that next year, the wealth of money into the treasure. Anqing's family to eat a bowl of noodles before dinner, called "money string". Nanchang area must eat rice cakes, braised fish, fried rice noodles, eight treasures of rice, boiled paste soup, the meaning of which in turn is the annual rise, the annual fish, food harvest, rice into strings, eight treasures into the wealth, year after year.
Northern regions like to eat dumplings at the Spring Festival, which symbolizes unity, good fortune and the old and the new. In order to increase the festive atmosphere and fun, people over the generations in the dumpling filling up and down a lot of effort, people in the dumplings on the money, who ate the coming year will be rich; in the dumplings on the honey, who ate the dumplings means that the coming year life is sweet and so on.
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The Spring Festival, as its name suggests, is the festival of spring. With the arrival of spring, everything is renewed, and a new round of sowing and harvesting season is about to begin. People have enough reasons to welcome this festival with songs and dances. So, before the festival, New Year's messages in red paper and yellow characters are put on the door faces. When the spring girl came to the door, she would read over the sentences that sent good wishes for the new year, and this reading, good luck really came. The same symbolism of things hanging red lanterns and paste "Fu" word and the God of Fortune and so on, "Fu" word must also be posted upside down, passers-by read "Fu down", that is, "Fu to". The word "Fu" must also be pasted upside down, so that when passers-by read "Fu upside down", they will know that "Fu has arrived".
Another name for the Spring Festival is New Year's Eve. What is "Nian"? It is an imaginary animal that brings bad luck to people. "When the "New Year" comes, the trees wither and no grass grows; when the "New Year" passes, everything grows and flowers are everywhere. "How can the year pass? The firecrackers were used to blast the city, which led to the custom of burning firecrackers. 1993, the Beijing Municipal People's Government enacted a law banning the discharge of fireworks and firecrackers, which made this custom, which had lasted for hundreds of years, a history.
The Spring Festival is a time for family reunions, much like Christmas in the West. It is a time for children who have left home to travel thousands of miles back to their parents' homes. The night before the actual New Year's Eve is called Reunion Night, when families sit around and make dumplings. The way to make dumplings is to make the dough first, and the word "wu" means "together"; the word "wu" in dumplings harmonizes with the word "jiao", which means "together" and "jiao", which means "together" and "jiao", which means "together" and "jiao". and "交 "means to get together, so dumplings are used to symbolize the reunion.
The festivities last for a month. Before the first day of the first month, there are ceremonies such as sacrificing to the stove and ancestors; in the middle of the festival, there are ceremonies such as giving children new year's money and paying New Year's greetings to family and friends; half a month after the festival is the Lantern Festival, when lanterns fill the city and visitors fill the streets, a magnificent scene, and after the Lantern Festival, the Spring Festival is considered to be over.
The Spring Festival: modern folk custom to the Spring Festival is also called the New Year. In fact, the origins of the New Year and the Spring Festival are very different.
So how did the "year" come about?
One theory is:
According to legend, in ancient China there was a monster called "Nian", which had a long head and horns and was very fierce. "It lived at the bottom of the sea for many years, and only climbed ashore on New Year's Eve to devour livestock and hurt people.
Therefore, on New Year's Eve, people from villages and hamlets fled to the mountains to avoid the harm of the Nian beast.
This New Year's Eve, Peach Blossom Village, the people are supporting the old and young to take refuge in the mountains, from the village came a begging old man, see his hand on crutches, arm with a bag, silver beard flowing, eyes like a star.
The townspeople have sealed the windows and locked the door, some packing, some cattle and sheep, everywhere people shouted and hissed, a scene of panic in a hurry. The first thing I'd like to say is that I don't want to be a part of it, but I'd like to be a part of it.
Only an old woman at the east end of the village gave the old man some food and advised him to go to the mountains to avoid the "New Year" beasts, the old man stroked his beard and laughed: "Granny, if you let me stay at home for a night, I'm sure to "New Year" beasts out of the way.
The old woman looked at him with astonished eyes, and saw that he had hair, hale and hearty, extraordinary. But she still continue to persuade, begging the old man smiled but did not say. The old woman had no choice but to leave her home behind and take refuge in the mountains.
In the middle of the night, the "New Year" beast broke into the village. It found that the atmosphere in the village was different from that of previous years: the old lady's house at the east end of the village had a big red paper on the door, and the house was ablaze with fire. "The beast shuddered and gave a strange cry.
"The year" stared angrily at the grandmother's house for a moment, then screamed furiously and pounced on her. Close to the door, the yard suddenly came "bang, bang, bang, bang," the sound of explosions, "year" trembling, and do not dare to come forward. It turns out that Nian is afraid of the color red, fire and explosions. At this time, the door of the mother-in-law's house was wide open, only to see an old man wearing a red robe in the yard laughing. The "Nian" was shocked and fled in a panic.
The next day was the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar, and the people who had returned from their refuge were very surprised to see that the village was safe and sound. It was then that the old woman realized what had happened, and rushed to the townspeople to tell them about the old man's promise.
The townspeople flocked to the old lady's house, only to see the old lady's house door with red paper, a pile of unburned bamboo in the yard is still in the "snap" explosion, a few red wax candles inside the house is still glowing with the remaining light ......
The ecstatic townspeople in order to celebrate the The right auspicious arrival, have to change new clothes and wear new hats, to friends and relatives to say goodbye. The story spread quickly in the surrounding villages, and people knew the way to drive away the "New Year" beast.
From then on, every year on New Year's Eve, every family puts up red couplets and sets off firecrackers; every household keeps the candles burning brightly and keeps watch for the new year. Early in the morning on the first day, but also to go to friends and relatives to say goodbye.
This custom has spread far and wide and has become the grandest of all traditional Chinese festivals.
Another theory is:
China's ancient character book put the "year" character in the Wo Department, to show that the wind and rain, the five grains. Since the grains and cereals are usually cooked once a year. The word "year" was then extended to the name of the year.
China's ancient folk although there has long been the custom of the New Year, but then it is not called the Spring Festival. Because then the Spring Festival, refers to the twenty-four seasons in the "spring".
North and South Dynasties, the Spring Festival refers to the entire spring. It is said that it was after the Xinhai Revolution that the Lunar New Year was officially named the Spring Festival. Because of the change to the solar calendar at that time, in order to differentiate between the lunar and solar festivals, the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar had to be renamed "Spring Festival".
Lunar New Year's Eve: is the traditional festivals in China's big festival, quite prominent. The name of the Lantern Festival is derived from the fact that the festival is held on the fifteenth day and night of the first month of the year (Yuan).
The Lantern Festival is also called the "Festival of Lights" and "Lantern Festival" because the main activity of this festival is to release lanterns at night, hence the name. In addition, the Lantern Festival is also called "Shangyuan" and "Shangyuan Festival", which is borrowed from Taoism.
On the formation of the Lantern Festival custom, there are a lot of sayings, but generally changed to the Han Dynasty on the first embryonic form. It is said that during the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the Han family had to sacrifice to a god called "Taiyi". Allegedly, Taiyi was a rather prominent god at that time, the status of the five emperors above, and have benefited from the Han Emperor, so by the worship of the more prosperous. It is rumored that another Han emperor, Han Wendi, was also associated with the Lantern Festival.
This Han Emperor was the general Zhou Bo to calm the "Zhulu's rebellion" to the throne of the emperor, and that the day to calm the rebellion is the 15th day of the first lunar month, so since then every night on the 15th night of the first lunar month, the Han Emperor had to go out of the palace to play, and the people with the fun, and to determine the day for the Lantern Festival. However, and these two Han emperors related to the night of the first month of the fifteenth night sacrifice Taiyi, play, and there is no record of open lamps, fire, another Han emperor - Han Mingdi, but the edicts of the Lantern Lantern Lantern, thus forming the later generations of the custom of open lamps, watching the lamp.
Chinese New Year taboos (only *** reference, not to promote superstition)
Chinese people in the past and now in some places in the Chinese New Year there are a number of taboos, mainly in order to protect the peace, and in the coming year everything goes well, all the best. The taboos from the first day to the first ten are:
First day: the day of the chicken, in the old days on New Year's Day to paint chickens to ward off evil spirits and pray for good luck (chicken harmonic Ji Ji).
The second day of the month: the day of the dog, go out to pay homage to the New Year or ancestors.
The third day of the month: the day of the sheep, prone to quarrels, should not pay homage to the New Year.
The fourth day of the month is the Pig Day, which is a day to worship the God of Wealth.
Fifth: Ox Day, "broken five", can break many taboos: "send poor five" from the first to the fourth of the garbage can not be dumped, so as not to pour the wealth, the first five of the garbage is considered poor soil, dumped to send poor out.
Charter six: Horse Day, the day of sending God, the God of Wealth sent on New Year's Eve paper horse burned, the store began to resume business.
The seventh day of the month: People's Day, people's birthday, and the gathering to eat and drink, and the custom of setting off firecrackers and fireworks, Kai fireworks, is the birthday of the fire.
Chuhai: Valley Day, the stars down, so to sacrifice the stars, temples often set up altars on this day to sacrifice the stars .
The first nine: the birthday of the celestial master, the birth of the Jade Emperor, held a grand festival of heavenly activities.
The tenth: stone birthday, where the mill, pestle, mill and other stone utensils are taboo to move, called the stone does not move, and even burn incense to worship the stone utensils.