Why is there only one day difference between north and south?
The origin of New Year's Eve Festival
Off-year is a traditional festival of Han nationality in China, also known as Xie Zao, Zao Zao Festival, Zao Wang Festival and Zao Zao Festival. In different places, the date is different, and it is the 23rd or 24th or 25th of the twelfth lunar month (folklore experts say that there is a tradition of "three officials, four people, four boats and five people" in ancient times, that is to say, the official off-year is the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the people's home is the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, and the houseboat is the 25th of the twelfth lunar month. Like the north, before the Southern Song Dynasty, it was a political center and was greatly influenced by bureaucracy, so the off-year was mostly the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month. On the contrary, the south is far from the political center, and the off-year is the 24th of the twelfth lunar month. Residents along the lake, such as Poyang Lake, keep the tradition of boating, and the next year is set on the 25th of the twelfth lunar month. "No matter which day passes the off-year, people have the same desire to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new". In some areas such as Sichuan and Guizhou, the 30th of the twelfth lunar month is a small year, and the 15th of the first month is a big year. In some areas of Shandong, the off-year is the 22nd of the twelfth lunar month. Off-year is considered as the beginning of the New Year in China.
The Qing emperor began to offer sacrifices to the gods in Kunning Palace on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month. In order to save money, the emperor also offered sacrifices to the kitchen god. Later, the royal family and Baylor followed suit and sacrificed stoves on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month. Since then, there has been a division between the government and the people, and they live a small life on different days.
Off-year is a day for people to sacrifice their stoves. It is said that on this day, Kitchen God will report the good and evil of this family to the Jade Emperor, and let him reward and punish it. When offering sacrifices to the kitchen stove, you should melt the Guandong sugar with fire and put it on the mouth of the kitchen god, so that he can't speak ill of the Jade Emperor. "Men don't Yue Bai, women don't sacrifice to the kitchen" custom, so sacrifice to the kitchen is limited to men. Because people in China basically eat rice, cooked food is generally difficult to preserve and must be cooked at any time. Unlike western bread, you can bake a lot at a time and keep it for eating. Therefore, for China people, "firewood" (fuel) is the first of the "seven things" in life (rice, oil, salt, sauce and vinegar tea). Without fuel, even with basic food, you can't eat it. In the west, it is generally enough for a village to have only one bread stove. In China, every family must have a stove.
Because every family has a stove, there is a legend that the Jade Emperor stationed a supervisor in every family-Kitchen God (he ordered Kitchen God, Kitchen God, Kitchen God and Kitchen King) to supervise and inspect the family's actions for one year. On the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the Kitchen God will report to the Jade Emperor, and the Jade Emperor will decide whether to reward or punish the family next year according to the report. The Kitchen God is the year after next. The Festival of Sacrificing Kitchen Stove is actually a festival for every household to send the kitchen god to heaven.
Specific operation mode: Because every family usually puts a portrait of the kitchen god near the stove, and sometimes it is accompanied by a portrait of the kitchen god's grandmother. After a year of smoky fire, the portrait is old and black. To get rid of the old image, stick a grass horse to Kitchen God with straw and bribe him, so that he can "speak well in heaven and return to the palace for good luck", so that he can only speak well with a sticky melon or cake and then burn it with the grass horse. This process is called magnetic stove. Buy a new portrait after the New Year, and ask Kitchen God to reply. In these intervening days, without the supervision of the kitchen god, most people overeat and gamble, indulging in some small mistakes that they usually think should not be made.
In fact, the festival of offering sacrifices to stoves is a reflection of the secular social order in ancient China, which shows the fear of ordinary people to the emperor and his grass-roots officials and the atmosphere of bribing grass-roots officials. As the saying goes, as long as the closest officials are bribed, the emperor will not know what he has done, and even if he breaks the law slightly, he can escape punishment.
Making honeydew melons and offering sacrifices to stoves are the main activities of the day. Since then, people have entered the stage of preparing for the New Year, and people have begun to relax.
New year's eve custom
"Off-year" is a traditional festival of Han nationality in China, which plays a very important role in the custom of Spring Festival in China. On this day, the celebration of the whole Spring Festival is usually announced through some customs that have been followed for two thousand years, namely, offering sacrifices to stoves and sweeping the New Year.
The custom of offering sacrifices to the kitchen god has been recorded since Qin and Han Dynasties or even earlier. The Biography of Yin Shi in the Later Han Dynasty said: "When Xuan Di proclaimed himself emperor, Yin Zi was the most filial and benevolent. Cooking in the morning of the twelfth day, seeing the kitchen god, the children have to worship and celebrate; There is an antelope at home, so it is worshipped. After the sacrifice, he became extremely rich. " The so-called kitchen sacrifice is the kitchen god, so off-year is also called kitchen sacrifice, thank you kitchen, kitchen god's day and so on. In the Tang and Song Dynasties, the day of offering sacrifices to stoves became a tradition, and it was set on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month.
In the folk circulation, the kitchen god was gradually "humanized". According to legend, Kitchen God was originally a star in the sky. Because he made a mistake, he was demoted to the world by the Jade Emperor and became an "oriental chef". He sat in the middle of the kitchen stoves of various households, recording people's lives and behaviors. Every year on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, the Kitchen God reports the good and evil of this family to the Jade Emperor, so that the Jade Emperor can reward and punish them. Therefore, on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, people have to sacrifice to the kitchen god to ascend to heaven. When offering sacrifices to the stove, the idol of the stove is usually attached to the wall next to the stove and facing the bellows. Most of the couplets on both sides are "Heaven speaks well, the lower bound is safe", and the lower couplet also says "Go back to the palace for good luck", and it is horizontally approved as "the head of the family". Put candy, water, beans and grass on the console table in front of the kitchen god statue; Among them, the last three are the mounts of the kitchen god ascending to heaven. When offering sacrifices to the kitchen stove, you should melt the candy with a torch and stick it on the mouth of the kitchen god, so that you won't speak ill of the jade emperor, but also to make the kitchen god's mouth sweet and only say good things. Finally, the kitchen god was burned, called "Ascension to Heaven", and kowtowed and prayed while burning.
Sweeping the year is easy to understand, that is, cleaning. On this day of off-year, every family cleans houses and windows, washes clothes, washes pots and pans, and makes a thorough cleaning to prepare for the Spring Festival. It also means not to let the kitchen god take away the soil and sweep away the unhappiness encountered in the old year.
In recent years, with the acceleration of urbanization, the traditional stove has been hard to find, and the custom of offering sacrifices to the stove has been simplified a lot. In today's off-year, the ritual "kitchen god" is rare, replaced by relatively simple customs and habits such as "worshiping God", "sweeping the house" and "eating sugar". "Having a small year" has also been endowed with a beautiful meaning of praying for the safety and happiness of the whole family.
Why is there a day difference between the north and the south?
On the calendar, the 23rd and 24th of the twelfth lunar month are usually marked as off-year because there is a day difference between the south and the north. The 23rd is the off-year for northerners and the off-year for southerners is one day later.
At first, there was no difference between two days. It was the 24th of the twelfth lunar month in the Tang and Song Dynasties. The old customs were followed in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties and changed in the Qing Dynasty. There is a saying that since the reign of Yongzheng, every year on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the emperor will offer sacrifices to the gods in Kunning Palace, that is, report his work to the gods of heaven and earth. In order to save money, the emperor also offered sacrifices to the kitchen god. Later, the royal family and Baylor followed suit, offering sacrifices to stoves on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, and gradually formed the tradition of "official, three people, four boatmen and five". In other words, the official Lunar New Year is the 23rd, and the people live on the 24th. Residents by the lake and seaside observe the tradition of boatmen and hold sacrifices for the 25th.
Later, in the north, where bureaucracy had a heavy influence, the people gradually evolved into twenty-three sacrificial stoves, while in the south, they still followed the old habits.
In fact, New Year's Eve should be called "Little New Year's Eve"
Due to the tradition of off-year in most parts of the motherland, people often call off-year night "off-year" night. In Shanghai, although Shanghainese also offer sacrifices to dust on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, there is no so-called "off-year" in Shanghai, and more attention is paid to the day before New Year's Eve, which is also called off-year. As a result, many people are troubled. Why are there so many days called "New Year's Eve"? Why is the date in Shanghai so strange?
In fact, what Shanghainese call "New Year's Eve" is not "New Year's Eve", but "New Year's Eve", not a holiday. To put it another way, it's better to call it "Little New Year's Eve". It means that the climax of celebrating China New Year has arrived.
On New Year's Eve, Shanghainese usually hold a banquet at home to get together with their families, which means "Little New Year's Eve". People call it "don't be old" when they visit each other. About this day, the old alley began to become lively-for example, "Yi Mao Mao Mao" cleaned, and unnecessary things were thrown away at this time. When adults ask their children to take out the garbage, they don't forget to tell them that it is unlucky to go out while taking out the garbage. Because you can't sweep the floor from the first day to the third day, you can sweep it on the first day. But clean the house from the door, and don't throw away the garbage after cleaning. You should talk to yourself about "starting with money".
Nowadays, people who emphasize small size are mainly concentrated in parts of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and Taiwan Province Province. The reason why customs are different is not for the sake of "difference", but for the difference in cultural inheritance. However, whether it is Chinese New Year or New Year's Eve, people all have the same desire to bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new year.
What do you eat in the next year? Food customs and recipes in the North on New Year's Eve (Figure)
Dietary customs and recipes in northern China on New Year's Eve.
Food for the Northern New Year: Fried Corn
In the southeast of Shanxi, the custom of eating fried corn is popular. A folk proverb says, "Twenty-three, don't eat fried, on New Year's Eve-pour it all at once." People like to bond fried corn with maltose and freeze it into pieces, which tastes crisp and sweet.
North New Year's Food: Tofu
The 25th day of the twelfth lunar month is "Tofu Day". There is an old saying that tofu is made, bought and fried. Fried tofu can be preserved until the new year. Eating tofu in the New Year is just to make a good start to the new year, hoping that blessings will turn into fights. Fresh tofu made or bought is not easy to preserve, and we don't want to make frozen tofu, so we take the method of frying to preserve it, which also makes more food on the Chinese New Year table.
New Year's Food in North China: Steamed Steamed Steamed Bread
After the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, every household should steam steamed bread. Generally speaking, it can be divided into two types: worshipping God and visiting relatives. The former is solemn, while the latter is gorgeous. Especially to make a jujube hill for Kitchen God. "A steamed bread, neighbors to help". This is often a great opportunity for folk women to show their dexterity. Steamed bread is a handicraft.
Sesame candy: a food for children in northern China.
There is a saying in the northwest of Shanxi that "you can't chew your fingers with sesame candy." It is said that off-year is the day when the kitchen god goes to heaven. He will report to the Heaven Emperor the food and clothing consumption of the world in the past year and other things that the Heaven Emperor wants to know. That's the chef's report day? Eating sesame candy is to make the mouth of the kitchen god stick with sugar, and it is also impossible to report the delicious and luxurious scenes on earth to the sky, so as not to punish those who love to eat and drink-the new year brings famine and hopes to have a safe and prosperous year.
The food of northern off-year: fire
Many provinces and cities in the north have gradually been led by Jiaozi, but there is another place outside, and that is Henan. In Henan, every family has to cook their own fire, which is almost equal to off-year
Northern Xiaonian Food: jiaozi
Jiaozi is used to eating it in the northern New Year's Eve, which means to bid farewell to Kitchen God and "send away the windward side of jiaozi". When offering sacrifices, jiaozi should be placed on the platform. In addition, there is a folk saying "delicious but not as good as jiaozi". During the Spring Festival, jiaozi has become an indispensable food.
Food for the Northern New Year: Sticky Cakes
There is a folk song "Twenty-three, Sticking Cakes" in Luxi, Shandong Province. Every year, on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, it is the day for every household to steam and eat sticky cakes, which means to stick the mouth of the kitchen god and let him say the good things in the sky, not the bad things on earth. Sticky cakes are made of yellow rice and red dates, which are sweet and rich, and the entrance is soft, meaning "high every year".
Typing is not tiring, I hope it can be adopted, and I wish you all a happy new year.