The Spring Festival, the Lunar New Year, commonly known as the Chinese New Year, generally refers to New Year's Eve and the first day of the first lunar month. But among the people, the Spring Festival in the traditional sense refers to the period from the twelfth lunar month on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, or the twelfth lunar month on the 23rd or 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, with New Year's Eve and the first day of the first lunar month as the climax. The Spring Festival has a long history, originating from the activities of worshiping gods and ancestors at the beginning and end of the year during the Yin and Shang Dynasties. During the Spring Festival, China's Han and many ethnic minorities hold various activities to celebrate. These activities mainly focus on offering sacrifices to gods and Buddhas, paying homage to ancestors, eradicating the old and bringing in the new, welcoming the new year and blessings, and praying for a good harvest. The activities are rich and colorful with strong national characteristics.

The Spring Festival, commonly known as the "New Year's Day", is the most solemn and traditional festival of the Chinese nation.

Since the first year of Emperor Taichu of the Han Dynasty, the first day of the first lunar month of the Xia year (lunar calendar) has been regarded as the "year" (i.e. "year"). The dates of the new year have been fixed and continue to this day. The New Year's Day was called "New Year's Day" in ancient times. After the Revolution of 1911, people began to use the Gregorian calendar (Gregorian calendar) to calculate the year, so January 1st of the Gregorian calendar was called "New Year's Day" and the first day of the first lunar month was called "Spring Festival". The annual festival is also known as the "traditional festival". They have a long history, are widely spread, and have great popularity, mass, and even national characteristics. New Year's Day is a time to get rid of the old and bring in the new. Although the New Year's Day falls on the first day of the first lunar month, the activities of the New Year's Day do not end on the first day of the first lunar month. Starting from the Little New Year's Day on the 23rd (or 24th) of the twelfth lunar month, people start to be "busy for the New Year": cleaning the house, washing hair and bathing, preparing New Year utensils, etc. All these activities have a common theme, which is "farewelling to the old and welcoming the new". People welcome the New Year and spring with grand ceremony and enthusiasm. New Year's Day is also a day for offering sacrifices and praying for good luck. The ancients said that when the millet is ripe, it is called a "year", and when the grain harvest is good, it is called a "good year". In the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, annual activities to celebrate the harvest began. Later, offering sacrifices to heaven and praying for good years became one of the main contents of annual customs. Moreover, gods such as the Kitchen God, the Door God, the God of Wealth, the God of Joy, the Well God, etc. are all prepared to enjoy the incense in the world during the New Year. People use this to thank the gods for their care in the past and pray for more blessings in the new year. New Year's Day is also a day for family reunions, family reunions and ancestor worship. On New Year's Eve, the whole family gathers together to have a "reunion dinner". The elders distribute "New Year's money" to the children, and the family sits together to "watch the New Year." As the New Year approaches the New Year, firecrackers go off, and the activities of bidding farewell to the old year and welcoming the new year reach a climax. Each family burns incense and pays homage to heaven and earth, worships ancestors, and then pays New Year greetings to the elders in turn, and then relatives and friends of the same clan send congratulations to each other. After the first day of the New Year, people begin to visit relatives and friends and send each other gifts to celebrate the New Year. The New Year's Day is also a festival for people's entertainment and carnival. After the first day, various colorful entertainment activities are carried out: lion dancing, dragon lantern dancing, Yangko dancing, stilt walking, acrobatics, etc., adding a strong festive atmosphere to the New Year.

At this time, around the time of the "beginning of spring", a grand spring welcoming ceremony was held in ancient times, whipping oxen to welcome the spring, and praying for good weather and a good harvest. Various social fire activities reach a climax again on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. Therefore, the annual festival, which integrates prayers for good luck, celebrations and entertainment, has become the most solemn festival of the Chinese nation. To this day, except for activities such as worshiping gods and ancestors, which have become weaker than before, the main customs of the New Year have been inherited and developed intact. The Spring Festival is an important carrier of the excellent traditions of Chinese national culture. It contains the wisdom and crystallization of Chinese national culture, embodies the life pursuit and emotional sustenance of the Chinese people, and inherits Chinese family ethics and social ethics. After thousands of years of accumulation, the colorful Spring Festival folk customs have formed a profound and unique Spring Festival culture. In recent years, with the improvement of material living standards, people's demand for spiritual and cultural life has grown rapidly, and their desire for family, friendship, harmony, and happiness has become stronger. Traditional festivals such as the Spring Festival have attracted more and more attention and attention from all walks of life. We should vigorously carry forward the excellent traditional culture condensed during the Spring Festival, highlight the theme of bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new, wishing reunion, peace and prosperity, and strive to create a festive atmosphere of family harmony, stability and unity, joy and peace, and promote the long-lasting and continuous development of Chinese culture. [1]

History

The beginning of the Chinese lunar year is called the Spring Festival. It is the most solemn traditional festival for the Chinese people. It also symbolizes unity, prosperity and new hope for the future. According to records, the Chinese people have celebrated the Spring Festival for more than 4,000 years. There are many theories about the origin of the Spring Festival, but the one generally accepted by the public is that the Spring Festival originated from Yu Shun. One day more than 2000 BC, Shun ascended the throne as emperor and led his men to worship heaven and earth. From then on, people regard this day as the beginning of the year. It is said that this is the origin of the Lunar New Year, which was later called the Spring Festival. The Spring Festival used to be called New Year's Day. The month in which the Spring Festival is located is called January. The dates of New Year's Day in China are not consistent throughout the ages: the Xia Dynasty used the first month of Mengchun as the first month, the Shang Dynasty used the twelfth lunar month (twelfth month) as the first month, Qin Shihuang used October as the first month after unifying the six kingdoms, and the early Han Dynasty followed the Qin oil painting Sun Yat-sen took office Provisional President

Calendar. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty Liu Che felt that the calendar was too chaotic, so he ordered his ministers Gongsun Qing and Sima Qian to create a "solar calendar", which stipulated that the first month of the lunar calendar should be the first day of the year, and the first day of the first lunar month should be the first day of the year, which is New Year's Day. Since then, China has continued to use the Xia calendar (lunar calendar, also known as the lunar calendar) until the end of the Qing Dynasty, which lasted for 2080 years. The Spring Festival has different names in different eras.

In the pre-Qin period, it was called "Shangri", "Yuanri", "Chanisui", "Xiansui", etc.; in the Han Dynasty, it was also called "Three Dynasties", "Suidan", "Zhengdan", "Zhengri" ; In the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, it was called "Yuanchen", "Yuanri", "Yuanshou", "Suichao", etc.; in the Tang, Song, Yuanming and Ming dynasties, it was called "New Year's Day", "Yuan", "Suiri", "Xinzheng" ", "Xinyuan", etc.; in the Qing Dynasty, it was always called "New Year's Day" or "Yuan's Day". When Sun Yat-sen took office as the interim president of the Republic of China in Nanjing in 1912, he announced the abolition of the old calendar and the replacement of the Gregorian calendar with the Republic of China calendar. And decided to use January 1, 1912 AD as January 1, the first year of the Republic of China. January 1st is called New Year, but not New Year's Day. However, the people still follow the old calendar, that is, the lunar calendar, and still celebrate the traditional New Year on February 18 of that year (the first day of the first lunar month of the Renzi year), and other traditional festivals remain the same. In view of this, in July 1913 (the second year of the Republic of China), the then Minister of Internal Affairs of the Beijing government submitted a report on the four-season holiday to President Yuan Shikai, saying: "Our country's old custom is that the four-season holiday every year should be clearly stipulated. , it is proposed to designate New Year's Day as the Spring Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival as the Summer Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival as the Autumn Festival, and the Winter Solstice as the Winter Festival. All our citizens must have a rest, and those who are in public service are also allowed to have one day off." But Yuan Shikai only approved the first day of the first lunar month. In order to commemorate the Spring Festival, it was agreed that a regular Spring Festival holiday would be implemented from the following year (1914). Since then, the first day of the lunar calendar has been called "Spring Festival". On September 27, 1949, the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference decided to adopt the world's common AD chronology while establishing the People's Republic of China. In order to distinguish the two "years" of the solar calendar and the lunar calendar, and because the "beginning of spring" with 24 solar terms in a year happens to be before and after the lunar year, the first day of January in the solar calendar is called "New Year's Day", and the first day of the first lunar month is officially renamed "Spring Festival" . The earth goes around the sun once, which is called a year on the calendar, and the cycle goes on and on, never ending. However, according to the different seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter, people use the first plenary session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference

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 coming of 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 diverse, including lion dancing, dragon dancing, stilt walking, and land boat running. 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

On the last night of the New Year, stay up late 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 spread 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, beasts, and scale insects. It changes its taste every day, ranging from kowtowing insects to living people, making people talk about "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 date when the "New Year" would be rampant, 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 fire and cleans the stove, fastens all the chicken pens and cattle pens, seals the front and rear 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 up 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, and it starts 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, ten thousand years after long-term observation and careful calculation, he formulated 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 high moral character.

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 "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 fear them, and after their death, they turned into 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. A red paper bag is stuck on the door of each house, called a "door book", with the owner's name written on it to receive name sticks (name stickers). Worshipers put their name tattoos (name stickers) on the door book to express their New Year greetings. Its meaning is the same as that of modern New Year's cards. [3]

Process

The 23rd and 24th of the twelfth lunar month

Worshiping the Kitchen God in the off-season (16 photos) The 23rd or 24th of the twelfth lunar month is also known as " "Little New Year" is a day for people to worship stoves. In the folk song "Twenty-three, Tanggu Guang" refers to the sacrifice to the stove on the 23rd or 24th of the twelfth lunar month every year. There is a saying that "officials, three people, four boatmen and five" means that the government holds sacrifices to the stove on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, ordinary people hold sacrifices on the 24th, and people on the water hold stove sacrifices on the 25th. Xiaonian is the beginning and foreshadowing of the entire Spring Festival celebration, and its main activities include two: sweeping the New Year and offering sacrifices to the stove. In addition, there is also the custom of eating stove sweets. In some places, they also eat fire roasting, sugar cakes, oil cakes, and drink tofu soup. Sacrifice to the stove Sacrifice to the stove is a custom that has great influence among Chinese people and is widely spread. In the old days, almost every kitchen had a "Kitchen Lord" statue in the kitchen. People call this god "Si Ming Bodhisattva" or "Zao Lord Siming". Legend has it that he is the "Jiutian East Chef Siming Zao Wangfu Lord" conferred by the Jade Emperor. He is responsible for managing the kitchen fires of each family and is regarded as the protector of the family. worship. Most of the Kitchen King's niches are located on the north or east side of the kitchen room, with the statue of the Kitchen King in the middle. Some people who don't have a niche for the Kitchen King stick the statue of the god directly on the wall. Some statues only depict the Kitchen God alone, while others include two men and women. The goddess is called "Grandma Kitchen God". The sacrifice to the stove on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month is closely related to the Chinese New Year. Because, on the eve of the New Year's Eve a week later, the Kitchen God came to the world together with other gods and steamed steamed buns (19 photos) with the good and bad luck that the family should receive. The Kitchen God is believed to lead the way for the gods in the sky. The other gods ascend to heaven again after the New Year, but only the Kitchen God will stay in people's kitchens for a long time. The ceremony to welcome the gods is called "receiving the gods", and for the Kitchen God, it is called "receiving the stove". The stove is usually held on New Year's Eve, and the ceremony is much simpler. At that time, you only need to put on a new stove lamp and burn incense in front of the stove niche. There is a saying that "men do not worship the moon, women do not worship the stove". In some places, women do not worship the stove. It is said that the Stove Lord looks like a pretty boy and is afraid of women offering sacrifices to the stove. Folks pay attention to eating dumplings during the Stove Festival, which means "sending off dumplings and facing the wind". People in mountainous areas eat more cakes and buckwheat noodles. In the southeastern part of Shanxi Province, the custom of eating fried corn is popular. There is a folk proverb that says, "Twenty-three, don't eat fried corn, and New Year's Day - pour it all in one pot." People like to stick the fried corn with maltose, freeze it into large pieces, and eat it. It tastes crispy and sweet. Steamed steamed buns After the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, every household will steam steamed buns. Generally speaking, they are divided into two types: those used to worship gods and those used to visit relatives. The former is solemn and the latter is fancy. In particular, a large jujube mountain should be made to prepare for worshiping the Kitchen Lord. "A family steams steamed buns, and neighbors come to help." This is often a great opportunity for folk women to show off their dexterous skills. A steamed bun is a handicraft. Writing Spring Festival Couplets After the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, every household must write Spring Festival couplets. Folks pay attention to the fact that if there are gods, every door must be posted, and every object must be posted, so the Spring Festival couplets have the largest number and the most comprehensive content. The couplets in front of the gods are particularly particular, and they are mostly words of admiration and blessing. Common divine couplets include the divine couplet of heaven and earth, "Heaven's grace is as deep as the sea, and the virtues of the earth are as heavy as mountains"; the divine couplet of earth, "White jade grows from the soil, and gold comes from the earth"; and the divine couplet of wealth, "The source of wealth in heaven is the source of blessings on earth." "The God of Lu"; the couplet with the God of Well is "The well can connect to the four seas, and the home can reach three rivers". The Spring Festival couplets in granaries, livestock pens, etc. all express warm celebrations and hopes, such as "The grain is plentiful and the livestock are prosperous"; "Rice and flour are as thick as mountains, and oil and salt are as deep as the sea"; "Cows are like southern tigers, and horses are like the North Sea. "Dragon"; "The big sheep will grow every year, and the little lambs will grow every month" and so on. In addition, there are some single couplets, such as "Look up to see happiness" posted in every room, "Go out to see happiness" posted on the opposite side of the door, "Prosperous Qi soaring to the sky" posted on the prosperous fire, "Full of gold in the courtyard" posted in the courtyard, and "Meeting happiness in the whole courtyard" posted on the tree. "The roots are deep and the leaves are luxuriant", the stone mill is pasted with "White Tiger and Good Luck" and so on. The couplets on the door are the facade of a family, and they are particularly important. They are either lyrical or scene-describing, rich in content, and full of witty words. Eat Zao Tang Zao Tang is a kind of maltose, very sticky. When it is drawn into a long candy stick, it is called "Guandong candy", and when it is drawn into an oblate shape, it is called "Tanggua". 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 into melon or pumpkin shapes with sugar. 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 twenty-nine or thirty. On New Year's Eve, the whole family gets together to eat 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 (staying up late on New Year's Eve), which means staying up from the last day of the lunar year to the third 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 to beat the 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. It is said that this night is when the gods from 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 big 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 gods and goddesses; "Eighteen Buddhas and Gods in the Three Realms of Heaven and Earth"; a full-scale god code printed with watercolor woodcut on large yellow rough-edged paper; 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, and the sound of abacus and accounts came from the small shops, 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 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 that whoever eats them first will make 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 in 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 to receive the gods 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 in the courtyard to pick up the god according to its direction. 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. This 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 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 clan leader 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; and others get 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's 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 if they get 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.