From the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month to the end of the fifteenth day of the first month, the "Spring Festival" lasts for one month.
Laba wants to drink Laba porridge in the morning. This kind of porridge is usually made of glutinous rice and rice, as well as red dates, chestnuts, mung beans and peanuts. It was also put in. Some people eat porridge all day, sweet porridge for breakfast, salty porridge for lunch and light porridge for dinner. Monks in the temple pay attention to eating "Laba porridge".
As the saying goes, "Eat laba rice, and next year will do". Most people start to celebrate the New Year on this day. Grinding noodles, killing pigs and sheep, making new clothes and purchasing all kinds of new year's goods.
The 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month is the day of "offering sacrifices to the stove" and sweeping. According to legend, "Old Kitchen Master" is the head of the family. Every year, I go to heaven to report on my work, "Go on the 23rd and come back on the 15th of the first month", "Official Sacrifice Three, People Sacrifice Four". People usually offer sacrifices on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, in order to make the kitchen god "speak well in heaven and keep peace in the next world".
On this day, it is also necessary to "remove dust and filth and clean the home." Move large and small furniture into the yard and scrub it clean. Clean the indoor roofs, doors and windows, and make the windows bright and clean to welcome the Spring Festival.
After the sacrifice, everyone was very busy. Steamed buns, fried meatballs, fried hemp leaves, fried dumplings, stir-fried dishes, etc. And prepared all kinds of things for the New Year. Every family does its best according to its own economic conditions.
The thirtieth day of the twelfth lunar month (February 29th, as this year) is "New Year's Eve". On this day, the whole family is reunited. In addition to saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new, we have to go to the cemetery to worship our ancestors. Spring Festival couplets are also posted on this day. In the old society, many people were in debt. They thought that with the Spring Festival couplets posted and the gatekeeper guarding the door, the debt collectors would not dare to come. At noon, the family will have a reunion dinner, and at night, they will "soothe their nerves", offer sacrifices in front of the tablets of gods and ancestors, and burn incense and wax to show their respect. The younger generation should "resign" from their elders, who will give their children lucky money and make the family happy. At this time, housewives are busy wrapping jiaozi and putting the wrapped jiaozi on the pot racket. No matter how few people have to pack triple beats, which means "winning three yuan in a row", there are also four beats and five beats, which means "the best of the four seasons" and "the five sons are admitted to the subject"
On New Year's Eve, firecrackers rang all night. People go to bed very late, and some people stay up all night. This is called "shou sui".
The first day of the first month is the most grand. People get up before dawn, put on new clothes and pay New Year greetings to gods, ancestral tablets and elders. Snacks at 5 o'clock (jiaozi) and midnight snacks. Some people in the same village are vying to get up early, saying that they are robbing money. Some people put copper coins (or coins) in a jiaozi, and whoever eats this jiaozi with money will be the most "blessed".
During the Spring Festival, New Year greetings are the most lively. After eating plain food, adult men "near the door" should get together to pay their ancestors' respects. After dawn, the younger generation will go to their elders' homes to pay New Year greetings. Those who have close relatives will kneel and kowtow, and the elders will give peanuts, hemp leaves and sugar to the younger generation.
From the second day of junior high school, I will go to my relatives' home to pay New Year greetings. This way of paying New Year greetings is very particular. Go to the nearest relatives' home first, such as grandma's house and father-in-law's house, and then worship them one by one in the order of relatives and friends. The worshippers should bring gifts, and the worshippers should hold banquets. New Year greetings should be in the morning, not in the afternoon, nor to those who are in mourning. Sometimes New Year's greetings are symbolic according to the situation, and generally end before the 15th day of the first month.
The fifth day of the first month is called "Breaking Five", commonly known as "off-year". I also eat flat food for breakfast, but the flat food I eat this time must be wrapped on the same day. This is called "pinch", which means to cut off bad things.
The fifteenth day of the first month is the Lantern Festival, which is also the Lantern Festival. In the countryside, all children have to play lanterns and say, "There is no light and no wind in the fields during the Tenth Five-Year Plan." Adults also want lanterns to shine on their walls, saying that they can prevent scorpions and centipedes from biting people in the future. On this night, every household will set off fireworks, saying that it can "stab" bad luck.
During the Spring Festival, there are still some "taboos" in Bozhou. Children can't be in the kitchen when steaming steamed buns and fried meatballs years ago, so as not to talk nonsense; But on the fifth day, you can't use scissors or anything. Some of these "taboos" still exist today, and some have disappeared without a trace.