Take the custom of our Hakkas for example:1After February 25th, we all call it "annual price", which means that even after today, the New Year will come, so every household will clean up in their own homes, make new year's goods, make tofu and make fried dumplings (rice cakes) ... On the 30th, the whole family will get up early, and everyone at home will be very busy. I still remember when I was a child, that New Year's Eve. My father and I put up new Spring Festival couplets on the door, and then everyone in the family took an early shower and put on new clothes. At this time, the children are waiting for the adults to give us lucky money. At this time, my mother began to plan our New Year's Eve dinner. According to the custom, we should pay homage to our ancestors before eating the New Year's Eve dinner.
On New Year's Eve, every household will compete for the first place to set off firecrackers at midnight: we call it the "first gun" locally. Whoever lights the cannon first means he will be lucky! On the first morning of the new year, after getting up, the first thing to do when opening the door is to set off a string of firecrackers: this is called opening the door (also called opening the door). On the first and second day of the Spring Festival every year, Hakkas have the custom of not carrying brooms. No one will sweep the floor, whether it is the living room floor or the courtyard floor, although the ground is full of thick firecrackers, peels, cigarette butts, candy paper and peanut shells. Hakka people think that sweeping the floor in these two days will sweep away the wealth at home. This custom has a long history.
Hakkas call the third day of the New Year "Poor People's Day". On that day, the accumulated filth was completely removed, which was called "sending it to the poor". On this day, Hakkas don't go out either.
On the fourth day of the first month, the string opens (that is, the annual leave opens). Legend has it that this day is the day when the gods reported by God landed. Believers who used to be superstitious went to the temple to burn incense and pray early in the morning. Some people even wrote their family members' birthdays and ages on red stickers, tied them to sedan chairs, and made a wish to God, hoping that he would "speak well of God and land safely". All walks of life in the newly opened city are a little "scheming", and the joy of teaching is to put a red couplet on the pen container, "The New Year begins with the pen and inkstone, and everything goes according to the meaning"; The businessman swept the floor early in the morning, sweeping from the outside to the inside, saying that he would sweep the money in. There are auspicious red couplets on the wall of human settlements, such as "opening the door and sweeping the floor, gathering finance ministers, and goods seem to change their minds"; Farmers said that they would eat garlic and fatty intestines on this day, and that they would eat fatty intestines and garlic and do things next year. In short, from New Year's Eve to the fourth day of the first month, everyone is looking forward to winning a good lottery. On the fourth day of the first month, many people also choose to go abroad (back to their parents' home) on this day. It is on this day that my mother and I often go to grandpa's house to pay New Year's greetings.
On the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, we will make a staple food called "Seven Kinds of Tea" there. That is, Hakka tea is a vegetarian, and the ingredients used are made of seven kinds of vegetables. The side dishes are: onion (indicating cleverness), garlic (indicating numeracy), buckwheat (indicating cleverness) and lettuce (indicating wealth) ... This probably means that during the Chinese New Year, every meal is meat-eating, making "seven-course tea" and cleaning up the belly. ...
There are many local customs in Chaoshan Hakka, and these are just the traditional Chinese New Year customs that are common here. China is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious democratic country. Every different country and region has its own traditional culture and customs. These are also the beautiful treasures that our ancient civilization and ancestors have passed down for 5 thousand years. It is also an intangible cultural heritage in our hearts. Our local and ethnic customs certainly have some advantages, and I think we should preserve and carry them forward.