Generally speaking, people celebrate their birthdays at the age of 70, 80, 90 and 100. Relatives and friends give gifts and watch a play while drinking. The content of the play is mainly wealth and longevity. At the birthday party, there must be a plate of "pig's foot noodles". The birthday girl should be dressed up and sit in the main hall to receive birthday greetings from her children and grandchildren. However, some people are afraid to celebrate their birthdays because they believe that fortune tellers are "outspoken", so as not to be taken away by black and white impermanence.
Birthday celebrations for the elderly (over 50 years old) are called birthdays every ten days, such as "50th birthday", "60th birthday" and "70th birthday". But this kind of birthday is not really every ten years, but refers to 49, 59, 69 and so on. Because nine is the largest number among ten numbers, people have formed this custom of celebrating "nine does not celebrate ten" in order to get lucky. Send invitations to your close relatives and friends before your birthday, usually three days before your birthday, otherwise it is impolite. As the saying goes, "three days is an invitation, two days is a call, and the same day is a belt." After receiving the invitation, relatives and friends will prepare birthday gifts, commonly known as "birthday greetings". The host will also hold a big birthday party, the guests will drink heavily, and some will invite the church to add to the festive atmosphere. Birthday worship is also called "birthday celebration" Relatives and friends came to congratulate the old man on his birthday. Gifts are mostly peaches, noodles, cloth, cakes with birthday characters. Cloth, commonly known as "Shouzhang", is hung around the ceiling in the yard for guests to see. Write some auspicious words and the sender's name on the birthday account. Men are often endowed with words such as "the benevolent lives long" and "your life is infinite", while women are endowed with words such as "Pengdao Ai Chun" and "Long life".
Shoutang is generally located in the hall, with a curtain on the front and couplets on both sides, such as "longevity is like the East China Sea" and "longevity is better than the South Mountain". On the table of the Eight Immortals, there are incense burners, wax thousand, longevity wax, Oracle Bone Inscriptions, the core monument of life to prolong life, and yellow money, paper ingots and thousands of pieces hanging on both sides of the case. There are foods symbolizing longevity on the long table, such as longevity peaches and noodles. There is a red mat on the ground in front of the square table for worshippers to bow down. People over the same age hold hands, while those below kowtow.
Snuff, flowers for lanterns, twisted into the shape of flowers with colored lantern paper and dipped in sesame oil. The number of snuff is two more than the age of the long-lived people, one is the "animal year" and the other is the "longevity year". In the evening, those who live long will burn incense, and each of his children will hold a lamp tray and line up outside the door to burn it with the scriptures and money.
There is an old saying in Beijing: "Thirty-three turns, sixty-six die, seventy-three, eighty-four go without asking." "People live fifty-five, and the ghost king counts." 33, 55, 66, 73 and 84 are all two years. People think that people can live long if they live well at this age, or they will die. In order to live longer, people are more careful in Kaner Year and try to "crack" it in order to live longer. The common method is to wear a red cloth belt. It is said that red can ward off evil spirits and eliminate disasters. Old Beijing also has the custom of wearing a red cloth belt in the animal year and after 60 years old.