New Year's Day is a holiday set by people to celebrate the first day of the new year. The date is January 1 of the Gregorian calendar.
The traditional customs of New Year's Day include worshiping ancestors, worshiping gods and Buddhas, setting off firecrackers, and having reunion dinner, etc. In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, people drank peach soup, eggs, pepper and cypress wine, Tusu wine, and glutinous rice cake on New Year's Day. By the Song Dynasty, it was common to eat suo biscuits on New Year's Day, which are rope-like biscuits that are similar to noodles. I think among the many legends about New Year's Day, there are 5 that are most worth mentioning. Let's take a look with me:
? One of the customs on New Year's Day: drinking peach soup on New Year's Day?
Drink "peach soup": Peach is a folk saying to ward off evil spirits. In order to prevent children from being frightened, people often give peach branches to children. During New Year's Day, the ancients often boiled the three parts of peach leaves, branches and stems and drank it. Because peach is the essence of the five elements, it can suppress evil spirits. To control hundreds of ghosts, the ancients often drank it during the New Year. Ancient people believed that peach is the essence of the five elements, which can suppress evil spirits and subdue ghosts, so they drank prepared peach soup on New Year's Day.
The book "Records of the Years of Jingchu" records: "On New Year's Day, both the elders and the younger ones dress up, greet each other, drink pepper and cypress wine, and drink peach soup." Peach soup is made with peach leaves, Boil soup with peach branches, peach stems or walnuts, winter peaches, and peaches, and either drink it or sprinkle it with branches to drive away ghosts and avoid epidemics. "Taiping Yulan" said: "Take peach soup on the first day of the year. Peach is the essence of the five elements. It hates evil spirits and controls all ghosts."
? New Year's Day custom No. 2: Eating eggs?
The custom of eating eggs on New Year's Day has appeared in Wu Jinjian's "Feng Tu Ji". "Feng Tu Ji" says, "On Zhengdan, you should swallow a chicken alive, which is called practicing form." Lianxing is a Taoist term that refers to cultivating the body to become an immortal. Eating raw eggs is for longevity.
Lianxing is a Taoist term, which refers to cultivating the body and thinking that it can become an immortal. Eating raw eggs is for longevity. Volume 29 of "Taiping Yulan" quotes "Jingchu's Age Records" and says: "The people of Liang Dynasty do not eat meat, and Jing no longer eats chickens in order to follow the rules." That is to say, Emperor Wu of Liang believed in Buddhism and no longer swallowed chickens. Small meaty eggs.
?The third custom of New Year’s Day: exchanging peach charms?
Since ancient times, the legend of exchanging peach charms on New Year’s Day has formed a cultural heritage. Our country has a cultural heritage of using peach wood to ward off evil spirits. The Taomao (peach wood handle broom) from the pre-Qin Dynasty is said to have the magical power to exorcise ghosts and evil spirits. The predecessors of peach charms are peach stems and peach branches. "Zhuangzi" records: "Put peach branches in the house, with ashes underneath them. Children are not afraid when they come in, but ghosts are afraid of them." After processing, peach branches also have the same effect. There are many legends like this, which shows that the ancients had special belief in peach trees.
In the past, during Yuanzheng Day, every household hung a mahogany wooden portrait of Shen Tu Yu Lei on the door, and hung a reed rope on the top of the door. A tiger was painted on the second door to avoid evil spirits. Intrusion of demons and ghosts. Later, people thought it was troublesome to carve wooden figures, so they directly painted two statues of gods on peach wood, inscribed the names of Shen Tu and Yu Lei, and hung them on both sides of the door the day before Yuan Zheng to suppress evil and expel ghosts. This was the original Peach charm. By the Five Dynasties, couplets began to appear on peach charms, replacing the names of Shen Tu and Yu Lei. People generally wrote some auspicious words and phrases on them. In the second year of Emperor Qiande's reign in the Song Dynasty, Meng Chang, the monarch of Later Shu, ordered the scholar Xing Yinxun to inscribe a Taofu symbol on New Year's Eve. The Lord of Shu was dissatisfied with the words written by the scholar, so he wrote "New Year's greetings, Jiajie Changchun". Meng Chang's inscription changed the content and nature of the legendary peach charms, turning the peach charms from the original peach wood tablets to ward off ghosts into a special style of expressing certain thoughts - couplets. Now some experts believe that Meng Chang's inscription is our country's The first Spring Festival couplets.
In modern times, the custom of changing peach charms has been postponed to the first day of the first lunar month, which is around the Spring Festival. But this custom was originally done on New Year's Day.
?The fourth custom of New Year’s Day: Eating soup cakes on New Year’s Day?
Eating soup cakes on New Year’s Day, soup cakes are noodle soup. "Southern rice, northern side". Friends in the north have the habit of eating pasta during Chinese New Year and holidays. "It is extremely cold in Xuandong. In the early morning, the tears will freeze in the nose and the frost will freeze on the outside of the mouth. Soup is the best way to replenish the deficiency and relieve the fight." In such a cold weather, people are shivering, so why not have a bowl of hot soup? Soup cake to warm your stomach.
There is a story about eating soup cakes. It tells that He Yan, a famous writer during the Three Kingdoms period, was a famous and handsome man. He was born with extremely fair skin. Emperor Wei Ming always suspected that He Yan had white powder on his face, so he thought of inviting He Yan to eat soup cakes on New Year's Day to test whether He Yan had any powder on his face. He Yan was sweating profusely from eating soup cakes. He kept wiping the sweat with a towel, but his face remained white no matter how he wiped it. Emperor Wei Ming laughed loudly, believing that He Yan did not apply powder, but was born with fair skin.
The Northern Song Dynasty's "Sui Shi Guang Ji" says: "On New Year's Day, people in the capital eat more soup cakes, which are called Nian Fufu, or something like that." (Volume 5 of "Sui Shi Guang Ji") Soup cakes are A long quote from the previous generation. Nagahiki refers to something elongated, and soup cake refers to a rope-like slender cake. Both names refer to food with an elongated shape. It can be seen from the above that it was popular to eat soup cakes and other foods on New Year's Day in the Song Dynasty.
?The fifth custom of New Year’s Day: Eating the five spicy dishes?
Below the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there was a custom of eating the five spicy dishes on New Year’s Day. Broadly speaking, Wuxin refers to a dish made of five spicy vegetables (onions, garlic, pepper, ginger, and mustard). Taking Wuxin can kill bacteria and drive away cold.
As a Yuan Day food, it was first seen in "Feng Tu Ji" written by Zhou Chu between Wu and Jin Dynasties. It said that five pungent vegetables should be eaten in the morning of Yuan Day "to help promote the five Tibetan qi" ("Jade Candle Collection" Volume 1 Quote ). Wuxin vegetables are five kinds of spicy vegetables. The Sui Dynasty Notes in "Jingchu Suishiji" say that they are garlic, garlic, leeks, Yuntai, and coriander. As mentioned in "Fengtu Ji", it can activate the five internal organs and is a thing to pray for health.
For an emperor, the amount and variety of food he eats every day are naturally indescribable, especially some emperors who only know pleasure. For example, today's protagonist, Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty, every New Year's Day, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty's dining table is filled with delicacies from all over the country, such as seafood from coastal areas and game from the mountains and wild mountains. However, among these delicacies, the most One of the dishes that Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty loved was the "Five Spicy Plate". Before every New Year's Day, the imperial chefs would prepare the five-spice dish in advance. At that time, Emperor Sui Yang only needed to say: "Serve", and the imperial chefs would know that Emperor Sui Yang was going to eat the five-spice dish. Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty would not stop eating until after the Spring Festival, or even until the Lantern Festival. This shows how much Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty loved the five spicy dishes, and it can be seen that the tradition of eating spicy vegetables in the Yuan Dynasty has a long history.
After all, New Year’s Day is not a traditional festival in our country. Although some traditional celebration methods are used: setting off firecrackers, killing three lives, worshiping ghosts and gods, paying homage to ancestors, etc., it is not a traditional festival in people’s minds. What an important place the missing will occupy. In modern times, New Year’s Day celebration customs are even simpler.