The Spring Festival is here, which means that spring is coming, everything is recovering, grass and trees are renewed, and a new round of sowing and harvesting season is about to begin. People have just passed through the ice and snow of the grass and trees withered the long winter, have long been looking forward to the spring flowers, vibrant days, when the new year comes, naturally full of joy, singing and dancing to meet this festival. The Spring Festival is also known as the lunar year, the lunar new year, the lunar year, the old calendar year, commonly known as the "New Year, the big year, the big year". The Spring Festival has a long history, which originated in the Yin and Shang Dynasties at the beginning and end of the year to sacrifice to the gods and ancestors. In ancient times, the Spring Festival used to refer exclusively to the Lichun of the twenty-four solar terms, but later it was changed to the first day of the first month of the summer calendar (i.e., the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar), which was regarded as the beginning of the lunar year, i.e., the first day of the year. This is one of the grandest and most lively traditional festivals in China. And the traditional sense of the Spring Festival, from the first eight of the wax festival or wax month twenty-three, twenty-four sacrificial stove, until the first month of the fifteenth day of the Lantern Festival (some of the first month of the nineteenth) to the end, and in some places and even to the entire first month, are New Year's Eve and the first day of the first month as the climax.
The Spring Festival is the most important traditional festival of the Han Chinese. During the Spring Festival, people hold a variety of celebrations, most of which are mainly devoted to worshipping gods and Buddhas, honoring ancestors, getting rid of the old and bringing in the new, welcoming joy and receiving blessings, and praying for a good year. Yao, Zhuang, white, alpine, Hezhe, Hani, Daur, Dong, Li, Manchu, Mongolia, a dozen ethnic minorities also have the custom of the Spring Festival, just the form of the festival each with its own national characteristics. Lunar New Year is the main festival for celebrating the New Year in many East Asian countries and regions. It is called "Tt Nguyên án" (New Year's Day) in Vietnamese, and "Shōtsuki" in Japanese (note: the Japanese holiday "Shōtsuki" is similar to the Chinese New Year's Day, which is January 1st.) (After the Meiji Restoration, it was renamed Old New Year's Day). Nowadays, Chinese New Year is one of the most important festivals in China, Korean Peninsula, Vietnam and Japan, as well as in Mongolia, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. The Spring Festival is one of the four traditional festivals of the Han Chinese people, along with the Qingming Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival. The term "Spring Festival" has been selected by the Chinese World Records Association as the largest festival in China, ranking first among the four major traditional festivals in China. on May 20, 2006, the "Spring Festival" folklore was approved by the State Council to be included in the list of the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage.
Legend
The Spring Festival has a long history, and legend has it that as early as the Neolithic period when Yao and Shun had the custom of "Spring Festival". One legend about the origin of the Spring Festival is that in ancient China, there was a beast called "Nian". The "Nian" was a ferocious beast with a long head and horns. The "Nian" lived deep under the sea for many years, and only climbed up to the shore on a specific day (the current New Year's Eve), devouring livestock and harming human lives. Therefore, on New Year's Eve, people from villages and hamlets fled to the mountains with their children and elders to avoid the harm of the "Nian". One New Year's Eve, from outside the village came a begging old man. The village was in a hurry and panic, no one paid attention to him, only an old woman at the east end of the village gave the old man some food and advised him to go up to the mountains to escape the "year", the old man pulled up his beard and laughed and said: "If you let me stay at home for one night, I will definitely drive the "year" away. I will definitely drive 'Nian' away." The old woman continued to persuade the beggar, the old man laughed but did not say anything. In the middle of the night, Nian broke into the village. It found that the atmosphere in the village was different from that of previous years: the old woman's house at the east end of the village had a big red paper on the door, and the house was lit up by candles. "Nian shivered and gave a strange cry. Near the door, the yard suddenly came "crackling" sound of explosions, "year" trembling, and no longer dare to come forward. It turns out that Nian is most afraid of red, fire and explosions. At this time, the door of my mother-in-law's house opened, only to see an old man wearing a red robe in the courtyard laughing. "Nian was so shocked that he fled in disarray. The next day was the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar, and the people who had returned from their refuge were very surprised to see that the village was safe and sound. It was only then that the old woman came to her senses, and hurriedly told the townspeople of the old man's promise to beg. This incident soon spread in the surrounding villages, people know the way to drive away the "year". From then on, every New Year's Eve, home red couplets, firecrackers; household candles brightly, to keep the night. Early in the morning on the first day, but also to visit friends and relatives to say hello. This custom is widely spread and has become the grandest traditional festival in China. It has been said that the Spring Festival originated from the rituals of sacrificing to gods and ancestors at the end of the year during the Yin and Shang dynasties in China (Waxing Sacrifice). In the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, there was already an annual custom of celebrating the harvest and sacrificing to ancestors on the occasion of the transition between the old and new years, which can be considered as the prototype of "Nian". However, the name "Nian" appeared later, the name of the year from the Zhou Dynasty. Ancient emperors succeeded to the throne, in order to show the authority of the "Son of Heaven", often self-established calendar (in different dynasties in history, the time of the year is not the same. In the Xia Dynasty, January was the first day of the year; in the Shang Dynasty, December was the first day of the year; in the Zhou Dynasty, November was the first day of the year; and in the Qin Dynasty, October was the first day of the year. (It was only during the Western Han Dynasty that the first day of January was specified as the first day of the year by an edict of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to introduce the Tai Chu Calendar as the Summer New Year). The time of the year was not formalized until the Western Han Dynasty, and continues to this day. When Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (140-87 BC) succeeded to the throne, he decided to revise the calendar to make it uniform, and Sima Qian suggested the creation of the Tai Chou Calendar, which set the Chinese New Year in the first month of Bengchun. The calendar we use today was revised by many dynasties after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, but the first day of the first month of the Lunar Calendar is "New Year's Day", which is the grandest festival of the Chinese nation, and has been inherited as a fixed date.
History
The first day of the first month of the Lunar Calendar is the Spring Festival, also known as the lunar (lunar) year, commonly known as the "New Year". This is the longest history of Chinese folk, the most grand, the most lively of an ancient traditional festival, but also the Han Chinese and Manchu, Mongolia, Yao, Zhuang, white, high mountain, Hezhe, Hani, Daur, Dong, Li and other dozen minority *** with the festival. Han Chinese Spring Festival, a longer period of time, generally from the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, to the first month of the 15th Lantern Festival until. The Spring Festival has a history of about three to four thousand years. It was originally the New Year's Day of the lunar calendar, which is commonly referred to as the New Year. It originated in the Yinshang period when sacrifices were made to the gods and ancestors at the end of the year. There are many legends about the New Year. In ancient times, the Spring Festival was called "New Year's Day", "New Year's Day", "New Year's Day", "the first day of the year", After the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, the Nanjing Provisional Government, in order to comply with the agricultural seasons and facilitate statistics, stipulated that the summer calendar should be used in the private sector, and the Gregorian calendar should be applied in government offices, factories, mines, schools and organizations, and the first day of the first month of the Gregorian calendar should be called "New Year's Day", and the first day of the first month of the Lunar Calendar should be called "New Year's Day". The first day of the first month of the lunar calendar is called "Spring Festival". According to the evidence, the Spring Festival became official after the Xinhai Revolution, the Wuchang Uprising in October 1911, and on December 31, the revolutionaries' Hubei military government issued the "Encyclical of the Ministry of the Interior on the Republic of China's Change to the Solar Calendar", which explicitly referred to the New Year's Festival as the "Spring Festival". September 27, 1949, the new China was formally established, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the first plenary session, adopted the use of the world's common calendar, the first day of the first month of the Gregorian calendar is designated as New Year's Day, commonly known as the solar year; the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar is usually around the time of the first day of spring, and thus the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar is designated as the "Spring Festival", commonly known as the Lunar year, further clarified the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar called "Spring Festival", "Spring Festival" name officially included in the Chinese holiday code, really popular to this day. The long history has made the content of New Year's activities become very colorful. Among them, the superstitious contents of honoring the gods and sacrificing to them have been gradually eliminated, while the contents of those rich in joie de vivre, such as posting spring couplets, New Year's paintings, posting the word "Fu", cutting windowpane flowers, steaming New Year's cakes, wrapping dumplings and so on, have been handed down.
Festive significance
Weaving the old and welcoming the new Since ancient times, people have emphasized the significance of the Spring Festival as the beginning of the year. The Han Dynasty's Shangshu Dazhuan said, "The first day of the first month is the dynasty of the year, the dynasty of the month, and the dynasty of the day, so it is said: 'three dynasties', and it is also said: 'three beginnings'." Meaning: the first day of the first month is the beginning of the year, the beginning of January, the beginning of the day. Sui Dynasty Du Taiqing's "Jade Candle Treasure Canon" says: "The first day of the first month is the first day of the year, also known as: 'Three Elements': the first element of the year, the first element of the hour, and the first element of the month." It means: this day is the beginning of the new year, the beginning of the new season, the beginning of the new month. However, it is only the first day of the year as determined by our traditional calendar. The irregularity of the date of the Spring Festival on the Gregorian calendar is not due to the unscientific nature of our traditional calendar, but to the fact that the philosophical concepts of our ancestors were different from those of Westerners. Western philosophy emphasizes opposites, so Christianity can only choose monotheism, its calendar on the sun as the only basis; Chinese philosophy emphasizes harmony, yin and yang harmony, in order to be born, so our calendar on the sun and the moon and weight. The difference between the Chinese and Western calendars reflects the difference between the Chinese and Western philosophies, which is a matter of cultural choice, a matter of values, and not a matter of which side is more scientific. Due to the dominant position of Western culture, their calendar is commonly used worldwide. For the sake of convenience, our Government has adopted the Gregorian calendar in its official activities, which is appropriate. However, the Gregorian calendar simply cannot reflect our philosophical concepts, and our traditional festivals simply cannot be reflected in the Gregorian calendar. Therefore, the Government also promulgated the summer calendar at the same time for the organization of daily life. This is true not only in our country, but also in our eastern neighbor, Korea, where both calendars are practiced at the same time.
Customs
Customs of the Spring Festival of the Han Chinese people are generally based on eating rice cakes, dumplings, patties, dumplings, eggs, meatballs, whole fish, wine, oranges, apples, peanuts, melons, candies, tea, and delicacies; and accompanied by dusting, washing bedding, preparing New Year's goods, putting up Spring Festival couplets, New Year's paintings (Zhong Kui, the god of the door), and wrapping dumplings
papercutting, window-paneling, and putting up Chinese characters of good fortune, Candles are lit, firecrackers are set off, the New Year's Eve is observed, New Year's money is given, New Year's greetings are paid, relatives are visited, New Year's gifts are given, ancestors' graves are visited, flower markets are held, fireworks are staged, the Zhong Kui is danced, and many other activities are held, which make the Chinese people enjoy their family life to the fullest. Chinese people also have the habit of hanging Chinese knots during the Spring Festival. Before the New Year's Eve, people in Tianjin have the custom of going to Qiao Xiangge on Ancient Culture Street to ask for Chinese knots, taking the meaning of Qiao Xiang Nafu; people in Wenzhou have the custom of going to their own religious devotions and praying, hoping to be able to obtain happiness with their families in the new year. Among them, mostly Buddhism. For thousands of years, people make the New Year celebrations become very colorful, every year from the 23rd day of the Lunar Lunar New Year's Eve to the 30th, the folk this period of time is called "Welcome Spring Day", also known as the "Dust Day", in the Spring Festival before the dust to engage in sanitation, is the people of our country has always had a traditional habits of our people. Then is the family to prepare for the New Year's goods, about ten days before the festival, people began to busy purchasing items, New Year's goods, including chickens, ducks, fish and meat, tea, wine, oil and soy sauce, North and South fried goods, sugar bait fruit, are to buy enough, but also to prepare some of the New Year's Eve when visiting friends and relatives when the gift, the children to add a new coat and a new hat, ready for the New Year when to wear. Before the festival in the residential door to paste the red paper and yellow characters of the New Year's message, that is, written in red paper Spring Festival couplets. Inside the house posted brightly colored auspicious New Year's paintings, clever girls cut out beautiful window decorations and paste them on the windows, hanging red lanterns in front of the door or sticking the word "Fortune" and the God of Wealth, the God of the Door (Zhong Kui, Qin Qiong, Jing De), etc., and the word "Fortune" can be pasted upside down, and passers-by can read the word "Fortune" upside down, that is, Fortune, all of these activities are to add enough festive atmosphere for the holiday. Another name for the Spring Festival is New Year's Eve. In the legends of the past, Nian was an imaginary animal that brought bad luck to people. Once the year came. Trees wither and no grass grows; once the year passes, everything grows and flowers are everywhere. How can the year pass? Need to be blasted with firecrackers, so there is the custom of burning firecrackers, which is actually another way to set off a lively scene. The Spring Festival is a happy and peaceful holiday, but also the reunion of relatives, children away from home in the Spring Festival to go home to celebrate. The night before the New Year's Eve, is the old year's Lunar New Year's Eve, also known as New Year's Eve, also known as the reunion night, in this time of transition between the old and the new, the New Year's Eve is one of the most important annual activities, New Year's Eve night, the whole family stay up to keep the New Year's Eve, get together to drink soundly, *** enjoy the joy of family, the northern region in the New Year's Eve to eat dumplings, dumplings, dumplings, and the word is the first and the noodles, and is the word; dumplings and dumplings and cross the harmony of the joints and cross the meaning, and also take more years of intercourse The dumplings have the meaning of "getting together" and "turning over the year". In the south, it is customary to eat New Year's cake at New Year's Eve. The sweet and sticky rice cake symbolizes the sweetness of life in the new year. To the first rooster crows, or New Year's bells ringing over, the street firecrackers, loud and clear, family joy, the start of a new year, men and women, young and old, dressed in festive attire, the first to the elders of the family New Year's wishes, the festival there are to the children of the New Year's money, eat New Year's Eve dinner, the second and third Gengyin New Year's greetings
Started to go to the relatives to see their friends, each other to pay tribute to New Year's Eve, congratulations and blessings, say something! congratulations on the new year, congratulations on wealth, congratulations, good new year and other words, ancestor worship and other activities. The warm atmosphere of the festival not only overflows in every household, but also fills the streets and alleys everywhere. Some places on the market and Nuo dance jump Zhong Kui, lion dance, play dragon lanterns, perform social fire, swim flower market, temple and other customs. During this period of lanterns all over the city, the streets are full of tourists, bustling, unprecedented, straight to the first month of the Lantern Festival after the 15th, the Spring Festival is really the end. During the Spring Festival, setting off firecrackers, posting calligraphy and paintings on doors and windows for good luck, and decorating one's home are the most common customs of this festival. Firecrackers The Chinese folk saying is "opening the door with firecrackers". In Chinese folklore, "opening the door with firecrackers" means that at the beginning of a new year, the first thing families do when they open their doors is to set off firecrackers to get rid of the old and welcome the new with the sound of beeping firecrackers. Firecrackers is a Chinese specialty, also known as "firecrackers", "cannonballs", "firecrackers". Its origin is very early, so far has a history of more than two thousand years. Setting off firecrackers can create a festive and lively atmosphere, and is a kind of entertainment activity during festivals, which can bring joy and good fortune to people. Wang Anshi's poem "The New Year's Day" reads: "The sound of firecrackers marks the end of the year, and the spring breeze sends warmth into the tassel. A thousand doors and tens of thousands of houses are about to rise. Always changing new peaches for old ones. The poem depicts the grand festivities of the Chinese people during the Spring Festival. The sound of firecrackers is a sign of resignation and welcome to the new year, and an indication of the festive mood. Chickens were painted on doors and windows to drive away ghosts and evil spirits during the Spring Festival. In the book "Xuanzhongji" written by the Jin Dynasty, it is said that when the sun has just risen and the first ray of sunlight shines on this big tree, the heavenly chicken will crow. When it crowed, all the chickens in the world followed. The chicken cut for the Spring Festival actually symbolizes the Heavenly Rooster. There is also an ancient myth that the chicken is a metamorphosis of the Chongming bird. It is said that during the reign of Emperor Yao, a friendly country in the past paid tribute to a kind of Chongming bird that could ward off evil spirits, and every year everyone welcomed the arrival of the bird, but the envoys did not come every year. People carved wooden Chongmingbirds, cast bronze Chongmingbirds and placed them at the gateway, or painted Chongmingbirds on the doors and windows to scare away demons and monsters, so that they wouldn't dare to come back. Because of the heavy bright bird looks similar to chicken, later gradually changed to painting chicken or cut window flowers pasted on the doors and windows, which became the source of the art of paper-cutting in later generations. In ancient China, chickens were especially valued, and were called "the bird of five virtues". Han Shi Wai Zhuan" said, it has a crown on its head, is the literary virtue; feet after the distance can fight, is the martial virtue; the enemy in front of the dare to fight, is the courage of virtue; there is food to greet the same kind of benevolence, is the virtue of virtue; vigil does not miss the time, dawn dawn, is the virtue of faith. Therefore, people not only cut and paste chickens on New Year's Day, but also designate the first day of the New Year as Chicken Day. The door god of Zhuxianzhen woodblock New Year's paintings, "The Door God of the Right Face and the Whip on the Horse"
All over China, there is a custom of sticking the door god on the New Year's Eve. Initially, the door god was carved from mahogany in the form of a person and hung next to the person, and later it was painted as a portrait of the door god and posted on the door. Legend has it that the two brothers, Shentian and Yubi, specialize in controlling ghosts, and with them guarding the gateway, evil spirits of all sizes would not dare to enter the door to do harm. However, the real historical record is not about Shentian and Yubi, but about an ancient warrior called Chengqing. In Ban Gu's "Book of Han - Biography of the King of Guangchuan", it is recorded that on the door of the palace of the King of Guangchuan, there was a portrait of the ancient warrior Cheng Qing, with a short coat, big pants and a long sword. In the Tang Dynasty, the position of the door god was taken by the "Tang" in the Happy Valley of Zhong Kui's hometown in Tuxian County, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province. Zhong Kui, the god of blessing and house-keeping" and Qin Shubao and Yuchi Jingde. In the Journey to the West, the story is even more detailed: "The Dragon King of the Jinghe River made a bet with a fortune-teller, and as a result, he broke the rules of heaven and was sentenced to death. The Jade Emperor appointed Wei Zheng as the supervisor of the beheading. The Dragon King of Jinghe River pleaded with Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty for mercy in order to survive. Emperor Taizong agreed to do so and summoned Wei Zheng to play a game of chess with him on the hour of the dragon's beheading. Unexpectedly, Wei Zheng went down and dozed off, and then his spirit ascended to heaven and beheaded the dragon king. The Dragon King complained that Taizong's words were not honored, and he hooted and hollered for his life outside the palace day and night. Emperor Taizong told his ministers that Qin Shubao, a general, had said: "I would like to stand outside the gate with Yuchi Jingde in military attire and wait for him. Emperor Taizong agreed. That night, nothing happened. Emperor Taizong could not bear the hard work of the two generals, so he ordered his skillful artists to paint the real faces of the two generals and stick them on the door." There are also paintings of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei as door gods. Door god statue of the left and right households, one each, the descendants often a pair of door god painted as a civil and a military. Door God is divided into three categories: the first category is the "gate door God", more than pasted on the car door or the whole door, about four or five feet high, about two or three feet wide. The second type is the "street door god", more small streets on the door, about two feet high, about one foot wide. These two kinds of door god is a black face and a white face of the two gods. White left and black right, white good and easy, black caracal, each hand holding a battle-axe. The third type is "house door door god", compared with the street door door god is slightly smaller limited, also is black and white two god, but also black and white two god is sitting like. House door is most often posted "unicorn send son" image, two powder and grease comb Prince crown dolls, each riding the unicorn. This kind of door god, should have been posted on the door of the newly married house, for good luck, and later also as a New Year's embellishment of the common street door. Stick Spring Festival Couplets Spring Festival Couplets, also known as the door, spring stickers, couplets, couplets, peach symbols, etc., it is neat, couplets, simple, sophisticated text depicting the background of the times, expressing the best wishes, is China's unique form of literature. Every Spring Festival, whether urban or rural, every family should select a large red Spring Festival couplets pasted on the door, for the festival to increase the festive atmosphere. This custom began in the song dynasty, in the ming dynasty began to prevail, to the qing dynasty, the spring couplets of ideology and artistry have been greatly improved, liang zhang toru prepared by the spring couplets of the monograph "sillian series of words" on the origin of the couplets and all kinds of works of the characteristics of the discourse. There are many kinds of spring couplets, according to its use place, can be divided into door heart, frame pair, horizontal phi, spring strip, bucket square and so on. The "door heart" is pasted on the center of the upper part of the door panel; the "frame pair" is pasted on the left and right door frames; the "horizontal phi" is pasted on the horizontal wood of the door winks; the "spring strip" is pasted on the horizontal wood of the door winks; the "spring strip" is pasted on the horizontal wood of the door winks according to different contents. "According to different contents, pasted in the corresponding place;" bucket catty "also known as" door leaf ", for the square diamond-shaped, more pasted in the furniture, shadow wall. Stick the word "Fu" in the Spring Festival couplets at the same time, some people have to be in the house door, wall, lintel on the large and small "Fu" character. It has been a long-standing custom of Chinese folklore to put up "Fu" characters on the doors and walls of houses. The character "福" refers to good fortune and good luck, and it expresses people's desire for a happy life and their wish for a better future. In order to more fully reflect this yearning and wishes, some people simply stick the word "Fu" upside down, indicating that "happiness has arrived" and "good fortune has arrived". Folk there will be "Fu" word carefully crafted into a variety of patterns, patterns of longevity, longevity peach, carp jump Dragon Gate, the five valleys, the dragon and phoenix, and so on. Window Decorations In folklore, people also like to put all kinds of paper cuttings on the windows - window decorations. The window decals not only bring out the festive atmosphere, but also set the decorative, appreciative and practical in one. Paper cutting in China is a very popular folk art, for thousands of years by the people's favorite, because it is mostly affixed to the window, so it is also known as "window flowers". Window flowers with its unique generalization and exaggeration techniques will be auspicious events and good wishes New Year's paintings, "Year-round"
Expressed to the fullest, will be decorated with festive red hot and rich. Stickers New Year's paintings Spring Festival hanging stickers in urban and rural areas is also very common, thick black colorful New Year's paintings to thousands of families added a lot of prosperity and joy of the festive atmosphere. New Year paintings are an ancient folk art in China, reflecting the simple customs and beliefs of the people and holding their hopes for the future. New Year's paintings, like spring scrolls, originated as "door gods". With the rise of woodblock printing, the content of New Year's paintings has not only been limited to monotonous themes such as the God of the Door, become colorful, in some of the New Year's paintings workshop produced the "Three Stars of Fortune, Lust and Longevity," "Zhong Kui blessed the town house," "Zhong Kui Calendar Table," "Heavenly Officials Provide Blessings," "Five Grains and Plenty of Prosperity," "Six Animals", "Welcome to the Spring Receive Blessings," and other classic colorful New Year's paintings, in order to satisfy the people's wishes to pray for New Year's festivities. Paste hanging thousand Hanging thousand, that is, with the auspicious words engraved on red paper, long feet in length, sticking the door, and peach symbols mirror. There are eight immortals on the figure, hung for the Buddha; hanging thousands of civilian households with; the family with less; its yellow paper is three inches long, red paper is more than an inch long, is a "small hanging thousands", for the market used. The earliest hanging thousands when it is to make money (copper) string hanging, and the same as the New Year's money, the role of pressure to win. The next year of rice in the north, some people have to provide a pot of rice, burned before the year, to be provided for the New Year, called "the next year of rice", is the leftovers year after year, year-round food, this year also ate the meaning of the previous year's food. This pot of next year's rice is generally cooked with a mixture of rice and millet, Beijing slang called "two rice", in order to have a yellow and white, which is called "gold and silver, gold and silver pots full of" the "gold and silver rice "
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Lunar month twenty-third, twenty-four
Lunar month twenty-third or twenty-four also known as the "small year", is the day of the folk festival stove. The folk song "23, sugar melon sticky" refers to the annual Lunar New Year 23 or 24 days of the sacrificial stove. There is a saying that "the government three, the people four, the boat family five", that is, the government on the twenty-third day of the Lunar New Year, the general people on the twenty-fourth day of the month, the water family for the twenty-fifth day of the festival of the stove. Xiao Nian is the beginning of the Spring Festival celebrations, and there are two main activities: sweeping the New Year's Eve and sacrificing to the stove. In addition to this, there is the custom of eating Zaosu candy, and in some places, eating fire roast, eating sugar cake, oil cake, and drinking tofu soup. As early as the Song Dynasty, there was a record of the Lunar New Year on the 24th day of the Lunar New Year, but at that time the Lunar New Year was not divided into two days, so the Lunar New Year custom on the 24th day of the Lunar New Year has a much longer history. So when did it change? It goes back to the Qing Dynasty. Qing dynasty emperor from the Yongzheng years, every year on the twenty-third of Lunar New Year in the Kunning Palace to worship God, in order to save money, the emperor by the way, the king of the stove also worshiped. Later the royal family, Baylor followed suit, in the waxing moon twenty-third sacrificial stove, since then began to have the government and the people in different days to celebrate the small New Year's division. Zaozao Zaowang niche
Zaozao, is a very influential in the Chinese folk, widely spread custom. In the old days, almost every house had a "Zao Wang" shrine in the stove room. People call this god "Sifu Bodhisattva" or "Zaojun Sifu", and legend has it that he is the Jade Emperor's "Nine Heavenly East Kitchen Sifu Zaowangfujun", responsible for the management of the family's stove fire, and worshipped as a He is responsible for the management of each family's stove fire, and is worshipped as the protector god of a family. Most of the Zaowang niches are located in the north or east of the stove room, with the idol of Zaowang in the center. For those who don't have a Zaowang niche, there are also those who put the idol directly on the wall. In some cases, the idol depicts only one person, while in others, there are two persons, a man and a woman, and the goddess is called "Zaowang Granny". Zao worship on the 23rd day of the Lunar New Year is closely related to the New Year. On the night of the New Year's Eve, one week later, Zao Wang Wang comes to earth with other gods and goddesses to bring good fortune and misfortune to the family. Lord Zao is believed to lead the way for the gods in heaven. The other gods ascend to heaven again after the New Year, but only Zao Wangwang stays in people's kitchens for a long time. The ceremony of welcoming the gods is called "receiving the gods", and for Lord Zao it is called "receiving the stove". The ceremony is usually much simpler on New Year's Eve, when the new stove lamps are replaced and incense is burned in front of the stove niche, and that's the end of it. As the saying goes, "men don't worship the moon, women don't sacrifice to the stove". In some places, women don't worship the stove. It is said that Zaowang master looks like a small white man, afraid of female sacrificial stove, there is "male and female suspicion". Stove festival folk preaching eating dumplings, meaning "send off dumplings to meet the wind face". Mountainous areas eat cake and buckwheat. Southeast Jin, the popular custom of eating fried corn, folk proverb "twenty-three, do not eat fried, the beginning of the year - a pot down" said people like to fry corn with maltose bonded together, frozen into a large block, eat crispy and sweet. Steam steamed buns After Lunar New Year's Day 23, every family should steam steamed buns. They are divided into two types: those for honoring the gods and those for visiting relatives. The former is solemn and the latter is flowery. In particular, a large jujube mountain should be made for the worship of Zaojun. "When a family steams flower buns, the four neighbors come to help." This is often a great opportunity for folk women to show off their dexterity, and a flower bun is a handicraft. Writing Spring Festival Couplets After the 23rd day of the Lunar New Year, every household has to write Spring Festival Couplets. Folklore is concerned that every god must be posted, every door must be posted, and every object must be posted, so the Spring Festival couplets are the most numerous and the most complete. The couplets in front of the deities are especially elaborate, mostly words of worship and prayers. Commonly seen couplets include the God of Heaven and Earth: "Heaven's grace is as deep as the sea, and earth's virtue is as heavy as the mountain"; the God of Land: "White jade is created from the earth, and gold comes out of the earth"; the God of Wealth: "Lord of Wealth in Heaven, God of Fortune on Earth"; the God of Wells: "The well is a well, and the God of Fortune on Earth". The god of wells is "a well that connects to the four seas, and a family that reaches the three rivers". Face grain silos, corrals and other places in the Spring Festival couplets, are expressed warmly celebrate and hope, such as "grain harvest, six animals prosper"; "rice and noodles as thick as a mountain, oil and salt as deep as the sea"; "cattle like a tiger in the South Mountain, the horse like a dragon in the North Sea "; "sheep year after year, lamb month after month," and so on. In addition, there are some single couplets, such as each indoor sticker "head up to see joy", the door across the sticker "out of the door to see joy", the fire on the sticker "Wang Qi Chong Tian", the yard sticker "Full of gold in the yard", "deep roots" on the tree, "White Tiger" on the stone mill, and so on. The couplets on the main door are the face of a family, and are especially emphasized, either expressing emotions or writing scenes, with rich contents and wonderful phrases. Eat Zao sugar Zao sugar is a kind of malt sugar, sticky, it is drawn as a long sugar stick called "Guandong sugar", pulled into a flat round type is called "sugar melon". Put it outside the house in winter, because of the cold weather, sugar melon solidified solid and some tiny bubbles inside, eat it crunchy, sweet and crispy, unique flavor. The real Guandong sugar hard, drop can not be broken, eat must be split with a kitchen knife, the material is very heavy and very fine. Slightly sour taste, no honeycomb in the middle, each piece weighs one or two, two or four, the price is also more expensive. Sugar melon with sesame and no sesame two kinds of Lunar New Year's Eve 24, dust sweeping house
Sugar made into melon or melon shape, the center is empty, the skin is less than five points thick, although the size of the different, but the transaction is still calculated by the weight, the big sugar melon weighing one or two pounds, but used as a front, buy very few people. Dust Sweeping After the Zao Festival, preparations for the New Year officially begin. Sweeping the dust is the end-of-year cleaning, called "sweeping the room" in the north and "dusting" in the south. In the Spring Festival before the dust to engage in health, is the Chinese people have traditional habits. Outdoors, inside the house, in front of the house, thoroughly cleaned, clean to welcome the New Year. The custom of "dusting and sweeping the house on the twenty-fourth day of the Lunar New Year" has a long history, according to "Lv's Spring and Autumn Annals", there was a custom of sweeping the dust of the Spring Festival in the era of Yao and Shun in China. According to folklore, because of "dust" and "Chen" homophonic, dust sweeping in the New Year has "in addition to the meaning of Chen Bu Xin", the intention is to put all the "poor luck", "poor luck", "poor luck", "poor luck", "poor luck", "poor luck", "poor luck", "poor luck", "poor luck", "poor luck" and "poor luck". ", "bad luck" are swept out. This custom is the desire of the people to break the old, and the wish of the old and welcome the new prayers.
Lunar month 29, New Year's Eve (New Year's Eve)
Every year, the evening of the last day of the lunar month, the last day of the lunar year (the month of the 30th, the month of the 29th), known as "New Year's Eve". It and the Spring Festival (the first day of the first month of the year), is the people's old days to welcome the new. Due to the lunar calendar, there are thirty days in the big month and only twenty-nine days in the small month, so the date of New Year's Eve is also different from twenty-nine and thirty. However, this day is often referred to as "New Year's Eve" regardless of whether it is the 29th or 30th day of the lunar month. New Year's Eve night family reunion to eat the New Year's Eve dinner (the last meal of the year in the lunar calendar), New Year's Eve dinner after the New Year's money and stay up the New Year's Eve (vigil) custom, said from the last day of the current year of the lunar calendar to the first day of the next year. Zhou, Qin period of the end of each year, the palace to hold a "large exorcism" ceremony, beat the drum to expel the plague of ghosts, known as "by the removal of", and later called the day before the New Year's Eve for the small in addition to the small New Year's Eve; New Year's Eve for the big in addition to the big New Year's Eve. Placement of the Table of Heaven and Earth Legend has it that this is the night when the gods of heaven descend to the world, so there are folk customs to receive the gods. The Heaven and Earth Table is a temporary offering table, which is specially set up on New Year's Eve for the purpose of receiving the gods. It is especially important for families without a large Buddha Hall because they usually make fewer offerings to the Buddha, and at the end of the year when the year is over, they have to pay a big reward to the gods and the Buddha. The contents of the heaven and earth table and the permanent Buddha Hall is different, in addition to *** have hanging money, incense and candles, five for, big supply, the worship of the idol is mostly temporary, such as "100 percent", is a woodcut version of the picture book of the gods; "heaven and earth and the three worlds of the eighteen Buddhas and gods", a with a large yellow burlap woodcut watercolor. Large yellow burlap woodcut watercolor printing of the whole God code; three stars of fortune and longevity portraits and so on. Some of the above images are incinerated after receiving the gods, such as the "hundred percent", while others have to be incinerated only on the 5th day of the 5th month, or even on the Festival of Lights. The location of the heaven and earth table is not uniform, such as a large place in the house, can be placed in the house; if there is no land in the house, it will be placed in the courtyard. Eat New Year's Eve dinner children playing with firecrackers, but also is the housewives in the kitchen the busiest time, New Year's dishes are done in the first few days, and New Year's Eve dinner is always in the New Year's Eve on the day of the kitchen to do out. In the north, the dumplings on the first day of the New Year are also wrapped up on the evening of the thirtieth. At this time the cutting boards of the families are thumping and busy chopping meat and vegetables. At this time, the sound of cutting boards coming out of every house, the sound of firecrackers coming out of the streets and alleys, the sound of the abacus coming out of the small store Eat New Year's Eve dinner and the sound of the bill, mixed with the sound of jokes and laughter everywhere, one after another, the ocean is full of ears, interweaving into the New Year's Eve joyful music. The New Year's Eve dinner is the most lively and enjoyable time of the Spring Festival for all families. On New Year's Eve, the sumptuous New Year's dishes on the table, the family reunion, sitting around the table, *** eat a reunion dinner, the heart of the fullness is really hard to describe. People are enjoying the table full of delicacies, but also to enjoy the happy atmosphere, the table has a big dish, cold pots, stir-fry, snacks, generally less two things, one is hot pot． One is fish. Hot pot boiling, steaming, warm and provocative, indicating that the red hot; "fish" and "Yu" consonance, is a symbol of "auspicious celebration of surplus", but also a metaphor for "year after year". It is also a metaphor for "having more than enough for every year". There are also turnips, commonly known as "choy tau" (菜头), which is a wish for good luck, and fried foods such as lobster and popping fish, which is a wish for good luck in the family, such as "blazing fire cooking oil". Finally, a sweet dish is served to wish for sweet days ahead. This day, even if you will not drink alcohol, but also more or less drink a little