Guangzhou has entered the New Year's Day since the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, and there are strict arrangements for daily activities. That is, twenty-three thanks for cooking, twenty-four frying, twenty-five steamed cakes, twenty-six sweeping, twenty-seven washing (Guangzhou dialect, that is, things), twenty-eight packets of zongzi, twenty-nine stickers for Spring Festival couplets, and thirty years of the Communist Youth League. This is the arrangement before the festival.
thank the stove: on the 23rd night of the twelfth lunar month, I will send the master of the stove to heaven, which is called "thank the stove", "send the stove" or "sacrifice the stove". Tributes to the stove include: a bowl of rice, two pieces of sugar, a gift, a bowl of clear water, a gift of roast pork, some sugarcane, oranges, paper money and so on. (Speaking of tributes, I think of a sentence that my grandmother said when I was a child: "Winter oranges, New Year oranges, thank you for cooking oranges". It probably means that oranges should be used in winter solstice worship, oranges should be used in Chinese New Year, and oranges should be used to thank the stove. And write a "Kitchen Jun Shu", the general idea is to apologize to the kitchen Jun and ask him to say good things in heaven and keep peace in the lower world.
From the day when we thanked the stove, we began to enter the New Year, and people were busy. I don't think many people know this custom now. "Yuedong Notes" says: "Guangzhou's custom, at the end of the year, is to burn glutinous rice, which is called Paogu, thinking that fried dumplings are filled with stuffing; For those who fry piles, glutinous rice flour is rounded into the oil effect, so as to give sacrifices to relatives and friends first, and then put flowers into the oil frying with glutinous rice plates, which is called ten flowers; It is fried in pig oil with white sugar sand mixed with powder, and it is called sand. " The things to be fried will probably include cannon valley, fried pile and so on.
Twenty-five steamed cakes: Besides steamed rice cakes, Guangzhou also likes to make radish cakes, London cakes, water chestnut cake cakes, nine-layer cakes, etc., which means "step by step in the Spring Festival". Sweep the house so as to welcome the Spring Festival cleanly. There is also a "Spring Festival Dust-sweeping Song": On the 23rd of the Year of La, clothes were washed in the sun; On the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, clean the edge of the house; On the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth lunar month, sweep the house and dust; On the 26th of the twelfth lunar month, clean the livestock house; On the 27 th of the twelfth lunar month, the inside and outside are washed into one; On the 28 th of the twelfth lunar month, wipe the furniture; On the 29th of the twelfth lunar month, all the dirty things are removed.
As for 28 packets of zongzi, I have never heard of it. I asked the old people at home, and they all said that there is no such custom in Guangzhou now, which was unknown before. Later, I read some information, and this custom still exists in western Guangdong. Our family will buy squid, Nostoc flagelliforme, mushrooms, dried shrimps, vermicelli and other new year's goods on the 28th. Sticking Spring Festival couplets includes pasting door pairs, banners and monologues. In a few words, it says "heavenly god blesses the people", "Happy New Year", "All the best", "Safe entry and exit" and "Congratulations on getting rich". These monologues should be posted according to the gods. Thirty years,? Chickens kill ducks, worship heaven and earth, ancestors, pick up the god of wealth, etc. On this day, housewives will be very busy. In the evening, the whole family will have a reunion dinner, and then they will officially enter the new year.
Here is another traditional custom, which Guangzhou people call "opening the door". On the eve of New Year's Eve, he kept vigil until late at night to welcome Hou Liangchen, and when it was time to make friends, he opened the door and said "Open the door", or posted the word "Open the door and open the door" with a red background and bronzing, and fired a cannon. At this time, every household lights firecrackers. In order to "grab the gun head", some people lift it for a few minutes and burn it. Others heard the sound, and firecrackers exploded for a while, which was deafening and lasted for several hours It gradually quieted down after two or three o'clock. At four o'clock, firecrackers sounded again and didn't stop until dawn. Open the door and go out, every door, streets and alleys are covered with a layer of red paper of firecrackers, which adds a lot of festive atmosphere. But now in Guangzhou, there is no such New Year's habit on New Year's Eve because firecrackers are banned. Although there will still be some people who are not afraid of death who will "open the door", the excitement is really not as good as in the past. Without this activity, I always feel that the atmosphere is not so strong now compared with when I was a child.
It's not just a "opening-door cannon". Nowadays, there are not many people in Guangzhou who keep these pre-holiday customs. Take my family as an example. I personally think that compared with other families, our family is still a relatively complete custom of the Spring Festival. Twenty-three thanks for cooking, twenty-seven washing, twenty-nine posting of Spring Festival couplets, and thirty years of group reunion are still going on. My mother will still steam some cakes when she is free at the end of the year. But now most families in Guangzhou are afraid of trouble, or don't have time, cakes are bought, and 3% of the reunion dinner is no longer eaten at home, and most of them go to some restaurants to celebrate the New Year.
Chinese New Year begins on the first day of the first month; There are also fixed customs every day: "On the first day, one person worships God, on the second day, the third day is poor, and on the fourth day, four people beg for rice. On the fifth day and the sixth day, it is the same year. On the seventh day, they go for spring, and on the eighth day, they don't return. On the ninth day, they are empty, and on the tenth day, they go for spring, eleven dozen children return, twelve people set up a light shed, thirteen people turn on the lights, fourteen lights are bright, fifteen people pray for the lights, The activities of the Spring Festival didn't come to an end until the Lantern Festival.
On the first day of the Lunar New Year. It is said that a former Cantonese would go for an outing in the wild on the morning of the first day of junior high school. Some walk around the village, some around the countryside, and some walk around the house, which is called "going out", commonly known as "going to the Universiade". I hope that good things will come often in the new year and everything will win. The second day of the first month is called "opening the year". On this day, people take gifts such as three animals and Zan Fried Dumplings and take their children and daughters to visit relatives and friends. Continue to take my family's situation as an example. In the morning, my mother will kill the chicken and worship the ancestors, and then she will start cooking the New Year's dinner (the second day of the first month is the "head tooth" of the year and eat the "New Year's dinner"). After eating the New Year's dinner, I brought all my things back to my grandmother's house and began to pay New Year's greetings. When leaving, grandma or grandpa will give lettuce, celery and onion tied with red paper to mom as a gift. Said: the whole family is full of vitality, the adults are diligent and the children are smart. People visit the flower land every day-the seventh day of the first month is people's day, and Guangzhou people visit the flower land every day.
During the Spring Festival, people in Guangzhou have many taboos and habits: according to the old custom of "Old Guangs", people should not wash their hair on the first day of the Lunar New Year for fear of washing away their wealth; The second day of the lunar new year is the beginning of the new year. Since the New Year's Eve dinner, it is not until today that meat can be eaten. On the third day of the lunar new year, it is red mouth, so don't pay New Year greetings, which is easy to cause trouble; There are endless details about che gong's birthday, people's day and so on. Also, you can't buy shoes during the Chinese New Year, because the Cantonese pronunciation of "shoes" is the same as "alas"; It's even worse to buy books. The pronunciation of books is the same as "lose", and it's even more taboo to be afraid of "lose, lose" all year. At big festivals, wedding banquets and birthday banquets, I am used to talking about auspicious words, not discouraging words. If someone accidentally breaks the dishes, they will say "Peace through the years" or "Flowers bloom on the ground, prosperity and splendor".
During the Spring Festival, when relatives and friends meet, they always speak mannitol and wish each other well. Such as congratulations on making a fortune, the spirit of dragon and horse, and winning everything. During the Chinese New Year, elders will give their children some money, which is called "profit" and implies good luck. In addition to chicken, shops must also have roast meat (meaning braised in red and strong), fish (more than a year), Nostoc flagelliforme oyster sauce (a good market for making a fortune), vermicelli (continuous cotton), yuba and sweet bamboo (rich and sweet). Even in the old days, women had to choose an auspicious day to wash their hair. They could not wash their hair on the first and fifteenth day of the first month, which was said to be blasphemous. However, with the popularization of science and the progress of the times, some superstitious customs have gradually disappeared and been replaced by new social fashions.
Guangzhou people don't like flowers picked from broken branches, and they are used to potted plants with roots and transported in a basin. Many flowers are tall and dense, covering the top of the truck cab. From a distance, I saw groups of flowers flying in the sky, which is amazing. These flowers will rush into every household, and people will pour wine and bless them among the flowers. I think, compared with other parts of the country, Guangzhou people have more right to say: Spring Festival is coming! "
" I think people in the mainland spend the Spring Festival mostly decorated with red paper and firecrackers, where the spring and auspiciousness are artificially laid. Only in Guangzhou, it is hard to let the flower car transport a season and introduce the real spring life into the house, so the celebration is the most honest and thorough. "
the above two paragraphs are the words of Mr. Yu Qiuyu in "The Journey to Culture" and "The Story of Five Cities". Indeed, the Spring Festival in Guangzhou is made of flowers. People in Guangzhou don't eat jiaozi in the New Year, but they go shopping in the Flower Street in the New Year.
the traditional winter jasmine market in Guangzhou starts on the 28th day of the lunar calendar (the 27th day of the first lunar month) and lasts for three days, and ends on the third day until the early morning of the first day of the new year. Generally, a week before New Year's Eve, these flower streets have been closed to traffic by cars and horses, and relevant departments have begun to tie up flower scaffolding and stalls for flower farmers. Flower Street stretches out into several long corridors. A few days ago, some big branches of flowers and trees began to arrive, and the market officially opened on December 28 of the lunar calendar. At that time, Shilihua Street was decorated with lanterns and bright Cantonese music was played on loudspeakers. People watched flowers, bought flowers and "sold them lazily", and people flowed endlessly, day and night, and flower farmers lived and ate at the flower market. New Year's Eve. The flower market is in full swing. That's a sea of people, packed. There are often famous calligraphers in the central flower market, which is more lively. It was not until two o'clock at midnight that people slowly dispersed, and the flower farmers also auctioned the remaining flowers at a reduced price, leaving no surplus. It is often at this time that people who visit Flower Street find good bargains. As a result, everyone is happy and happily welcomes the dawn of the new year.
The most traditional festive food symbolizes Guangzhou people's expectation for the Chinese New Year:
Food is the most important food for the people in Guangzhou, especially those who can eat and eat the most, and the variety is very rich. Popcorn, fried dumplings, oil angle, scattered eggs, taro shrimp and rice cakes are the most traditional Spring Festival foods in Guangzhou.
As the saying goes, "People have my own fried piles on New Year's Eve". Fried piles are a must for every family. The stuffing of the fried pile is made by mixing the glutinous rice with sugar gum. The glutinous rice is fried until it bursts, and the husk is removed. The fried dumpling skin is made of glutinous rice flour, which is very thin and covered with sesame seeds. The whole frying pile is fried in boiling oil until golden brown. Now it's not so particular. Some people make fried piles, and some don't put stuffing in them. In addition, there is oil angle, among which there are soft corners, crisp corners and crisp corners. When I was a child, when the Chinese New Year was approaching, my grandmother and mother took me to make "oil angle". Although I didn't like it very much and I didn't do it well, it was also a pleasure to make "oil angle" with my family. Then there are fried foods such as "sugar rings", "winter fruits", "scattered eggs" and "taro shrimp". "Sugar rings" are made of glutinous rice flour, pressed into wooden molds and "batch" one by one, and fried into golden yellow, crisp and delicious, usually sweet and salty. "Winter Fruit" is made of glutinous rice flour into strips or slices and fried. "Taro Shrimp" is made of betel nut and taro, which is sliced into silk and mixed with rice flour pulp and dropped into the oil pan. It tastes crisp and delicious. "Egg powder" is fried by mixing flour with lard and eggs. Add sugar to the sweet powder, fry it and stick it with sugar glue; Add south milk and salt powder to the salty ones, which makes them crisp and delicious.
melon seeds are also necessary for the Spring Festival, including red melon seeds and black melon seeds, and "modern" melon seeds (sunflower seeds). Chinese candy includes sugar lotus root, sugar lotus seed, sugar water chestnut (water chestnut), sugar wax gourd, sugar orange cake, sugar coconut horn, sugar coconut slice and so on.
Cakes include New Year's Cake, Radish Cake, Taro Cake, water chestnut cake, Nine-layer Cake, Soft Cake, etc., which symbolizes a better life in the New Year. The rice cake is also called "big cage cake", which is named after the container for holding the cake can be a bamboo cage with a large opening. The rich people make a rice cake with dozens of kilograms of rice, and the golden cake surface is inserted with red dates and cypress branches, which means good luck and good fortune. The Guangzhou dialect of radish is called "vegetable head", which is a homonym of "vegetable" and "wealth". Eating radish cake in the New Year means to make money and treasure. Water chestnut cake uses water chestnut as raw material, which is called "water chestnut" in Cantonese dialect. Eating water chestnut cake in the New Year can clear away heat and eliminate stagnation. Its effect of regulating appetite has been proved by practice, and it also has the meaning of "non-stop" and self-improvement.
I have to mention the dishes on the dining table of Guangzhou people. There are many kinds of Chinese New Year food in Guangdong, which means auspiciousness. Ordinary dishes are also given beautiful names, which makes people happy to enjoy them. For example, the hand of Nostoc flagelliforme and oyster sauce are called "making a fortune", while the tongue of pork fried with pickled cabbage (known as Zhuli in Guangzhou) is called "a win-win situation", the fresh lily fried is called "a hundred years of harmony", the stewed mushrooms with vegetables are called "money everywhere" and the fish-slippery tofu pot is called "peace for all ages". There are also various kinds of chicken products, such as "Danfeng Chaoyang", "Hundred birds fly towards the phoenix" and "Dragon and Phoenix are auspicious", and so on. Chicken is essential in Chinese New Year dishes. As the saying goes, "No feast without chicken" and roast pork, besides symbolizing chastity in marriage, Chinese New Year means prosperity. At lunch on the first day of the lunar new year, you must also blindly eat vegetarian dishes, commonly known as "Luohanzhai", which are prepared with salted vegetables, fungus, vermicelli and shrimp, and some people steam bacon, but you should eat "Zhai" first when you lift chopsticks.