Jinan Pingyin Spring Festival Customs 1. Traditional Lunar Festival Spring Festival The first day of the first lunar month is the Spring Festival.
The Spring Festival is a traditional festival for the Chinese people. From the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, people start to be busy grinding noodles, making tofu, steaming rice cakes, killing pigs, chickens, and sheep, and going to the market to buy new year goods and clothes.
At thirty, clean the house, post couplets, fry fish, fried meatballs, fried lotus root boxes, and make dumplings.
As it gets dark on New Year's Eve, every family starts lighting a "lighting room" in front of the door. The owner picks up the hay (corn grass) that has been prepared and puts it into a pile. After lighting it, some use a bunch of torches to light up the rooms and courtyards.
Each corner of the hay is piled on the fire at the gate. Which direction the hay is poured means which side will be lucky and prosperous in the coming year.
Eating New Year's dinner and staying up late are one of the most important customs. Making dumplings, eating dumplings, having a family dinner, and setting off firecrackers are the main contents of New Year's Eve. Since CCTV held the Spring Festival Gala, watching the Spring Festival Gala has become the main activity on New Year's Eve.
At midnight, as the TV station chimes the zero hour clock, people begin to cook dumplings and set off firecrackers. The cooked dumplings are first offered to the ancestors, and then the whole family eats them together around the table.
At this time, the sound of firecrackers comes one after another, forming a continuous sound. It can be said that "the sound of firecrackers makes one year old".
New Year greetings are the climax of the Spring Festival activities.
New Year greetings begin early in the morning. When people in the city pay New Year greetings, acquaintances shake hands with each other, congratulate each other, and say auspicious words such as "Happy New Year."
In rural areas, you must first worship the elders of your own family, and then the elders of your own clan. In some places, when paying New Year greetings, you must kowtow to the ancestors enshrined as well as the living elders.
The first day of the Spring Festival has the most taboos.
A married girl cannot go back to her parents' home on the first day of the new year, because she thinks that returning to her parents' home will make her family poor.
You cannot eat noodles on the first day of the new year. It is said that if you eat noodles, you will be in trouble for a year.
You can't break things, use needlework, or sweep the floor. Any violation of the rules will "lose wealth."
Also avoid empty pots. You must put some dumplings, steamed buns, etc. in the pot. If the pot is empty, it means you are hungry.
On the second and fourth day of the Lunar New Year, married daughters return to their parents' homes with their husbands and children.
On the second day of the Lunar New Year, when daughters-in-law take their husbands back to their parents’ homes to visit their parents and family, it is called “returning to the home”.
When a daughter returns to her parents' home, she must bring an even number of gifts, usually live chickens and fish, to symbolize "fish every year" and "good luck".
The mother-in-law's family will prepare a banquet to entertain the son-in-law.
The son-in-law is a distinguished guest at the parents-in-law's house on this day. He must sit at the top of the table when eating and drinking. The parents-in-law also invite relatives and friends to accompany the son-in-law.
The fifth day of the first lunar month is commonly known as Po Wu.
One said that many taboos five years ago can be broken on this day.
Eat dumplings according to the old custom.
On this day, every family will make dumplings, which is called "Po Wu" to make up for the "Po" in "Po Wu".
The whole family drinks wine and has a reunion dinner, chats about the past, and avoids saying unlucky words; the children set off fireworks and firecrackers, which symbolizes the collapse of poverty and the arrival of lucky stars.
According to old customs, women are not allowed to use knives, cut needlework, or cook rice, noodles, or vegetables before the fifth day of the Lunar New Year. The meals eaten before the fifth day of the Lunar New Year are all prepared years ago and can be heated before eating.
Lantern Festival The fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the Lantern Festival. The main activities are lighting and viewing lanterns, so it is also called the Lantern Festival.
In the old days, people used to make zodiac lanterns from flour, which were made with meticulous workmanship and lifelike images.
It means eliminating diseases and disasters and making people prosperous.
On the night of the Lantern Festival, farmers in the old days used sweet potato, radish, and cabbage lumps as lamp holders to plug in the wicks. They hollowed out the lamps, filled them with soybean oil, lit the wicks, and placed them on both sides of the door, on the incense table, in front of the stove king, on the stone mill, and in the poultry pen.
Pens, cow, horse and sheep sheds, trees, toilets, etc.
After entering the 1990s, candles were basically used.
The newly married daughter-in-law has to go back to her parents' home to celebrate the fifteenth day. Legend has it that it takes three years before she can go to her husband's house to celebrate the fifteenth day, otherwise her father-in-law will die.
Carrying out recreational activities is an important part of the Lantern Festival.
There are various forms of costumes, such as drum dance, lion dance, dragon lantern dance, stilts, land boats, flower sticks, Yangko, drum pan, donkey driving, king skin fighting, etc.
During the Lantern Festival, urban residents have the custom of eating Lantern Festival, but in rural areas, dumplings are still the most popular food.
On the night of the Lantern Festival, urban and rural residents firstly went to Huanxiu Park to watch the fireworks show held in Pingyin No. 4 Middle School, and secondly, went to the square to watch the light show.
February 2nd February 2nd of the lunar calendar is said to be the day when the dragon raises its head.
On this day, every household has the custom of frying "scorpion claws" (fried beans).
It is said that eating "scorpion claws" can prevent you from being stung by scorpions and attacked by five poisons for a year.
Folks also use plant ash outside the gate and sprinkle it into the courtyard in a zigzag manner, called "leading the dragon home" to prevent insects from moving.
Some people use plant ash to form hoards in their courtyards and sprinkle grain on them in order to have a good harvest.
Qingming Festival is 105 days after the winter solstice and 15 days after the spring equinox.
In the old days, cold food cut off fire, and people often used wicker sticks to beg each other for new fire.
Qingming is a day for sweeping graves and worshiping ancestors. It is also known as the "Ghost Festival" among the people. Together with July 15th and October 1st, it is collectively called the "Three Ghost Festivals".
Hanshi and Qingming are originally two festivals, but most people combine the two festivals into one.
It is generally called Qingming Festival, and in a few places it is called Cold Food Festival, but the festival is celebrated on the Qingming Festival.
On the morning of Qingming Festival, every household boils eggs, and it is said that the eyes of the eggs are "Qingming" after eating them.
In fact, Qingming Festival commemorates Jiezitui, a minister of the Jin Dynasty in the Spring and Autumn Period.
He died in a willow tree cave in the mountain. In order to prevent others from finding him, the people planted willows all over the mountain to disturb him.
From then on, people put willow sticks on both sides of their homes on this day to commemorate Jie Zitui, and this has been a custom to this day.
Dragon Boat Festival The Dragon Boat Festival falls on May 5th of the lunar calendar. The most common saying is to commemorate the great poet Qu Yuan during the Warring States Period.
On this day, almost every household eats eggs and rice dumplings. Moxa sticks are placed at the entrance of each house, and some even add peach branches, which are said to ward off evil spirits.
Summer Solstice Festival Summer Solstice is one of the 24 solar terms in the Chinese lunar calendar, usually around June 22 of the Gregorian calendar.