Nanchuan District is located in the south of Chongqing, at the intersection of Chongqing-Guizhou and Chongqing-Hunan economic belts. It belongs to a new urban development zone in Chongqing, bordering Daozhen, Zheng 'an and Tongzi counties in Guizhou Province in the southeast, Wulong County in the northeast, Fuling District in the north and Banan District and Qijiang District in the west.
Nanchuan is a beautiful and meaningful city with a long history, rich resources, convenient transportation, superior ecology, and openness. Nanchuan has been successively rated as the national advanced cultural area, the hometown of China couplets culture, the hometown of folk songs and dances, the hometown of singing and dancing, and the hometown of bench and dragon dance.
Nanchuan's Spring Festival customs are similar to those in other parts of the country.
1. Doudeng
"Doudeng" is a custom handed down from generation to generation by the villagers in Yantang Community, Xicheng Street, Nanchuan District, Chongqing. On the evening of the 14th day of the first month of each year, every family's old people and children go out of their homes with oil lamps and candles prepared in advance, and light the long lights connecting Jackie Chan one by one along the roadside, in the ridge of the field and in front of the house. When the lights are finished, the villagers swim around the village to see who has the most lights and whose lights last the longest. According to local villagers, the custom of "fighting lights" has been going on in the local area for hundreds of years. The villagers hope that the weather will be good in the coming year through the way of "fighting lights".
2. Shopping
Everyone has his own Nanchuan memory, and Old East Street is the memory and feelings of Nanchuan people.
During the Spring Festival, Nanchuan people like to visit Dongjie Street. Visiting East Street can not only experience colorful folk activities, but also taste various cuisines. You can eat all kinds of bamboo shoots and farm dishes at Fangzhu Impression. There are also special snacks, such as Camellia oleifera soup, Camellia oleifera, wheat nuggets, candied fruits, ghost buns … Nanchuan on the tip of the tongue is not a hollow reputation.
East Street is divided into comprehensive service area for tourists and merchants, experience area for cultural exposition, experience area for time streets and lanes, outdoor education area for parents and children, nostalgic business area for Jiefang Road, etc. It not only undertakes basic functions such as eating, living, playing and shopping, but also undertakes comprehensive functions such as cultural display, cultural experience, interactive communication and sightseeing experience.
East Street in the Spring Festival is getting lively. From January 16th to February 5th, Sichuan Opera's face-changing, clown performance, lantern festival, acrobatics, collection of non-legacy (time-honored) new year's goods, folk culture parade, photography exhibition, "My Happy Year" talent show and various garden activities were enjoyed in East Street.
The annual flavor of folk customs is not only in the East Street in the city, but also in the origin of the Grand View outside the city. The "Spring Festival couplets" hung all over the wall, the lucky rabbits with long legs, and the red lantern wall in China ... are full of "flavor of the year" everywhere.
During the Spring Festival, the Daguan Origin has prepared a variety of activities, such as the Happy Gathering Garden Party, the hometown fair, the New Year's stilt parade, the 24 solar terms parade, and the eating of Yuanxiao in the hometown, inviting everyone to go back to their hometown for the fair and the Spring Festival, so that tourists can relive the "Year of the Original Country" here. At the same time, it is a good choice to stay at the Twelve Homes or the Ring Hotel in Daguan Origin at night.
3. Sweep the dust
"24. Sweep the house". China had the custom of sweeping dust during the Spring Festival in the Yao and Shun era. According to the folk saying: Because of the homonym of "dust" and "Chen", sweeping dust in the Spring Festival has the meaning of "except Chen Buxin", and its intention is to sweep away all bad luck and bad luck. This custom is entrusted with people's desire to break through the old and establish the new and their prayer to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. Whenever the Spring Festival comes, every household should clean the environment, clean all kinds of appliances, tear down and wash bedding curtains, sweep the six yards, dust cobwebs and dredge open channels and culverts. Everywhere is filled with the joyful atmosphere of engaging in sanitation and welcoming the Spring Festival cleanly.
4. Keeping the Lunar New Year
Keeping the Lunar New Year's Eve is one of the most important Spring Festival customs, and the custom of keeping the Lunar New Year has a long history. The earliest record was found in the "Local Records" in the Western Jin Dynasty: on New Year's Eve, all parties gave gifts, which was called "giving the year back"; Wine and food are invited, which is called "don't be old"; It is called "dividing the age" when the young and the old gather to drink and wish a complete song; Everyone stays up all night, waiting for the morning, which is called "keeping the old age". Since the Han dynasty, the time when the old and the new years alternate is generally at midnight.
5. Pay New Year greetings
When paying New Year greetings during the Spring Festival, the younger generation should first pay New Year greetings to their elders, wishing them a long and healthy life. The elders can distribute the lucky money prepared in advance to the younger generation. It is said that lucky money can suppress evil spirits, because "old" and "precious" are homophonic, and the younger generation can spend their first year safely with lucky money. There are two kinds of lucky money, one is to thread colored rope into a dragon shape and put it at the foot of the bed, which is recorded in Yanjing Year; The other is the most common, that is, parents wrap the money distributed to their children in red paper. The lucky money can be given in public after the younger generation pays New Year's greetings, or it can be secretly put under the child's pillow by parents when the child falls asleep on New Year's Eve. The custom of handing out lucky money to the younger generation by elders is still very popular.
6. Sticking Spring Festival couplets
Spring Festival couplets are also called door-to-door couplets, spring couplets, couplets, peach symbols, etc. They depict the background of the times and express good wishes with neat, dual, concise and exquisite words, which is a unique literary form in China. Every Spring Festival, no matter in urban or rural areas, every household should select a red Spring Festival couplets and stick them on the door to add festive atmosphere to the festival. This custom originated in the Song Dynasty and became popular in the Ming Dynasty. By the Qing Dynasty, the ideology and artistry of Spring Festival couplets had been greatly improved. Liang Zhangju's monograph "The Story of the Spring Festival Couplets" discussed the origin of Spring Festival couplets and the characteristics of various works.
There are many kinds of Spring Festival couplets, which can be divided into door hearts, frame pairs, horizontal stripes, spring strips and square fights according to their usage places. The "door core" is attached to the center of the upper end of the door panel; The "frame pair" is attached to the left and right door frames; "Cross-dressing" is attached to the crossbar of the door; "Spring strips" are posted in corresponding places according to different contents; "Dou Jin", also called "door leaf", is a square diamond, which is often attached to furniture and screen walls.
7. Hanging New Year pictures
Hanging New Year pictures during the Spring Festival is also very common in urban and rural areas, and colorful New Year pictures add a lot of prosperous and happy festive atmosphere to thousands of families. New Year pictures are an ancient folk art in China, reflecting people's simple customs and beliefs and pinning their hopes for the future. New Year pictures, like Spring Festival couplets, originated from "door gods". With the rise of woodblock printing, the content of New Year pictures is not limited to monotonous themes such as door gods, but has become rich and colorful. In some New Year pictures workshops, classic color New Year pictures such as Three Stars of Fu Lushou, heavenly god blesses the people, Harvest of Five Grains, Prosperity of Six Livestock, and Greeting the Spring with Happiness have been produced to meet people's good wishes of celebrating and praying for the New Year. There are three important producing areas of New Year pictures in China: Taohuawu in Suzhou, Yangliuqing in Tianjin and Weifang in Shandong; Three schools of Chinese New Year pictures have been formed, each with its own characteristics.
China's earliest collection of New Year pictures in China today is the woodcut New Year pictures of the Southern Song Dynasty, which show four ancient beauties: Wang Zhaojun, Zhao Feiyan, Ban Ji and Lvzhu. The most popular among the people is a New Year picture of Marrying a Mouse. It depicts an interesting scene in which a mouse marries a bride according to human customs. In the early years of the Republic of China, Zheng Mantuo of Shanghai combined the calendar with the New Year pictures. This is a new form of New Year pictures. This new year's picture, which combines two into one, later developed into a calendar and has been popular all over the country.
8. Set off firecrackers
There is a saying in China that "open the door to set off firecrackers". That is, at the arrival of the new year, the first thing for every household to open the door is to set off firecrackers to eliminate the old and welcome the new with the sound of firecrackers. Firecrackers are a specialty of China, also known as "firecrackers", "firecrackers" and "firecrackers". Its origin is very early, and it has a history of more than two thousand years. Setting off firecrackers can create a festive and lively atmosphere, which is a kind of entertainment in festivals and can bring happiness and good luck to people.
9. Sacrificing ancestors
The first thing to do at the beginning of the New Year is to sacrifice ancestors. In some places, this etiquette is called "family worship" because ancestors are called "relatives" rather than gods.
ancestor worship is usually carried out at home. In some places, every family hangs portraits of their ancestors in the hall, but most areas are for ancestral tablets. Around midnight on New Year's Eve, before opening the door and setting off firecrackers, the activities of ancestor worship began. Wine, delicacies and seasonal fruits were arranged in front of the ancestral tablets for the ancestors to enjoy; After lighting the scented paper candle, the parents led their children to knock and sacrifice. When you worship your ancestors, you should face the memorial tablets of the ancestors and report the festive events that happened at home in the past year one by one, ranging from marrying a daughter-in-law, hiring a daughter, giving birth to a child, and how life is.
The significance of ancestor worship in the New Year is to pursue the future with caution, to respect the ancestors and to pray for their future generations to be prosperous and everything goes well, which shows the traditional ethical thought of the Chinese nation.
1. Meeting the gods
Meeting the gods is to divide the old and new years, but the time of meeting the gods is not uniform. Some people begin to hold ceremonies as soon as the child arrives, some begin to pick up the gods at midnight when the child is "right", and some do so after the child is "right". The ceremony of receiving the gods was held at the table of heaven and earth, presided over by the oldest person in the family. Because the gods live in different directions in the celestial world, the lower bound naturally comes in different directions. As for who to meet and where to come from, it is necessary to check the "constitutional book" in advance and lead the whole family to hold incense in the courtyard to meet the gods according to their directions. For example, Xin Weinian's "Constitution Book" indicates that "the God of Wealth is due east, the God of Fortune is due south, the northeast of your God, the southwest of XiShen, and the southwest of Tai Sui God". After kowtowing in the direction, stand still until the incense is exhausted, then kowtow. Finally, take down the fragrant roots, statues and ingots, and put them into the money and grain pots already prepared in the courtyard for burning, and burn pine branches and sesame stalks together.
In short, Nanchuan's Spring Festival custom activities also focus on offering sacrifices to immortals, paying homage to ancestors, removing old cloth and making new ones, welcoming the new year and praying for a good harvest, etc., compared with other places.