(1) Twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar month: offering sacrifices to the kitchen

Kitchen God, commonly known as "Kitchen God". Offering sacrifices to stoves is a signal of the arrival of the old calendar, and old Beijingers call it "celebrating the New Year". As the nursery rhyme goes: "Candied melons offer sacrifices to the stove, New Year's day offers sacrifices to the stove, and when the New Year comes, the girl wants flowers, and the boy wants guns ..." People will offer candied melons to the kitchen god and grandma, hoping to keep their mouths shut, so as not to report blindly. Then, burn the kitchen god and grandma, and send them to heaven.

(2) the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month: sweeping the house

In ancient times, the Spring Festival sweeping was called "sweeping the year", which originated from a religious ceremony of the ancient people to drive away the epidemic. Later, it gradually evolved into a year-end cleaning. According to folk legends in the early years, "dust" and the old "Chen" are homophonic. Before the New Year of the first lunar month, sweeping away all the dust at home means getting rid of the old things of the old year and sweeping away all the bad "poor luck" and "bad luck" to welcome the new year.

(3) The 25th day of the twelfth lunar month: making tofu

As the saying goes, "On the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month, push the mill to make tofu". But why make "tofu"? As far as tofu itself is concerned, it is a good choice to replace meat. In the past, poor people always looked forward to eating a good meal in the New Year. Tofu is a food between meat and vegetables. It can be used to make different dishes instead of meat. Of course, "making tofu" also has symbolic significance.

(4) The 26th day of the twelfth lunar month: to cut the meat

A folk proverb says, "On the 26th day of the twelfth lunar month, pigs are killed to cut the meat for the new year", which means that meat is mainly prepared for the Chinese New Year. The so-called killing pigs, of course, is to kill their own pigs; The so-called meat cutting means that poor families who don't raise pigs go to the market to buy meat for the New Year. The reason why "cutting annual meat" is put into the annual ballad is that the farming society and economy are underdeveloped, and people can only eat meat in the annual folk traditional stew of meat on the 26th day of the twelfth lunar month, so it is called "annual meat".

(5) Twenty-seventh day of the twelfth lunar month: Slaughtering Year Chicken

On the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth lunar month, the pace of the Spring Festival is getting closer and closer, and we all seem to hear the bells of New Year's Eve. Every household, the street is full of excitement. After eating delicious stewed meat yesterday, an important thing to do today is to "kill the chicken". This is what the folk song "Twenty-seventh day of the twelfth lunar month, killing chickens in the new year" means.

(6) Twenty-ninth day of the twelfth lunar month: steamed buns

"Twenty-ninth, steamed buns." In the folk custom of Spring Festival in our country, on this day, the white flour that has been made on the 28th of the twelfth lunar month should be steamed into steamed bread. Whoever steamed the steamed bread big and well will prosper in the new year and win a good prize. Every family also needs to steam jujube cakes, rice cakes, and bean bags. They also need to put red dots on the bean bags or use "star anise" (anise) to print red marks. They also like to make bean bags into thorns (use mung beans as eyes and then cut them into thorns with scissors), which means "making money into treasure".

(7) Chinese New Year's Eve: Eating the New Year's Eve dinner of old Beijingers in jiaozi

Mainly eating jiaozi. Bao jiaozi should have meat and vegetables, and take the homonym of "having money". Chop stuffing to the whole family in turn, while chopping, while saying "chop villain." On New Year's Eve, there is also the custom of keeping the age. Shounian begins with the New Year's Eve dinner. Everyone eats slowly, talks and tastes wine until late at night. When the bell rings at midnight, everyone will cheer together, eat jiaozi and welcome the first day of the New Year.

(8) New Year's Day: Pay New Year's greetings

The most important thing on the first day of the new year is to start paying New Year's greetings, and temple fairs in Beijing also begin on this day. According to the custom of old Beijing, the son-in-law should see his parents-in-law first on the first day of the first year. Now it is usually the second day of the second year, when his daughter and son-in-law return to her family to pay a New Year call. Old Beijingers attach great importance to New Year greetings. The host family should prepare a food box with all kinds of dried fruits in it, which is called "auspicious fruit". No matter how many people come to pay New Year greetings, the food box must be full to show respect and blessing to the guests.

Extended information:

The Spring Festival refers to the traditional Lunar New Year in the cultural circle of Chinese characters, commonly known as the "New Year Festival". The traditional names are New Year, New Year, and New Year, but they are also verbally called New Year, Celebrating New Year and New Year, which is the most solemn traditional festival of the Chinese nation.

The Spring Festival originated from the activities of offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors at the beginning and end of the Yin and Shang Dynasties. It is the grandest, most lively and most important ancient traditional festival in China. In China folk, the traditional Spring Festival refers to the sacrificial rites from La Worship on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month or on the 23rd or 24th of the twelfth lunar month to the 15th day of the first lunar month, with New Year's Eve and the first day of the first lunar month as the climax.

During the Spring Festival, Han people and some ethnic minorities in China will hold various activities to celebrate. The main contents of these activities are offering sacrifices to ancestors, paying homage to ancestors, getting rid of the old and spreading the new, welcoming the new year, and praying for a good harvest. The activities of the Spring Festival are colorful and full of ethnic characteristics. Influenced by Chinese culture, some countries and nations belonging to the Chinese character cultural circle also have the custom of celebrating the Spring Festival.