Climb the door

On New Year's Eve, after dinner, the old Yangzhou lights incense burners and candles to keep the New Year's Eve, adults and children put on new clothes, and the elders begin to give lucky money to the younger generation. At this time, adults will close the door and let the small children at home grab the latch behind the door and climb up. Because the old-fashioned door is made of wood, there are several crossbars behind the door from top to bottom, and there is a latch switch in the middle. This custom is to climb the door. Old people say that small people can grow up by climbing the door at night, climb fast and grow fast, and climb high and grow high. Children in families with many children also compete with each other, which not only exercises the body, but also increases the festive atmosphere of the festival.

Take the overall situation

On the 3 th night, elders should put cloud cakes, apples and oranges on everyone's bedside for getting up on the first morning of the new year to eat. Eating cloud cakes means "high and cool" and eating apples means "safe and sound". These customs are found in many parts of the country, but eating oranges has a unique meaning in Yangzhou. Because in Yangzhou dialect, luck is called "bureau gas" and luck is called "going bureau", and the word "orange" is homophonic with the word "bureau" of bureau gas, so giving oranges to others means bringing good luck to others. People in Yangzhou invite people to eat oranges in the New Year, which means wishing each other good luck and everything goes well. Mr. Zhu Ziqing, a famous modern prose master who claimed to be "I am from Yangzhou", wrote in his well-known masterpiece "Back" that Zhu Ziqing's father Xiao Pogong personally went to Pukou Station to send his son to Beijing after the funeral of his old mother, dragging his obese body up and down to buy oranges for his son. The father who knew Yangzhou folk customs bought oranges for his son was full of his father's good wishes for his son. He hoped that his son would have a smooth sailing. The little orange actually carries the deep affection of a father who has suffered many misfortunes for his son.

Ask for sugar

On the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, there is a folk custom in Yangzhou that adults and children go out to their neighbors' homes to pay New Year greetings to their elders. At this time, the busiest people are children, who go door-to-door in groups to ask for sugar, that is, to pay New Year greetings to their elders from door to door. The elders looked at the children with childish faces and listened to the children shouting "Aunt", "Da", "Dad" and "Grandma". Amid the blessings of "Congratulations on getting rich", "Congratulations on good health and strong spirit", they held out the fruit boxes prepared in advance and distributed various candies, cloud cakes, oranges and apples to the children who came to pay a New Year call, and also wished them "going to college" and ". The custom of asking for sugar inherits the fine tradition of the Chinese nation of respecting the old and loving the young.

Every other year, Chen

Eating dumplings and noodles on the morning of New Year's Day means reunion, while noodles mean long-lasting. Instead of cooking new meals at noon on New Year's Day, the leftovers from the 3 th night are taken out and heated before eating. This is called "Chen every other year". According to the old people, no new meals can be cooked during the five days from New Year's Day to the fifth day, which means that there is more than enough food every year.

Sweeping the floor to gather wealth

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, people don't want to sweep the floor, and they can only sweep the floor on the second day of the first month. On this day, they also pay attention to sweeping the floor: the broom should be swept from the gate to the house, instead of sweeping the dust and garbage outside as usual. On the second day of the lunar new year, the wealth gathered on the first day is swept to the house, piled up in one place and then swept out.

Pick the water of the God of Wealth

On the fifth day of the first month, the folklore is that the Buddha of Wealth is the birthday. It is not bright every day. There is a folk custom in Yangzhou: the male owner of a family should get up early to pick water from a nearby river or well. This water is called "the water of the God of Wealth". It is said that whoever wins the first place will make a fortune in the New Year. The author once asked the mother who was familiar with this custom: "Who can prove which one went the earliest? No one witnessed by the river in the middle of the night! " Mother said, "The Buddha knows."

seven awls, eight clips, nine awls and ten diggers

Yangzhou folk believe that the seventh day of the first month is the birthday of the Buddha on Mars, and they don't make any moves on this day for fear that the needle will poke the Buddha's eyes. You can't move scissors on the eighth day of the first month, awls on the ninth day and shovels on the tenth day, otherwise snakes and insects will pinch, bite and sting people when planting seedlings in the fields. Yangzhou folks also have the saying that the tenth day is "the beginning of people", that is, everyone has a birthday on the tenth day.