The origin of the Lunar New Year is well-founded, and rich and colorful legends can be traced back to thousands of years ago. One of the most famous is the legend of Nian Beast. Nian Beast is a cruel and fierce beast. Ancient people believed that Nian Beast would come out to eat people on New Year's Eve. Legend has it that Nian Beast is extremely afraid of red, fire and noisy sounds, so people put red notes on their doors and light torches and set off firecrackers all night to avoid Nian Beast. In the early morning of the next day, the voice of "Congratulations" is endless, and the air is filled with the joy of victory and rebirth in defeating Nian Beast.
Although it is generally believed that the celebration of the New Year begins on New Year's Eve; In fact, related activities have been carried out since December 24 of the lunar calendar. On this day, the legendary gods will return to Heaven to report to the Jade Emperor all the events in the past year. Therefore, every household is busy preparing offerings to worship the gods and burning paper money to provide travel expenses for the gods to return to heaven. In addition, the Kitchen God should be coated with syrup around his mouth to ensure that he can say something nice or at least keep silent when reporting to the Jade Emperor.
After the stove was delivered on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, the atmosphere of the New Year became stronger and stronger day by day, and housewives began to post "Spring Festival couplets" with auspicious words around their homes. People also like to paste the square Spring Festival couplets upside down, because "inverted" is a homonym for "to"; Therefore, the affixed Spring Festival couplets symbolize the arrival of spring and wealth.
In India, it is a custom for countries all over the world to celebrate the New Year.
From October 31st every year, New Year's Day lasts for five days, and the fourth day is New Year's Day. On the first day of the new year, no one is allowed to be angry with others, let alone lose his temper. In some parts of India, on the morning of New Year's Day, every household cries constantly, and everyone's face is full of tears. They welcome the New Year with tears because the years are fleeting and life is short, which is a lament for life. In some areas, people welcome the new year by fasting for one day and one night, from the early hours of New Year's Day until midnight. Because of this weird custom, New Year's Day in India is called "Crying New Year's Day" and "Fasting New Year's Day". In the first five days of Chinese New Year, Indians will perform the Indian epic Ramayana (meaning Rama Parade) everywhere, playing the hero in the epic "fighting" with the paper giant, and the "hero" will ignite an arrow, and the paper giant will catch fire in the cheers of the audience. Before New Year's Eve, all kinds of beautiful pictures will be posted in front of every household. On the morning of New Year's Day, people go out to pay New Year's greetings to the elderly and relatives and friends with elaborate lanterns and red packets. After meeting and congratulating each other, they spread red powder on each other's foreheads to show good luck and look up to see each other. Young people put red ink into a water gun and shoot it at relatives and friends, which is called "sprinkling red", indicating good luck. Indian youth like to meet and fight unarmed during the New Year, whether they are familiar with it or not. Onlookers cheer for the wind and often become the object of girls' pursuit. In order to celebrate the New Year, the indigenous people of central India, the Boxhiler people, erected a smooth and thick wooden pole in the playground, with a small bag filled with gifts at the top of the pole. The girls held bamboo poles and tried their best to stop the boys from climbing up the pole, while the boys formed a circle under the pole, trying to defend the girls from attacking the pole climber until the pole climber won the small bag.
The German New Year is celebrated for a week. During this period, every household should put a fir tree and a cypress tree, and the leaves are covered with silk flower, indicating that flowers are blooming and spring is everywhere. Just before the arrival of the New Year's Eve at midnight, the Germans climbed into the chair. As soon as the bell rang, they jumped out of the chair and threw a heavy object behind the back of the chair to show that they would throw away the disaster and jump into the New Year. The children formed a band, put on new clothes, took the harmonica and accordion and lined up to play in the street. Adults are holding colorful flags and shouting and singing behind them to celebrate the New Year. German women will improvise comedy sketches with family themes in the New Year. In rural Germany, there is a custom of celebrating the New Year-"Tree Climbing Competition", in which boys climb along bare trees, and the first place is called "New Year Hero" to show their step by step promotion.
Iran has an Islamic calendar, and its seasons and months are not fixed. In Iran, celebrating the New Year means celebrating the arrival of spring, often in the late March of the Gregorian calendar. It takes a week to celebrate the New Year. People flock to the streets to start a "bonfire"-"night fire", and then the whole family jumps from the night fire in turn, indicating that they burn "bad luck", usher in light, exorcise evil spirits and eliminate diseases, and enjoy happiness forever. We should eat "seven dishes" on New Year's Eve, and the name of each dish should start with the letter "S" to show good luck. From the first day to the third day, people visit relatives and friends and wish each other a happy Spring Festival. On the last day of the new year, the whole family went out for an outing to avoid evil.
Egypt is an ancient civilization. In 4 BC, Egyptians were able to observe the stars. They found that Sirius rose with the sun and the Nile rose immediately. Egypt takes the day when the Nile rises as the beginning of the New Year. Known as the "Rising Water New Year", Croute people in Egypt welcome the New Year by putting a table at the door, with seven or eight plates for the grains of soybeans, lentils, alfalfa and wheat, and many green plants, which symbolizes abundance. The more you give to God, the more you will achieve in the New Year. The New Year in Egypt is in autumn, because agricultural production in Egypt begins in autumn.
In Spain, when the bell at 12 o'clock on New Year's Eve begins to strike the first stroke, people scramble to eat grapes. If you can eat 12 grapes according to the bell, it will symbolize the peace and happiness of the New Year every month, and each grape has different meanings, such as the first "seeking peace", the fifth "harmony", the sixth "taking refuge" and the seventh "getting rid of illness" < p
Sweep the dust
"Sweep the dust and sweep the house on the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month". According to Lu Chunqiu, China had the custom of sweeping the dust in 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.
posting Spring Festival couplets
Spring Festival couplets are also called door couplets, spring stickers, 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 began 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 "Poems on Spring Festival couplets" discussed the origin of 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.
stick grilles and the word "Fu" upside down
In the folk, people also like to stick various paper-cuts on the windows-window grilles. Window grilles not only set off the festive atmosphere, but also integrate decoration, appreciation and practicality. Paper-cutting is a very popular folk art in China, which has been loved by people for thousands of years. Because it is mostly stuck on the window, it is also called "window flower". With its unique generalization and exaggeration, window grilles show auspicious things and good wishes incisively and vividly, and decorate the festival with splendor.
At the same time of putting up Spring Festival couplets, some families should put large and small "Fu" characters on the doors, walls and lintels. Sticking the word "Fu" in the Spring Festival is a long-standing folk custom in China. The word "Fu" refers to good fortune and good fortune, which places people's longing for a happy life and wishes for a bright future. In order to fully reflect this yearning and wish, some people simply paste the word "fu" upside down, indicating that "happiness has arrived" and "blessing has arrived". There are also people who elaborate the word "Fu" into various patterns, such as longevity, longevity peach, carp jumping over the dragon gate, abundant grains, dragons and phoenixes, and so on.
New Year pictures
Hanging New Year pictures during the Spring Festival is also very common in urban and rural areas. The thick black 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.
observing new year's eve
observing new year's eve is one of the most important annual customs, and the custom of observing new year's eve 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".
"One night is even two years old, and the evening shift is divided into two days". On New Year's Eve, the whole family get together, eat New Year's Eve, light candles or oil lamps, sit around the stove and chat, wait for the time to say goodbye to the old year and welcome the new year, and keep vigil all night, which symbolizes driving away all evil diseases and epidemics and looking forward to good luck and good luck in the new year. This custom gradually became popular. At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong, wrote a poem "Shounian": "Cold resigns from winter snow, and warmth brings spring breeze". To this day, people are used to keeping the new year's eve and welcoming the new year.
In ancient times, observing the old age had two meanings: the old people's observing the old age means "resigning from the old age", which means cherishing time; Young people keep their age to prolong the life of their parents. Since the Han dynasty, the time when the old and the new years alternate is generally at midnight.
Firecrackers
There is a folk saying in China that "open the door to 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. With the passage of time, the application of firecrackers has become more and more extensive, and the varieties and colors have become more and more numerous. Every major festival and happy event celebration, as well as marriage, building a house, opening a business, etc., firecrackers should be set off to celebrate and make a good luck. At present, Liuyang in Hunan, Foshan and Dongyao in Guangdong, Yichun and Pingxiang in Jiangxi, Wenzhou in Zhejiang and other regions are famous hometown of fireworks in China. The firecrackers produced are of many colors and high quality, which are not only sold well in the whole country, but also exported to the world.
Happy New Year
On the first day of the New Year, people get up early, put on their most beautiful clothes, dress up neatly, go out to visit relatives and friends, and wish each other a happy New Year. There are many ways to pay New Year's greetings, some of which are led by the same clan leader to pay New Year's greetings door to door. Some colleagues invite several people to pay New Year greetings; There are also people who get together to congratulate each other, which is called "group worship". Because it took time and effort to pay a New Year call at home, some elites and scholars later used stickers to congratulate each other, thus developing the later "new year card".
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 the lucky money can suppress evil spirits, because "old" and "precious" are homophonic, and the younger generation can spend one year safely with the 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. It is still popular for elders to distribute lucky money to younger generations.
Spring Festival food customs
In the ancient agricultural society, housewives were busy preparing food for the Spring Festival after the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. Because it takes a long time to marinate preserved meat, it must be prepared as soon as possible. Many provinces in China have the custom of marinating preserved meat, among which Guangdong Province is the most famous preserved meat.
steamed rice cakes, which are homophonic and have varied tastes, have almost become a necessary food for every family. The styles of rice cakes are square yellow and white rice cakes, which symbolize gold and silver and express the meaning of making a fortune in the New Year.
the taste of rice cakes varies from place to place. Beijingers like to eat red date rice cakes, hundred fruit rice cakes and white rice cakes made of glutinous rice or yellow rice. Hebei people like to add jujube, red bean and mung bean to the rice cake and steam it together. In northern Shanxi, in Inner Mongolia and other places, it is customary to eat fried rice cakes with yellow rice flour during the New Year, and some of them are stuffed with bean paste and jujube paste, while Shandong people steam rice cakes with yellow rice and red dates. The rice cakes in the north are mainly sweet, steamed or fried, and some people simply eat them with sugar. The rice cakes in the south are both sweet and salty, such as those in Suzhou and Ningbo, which are made of japonica rice and have a light taste. In addition to steaming and frying, you can also slice and fry or cook soup. Sweet rice cakes are made of glutinous rice flour with white sugar, lard, rose, sweet-scented osmanthus, mint, vegetable paste and other ingredients. They are fine in workmanship and can be steamed directly or fried with egg white.
The night before the real Chinese New Year is called reunion night. Wanderers who are away from home have to come home from Wan Li for thousands of miles. The whole family has to sit around and wrap jiaozi for the Chinese New Year. jiaozi's practice is to make dumpling skins with flour first, and then use leather bags to stuff them. The contents of the stuffing are varied, and all kinds of meat, eggs, seafood and seasonal vegetables can be stuffed. The orthodox jiaozi is cooked in clear water and mixed with vinegar after being fished up. There are also ways to fry jiaozi and bake jiaozi (fried dumpling). Because the word "He" in dough mixing means "He"; Jiaozi's "Jiao" and "Jiao" are homophonic, and "He" and "Jiao" have the meaning of reunion, so jiaozi is used to symbolize reunion of acacia; It is very auspicious to take the meaning of making friends at an older age; In addition, jiaozi, shaped like an ingot, eats jiaozi during the Chinese New Year, which also has the auspicious meaning of "making a fortune". All the families get together to make a package for jiaozi, so it's fun to celebrate the Spring Festival.
. In India, it's customary for countries all over the world to celebrate the New Year.
From October 31st every year, New Year's Day is 5 days, and the fourth day is New Year's Day. New Year