Huizhou's Chinese New Year customs can be summarized as follows: pre-holiday preparations, posting couplets, door gods and blessings, sending the kitchen owner's grandfather to heaven, worshiping the gods, having a family reunion dinner, keeping the old age, burning firecrackers, dancing dragons and lions, wearing new clothes, changing bowls and chopsticks, eating fast on the first day, opening the new year, sending the poor, celebrating the new year and greeting each other. These customs are basically the embodiment of China's traditional customs in Huizhou, but they also have some local characteristics of Huizhou.

please pay attention to the preparation from

(1) years ago.

The preparation before the leisure tour of Chaozhou can be divided into four categories: one is to clean the house with dust; The second is to prepare new clothes; The third is to prepare food; The fourth is to prepare new bowls and chopsticks.

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1. "Sweep the dust"

Please pay attention to

cleaning clothes and quilts, cleaning the corners of the roof, and cleaning the dirt on desks and chairs, which is called "sweeping the dust". According to legend, it began as a superstitious ceremony for people to eliminate epidemics and disasters in ancient times. This custom prevailed in the Tang Dynasty. The Song Dynasty was written by Wu Zimu, who recorded the folk customs of Suzhou and Hangzhou. It said, "At the end of December, ... all the ordinary people, big or small, swept their doors. Last year, they were filthy and clean ... to pray for the new year." Modern dust cleaning in Huizhou is actually a big household cleaning, such as cupboards, wardrobes, beds and other wooden furniture that are usually used but not often brushed and listened to. At this time, they are cleared out for outdoor brushing, dried and then moved back to the house. In addition, the corner of the pile, the corner of the roof, the bottom of the bed and other sanitary corners are all places to be cleaned. There is another folk legend about this custom. It is said that there is a family that is very hygienic at ordinary times. Every year before, the environment and utensils in the kitchen should be swept clean. The kitchen god also goes to heaven to report the good and evil on earth at this time every year, so he tells the Jade Emperor about this family and forbids plague and disaster to enter this family. Since then, this family has shown no disasters and no diseases all year round, but the neighbors have been plagued by disasters. When asked why, this family will tell everyone about their own affairs. Therefore, each family will follow suit and have the habit of cleaning and sanitation years ago. This legend shows that the dust-sweeping flight is related to people's view of eliminating epidemics and disasters.

2. Prepare new clothes

Huizhou folks don't care about having new clothes. Those who are well-off, new clothes, new pants, new shoes and new socks are all new; Those who are not rich can't buy all the new clothes, but at least they should have a new coat. This custom is very particular among Huizhou people. Some old people take their old clothes worn last year or coarse fabrics used for other purposes to the dyeing room for dyeing again and sew a skirt dress by themselves, which is also called a new dress. The reason for this habit is not recorded in detail, but it is related to the "sweeping dust" before the festival, and it should be derived from it, which means "praying for the safety of the new year". According to Huizhou folks, if you wear new clothes in the New Year, you will have good luck in the coming year. If you don't wear new clothes, it will be bad in the coming year.

3. Things to eat and use

According to the custom of Huizhou, the first thing to eat before the New Year is to prepare chickens. As early as around July 14th of the lunar calendar, famous families began to prepare chickens for the New Year, usually by purchasing chicks, and many people hatched them themselves after the old ones. After raising the rooster for more than a month, the rooster performs castration, which is used to be called "castrated chicken" in Huizhou. When it is raised for the New Year, it often develops a large castrated chicken weighing several kilograms or even more than ten kilograms, which is the main chicken used in Huizhou folk tradition for the New Year. Huizhou tradition attaches great importance to the use of chickens in the Spring Festival, which is regarded as a symbol of ostentation and extravagance. As a folk proverb says, "You won't know who is ostentation and extravagance until the evening of the 3th (or the second day of the first year of the year)", in which "ostentation and extravagance" means "seeing whose chicken is bigger" or "whose chicken is more". In addition to chickens, most of the foods prepared for the New Year are dried vegetables and fruits, such as squid, shredded pork, mushrooms, peanuts, melon seeds, red beans, bacon, eggs and fruits. There are also candied foods such as candied lotus seeds, candied melon strips and candied lotus roots; Fried foods such as sugar rings, scattered eggs, rice cakes, etc. Huizhou folks are used to steaming big cages and gathering cakes during the Spring Festival, so many households prepared sticky rice and glutinous rice and ground them into rice noodles before the Spring Festival. This work is labor-intensive and tedious, which often takes up more time for many people in the preparation work before the Spring Festival. Because the Spring Festival means to celebrate the harvest and the spring solstice, the time for preparing food before the festival often accounts for a very large proportion. Ordinary people often spend a year's savings and make every effort to buy all the food they need for the New Year.

The spare things are mainly couplets, door gods, blessings, New Year pictures, paper treasures, candles and firecrackers.

4. Prepare new bowls and chopsticks

This is a unique folk custom in Huizhou, and Huizhou dialect says "prepare new bowls and chopsticks for the New Year". It is the custom in Huizhou to buy a set of chopsticks even if there is no shortage of them at home. Pay attention to matching when buying new bowls and chopsticks, that is, make one bowl and one spoon with the same pattern and glaze color, and then buy a corresponding number of chopsticks; The number of purchases is mostly "ten". In Huizhou folk, "ten" is an auspicious number, which means "full ten" and "full". According to Huizhou folks, there are two meanings of buying new bowls and chopsticks: one is to "add more bowls and bowls" to show that children and grandchildren are full of doors and contain "happiness"; The second is to "add new bowls, buy new chopsticks, and there will be no room for rice in the coming year", which means "wealth". The words "Fu" and "Cai" are the most important and affordable words among Huizhou folk people.

(2) Customs

Generally speaking, the Chinese New Year means from the 3 th night of the old calendar year to the fifth day of the new year. After the fifth day, people have already "eaten the New Year's meal to plow the fields" and started working again. In fact, the Spring Festival in Huizhou is not so short-lived. It begins with the "Sending the Kitchen King" on the 23rd night of the twelfth lunar month and ends with the "Lantern Festival", the last festive activity of the Spring Festival. The various customs of the Chinese New Year are briefly described as follows:

1. Before seeing off the Kitchen God

, no matter how rich or poor, every family had a kitchen god's throne. The kitchen god was ordered by the Jade Emperor to inspect good and evil in the world, and his throne was placed on the wall of the kitchen stove, with the words "Kitchen God's throne" written on red paper; There is a small couplet on both sides: Heaven plays good deeds, and the land is safe. There is a small incense burner under the red paper, which is used by the householder to insert incense sticks on the first and fifteenth day of each month and during festivals. On the 23rd night of December, when the kitchen god went to heaven, some families with a decent life would buy a pair of kitchen flowers cut and molded with gold paper and inserted on both sides of the incense burner to make the dim kitchen wall shine. Kitchen God sits in the human world, and receives the incense of every family and takes on the important task of protecting the safety and health of every family.

The kitchen god went to heaven to recite the merits and demerits of his family before the Jade Emperor. If the merits are greater than the excesses, the Heavenly Palace will be blessed, and vice versa. Early this morning, people will buy two sugarcane leaves to make a ladder; I also need to buy three sacrificial animals, such as chicken, fish and pork, with tea and wine, so that he can eat and get drunk, so that he can say auspicious words in front of the Jade Emperor. According to folklore, the Kitchen God is a lout and illiterate, so he has to put two oranges or tangerines and two pieces of brown sugar under the Kitchen God, and seal his mouth with sweetness to say good things. Because he is a clown, he went to the incense shop that night to buy an engraved "Playing Year" shaped like a paper report. Fill in the blank of the written article "Playing the Year" with the family's house number, population, name, and words such as taking off your clothes in front of the stove, saying rude words, etc., and ask them to forgive you. Fold it and put it in a special envelope (available when buying "Playing the Year").

At the time of worship, the black kitchen clothes made of paper were given to him as new clothes to wear when he went to see the Jade Emperor. They were burned together with the "New Year's Eve" letter, and after burning, the sugar and the big orange were enlarged into rice jars for the kitchen king to come back to enjoy on the thirtieth night of the Lunar New Year.

2. Busy Year's Eve

After the kitchen is delivered, people are busy for the New Year, commonly known as "Busy Year's Eve". Its practices generally include cleaning, homemade oil angle rice cakes, buying new year's goods, buying New Year pictures and pasting Spring Festival couplets. Generally, the cleaning date is set as "23rd and 24th of the year, washing clothes, sweeping the corner of tile surface, 27th and 28th of the year, washing and putting everything in the room, and removing or hiding unnecessary things. All applications should be placed in a standard and beautiful way, and then the whole house, including the front and back of the house, should be thoroughly cleaned to welcome the new year.

During the Spring Festival, Huizhou people pay great attention to eating and playing, so it is necessary for every family to prepare delicious snacks before the Spring Festival. For example, oil angle Fried Dumplings. There is a very popular xiehouyu in Huizhou: "Everyone has a share of fried piles on New Year's Eve". It can be seen that it is universal during the Spring Festival. In addition, there are fried sugar rings and scattered eggs, especially sugar rings, which are basically fried by every family. It is mixed with sugar and glutinous rice flour, printed by folk woodcut impression and fried in oil pan until golden brown, sweet and crisp, which is very appetizing. Steamed cakes on the 24 th night of the year mean "rising step by step" in the New Year. There are not only dried shrimps and radish cakes that Hakkas like, but also water chestnut cake, and some of them evaporate cakes and water.

as for buying new year's goods, in addition to buying some paper treasures, incense sticks and firecrackers for worship, shredded pork, shiitake mushrooms, winter mushrooms, yuba, squid, Nostoc flagelliforme and dried shrimps are all necessary. It is also the habit of Huizhou people to eat "preserved meat" in the New Year. "Preserved meat" is a kind of food that only existed years ago, such as sausage, bacon, preserved pig scalp, gold and silver embellish, etc. Its delicious taste makes people salivate. In addition to candy, there are snacks, such as "sparrow spring", peanut candy, melon seeds and so on. Buying new clothes and shoes for children should never be forgotten. Children wearing new clothes is one of the signs of Huizhou people's New Year. Even the poor have to buy new clothes and shoes for their children when they borrow money, but it doesn't matter if adults wear old clothes and eat less.

New Year pictures and Spring Festival couplets should be posted on the 29th of the year. New Year pictures are mainly posted on the walls of halls or rooms. There are many kinds of New Year pictures, including historical stories, operas, landscapes, flowers and birds, people and so on. There are wood engraving and organic printing, depending on everyone's preference. Spring Festival couplets are posted on both sides of the gate and door, and newly written Daji red paper should also be posted on the kitchen god and the landlord. Since the kitchen god went to heaven, people have written and sold Spring Festival couplets almost everywhere, using ink and gold powder to open glue to write gold characters. Most of the contents are words that symbolize peace, health and family happiness, while business people paste "Congratulations on getting rich" and so on. The gatekeeper is the gatekeeper, and most of them draw military commanders. Their faces are opposite, but they can't stick faces outward. There is a saying in Huizhou, "Sticking the wrong door god". Everyone has opinions and disagrees, which comes from this.

before the age of 29, men must go to the barber shop for a haircut, and women should also wash their hair. The 29th of the year is the busiest day for markets and shops. Generally, on the 3th of the year, they are closed to welcome the new year. Everyone's shopping is indispensable: buying a handful of lettuce with roots and a cane with leaves, which means "making money" and "from hair to tail". Business people also want to buy a fresh big carp, which means "business is booming"; Generally, people buy two more mud carp, fry them, put them on a rice jar, and eat them until the seventh day of the lunar new year. This is called "Responsibility Year", which means "having enough food and clothing every year". In addition, many people have to go to the flower market to buy pots of oranges, wintersweet and chrysanthemums to decorate the living room to welcome the spring.

the reunion dinner is the most important thing for Huizhou people, and it is also the most abundant in a year. Everyone has been busy for a year, and it is rare for people to get together. There are all kinds of delicious food, but the most taboo is "firing" (meaning being resigned by others), so there is absolutely no such thing as firing. After the New Year's dinner, the children took a bath and ran all over the street to show their new clothes. Adults should sit around and talk about life, and also look around the whole house again to see if there are any omissions (that is, if there are any inadequacies in the preparation for the New Year, so as to do a good job). Adults should keep watch for the new year, prepare firecrackers and incense sticks, and burn firecrackers at zero hour. At this time, firecrackers were everywhere, one after another, and smoke filled the streets with red paper and confetti (fortunately, this custom has been eliminated in recent years).

3. Be a vegetarian on the New Year's Day

. There is a saying that "the first day is a vegetarian, and it takes quite a year to be vegetarian and worship God". On the first day, adults and children should pay New Year greetings to their elders, and the elders should send "benefits" to the younger generation. Some older people who are not married will get "profit", but they don't have to send "profit" to their younger generation. There are many taboos in the first day of junior high school, mainly including: don't sweep the floor, don't break things, and say auspicious words when meeting. If you accidentally break something or a child accidentally drops his chopsticks while eating, you should also say "Flowers bloom on the ground, prosperity" and "Chopsticks drop (happy)"; If the child says something wrong, the adults will say, "Children don't know the world, don't blame them" (children don't know the world, forgive him), which is the characteristic of the New Year and the wisdom of Huizhou people.

On the first day of the lunar new year, Huizhou people went out for a spring outing to the West Lake, Baihefeng and Dongpo Temple, and to Yuanmiao Temple and Zhunti Pavilion to make a wish to return to the gods and burn incense. There were crowds everywhere.

The second day of junior high school, also known as "Opening the Year", is mainly about visiting relatives, getting up early, and its dishes are also very rich. After the second day, you can avoid the taboo of the New Year, that is, sweeping the floor, cleaning and bathing. Merchants are more accustomed to holding banquets on this day to invite employees to eat; If you want to dismiss the workers, it is also on this day that you put a piece of chicken in your bowl and give you a pack of "Li Li", which means that you have been dismissed.

after the fifth day of the lunar new year, the taste of the year has decreased. On the seventh day of the seventh month, also known as People's Day, the atmosphere picked up again, and it was also a day when people said they would go out to play and avoid disasters. On that day, everyone likes to go on an outing in the street or local attractions together. Everyone brings some snacks and eats, drinks and plays everywhere, but it is also fun.

The fifteenth day of the first month is called Yuanxiao, and the folk Spring Festival is over after the Lantern Festival, and all walks of life begin to work hard again. The main features of Yuanxiao are the display of lanterns, drumming, parade, dragon dance, phoenix dance and lion dance, and solve riddles on the lanterns in high spirits. That night, young people were happiest, because Lantern Festival is also called Valentine's Day in China. In the grand occasion of "lights are inserted into trees, flowers are blooming seven times" and "fish and dragons dance all night", young people can play all night and stay home all night without being scolded by adults.

(3) Dragon Dance

Huizhou folks used to dance dragons during the Spring Festival celebrations. Years ago, they often went to Yuanmiao Temple to "open their eyes" and grab the green, and then formally danced dragons. Generally, the dance did not end until the fifth day of the twelfth lunar month of the first month, which was very popular in the late Qing Dynasty, the early years of the Republic of China, and until the Anti-Japanese War.

Dragon dancing is a kind of folk tradition of "playing with dragon lanterns" in China and a traditional activity during the Spring Festival. When the dragon dance began, the history is unknown, but the ancients called the dragon, phoenix, unicorn and turtle the four spirits a long time ago, and the history of worship and belief in the dragon is even longer. According to records, there was a dragon dance in the Han Dynasty in China, mostly playing and dancing dragons. In the performances of "Shehuo" and "Dance Team" in the Tang and Song Dynasties, "playing with dragon lanterns" has become a common form of performance. In the Song Dynasty's "Dream of Liang Lu", it is recorded that "the grass is full of dragons, covered with green trees, with thousands of lamps and candles densely arranged, and it looks like a double dragon." This is a kind of dragon dance.

The folk dragon dance in Huizhou is a typical Cantonese style, and it is suspected that it was introduced from Guangfo area or Chaoshan area. The dragon you dance is made by yourself. With bamboo as the main skeleton, the exterior is painted on paper, and colored cloth is used as the dragon body. A tied dragon often weighs 25 kilograms with a dragon body length of 13 feet. When dancing the dragon, one person holds colored beads to lead the way, one person dances the dragon head, and more than ten people dance the dragon body and tail. Actions include dragon-walking, dragon-piercing, dragon-jumping, dragon cake-beating, and "Dragon Hunters" and "Dragon Stickers" after Wolong. Huizhou Dragon Dance not only appears in Mid-Autumn Festival and Spring Festival. According to the previous custom, whenever a new dragon is built, and when natural disasters are serious, there are dragon dances. The former is "Jackie Chan chooses good luck" and the latter is naturally "exorcising evil spirits and eliminating disasters".

According to relevant information, the dragon dance in Huizhou flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasties and the early years of the Republic of China, and it developed into a comprehensive folk activity from the late Qing Dynasty to the early years of the Republic of China. In addition to dragon dancing, it is often accompanied by phoenix dancing, lion dancing, fish dancing and mixed water dancing. When dragons are released, they are listed in the following order: distance cards, sun and moon cards, plaques, palace lanterns, costume teams (disguised people), octopus, phoenix, lion, miscellaneous water (fish, shrimp, crab and clam disguised by people, etc.), and finally dragons. A large number of people, huge momentum, drums and music all the way, while dancing, crossing the streets and lanes, the audience is like a cloud. In the old days, every dragon in the ancient city of Huizhou was a sensation all over the city. Some old people, but also with their grandchildren and young children, drill around under the dragon's stomach, saying,