Respondent: trading day-level 1 2009- 1-20 16:02.
You can't get a haircut on Spring Festival.
Respondent: Tingyan Grade 33- 4 2009-1-2019:19.
In Chaoshan area, there are many unique folk customs during the Spring Festival. Chaoshan has the saying of "eight festivals a year", and the Spring Festival is the first of the eight festivals and the most grand festival. China New Year begins on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month. After this day's "dust-sweeping", some people began to paste New Year pictures and new Spring Festival couplets to set off the festive atmosphere. Every household should buy candied fruit, tea material and sugar, put them in front of "Siming Jujube King" on the stove, brew fragrant tea, and then burn incense and set off firecrackers to see "Jujube King" off. There are still many days before the Spring Festival, and the whole family will be happy to prepare for the Spring Festival.
Listeners and friends, let's invite our guest Yu Ning to talk to you about the Chaoshan Spring Festival custom. Hello, Yu Ning.
Guest: Good host.
Yu Ning, can you tell us something about the custom of ancestor worship in Chaoshan Spring Festival first?
All right. The custom of offering sacrifices to ancestors on New Year's Day was formed in the Han Dynasty. After the Song and Ming Dynasties, it became popular all over the country. Before the Ming Dynasty, Chaoshan had the custom of offering sacrifices to ancestors on the first day of the first month. Since then, there have been many detailed records in the literature of past dynasties. Before the founding of New China, there were two kinds of ancestor worship in Chaoshan: family sacrifice and family sacrifice. Family sacrifice is for ancestors. In the ancestral hall, family sacrifice is in this house. Ethnic festivals invite more paper shadow classes and troupes to perform, which is more grand.
Ancestor offerings during the Spring Festival "are all vegetarian dishes: fragrant rot of New Year's Eve, fungus, wax gourd, rotten branches, candy, dried persimmons, and all kinds of vegetarian dishes made by ourselves." It is said that Maitreya sat in meditation on the first day of this month, so he ate fast food. On the second day of the second year, we will worship our ancestors again. This time, we will use meat dishes, such as fish, pork, goose, chicken and duck. In the past, Chinese New Year was also used to worship ancestors in ancestral temples. This is a gift from the clan, usually with meat dishes, but in some places five vegetarian dishes are added.
Moderator: Everyone in Chaoshan knows that apart from the Spring Festival, other "eight festivals a year" have ancestor worship activities in Chaoshan area, with similar forms and slightly different sacrifices, adding some seasonal fruits and vegetables and special cakes. Chaoshan Spring Festival "Happy New Year" is different from other places. Next, let's talk about the custom of "greeting the New Year" in Chaoshan.
New Year greetings, also known as spring outing and spring exploration. According to legend, there was a monster in ancient times with a unicorn on his head and a mouth like a blood basin. It's called "Year". Every new year's eve, it goes door to door looking for food and eats people. People have to leave the meat outside the door, then close the door and hide at home. It was not until the morning of the first day of the first month that they opened the door to congratulate Nian on not being eaten. So the wind of New Year's greetings has been passed down from generation to generation. In fact, in Chaoshan, New Year greetings, like ancestor worship, are the most important customs of hipsters. There are three main ways for hipsters to pay New Year greetings, and their customs are different.
Customer: The first kind is the New Year greetings between family members. In Chaoshan, after the ancestor worship in the morning, the younger generation first pays New Year greetings to their elders, wishing them a "happy new year" and a "healthy and long life". In the old society, the younger generation had to wear new clothes and bow to their elders. Then the elders send expectations to the younger generation, wishing the children "growth in the new year" and "learning progress". The second is the New Year greetings between relatives and friends. After breakfast, family members pay New Year greetings to relatives and friends together or separately. New Year's greetings between relatives and friends are often held in the morning of the second day of the first grade, so there is a saying in Chaoshan: "You have the intention to pay New Year's greetings in the second grade, but you have no intention to pay New Year's greetings in the third and fourth grades." It is said that the earlier the New Year call, the better and the more sincere it is.
Well, hipsters always bring betel nuts or olives and Chaozhou oranges as gifts when visiting relatives and friends. The quantity is not limited, but it must be even, not odd. Moreover, there is always a plate of red and green Chaozhou oranges, betel nuts and olives on the tea table of the host family, plus candy to welcome guests. Because Chaozhou orange is bigger than orange, it is named big orange, and orange is homophonic with Kyrgyzstan, from homophonic to "great luck" The origin of "Daji" is quite interesting. Yu Ning, please tell us this story.
Guest: OK. Long ago, in a village in Chaozhou, all the villagers were very thirsty. The Spring Festival is coming soon. A beautiful and clever girl in the village dreamed that a fairy had a dream for her at night and said, "It's safe to eat oranges." The girl told her mother as soon as she woke up. Mother and daughter ate oranges with a grain of salt, and it turned out well. Since then, Chaozhou orange has become a symbol of good luck. The homonym of betel nut and betel nut contains the meaning of the guests, so the homonym of "Betel nut orange" becomes "Good luck to the guests". Hipsters have a long history of entertaining guests with betel nuts in New Year's greetings, which is recorded in local governments and county records. After the late Qing Dynasty, the customs of Chaoshan eat areca gradually declined. This is because the dietary customs change with the development of the times, the process in eat areca is complicated, and Chaoshan is not the origin of betel nut. Later, because Chaoshan is rich in olives, the shape and taste are very similar to betel nut, so hipsters use olives instead of betel nut. Because the change of customs is lagging behind, hipsters also call olives betel nuts.
When guests come in and say "Happy New Year" and "Congratulations on getting rich" to each other, the host will treat the guests to olives, sweets and congou. Jiexi Hakkas also have the custom of offering tea and rice. Before leaving for the Spring Festival, guests will exchange oranges and give red envelopes to their children, which is called "benefiting the market" and convey their good wishes of "exchanging good luck and greeting each other". For some close relatives and friends, the host will be very diligent to keep them for lunch.
Let's go back to the third kind of New Year greetings, the New Year greetings between colleagues. This is mostly a polite behavior. After meeting, we exchanged greetings with auspicious words such as "getting rich" and "getting promoted". The third kind of New Year greetings does not contain as much warm atmosphere of family and friendship as the first two. Moderator: However, in recent years, due to social progress and advanced science and technology, people are fashionable in greeting cards, greeting phone calls, greeting mobile phone messages and greeting "Yi Meier". However, many work units hold "group worship" on the first day of junior high school, and it is time-saving and good for everyone to get together to congratulate each other.
Moderator: The Spring Festival is the most lively, grand and valued festival among the traditional festivals in China. Yu Ning, you are familiar with the custom of celebrating the Spring Festival in Chaoshan area. Please introduce it.
Customer: Yes, the Spring Festival is the first day of the year. In ancient times, it was also called "New Year", "Yuanri", "Jacky", "Yuanshuo", "Zheng Dan" and "Xinzheng". After the Revolution of 1911, the first day of January in the solar calendar was designated as the New Year, and the first day of the first lunar month was renamed the Spring Festival, which is still a custom. Spring Festival is commonly known as "Chinese New Year" and "Chinese New Year". In Chaoshan area, there are many folk activities to celebrate the Spring Festival. These customs have similarities and differences with those in the Central Plains.
There are different ways to set off firecrackers in Chaoshan area. On the first day of the first month, every household should worship Chen Nan, Beidou, Tiangong and the gods worshipped at home in front of the door or on the balcony, hoping that the new year will be peaceful and auspicious. After worshipping God, firecrackers will be set off. Firecrackers are also called firecrackers, firecrackers and firecrackers. The ancients used pine branches and bamboo as torches and lit them in the court for lighting. When the bamboo joint burns, it crackles, which is an early "firecracker". Besides, people use it to drive away ghosts and evil spirits, hoping for good luck. According to Jing Chu Sui Ji, "the first day of the first month is the day of three yuan, and the spring and autumn are all day long." "When the cock crows, set off firecrackers in front of the court to ward off evil spirits."
Customer: Yes, chaozhou people follows this custom. Its purpose is to drive away evil spirits and pray for good health, abundant crops, prosperous livestock and all the best in the new year. After the reform and opening up, with the improvement of material living standards, it is more common for people to set off firecrackers during the Spring Festival, which has become an emotional expression of people's joy, celebration and good luck.
Audience friends, during the Spring Festival, cultural activities in Chaoshan are very active, including dragon dancing, centipede dancing, guessing games and many other projects, among which lion dancing and playing gongs and drums are more popular and eye-catching. Customer: Yes, lion dancing is very popular during the Spring Festival. It is said that there are two kinds of lion dances in Chaoshan: one is "Wen lion" and the other is "Wu lion". Shi Wen "? Oh "?
Guest: "Shi Wen" consists of two people, wearing masks, dressed as a smiling "land owner" and "land woman", holding a sunflower fan, leading the lion to dance and walk, and the lion kept rolling his mane. Every time someone sets off firecrackers in front of the door, the lion dance team will stop marching and pay a New Year call to its host. "Wu's" pays New Year greetings to prestigious local families and large enterprises. When the Lions arrived, the host lit firecrackers. At this time, gongs and drums rang, and the lions performed actions such as rolling, turning and falling. The most wonderful thing is that the owner gave the lion a red envelope. Jump to * * * *, and the host hangs a red envelope from the floor on the second or third floor. With the help of the owner, the lion dance team folded under the red envelope with big stools and small stools. In the sound of gongs and drums, the lion climbed up the table calmly and calmly, climbed to the top floor, then jumped up and opened his mouth to take off the red envelope. Thunderous applause and cheers broke out among the onlookers. The lion bowed his head and blessed people for a while. The performance of the lion dance in the square is that the lion dancer raises the lion's head, shakes his head, turns around quickly, and jumps while walking, just like a tiger going down the mountain. Dance to the center of the field, immediately sit on the floor, sometimes scratch your abdomen and back with your feet, and sometimes turn your head to bite your tail, which is called "scratching lice." Suddenly rolling on the ground is called "turning over"; Then I fell asleep. This shows that the lion is sitting and resting, and its movements are lifelike. At this time, there is also a person wearing a mask to tease the lion at will, which adds a lot of interest to the lion dance. The lion dance performance is followed by a martial arts performance. Boxing can be divided into Jia Zhu Foot, Li Family Foot and South Hand, but their performances are basically the same. Finally, I danced the lion again. After the performance, I got people's "red envelopes".
Moderator: During the Spring Festival, there is also a Chaozhou Gong and Drum Team, which plays Chaozhou music, walks the streets and parades. Chaozhou is commonly known as "swimming big gongs and drums". Chaozhou Dagong Drum is a large-scale ensemble form with percussion as the main music, drum as the center and suona as the leading factor. The drummer is both the chief performer and the conductor of the band. Drummers beat the drum core, drum edge and drum edge, and perform band performance by beating, silencing, beating, beating and rhythm change, adding flowers to the hammer, etc.
Guests: The entertainment team of Chaozhou gongs and drums often use a big flag to clear the way. The flag on their shoulders is called Biao, and bamboo with tail is used as flagpole. Mascots are hung on the pole, mostly young women. The girl carrying the banner is full of decoration and graceful. Then the well-dressed golden couple carried firecrackers and sweet bears, which brought good luck to people. There are also dolls dressed as adults, performing some traditional Chaozhou opera clips. After the huge pioneer, there is a continuous sound of gongs and drums. Chaozhou gongs and drums are very flexible. They are called "Long Line Group" when marching, and most of the tracks are mainly marching songs. If it is placed on a shelf in a fixed place, it is called a "brand set". Large-scale performances, bands often have thousands of people, magnificent.
Famous families and businessmen set off firecrackers to welcome the arrival of the gongs and drums team. At this time, the gongs and drums will stop and offer their skills to celebrate the New Year. After the performance, the host will get a red envelope reward.
Moderator: Yu Ning, please tell us about the custom of sending spring baskets.
Guest: OK. Spring basket is a kind of folk goods in Chaoshan. It is a kind of bamboo woven gift basket with three or four floors and a cover, which is usually used in pairs. On the first day of the new year, the bride's family will give gifts to the married daughter's family. Gifts include more than a dozen kinds of oranges, sugar cane and bananas, which are packed in a pair of Da Chun baskets and sent by my married brother, commonly known as "Spring Baskets". When my brother-in-law arrives, my in-laws will kill three birds and treat them warmly. Therefore, there is a folk saying called "Uncle, come and grab the chicken basket". When the daughter's family received a gift from her brother-in-law, her mother-in-law carried a basket of flowers and a red plate and distributed the gift to her neighbors, commonly known as "eating goods". Because every village has a daughter-in-law, it is very lively to give gifts to each other. This unique folk activity in Chaoshan embodies chaozhou people's fine tradition of attaching importance to neighborhood friendship, living in harmony and unity.
Moderator: Now let me introduce the custom of Chaoshan Spring Festival and well opening.
19 14, the first waterworks was built in Shantou, so the whole city had tap water supply. But residents of other towns and villages have to get water from wells or ditches and rivers. Where there is a township, there must be a well, both for external use and for internal use.
Customer: Chaoshan people worship wells very much, and there are myths and legends about Gong Jing and Jingpo among the people. The wellhead should be sealed on New Year's Eve, and the well can only be opened after the Spring Festival to worship Jingfu and Grandma. Usually, the public wells in the village are forbidden to be used in the first two days of the first year, and they are not used until the third day. Some places can be used from the second day of junior high school. When opening a well, the old woman in the village should take the lead and worship at the foot of the well with gifts such as oranges, green tea, brown sugar and vegetarian fruit. After that, the priest's old woman will open the manhole cover and pour half a brown sugar and three cups of green tea into the well. Finally, take out 12 barrels of water from the well and pour it on the ground. Every time you pour a bucket of water, you should read four auspicious poems casually. This ritual activity is "drilling wells". When digging a well, the mother-in-law at home should also worship. This ceremony is similar to the ceremony of public wells. Now the villages in Chaoshan basically drink tap water, and the activities of offering sacrifices to wells have gradually disappeared.
Moderator: Daughters who get married on the first day and second day of the first month will take their husbands and children back to their parents' home to pay New Year greetings. This is a sign that a married daughter is filial to her parents. There is a saying among the people: "Filial piety goes on the first day and the second day, and unfilial" walking on the second day "falls into the sky, and there is no sticker on the Lantern Festival." This is a fact. When the daughter goes back to her mother's house, she should prepare a big bag of biscuits and candy, which will be distributed to the nearby villagers by her mother to express her miss for the villagers. When you have a nephew at home, you should also give him a red envelope. After lunch, my daughter will chat with her parents for a while and go back to her husband's house before dinner. Therefore, it is commonly known as "eating midnight snack".
Distinguished guests: On the fourth day of the first month, every family should worship at home to welcome the gods to the world. Sacrifice is intentional, which is a good sign of "opening the door"; A plate of brown sugar symbolizes the sweetness of life; A plate of rice represents a bumper harvest, as well as oranges, black beans, wicks, paper horses and so on. In addition to worshipping at home, we will also go to temples in the countryside to burn incense and pray for blessings. Some people even write their family members' birthdays and ages on red stickers, tie them to sedan chairs, and make a wish to God, thanking God for "putting in a good word, and landing safely".
Moderator: In the customs of Chaoshan people, Chaozhou snacks are always indispensable during the Spring Festival. Chaozhou snacks have a wide variety, good quality and low price, and are deeply loved by the masses. Yu Ning, I heard that Chaozhou cuisine has nine kinds of snacks.
Customer: Yes, there are nine kinds of snacks in Chaozhou: soup, barbecue, frying, cakes, sweets, bean products, snacks, porridge and midnight snack.
Moderator: Roast suckling pig is a delicious dish in barbecue. With a suckling pig weighing more than 20 kilograms, the viscera, head and feet are removed, the whole body is cut in half, washed and peeled, clamped with an iron fork and roasted on charcoal fire. While baking, turn it over and add sesame oil constantly.
The roast suckling pig is golden in color, and you can tell it by looking at it. The meat is fragrant and the smell is attractive. It tastes crisp and smooth, not burnt or greasy, and it is delicious to dip in sweet sauce. Drinking in winter is the first choice of food.
Once upon a time, there was a Songji restaurant at the corner of Fensi Lane in the city, which was famous for selling roast suckling pigs. The owner of this restaurant is called "roast pork floss".
Yu Ning: There are many snacks in the soup. Fish balls and shrimp dumpling soup are the best of this kind.
Customer: Yes, white fish balls, light vermilion shrimp dumplings, a dozen shallots and a few drops of orange sesame oil float and sink in the clear soup, making it a delicious dish. It has the freshness of fish without fishy smell, and the sweetness of meat without greasy taste. Eating in the mouth is refreshing and satisfying, and it is a soup suitable for all seasons.
In the past, there were two fish balls and shrimp dumplings shops in the north of the east gate of Taiping Road and in front of the right camp of Xima Road, both of which were very famous.
Compere: Raw fish is a good snack. Raw fish, as its name implies, is raw fish. From late autumn to early spring next year, it is the season to eat raw fish. Mandarin fish (commonly known as grass carp) are fatter in these seasons.
The best fried food is cakes. Crispy cake crust with oil and flour, stuffing with lean meat, shrimps and mushrooms mixed with "iron breast" powder, and frying with slow fire until cooked. This cake is yellow in color, crisp and fragrant.
The people who make cakes and biscuits are vendors who set up stalls at the corner of Zhuangyuan Pavilion. He is called "A Fei" because of his fat figure. After "A Fei" became an instant hit, it pushed the original pork buns to a higher level in snacks. A Fei's big bag is filled with fresh shrimp mixed with leeks or chicken mixed with lotus seeds. Luo Weixin Tea House in the corner of the Champion Pavilion also launched a retail sufu bag, which made the bag here famous throughout the city. Guest (15): The original producer of Chaozhou roasted thick oysters was "A Fei". In the past, when cooking oysters, we used to wipe the cauldron with thin oil. Just heat the cauldron, sprinkle gouache and chopped green onion, pour it, put down fresh oysters and cover it with egg blossoms. "A Fei" thick oyster is baked with sausage, fresh lean meat and other ingredients. Fresh oysters and powdered water are put into the pot at the same time, and eggs are also used. Fried oysters are roasted with strong fire, and the aroma of oysters, meat, eggs and chopped green onion is mixed into a delicious aroma. Dipped in high-grade mustard, it really makes people drool before eating. This thick oyster roast is called "A Fei" oyster roast. Later, all the oyster roasting shops (stalls) in the city imitated the method of "A Fei" roasting oysters.
Moderator: Gusu Xiangfu is a leader in bean snacks.
Speaking of the production of fragrant rot in Gusu, there is a short story. It is said that there were two Buddhist aunts in Chaozhou during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. In order to eat vegetarian food for many years, they carefully made this fragrant rot with moderate saltiness, sweetness and softness, and delicious taste. Later, people called this fragrant rot Gusu fragrant rot.
Chaozhou's most famous workshop for making gusu incense rot is Laojuntang on Xiadongping Road. This shop is exquisite and careful in making gusu fragrant rot, and it must be boiled repeatedly. Therefore, the products they produce here are fragrant and rotten, soft and moist, sweet and delicious, and rich in nutrition, which is the best of bean products.
Tofu flower is another famous snack of bean products. In the early morning, there was a burst of small gongs from the depths of the alley, which is unique to selling tofu flowers. They use small gongs instead of hawking, which is called "empty buckle" by the people.
Sprinkle powdered sugar on each bowl of bean curd noodles, and add a pinch of ginger powder, which can remove the beany smell. Dried bean curd, a kind of cake food, is also a famous snack in Chaozhou. According to legend, its appearance also has a story. Yu Ning, please introduce it to everyone.
Guest: OK. In the early years, there was a cake shop in Chaozhou, and the autocratic Wuren Longfeng cake was on the market. The owner of the shop was mean and angered the cake maker. Once, in a rage, the master poured a jar of red fermented bean curd, half a dustpan of garlic and a bottle of wine into a vat full of cake stuffing, mixed it with the cake stuffing to make a hodgepodge, and then resigned. The master hired by the cake shop, without knowing the details, made the pot of hodgepodge of cakes into a market. When the cake is put in the oven, it gives off a special fragrance. As soon as the product went on the market, the foodies even claimed to be good, so they snapped it up. The shopkeeper quickly made more copies for the market, and other Longfeng cakes were not so fragrant. The boss didn't know why, but later he was careful to guess that the secret might be in the master. Please take it back with the gift.
Moderator: Listener friends, what you just heard is a special program for the Spring Festival that we made for you. Let's talk about the Spring Festival customs in Chaoshan.
Moderator: Happy New Year, everything wins!
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Respondent: In deep eyes-Level 5 2009- 1-2 1 03:32
The customs of the Spring Festival
Spring Festival is an ancient festival in China, and it is also the most important festival in a year. How to celebrate this festival has formed some relatively fixed customs and habits in thousands of years of historical development, and many of them have been passed down to this day.
sweep the dust
"On the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, dust sweeps the house". According to Lv Chunqiu, 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 means "getting rid of the old and not being new", and its original intention is to sweep away all bad luck and bad luck. This custom has placed people's desire to break the old and create new ones and their prayers 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 electrical appliances, remove and wash bedding curtains, sweep six yards, dust cobwebs and dredge culverts in open channels. Everywhere is filled with the joyful atmosphere of cleaning and welcoming the Spring Festival cleanly.
paste up Spring Festival couplets
Spring Festival couplets are also called door couplets, spring stickers, couplets, couplets and peach symbols. They depict the background of the times and express good wishes with neat, dual, concise and delicate words, which are unique literary forms in China. Every Spring Festival, no matter in urban or rural areas, every household should choose a pair of 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 was popular in the Ming Dynasty. By the Qing Dynasty, the ideological and artistic quality of Spring Festival couplets had been greatly improved. Liang Zhangju's monograph Poetry of Spring Festival couplets discusses the origin of couplets and the characteristics of various works.
There are many kinds of Spring Festival couplets, which can be divided into door heart, frame pair, cross string, spring strip and bucket square according to the place of use. The "door core" is attached to the center of the upper end of the door panel; The "door frame pair" is attached to the left and right door frames; "Cross-dressing" is posted on the crossbar of the door; "Spring strips" are posted in corresponding places according to different contents; "Dou Jin", also known as "door leaf", is a square diamond, often attached to furniture and screen walls.
Stick the window 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 often pasted on the window, it is also called "window grilles". With its unique generalization and exaggeration, window grilles show auspicious things and good wishes incisively and vividly, and decorate festivals with colorful colors.
While putting up Spring Festival couplets, some people have to put large and small "Fu" characters on doors, walls and lintels. Sticking the word "Fu" during the Spring Festival is a long-standing folk custom in China. The word "Fu" symbolizes good luck and wishes for a happy life and a bright future. In order to fully reflect this yearning and wish, some people simply put the word "Fu" upside down, indicating that "Fu has arrived" and "Fu has arrived". Others elaborate the word "Fu" into various patterns, such as longevity, longevity peach, carp yue longmen, abundant grains, dragons and phoenixes, and so on.
New Year picture
Hanging New Year pictures during the Spring Festival is also very common in urban and rural areas. Thick black and colorful New Year pictures add a lot of prosperity and festive atmosphere to thousands of families. New Year pictures are an ancient folk art in China, which reflects people's simple customs and beliefs and places their hopes on the future. New Year pictures, like Spring Festival couplets, originated from "door gods". With the rise of block printing, the content of New Year pictures is not limited to monotonous themes such as door gods, but has become rich and colorful. Some New Year pictures workshops have produced classic color New Year pictures, such as Fu Lushou's Samsung, God bless the people, abundant crops, prosperous livestock and welcoming the New Year, to meet people's good wishes of celebrating and praying for the New Year. There are three important producing areas of Chinese New Year pictures: Taohuawu in Suzhou, Yangliuqing in Tianjin and Weifang in Shandong; Three schools of New Year pictures have been formed, each with its own characteristics.
The earliest existing collection of New Year pictures in China is the woodcut New Year pictures of the Southern Song Dynasty, which depict four ancient beauties: Wang Zhaojun, Zhao, Ban Ji and Lvzhu. The most popular folk painting is the Year of Marrying the Rat. It depicts an interesting scene in which a mouse marries a bride according to human custom. In the early years of the Republic of China, Zheng of Shanghai combined the monthly calendar with the New Year pictures. This is a new form of New Year pictures. This new year's picture, which was combined into one, later developed into a calendar and has been popular all over the country.
stay up late or all night on New Year's Eve
Keeping the Lunar New Year's Eve is one of the most important activities, and the custom of keeping the Lunar New Year's Eve has a long history. The earliest record can be found in the Local Records of the Western Jin Dynasty: on New Year's Eve, all parties give gifts to each other, which is called "the year of giving back"; Wine and food are invited, which is called "not old"; Young and old get together to drink and wish a complete song called "age division"; Everyone stays up all night, waiting for dawn. This is the so-called "shou sui".
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 bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new year, and keep vigil all night, which symbolizes driving away all evil diseases and epidemics and expecting 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 "Shou Sui": "Cold words and winter snow, warm with spring breeze". To this day, people are used to celebrating the New Year's Eve.
In ancient times, observing the age has two meanings: the old man's observing the age means "resigning from the old", which means cherishing time; Young people keep their age in order to prolong the life of their parents. Since the Han Dynasty, the time for the alternation of the old and new years is generally at midnight.
firecracker
There is a folk saying in China that "open the door and set off firecrackers". That is, when the new year comes, the first thing for every household to open the door is to set off firecrackers to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. Firecracker is a specialty of China, also known as "Firecracker", "Firecracker" and "Firecracker". 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, firecrackers are more and more widely used, and there are more and more varieties and colors. Every major festival and happy celebration, as well as marriage, building, opening, etc. We should set off firecrackers to celebrate and make good luck. At present, Liuyang, Hunan, Foshan and Dongyao, Yichun and Pingxiang, Jiangxi, Wenzhou, Zhejiang and other regions are famous fireworks towns in China. The firecrackers produced have many colors and high quality, which are not only sold well all over the country, but also exported to all parts of the world.
Pay new year's call
On the first day of the new year, people get up early, put on the most beautiful clothes, dress neatly, go out to visit relatives and friends, and wish each other good luck in the coming year. There are many ways to pay New Year's greetings, some of which are led by the same patriarch from door to door. Some colleagues invited several people to pay New Year greetings; Others get together to congratulate each other. This is called "group worship". Because it takes time and effort to pay New Year greetings at home, some elites and scholars later congratulated each other with stickers, thus developing the later "New Year cards".
When paying New Year greetings during the Spring Festival, the younger generation should first pay New Year greetings to their elders and wish them health and longevity. The elders can distribute the lucky money prepared in advance to the younger generation. It is said that lucky money can kill evil spirits, because "old" and "special" are homophonic, and the younger generation can spend a year safely with lucky money. There are two kinds of lucky money, one is to put colored rope in the shape of Jackie Chan at the foot of the bed, which was recorded in Yanjing year; The other is the most common, that is, parents wrap the money distributed to their children in red paper. 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 very popular for elders to give lucky money to younger generations.
Eating custom in Spring Festival
In ancient agricultural society, housewives began to prepare food for the New Year from the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. Because curing bacon takes a long time, it must be prepared as soon as possible. Many provinces in China have the custom of curing bacon, among which Guangdong is the most famous.
Steamed rice cake, because of its homophonic "high year" and diverse tastes, has almost become a must-have food for every household. 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 jujube rice cakes, 100-fruit rice cakes and white rice cakes made of glutinous rice or yellow rice. Hebei people like to add jujube, red beans and mung beans to rice cakes and steam them together. In northern Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and other places, it is customary to eat yellow wheat fried rice cakes during the New Year, and some people will also stuff them 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. There are sweet and salty rice cakes in the south, 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 cake is made of glutinous rice flour with sugar, lard, rose, 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. A wanderer who has left his hometown has to go home from thousands of miles away. During the Spring Festival, the whole family will sit around and wrap jiaozi. Jiaozi's practice is to use flour to make dumpling wrappers first, and then use leather bags to fill them. The contents of stuffing are varied, and all kinds of meat, eggs, seafood and seasonal vegetables can be stuffed. The orthodox practice in jiaozi is to cook it with clear water, remove it and mix it with vinegar, minced garlic and vegetables. There are also methods of frying jiaozi and baking jiaozi (fried dumpling). Because the word "he" in dough mixing means "he"; Jiaozi's "jiao" and "glue" are homophonic, and "harmony" and "glue" have the meaning of reunion, so jiaozi is used to symbolize the reunion of acacia; It is very auspicious to make friends with older people; In addition, jiaozi, which is shaped like an ingot, has the auspicious meaning of "making a fortune" when eating jiaozi in the New Year. All the families get together to pack jiaozi, so it's fun to celebrate the Spring Festival.