Spring Festival is the most solemn traditional festival among the people in China. On the first day of the first month in the summer calendar, it is also called the lunar year, commonly known as "Chinese New Year" and "New Year". The Spring Festival has a long history, which originated from the activities of offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors at the beginning and end of the Yin and Shang Dynasties. According to the Chinese lunar calendar, the first day of the first month was called Yuanri, Yuanchen, Yuanzheng, Yuanshuo, New Year's Day, etc., commonly known as the first day of the first month. In the Republic of China, it was changed to the Gregorian calendar. The first day of the Gregorian calendar was called New Year's Day, and the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar was called the Spring Festival.
Humanistic significance of Spring Festival
The Spring Festival is coming, which means that spring is coming, Vientiane is reviving, vegetation is renewed, and a new round of sowing and harvesting season is about to begin. People have just passed the long winter when the plants and trees are dying in the ice and snow, and they have long been looking forward to the day when spring blooms. When the new year comes, it is natural to welcome this festival with joy and singing.
For thousands of years, people have made the annual custom celebrations extremely colorful. Every year, from the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month to the 30th, people call this period "Spring Festival" or "Dust-cleaning Day", which is a traditional habit of our people.
Then, every household prepares new year's goods. About ten days before the festival, people are busy shopping. The new year's goods include chicken, duck, fish, tea, wine, oil sauce, roasted seeds and nuts in the north and south, and fruit with sugar bait. They should also prepare some gifts when visiting relatives and friends during the New Year. Children should buy new clothes and hats to wear during the New Year.
Before the festival, a New Year message with red paper and yellow characters should be pasted on the door of the house, that is, Spring Festival couplets written in red paper. Colorful New Year pictures with auspicious meanings are posted in the house, beautiful window grilles are cut out by ingenious girls and pasted on the windows, red lanterns are hung in front of the door, and the characters of fortune, door gods and so on can be pasted upside down, and passers-by are blessed when they think of it. All these activities are to add enough festive atmosphere to the festival.
Another name for the Spring Festival is Chinese New Year. In past legends, Nian was an imaginary animal that brought bad luck to people. New year's eve. Trees are withered, and grass is not born; After the new year, everything grows and flowers are everywhere. How can the year pass? It is necessary to use firecrackers, so there is the custom of burning firecrackers, which is actually another way to set off the lively scene.
The Spring Festival is a joyful and peaceful festival, and it is also a day for family reunion. Children who leave home should go home to get together during the Spring Festival. The night before the Chinese New Year is the 30th night of the twelfth lunar month, which is also called New Year's Eve and reunion night. At the turn of the old and the new, observing the new year is one of the most important activities. On New Year's Eve, the whole family stays up all the time, gets together and drinks, and enjoys family happiness. In the northern region, it is customary to eat jiaozi on New Year's Eve. jiaozi's practice is to mix noodles first, and the word harmony is the combination. Jiaozi's dumplings are homophonic, which means to get together, and also means to make friends at a younger age. In the south, there is the habit of eating New Year's cakes, which are sweet and sticky, symbolizing the sweet life and step by step in the new year.
When the first cock crow rings, or the New Year's bell strikes, firecrackers are ringing in the street, and the noise is one after another. Everyone is beaming. The new year begins. Men, women and children are dressed in festive costumes. First, the elders in the family are given New Year's greetings. During the festival, children are also given lucky money, having a reunion dinner. On the second and third days of the second year, they begin to visit relatives and friends, pay New Year greetings to each other, and say congratulations on their new happiness and wealth.
The warm atmosphere of the festival not only permeates every household, but also fills the streets and alleys all over the country. In some places, there are customs such as dancing lions, playing dragon lanterns, performing social fires, visiting flower markets and visiting temple fairs. During this period, lanterns were all over the city and tourists were all over the street. It was very lively and unprecedented, and the Spring Festival didn't really end until after the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month.
The Spring Festival is the most important festival of the Han nationality, but more than a dozen ethnic minorities, such as Manchu, Mongolian, Yao, Zhuang, Bai, Gaoshan, Hezhe, Hani, Daur, Dong and Li, have also had the custom of the Spring Festival, but the form of the festival has its own national characteristics and is more meaningful.
The Origin and Legend of Spring Festival
The original meaning of the concepts of Spring Festival and Year comes from agriculture. In ancient times, people called the growth cycle of the valley "Year". Hebe: "Year, the grain is ripe.". In the Xia and Shang Dynasties, the Xia calendar came into being, with the moon's full and short period as the month, and a year divided into twelve months. Every month, the day when the moon is not seen is the new moon, and the first day of the first month is called the beginning of the year, which is also called the year. The name of the year began in the Zhou Dynasty, and it was officially fixed in the Western Han Dynasty and continued until today. However, the first day of the first month in ancient times was called "New Year's Day". Until the victory of the Revolution of 1911 in modern China, in order to conform to the farming season and facilitate statistics, the Nanjing Provisional Government stipulated that the summer calendar should be used among the people, and the Gregorian calendar should be implemented in government agencies, factories, mines, schools and organizations, with the first day of January of the Gregorian calendar as New Year's Day and the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar as the Spring Festival.
In the traditional sense, the Spring Festival refers to the sacrificial rites from La Worship on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month or on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month to the fifteenth 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, a traditional festival, the Han nationality and most ethnic minorities in our country have to hold various celebration activities. Most of these activities are mainly about offering sacrifices to gods and buddhas, paying homage to ancestors, getting rid of the old and spreading the new, welcoming the new year and praying for a good harvest. The forms of activities are rich and colorful, with strong national characteristics.
The Spring Festival originated from La Worship in primitive society of our country. It is said that when the wax is exhausted, people kill pigs to sacrifice to God and pray for good weather and good harvests in the coming year. People painted their faces with vermilion, decorated their wings with birds, and sang and danced. As for the "Spring Festival", it was first seen in "The History of the Later Han Dynasty Yang Zhen": "There is no snow in winter, and there is no rain in the Spring Festival."
1On September 27th, 949, New China was founded. At the first plenary session of China People's Political Consultative Conference, it was adopted to use the world-wide Gregorian calendar era, and January 1st of the Gregorian calendar was designated as New Year's Day, commonly known as the Gregorian calendar year. The first day of the first lunar month is usually around beginning of spring, so the first day of the first lunar month is designated as the "Spring Festival", commonly known as the lunar year.
One of the legends of the Spring Festival: staying up for the new year.
Keeping the old year is the custom of staying up late to welcome the new year on the last night of the old year. It is also called keeping the old year on New Year's Eve, and its common name is "endure the new year". Exploring the origin of this custom, there is an interesting story circulating among the people:
In Archaean times, there was a fierce monster scattered in the mountains and forests. People called them Nian. Its appearance is ferocious, its nature is ferocious, and it specializes in eating birds and animals and insects. It changes its taste every day, from kowtowing insects to living people, which makes people talk about "Nian". Later, people gradually mastered the activity law of "Nian", which is to go to places where people live in concentrated communities every 365 days to taste fresh food, and the haunting time is after dark, and when the cock crows at dawn, they return to the mountains.
Having determined the date when the Year of the Year raged, the people regarded this terrible night as a gateway, which was called the Year of the Year, and came up with a whole set of ways to close the New Year's Day: every household cooked dinner in advance on this night, turned off the fire and cleaned the stove, then tied up all the cowpens, sealed the front and rear doors of the house, and hid in the house to eat the "New Year's Eve", because this dinner was uncertain. In addition to asking the whole family to dine together to show harmony and reunion, it is also necessary to offer sacrifices to ancestors before eating, pray for the blessing of ancestors, and spend the night safely. After dinner, no one dares to sleep and sit together to chat and be courageous. It gradually formed the habit of staying up on New Year's Eve.
The custom of observing the age rose in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and many scholars in the Liang Dynasty had poems about observing the age. "One night is even two years old, and the five hours are divided into two years." People light candles or oil lamps and keep vigil all night, symbolizing driving away all evil diseases and looking forward to good luck in the new year. This custom has been passed down from generation to generation.
Legend 2 of the Spring Festival: the theory of creating a calendar in ten thousand years
According to legend, in ancient times, there was a young man named Wan Nian, who saw that the festivals were chaotic at that time and had a plan to set them accurately. But he couldn't find a way to calculate the time. One day, he was tired of chopping wood on the mountain and sat in the shade of a tree. The movement of the shadow inspired him. He designed a sundial to measure the time of the day. Later, the dripping spring on the cliff inspired him, and he began to make a five-layer leaky pot to calculate the time. Over time, he found that every three hundred and sixty days, the four seasons would cycle once, and the length of the weather would be repeated.
At that time, the monarch was called Zu Yi, and he was often troubled by the unpredictable weather. After ten thousand years of knowing it, he took the sundial and the clepsydra to see the emperor and explained to Zu Yi the truth of the movement of the sun and the moon. After hearing this, Zu Yi was very happy and felt reasonable. So I left Wannian, built the Sun Moon Pavilion in front of the Temple of Heaven, and built a sundial platform and a leaky pot pavilion. I hope that I can accurately measure the laws of the sun and the moon, calculate the exact time of the morning and evening, and create a calendar to benefit the people of the world.
On one occasion, Zu Yi went to learn about the progress of the calendar for ten thousand years. When he boarded the Sun Moon altar, he saw a poem engraved on the stone wall beside the Temple of Heaven:
Sunrise and sunset are 360, and it starts all over again.
The vegetation is divided into four seasons, and there are twelve circles in a year.
Knowing that the calendar has been created in ten thousand years, I personally boarded the Sun Moon Pavilion to visit ten thousand years. Wannian pointed to the astronomical phenomena and said to Zu Yi, "Now it is twelve months old, the old year is over, and the new year begins again. Please make a festival for the monarch." Zu Yi said, "Spring is the first year of the year, so let's call it Spring Festival". It is said that this is the origin of the Spring Festival.
Winter went to spring, year after year, and after years of long-term observation and careful calculation, he worked out an accurate solar calendar. When he presented the solar calendar to his successor, he was covered with silver whiskers. The monarch was deeply moved. In order to commemorate the achievements of ten thousand years, he named the solar calendar "perpetual calendar" and named it the birthday star of the sun, moon and moon. In the future, people hang up Shou Xingtu during the Chinese New Year, which is said to commemorate the venerable ten thousand years.
The third legend of the Spring Festival: Sticking Spring Festival couplets and door gods
It is said that the custom of pasting Spring Festival couplets began about 1000 years ago in the post-Shu period, which is proved by history. In addition, according to the Jade Candle Collection, Yanjing's Chronicle of Years Old and other works, the original form of Spring Festival couplets is what people call "Taofu".
In the ancient mythology of China, it is said that there is a ghost world, in which there is a mountain, a big peach tree covering 3,000 miles, and a golden rooster at the top of the tree. Whenever the golden rooster crows in the morning, ghosts who wander at night will rush back to the ghost domain. The gate of Ghost Domain is located in the northeast of peach tree. There are two gods standing by the door, named shentu and Yu Lei. If the ghost does something unnatural at night, shentu and Yu Lei will immediately find it and catch it, tie it up with a rope made of awn reed and send it to the tiger. So all the ghosts in the world are afraid of shentu and Yu Lei. So the people carved them into peach wood and put them at their doorsteps to ward off evil spirits and prevent harm. Later, people simply carved the names of shentu and Yu Lei on the mahogany board, thinking that doing so could also eliminate evil. This kind of mahogany board was later called "Taofu".
In the Song Dynasty, people began to write couplets on the mahogany board, one of which did not lose the meaning of killing evil spirits, the other expressed their good wishes, and the third decorated the portal for beauty. They also write couplets on red paper symbolizing happiness and good luck, and stick them on both sides of doors and windows during the Spring Festival to express people's good wishes for good luck in the coming year.
In order to pray for the longevity of the family, people in some places still keep the habit of sticking to the door. It is said that two door gods are pasted on the gate, and all monsters will be afraid. In the folk, the door god is a symbol of righteousness and force. The ancients believed that people with strange looks often had magical temperament and extraordinary skills. They are honest and kind-hearted, and it is their nature and responsibility to catch ghosts and capture demons. Zhong Kui, the ghost hunter admired by people, is such a strange look. Therefore, the folk door gods are always glaring and ugly, with all kinds of traditional weapons in their hands, ready to fight against ghosts who dare to come to the door. Because the doors of Chinese houses are usually two opposite, the door gods are always in pairs.
After the Tang Dynasty, in addition to shentu and Yu Lei, people regarded Qin Shubao and Weichi Gong, two military commanders in the Tang Dynasty, as gatekeepers. According to legend, Emperor Taizong was ill, and when he heard the ghosts calling outside, he was restless all night. So he asked the two generals to stand by the door with weapons in their hands, and there was no ghost harassment the next night. Later, Emperor Taizong had the images of these two generals painted and pasted on the door, and this custom began to spread widely among the people.
Common customs of the Spring Festival
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 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.
paste up Spring Festival couplets
Spring Festival couplets are also called door-to-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 heart, frame pair, cross-dressing, spring strip and bucket square according to their places of use. 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 people have to 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 picture
Hanging New Year pictures during the Spring Festival is also very common in urban and rural areas, and 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, Banji 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.
New Year's Eve
On the evening of the last day of the lunar year. In addition to the old cloth is new. The last day of the year is called "New Year's Eve" and that night is called "New Year's Eve". People often stay up all night on New Year's Eve, which is called Shounian. Su Shi has "Shousui": "Children are forced not to sleep, and they are happy at night." There is a legend about the origin of New Year's Eve: in ancient times, there was a ferocious monster named Xi. Our ancestors were threatened by this fiercest beast, and it came out to harm people at the end of the year. Later, people discovered that Xi was afraid of three things, red color, fire and noise. So in winter, people hang red mahogany boards on their doors, burn fires at the door, stay up all night and knock. That night, "Xi" broke into the village, saw red and firelight in every house, heard the deafening noise, and ran back to the mountains in fear, never coming out again. As the night passed, people congratulated each other and celebrated the victory by decorating, drinking and feasting. So on the New Year's Eve, every family posted red couplets and set off firecrackers to drive away the animals on New Year's Eve, in order to make the new year peaceful. This custom has been handed down since then, and it is called New Year's Eve.
stay up late or all night on New Year's Eve
Keeping old age on New Year's Eve is one of the most important activities, and the custom of keeping old age 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".
On New Year's Eve, the whole family got together, ate New Year's Eve, lit candles or oil lamps, sat around the stove and chatted, waiting for the time to bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new year, and kept vigil all night, symbolizing driving away all evil diseases and epidemics and looking forward to 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, there were two meanings of observing the old age: the old people's observing the old age means "resigning 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.
Different places are different: in rural Yunnan, there is a legend that children are 30 years old. My Lord. . Those who can't sleep, that is, everyone stays up all night, waiting for the morning, which is called "keeping the age". The difference is why can't you sleep? Adults usually tell children that if you fall asleep, the stalks of your field will fall down the next year. . If it falls, let the sleeping person repair it! It seems that if no one sleeps, the terrier will not fall! (Yunnan customs)
firecracker
There is a folk saying in China that "opening 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.
Spring Festival food custom
In the ancient agricultural society, since the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, housewives have been busy preparing food for the New Year. 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, because of their homophonic "high age" and varied tastes, have almost become a must-have 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 method is to cook them in clear water and mix them with vinegar, minced garlic and vegetables after fishing. 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.
Open the door to firecrackers
On the morning of the Spring Festival, when the door is opened, firecrackers are set off first, which is called "opening the door for firecrackers". After the sound of firecrackers, the ground is full of broken red, which is called "full house red" At this time, the streets are full of anger and joy.
pay New Year calls
An important activity in the Spring Festival is to congratulate the new year at the homes and neighbors of new friends and friends, formerly known as New Year greetings. The wind of the Han people's New Year greetings has existed in the Han Dynasty. It was very popular after the Tang and Song Dynasties, and some people who don't have to go in person can use famous cards to congratulate them. It was called "thorn" in the Eastern Han Dynasty, so the business card was also called "famous thorn". After the Ming Dynasty, many people put up a red paper bag at the door to collect famous cards, called "door book".
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 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".
When paying New Year greetings 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 "special" 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.
According to their social relations, the forms of non-governmental visits to New Year can be roughly divided into four categories:
One is to visit relatives. On the first day, you must go to your father-in-law and bring gifts. After entering the door, first bow down to the Buddha statue, ancestor image and memorial tablet, and then bow down to the elders in turn. You can stay for dinner and play.
The second is a courtesy visit. If you wish to pay a New Year call to your colleagues and friends, you should only bow to the Buddha statue three times when you enter the house. If you are equal to your master, you only need to bow down. If you are older than yourself, you should still take the initiative to bow down. The master should step down from his seat to help you, and even say no ceremony to show humility. This kind of situation is generally not suitable for sitting for a long time, so you should leave after a few pleasantries. After the host is worshipped, he should pay a return visit on another day.
The third is a thank-you visit. Anyone who has been indebted to others (such as lawyers and doctors) for the past year will buy some gifts to send, and take the opportunity of paying a New Year call to express his thanks.
The fourth is a series of visits. For the neighbors, we don't have much contact with each other in the past, but we can get along well when we meet. On the New Year's Eve, we just go to the courtyard and say, "Congratulations and make a fortune" and "Shun Shun Bai Shun" when we meet each other. We just sit in the house for a while without much etiquette.
In ancient times, there was a distinction between New Year's greetings and New Year's greetings: New Year's greetings were to knock on the elders; The New Year is a time for peers to congratulate each other. Now, some organizations, groups, enterprises and schools get together to congratulate each other, which is called "group worship".
Paying New Year greetings is a traditional folk custom in China, and it is a way for people to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, and express their best wishes to each other. In ancient times, the original meaning of the word "Happy New Year" was to celebrate the New Year for the elderly, including kowtowing to the elderly, congratulating them on the happy New Year, and greeting them about their lives. In case of friends and relatives of the same generation, we should also salute and congratulate them.
In ancient times, if there were too many relatives and friends in the neighborhood, it was difficult to visit them all over the house. It was called "flying post" to send servants with business cards to pay New Year's greetings. A red paper bag was put in front of each house with the word "Jiefu" written on it, which was the purpose of sending flying posts. This custom began in the upper class of the Song Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty's "The Moon Order of Yantai" describes the Beijing New Year Festival: "It's the moon, the film flies, and the car goes empty." Become fashionable. A large family has a special "door book" to record the guests' exchanges and flying photos. The front page of the door book has four virtual "relatives": one is a centenarian who lives in a centenarian lane; One said that he was rich and lived in Yuanbao Street; One is your infinite adult, living in the university archway; One day, Fu Zhao visited his master and lived in Five Blessingg Building. In order to get lucky. So far, giving new year card and New Year cards in the Spring Festival is the legacy of this ancient exchange of flying cards.
The upper-class literati have the custom of greeting each other with famous cards. Zhou Hui, a Song Dynasty poet, said in Qingbo Magazine: "During Song Yuanyou's reign, servants were often used to stab people in the name of the New Year." At that time, the scholar-officials had a wide circle of friends, so it would take time and energy to pay New Year's greetings everywhere. Therefore, some friends who were not closely related did not go there in person, but sent servants to take a card cut with plum blossom stationery, two inches wide and three inches long, with the name, address and congratulations of the recipient written on it. In the Ming dynasty, people paid a visit instead of paying New Year's greetings. Wen Zhiming, an outstanding painter and poet in the Ming Dynasty, described in the poem "New Year": "I don't want to meet each other, but I am fluent, and the famous papers are full of cover; I also throw a few papers with people, and the world hates being too simple and not too empty. " The "name thorn" and "name divination" mentioned here are the origins of today's new year cards. New Year cards are used to connect feelings and exchange greetings, which are convenient and practical, and are still popular today.
From about the time of the Qing Dynasty, the form of "group worship" was added to the New Year's greetings. In "The Side Hat Yu Tan", the master of the Qing Dynasty said: "At the beginning of the year, the capital will make regular group worship, in order to unite the friendship of the New Year and to express the nostalgia", and "every year, the book will be used to book guests, eat banquets and make a happy day".
With the development of the times, the custom of New Year's greetings is constantly adding new contents and forms. Nowadays, in addition to following the previous New Year's greetings, etiquette telegrams and telephone New Year's greetings have sprung up.
However, from the first day of the first month to the fifth day of the first month, most families do not receive women, which is called "taboo." It is only for men to go out to pay New Year's greetings, while women can't go out to visit until after the sixth day of the first month. The New Year's greetings will be extended for a long time until the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first month. In the evening, visiting people to pay New Year's greetings is called "Night Worship Festival", and it is called "Lantern Festival" after the tenth day of the lunar calendar, so there is a joke that "it is not too late to have a cold meal".
If you fail to follow the routine ceremony for some reason and make up for it in the future, it is called "worshipping your old age."
Zhansui
In the old days, the people took this year as a result of the sunny weather in the first few days of Xinzheng. Its theory began in Dong Fangshuo's "Year of the Year", which means that eight days after the year, one day is chicken day, two days is dog, three days is pig, four days is sheep, five days is cow, six days is horse, seven days is great man and eight days is valley. If the day is sunny, the things that belong to it will breed, and if it is cloudy, the day that belongs to it will not last. Later generations follow their habits and think that the weather is clear, there is no wind or snow for good luck from the first day to the tenth day. Future generations have developed from occupying the age to a series of sacrifices and celebrations. There is a custom of not killing chickens on the first day, dogs on the second day, pigs on the third day ... and no execution on the seventh day.
Tiehua chicken
Zhuxian Town Woodboard New Year Pictures
In ancient times, chickens were painted on doors and windows to drive away ghosts and evil spirits during the Spring Festival. In the book "Xuan Zhong Ji" written by Jin Dynasty, the pheasant on Dushuo Mountain mentioned above was mentioned, saying that when it was just rising and the first sunlight shone on this big tree, the pheasant crowed. As soon as it crows, the chickens all over the world crow with it. Therefore, the chicken cut during the Spring Festival is actually a symbol of the pheasant. However, in ancient mythology, there is also a saying that chicken is a deformed bird. It is said that during Emperor Yao's reign, friends from the other side paid tribute to a bird that can ward off evil spirits. Everyone welcomed the arrival of the bird, but the tribute envoy didn't come every year, so people carved a wooden bird, cast it in bronze and put it on the portal, or painted it on the doors and windows to scare off monsters and make them afraid to come again. Because the bird looks like a chicken, it will be gradually changed to painting a chicken or cutting window flowers and sticking them on the doors and windows, which will become the source of paper-cutting art in later generations. In ancient China, chickens were paid special attention to, and they were called "birds with five virtues". "Biography of Han Poetry" said that it has a crown on its head and is a literary virtue; There is a distance behind the foot to fight, which is a martial virtue; It is brave for the enemy to dare to fight before; It is benevolence to have food to greet the same kind; It is faith to keep vigil and dawn. Therefore, people not only cut chickens during the Chinese New Year, but also set the first day of the New Year as Chicken Day.
Jucai
It is said that the first day of the first month is the broom birthday, so you can't use the broom on this day, otherwise it will sweep away luck and ruin money, and attract the "broom star" and cause bad luck. If you have to sweep the floor, you must sweep it from the outside to the inside. On this day, you can't throw water on the garbage, for fear of breaking the money. Today, there is still a custom in many places to clean up the New Year's Eve. On the first day of the New Year, there is no broom, no garbage, and a big bucket is prepared to hold waste water, so that it is not splashed outside that day.