Sacrificing the Stove
China's Spring Festival is generally kicked off with the sacrifice of the stove. The folk song "Twenty-three, sugar gourd sticky" refers to the festival of the stove on the 23rd or 24th day of the Lunar New Year every year, and there is a so-called "government three, people four, boat family five", that is, the official government on the 23rd day of the Lunar New Year, the general people's family on the 24th day, and the people on the water on the 25th day of the festival of the stove.
Sacrifice of the stove, is a folk in our country has a great influence, widely spread custom. In the old days, almost every house had a "Zao Wang" god in the stove room. People call this god "Sifu Bodhisattva" or "Zaojun Sifu", and legend has it that he is the Jade Emperor's "Nine Heavenly East Kitchen Sifu Zaowangfujun", responsible for the management of the family's stove fire, was worshiped as a family's protective deity. Most of the Zaowang niches are located on the north or east side of the stove room, with the statue of Zaowang in the center. For those who do not have a Zaowang niche, there are also those who put the idol directly on the wall. Some of the idols depicted only one person, Zao Wang, while others had two persons, a man and a woman, and the goddess was called "Zao Wang's grandmother". This is probably an imitation of the image of an earthly couple. Most of the statues of Lord Zao also have the calendar of the year printed on them, with words such as "Master of the East Kitchen", "Supervisor of the Earth", and "Head of the Household" to indicate the status of the God of Vesta. On both sides of the posters are couplets that read "Good things are said in heaven, and peace is guaranteed in the world below" to bless the whole family.
Since the New Year's Eve of the previous year, Zao Wang Wang has been staying at home to protect and monitor the family; on the 23rd day of the Lunar New Year, Zao Wang Wang will go up to the sky to report to the Jade Emperor in the sky on the family's good or bad deeds, and the ceremony of sending Zao Wang to the sky is known as "sending Zao" or "resigning from Zao". Based on the report of the Zaos, the Jade Emperor will then hand over to the Zaos the fate of the family in the new year, which should be good or bad. Therefore, for the family, the report of the Zaowang master is really of great interest.
The Zaobao ceremony is usually held at nightfall. The family first goes to the stove room, sets up a table, pays homage to the Zaowang master in the shrine on the wall of the stove, and offers sugar melons made of caramel and flour. Then, they make paper horses and feed grass to the animals. Offering caramelized sugar to Zaowang is to sweeten his old man's mouth. In some places, sugar is smeared around the mouth of Zaowang, saying, "Say more good things, don't say bad things." This is to stuff the mouth of Master Zao with sugar, so that he will not say anything bad. In the Tang Dynasty, there is a record of "applying wine lees on the stove to make Zaosi drunk" in the "Records of the Years and Seasons in the Emperor's Chariot". After smearing the mouth of Zaowang with sugar, people take down the statue of the god and send it up to the sky with paper and cigarettes. In some places, they pile up sesame stalks and pine branches in the yard at night, invite the image of Zaojun, which has been offered for a year, out of the shrine, and set fire to it, together with paper horses and grass. The yard was brightly lit by the fire, and the family bowed around the fire and prayed while burning: "This year is the twenty-third day of the year, and I would like to send Zaojun to the West. There is a strong horse, there is grass, a smooth and safe journey. The sugar melons are sweet, so please tell the Jade Emperor what you want to hear.
Sending Zaojun, some places there are still several beggars, disguised, singing Zaojun song from house to house, Zaojun dance, called "sending Zaojin", in exchange for food.
Send stove customs in China's north and south of the country is extremely common, Mr. Lu Xun has written a "gengzi send stove that is the case" poem: only chicken gum teeth sugar, canonical clothes for petal incense. There are no long things in the house, not only less yellow sheep.
He said in the article "Zaojun day of the send": "Zaojun day, the street also sells a kind of sugar, the size of a mandarin fruit, in our place also have this thing, but flat, like a thick small pancake. That's called 'Gum Tooth Molasses'. The original intention was in asking Zaojun to eat it and glue his teeth so that he could not flirt and speak ill of the Jade Emperor." The allusion to the "yellow sheep" in Lu Xun's poem comes from "The Book of the Later Han Dynasty - The Biography of Yin Zhi": "During the reign of Emperor Xuan Di, Yin Zifang was a man of great filial piety and benevolence. Lunar morning cooking, and the stove God see, Zifang worship again to be celebrated; home has a yellow sheep, because of the sacrifice. Since then, after the storm to the rich. To know three generations, and then prosperous, so after often to wax day sacrifice stove and recommend yellow sheep." Yin Zifang saw the God of the stove, kill yellow sheep sacrifice, and then made good luck. From then on, the custom of killing a yellow sheep to sacrifice to the stove has been passed down.
The offerings for Zaos in the Tang and Song dynasties were quite abundant. The Song Dynasty poet Fan Chengda's "Zaosi words" made an extremely vivid depiction of the folk festival of Zaosi at that time: Ancient legend of the twenty-fourth day of the waxing moon, Zaojun towards the sky want to talk about things. The cloud car, wind and horses stayed a little, and the family had cups and plates for the ceremony. The pig's head is rotten, the fish is fresh, the bean paste is sweet and loose, the rice bait is round. Men offer their daughters to avoid it, and sprinkle wine and burn money to make Zaojun happy. Don't be angry at the maid's struggles, or at the cats and dogs that touch you. I will send you to the gate of heaven with a full stomach and a long spoon and a short spoon, so don't repeat the clouds, and beg for the profit to be shared with you.
The festival on the 23rd day of the Lunar New Year is closely related to the New Year. Because, a week later, on the night of New Year's Eve, Lord Zaowang comes to earth with other gods and goddesses with the good fortune and misfortune that the family is supposed to receive. Lord Zao is believed to lead the way for the gods in heaven. While the other gods go back to heaven after the New Year, only the King Zao stays in the kitchen of the family for a long time. The ceremony of welcoming the gods is called "receiving the gods", and for Lord Zao it is called "receiving the stove". The ceremony is usually much simpler on New Year's Eve, when you just need to put on a new stove lamp and burn incense in front of the stove niche, and that's the end of it.
The saying goes, "Men don't worship the moon, women don't sacrifice to the stove". In some places, women do not sacrifice the stove, it is said, Zaowang master looks like a white man, afraid of female sacrifice stove, there is a "male and female suspicion". The origin of Zao Wang Wang has a long history. Among the Chinese folk gods, Zao is considered to be very old. As early as the Xia Dynasty, he was already a great god honored by the people. According to the ancient book "Rituals - Rituals" Kong Yingda sparse: "Zhuanxu's son Ri Li, Zhu Rong, sacrificed to the god of the stove." Zhuangzi. Dasheng" recorded: "The stove has a bun." Sima Biao commented: "Bun, the god of the stove, dressed in red, like a beautiful woman." In the "Clasp of Parks. It is also written in the "Micro Purpose" that "On the night of the moon's darkness, the god of the stove also goes up to heaven for the white man's sins." These records are probably the source of the sacrifices to the God of Vesta. In addition, or that the god of the stove is drilling wood for fire "flint man's"; or that is the Shennong's "fire officer"; or that is the "yellow emperor as stove" "Su Jili"; or that the god of the stove is surnamed Zhang, a list of the word Ziguo; many say different things. There is an interesting story circulating in the folklore.
It is said that in ancient times, there was a family surnamed Zhang, two brothers, brother is a plasterer, brother is a painter. The brother's specialty is the work of the pan pan, East Street please, West Square invited, all praised him for the high craftsmanship of the base of the stove. Over the years, he became famous and was honored as "King Zhang Zao" by all the people in the area. Speaking of Zhang Zao Wang is also strange, no matter to whose home base stove, such as the other family has a dispute, he loves to meddle. When he meets a noisy daughter-in-law, he wants to persuade, and when he meets a fierce mother-in-law, he also wants to say, as if he is an old elder. In the future, all the neighbors would go to him for anything, and everyone respected him. Zhang Zaowang lived to be seventy years old, and it was the night of the twenty-third day of the Lunar New Year when he died. Zhang Zaowang died, Zhang family can be a mess, the original Zhang Zaowang is the head of the family, the family things are at his command, and now the elder brother left the earth, the younger brother will only poetry and painting, although has been the flower of the armor, but has never been in charge of the housework. Several daughters-in-law are clamoring to split the family, the painter was stirred to do nothing, all day long sad face. One day, he finally came up with a good idea. On the twenty-third day of the waxing moon, the first anniversary of the death of Zhang Zaowang, late at night, the artist suddenly called the whole family woke up, saying that the big brother manifested itself. He will be son and daughter-in-law of the whole family to the kitchen, only to see the dark walls of the stove, floating candlelight vaguely revealed Zhang Zao Wang and his late wife's appearance, the family were stunned. The artist said: "I dreamed that my elder brother and sister-in-law had become immortals when I went to bed, and the Jade Emperor appointed him as the 'Nine Heavenly East Kitchen Secretary Zao Wang Fu Jun'. You guys are always lazy, sisters-in-law do not get along, do not respect and filial piety, make the family God uneasy. My elder brother knows that you are making a fuss about the separation of the family and is very angry, so he is going to go up to heaven to report to the Jade Emperor, and come down to the world on the night of the 30th day of the New Year to punish you." Children nieces and nephews-in-law heard these words, horrified, immediately kneeling down and kowtowing, busy fetching Zhang Zao Wang usually love to eat sweets to offer on the stove, pleading with Master Zao for forgiveness. From then on, often noisy uncles and brothers and daughters-in-law no longer dare to make a scene, the whole family live together peacefully, the young and old live in peace. After this incident was known to the neighbors, the rumor spread, and they all rushed to the Zhang family to find out the truth. In fact, the night of the twenty-third day of the waxing moon on the wall of the stove stove king, is the painter pre-drawn. He is a fake big brother manifestation of the spirit of the town to scare the children nieces and nephews, I do not expect this method is really effective. So when the neighbors came to find the painter to find out the situation, he had to pretend to be real, the painted stove king statue distributed to the neighbors. Such as these, passed along the countryside, every family's stove room are affixed with the Zaowang statue. As the years went by, the custom of making offerings to Zao Wang on the 23rd day of the Lunar New Year and praying for the safety of the whole family was formed. After the custom of sacrificing to the stove was spread, since the Zhou Dynasty, the imperial palace also included it in the festival, and the rules of sacrificing to the stove were set up in the whole country, which became a fixed ceremony.
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Sweeping the dust
After the Zaosai festival is held, preparations for the New Year begin in earnest. Every year, from the twenty-third day of the lunar month to New Year's Eve, Chinese folk call this period of time "Spring Festival", also known as "Dust Sweeping Day". Sweeping is the end of the year cleaning, the north called "sweeping room", the south called "dusting". Sweeping dust before the Spring Festival is a traditional habit of our people. Whenever the Spring Festival comes, every household has to clean up the environment, cleaning all kinds of appliances, unwashing bedding curtains, sweeping the courtyard, dusting dust cobwebs, dredge the nullahs and ditches. The whole country is filled with the atmosphere of joyful hygiene, cleanliness and welcoming the New Year.
Interestingly, there is a rather bizarre story about the origin of dust sweeping in ancient times. Legend has it that the ancients believed that there was a three corpses god attached to all human beings, who, like a shadow, followed one's whereabouts and was inseparable. The God of Three Corpses is a guy who likes flattery and loves to make a fuss. He often spread rumors in front of the Jade Emperor, describing the earth as ugly and unappealing. Over time, in the Jade Emperor's impression, the earth was simply a dirty world full of sin. Once. The Three Corpses God secretly reported that the earth was cursing the Heavenly Emperor and wanted to plot against the Heavenly Court. The Jade Emperor was furious and sent down a decree to quickly find out what was going on on earth. Anyone who complained about the gods and blasphemed against them would have their crimes written under the eaves of their houses. The Jade Emperor also ordered Wang Ling Ling to cover them up with a web to mark them. Jade Emperor also ordered Wang Lingguan to go down to the world on New Year's Eve, and wherever he met a family with a mark, he would kill all the family members and leave no one behind. Three corpses of God see this plan is about to succeed, take advantage of the opportunity to fly down to the mortal world, regardless of the green and black and white, viciously in the eaves and corners of each house to do the mark, so that the king of the Ling Palace to come to a cut down to the last one. Just when the three corpses of God in the evil, Zaojun found his whereabouts, alarmed, hastened to find each family Zaowang master to discuss countermeasures. So, came up with a good way, on the twenty-third day of the waxing moon to send the stove from the date, to the New Year's Eve to receive the stove before, each family must clean the house clean, which household is not clean, the Zaosheng master refused to enter the house. We follow the instructions before the ascension of the King Zaowang, sweeping dust, dusting off cobwebs, wiping clean doors and windows, to clean their own homes to a new look. When Wang Lingguan came down to check on New Year's Eve, he found that all the windows of the houses were clear, the lights were brilliant, and the people were reunited with each other, which made the earth a beautiful place to live in. Wang Lingguan couldn't find any marks indicating the bad deeds, so he was very surprised and rushed back to heaven to report the peaceful and happy situation on earth and pray for a happy new year to the Jade Emperor. After hearing this, the Jade Emperor was greatly shocked, and sent down an order to detain the three corpses of the God, ordered to slap his mouth 300 times, and detained him in the heavenly prison forever. This time, the earthly calamity was spared thanks to the rescue of the God of Zao. In order to be grateful to the king of the stove for people to get rid of the disaster, blessing Zhangxiang, so the folk dust always in the send stove after the start, until the busy New Year's Eve.
The custom of "dusting and sweeping the house on the 24th day of the Lunar New Year" has a long history. According to "Lv's Spring and Autumn Annals" records, our country in the era of Yao and Shun on the Spring Festival dust sweeping custom. According to folklore: because of "dust" and "Chen" consonant, dust sweeping in the New Year has the meaning of "get rid of Chen Bu Xin", and its intention is to all "poor luck", "bad luck" are swept out the door. This custom is the desire of the people to break with the old and the new, and the old and the new prayers.
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Chinese New Year Couplets
Chinese New Year Couplets, as a unique form of literature, has a long history in China. It started during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, and flourished especially during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and has developed for more than 1,000 years today.
Before the Qin and Han dynasties, it was the custom of the Chinese folk to hang peach symbols on the left and right sides of the main doors during the New Year. Peach talisman is made of peach wood, two large boards, on which are written the names of the legendary ghost-subduing gods "Shentian (tu)" and "Yu Shi" to drive away ghosts and suppress evil spirits. This custom continued for more than a thousand years. It was only in the Fifth Dynasty that people began to inscribe couplets on mahogany boards in place of the names of the gods and goddesses. According to historical records, the couplet inscribed on the bedroom door by Meng Chang (chang), the lord of Shu, on New Year's Eve in 964 A.D., "New Year's Day is a blessing for all, and the Jiacheng Festival is a long spring" is one of the earliest spring couplets in China.
After the Song Dynasty, it was quite common for people to hang spring couplets on New Year's Day, so Wang Anshi's poem "New Year's Day", which reads, "On the day of the pupil of thousands of households, new peaches are replaced with old ones," is a true portrayal of the spring couplet scene at that time. Because the appearance of spring couplets and peach symbols have a close relationship, so the ancients also called spring couplets "peach symbols".
In the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, strongly advocated couplets. After he set up his capital in Jinling (now Nanjing), he ordered ministers, officials and ordinary people to write a pair of couplets on the door before New Year's Eve, and he personally went out on patrol in civilian clothes, viewing them door-to-door for fun. At that time, the literati also took the question of couplets as an elegant fun, write the spring couplets will become a social trend.
After the Qing Dynasty, Qianlong, Jiaqing, Daoguang three dynasties, couplets as prosperous as the poetry of the Tang Dynasty, a number of popular famous couplets.
With the development of cultural exchanges between countries, couplets were introduced to Vietnam, Korea, Japan, Singapore and other countries. These countries still retain the custom of posting couplets.
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New Year's Paintings
On New Year's Day, people not only put up Spring Festival couplets and cut window flowers, but also love to hang and paste New Year's paintings in their living rooms and bedrooms. A new painting adds a joyful festive atmosphere to every household.
New Year's paintings are an ancient folk art of our country, which reflects the customs and beliefs of the people, and holds the hope of people for the future. New Year paintings, like spring scrolls, originated from "door gods". While the Spring Festival couplets were developed from the names of Goddess of Mercy and Yubi to words, the New Year paintings are still developed along the direction of paintings.
With the rise of woodblock printing, the content of the New Year's paintings has not only limited to the God of the Door and so on, and gradually invited the God of Wealth to the home, and then in some of the New Year's paintings in the workshop produced the "Three Stars of Fortune and Longevity," "Heavenly Officials Provide Blessings," "Five Grains and Plenty of Fortune," "Six Animals Prosperity," "Welcoming the Spring to receive the blessing of" colorful New Year's paintings to meet the people's joyful praying for the New Year's good wishes.
Because Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of Ming Dynasty, advocated the Spring Festival to post Spring Festival couplets, New Year's Paintings were also influenced by its influence and then flourished, the country appeared three important places of origin of New Year's Paintings: Peach Blossom Dock in Suzhou, Yang Liu Qing in Tianjin and Weifang in Shandong; formed three major genres of New Year's Paintings in our country.
China's earliest collection of New Year's Paintings is the Southern Song Dynasty "with the fairness of the country's face" woodcut New Year's Paintings, painted Wang Zhaojun, Zhao Feiyan, Banji and Green Pearl four ancient beauties. However, the most widely circulated folk painting in China is the one of "The Mouse Marrying Her Marriage". This painting depicts an interesting scene of a mouse marrying a bride in accordance with the customs of the earth. The composition of the painting is vivid and lively. This painting left an indelible impression on Mr. Lu Xun. As he said, this painting "The Mouse Marries the Bride" not only arouses the interest of adults, but also has a stronger artistic impact on children.
Folk legend has it that the night of New Year's Eve is an auspicious time for rats to marry, and people have to put some food under the bed, between the stoves, as a gift to the rat groom, in order to pray for a bumper crop in the coming year. Some grandmothers before going to bed often teased the child said: "quickly hide the shoes, do not let the rats steal when the sedan chair." This is the origin of this saying. Therefore, the yearbook "Mouse Marriage" can especially cause children's **** Ming.
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New Year's Eve Dinner
New Year's Eve is an extremely important day for Chinese people. On this day people prepare to get rid of the old and welcome the new by having a reunion dinner. In ancient China, some prison officials even let prisoners go home to spend New Year's Eve with their families, which shows how important the "New Year's Eve dinner" was to the ancient Chinese.
The annual New Year's Eve dinner is a great example of the mutual respect and love among members of the Chinese family, which brings the family closer together. Family reunion often makes the head of the family to get comfort and satisfaction in spirit, the elderly see children and grandchildren, the family **** to talk about the family, the past care and raising children to pay the effort is not in vain, this is how happy. The younger generation, too, can take this opportunity to express their gratitude to their parents for their upbringing.
Children playing with firecrackers, but also the housewives in the kitchen is the busiest time, New Year's dishes are done a few days before, and the New Year's Eve dinner is always in the New Year's Eve on the day of the cook to do out. In the north, the dumplings on the first day of the New Year are also wrapped up on the evening of the thirtieth. At this time the cutting boards of the families are thumping and busy chopping meat and vegetables. At this time, the sound of the chopping board from every household, the sound of firecrackers from the streets and alleys, small stores and stores out of the "chopping and popping" sound of the abacus and the rhythmic sound of the accounts, mixed with the sound of laughter everywhere, one after another, the ocean full of ears, interweaving into the New Year's Eve joyful music.
Speaking of the knife and anvil sound of New Year's Eve, Deng Yunxiang wrote "Yanjing Native Records" but recorded a very bleak story of New Year's Eve: the poor in the old days of life is difficult, thirty nights is a pass. In one family, the husband had not yet returned with the money by the late evening of the 30th, "the bottles of corn at home were exhausted early, and there was nothing for the New Year's goods. Woman at home to put the children to bed, at a loss, heard the neighbor's anvil sound, pain to the extreme, do not know whether the husband can take some money or something back, do not know how to live tomorrow this year, but also afraid of their own home no anvil sound to make people laugh, then take a knife to chop empty anvil, while thumping the chopping, while the tears weeping down ......, this story makes people listen to it. Indeed heartbreaking.
Eating New Year's Eve dinner, is the Spring Festival families the most lively and enjoyable time. New Year's Eve. Abundant New Year's Eve dishes on the table, the whole family reunion, sitting around the table, *** eat a reunion dinner, the heart of the fullness is really difficult to describe. People are enjoying the table full of delicacies, but also to enjoy the happy atmosphere, the table has a big dish, cold pots, stir-fry, snacks, generally less than two things, one is the hot pot, the other is the fish. One is fish. Hot pot boiling, steaming, warm and inviting, indicating that the red hot; "fish" and "Yu" resonance, is a symbol of "good luck", but also a metaphor for "year after year". There are also turnips, commonly known as "choy tau", wishing good luck; lobster, popping fish and other fried food, wishing prosperity for the family, such as "blazing fire cooking oil". Finally, more for a sweet food, wishing sweet days ahead, this day, even if you do not drink alcohol, but also more or less drink a little. In ancient times, New Year's Eve drinking, pay close attention to the quality of wine, some wine is no longer available, leaving only many moving wine names, such as "grape spirits", "orchid cocktails", "Yichun wine", "plum blossom wine", "peach blossom wine", "Tusu wine", etc. Among these wines, the most popular is the "Tusu wine". Among these wines, the one that has been passed down for the longest time and is the most popular is Tusu Wine. But how did Tusu Wine get its name? And what was it made of? The legend never varies.
Tusu is the name of a kind of grass, and some people say that tusu is an ancient kind of house tail because the wine brewed in this kind of house, so it is called tusu wine. It is said that Tu Su wine was created by Hua Tuo, a famous doctor at the end of the Han Dynasty, and its formula is rhubarb, atractylodes, cinnamon sticks, windproof, peppercorns, aconite, epiphyllum, and other traditional Chinese medicines into the wine immersion and become. This kind of medicine has the efficacy of benefiting qi and warming yang, dispelling wind and dispersing cold, and avoiding the evil of epidemic. Later by the Tang Dynasty famous doctor Sun Simiao spread. Sun Simiao every year in the waxing moon, always give a packet of medicine to the neighbors, telling everyone to medicine brew wine, New Year's Eve into drink, can prevent the plague. Sun Simiao also named his house "Tu Su House". Afterwards, through generations, drinking tusu wine became a New Year's custom. In ancient times, the method of drinking Tusu Wine was very unique. Generally speaking, people always start drinking from the oldest person, but drinking Tusu Wine is just the opposite, starting from the youngest person. That is to say, when a family gathers to drink Tusu Wine, they start from the youngest children first, and the older ones come after them, drinking a little bit of wine one by one. The Song Dynasty writer Su Zhe's poem "New Year's Day" says: "Drinking Tusu at the end of the year, I don't realize that I am more than seventy years old." It is this custom that is spoken of. Some people did not understand the significance of this custom, and Dong Xun explained, "The young get the year, so they are congratulated; the old lose the year, so they are punished." This custom was still prevalent in the Song Dynasty. For example, Su Shi said in his poem "Outside Changzhou City on New Year's Eve", "But I will put my poverty and sorrows on a long and healthy life, and I will not quit drinking tusu at the end of the day." Su Shi in his later years, although poor and downtrodden, but the spirit is very optimistic, he believes that as long as the body is healthy, although old age does not care, the last penalty to drink Tusu wine naturally do not have to excuse. This unique order of drinking, in ancient times, every time people have all kinds of feelings, so people have a deep impression. Until the Qing Dynasty, this custom is still unfailing. Today, this custom is no longer practiced on a large scale, but the custom of drinking these medicinal wines on festivals or during the week still exists.
The New Year's Eve dinner has a lot of names, different from the north and south, with dumplings, wontons, long noodles, Lantern, etc., and each has its own instructions. Northern people are accustomed to eating dumplings on New Year's Eve, is to take the old and the new, "change of year," the meaning of the child. And because the white dumplings are shaped like silver dollars, a pot of dumplings on the table to symbolize the "New Year's fortune, Yuanbao rolled in" meaning. When some dumplings are wrapped, several coins sterilized in boiling water are wrapped into them, saying that whoever eats them first will earn more money. The custom of eating dumplings was passed down from the Han Dynasty. According to legend, Zhang Zhongjing, the sage of medicine, saw that the ears of the poor were frostbitten in the winter months, so he made a kind of "Cold-removing Ear Soup" for the poor to cure frostbite. He used mutton, chili peppers and some cold and warm herbs, wrapped in dough into an ear like "Jiao Er", boiled in a pot, distributed to the poor to eat, people ate, feel warm, two ear heat. Afterwards, people followed suit and the tradition has been passed down to this day. Eating wontons in the New Year is to take the meaning of the beginning. Legend has it that the world was chaotic before the creation of the world, Pangu opened up the sky and the earth, so that there is a universe of four sides, long noodles, also known as longevity noodles. Eating noodles in the New Year is to wish for a long life of 100 years.
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Watch the New Year
China's folk in the New Year's Eve has the habit of watching the New Year. It starts with the New Year's Eve dinner, which is eaten slowly, from the time the lanterns are lit, and some people have to eat it until late at night. According to the record of "Jing Chu Yearly Records", there was a custom of having New Year's Eve dinner at least in the North and South Dynasties.
The custom of observing the New Year's Eve is not only a way of saying goodbye to the passing years, but also a way of expressing hope for the coming New Year. Ancient people wrote in a poem of "keeping the New Year's Eve": "We are invited to keep the New Year's Eve at A Rong's house, and the wax torch passes the red to the blue yarn; thirty-six years are all wasted, and we cherish the years from this night." Cherishing years is a common human feeling, so Su Shi, a great poet, wrote the famous lines of the New Year's Eve: "Will there be no year next year, and I am afraid of wasting my time; I will make every effort to do my best this evening, and the youth can still be boasted!" This shows the positive significance of New Year's Eve.
The New Year's Eve celebration is commonly known as the "New Year's Eve". Why do you call it "boiling the year"? There is an interesting story that has been passed down from generation to generation: according to legend, in the ancient flood era, there was a vicious monster, people called him "year". Every New Year's Eve, the beast will crawl out of the sea to hurt people and animals, destroy the fields, disaster in the people who have worked hard for a year. People in order to avoid the beast of the year, the night of Lunar New Year's Eve, the sky is not dark on the early close the door, do not dare to sleep, sit and wait for dawn, in order to kill time, but also for the courage, they drink. Waiting for the first morning of the year the beast no longer come out, only dare to go out. People meet each other, congratulations, congratulations, thankful not to be eaten by the beast of the year, so after many years, nothing happened, people on the beast of the year to relax their vigilance. On the night of the 30th of one year, the beast suddenly scurried to a village in Jiangnan, a village of people almost eaten up by the beast, only one family hanging red curtains, wearing a red dress of the newlyweds are safe and sound. There are a few children, in the yard lit a pile of bamboo at play, the fire red, bamboo burning "pop" burst, the beast turned here, saw the fire scared to turn their heads and fled. Since then, people know that the beast is afraid of red, afraid of light, afraid of the sound, every year-end, every family will stick red paper, wear red robes, hanging red lights, banging gongs and drums, firecrackers, so that the beast will not dare to come back. In the poem "Shijing-Xiaoya. Tingliao", there is a record of "Tingliao Zhiguang" (Light of Tingliao). The so-called "Tingliao" is made of bamboo poles and other torches, bamboo poles burn, the air in the bamboo expansion, bamboo cavity burst, issued by the crackling sound, which is also the "firecrackers" origin. However, in some places, the villagers do not know the New Year beast afraid of red, often eaten by the New Year beast. This matter later spread to the sky of the purple star, he in order to save the people, determined to eliminate the beast of the year. One year, he waited for the beast to come out, he used a fireball to knock it down, and then used a thick iron chain to lock it on a stone pillar. From then on, every New Year's Eve, people always burned incense and asked Zi Wei Xing to come down to the world to keep them safe.
On this night of "one night and two years, five nights and two years", families are reunited and gather together. The whole family sits together, refreshments and fruits on a table. New Year's Day offerings, a large plate of apples is indispensable, which is called "peace and security". In the north, some people also want to provide a pot of rice, burned before, to provide for the New Year, called the "New Year's Eve rice", is leftover rice year after year, year-round food, this year also ate the meaning of the food of the past year. This pot of next year's rice is generally mixed with rice and millet to cook, Beijing slang called "two rice", in order to have yellow and white, which is called "gold and silver, gold and silver pot full of" "gold and silver rice". Many places in the New Year's Eve prepared cakes and fruits, are trying to get a lucky mouth: eat jujube (early spring), eat persimmon cakes (everything is as good as it can be), eat almonds (happy people), eat long-life fruit (longevity), eat rice cakes (a year higher than a year). On New Year's Eve, the family, while eating and having fun, talk and laugh. There are also popular families pushing pai gow, rolling dice, betting on pokies, playing mahjong, the sound of noise and laughter into the climax of the New Year's Eve joy.
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Bamboos
When the midnight hour, the New Year's bell rang, the whole of China over the land, the sound of firecrackers ringing the sky. In this "year of yuan, the month of yuan, the time of yuan" of the "three yuan" moment, some places also in the courtyard base "Wang Huo", in order to show that the prosperous gas through the sky, prosperous and prosperous. In the burning fire around the fire, the children set off firecrackers, joyfully jumping around, then, inside the house is bright lights, in front of the court is brilliant sparks, outside the house is the sound of the sky, the New Year's Eve atmosphere pushed to the climax of the bustling. Poets and ink masters throughout the ages have always praised the coming of the New Year with the most beautiful poems. Wang Anshi's poem "New Year's Day" reads: "The sound of firecrackers marks the end of the year, and the spring breeze sends warmth to the people. A thousand doors and tens of thousands of households are filled with pupils on the New Year's Day. The new peach is always replaced by the old one.
Depicting the grand festive scenes of our people celebrating the Spring Festival, the Qing Dynasty, Pan Rong ah in the book "Imperial Capital Years and Years of Jisheng" book, the New Year's Eve firecrackers at that time made the following record: "the second of the New Year's Eve, night and night, outside the door of the torch, Jade Ko competing for the light, and firecrackers like waves of thunder. And firecrackers such as waves of thunder, all over the countryside, all night without stopping." The Dream of the Red Chamber" is also depicted: "the yard under the screen frame, will be set up fireworks hanging ready, the fireworks are all tribute from various places, although not very large. But very delicate. All colors of the story is complete, sandwiched between the various colors of the fireworks. Between words. Outside a colorful put and put. And there are many 'stars in the sky', 'nine dragons into the clouds', 'thunder on the ground', 'flying ten ringing' and so on the sporadic small cannonballs." From this can also be seen in the old days of the New Year fireworks spectacle.
The sound of firecrackers is the sign of the old and the new, the festive mood of the flow. Business people. Firecrackers have another meaning: they are in the New Year's Eve firecrackers is for the new year Dafa Dali.
The first thing we do after the firecrackers back to the house is to worship heaven and earth, welcome the gods, ancestors. In ancient times, this ritual was very popular. Because of the different customs around the different forms of ancestor worship, some to the field to visit the ancestral tomb, some to the ancestral ancestral worship, and most of the ancestors at home will be placed in order in the main hall, display offerings, and then the worshippers in the order of the eldest and youngest on the incense kneeling. Southerners also after ancestor worship, check the calendar contained in this year's auspicious direction, burning lanterns and torches, pots of wine, incense ringing firecrackers, open the door to travel to meet the God of joy, said "out of the sky" or "travel", Zhejiang called "out of the search", Shanghai, called "Tou Hei Shen Fang". This custom is to tend to good luck, praying to the gods to bless a year of everything goes smoothly. New Year's Eve is to stay up all night, all night.
The morning of the Spring Festival, open the door for good luck, the first firecrackers, called "open the door cannonball". After the sound of firecrackers, broken red all over the ground, brilliant as a cloud of brocade, known as "full of red". At this time, the street is full of gas, joyful.
During the Spring Festival, the streets and alleys of the thoroughfares, large families hanging lights and colors. The streets, alleys and lanes, the township material society, everywhere, a hundred arts, each presenting high technology, lively and extraordinary countryside more than invited troupe troupe play, but also to carry out listening to the Taoist love, twisting rice-planting songs, singing flower drums and all kinds of varieties of recreation and play, but also the lion dance, play dragon lanterns, and other cultural and sports activities. People are happy, **** celebration of the New Year. In ancient times, the original meaning of the term "paying homage" was to pay homage to the elders to celebrate the New Year, including bowing to the elders, congratulating them on the New Year, and greeting them for a good life. When there are relatives and friends of the same generation, they should also bow to congratulate them.
The New Year's greetings generally begin at home. On the morning of the first day of the new year, the younger generation to get up, the first to the elders to pay tribute to the new year, blessing the elders a long and healthy life, all the best. After the elders to be worshiped, will be prepared in advance "New Year's money" to the younger generation. After paying New Year's greetings to the elders in the family, people should also congratulate the New Year with a big smile when they meet each other outside, saying "congratulations on wealth", "four seasons as you wish", "Happy New Year" and other auspicious words, and the left and right neighbors or friends and relatives also pay New Year's greetings to each other or invite each other to have a drink and enjoy the entertainment. Meng Yuanlao of the Song Dynasty described Bianjing of the Northern Song Dynasty in the sixth volume of Tokyo Dreaming Records: "On October 1, the New Year's Day, Kaifeng Province puts off pouncing for three days, and the public and the common people celebrate with each other since the early morning." Lu Rong in the middle of the Ming Dynasty in the "Beans Garden Miscellany" Volume 5, said "the capital on New Year's Day, from the court officials, down to the common people, to and from the staggered road for days, called 'New Year's Day'. However, the common people worship their friends and relatives out of the heart. Dynasty officials to and from, is more general love is not special ...... ". Qing Gu Tieqing in the "Qing Jia Record" described, "men and women in order to worship parents after the main rate of young, out of the neighboring relatives and friends, or only sent his son or daughter on behalf of the congratulations, so-called 'New Year's Eve'. To the end of the year do not meet, this time also to each other to worship in the door ......."
Anciently, if or neighborhood friends and relatives are too many, it is difficult to visit the door, so that the servants with business cards to pay tribute to the New Year, known as the "fly post", the door of each house to paste a red paper bag, written on the "receive the blessing of the two words, that is, to bear the use of the fly post. This custom began in the Song Dynasty upper class. The Qing Dynasty's "Monthly Order of Yantai" describes Beijing's New Year's Festival: "This is also the month when pieces fly and empty cars go away." It became fashionable." Large families ad hoc "door book" to remember the guests and fly piece of correspondence, the door book of the first page of the virtual "pro-arrivals" four people: one said the life of a hundred years old master, live in a hundred years of Fangxiang lane; one said the rich Yu master, live in Yuanbao Street; one said that no one is very big, live in the University of the University of the Tower; one said that the Fuzhulin master, live in the Five Fortunes building. In order to try to auspicious to curry favor. To date, the Chinese New Year gift of New Year's tablets, New Year's cards, is the legacy of this ancient send each other fly post.
The upper class scholarly men had the custom of throwing congratulations to each other with famous posters. Song Zhou Hui in the "Qingbo Magazine" said: "Song Yuanyou years, New Year's greetings, often using servants to hold the name of the thorn on behalf of the go". At that time, the scholars traveled widely, if around the door to pay tribute to the New Year, both time-consuming, but also exhausting energy, so some of the relationship is not close to the friends do not go in person, but to send a servant to take a kind of paper with plum blossom paper cut into two inches wide, three inches long, written on the top of the name of the recipient of the congratulations, address and congratulations on the words of the card to go to on behalf of the New Year's greeting. People in the Ming Dynasty to visit instead of New Year's greeting. Ming Dynasty distinguished painter, poet Wen Zhengming in the "New Year" poem described: "do not seek to meet but through the visit, the name of the paper towards the full sheltered hut; I also cast a number of paper with the people, the world hate Jane not suspected of false". Here the "famous prick" and "famous visit" is the origin of the present New Year's card. New Year's cards are used for contacting and exchanging greetings