The Spring Festival (Lao She) in Beijing follows the old rules in Beijing, and the Lunar New Year (Spring Festival) starts almost in the early days of the twelfth lunar month.

"The coldest time of the year is the coldest time of the year."

However, when winter comes, spring will soon come, so people do not reduce their enthusiasm for celebrating the New Year and welcoming the spring because of the cold.

On the day of Laba, people in homes and temples cook Laba porridge.

This kind of special porridge is used to worship ancestors and gods, but if you think about it carefully, it is a manifestation of the pride of agricultural society - this kind of porridge is made from all kinds of rice, all kinds of beans, and all kinds of dried fruits.

(Almonds, walnut kernels, melon seeds, lychee meat, lotus seeds, peanuts, raisins, water chestnuts...) cooked.

This is not porridge, but a small agricultural exhibition.

On Laba day, you also need to soak Laba garlic.

Put the garlic cloves in high vinegar on this day, seal them up, and use them to eat dumplings during the New Year.

By the end of the year, the soaked garlic will be as green as emeralds, and the vinegar will also have a spicier taste. The color and taste are both delicious, making people want to eat more dumplings.

In Beijing, every family eats dumplings during the Chinese New Year.

Since Laba, shops have stepped up their efforts to sell New Year's goods, and there have been more stalls on the streets - those selling Spring Festival couplets, New Year paintings, honey offerings, daffodils, etc., which only appear during this season.

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These New Year stalls make children's hearts beat very fast.

In the alleys, the shouting sounds were more numerous and complex than usual, and some of them only appeared in the twelfth lunar month, such as those selling constitutions, pine branches, barley rice, rice cakes, etc.

When there was an emperor, school children stopped going to school on the 19th day of the twelfth lunar month and had a month-long annual holiday.

When children prepare to celebrate the New Year, almost the first thing they do is buy mixed food.

This is made by blending various dried fruits (peanuts, dates, hazelnuts, chestnuts, etc.) with candied fruits. The ordinary ones are with skin, and the high-end ones are without skin - for example: ordinary hazelnuts with skin are used, and high-end hazelnuts are made of hazelnut pulp.

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Children love to eat these odds and ends. Even if there are no dumplings to eat, they must buy the dumplings.

Their second big thing is to buy firecrackers, especially the boys.

I'm afraid the third thing is to buy toys - kites, diabolo, harmonica, etc. - and New Year pictures.

Children are busy and adults are nervous.

They must prepare everything to eat, drink and drink during the New Year.

They also have to rush to make new shoes and new clothes for the children so that they can show a renewed atmosphere in the New Year.

Celebrating the Little New Year on the 23rd is almost a "dress rehearsal" for celebrating the New Year.

In the old society, every family would pay homage to the Stove King that night. Firecrackers would go off as soon as it got dark, and the paper statue of the Stove God would be burned with the sound of the firecrackers, which was called sending the Stove King to heaven.

In the past few days, there were a lot of maltose and glutinous rice candy sellers on the street. The candies were either in the shape of long squares or large and small melons.

According to the old saying: If sugar sticks to the Kitchen King's mouth, he will not report bad things in his family to the Jade Emperor when he reaches heaven.

Nowadays, there are still candy sellers, but they are only for everyone to enjoy, and they no longer stick to the Kitchen King's mouth.

After the 23rd, everyone becomes even busier, and the New Year is here in the blink of an eye.

Before New Year's Eve, every family must put up the Spring Festival couplets and do a general cleaning, which is called house cleaning.

It is necessary to prepare enough meat, chicken, fish, vegetables, rice cakes, etc., at least enough to last for a week. According to the old custom, most shops close their doors for five days and do not open until the sixth day of the first lunar month.

If you do not prepare food for the next few days, it will not be easy to replenish it temporarily.

Also, old mothers in the old society insisted on cutting out everything that should be cut out on New Year's Eve, so as not to use the knife again on the first to fifth day of the first lunar month. It is unlucky to use the knife or scissors.

This has a superstitious meaning, but it also shows that we are indeed peace-loving people who are unwilling to even move a kitchen knife at the first year of life.

New Year's Eve is so lively.

Every family is preparing New Year dishes, and the aroma of wine and meat is everywhere.

Men and women of all ages wear new clothes, red couplets are posted outside the door, and various New Year pictures are posted inside the house. Every house is lit up all night without interruption, and the sound of cannons is continuous day and night.

Those who work outside must rush home to have a reunion dinner and worship their ancestors unless absolutely necessary.

This night, except for very young children, no one slept, and they all had to stay up late on New Year's Eve.

The scene on New Year's Day is completely different from that on New Year's Eve: on New Year's Eve, the streets are crowded with people; on New Year's Day, the shops are all boarded up, with cardboard paper from firecrackers set off last night piled in front of the door, and the whole city is resting.

Men go out before noon to visit relatives and friends' homes to pay New Year's greetings.

Women receive guests at home.

At the same time, there are many temples inside and outside the city open for people to visit. Vendors set up stalls outside the temples selling tea, food and various toys.

The Dazhong Temple outside the North City, the Baiyun Temple outside the West City, and the Fire Temple (Changdian) in the South City are the most famous.

However, the first two or three days after the temple opened was not very lively because people were too busy wishing each other New Year greetings and had no time to do so.

On the fifth and sixth day of the lunar month, temple fairs become more popular, and children are particularly enthusiastic about going there so they can see the wild scenery outside the city, ride donkeys, and buy toys unique to the New Year.

There were cars and horses racing in the square outside Baiyun Temple; in old age, it is said that there were camels racing.

These competitions do not compete for who is first and who is second, but to demonstrate the beautiful postures and skills of the mules, horses and riders in front of the audience.

Most shops opened on the sixth day of the Lunar New Year and set off firecrackers. From dawn to early morning, the whole city was filled with the sound of firecrackers.

Although it is open, except for the shops selling food and other important daily necessities, everyone is not very busy. The shopkeepers can also take turns visiting temples, walking on the overpass, and listening to plays.

Yuanxiao (glutinous rice balls) are on the market, and the climax of the New Year has arrived - the Lantern Festival (from the 13th to the 17th of the first lunar month).

New Year's Eve is lively, but there is no moonlight; as for the Lantern Festival, the moon is bright in the sky.