Chinese New Year

1. Sweeping and patrolling In Xinghua dialect, general cleaning is called "sweeping and patrolling". This is a good hygiene tradition. As the saying goes: "Thousands of repairs will make you clean and you will see your ancestors"; "Sweep the light in all directions and you will be cleansed and see your ancestors". The sweep day is generally scheduled from the 10th to the 20th of the twelfth lunar month. Households choose a sunny day among the "double days" ("double days" is the auspicious number for Puxian people), and move the things that can be moved at home. Move them outdoors, wash them first and expose them to the sun, dry them first, and then disinfect them. Then "sweep" the room again.

2. Sacrifice to the Kitchen God. On the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, a "Sacrifice to the Kitchen God" is held, which is to send the God of the Kitchen to heaven. When worshiping, a paper thread is burned and sent to the Kitchen God to pray for the Jade Emperor's blessings and abundant food and clothing. f2N*_ Jl~U

Third and twenty-fifth day

The twenty-fifth day of the twelfth lunar month is a customary day in Puxian, commonly known as "the twenty-fifth day" head". This day is usually a sunny day, and it is said to be the day when "the heavenly officials give blessings". This day is also a day to show kindness and accumulate virtue. All money and grains that are made to the gods for various reasons must be sent to the City God's Temple (or the village temple), and the handlers will turn them into alms for the poor and beggars. You must do good deeds on this day. If you have unpaid debts, you cannot collect the debts.

4. Making rice cakes

Starting from December 26, every household makes tofu and buys new year’s goods, especially making rice cakes is the busiest.

Puxian also prepares other new year products during the New Year, such as making tofu. After the 1980s, in well-off families, seasonal delicacies gradually replaced traditional rice cakes and food.

5. Say goodbye to the New Year

The day before "New Year's Eve", commonly known as "Little New Year's Eve", every household sets off firecrackers and posts New Year's couplets. That night, every household lights candles in the hall, stacks red tangerine fruits in the shape of a tower, inserts "Three Spring" paper flowers on them, provides "New Year's rice" on the stove, prepares rich sacrifices and "tribute silver", and offers sacrifices to the gods of heaven and earth, which is called "Ci Nian" . t!N.qb e9]6H

New Year's Eve is commonly known as: "Zuo Sui", and New Year's Eve is called "Thirty Dark". When the moon meets the moon, it is called "Twenty-Nine Ming", and when the whole family has a banquet at the same table, it is called "Wei Lu". Generally, 10 bowls of banquet dishes are prepared. The tails of fish are not cut off, and the crabs have 10 whole legs. After the banquet, firecrackers are set off, and the elders share the New Year's money with the children. They usually stay up all night, which is commonly known as "watching the New Year's Eve."

Since the 1980s, with the improvement of people's living standards, adult younger generations often donate lucky money to their elderly elders. To show filial piety.

During the Chinese New Year, people in Putian have the custom of making "red dumplings" and "sweet potato cakes". One is to honor the ancestors, the other is to bring good seasonal food, and the third is to bring prosperity, good fortune and peace to the family. , the meaning of happy reunion.

The production of "red dough" skin requires some skills. After soaking the glutinous rice in water, pick it up and drain it, grind it into rice powder by hand (commonly known as "rice sacrifice"), sift it again and again to get the finest powder, dry it and set aside. When using, add an appropriate amount of boiling water and "food red" and knead it into a pink dough, roll it into a round strip, and then pick it into equal pieces of dough with your hands.

The fillings of "red dumplings" are mostly sweet or salty. For sweet ones, just add brown sugar; for salty ones, add chopped green onion, shredded shiitake mushrooms and mashed fried peanuts to give it a unique local flavor. The fillings of "red dumplings" are divided into three categories: first, mung beans are used as filling (mung beans are cleaned and shelled to remove sand and impurities). Commonly called "mung bean stuffing"; one is filled with glutinous rice, commonly known as "glutinous rice stuffing"; one is filled with dry sweet potato powder, because in the past, mountainous areas and coastal areas produced little rice, and the staple food throughout the year was "sweet potato" and "sweet potato". Dry". Making dumplings with "dried sweet potato stuffing" during the "New Year's Day" is a simple folk custom that does not forget the hard days.

When making "red balls", housewives must divide the labor skillfully. The dough roll should be moderately thick and thin, not too thick or too thin; the dough filling should be uniform in size (grains), not too big or too small, and the two should be properly matched. Otherwise, after the dough is wrapped with stuffing and printed with the "red dough seal", sometimes it will be crushed, and sometimes it will be too small and unsightly. When making "red dumplings", the housewife demonstrates and guides the women and children in rolling out the dough, kneading the fillings, printing, lining with "kuiye" (scientific name: "Linhe"), cutting off the excess corners, and placing them neatly in the cooking utensils , fasten the cooking lid, steam for about 25 minutes and then take it out of the oven and it is ready to eat.

The wood seal used in "Red Tuan" is commonly known as "Red Tuan". It is an exquisite handmade craft.

The words "rich", "noble", "longevity", "happy" and so on are engraved in the impression, and there are also flower and bird patterns engraved around it, which means that "sweet potato" is the main material of "sweet potato", and fresh "sweet potato" is first made. Peel, wash, cut into pieces, steam, remove tendons and hard particles, chop into pure and soft "sweet potato puree", put it into a porcelain jar, add "rice sacrifice" and yeast dough, ferment and then add an appropriate amount Mix white sugar (or brown sugar) and alkali, then print carefully, add red dots on it, put it in a steamer and steam it until it is ready for food. The color red in "dianhong" also means that a family is prosperous, and "qi" (in dialect) means development and prosperity. "Sweet potato" is characterized by strong sweet potato flavor, soft fragrance and delicious taste. It is a seasonal and economical farm food.

"Red Rice Balls" and "Sweet Potato Rice Balls" are the unique food culture of Putian people during the "New Year".

Celebrate the New Year on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year (the fifth day of the Lunar New Year in Xianyou area)

In the 41st year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty (1562), Japanese pirates invaded Fujian and occupied Hengyu Island in Ningde, They established strongholds in Niutian, Fuqing and Lindun, Putian, and went out to burn, kill, and loot. Xinghua Fucheng (today's Putian City) was captured by Japanese pirates at midnight on the 29th day of the 11th lunar month and occupied for two months. Xinghua City was burned to the ground, and more than 30,000 people died. At that time, men, women, and children in Putian rose up to resist, but the Japanese pirates had their tongues cut off and their shins cut off, or they were burned or nailed to death. The Japanese pirates' inhumane atrocities shocked the world at home and abroad. On the twenty-fifth day of the first lunar month of the following year, due to the uninhabitable stench of dead bodies in the city, the Japanese pirates had to temporarily retreat to Pinghai until the anti-Japanese hero Qi Jiguang arrived and Xinghua City was recovered. At this time, the people who fled to the mountainous areas returned home one after another on the second day of February. On the one hand, everyone is burying the bodies of relatives and friends, and on the other hand, they are cleaning up their broken homes. At this time, the New Year has passed, and people have to visit each other on the second day of February and then do the New Year again on the fourth day of February.

Later, in order to commemorate this tragic period in Putian, the people of Putian, as before, "made the New Year" on the night of the 30th day of the twelfth lunar month, which took too long. Therefore, the people in Putian agreed to change the fourth day of the second lunar month to "do the new year" (circling the furnace) on the fourth day of the first lunar month. Because farming is busy in February of the lunar calendar, if the "new year" is done on the second day of the second lunar month, the new year will be changed. The night of the thirtieth day is changed to "doing the small year", and the night of the fourth day of the first lunar month is called "doing the big year". At the same time, the second day of February was designated as the second day of the first month, as an ominous day to visit relatives and friends who were injured or dead, commonly known as the Day of Visiting the Dead. To this day, people in Putian do not visit each other to pay New Year greetings or visit relatives and friends on this day every year.

The customs of Xianyou County, which is also Putian City, are different from those of Putian City (formerly Putian County). Putian celebrates the Lunar New Year on the fourth day of the first lunar month, while Xianyou County celebrates the Lunar New Year on the fifth day of the first lunar month. This is because after the Japanese pirates captured Putian City that year, they invaded Xianyou County on a large scale in the following winter, killing and plundering everywhere. The people in Xianyou City fled everywhere, were displaced, and could not reunite for the New Year. It was not until Qi Jiguang's troops arrived and the Japanese pirates fled that the people were able to reunite. From the 43rd year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty (1564), the folk custom of Xianyou was on the fifth day of the first lunar month. Wu Tingzhu (supervisor of Xinghua Prefecture) from Wuzhai died in the war against the Japanese. To commemorate him, the villagers set the fifth day of the first lunar month as a day of mourning. Therefore, the people of Wuzhai have the custom of not "doing the New Year" on the fifth day of the first lunar month. In the Puxian area, the custom of "doing New Year's Eve" on the fourth and fifth day of the first lunar month has been followed to this day.

Spring Festival

The Spring Festival is the most solemn traditional festival in customs. In Puxian area, the first to fifth days of the first lunar month are called "five-day old age". On the morning of the first day of the lunar month, firecrackers are set off when the door is opened. Each family worships the gods and ancestors, offering threads, noodles, candles, and cannons. After the ceremony, the whole family eats threads. Noodles, one bowl per person, wishing the whole family longevity. On the second day of the Lunar New Year, we do not interact with each other, and we do not visit each other to pay New Year greetings. Only those who come and visit on the first day of the Lunar New Year are not prohibited. On the third day of the Lunar New Year, each household conducts "welcoming the new year". The so-called "welcoming the new year" is a response to the "sending off the new year" at the end of the previous year. On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, as we continue to "welcome the New Year", there is a custom of "begging for grass for the Bodhisattva": children hold the statues and, surrounded by a team of vehicles and drums, collect firewood from each household. In the afternoon, "Mommy asks for flowers", hoping to protect her and give birth to a baby soon. In the evening, firewood is piled up in front of the temple and burned, and each household performs a ceremony to receive the firewood. When the firewood is completely burned, everyone uses long tongs to grab the unburned firewood and return home quickly. On the day, the "Fire Mother" hopes that wealth will come like fire.

Spring Wine for the Divine Birthday

The ninth day of the first lunar month is said to be the birthday of the "Jade Emperor". At midnight on the eighth day of the lunar month, every household lights candles and burns incense, bows to the sky, and prays for good health. An auspicious year. On the ninth day of the Lunar New Year, religious men and women from all over Putian flocked to the Lingyun Hall in Hugong Mountain to worship the Jade Emperor or to offer incense at the Jade Emperor Hall in Shishiyan, west of Pucheng. Both places hired Puxian opera performers on that day, which was very lively.

It is said that newlyweds can have a boy by "walking on the Jade Emperor Road" on the ninth day of the first lunar month.

On the tenth day of the first lunar month, officials and gentry invite each other to drink, which is called "passing the throne wine". This was originally an old custom in Chang'an, but was renamed "Spring Wine" by Pu customs. One or two days before the event, the officials and gentry would write the names of the people who wanted to be invited on a post, and send people to sign from door to door. When the banquet was due, people with high status would have to go to many places to celebrate the banquet. seats. Inviting "spring wine" is an essential thing for officials and gentry in the New Year. Working people do not have this customary practice. They only take their children with them when visiting relatives and invite each other to eat tea, cakes, candies or other snacks.

Lantern Festival The Lantern Festival starts from the sixth day of the first lunar month and ends on the 20th day of the first lunar month. Each village has different days. The fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the first full moon night of the year, is the day of the Lantern Festival, commonly known as "Lanxiao Heart".

The Lantern Festival is quite lively in Puxian. Although the time, content, and form of the Lantern Festival are not exactly the same in various places in Puxian, they all reflect the tone of "taking the gods as the mainstay, and the gods and the people enjoy together", especially in rural areas. protrude. Each village (called "Jing" in the past) and each sect cluster hold the Lantern Festival around their respective village communities, which usually lasts for three days, and some even jointly hold the Lantern Festival. When celebrating the Lantern Festival in rural areas, performances are generally performed to reward the gods, and fireworks are interspersed with the "Nuo performance". To celebrate the Lantern Festival, married men in each local community take turns serving as the "blessing chief" every year. They are responsible for burning incense, cleaning, offering sacrifices to the community gods, collecting the community gods' robes, sacrificial utensils, etc. during the Lantern Festival. , let every household offer incense

In celebrating the Lantern Festival, various customs are also popular in various places. Every household in each community who got married or gave birth to a boy in the previous year must offer gifts to the gods on Lantern Festival night. , or light a pair of giant candles, called "happy candles". A more special custom is that women who were newly married in the previous year dress up in costumes on the Lantern Festival night and sit in front of their respective temples to let people see the bride's grace. .

The second day of the second lunar month is the "Zhonghe Festival". This day is commonly known as "Touya". Every household offers sacrifices to gods and ancestors. The merchant prepares a banquet and invites the clerk to be the "head tooth". If rural communities do not hold Lantern Festival activities in the first month of the year due to heavy rain or other reasons, they usually hold them on this day, commonly known as "February 2".

In rural areas of Xianyou, "February 2" is called "First Blessing".

In addition~~there are some general ones: The Spring Festival is an ancient festival in our country and the most important festival of the whole year. How to celebrate this festival has been formed over thousands of years of historical development. Many of the more fixed customs and habits are still passed down to this day.

Sweeping dust

"On the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month, dust and sweep the house." According to "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals", my country had the custom of sweeping dust during the Spring Festival in the era of Yao and Shun. According to folklore: because "dust" and "chen" are homophonic, sweeping dust in the New Year means "removing the old and spreading the new", and its purpose is to sweep away all bad luck and bad luck. This custom entrusts people with their desire to destroy the old and establish the new and their prayers to say goodbye to the old and usher in the new. Every Spring Festival comes, every household has to clean the environment, wash all kinds of utensils, remove and wash bedding and curtains, sweep the Liulv courtyard, dust away dirt and cobwebs, and dredge open ditches and ditches. Everywhere is filled with the joyful atmosphere of doing hygiene and welcoming the New Year cleanly.

Spring couplets

Spring couplets are also called door pairs, spring posts, couplets, couplets, peach charms, etc. They describe the background of the times and express good wishes with neat, dual, concise and exquisite words. , is a unique literary form in my country. Every Spring Festival, every household, whether in urban or rural areas, selects a red Spring Festival couplet and pastes it on the door to add a festive atmosphere to the festival. This custom began in the Song Dynasty and became popular in the Ming Dynasty. By the Qing Dynasty, the ideological and artistic quality of Spring Festival couplets had been greatly improved. Liang Zhangju’s Spring Festival Couplets monograph "Three Couples on the Threshold" has a detailed introduction to the origin of the couplets and the characteristics of various works. All discussed.

There are many types of Spring Festival couplets. According to the place of use, they can be divided into door centers, frame pairs, horizontal drapes, spring strips, bucket squares, etc. The "door center" is affixed to the upper center of the door panel; the "frame pair" is affixed to the left and right door frames; the "horizontal stripe" is affixed to the crossbar of the door; the "spring strips" are affixed to the corresponding places according to different contents; "Dojin" is also called "door leaf", which is square and diamond-shaped, and is often attached to furniture and screen walls.

Pasting window grilles and pasting the word "福" upside down

In the folk, people also like to put various paper-cuts - window grilles - on their windows. Window grilles not only enhance the festive atmosphere, but also integrate decoration, appreciation and practicality. Paper-cutting is a very popular folk art in my country and has been loved by people for thousands of years. Because it is mostly pasted on windows, it is also called "window flower". With its unique summary and exaggeration techniques, window grilles vividly express auspicious symbols and good wishes, decorating the festival with prosperity and splendor.

At the same time as pasting Spring Festival couplets, some families have to paste large and small "福" characters on their doors, walls, and lintels. Posting the word "福" during the Spring Festival is a long-standing folk custom in my country. The word "福" refers to blessing and luck, expressing people's yearning for a happy life and their wishes for a better future. In order to more fully reflect this yearning and wish, some people simply paste the word "福" upside down to express "happiness has arrived" and "blessing has arrived". Folks also use the word "Fu" to make various patterns in detail, such as longevity stars, longevity peaches, carps jumping over dragon gates, good harvests, dragons and phoenixes, etc.

New Year pictures

Hanging New Year pictures during the Spring Festival is also very common in urban and rural areas. The thick black and colorful New Year pictures add a lot of prosperity and joy to thousands of households. New Year pictures are an ancient folk art in my country, reflecting the people's simple customs and beliefs, and reposing their hopes for the future. New Year pictures, like Spring Festival couplets, originated from the "door god". With the rise of woodblock printing, the content of New Year paintings is no longer limited to monotonous themes such as door gods, but has become rich and colorful. In some New Year painting workshops, "Three Stars of Fortune, Luxury and Longevity", "Blessings from Heavenly Officials", "Five Grain" Classic color New Year pictures such as "Prosperous Harvest", "Prosperity of Six Livestocks", "Welcoming Spring and Receiving Good Luck" can satisfy people's good wishes of celebrating the good year. There are three important producing areas of New Year paintings in our country: Taohuawu in Suzhou, Yangliuqing in Tianjin and Weifang in Shandong. They have formed three major schools of Chinese New Year paintings, each with its own characteristics.

The earliest New Year paintings collected in our country today are the woodcut New Year paintings of the Southern Song Dynasty, "Slender and Slender with the Beauty of the Country", which depict four ancient beauties: Wang Zhaojun, Zhao Feiyan, Ban Ji and Luzhu. The most widely circulated among the people is a New Year painting of "Mouse Marriage". It depicts an interesting scene of a mouse marrying a bride according to human customs. In the early years of the Republic of China, Shanghai Zheng Mantuo combined the calendar with New Year pictures. This is a new form of New Year pictures. This two-in-one New Year picture later developed into a wall calendar, which is now popular all over the country.

Keeping the year old on New Year's Eve is one of the most important annual customs. The custom of keeping the year old has been around for a long time. The earliest record can be found in the "Fengtu Zhi" of Zhouchu in the Western Jin Dynasty: On New Year's Eve, each person greets each other with gifts, which is called "giving the new year"; "Dividing the year old"; everyone stays up all night waiting for the dawn, which is called "keeping the year old".

“One night is two years old, five o’clock is divided into two days.” On New Year’s Eve, the whole family gets together, has New Year’s Eve dinner, lights candles or oil lamps, sits around the fire and chats, waiting to bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new year. At this time, the all-night vigil symbolizes driving away all evil plagues and looking forward to good luck in the new year. This custom gradually became popular. In the early Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem about "keeping the year old": "The cold leaves the winter snow, and the warmth brings the spring breeze." To this day, people are still used to staying up late on New Year's Eve to welcome the new year.

In ancient times, staying up late had two meanings: older people staying up late meant "saying goodbye to the old year", which meant cherishing time; young people staying up late meant to prolong the life of their parents. Since the Han Dynasty, the transition time between the new and the old year has generally been at midnight.

Firecrackers

There is a saying among Chinese folk that "firecrackers open the door". That is to say, when the New Year arrives, the first thing every household does when they open the door is to set off firecrackers to ward off the old and welcome the new with the beeping sound of firecrackers. Firecrackers are a specialty of China, also known as "firecrackers", "firecrackers" and "firecrackers". It originated very early and has a history of more than 2,000 years. Setting off firecrackers can create a festive and lively atmosphere. It is a festive entertainment activity that can bring people joy and good luck. With the passage of time, the application of firecrackers has become more and more widespread, and the varieties and colors have become more and more numerous. During major festivals and happy events, as well as weddings, house construction, openings, etc., firecrackers must be set off to celebrate and for good luck. Now, Liuyang in Hunan, Foshan and Dongyao in Guangdong, Yichun and Pingxiang in Jiangxi, and Wenzhou in Zhejiang are famous hometowns of fireworks in my country. The firecrackers they produce are of various colors and high quality, and are not only sold well across the country, but also exported to the world.

New Year greetings

On the first day of the New Year, people get up early, put on their most beautiful clothes, dress up neatly, and go out to visit relatives and friends, pay New Year greetings to each other, and wish each other New Year’s greetings. Good luck in the coming year. There are many ways to pay New Year's greetings. Some are led by the clan leader and several people go door-to-door to pay New Year's greetings; some are colleagues inviting a few people to pay New Year's greetings; and others get together to congratulate each other, which is called "group worship." Since it was time-consuming and laborious to pay New Year greetings at home, some upper-class figures and scholar-bureaucrats later used various stickers to congratulate each other, and the later "New Year's greeting cards" developed from this.

When paying New Year greetings during the Spring Festival, the younger generation should first pay New Year greetings to the elders, wishing the elders longevity and health. The elders can distribute the New Year's money prepared in advance to the younger generation. It is said that the New Year's money can suppress evil spirits, because "year" and "evil" "Homophonous" means that if the younger generation gets the lucky money, they can spend one year in peace. There are two types of New Year's money. One is made of colorful ropes threaded into a dragon shape and placed at the foot of the bed. This record is found in "Yanjing Years' Notes"; the other is the most common, which is given by parents wrapped in red paper. Children's money. New Year's money can be given to the younger generation in public after paying New Year's greetings, or parents can secretly put it under the child's pillow when the child is asleep on New Year's Eve. Nowadays, the custom of elders distributing lucky money to younger generations is still popular.

Food customs during the Spring Festival

In ancient agricultural societies, from about the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, housewives would be busy preparing food for the New Year. Because pickling cured meat takes a long time, it must be prepared as early as possible. Many provinces in my country have the custom of pickling cured meat, among which Guangdong Province’s cured meat is the most famous.

Steamed rice cake. Rice cake has become a must-have seasonal food for almost every household because of its homophonic pronunciation of "year high" and its varied tastes. The styles of rice cakes include square yellow and white rice cakes, which symbolize gold and silver and convey the meaning of getting rich in the new year.

The taste of rice cakes varies from place to place. Beijingers like to eat red date rice cake, mince rice cake and white rice cake made from glutinous rice or yellow rice. People in Hebei like to add jujube, red beans, mung beans, etc. to rice cakes and steam them together. In northern Shanxi and Inner Mongolia and other places, it is customary to eat fried rice cakes made with yellow rice flour during the Chinese New Year. Some are also filled with bean paste, date paste and other fillings. Shandong people steam rice cakes with yellow rice and red dates. Northern rice cakes are mainly sweet and can be steamed or fried. Some people even eat them dipped in sugar. The rice cakes in the south are both sweet and salty. For example, the rice cakes in Suzhou and Ningbo are made from japonica rice and have a light taste. In addition to steaming and frying, it can also be sliced ??and fried or cooked in soup. The sweet rice cake is made of glutinous rice flour with ingredients such as sugar, lard, rose, osmanthus, mint, and sujiang. It is carefully made and can be steamed directly or dipped in egg white and fried.

The night before the actual Chinese New Year is called Reunion Eve. People who have traveled far away from home have to rush home thousands of miles away. The whole family will sit together to make dumplings for the New Year. The dumplings are made by mixing the dough first. Make dumpling skins, and then use the skins to wrap the fillings. The content of the fillings can be varied, including various meats, eggs, seafood, seasonal vegetables, etc. The orthodox way to eat dumplings is to boil them with water, scoop them out and season with Eat with soy sauce of vinegar, minced garlic, and sesame oil as condiments. There are also ways to eat fried dumplings and baked dumplings (pot stickers). Because the word "和" in noodles means "合"; the characters "dumpling" and "Jiao" in dumplings are homophones, and "合" and "Jiao" also mean getting together, so dumplings are used to symbolize reunion and joy; and they are also used to symbolize reunion. The meaning of Jiaozi is very auspicious; in addition, because dumplings resemble ingots in shape, eating dumplings during the Chinese New Year also has the auspicious meaning of "bringing in wealth and treasure". The whole family gathers together to make dumplings and talk about the New Year, having fun

I hope you are satisfied=^_^=