What are the customs during the Spring Festival?

"Old Beijing" How to eat the Beijing folk song during the Spring Festival: "Honey melons offer sacrifices to the stove, and the New Year is coming". The first food to enter the festival is honeydew melon, kwantung sugar and other snacks used for "offering sacrifices to the stove", which are made of colloidal maltose and slightly sour in sweetness. This is an excellent food in an era when life is not very rich. Moreover, there are honeydew melons and Guandong sugar at home, which indicates that the Spring Festival is not far away. Of course, the "Kitchen God" doesn't eat fireworks, and this kind of "bribe" that hopes that the "Kitchen God" will speak well in heaven and keep safe in the underworld naturally becomes a thing in the mouth of children. Old Beijingers pay special attention to "Chinese New Year", so they have: "Don't be greedy for children. After Laba, it is the New Year, and Laba porridge will be drunk for a few days. Twenty-three, honeydew melons will stick, twenty-four, clean the house, twenty-five, fry tofu, twenty-six, stew mutton, twenty-seven, kill cock, twenty-eight, mix flour, twenty-nine, steam steamed bread. Laba porridge, fried tofu, stewed mutton and so on listed in folk songs are all delicacies during the Spring Festival in old Beijing. Today, these are commonplace, but in the fifties and sixties, you can only feast your eyes on Chinese New Year. There are only the above kinds of food during the Spring Festival, which is certainly not rich. For example, the cakes used in ancient times to worship the gods and ancestors-honey and Shaqima-are not only the food of Manchu, Mongolian and other ethnic minorities in Beijing, but also the necessary food in Beijing. Some wealthy Beijingers used to eat fish on New Year's Eve. Fish must be carp, originally in the name of offering sacrifices to gods, and later associated with the auspicious language of "more than good luck and celebration" Fish is both delicious and sacrificial. As for jiaozi on New Year's Eve, jiaozi, a vegetarian, is used to worship God, while everyone eats meat. People who are not rich are stuffed with meat and vegetables. Even the poorest families will eat jiaozi's "program" during Chinese New Year. Besides jiaozi and rice cakes, people in "old Beijing" will try "bean paste"-a cold dish made of skin, dried bean curd, soybeans, green beans and watercress, which is amber in color and similar to "frozen meat". In addition, there is "Mustard Dun", which is a cold dish used to accompany wine and appetizer. People eat a lot of greasy food in festivals, which is easy to get angry and produce phlegm. These cold dishes can make up for this defect. When all kinds of vegetarian dishes are ready, Beijingers will also prepare sweets, dried fruits, melon seeds and "miscellaneous fruits", which are today's assorted preserved fruits. At that time, these snacks were delicious food when people sat around the fire and died. Nowadays, almost all the offerings and traditional foods in the name of offering sacrifices to ancestors and gods have been preserved, but they are not so conspicuous. As for today's Spring Festival, the dinner table can only be summarized by the word "abundance". What Sichuan and Shandong dishes and raw seafood will appear on the dinner table of the people's New Year's Eve? People who say "new school" will go to the grand hotel to "grab a meal" to welcome the Spring Festival! Laba eats Laba porridge. On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, of course, the most important thing for every household is to cook Laba porridge. There are several different opinions about the origin of Laba porridge: some say it is a sacrifice to Shennong, some say it is in memory of Yue Fei, and some say it was handed down by Zhu Yuanzhang. But the most popular one is to commemorate the Buddha. According to the Buddhist "Pu Yao Jing", Sakyamuni escaped from the palace, became a monk in Kazan, studied classics and spent six years in the mountain. When he finished his studies, it was the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month in China, which is what ordinary Buddhists call "Sakyamuni Enlightenment Day". According to the karma sutra, due to six years of asceticism, Sakyamuni had no time to take care of his personal food and clothing. He only eats some hemp and wheat every day, and he has not enough to eat and wear all the year round. When he graduated from school, he was in rags and skinny. Tired, he walked down Kadu Mountain and sat by the Nile River, begging from the villagers. Cowherd women in the village used bowls of Meng to help milk and cooked them for Sakyamuni to eat, which made Sakyamuni's body recover quickly. After Buddhism flourished, in order to commemorate this event, it was stipulated that this day was the day when the ancient Indian people "fasted and became monks" and gave alms to the poor. After Buddhism was introduced into China, giving alms on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month gradually became the custom of cooking Laba porridge. In the Ming Dynasty, Chen wrote "Biography of Heaven": "On the eighth day of December in Tokyo in the Song Dynasty, seven treasures and five flavors of porridge were sent to the temples in the capital." The "seven treasures and five flavors porridge" mentioned here refers to "Laba porridge". "Laba porridge" is cooked in some Buddhist temples in China to commemorate the story of a cowherd on the Nile River who rescued Sakyamuni. Ordinary people not only cook Laba porridge to worship Buddha, but also regard it as a gift from relatives, friends and neighbors. Laba porridge was cooked with adzuki beans and glutinous rice in ancient times, and then the materials were gradually increased. People in the Southern Song Dynasty carefully wrote "Old Wulin Stories" and said, "Cooking porridge with walnuts, pine nuts, milk mushrooms, persimmon mushrooms and persimmon chestnuts is called Laba porridge." Up to now, people in Jiangnan, Northeast China and Northwest China still keep the custom of eating Laba porridge. Laba porridge is made of many kinds of materials, generally, beans such as kidney beans, peas, red beans, cowpeas, mung beans, millet, rice and sorghum rice are mixed with rice and boiled with dried fruits such as jujube and chestnuts. When drinking, add seasonings such as brown sugar, white sugar, rose and sweet clover. Exquisitely, glutinous rice, coix seed, water chestnut rice, chicken head rice and lotus seed meat are mixed together to make porridge, and then preserved fruit, litchi meat, longan meat, pine nuts, peach kernels, moss and HongLing are covered with patterns, which are really beautiful and delicious. Eating a steaming bowl of Laba porridge in winter is delicious and nutritious, which can really increase happiness and prolong life. In addition to cooking Laba porridge, there is also the folk custom of soaking Laba garlic. On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, I put the peeled garlic cloves in the jar, filled with vinegar, sealed them and kept them in a warm place until I ate jiaozi on New Year's Eve. The soaked garlic cloves are green as jade. They taste sour and slightly spicy, and they really have a special taste. Legend has it that Laba will be poorer next year without porridge. Laba porridge, which was drunk in the imperial palace in the Qing Dynasty, was cooked and paid tribute by lamas in the Lama Temple. The Messenger Laba Porridge is a popular folk song: after Laba, the debt is mainly paid at home. Generally, on the thirtieth day of the twelfth lunar month, no one collects debts. King of Man: There is a saying of Kitchen God in Shang Dynasty. There is a record in Zhuangzi Sheng Da that "the stove is harmful". Sima Biao commented: "bun, kitchen god, dressed in red, looks like a beautiful woman." "On Xunzi of Huainan" said: "Emperor Yan got angry. Death is a stove. " Gao said, "Yan Di Shen Nong, taking fire as virtue, worships his ancestors in the kitchen god." At that time, it was a memorial to the ancestor Kitchen God. It is said that the kitchen god knows the good and evil of every household. Therefore, Lian said, "If Heaven speaks well, you will be blessed when you return to the palace." When will the chef return to the palace? Probably before the Spring Festival. It is in the new year that we should wish this family luck and peace. This is a beautiful wish. Kitchen God is also a Vulcan. Vulcan's name is Zhu Rong, or Huilu. Zhu Rong's legendary Zhu Rong was named Chi Di in the name of fire, so later fire officials thought it was called Zhu Rong. One was regarded as a fire official when the emperor was a beast, and later generations were honored as Vulcan. Vulcan, originally for the benefit of mankind, has also become synonymous with fire. Old Beijingers worship the Kitchen God and Vulcan, because since ancient times, dry weather is the time when fires frequently occur around the Spring Festival. It is very necessary to be careful of fire. In ancient times, on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, the court used antelopes to offer sacrifices to stoves, and this ritual of offering sacrifices to stoves continued until the end of the Qing Dynasty. Folk offerings such as honeydew melon, Guandong sugar and sugar cake are used to worship the stove; Sacrifice the horse of Kitchen God with clear water forage. According to legend, on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the Kitchen God rode a horse to the Jade Emperor to report good and evil. At the end of 23rd, every household should erect poles and hang lanterns in the courtyard, and the male host will bow down, willing to cover up the evil and promote the good. Women are forbidden to be priests, and women can only sweep the kitchen in the back room. After the sacrifice, take down the statue of Kitchen God and burn it with the paper ingot. On this day, there are many firecrackers, commonly known as small annual leave. There is a saying in a Beijing proverb: "Laba porridge is a messenger, a deadly candy and a life-saving boiled cake", which means Laba porridge conveys the information of the upcoming Spring Festival. One year later, the creditors will be forced to pay debts. The 23rd is the most critical time to pay debts, so it is the deadly Kwantung Sugar. Jiaozi is eaten in the middle of the night on New Year's Eve. Generally, creditors will not come according to the rules. Some poor families don't have enough to eat and can't afford the Guandong sugar sacrifice stove. Therefore, there is a folk song in old Beijing that says, "Kitchen God, whose real name is Zhang, has a bowl of cold water and three incense sticks. This year, the boy is poor and will eat Guandong sugar next year. " "In the past, there were many Kitchen God temples in Beijing, and every household worshipped the Kitchen God. Except for ethnic minorities, almost all Han people have the custom of being king of the people. Kitchen God is a folk kitchen god, also known as kitchen king, kitchen king and kitchen god. In order to express gratitude to the inventor of fire, primitive people worship their ancestors every summer, symbolizing fire, and the stove also represents fire. In northern China, there is a custom of offering sweets to the stove on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month. As the saying goes, "Twenty-three, melon paste, twenty-five, dust removal". Dust removal is not only beneficial to environmental sanitation, but also to fire prevention, because if some combustible garbage is completely removed, a fire factor will be removed. Twenty-four swept the house and said, "You can't let the old kitchen god carry the earth to heaven. "In the Tang Dynasty,' Sweeping the Year Wind' prevailed. According to Song and Wu's Dream, "at the end of December ... everyone, big or small, sweeps the house, cleans the dust and dirt, cleans the family ... and prays for a safe New Year. "From generation to generation, it has formed the custom of sweeping houses before the Spring Festival. Even poor families with few people have to clean their houses. This is not only a preparation to meet the lower bound of the gods, but also an important measure to eliminate filth, bad luck and poverty. The old Beijing folk song said: "Twenty-three, cantaloupes are sticky; Twenty-four, house cleaning day ... "In fact, everyone doesn't clean the house on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, but it's really a troublesome thing to start cleaning the house on a auspicious day suitable for cleaning the house after the 15th of the twelfth lunar month and before the 23rd sacrifice. The owner of the big house instructed his servant to do it; Generally, the whole family, old and young, will move the indoor furniture and furnishings to the yard to wipe them clean, especially the bronzes on them must be polished. For indoors, it is mainly to sweep away the tower ash and cobwebs on the ceiling in the corner, tear off the old New Year pictures on the wall, and paste them after painting or pasting them; On new year's eve, tear off the old window grilles on the glass windows, wipe them clean and paste new ones; In particular, Buddhist temples and ancestral temples should be carefully cleaned. Sacrificial vessels such as incense burners, wax sticks, flower tubes, sea lamp bowls and sacrificial bowls must be polished, and old couplets and hanging money before and after the Buddha statues must be taken down and burned. Generally, families only do it for half a day or one day, and families with more houses do it in three to five days. After cleaning the house, people also have to "choose an auspicious day" to take a bath, shave their heads and get a haircut in the bathhouse or at home, which means to say goodbye to the old and welcome the new. After cleaning the house, the whole family began to prepare for the New Year, and invited wax paper yards, offerings, writing couplets, cutting window grilles, buying hanging money, New Year pictures and setting off firecrackers to prepare for the New Year. Thirty years old, and the thirtieth day of the twelfth lunar month is New Year's Eve. In the past, most families in old Beijing provided shrines or statues all the year round, and they must provide them next year. There are various offerings, including fried pasta, moon cakes and snacks, apples and oranges, assorted preserved fruits, yellow and white rice cakes and jiaozi steamed bread. In addition to the offerings, there are offerings such as incense burners and wax sticks on the altar, and futons are placed on the ground in front of the altar for use when bowing down. It is said that from the evening of the 30th to the early morning of the first day, the gods will come down to inspect the good and evil on earth. Among these gods, there are the god of wealth and landlords. On the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the kitchen god who spoke well from heaven also returned to earth at this time and continued to be his "head of the family". At this time, people should be respectful and cautious, burn incense and kowtow. Please take good care of your god in the new year. New Year's Eve is the most delicious time for old Beijingers. First of all, the whole family get together for a reunion dinner and enjoy the richest food in a year. Most of the dishes are stewed fish, stewed meat, stewed chicken, meatballs, braised pork and other meats, as well as fresh and refreshing cold dishes, such as kohlrabi and spicy dishes made in red robes, as well as sweet and spicy cabbage and mustard tuber. Jiaozi is the main staple food, and mutton, cabbage or pork and leek are generally used as stuffing. When eating jiaozi, don't forget to season it with Laba vinegar. If it is off-year, New Year's Eve is the 29th of the twelfth lunar month. People call this day "thirty years". Among all the festivals, the 30th is the busiest and happiest day in old Beijing. First of all, we should put up Spring Festival couplets. Spring Festival couplets written in red paper should be posted on both sides of the street gate and door of every household, and horizontal comments should be posted on the lintel. Most of the contents of Spring Festival couplets are to increase happiness, longevity and wealth. It's all auspicious words anyway. Followed by the door god. The gatekeeper of old Beijing used Qin He of the Tang Dynasty, a white face and a black face, one left and one right. It is said that exorcism is their specialty. Some families have to put up thousands of posters. Hanging money is also called hanging money. Cut it with red paper or colored paper and stick it on the doors and windows. It is said that poverty can be avoided. On the eve of New Year's Eve, everyone should get together and say more auspicious words during the dinner, which indicates that the future will be harmonious, beautiful and complete. According to the custom of old Beijing, you can't sleep on New Year's Eve, so everyone should have a good night with him. This is called "shou sui." "Shounian" has two meanings. For older people, this means cherishing the time on New Year's Eve. Young people stay old in order to prolong the life span of their parents. There should be some entertainment activities on New Year's Eve in order to live in old age. Old people often get together to play mahjong, while women like to sit cross-legged on the kang and play cards. Children are the happiest, running around the world with lanterns and setting off firecrackers in the yard or in the street. At midnight, there will be a reception ceremony. The ceremony of receiving gods is serious and solemn. As for what people are thinking, it is not clear whether all people really believe in gods. After the ceremony, the whole family will worship collectively. The elders accept the bow of the younger generation and give some lucky money. Then, the whole family will get together and have a vegetarian meal to welcome jiaozi. At this point, New Year's Eve is over.