What is the custom of the Spring Festival in Henan, and what is the process?

Send the gods to panic, busy offering sacrifices to the stove.

The 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month is an important folk festival before the Spring Festival, which is called "Festival of Sacrificing Kitchen Stove". At this time, people can't help but welcome the joy of the New Year, stop all kinds of work in their hands, and are busy with the sacrificial activities of offering sacrifices to the gods years ago.

The custom of offering sacrifices to stoves on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month in Henan is accompanied by a bleak folklore. In ancient times, an old couple had only one son. They regard their son as the apple of their eye and love him very much. But because his family was poor and unable to make a living, he had to bear the pain and let his son dig coal in the coal mine.

The old man has missed his son for a long time. On this day, the old woman told the old man to visit the coal mine. On the way, the old man met a barefoot fellow traveler, and the two became more and more familiar and got along well. During the chat, the old man learned that Barefoot was instructed by Rebecca to find 100 miners in the mine. The old man was in a hurry and begged his son to stay barefoot. Barefoot generously agreed and told him not to tell anyone.

Seeing his son, the old man pretended to be ill, and his son was waiting around and unable to go down the well. Soon, something happened in the coal mine, and the old man hurried home with his son.

Three years passed in a blink of an eye. On the night of the twelfth lunar month, the old man remembered the risks of that year and couldn't help telling his wife. Who knows, this statement was heard by Chef Jun. On the evening of 23rd, Chef Jun went to heaven and told the Jade Emperor about it. The Jade Emperor became angry from embarrassment, and immediately punished the barefoot piece and took away the old man's son.

Because of this, on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, people respect Zhao Jun for eating sweets, hoping that he will stop gossiping when he arrives in the Heavenly Palace. As time goes by, people sacrifice stoves on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month.

On the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the first round of firecrackers was set off in urban and rural areas of the Central Plains. City residents are busy buying sesame candy, fire and other food for offering sacrifices to stoves. In the vast rural areas, preparations and grand ceremonies for offering sacrifices to stoves gradually began in the deafening sound of guns.

Ceremonies for offering sacrifices to stoves are mostly held at night. When offering sacrifices to the stove, the people who offer sacrifices to the stove kneel in front of the statue of the stove and hug the rooster. Some people even let children hold chickens and kneel behind adults. It is said that the chicken is the horse on which jujube ascended to heaven, so the chicken is called a horse instead of a chicken. Such as red rooster, commonly known as "red horse" and white cock, commonly known as "horse".

After ordering the incense table, the cigarettes in the room were filled with mysterious colors. The host poured wine and kowtowed, muttering something. After reading it, the burning lamp shouted "collar"! And then pour the chicken head with wine. If a chicken's head flutters, it means that Grandpa Jujube has been ungrateful. If the head of the chicken doesn't move, it needs to be watered again.

After the ceremony, people began to eat food, such as stove, candy and fire. In some places, they also eat sugar cakes, oil cakes and tofu soup.

In Henan, the typical food for offering sacrifices to stoves should be the first stove candy. Kitchen candy is a kind of maltose that sticks to the mouth and teeth. The reason for offering sugar to the stove is to stick the mouth of the stove owner. Legend has it that Lord Zao is a god sent by the Jade Emperor to supervise the good and evil on earth. It has the function of communication, connecting the feelings between heaven and earth, and conveying fairyland and everything.

Responsibility between information. When it went to heaven, people gave it stove candy, hoping that it would eat sweets and say good things in front of the Jade Emperor. It is also said that the candy used for offering sacrifices to the stove is not stuck on the mouth of the stove owner, but on the mouth of the grandmother who is greedy and loves to gossip.

In addition to eating stove candy, fire is also a very distinctive seasonal food on the day of sacrifice. On the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the business of biscuit stalls in the city is booming. People gathered together and rushed to buy sacrificial stoves and burn them. Most of the countryside is made by ourselves, made of flour and kang. The home is very lively, with the taste of off-year life.

In Henan, people regard the festival of offering sacrifices to stoves as a reunion festival after the Mid-Autumn Festival. Anyone who works, does business or goes to school in other places should try to get home before the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month. If you can eat the sacrificial stove cooked at home, you will be protected by the kitchen god and your family will be safe in the coming year.

Kaifeng new year

Kaifeng folks call the Spring Festival "Chinese New Year". However, China New Year is not only the first day of the first lunar month, but also the end of a year and a year. From the eighth day of December in the old year to the fifth day of the first lunar month, it is the year. In the old days, there was a saying in Kaifeng: "Laba, offering sacrifices to the stove. During the Chinese New Year, girls want flowers and boys want guns." Therefore, when it comes to Laba, Kaifeng will have an "annual taste" in both urban and rural areas.

Twenty-three, the altar official. 1February 23rd is a folk festival of offering sacrifices to stoves in China. In order for the Kitchen God to speak well of the Jade Emperor in the sky, every household should put on the memorial tablet of the Kitchen God, and some even wrote "Good words from the sky and good luck from the bottom" on both sides of the memorial tablet. It means Kitchen God's farewell dinner.

After the sacrifice, everyone was busy buying new year's goods and cleaning the house to welcome the New Year, especially cigarettes, wine, fish, meat and gifts for relatives. I have been busy buying new year's goods until the twelfth lunar month. There is also a folk song celebrating the Spring Festival in Kaifeng today: "Twenty-three, offering sacrifices to the kitchen officials; Twenty-four, sweeping the house; Twenty-five, tofu; Twenty-six, cut meat; Twenty-seven, kill a chicken; Twenty-eight, kill a duck; Twenty-nine, go to play wine; 30 years old, put up a door flag. "

New Year's Eve is always called New Year's Eve, and every household should put up Spring Festival couplets. In the past, Kaifeng had many old customs. Such as official seal, military attache seal, official seal, storytelling seal, begging seal and so on. The most important folk activities are ancestor worship and New Year's Eve. Now on New Year's Eve, Kaifeng people still follow many good customs in the past. Although there is no more "ancestor worship" on New Year's Eve. However, some people visit relatives and friends, watch TV and solve riddles on the lanterns until late at night, and some families get together to encourage each other, sum up the gains of the past year and make work and study plans for the new year. "Shounian" has given new content in the new era. When the midnight bell rang, people scrambled to set off the first firecrackers, which meant the determination and enthusiasm of Kaifeng people to open up the future.

On the first day of the first month, every family gets up early, changes into new clothes and finishes washing. First, they set off firecrackers to pay homage to the portraits of their ancestors. Then, the younger generation pays New Year greetings to the elders, who will give them "lucky money". In 2008, the whole family ate in jiaozi, and then began to pay New Year greetings to relatives and friends. In the old days, New Year greetings were generally led by parents, who first visited their elders, relatives and friends, and then went to distant homes. Every family has cigarettes, tea, melon seeds, peanuts, candy and so on. In order to wait for the new year guests. According to Kaifeng's habit of "paying New Year's greetings early and offering birthday felicitations late", the New Year's greetings ended on the afternoon of the first day of the New Year.

The second day of the first month is the day when girls return to their parents' homes. On the second day of the old day, firecrackers, horns and whistles were heard in the four townships of Kaifeng Chengguan, and mules and horses came and went in an endless stream.

The third day of the first month is the day to worship ancestors and sweep graves. Because the old calendar says that this day is "not suitable for everything", it is forbidden to visit relatives in Kaifeng on the third day. The fifth day is the fifth festival. People think that the fifth day is the first unlucky day after the New Year, so relatives and friends should also avoid visiting each other. In addition to these two days, Kaifeng folks visited relatives and friends during the festival, and there were few leisure days.

Linzhou folk spring festival

Linzhou folks call the Spring Festival Chinese New Year, but Chinese New Year does not refer to the first day of the first month, but includes the beginning and end of a year. As soon as you enter the twelfth lunar month, you will have a "taste of the year."

People eat "Laba porridge" for breakfast on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. Porridge is made of millet and persimmon. It tastes sweet and is commonly known as "persimmon dough soup". All peasant women should make porridge before the sun rises, put a pile of rice on the south wall and say, "Make Laba porridge early, put a pile of rice on the south wall, and the little wren will not push my house." Eating "Laba porridge" According to the literature, Linzhou began in the Song Dynasty. The original intention is that people use a year's harvest to sacrifice ancestors and gods to celebrate the harvest. Later, due to the frequent disasters in Linzhou, it gradually evolved into eating "Laba porridge" and wished Guliang a bumper harvest in the coming year. At present, there is a folk saying in Linzhou that "eating Laba porridge will have a good harvest in the coming year".

Twenty-three, send the old stove master to heaven. In order to ask the Kitchen God to intercede with the Jade Emperor for the people, people wrote on the pairs on both sides of the Kitchen God memorial tablet: "Heaven speaks kindly, and it is auspicious to come down to earth". In order to prevent the kitchen god from giving false information, sesame candy was used as a fruit sacrifice and stuck to the mouth of the kitchen god.

Clean the house twenty-four According to folklore, the Kitchen God is the commander-in-chief of the Emperor of Heaven and is responsible for inspecting the merits and demerits of his family. Anyone who does this should make a mark on the wall and report to heaven on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month at the end of the year. After receiving the order from the Emperor of Heaven, Lu Yiwu will punish the Hui people with heavenly soldiers according to the marks on the wall. In order to eliminate hidden dangers, people immediately began to clean the house the day after sending Kitchen God, forming the custom of "sweeping the house 24 times".

Twenty-five grinding bean curd. On that day, people ground the soaked soybeans, rubbed off the residues through baskets, cooked them into pieces, fished them out and put them into a sieve, forming a backlog. After that, tofu was cut into small pieces and kept in salt water for consumption during the Spring Festival.

26 pieces of meat. On that day, there were many meat shelves in the market, and the villagers slaughtered pigs and sheep in cauldrons. Those who cut meat and measure wealth are prepared by rich households until the fifteenth day of the first month; The poor are going to the fifth day of the first month.

Twenty-seven steamed to eat. It is something that both the poor and the rich have to do, and it is also one of the characteristics of Chinese New Year. According to the size of the population and the number of guests, each family should steam enough to eat until the fifteenth day of the first month, at least to eat the number of "broken five".

Twenty-eight big stickers Before 1949, most people in Linzhou asked people to write couplets, and some farmers used flowers at home to express their feelings. Besides, they have to stick to the door on Saturday. The door gods are mostly Qin Qiong, Jingde, Daguo Guan Gong, and Deng Ke, the fifth son. And most of them are stamped. Sticker pays attention to "poor sign (horizontal seam) and rich pair", that is, the lintel paper should be small and the pair paper should be fat. After 1980, double couplets were posted in rural areas, that is, in addition to the pair on the door frame, a pair of giant couplets were posted on the door battlements. There is also a bucket of prescriptions written on diamond-shaped paper, with the word "Fu" written on it, and a message such as "Go out to see Fu", "Welcome to receive Fu" or "Celebrate the Spring Festival" posted on the door or wall. Spring scenery in the courtyard is attached to the trees in the courtyard, white tiger is happy on the stone mill, dragon is happy on the stone mill, traveling thousands of miles every day is attached to the car, six animals are thriving on the barn, Mimi Man Cang is attached to the table, clothes are full on the wardrobe, and health and safety are attached to the bedside. At the same time, all kinds of tablets are written in new ways, except the kitchen is written in green paper (to avoid fire), and the rest are written in red paper. Inside and out, there are red lights, and it is good luck.

Sprinkle wax and leave on the 29th. That night, dozens of people, led by neighboring villages, were carrying lanterns, beating drums, patting cymbals and holding incense sticks. They light candles and burn incense foils in temples in various villages in order to worship God, exorcise evil spirits and deliver the gospel. People in the village gathered in the holy land, waiting for the arrival of the evangelist team. One village delivers, one village receives, and the fields are brightly lit. After 1950, this custom disappeared and changed to 29 dozens of wine.

30 pinch the kernel out of the pot. Knead the kernels and flatten the vegetables, and stir-fry them when they are out of the pot. These two tasks are the most tense and arduous work on the thirtieth day of the twelfth lunar month. On that day, from the morning, all the women in the family began to work together, making stuffing and mixing noodles. After stuffing and kneading dough, they gathered around the kang and kneaded the dough. Mother-in-law and sister-in-law are very happy while pinching and teasing. Packed flat food should be enough for 30 nights and the first day of junior high school. I have been busy until about 5 pm. After the flat food is wrapped, you should first cook a pot and fish it into small plates, two for each plate. Housewives will burn incense and paper at home and pray for their ancestors: "If you have something to say, eat it first, so as to bless your family and prosper." In addition, the men in the family used trays to carry them to the graves to worship their ancestors. A small plate was placed in front of each grave and a cannon was lit to kowtow. After these things are done, they start to fry. Everything that needs oiling should be fried. Crispy meat, meatballs, sliced meat (for ribs) and vegetables should be fried in the pot, but you should take some from the first pot and put it in the stove so that the kitchen god can come back to eat on the first day of May. Of course, if the twelfth lunar month is small, the activity of this day will be on the 29th.

Coins are flat. This is a popular folk custom in Linxian County. Among the 30 packs of flat food, a few coins are wrapped in flat food. Whoever eats flat food on the first day of breakfast will be blessed in this year, bringing great fun to the whole family, old and young. People are scrambling to get up early, especially children. They make an exception and eat more light food to make the whole family laugh.

Send a lamp. On the evening of the 30th, every household in the rural area in the south of the county will connect paper lanterns to the pillars and send them to the graves to light them all night, so that ancestors can celebrate the New Year with others. This lamp was brought back in the morning of junior high school.

Door bolt. On New Year's Eve, people are used to putting a peach stick on the threshold of the gate. If there is no peach, use other sticks to prevent "wild ghosts" from entering the house.

Endure it for a year. Also known as "shou sui". According to folklore, thirty nights, as long as you have perseverance, you will wait until God's daughter opens a worse door to bless the world. If you go to bed early, you won't be happy. People have good wishes. Every year on the 30th night of the twelfth lunar month, the whole family chats endlessly, taking this opportunity to enjoy family happiness. Housewives should also set up incense tables to offer sacrifices, hold candles all night and burn incense five times. It is forbidden to talk loudly at night, so as not to disturb the gods; It is forbidden to open the cabinet to avoid absconding with the money; It is forbidden to take a wooden comb in the mirror to avoid seeing "ghosts"; It is forbidden to see knives and scissors, so as not to break the house; It is forbidden to sweep the floor to avoid the outflow of gold and silver; It is forbidden to pour urinals, so as not to blaspheme. If you throw away the leftovers for 30 nights, it's called dinner next year. It is not only a good sign to throw away the leftovers early on the first day of the New Year. After 1980, new content was added to the Lunar New Year, and many families with conditions gathered around the TV to watch wonderful TV programs. In the early hours of the morning, young people from all walks of life held guns in their right hands, struck a light with their left hands, stepped outside the door with their right feet, and stepped inside the door with their left feet, staring at the TV screen with their eyes open, and stood in a posture of nodding and firing guns. As soon as the TV screen arrives, with the melodious bell, firecrackers of thousands of families are ringing, and various colored cannons such as firelight, fireworks and the second ring decorate the sky with colorful and dazzling colors.

Kowtow on the first day. After people stop eating flat food before dawn, the younger generation kowtows to the elders at home first, and then kowtows to other families (usually their own families) in groups to pay New Year greetings. Except for a venerable old man, everyone else in the family went to the neighbor's house, and even Sanli Wucun paid New Year greetings to relatives and new friends. If the younger generation is a child or a newly married daughter-in-law, the elders should give some lucky money.

Visit relatives. The order of visiting relatives is: nephew goes to grandma's house, daughter goes to her parents' house with her husband, and then goes to aunt, aunt and sister's house. Except for special circumstances, we should all go back to worship. There is a folk saying that "the first day and the second day are beautiful, and the third day and the fourth day are good for worship festivals".

Untie five knots. The fifth day of the first lunar month is the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, which is a superstition. People think that the fifth, fourteenth and twenty-third days are unlucky days. The fifth day of the first month is the first unlucky day after the New Year, and it is very taboo to "visit relatives and friends". The backlog is to improve the life at home for the holidays. On that day in Yin Shi, the housewife took out a little ash from the stove and sent it to the street corner, commonly known as "sending poor ash".

During the period from the thirtieth day of the twelfth lunar month to the fifth day of the first lunar month, all children will not be beaten and scolded. They will eat well, dress beautifully and have fun. Even if they make mistakes, they will not be beaten and scolded. This is a rule handed down from the older generation. If you beat and scold children, you will be condemned by everyone. Therefore, what children are looking forward to most is the New Year.