What are the folk customs of the Spring Festival?

Spring Festival:

This is the most distinctive traditional festival in China. In primitive society, there was a "La Worship" ceremony: after the autumn harvest, people should pay homage to their ancestors, repay the blessing of the gods and the shade of their ancestors, and pray for another bumper harvest in the coming year. Over time, it has become a custom. People have been celebrating the Spring Festival since the Yao and Shun era.

The time of the Spring Festival is at the beginning of the year, which is the first day of every year. In ancient times, the beginning time of a year was different. The first day of the first lunar month in Xia Dynasty, the first day of December in Shang Dynasty, the first day of November in Zhou Dynasty and the first day of October in Qin Dynasty. When Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty reformulated the first day of the first lunar month, he also adopted the "taichu calendar", which stipulated that the first day of the first lunar month was New Year's Day, commonly known as "New Year's Day".

The Spring Festival was originally called "New Year's Day", and Du Taiqing of Sui Dynasty said in "Five Candles Collection": "The first month is the end of the month, and one day is Yuan Day, which is also a cloudy month." The original meaning of "yuan" is "head" and later extended to "start" Because this day is the first day of the year, the first day of spring and the first day of the first month, it is called "Sanyuan". Because this day is still the old dynasty, the moon dynasty and the Japanese dynasty, it is also called the "three dynasties"; Because it is the first Shuori, it is also called "Yuanshuo". Song and Wu explained in Dream: "The first day of the first month is called New Year's Day". In Shuo Wen Jie Zi, the word "Dan" is interpreted as "from the sun, from the ground." It means that the sun has just risen from the horizon, which means morning. Because it means the first morning of a year and the first morning of the first month respectively, it is called "New Year's Day" and "Zheng Dan".

In addition to the above titles, the Spring Festival is also called "Opening Year", "Opening Year", "Fragrant Year" and "Chinese New Year", among which "New Year's Day" is the most common and the longest.

After the victory of the Revolution of 1911, the Nanjing Provisional Government adopted the Gregorian calendar, and the Gregorian calendar 1 month 1 day was designated as New Year's Day. In this way, the Spring Festival became the name of the first day of the first month. In fact, the name Spring Festival has existed since ancient times. It refers to the beginning of spring. Because folks call the first day of the first lunar month Spring Festival, they no longer call beginning of spring Spring Festival.

How to eat old Beijing during the Spring Festival;

Beijing folk song: "Melon 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". It is made of colloidal maltose, and its sweetness is slightly sour. In an era when life is not very rich, it is an excellent food. 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 "New Year", so they have: "Wife, don't be greedy. After Laba, it is the New Year, and Laba porridge will be drunk for a few days. Twenty-three, twenty-three, honeydew melon will stick, twenty-four, clean the house, twenty-five, fry tofu, twenty-six, stew mutton, twenty-seven, kill cock, twenty-eight, make noodles, 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 saqima-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:

The eighth day of the twelfth lunar month is also a festival in old Beijing. On this day, 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 compiled "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, no one collects debts on the thirtieth day of the twelfth lunar month.

[Edit this paragraph] The 23rd King:

On the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, every household in old Beijing offered sacrifices to stoves. Beijing folk song "Door God Chef" sings: "Every year, every family is busy, and on the 23rd, people are king. There is a table in the middle with two plates of sugar on both sides. A bowl of water from black soil and hay burns a fragrance in the stove. The host of the family came to bless and praised the kitchen god for his good luck. " This folk song describes the ostentation and extravagance and the real scene of every household offering sacrifices to stoves in old Beijing.

China Shang Dynasty had the saying of Kitchen God. 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 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. " "

Once upon a time, 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.

[Edit this paragraph] Sweep the house on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month:

"Sweeping the Year Wind" prevailed in the Tang Dynasty. 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 peace in the new year." It has been passed down from generation to generation, forming 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, houses in Tomb-Sweeping Day ... "In fact, people don't sweep houses on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, but after the 15th of the twelfth lunar month and before the 23rd sacrifice, they choose an auspicious day from the imperial calendar to sweep houses, saying that" the old kitchen god can't go to heaven anywhere ".

Cleaning the house is really a troublesome thing, but it must be done. 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 in the twelfth lunar month:

The thirtieth day of the twelfth lunar month is New Year's Eve. 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.

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.

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.