Folk customs of Chinese New Year in various places

The Spring Festival is the most grand traditional festival of the Chinese nation in a year, which reflects the most typical customs and culture of a place. The Spring Festival is approaching. In order to fully reflect the colorful and memorable holiday customs in Hainan during the Spring Festival, Southern Metropolis Daily reporters are divided into five ways, so that readers can have a deep understanding of the Chinese New Year customs in different regions of China, the rich local culture of Hainan Province and the rich taste of the year-

Haikou village-picking houses, surrounding stoves and eating vegetarian dishes

The Spring Festival custom in Haikou countryside is very lively. Speaking of the Spring Festival, we should first mention "choosing a house" (Hainan dialect). Choosing a house, in short, is cleaning at home. Generally, a broom made of bamboo branches and leaves will be used to clean up the dust, cobwebs and other dirt accumulated on the roof, eaves and walls. In addition to cleaning the dust and dirt in the house, it also includes cleaning furniture, clothes, quilts and so on. This custom is very particular in the rural areas of Haikou, which has been passed down from generation to generation.

New Year's Eve is always the highlight of the New Year, and the villages in Haikou are no exception. Traditionally, Haikou people call New Year's Eve dinner "eating around the stove". The family gathered around a stove with a pot on it, and the family ate around. Chicken is essential, as well as our local famous food-milk sheep. Boil the soup in the pot, put the chopped meat and vegetables in the soup with chopsticks, and eat it when it is cooked. Dip it in the seasoning and it tastes delicious.

Eating "rice with vegetables" is also one of the important customs in some villages. Chen Hai, a villager in Ziluo Village, dongshan town, said that it is a long-standing custom to eat "rice with vegetables" on New Year's Eve in their hometown. The so-called vegetable rice is to mix meat, vegetables and rice, wrap them in leaves and hold them in your hand to eat. According to Chen Hai, it is still troublesome to produce cabbage and rice. The first thing is to cook dry rice; Secondly, the rape is washed and dried to make rice; Prepare some garlic, leek, lean meat, chicken, shrimp skin or sausage. When these raw materials are ready, stir-fry the vegetables and meat first, then stir-fry the rice with garlic and shrimp, and pour the vegetables and meat into the rice and mix well. Finally, beat the rice into leaves while it is hot, and hold it into a ball with your hands. Eating vegetables and rice means reunion.

Eat vegetarian food. Eating fast on New Year's Day is also a traditional custom of Haikou people. Zhai Cai Bao is a traditional dish of Haikou people, and its biggest feature is that it does not use animal raw materials. The method of making Haikou vegetarian pot is very particular. First, soak dried vegetables such as yuba, vermicelli, day lily, shiitake mushroom and auricularia auricula, rinse them, soak them in boiling water, filter and dry them, then stir-fry them with hot oil and simmer them with slow fire for later use. Wash and cut black bean sprouts, beets, cress, etc. Stir-fry separately and add half flavor; Cut the dried bean curd into long strips, fry it in hot oil until it is yellow, and then add seasoning until it is half-flavored. Then, heat the pot. After the oil is hot, put all the ingredients in, add water, add some soy sauce, monosodium glutamate and sesame oil, and cook thoroughly with low fire. Then put the cooked vegetarian dishes into a casserole at regular intervals according to the color of the raw materials, and cook them with medium heat to eat.

Fasting on the first day means not killing anything in the coming year. Today, this custom has been largely preserved. In the eyes of many people, fasting on New Year's Day is good for health by adjusting the diet structure for the New Year.

After New Year's Day, the rest of the process is to visit relatives and friends. Lunar New Year's Day is usually the day when married daughters and son-in-law return to their parents' homes to visit relatives. When I go back to my parents' home to visit relatives, I usually bring two kinds of gifts, rice cakes and oranges. Rice cakes are also called sweet rice cakes or rice cake baskets in some villages in Haikou. It is made by stirring glutinous rice flour and brown sugar into syrup, pouring it into a bamboo basket and steaming it in a pot. Traditionally, villagers wrapped rice cakes with a piece of red paper, which meant great success. The word "orange" of oranges is homophonic with the word "auspicious", so giving oranges also means sending good luck.

With the development of society, the custom of Spring Festival in Haikou Village has been given new content while being passed down. For example, during the Spring Festival in many places, in addition to some traditional customs, some old people get together to play chess, while young people hold tug-of-war, volleyball, lion dance and other cultural activities.

Sending lanterns at Wenchang Lantern Festival is a traditional project in rural areas. After New Year's Eve, towns and villages began to "send lanterns" according to different auspicious days. On this day, everyone kills chickens and sheep, cooks many traditional foods, holds a grand banquet, and invites relatives and friends from all walks of life to be guests at home.

Villagers hold lanterns (72 words "happiness" and 36 words "longevity" can be seen on lanterns. The front of the lamp is also printed with auspicious words such as "the way to make money" and "the birth of your son", or people who are nostalgic for the ancient scenery). A "lantern master" led the team along the village, beating gongs and drums, setting off firecrackers, and then went to the public temple not far from the village. As soon as the lights are hung, people flock to grab the flower-picking lights.

There is still some emphasis on the emergence of "light Lord". Because "lamp" is homophonic with "Ding" in the population, people associate "lamp" with "Ding", which means that giving a lamp means wealth, so "lamp master" takes turns according to the presence of boys and well-off villagers in the village. Mainly responsible for preparing funds, liaison acting, dancing, public sacrifice, sending public lanterns and other matters. Moreover, the people who participate in the lantern delivery must be families with boys to have the right to send lanterns.

In the process of sending lanterns, we will jump cups and perform activities such as puppet red and Qiong opera.

Sending lanterns at Wenchang Lantern Festival is a traditional project in rural areas. After New Year's Eve, towns and villages began to "send lanterns" according to different auspicious days. On this day, everyone kills chickens and sheep, cooks many traditional foods, holds a grand banquet, and invites relatives and friends from all walks of life to be guests at home.

Villagers hold lanterns (72 words "happiness" and 36 words "longevity" can be seen on lanterns. The front of the lamp is also printed with auspicious words such as "the way to make money" and "the birth of your son", or people who are nostalgic for the ancient scenery). A "lantern master" led the team along the village, beating gongs and drums, setting off firecrackers, and then went to the public temple not far from the village. As soon as the lights are hung, people flock to grab the flower-picking lights.

There is still some emphasis on the emergence of "light Lord". Because "lamp" is homophonic with "Ding" in the population, people associate "lamp" with "Ding", which means that giving a lamp means wealth, so "lamp master" takes turns according to the presence of boys and well-off villagers in the village. Mainly responsible for preparing funds, liaison acting, dancing, public sacrifice, sending public lanterns and other matters. Moreover, the people who participate in the lantern delivery must be families with boys to have the right to send lanterns.

In the process of sending lanterns, we will jump cups and perform activities such as puppet red and Qiong opera.

Danzhou has been called "Boer" since ancient times. It has a long history, simple folk customs and rich customs.

Yangpu belonged to Danzhou before Hainan was established as a province in 88. Its customs also inherited Danzhou customs. The following is a brief summary of China's New Year customs, to share with your inland friends:

29 before New Year's Day: Prepare for the New Year; Clean the yard and tidy up household items; Sticking couplets (Danzhou is known as "the land of poetry and the sea of songs", Danzhou people can sing and write couplets, and many people write their own books on holidays);

New Year's Eve: (Do two things)

1, ancestor worship: first, the ancestors of the ancestral home, and then the ancestors of the ancestral temple in the ancestral village; Sacrificial offerings include: fruits, vegetables, fish, pork, whole chicken, home cooking, water, rice, white wine, and white lime dipped in leaves (these offerings mean "fish and meat", indicating that you are rich in your later years); When worshipping, you should read the respects of your ancestors first, then bless them, then pour wine into a cup, burn newspapers (yellow candle paper), light firecrackers and bow.

2, eat a reunion dinner: 30 this day, the whole family gathered at home, it is not appropriate to go out, it is forbidden to visit relatives and friends. The family recalled the past and had a reunion dinner together. From 7: 00 pm to 9: 00 pm, the "lighting" ("lighting" lasts from this day to 16), and the men at home should take care of this matter. Put on water and rice offered by ancestors, put on fruits (or cut green sugarcane in half vertically, and put each section in a "well" shape in bowls on both sides of the stage), light candles, burn incense (a pair of red candles, three big incense sticks and six small incense sticks), and burn newspapers (yellow candle paper) to make a whipping sound; In the evening, from 10 to 1 1, the villagers gathered in the ancestral hall to wait for the gods. This ceremony is very grand. First of all, burn incense and beat drums. The "gentleman" read the sacrificial manuscript and invited the gods to the village, then burned newspapers and sounded whips. At midnight, 12, every household burns incense and whips at home on time, and the ceremony of burning incense is like the process of "lighting a lamp";

New Year's Day: In the morning 10, the villagers are called to the ancestral hall to hold the ceremony of "opening the order". This ceremony is very important. Because, only after the "order" can you leave the village, otherwise it will be unfavorable. For many years, this custom is still popular among the people. The "opening order" needs to ask "comrades" (the "spokesmen" of the immortal wood carvings and ancestor statues in the ancestral hall), because in customs, there is no dialogue between immortals, so only a man who is trusted and possessed by immortals can give instructions to the immortals, clear all the way and ward off evil spirits; After the "opening order", you can visit the house.

Chinese New Year: a friendly visit from relatives in the same village;

From the third day of the lunar new year to the sixteenth day of the first month: it's time for "Happy New Year". The New Year greetings in Danzhou are different from those in the north. In order to welcome the guests, arrange the visit time appropriately and set the visit time according to local customs. As follows:

New Year's Day: Xia Lan;

Lunar New Year's Day: Xipu, Ganchong (Ju Ran, East, Lingao, South, etc. );

Lunar New Year's Day: Xinyingwan area (Wushan, Yantian, etc. )

Lunar New Year's Day: Yangpu Village;

New Year's Day 16: Baimajing;

Every New Year, every village will spontaneously organize some folk activities with local characteristics, such as tuning the strings, lion dancing, dragon dancing, dragon boat racing and ball games, which are deeply loved by the people.

Sanya-make rice cakes on New Year's Eve and buy firecrackers on New Year's Eve.

Sanya is located in ethnic minority areas, and the annual customs not only inherit the traditional customs, but also incorporate many characteristic elements.

Make brown sugar rice cakes on New Year's Eve. Speaking of Chinese New Year, many cities and counties in Hainan have the custom of making rice cakes, and Sanya is no exception, but the brown sugar rice cakes in Sanya are a must among many rice cakes.

The main material of Sanya brown sugar rice cake is glutinous rice flour. First, put glutinous rice flour into a basin and mix it with water, then mix it with some coconut flour and peanuts, then mix the finely divided brown sugar into water and melt it, add it into the basin and stir it vigorously until the mixture becomes a uniform paste. Then put it in a pot and steam it for a few hours. The steamed rice cake is very elastic, the color is sauce red, it tastes like soft candy, and it tastes excellent.

In the past, brown sugar rice cakes could only be eaten in the New Year, and every household would set up a pot to cook in front of the door on New Year's Eve. Now that life is good, you can also buy brown sugar rice cakes that you can only eat in the past, but every New Year, everyone will still create an atmosphere of feeling the New Year with their own hands.

Children must buy firecrackers during the Spring Festival. On the second day of New Year's Day, married women return to their parents' homes to pay New Year's greetings. On this day, her husband must accompany her to bring gifts to her parents' home for the New Year. Whether she brings supplements or snacks, one of the gifts she brings must be firecrackers.

It is understood that in Sanya, on the second day of New Year's Day, an uncle went back to his mother's house to celebrate the New Year with his wife, and he must buy a set of firecrackers. This has been a custom for many years. Every year, I have to prepare firecrackers to accompany my wife back to her hometown to celebrate the New Year. When you arrive at your parents' door, you can give it to other relatives. After the firecrackers are set off, you can go in to pay New Year greetings to the elderly and other relatives. Bringing firecrackers to parents-in-law's home for New Year's greetings is not only a courtesy need, but also a wish to elders and other relatives.

Lingshui-pick up incense, move new year's goods, and pay New Year's greetings with betel nuts.

On New Year's Eve, when the New Year bell rings, the most important man in the family will respectfully put a few incense sticks. According to the introduction of the local elderly, it is said that from New Year's Eve 12 to the dawn of New Year's Day, this time represents the auspicious fairy meeting coming to the world one after another, bringing people good luck and wealth. These incense are used to greet immortals. Another important task of the man in charge of lighting incense is to "receive incense". From New Year's Eve 12 to the fifth day of New Year's Eve, the incense at home must last forever. Because in the idea of Lingshui people, the continuation of incense also represents the prosperity of the descendants of this family.

"Moving New Year's Goods" Many places in Hainan are vegetarian in the early morning of the New Year's Day, and Lingshui has the same custom. But unlike other places, Lingshui people have given vegetarian food a new meaning. In Lingshui, people call vegetarianism a "dynamic new year". In the early morning of New Year's Day, hardworking housewives began to get busy for "moving new year's goods". Vegetarian materials such as Flammulina velutipes, vermicelli, eggplant and yuba are skillfully cooked by housewives, adding a warm aroma to the morning. After getting up, the family sat together, each with a bowl of rice and a delicious vegetarian meal. Adults always let children "eat more" and "move" all kinds of rich "new year's goods" into their stomachs. This year, they will be rich in financial resources and have a rich life.

Take betel nuts for the New Year. People in Lingshui love eat areca, and betel nut has a special meaning in Lingshui people's hearts, especially on such an important day as the Spring Festival. Before the Chinese New Year, every household in Lingshui will prepare a lot of betel nuts. Cut betel nut into four pieces, and then spread some special sauce on a special leaf (commonly known as betel nut leaf) made in eat areca, and fold it into a small triangle. On New Year's Day, it's not bad to hold a handful of betel nuts to "act" when it's time to pay a New Year call to the elders. Every time I meet my elders, the younger generation will take out two small betel nuts with a "small triangle" and put them in their palms, then hold them in both hands, respectfully handing them over and saying "Happy New Year". The elder smiled and took the betel nut, representing the most sincere blessing from the younger generation.

Li people in Wuzhishan-sealing rice jars, washing their faces with clean water and pouring wine.

When it comes to central Hainan, people will naturally think of Wuzhishan and the Li compatriots under Wuzhishan. The festival custom of Li nationality is one of the important contents of Wuzhishan annual custom. What contents and features does it include? A few days ago, our reporter interviewed Huang, former deputy director of the Provincial Museum for Nationalities.

Huang, a Li nationality, has worked in the Provincial Museum for Nationalities (located in Wuzhishan) for 20 years, engaged in special research on Hainan's national culture. Huang said that the Li people attach great importance to the Spring Festival and have a unique set of customs:

Sealed rice cylinder. The rice jar sealing ceremony is a prelude to the Spring Festival. In the middle of December of the lunar calendar, the hostess of every household in the village will hold a ceremony to seal the rice altar. The method is to choose odd auspicious nights. After the rooster crows three times in the middle of the night, she fills her special rice jar, and then seals the jar mouth with a piece of red paper and ties it tightly. On the fifteenth day of the first month, a ceremony was held to open the jar and cook for the whole family with rice in the jar.

Make glutinous rice cakes for the Spring Festival. On the 29th of the twelfth lunar month, every household will make rice cakes for the New Year. That is, the soaked Shan Lan glutinous rice is steamed in a steamer, mashed in a wooden mortar, and then kneaded into cakes. There are two kinds of glutinous rice cakes made during the Spring Festival: one is a bowl-sized ordinary round cake, which is mainly used during the Spring Festival.

Wash your face with clean water. In the early morning of the first day of the first month, every household has to dump the water in its own tank and then fill it with water from the well. This is the so-called "new water". Then use this water to heat the whole family to wash their faces, which is called "washing their faces with new water", and pray for bright eyes and smooth work in the new year.

Fill the cows with wine. This is a traditional custom of the Li nationality. On the morning of New Year's Day, every family will give their cows special wine. Generally, each cow drinks a small barrel of wine. Li people believe that raising cattle is also the main labor force. During the Spring Festival, cattle farmers should also stop work and rest, drink and strengthen themselves, so as to increase their energy and work harder for the coming year. Therefore, all the plowed cows have a chance to get drunk at this time. The wine is mixed with several herbal juices with the effects of traumatic injury and expelling wind. After drinking the cow, you have to lie drunk for two or three days before you wake up. In the past, there were dozens of cows in large families, and they often used dozens of jars of wine every Spring Festival.

Happy new year. Paying New Year greetings is the most lively and interesting part of Chinese New Year. You can pay New Year greetings on any day from the second day of the first month to the fifteenth day of the first month. There are various forms of New Year greetings, and the etiquette of New Year greetings is also very particular. There are also family members, relatives and friends, and son-in-law who visit their father-in-law for New Year greetings. Among them, the son-in-law gives the father-in-law the most grand New Year greetings. At that time, the son-in-law will lead his wife and dozens of brothers in the family to pay New Year greetings to all families including his father-in-law. During the Chinese New Year, we should set off firecrackers, worship betel nuts, cigarettes, drink Shanlan liqueur and sing folk songs at banquets. When relatives and friends visit each other before the fifteenth day of the first month, if the visitors set off firecrackers, the host regards it as a New Year greeting, that is, treats the guests with New Year greeting etiquette.

Lingao Chengmai-worshiping, sleeping and eating cuttlefish

In some places in Chengmai, pigs are killed on the afternoon of the 29th of New Year's Day. Often, several families kill a pig together. On the 30th, they began to worship Gong Zu with pork, viscera and rice balls, asking Gong Zu to bless the health of the whole family, safe access, bumper crops and prosperous livestock. If you made a wish in 2008, you should have made it on that day. And this process is called "surrounding the furnace". You can't kill chickens and ducks until the stove is burned. At midnight 12, every household put two small piles of chopped sugarcane, a grapefruit, three oranges and pig offal in the main hall where the ancestral incense burners were placed, and then lit incense and set off firecrackers to welcome the New Year. This process is called "incense". After burning incense, the adults began to cook the New Year and the first meal, and invited the whole family to eat. The first bowl of rice must be finished, and the second meal must be served, no matter how much you can eat.

Lingao, which is adjacent to Chengmai, calls the family dinner on New Year's Eve "around the stove" (this is actually the so-called reunion dinner and New Year's Eve). After "surrounding the kitchen", adults let their children put on new clothes and socks to sleep, which is called "sleeping well". The longer you sleep, the happier you are. When it's time to burn incense, the whole family wakes up. The children pay New Year greetings to their parents, and the younger generation pays New Year greetings to their elders. The latter gives red envelopes to the former. After the incense, the whole family can only eat vegetarian dishes but not meat dishes, such as celery, vegetables, garlic, lentils and tofu. When cooking, you can only fry with peanut oil, and you can't eat chicken until noon 12 on New Year's Day. Go to bed after dinner, and sleep until 9: 00 a.m. on New Year's Day. Anyway, I can't visit New Year on the first day.

The choice of New Year greetings varies from place to place. For example, in Lingao, New Year greetings begin on the second day of the Lunar New Year. Generally, the most important family goes first, such as the daughter and son-in-law go back to their parents' home, the lower level goes to their superiors' home, and the younger generation goes to their elders' home. Buy oranges and firecrackers when you go, which means good luck. When they meet, they shout "Congratulations" and then set off firecrackers, which means peace through the years. From the second day to the fifteenth day, as long as you hear firecrackers ringing, you will know who has someone coming to pay New Year's greetings. On the wine table of New Year's greetings, a well-off family has an indispensable dish, that is cuttlefish. Lingao dialect calls cuttlefish "red", which sounds a bit like "tong". I ate a "passport" for the New Year, and I did everything all year round, and everything went smoothly. Therefore, in the first month, Lingao cuttlefish was very expensive and sold well.

In Chengmai, visiting relatives and friends usually begins on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year. Of course, the fourth day of the fourth lunar month should be an auspicious day. Just buy gifts instead of firecrackers when you pay New Year's greetings.

Qionghai-send the poor, prepare new year's goods and brew bride wine.

Qionghai people don't call the New Year "that year", but regard it as a major event, full of deep expectations. Qionghai people have many customs during the Spring Festival.

Send it to the poor. Every household is busy cleaning indoor and outdoor sanitation, cleaning mosquito nets and bedding, and even washing a laundry list of furniture to clean up the inside and outside. Then take some old things to the village entrance and light them, which is called "sending them to the poor", which means burying all those teachings in exchange for good luck in the new year.

"Prepare for a year." Send away the "poor" and go to the market to buy new year's goods. Buy new clothes, shoes, socks, furniture, farm tools, oil, salt, vinegar, paper and money for the whole family. In the northern region, rice is ground into rice cakes, which are called "sweet rice cakes". I hope to plant a large field next year and live a sweet life. Making peanut popcorn candy in the southern region means that next year will be hot and sweet. Before New Year's Eve, New Year pictures of Spring Festival couplets were posted, and a paper symbol called "Hedging Money" was also posted on the lintel.

"Around the furnace" is also called "Shounian". On New Year's Eve, chickens, ducks and geese are slaughtered and various dishes are prepared. After ancestor worship, the whole family sits around in the evening. Parents give their children and grandchildren "lucky money" and children give their parents "filial money". The family used to chat over tea. Parents tell their children and grandchildren about their production and life in the coming year, and their children also wish their parents a happy New Year. Now it's around watching the Spring Festival Gala. Until midnight, my parents replaced the old ashes in the incense burner with new ashes, sand, rice grains and so on. Then three teas and five drinks, biscuits and sweets, vegetarian dinner and ancestor worship.

This sacrifice has attracted much attention. "Three teas and five drinks" refers to three cups of tea or five cups of wine. Vegetarian dishes are usually cress, eggplant, peas, Beijing vermicelli, fish and so on. After "around the stove", everyone fell asleep and lay in a warm bed to "hatch the year". I hope next year will be a year of food and clothing.

From the first to the third day of the Lunar New Year, there are also taboos. You can't kill animals on the first day, and you can kill chickens and geese on the second day. The paper scraps of firecrackers set off on New Year's Eve on the second day of the first day of junior high school can't be swept away, but the money will be swept away.

In Futian, Shang Yong, Tanmen and other places in the south, there is also a popular habit of "brewing bride wine". This year, a daughter got married and got married. When she first came to visit her family, she had to visit all her uncles and brothers. Every household holds a banquet, waiting for their daughter and son-in-law to pay a New Year call. I'm afraid it's ok to move chopsticks and eat one or two. The head of household also gives red envelopes to his daughter and son-in-law. Daughters and sons-in-law only send firecrackers, usually "cannon cars", which are released as soon as they enter the door, telling everyone that their children are coming back to pay a New Year call. Of course, everyone who pays a New Year call should bring firecrackers as a gift. Therefore, in the village, guns and laughter have been going on these days.

"Fried Taniguchi" was held on the morning of the third day. All the meals in this lunch are fried. The rice cakes in the northern area are cut into small pieces and fried soft. "Stir-fried Taniguchi" means to look forward to a bumper harvest of grain this year, prosperity of six livestock and worry-free food and clothing.