The origin, customs and comparison of Spring Festival celebrated by several generations.

Customs of Spring Festival (China New Year)

What year? Year is the image of drooping ears of grain and a symbol of bumper harvest. The so-called "bumper harvest year".

What year? Nian is a monster. It stays in the deep sea all year round and only climbs ashore on New Year's Eve. As soon as it landed, there were floods everywhere. Later, people put red paper on their doorsteps, lit firewood in the yard, and chopped vegetables and meat with kitchen knives, making a thunderous sound. Scared nian back and fled back to the sea. So on New Year's Eve, there are couplets, lanterns, new clothes, jiaozi and jiaozi, bonfires and firewood at night-this is the New Year.

So how did the ancients celebrate the New Year? Let's listen to this "festival song" first—

23 days of furnace sacrifice,

Twenty-four couplets,

25 make tofu,

Twenty-six years of cutting meat,

…………

The second day kowtows,

Play ball in grade three and grade four,

Jumping monkeys on the fifth and sixth days,

…………

"New Year, and busy for half a year". The ancients were busy celebrating the Year from the twelfth lunar month until Yuan Xiao passed, and the year passed. Then we can trace back to the "year step" of the ancients, and come to worship the stove first-

Kitchen God is the most exposed one among the gods who worship on New Year's Day. The custom of offering sacrifices to stoves has a long history, and it is an expression of ancestors' gratitude and reverence for fire and stoves. According to legend, Huangdi, Yan Di and Zhu Rong are all kitchen gods. The list of popular kitchen god Zhang looks like a beautiful woman. He has a wife named "Qing Ji", six daughters named "Chucky" and several soldiers. In addition to being in charge of fire, he should also examine the actions of the world and report to God. People also use distiller's grains, maltose and sticky cakes to "bribe" the kitchen god. At the same time, they murmured prayers and begged him to say yes in heaven. This custom has been passed down to this day, but the time is the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, and the sacrificial food is simplified as "stove candy stove cake". But if you pay attention, you will certainly hear grandma and mom saying to the kitchen god: Heaven is easy to talk about, don't speak ill of it. ...

Besides firecrackers, the spring breeze also brings warmth to Tu Su.

Thousands of families always trade new peaches for old ones.

-Wang Anshi

Firecrackers were originally a tool of witchcraft, used to drive away monsters. Unlike today's firecrackers, the original firecrackers are real bamboo, that is, burning bamboo, making a crackling sound and scaring ghosts. Tu Su is Tu Su wine, which means to kill something congenial and awaken people's souls. It is said that drinking this wine in the morning of January can keep you from getting sick for a year, and then the wine you drink during the Spring Festival will be collectively called "Tu Su wine".

Fu Tao, also known as "pottery board", is the predecessor of Spring Festival couplets. The ancients thought that peach wood was the essence of five trees, which could make a hundred ghosts. Therefore, since the Han Dynasty, peach wood has been used as a tool to ward off evil spirits, such as peach man, peach seal, peach board, peach symbol and so on. It is said that Fu Tao became the Spring Festival couplets because of Meng Chang, the master of Shu after the Five Dynasties. Paper Spring Festival couplets were only popular in Ming and Qing Dynasties. Today's Spring Festival couplets are intended to highlight the atmosphere of the New Year. Good luck. They have lost the driving role of the old Spring Festival couplets, which are rich in content and diverse in forms.

I wrote couplets, and then it's time to prepare food for the New Year. There are many foods in the New Year, such as rice cakes, New Year's Eve dinners and jiaozi. There are also diets with strong witchcraft flavor, such as peach soup, cypress wine, pepper wine, five coriander and so on. Peach soup is made of peaches, white wine is made of cypress leaves, and cellar wine is made of pepper seeds. The ancients drank it on the first day of the first month, meaning to ward off evil spirits and pray for blessings. Spiced board is made of five kinds of spicy food, such as onion and ginger, also called spring board. It is said that it can eliminate evil spirits, plague, and enlighten the five internal organs, and it also means to congratulate the new students.

The cold light in the hotel stayed alone and didn't sleep, and the guest turned sad.

My hometown is thinking thousands of miles tonight, and it is another year of the Ming Dynasty.

New Year's Eve is a night of reunion, and it is difficult for China people to have a happy knot. Even if people are in the end of the world, they should go home for New Year's Eve and have New Year's Eve. The home on New Year's Eve is a particularly warm and sweet space. Historically, even prisoners in prisons have been released and reunited. The family sat around the table and began the process of "group year" and "keeping the age". The first is the "reunion dinner", and then the whole family will sit together and watch the New Year.

At this time, the younger generation saluted their parents and resigned, and the old people had to share the lucky money. Lucky money, also known as "lucky money", "lucky money" and "lucky money", was originally used to ward off evil spirits and help children celebrate the New Year, but later generations used it to express affection and love.

After the reunion dinner, we will also eat "midnight snack", and the whole family will eat snacks together, or laugh and play, or talk about everything and wait for dawn. This is shou sui. In addition, on New Year's Eve, there are customs such as listening to a mirror, raising silkworms, selling dementia, making ash piles, etc., so as to predict the good or bad of the year and pray for children's wisdom and all the best in the new year.

"In the rural New Year, from the twelfth lunar month to the first half of the first month, the sound of gongs and drums lasted for one and a half months. The monotonous voice touched the hearts of every one of us in China. Just then, ... I found that the winter jasmine was in bloom. "

Yes, the winter jasmine is in bloom, and the new year has come!

The ancients compared the first eight days of the new rectification with six kinds of animals, people and valleys respectively. The first day of the first month is the Year of the Rooster, which is an auspicious day. The ancients used chickens to ward off evil spirits by killing chickens or sticking them on doors. People have been busy celebrating the New Year since New Year's Day. In the Han Dynasty, it was popular to pay New Year greetings. On the first day of the first month, the ministers went to the palace to worship, and the monarch and the minister enjoyed each other. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the official New Year greeting developed into an empty etiquette, which was often "stabbing at the door", whether you know it or not. There are poems as evidence:

I don't want to meet, but I want to talk about it. The famous papers are all us.

I also throw some paper at people. The world is too simple and empty.

In folk beliefs, the first day to the fourth day is the carnival day of the New Year, and it is not until the fifth day that normal life is resumed. The fifth day is also called "breaking the fifth day". The custom activity on this day is to "send the poor", but for businesses, businesses open their doors on the fifth day. The first month's activities did not gradually calm down until 15. ...

Recommended reading: The origin of the Spring Festival, New Year greeting is a traditional folk custom in China, and it is a way for people to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new and express their best wishes to each other.

Keep old on new year's eve

On New Year's Eve, there is a folk custom of observing the new year. On New Year's Eve, the tenth volume of Dream of Tokyo says, "The house of Shu Ren, the seat of the furnace group, is called Shounian." The custom of keeping old on New Year's Eve has a long history. The earliest record of observing New Year's Eve can be found in the local chronicles of the Western Jin Dynasty: on New Year's Eve, all parties give gifts to each other, which is called "giving back the New Year"; Wine and food are invited, which is called "not old"; Young and old get together to drink and wish a complete song called "age division"; Everyone stayed up all night, waiting for dawn, saying that one day is "keeping the old age."

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the trend of observing the age was extremely popular, and many well-known poems on observing the age were left in history. Fan Chengda sang in "Selling Dementia": "On New Year's Eve, people don't sleep, they are tired and lazy, forcing the year; The child calls for the strip, and the cloud has dementia and calls for people to sell it. " Su Dongpo also has a poem: "Children are strong and don't sleep, and they are happy at night; After sitting for a long time, the light went off and I looked at the Big Dipper. " The lively scene of celebrating New Year's Eve is vivid in my mind.

In ancient times, observing the age has two meanings: the old man's observing the age means "resigning from the old", which means cherishing time; Young people keep their age in order to prolong the life of their parents. Since the Han Dynasty, the time for the alternation of the old and new years is generally at midnight. In modern times, the whole family get together and have a good drink. At the same time, a series of entertainment activities will be held, such as solve riddles on the lanterns, where old people tell stories to their children, and everyone will drink, play mahjong, play poker, watch TV programs and cook jiaozi in the middle of the night to welcome the New Year.

Play with dragon lanterns

Playing with dragon lanterns, also known as "Dragon Dance" and "Dragon Dance", is a unique folk entertainment activity in China. From the Spring Festival to the Lantern Festival, China has the custom of playing dragon lanterns in both urban and rural areas. After thousands of years of inheritance and development, playing dragon lantern has become a kind of folk dance with lively form, beautiful performance and romantic color.

Playing with dragon lanterns originated from people's superstition about dragons and has a history of more than two thousand years. In ancient times, people used dragon dancing to pray for the blessing of dragons, in order to have good weather and abundant crops.

The main prop for playing dragon lanterns is "dragon". Dragons are made of grass, bamboo, wood, paper and cloth. The number of dragons is singular, which means good luck. Most of them are nine-section dragons, eleven-section dragons and thirteen-section dragons, up to twenty-nine. Dragons with more than fifteen knots are huge and not suitable for dancing for the public to watch. This kind of dragon pays special attention to decoration and has high technological value. There is also a kind called "fire dragon", which forms a cage by weaving bamboo sticks into cylinders, affixing transparent and beautiful dragon clothes, and lighting candles or oil lamps to burn. The performance in the evening was spectacular.

There are many ways to play the dragon lantern, among which the trick within nine knots is the key. The common moves are: dragon swimming, dragon drilling, head and tail drilling, dragon wagging its tail and snake molting. The dragons in sections 1 1 and 13 focus on action performance. Jinlong chased the orb, jumped up, sometimes flew to the clouds, and sometimes broke the waves into the sea.

Pick up the god of wealth

According to folklore, the fifth day of the first month is the birthday of the god of wealth, so after the first day of the first month, the next most important activity is to meet the god of wealth. On the night before God of Wealth's birthday, every household will hold a banquet to celebrate God of Wealth.

There are many legends about the god of wealth:

During the Song Dynasty, Cai Jing was very rich. According to folklore, he was born a god of wealth. He happened to be born on the fifth day of the first month, so people regard him as a god of wealth. After Cai Jing was demoted, people converted to the God of Wealth. At that time, the national surname of the Song Dynasty was Zhao, and this mysterious word was an integral part of the word "Lan", so he gave a new name to show his worship.

On the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, Zhao Xuantan is the most respected. Many shops and houses are dedicated to his woodcut statues: the Xuan altar looks like the bottom of a pot, holding Strafe in his hand and riding Hei Hu, which is extremely powerful.

In addition to Zhao Xuantan being honored as "God of Wealth", there are also folk sayings that "God of Wealth is partial", "God of Wealth" and "Wu Caishen" are heavenly emperors.

The belief in the God of Wealth is popular in Yuan Qiu, Dexing, Jiangxi. The initials of the titles of the five brothers are all "immortals", so they are called "five immortals". Rob the rich and help the poor before death, punish the evil and promote the good after death, and bless the poor. There are five temples of God of Wealth outside Andingmen in Beijing.

The "literary god of wealth" is also called the "god of wealth". His paintings are often juxtaposed with "Fu", "Lu", "Shou" Samsung and XiShen. Together, they are Fu, Lu, Shou, Cai and Fu. The rich star gentleman has long white hair and a cornucopia in his hand, from which the word "lucky money becomes treasure" comes. Most people will hang this painting in the main hall during the Spring Festival and pray for good luck.

"Wu Caishen" Guan Jun is Guan Yunchang. It is said that Guan Yunchang managed the military horse post station and was good at counting, which made his invention increasingly thin and focused on credit and loyalty, so he was worshipped by merchants. Generally speaking, businessmen regard Guan Gong as their patron saint, and Guan Gong is also regarded as the god of wealth.

On the fifth day of the first month, shops open. In the early morning, golden gongs, firecrackers and sacrifices are used to welcome the god of wealth. Gu Tieqing, a poet in A Qing, quoted a poem by Cai Yun Zhuzhi in Jia Qinglu, describing the scene of Suzhou people welcoming the god of wealth on the fifth day of May: "Seek financial resources for five days, and be willing to give a reward for one year; Beware of meeting God early elsewhere and rushing to hold the road all night. " "Holding the road" means "welcoming the God of Wealth". Businessmen who believe in Guan Di Sheng Jun will sacrifice, set off firecrackers and burn gold paper for Guan Gong on the fifth day of the first month, and ask Guan Di Sheng Jun to bless a prosperous year.

People over the age of 60 like to stick to the rules and generally act according to the above customs; People in their thirties and fifties selectively follow the existing customs during the Spring Festival and add new contents of the times, such as celebrating both the traditional Spring Festival and Valentine's Day; Young people under 30 pay more attention to my Spring Festival. I am the master, I can live as I want, as long as I am not illegal and happy.