What are the customs during the Spring Festival?

There is an old saying: "After Laba, it is the year". Indeed, after drinking Laba porridge, the pace of 2008 is approaching. When the twelfth lunar month is delivered to the kitchen, the atmosphere of the New Year is getting stronger every day. The land of China is full of exciting "nian" flavor everywhere.

Except at night.

New Year's Eve refers to the night on the last day of the twelfth lunar month, which is connected with the Spring Festival (the first day of the first month). The word "except" in "New Year's Eve" is "go"; Easy; "Alternating" means that New Year's Eve means "the month is poor and the old year is exhausted". People want to get rid of the old department and the old year, and the coming year means getting a new year. This is the last night of the Lunar New Year. Therefore, the activities during this period are all around changing the old for the new, eliminating disasters and praying for blessings.

During the Zhou and Qin Dynasties, an exorcism ceremony was held in the palace at the end of each year, and drumming was called exorcism, and then it was called exorcism on the day before New Year's Eve, that is, New Year's Eve. New Year's Eve is New Year's Eve, that is, New Year's Eve.

New Year's Eve is the most unforgettable night of the year. New Year's Eve is the most lively and noisy night. As soon as it was smeared, children or young men had already set off firecrackers with incense, ringing in the east and ringing in the west, boldly amplifying firecrackers. The young one put his hand over his ear and leaned out from a distance, while the other children put their hands over their ears and waited nervously and anxiously. This scene can be remembered even when people are old.

There are three main activities on New Year's Eve: having a reunion dinner, offering sacrifices and observing the New Year.

Sacrificial furnace

It originated very early in China. Legend has it that people are afraid of the kitchen god and bribe him with food and wine if they say it is not good for their families. However, the days of offering sacrifices to stoves vary from place to place. Sending stoves is also a time when debt collectors and debt collectors are in an endless stream. However, the most debt collection is New Year's Eve. After dinner, even if the debt is not collected, when the host and guest meet, they should bow their hands and congratulate each other.

Sweep for a year

After the sacrifice, before the end of the year, we must choose a good day to do a general cleaning, commonly known as "sweeping the annual sacrifice." The custom of sweeping graves to celebrate the New Year has a long history. Before cleaning every year, conservative families should turn over the imperial calendar in advance and choose an auspicious day to do it. Sweep away the dust accumulated for many years and greet the new year cleanly.

Read poetry

Catching up with the Spring Festival is one of the most important tasks of the New Year. People often go to the market to buy new year's goods from the 25th to 30th of the twelfth lunar month. There are countless things to buy, from daily necessities for food, clothing, housing and transportation to firecrackers and Spring Festival couplets for the New Year. It is always good to return home with a full load.

cash cow

In order to ignite the joy of the Spring Festival, inserting a pot of flowers in the hall is also an essential decoration. Therefore, the year is approaching, and the flower market transaction is particularly lively. The most common flowers are peach, plum, plum, peony, peony, narcissus and so on. Some people also like to take a pot of kumquat home during the Spring Festival. Quick-thinking businessmen will tie red firecrackers and shiny gold ingots to the trunk, which are called "cash cows".

paste up Spring Festival couplets

Spring Festival couplets are auspicious couplets with red paper as the bottom and written in ink, which are posted at gates, walls, doors, warehouses, kitchens and other places during the New Year. The content of Spring Festival couplets should pay attention to the neatness of antithesis, which means auspiciousness. It is a special style of China literature.

New Year picture

It is a printed matter related to the custom of the New Year and a unique folk craft during the New Year. The characteristics of New Year pictures vary from place to place, but the colors are lively and bold, which means auspiciousness. "Paper-cutting" is to carve patterns on paper with a knife, and the design of the picture is very clever. The content of "paper painting" New Year pictures is mainly immortals. Zhong Kui, the God of Wealth and the Blessing of Heaven are all very popular themes.

Pick up the god of wealth

It is said that New Year's Eve is also a day for immortals to descend to earth, so "receiving gods" is also an important task of this day. Among the gods, the most popular is the god of wealth. On the afternoon of New Year's Eve, "sending the God of Wealth" became the hottest temporary industry among the little boys. They bought a stack of paintings of the God of Wealth at a low price, and then shouted "Send God of Wealth" and "Send God of Wealth" in the street. Usually, when the god of wealth comes to the door, the owner will definitely spend a few copper coins to "please" come in. Even if you already have it at home, answer "please" and never say "no" to avoid cutting off your financial resources.

Family reunion dinner on New Year's Eve

The climax of Chinese New Year is the New Year's Eve dinner. The most important significance of New Year's Eve, also known as the reunion dinner, is family reunion. No matter where you struggle for your life on weekdays, on New Year's Eve, wanderers scattered all over the country will surely travel and travel and go home for reunion. Members of the family must wait for the whole family to arrive before moving chopsticks. In some places, people are used to putting a pair of chopsticks on the table and some dishes in the bowl. Even if a family member fails to go home for a reunion dinner, it shows that his family is waiting for him to go home. Traditionally, the longer you eat New Year's Eve, the better. Some people eat late into the night.

lucky money

After the New Year's Eve dinner, the moment the children are most looking forward to is coming. Usually at this time, the elders will sit in the class and accept the resignation of the younger generation. When retiring, children should say auspicious words to their elders, and elders will give their children and grandchildren red envelopes prepared in advance. This red envelope is "lucky money"

Shousui

On New Year's Eve, most people stay up until dawn. This custom was first seen in the local custom: "The custom of Shu, not sleeping until New Year's Eve, is called Shousui". According to legend, keeping old can make you or your parents live longer. Therefore, on New Year's Eve, families are usually brightly lit and stay up all night. At that time, firecrackers came one after another, and the New Year arrived.

Send oranges in the new year

The custom of exchanging oranges during the Spring Festival is popular in Guangdong, China, which is closely related to the culture of the Chinese nation. In the folk, people are used to writing orange characters, which are very similar to auspicious characters. In the Spring Festival, people give oranges to each other for good luck, hoping that in the new year, small oranges can become people's amulets.

Usually, when a woman visits relatives and friends for New Year's greetings, she will prepare some oranges and carry them in a basket as New Year's gifts, and these are the gifts she gives back.

In Haifeng, Guangdong, the younger generation kowtows to their elders when they pay New Year greetings, while the elders wrap money in red paper or give them oranges. Like the customs all over China, young people pay tribute to their elders when they pay New Year greetings. As for what food to eat for young people, it is natural to choose items that children love and have auspicious significance. So choose oranges as this kind of food with special significance. As for giving red envelopes, it is to let children buy what they like to eat and play, and later it was changed to simplify the procedures. Although the meaning is the same, it is still not as meaningful as traditional oranges.

In Chaozhou, people call oranges "big oranges", and its homonym is "good luck". Therefore, people should bring oranges to relatives' homes to pay New Year greetings, and the host will exchange his big oranges with those brought by the guests, so as to be friendly to each other and have good luck. If the children of family A beat and scold the children of family B during the Spring Festival, family A must send a pair of oranges to make amends, and parents of family A don't blame their children. The second family accepted oranges and forgave the children of the first family. This shows that family B has suffered an unlucky struggle. If family A is lucky enough to give it to family B, nothing unlucky will happen to the children of family B and family B this year.

Spring Festival Custom Made stick grilles

During the Spring Festival, people in many areas like to stick various paper-cut window grilles on their windows. Window grilles can not only set off the festive atmosphere, but also bring people beautiful enjoyment, integrating decoration, appreciation and practicality.

Paper-cutting is a very popular folk art, which has been deeply loved by people for thousands of years. Because it is often pasted on windows, people generally call it "window grilles".

Window grilles are rich in content and wide in subject matter. Because the buyers of window grilles are mostly farmers, window grilles have quite a lot of content to express farmers' lives, such as farming, weaving, fishing, herding sheep, raising pigs and chickens. In addition, there are myths and legends, drama stories and other themes. In addition, the images of flowers and birds, insects and fish, and the zodiac are also very common.

With its unique generalization and exaggeration, window grilles show auspicious things and good wishes incisively and vividly, and decorate festivals with prosperity and celebration.

Spring Festival custom-New Year greetings

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.

In ancient times, the original meaning of the word "Happy New Year" was to pay New Year greetings to the elderly, including kowtowing to the elderly, congratulating them on a happy New Year and greeting their lives. In case of friends and relatives of the same generation, you should also salute and congratulate.

New Year greetings usually begin at home. On the morning of the first day, after getting up, the younger generation should first pay a New Year call to their elders, wishing them a long and healthy life and all the best. After the elders worship, they should distribute the "lucky money" prepared in advance to the younger generation. After paying New Year greetings to the elders at home, people should greet each other with smiles when they go out to meet, and exchange auspicious words such as "Congratulations on getting rich", "Best wishes in the four seasons" and "Happy New Year". Neighbors or relatives and friends also pay New Year greetings to each other or treat them to drinks and entertainment.

In Volume 6 of A Dream in Tokyo, the elder Meng described Bianjing in the Northern Song Dynasty and said, "On October 1st, Kaifengfu was closed for three days, and scholars celebrated each other early. Lu Rong said in Volume V of Miscellaneous Notes in the Garden in the Middle Ming Dynasty: "On New Year's Day in Beijing, people crossing the road from the imperial court to Shu Ren for several days are called''. However, everyone in Shu Ren worships his relatives and friends. When dealing with North Korean officials, they are more caring than experts. Gu Tieqing, a Qing man, described in Ting Anne Lu that "men and women pay homage to their parents, and the master leads them to humble their sons, or stops sending them away to congratulate them, which is called''''''". For those who don't see each other for a lifetime, it's also goodbye to each other at this time. "

In ancient times, the literati in the upper class used the custom of greeting each other with famous cards. Hui Zhou, a poet of the Song Dynasty, said in Qingbo magazine: "During the reign of Emperor Yuanyou of the Song Dynasty, people were often stabbed with servants in the name of Chinese New Year." . At that time, the scholar-officials had a wide circle of friends, and it took time and energy to pay New Year greetings everywhere. Therefore, some close friends did not go in person, but sent their servants to take a card cut with plum blossom stationery, two inches wide and three inches long, with the recipient's name, address and congratulations written on it. In the Ming dynasty, people visited instead of paying New Year's greetings. Wen Zhiming, an outstanding painter and poet in the Ming Dynasty, described this in his poem "New Year": "I don't want to meet each other, but I want to talk, and my famous articles are full; I also throw a few pieces of paper at people. The world is too simple and empty. " The "famous thorn" and "famous divination" mentioned here are the origins of today's New Year cards. New Year cards are used to connect feelings and exchange greetings, which are convenient and practical and still popular today.

From about the Qing Dynasty, the form of "group worship" was added to the New Year greetings. In "Jade Tan with a Side Hat", the Lord of the Qing Dynasty said: "At the beginning of the year, the capital must make a routine group worship to unite the friendship of the New Year and show the nostalgia." "Every year, guests are booked with the value of new year's goods, and a banquet is held to celebrate the future."

With the development of the times, the custom of New Year greetings is constantly adding new contents and forms. Nowadays, in addition to following the previous way of greeting the New Year, etiquette telegrams and telephone greetings have mushroomed.

Spring Festival custom-setting off firecrackers

There is a folk saying in China that "open the door and set off firecrackers". That is, when the new year comes, the first thing for every household to open the door is to set off firecrackers to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new.

Firecracker is a specialty of China, also known as "Firecracker", "Firecracker" and "Firecracker". Its origin is very early, and it has a history of more than two thousand years.

Now, most of us think that setting off firecrackers can create a festive atmosphere, is a kind of entertainment in festivals, and can bring happiness and good luck to people. However, if we trace the origin of firecrackers, we will understand the original intention of the ancients to set off firecrackers and its evolution history.

"The Chronicle of Jingchu" said: "On the first day of the first month, chickens crowed in front of the court and set off firecrackers to ward off evil spirits." This record shows that firecrackers were an acoustic tool to drive away plagues and evil spirits in ancient times, which made the custom of setting off firecrackers have a certain superstitious color from the beginning. In fact, this is entirely caused by the misunderstanding of the ancients. According to Nerve, in ancient times, people camped through deep mountains and lit bonfires at night, one for cooking and keeping warm, and the other for preventing wild animals from invading. However, there is an animal in the mountains, which is not afraid of people or fire, and often steals food while people are unprepared.

In order to deal with this animal, people thought of setting off firecrackers in the fire and using the crackling sound of bamboo to drive it away. The animal mentioned here is called "sister-in-law". The ancients said that it can make people cold and hot, and it is ghosts that make people get cold and hot, scaring away mountains, that is, driving away evil spirits and making people lucky and safe.

In the early Tang Dynasty, plagues were everywhere. A man named Li Tian put saltpeter in a bamboo tube and lit it to make it emit louder sound and stronger smoke. As a result, the miasma in Shan Lan was dispelled and the epidemic was stopped. This is the earliest prototype of firecrackers. Later, when gunpowder appeared, people filled bamboo tubes with saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal and burned them, resulting in an "explosion war". In the Song Dynasty, people began to make "guns" (that is, firecrackers) with paper tubes and hemp sticks wrapped in gunpowder. Regarding the evolution of firecrackers, Excellent Popular Arrangement records: "Ancient firecrackers. They are all popular with real bamboo, so Tang poetry is also called explosive pole. Later people roll paper for it. It's called firecrackers.

With the passage of time, firecrackers are more and more widely used, and there are more and more varieties and colors. Liuyang in Hunan, Foshan and Dongyao in Guangdong, Yichun and Pingxiang in Jiangxi and Wenzhou in Zhejiang are the famous "hometown of fireworks" in China. The firecrackers they produced not only sell well all over the country, but also are exported to other countries and regions in the world.

Setting off firecrackers has become an entertainment activity with national characteristics. People not only set off firecrackers to bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new year in the Spring Festival, but also set off firecrackers to celebrate major festivals and happy events, such as Lantern Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, marriage, building houses and opening businesses.

Spring Festival custom-eating rice cakes

During the Spring Festival, many areas in China pay attention to eating rice cakes. The rice cake is also called "rice cake", which is homophonic with "getting higher every year", meaning that people's work and life are getting better every year.

As a kind of food, rice cakes have a long history in China. 1974, archaeologists discovered rice seeds at Hemudu matriarchal clan social site in Yuyao, Zhejiang Province, indicating that our ancestors began to grow rice as early as 7000 years ago. People in Han Dynasty called rice cakes "rice cakes", "fish bait" and "glutinous rice cakes". The ancients also had a development process from rice cakes to rice cakes. The recipe "Historical Records" in the 6th century A.D. recorded the making method of rice cake "white cocoon sugar", which wrote, "When the rice is cooked and hotter than that in Chu Jiu, it must be cooked extremely well so that there are no grains of rice ..." That is, after the glutinous rice is steamed, it is cooked into rice and then cut into the size of a peach pit.

The method of grinding rice into cakes is also very early. The Book of Qi Yaomin written by Jia Sixie in the Northern Wei Dynasty can prove this point. The production method is to screen glutinous rice flour with silk, add water and honey to knead it into hard dough, attach dates and chestnuts to the dough, wrap it with bamboo leaves and steam it. This glutinous rice cake has the characteristics of the Central Plains.

Rice cakes are mostly made of glutinous rice flour, which is a specialty of Jiangnan. There are sticky grains such as glutinous rice in the north, and sticky millet (commonly known as millet) was first introduced in ancient times. This shelled millet powder is yellow, sticky and sweet after being steamed with water. It is a delicious food for people in the Yellow River valley to celebrate the harvest. The article "A Brief Introduction to the Scenery of Jingshi" published during the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty recorded every Beijinger at that time. Quot "On the first day of the first month, we eat millet cakes called rice cakes. It is not difficult to see that "rice cake" is a homonym of "sticky cake" in the north.

There are many kinds of rice cakes, such as white rice cakes in the north, yellow rice cakes for farmers in Saibei, and rice cakes in water towns in the south of the Yangtze River. ツ旮ㄍ?旃旮旮旮旮旮廦旮旮旮旮旮旮旮.

There are steamed rice cakes and fried rice cakes in the north, both of which are sweet; In addition to steaming and frying, southern rice cakes are also sliced and cooked in soup, which is both sweet and salty.

It is said that the earliest rice cakes were used to worship gods and ancestors on New Year's Eve, and later became food for the Spring Festival.

The rice cake is not only a kind of holiday food, but also brings people new hope with the passing of a year. As a poem in the late Qing Dynasty said, "People's hearts are high, and food is harmonious, so that the year is better than the year to pray for the year."

Eating jiaozi during the Spring Festival is customary.

Jiaozi is a folk food with a long history and is deeply loved by people. There is a folk saying "delicious but not as good as jiaozi". During the Spring Festival, jiaozi has become an indispensable delicacy.

According to "Guangya" written by wei ren Zhang Yi in the Three Kingdoms period, there was a crescent-shaped food called "wonton" at that time, which was basically similar to the shape of jiaozi now. By the Northern and Southern Dynasties, wonton was "shaped like a crescent moon and could be eaten all over the world". Presumably, when making jiaozi, he didn't take it out to eat alone, but put it in a bowl with soup, so people called jiaozi "wonton" at that time. This way of eating is still popular in some areas of our country. For example, when people from Henan and Shaanxi eat jiaozi, they should put some small ingredients such as coriander, chopped green onion, shrimp skin and leek in the soup. By about the Tang Dynasty, jiaozi had become exactly the same as jiaozi now, so it was fished out and put on a plate to eat by itself.

Jiaozi was called "Joule" in Song Dynasty, which is the etymology of the word "Jiaozi" in later generations. This kind of writing can still be seen in the following Yuan, Ming, Qing and Republic of China.

Jiaozi was called a "flat food" in the Yuan Dynasty. During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, Shenbang's Miscellanies of Ten Thousand Parts recorded: "New Year's Day ..... as a patch food". Liu Ruoyu's "Proceedings" records: "Eat fruit snacks on New Year's Day, that is, eat slices." The "plaque" of "plaque food" in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties is now commonly used as "ping". "Bian Shi" may come from Mongolian.

In the Qing Dynasty, some new appellations about jiaozi appeared, such as "jiaozi", "water snacks" and "baked wheat cake". The increase of Jiaozi's names shows that its geographical spread is expanding.

The folk custom of eating jiaozi during the Spring Festival has been quite popular in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Generally, jiaozi should wrap it up before New Year's Eve 12, and eat it at midnight. At this time, it is the beginning of the first day of the first lunar month. Eating jiaozi means making friends with young people, while Zi means making friends with young people, which is homophonic with jiaozi, meaning "happy reunion" and "good luck".

There are many legends about eating jiaozi during the Spring Festival. One is to commemorate the creation of Pangu and end the mixed state. The other is to use it as a homonym of "wonton", which means "five grains are abundant" In addition, it is said that eating jiaozi's folk language is related to Nu Wa's making people. When Nuwa soil caused people, the ears of loess people were easily frozen off because of the cold weather. In order to prevent the ear from being fixed, Nuwa put a small eye on the ear, tied it with a thin thread, and put the other end of the thread in the mouth of the loess man to bite, so that the ear would be fine. In order to commemorate the achievements of Nu Wa, ordinary people wrapped jiaozi, molded adult ears with flour, wrapped them with stuffing (thread) and ate them with their mouths.

Jiaozi has become an indispensable program food for the Spring Festival. The reasons are as follows: First, jiaozi is shaped like an ingot. During the Spring Festival, people eat jiaozi and get the voice of "the way to make money". Secondly, jiaozi has stuffing, which is convenient for people to put all kinds of auspicious things into stuffing and place their hopes for the new year.

When wrapping jiaozi, people usually wrap Jin Ruyi, sugar, peanuts, dates and chestnuts into stuffing. Eat the best and sugar, life will be sweeter in the coming year, eat peanuts, live a long and healthy life, eat dates and chestnuts, and have a baby early.

In some areas, when people eat jiaozi, they have to match some non-staple food to show their good luck. If you eat tofu, it symbolizes the happiness of the whole family; Eating persimmons symbolizes all the best; Eat three fresh vegetables. It symbolizes that Sanyang opens Thailand. People in Taiwan Province Province eat fish balls, meatballs and seaweed, symbolizing reunion and wealth. Jiaozi has various fillings and making methods. Even the same kind of jiaozi has different ways of eating: Daur people in Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang want to cook jiaozi with vermicelli broth. Then even the soup with jiaozi to eat; In some areas of Henan, jiaozi is cooked with noodles, which is called "gold thread penetrates gold ingot".

Jiaozi cuisine not only brings joy to people, but also becomes an important part of China's food culture.