Local traditional folk customs of Jinan Spring Festival

Lunar New Year is the beginning and the most important festival in a year. The activities of this festival actually started the night before-New Year's Eve. Once upon a time, in Jinan, on New Year's Eve, everyone posted spring stickers, scattered sesame stalks everywhere, and displayed fruits to welcome their ancestors. It is the night of resignation, burning firecrackers and rolling people set wine to keep for a year. Some of these customs have been inherited to this day.

Whenever night falls, there is a rich meal on every table, and the whole family sits around and eats a happy reunion dinner. Burn paper in the street before meals, and welcome the ancestors to go home and write it on the memorial table. On the wall behind the altar, there is also a "family hall axis" with a big photo of our ancestors. After eating the "New Year's Eve", we set off firecrackers during the Spring Festival, and the whole family sat around the fire, eating melon seeds and chatting all night. This is the so-called "Shounian". At the turn of the new year and the old year, we will eat "Old jiaozi". Jiaozi is usually vegetarian, which means the peace of the New Year. After eating older jiaozi, when the New Year comes, the younger generation begins to kowtow to the elders to pay New Year greetings, and the elders give "lucky money" to the children and happily accept the blessings of the younger generation.

Early in the morning, New Year greetings began. The children are dressed in new clothes, and the adults are all dressed up, and they go to find colleagues, neighbors, relatives and friends to pay New Year greetings in droves. In the past, when the younger generation paid New Year greetings to their elders, they all kowtowed to the altar and shouted "Someone paid New Year greetings!" ""kowtow to someone! "In recent years, generally no longer kowtow, acquaintances meet, make fists or shake hands, and say auspicious words such as' Congratulations on your fortune' and' Happy New Year', and there is a happy atmosphere everywhere.

There are also many taboos on New Year's Eve and the first day of junior high school. If you can't speak loudly on New Year's Eve, you can't say unlucky things. Married girls can't go back to their parents' homes on the first day of the first lunar month, and it is customary to think that going back to their parents' homes will be poor; It is considered unlucky to break dishes and other utensils on New Year's Eve and the first day of the first month. If you accidentally break something, you should say "peace for many years" to break it. No noodles on the first day of school. It is said that eating noodles has trouble for a year. It is not popular to sweep the floor and take out the garbage on the first day of the lunar new year, for fear of sweeping the treasure out of the house together.

On the second day of the Lunar New Year, it is the day when married girls return to their parents' homes. When a daughter takes her "uncle" home to pay a New Year call, her family should treat her warmly. "Uncle" is called "distinguished guest", so you should sit at the top of the table when eating and drinking. The daughter who returned to the door talked with her long-lost mother and sisters. In the past, many extended families lived under one roof for several generations, and the daughters of mothering often lived in it runs in the family for two generations, so the whole family was very busy at once. The custom of girls returning to their parents' homes in the second grade is still popular.

On the third day of New Year's Day, there is an old custom of "digging moon buds". At night, when a crescent moon hangs in the cold air, some women take their children to the yard, kneel on the futon facing the crescent moon, hold a rice spoon, dig a few times at the moon bud first, and then draw a few strokes at their ribs, chanting: "Dig the moon bud on the third day of the first month, and the teeth will go with the wind, never again." It is said that this kind of "digging" will never have a toothache again after one year. According to the old custom, the third day is still "well opening day". Early in the morning, people offer incense and vegetarian dishes. When I got to the well platform, I took off the red paper that sealed the well on New Year's Eve and began to draw water.

The fifth day of the first month is called "Breaking Five". On this day, every household will pack jiaozi, commonly known as "pinch five"; The whole family has a reunion dinner together to avoid saying unlucky things; Children set off firecrackers, which is called "sending the New Year". On the evening of the fifth day, every household "sends home the hall": Bao jiaozi, worships his ancestors, takes down the "home hall axis" and sees him off in the street, indicating that the New Year's Day has passed.

On the seventh day of the first month, it was called "Man wins the Festival" in the Tang Dynasty and "Man wins the Seven Days" in Jinan. It is said that people are prosperous and healthy, and people judge this year's harvest by whether it is sunny or not. Zong Lin, a native of the Southern Dynasties, said in the Chronicle of Jingchu: "The seventh day of the first month is the day, and seven kinds of dishes are used as soup to cut the ribbon for people, or to carve gold foil for people, with a screen attached, and a temple on their heads, which wins the battle." These 15600 years ago "Jingchu legacy" are also reflected in the old customs of Jinan. In the past, on People's Day, people in Jinan held celebrations or participated in recreational activities. People cut out seven figures with pentagonal silk or paper and stick them on the screen or screen wall; Some are carved into human shapes with thin metal and worn on temples. They also use seven kinds of vegetables to make cakes or eat "other people's dishes" and eat each other.