Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - The 24 Solar Terms - The custom of New Year in southern Fujian

The custom of New Year in southern Fujian

1. On the morning of the first day of junior high school, after the family gets up and freshens up, they put on new clothes and pay New Year greetings to their parents and elders, who will give them red envelopes. After breakfast (generally eating noodles and eggs, eating eggs is intended to remove mildew and welcome good luck, and noodles symbolize longevity). Go out to visit relatives and friends. If guests come to your house, you should provide candy, candied fruit, or drink sweet tea and coffee to make them "sweet" to show a sweet start.

The next day is "son-in-law's day". All married daughters will take their son-in-law and children called "half-sons" back to their parents' homes to visit relatives the next day. There is an old saying: "There are parents in the second and third day, and if there are no parents, you have to bear it yourself", which means that the daughter-in-law whose parents are alive will definitely be taken as a guest in the second and third day. Without her parents' daughter-in-law, she has to stay at her husband's house and help relatives and friends who come home to be guests.

On the third day, everyone usually goes to bed very late. It is said that in the past, a memorial ceremony was held on the third day of the third year for relatives who died less than a year ago. On this day, people don't like to pay New Year's greetings. Maybe from New Year's Eve to the second day of junior high school, I have been busy, happy and a little tired. You can have a good rest without visiting in the third grade. Therefore, there is a saying in the Minnan dialect that "the first day is early, the second day is early, and the third day is full of sleep".

The fourth day is "God Meeting Day", also known as "God Meeting Day". It is said that on the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, every household sent immortals to heaven to celebrate the Spring Festival, and at the same time reported all the good and evil in the past year to the Jade Emperor.

After the festival, people began to be busy, shops opened and farmers went to the fields, so there was a saying in Minnan jingle that "the fifth day passed (after the festival, ready to work) and the sixth day was fattened (saving fat and plowing in spring)".