The custom of Chinese New Year in Shanwei

Shanwei people celebrate the Spring Festival, and preparations begin in late December of the lunar calendar. Housewives first "collect dust", that is, clean up the dust up and down at home and wash the furniture, dishes and chopsticks. 1Feb. 24th, "Send God to Heaven". It is said that the gods will "report their work" on this day, and all families prepare sacrificial utensils and incense sticks to worship the gods. After the sacrifice, they will take down the paper altar and burn it that day.

Subsequently, every household began to be busy preparing new year's goods, such as seafood, bacon and Nostoc flagelliforme. Start steaming rice cakes (sweet _) and frying oil angle. "Rice cake" means "rising year by year". On the 30th, every household steamed "fat _", which means "getting rich".

On December 30th (New Year's Eve) of the lunar calendar, every household sticks couplets and door gods. Couplets represent happiness, and door gods represent exorcism and peace. This day is a day of family reunion. Men, women and children have to go home, even those who work in other places or Hong Kong and Macao have to go home. Every household kills chickens, geese and ducks, prepares sacrificial ceremonies and candles, and worships the gods first and then the ancestors.

The giants will also concentrate on the ancestral temple to hold a grand sacrificial ceremony. That night, all the families, men, women and children, took a bath, put on new clothes and sat around for a "reunion dinner". After dinner, elders give red envelopes to underage juniors, which are called "lucky money". Married daughters are not allowed to spend New Year's Eve at their parents' home.