What is the custom of the Spring Festival?

The Spring Festival is a folk festival that combines the old with the new, offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors, praying for evil spirits, reuniting relatives and friends, celebrating entertainment and eating. The Spring Festival has a long history, which originated from the primitive belief and worship of nature of early human beings, evolved from the ritual of praying for the New Year at the beginning of ancient times, and carried rich historical and cultural connotations in its inheritance and development.

Chinese New Year has a long history, and some relatively fixed customs have been formed in the process of inheritance and development. Many of them have been passed down to this day, such as buying new year's goods, sweeping dust, making tofu, celebrating new year's meat, posting New Year's greetings, dispelling chaos, eating New Year's Eve, celebrating New Year's Eve, dancing dragons and lions, offering sacrifices to ancestors, praying for blessings, swimming in the streets, gambling boats, temple fairs, drumming and so on.

Traditional festival ceremonies and related custom activities are important contents of festival elements, bearing rich and colorful festival cultural connotations.

? 1, dust removal

Years ago, the busy work was mainly to get rid of the old cloth, and sweeping dust was one of the customs of getting rid of the old cloth.

According to the folk saying: Because "dust" and "Chen" are homophonic, sweeping dust in the Spring Festival means "getting rid of the old and replacing the new". The purpose of sweeping dust is to sweep away all "bad luck" and "bad luck" in order to pray for the coming year; This custom places people's prayers and wishes to ward off evil spirits, avoid disasters, bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new year.

The folk proverb says, "On the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, dust and sweep the house". 23/24 ended, and officially began to prepare for the New Year.

Sweeping dust means year-end cleaning, which is called "house sweeping" in the north and "house sweeping" in the south.

Whenever the Spring Festival comes, every household should clean the environment, clean all kinds of electrical appliances, remove and wash bedding curtains, sweep six yards, dust cobwebs and dredge culverts in open channels. Everywhere is filled with the joyful atmosphere of cleaning and welcoming the Spring Festival cleanly. ?

? Step 2 make tofu

The folk proverb says, "On the 25th of the twelfth lunar month, grinding bean curd." In some places, there is also the custom of eating tofu residue before New Year's Eve.

In some areas, it is said that after the kitchen god died, the jade emperor would go to the lower bound to see if each family was acting like the kitchen god, so each family ate tofu dregs to show their hardship and avoid the punishment of the jade emperor.

In fact, it is also the beginning of preparing for the necessary "new year's goods" for the Spring Festival.

There is a saying in the countryside that "we can catch up with the pig slaughter, but we can't catch up with grinding bean curd", which means that grinding bean curd must catch up before it is too late.

According to the custom of the Spring Festival, you can't use a knife on New Year's Eve and the first day, and people will come to visit on the second day, so from the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month, all the food you need for the next four or five days should be prepared. So on the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month, people grind the soaked soybeans with a stone mill, rub off the bean dregs with a basket, boil them and paste them into chunks with salt water, and then wrap them in cloth and flatten them.

Cut the prepared tofu into small pieces, keep it in salt water and eat it during the Spring Festival.

? 3, annual meat

There is also a folk saying called "cutting meat on the 26th day of the twelfth lunar month": "killing pigs and cutting meat on the 26th day of the twelfth lunar month" or "cutting the head on the 26th", which means that the meat on this day is mainly prepared for the Chinese New Year. Therefore, it is called "meat of the year". ?

In some local villages, this day is a big market day, and people in villages around the market will go to the market to buy new year's goods. Smoke, wine, fish, meat and firecrackers are as indispensable as gifts for visiting relatives and friends, and the flavor of the year is gradually getting stronger.

In the past, the lives of ordinary people were relatively poor and there were many families. So they often eat the last meal without the next meal, and the conditions are slightly better, but they can only eat some corn and wild vegetables. I finally looked forward to the Spring Festival, and the laborers at home began to kill pigs. Those who don't have pigs go to the market to cut a piece of meat and go home.

Therefore, the braised pork on the 26th of the twelfth lunar month is also called "the 26th of the twelfth lunar month, killing pigs and cutting meat to eat next year".

? 4. Worship God and ancestors

Sacrificing ancestors is one of the important customs of China New Year.

Since ancient times, the Chinese nation has a tradition of pursuing the future with caution, and will never forget to pay homage to the ancestors and repay them.

On New Year's Eve, people will put on dishes, pour wine and hold a grand sacrifice ceremony to express their memory of their ancestors and pray for their blessing. This traditional custom has been handed down from generation to generation.

Ancestor worship not only covers all the ancient traditional festivals in China, but also is the eternal theme of folk festivals in China.

? Step 5 send the poor

The sixth day of the first lunar month, also known as Horse Day, is a distinctive custom of the Han people to send the poor on this day. There are different ways to send the poor to all parts of China. But the moral is basically the same, they all send away the poor.

It reflects the traditional psychology that ancient people generally hope to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, send away the old poverty and hardships, and welcome a better life in the new year.

According to the ancient customs recorded in Dong Fangshuo's Sui Exhibition in Han Dynasty, the first day of the first month is chicken day, the second day is dog day, the third day is pig day, the fourth day is sheep day, the fifth day is ox day, the sixth day is horse day, and the seventh day is human day. According to China folklore, this is because when Nu Wa created everything, she created six animals first and then people, so the first day to the sixth day is the day of six animals.

? 6. Happy New Year

Paying New Year greetings is one of the most important activities and customs in the Spring Festival.

On the morning of New Year, adults and children wear new clothes and hats, visit relatives and friends, say hello to each other and wish good luck in the New Year. Generally speaking, New Year greetings begin at home. After the younger generation pays New Year greetings to their elders, when they meet outside, people are greeted with smiles.

? 7. Visit the temple fair

During the Spring Festival, there are usually temple fairs in rural areas.

The early temple fair was just a grand ritual activity, but with the development of economy and people's demand, the temple fair gradually increased market trading activities and some colorful entertainment activities while maintaining the ritual activities.

The above are some introductions of Spring Festival customs! The customs of the Spring Festival are mostly established and come from popular customs, but it is undeniable that they have far-reaching significance. Today, we still celebrate the Spring Festival according to the custom! ! !