New Year Folk Customs in Yan 'an City, Shaanxi Province

In Yan 'an, Shaanxi, traditional customs include: offering sacrifices to ancestors, posting Spring Festival couplets and hanging lanterns ... All kinds of traditional customs make the atmosphere of the New Year more intense.

On the morning of the Spring Festival, people go to worship their ancestors, tell their deceased relatives that the Spring Festival is coming, and express their respect for their ancestors. When they go home, the men put up couplets and hang lanterns. The woman is ready to eat, and the man has to cut some wood to cook. There is a saying that cutting wood (wealth) on New Year's Day will bring wealth in the coming year.

When there was no running water before, you had to prepare all the water for dinner tomorrow afternoon, because there could be no water on the first day of the New Year. So fill all the buckets with water. When everything is ready, the family will sit around drinking and chatting, and the children will play in the street and wait for the New Year's Eve.

In addition, a string of firecrackers should be set off before the New Year's Eve to show that dinner is ready.