The unique Chinese New Year custom of Changzhou people.

In ancient times, Changzhou celebrated the Spring Festival from 65438+early February of the lunar calendar. You may not have heard of the following Changzhou folk customs, but if you want to emulate them, it is not difficult to feel the feeling of "retro".

The custom of eating big dumplings in Chinese New Year has been preserved until now, but the varieties of dumplings are not as many as before. In the old days, there were 12 dragons, 1 dragons, ingots, pine nuts, scales, shoulder poles, pig heads, fish and so on.

There is also a "population jiaozi", which is unique to Changzhou. It is said that during the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang sent general Tanghe to guard Changzhou. Tang He was addicted to alcohol and went into politics after drinking. He often kills innocent people by mistake, and he has no impression when he wakes up. His lieutenant made a jiaozi in the shape of a man's head and dyed it a little red. Whenever Tang He was drunk and wanted to kill someone, he let the executioner show jiaozi as an adult's head and get away with it.

Later, almost every household in Changzhou had this kind of jiaozi, so many people saved their lives. Therefore, the "Population jiaozi", which means to protect the safety of the population, got its name and evolved into a festival custom. At present, some rural families still keep the habit of celebrating the New Year in jiaozi.

New Year's Eve plates are different from the habit of modern people giving lucky money to their younger generation at the beginning of the year. In the old society, Changzhou people's "New Year's Eve" began. Before going to bed on New Year's Eve, the old people at home will make an "annual plate" for the younger generation, which contains melon seeds, longevity fruit, sugar and lucky money. The younger generation should put the plate on the pillow and grab it after waking up on the first day of the new year.

The fifth day of the fifth lunar month is the day when Changzhou people "rob the God of Wealth". Whoever sets off firecrackers first this year will be favored by the god of wealth. In order to catch this "morning", some impatient people set off firecrackers on the fourth night of the Lunar New Year. In the past, there were several silver houses on South Street. It is said that the owner of every silver house will prepare a gold ring weighing 1 yuan in advance. On the morning of the fifth day, as soon as the door is opened, the first guest who enters the door only needs to say "Congratulations on getting rich" to get a good impression, and then pay 50 cents symbolically to get a gold ring. It is not difficult to imagine what kind of lively scene the crowd at the entrance of the silver building will be fighting for the first meeting.

Now there are bells ringing on New Year's Eve, but it used to be more than just Tianning Temple. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were 86 monasteries in Changwu area, and "morning bell and dusk drum" was the most appropriate adjective at that time. The most famous place to ring the bell on New Year's Eve is the Chonglou Temple (now in People's Park, converted into a teahouse).

Legend has it that the clock in the temple of Paris was originally dumb. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, a scholar named Tang Yusheng rang the bell. This Tang Yusheng also left two sentences: "If you don't succeed in everything, you will die, and the bell tower seems to be a god." The rules for ringing the bell are also different from now. The master of the temple will ring the bell, and the common people will sing "Ring the Bell" along with the bell: "Listen to the bell lightly, worry long, and bodhi increases ..."

The eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, commonly known as the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, is the traditional Laba Festival. On this day, most parts of China have the custom of eating Laba porridge. In the period of agricultural society. On the day of Laba, people will cook a pot of porridge with the harvested whole grains and vegetables, which means a bumper harvest and hopes for a bumper harvest in the coming year. As it happens, Laba is also the day when Buddha Sakyamuni became a Buddha. On this day, the temple cooks porridge to worship Buddha and gives alms to the outside world. Therefore, the folk Laba in China merged with the Laba in Buddhism to form Laba Festival, leaving the custom of eating Laba porridge. Laba porridge was recorded in the Song Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, Laba porridge became a seasonal delicacy given by the emperor to the ministers of the DPRK. Laba porridge was very popular among the people in the Qing Dynasty, and even the emperors and empresses in the palace ate Laba porridge on this day. On Laba Festival, temples in Changzhou also cook Laba porridge and give it to the outside world. According to Changzhou custom, Laba porridge can also be called salty porridge. In addition to japonica rice, glutinous rice and vegetables, Laba porridge can also be cooked with appropriate amount of red beans or soybeans, fennel buds, peanuts, ginkgo, oily tofu, shredded silk, frozen tofu and taro. Add a few meat bones or small ribs, and the taste of porridge will definitely be more delicious. The twelfth lunar month has entered the slack season, and farmers have worked hard for a year. The crops in the field have been harvested at home. With the joy of harvest, every household is busy buying new year's goods and preparing for the New Year. At this time, people in rural areas began to brew Du wine, also called rice wine. The wine brewed in the twelfth lunar month is called wax wine and can be preserved for a long time.

The 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month is the day when people offer sacrifices to stoves. Sacrificing a stove is a kind of custom with great influence and wide spread among the people in our country. In the past, almost every kitchen had a "Kitchen God" shrine, in which the gods of Kitchen God were placed. People call it "the Buddha of destiny" or "the chef is in charge of life", and Changzhou people call it "the Buddha of kitchen". Legend has it that he was named by the Jade Emperor as the "Chief Chef for Nine Days". He is responsible for managing the stoves of each family and is worshipped as the patron saint of a family. In the past, a couplet was posted on the stove: "Heaven announces good deeds, and the lower bound ensures peace". Legend has it that the 24th of the twelfth lunar month is the day when the "Armored Bodhisattva" reported to the Jade Emperor. On this day, every household is busy offering sacrifices to gods on the stove, lighting incense sticks, putting vegetarian dishes, making a sweet and glutinous "farewell to jiaozi" with glutinous rice flour and brown sugar, melting the statues in a paper sedan chair (called Zao in Changzhou), and sending them to the statue bodhisattva to "preach goodness to heaven". On this day, Changzhou people's dinner is a "salty porridge" made of venetian blinds, dried bean curd, shredded oil, bean paste cake, green vegetables and glutinous rice flour. Why does the Kitchen God want dumplings in the sky? The common people thought that wrapping a dumpling with the mouth of Zaojia Bodhisattva would not speak ill of the world in front of the Jade Emperor. Of course, this is a wishful legend after all. On the eve of New Year's Eve, offerings will be arranged, and then "Kitchen Bodhisattva" will be brought back. But now families don't have big stoves for burning firewood, and most of them use liquefied gas. The "stove bodhisattva" has been lost, and the folk custom of sending stoves has slowly disappeared. After sending the Kitchen God Bodhisattva to heaven, we will begin to "dust the eaves". Dusting off the eaves means dusting off some bad luck among the people. In fact, it is to clean up the house from top to bottom and prepare for the New Year. Next, every household should steam dumplings, steamed buns and make rice cakes. People think that jiaozi is round, while Changzhou people make jiaozi into ingots, peaches and shoulder poles. Elegant people should also make flower dumplings and earth dragons and put them in rice jars. On the second day of the second lunar month, when the dragon heads up, Changzhou folk customs want to eat "Tulong noodles", and they will put this Tulong in a rice jar. We also need to make all kinds of jiaozi and steamed buns with different sweet and salty fillings. Jiaozi's fillings generally include red bean paste, sesame, sweet and salty crisp, green vegetables, shredded radish and meat stuffing. The commonly used fillings of steamed bread are nothing more than bean paste, vegetables, shredded radish and meat stuffing. Just steamed buns should be said to be "fat" and "fat"! It indicates that this family will "get rich" and "get rich" in the coming year. The rice cake that Changzhou people say is actually a long strip of "big glutinous rice balls", and there is a relatively simple printed cake or muffin. The homonym of Changzhou dialect cake is high, which symbolizes that life and career will get better and better in the coming year. Red is auspicious in China, so jiaozi, steamed buns and cakes made by Changzhou people should be marked with red to show happiness and good luck. In the past, Changzhou people also had the habit of making fried rice candy, sesame candy, peanut candy, fried longevity fruit, fried melon seeds and so on. As a guest at home and a candy snack for Chinese New Year. These days, every household is busy buying new year's goods and preparing rich dishes for the New Year. On New Year's Eve, they will cook the biggest dinner in China in a year-New Year's Eve.

There is a very important custom activity in Chinese New Year, that is: ancestor worship.

In ancient times, this custom was very popular. Due to different local customs, the forms of ancestor worship are also different, even in Changzhou, there are some differences. Here is only the general situation. On New Year's Eve (or years ago), ancestral tablets, incense sticks and offerings were placed in the main hall of the house in turn. Then worshippers worship in order of age. It is also necessary to burn white paper, mingbi, paper ingots and silver ingots for ancestors to use in the underworld, in this way to mourn their loved ones who died this year. Changzhou people who worship their ancestors are commonly known as "Yang Jiong". In the past, families with good economic conditions offered rich offerings for ancestor worship, including cakes, fruits, three animals (pig head, carp, rooster), vegetarian dishes, wine and so on. Simply put, as long as there are braised pork, fish (whole), bean products and vegetables, it is enough. In addition, when Changzhou people are "Yang Jiong", bean cakes and "family sacrifices" cooked with bean sprouts are essential. In rural areas, on New Year's Eve, we should paint rice hoards, bottles and jars, fish, knives and arrows on the field in front of our house with lime to pray for rice hoarding, prosperity and disaster prevention in the coming year.

New Year's Eve is also called "reunion dinner". Eating New Year's Eve is the most important activity in the Spring Festival and the most valued family dinner in China. You don't have to eat other meals, but you must eat the New Year's Eve. On New Year's Eve, people are busy from the early morning, and every household is busy cooking all kinds of dishes, and there are waves of attractive fragrance floating in the kitchen. The crackling firecrackers in the street, the "crackling" abacus sound and the cadence of reimbursement from the shop are mixed with laughter everywhere, and the atmosphere of the New Year is very strong. In the past, shops usually didn't close for rest. They only closed their doors after checking out on New Year's Eve. In the past, shops had holidays and breaks all year round. Throughout the year, shops can only rest for a few days during the Spring Festival. On New Year's Eve, the whole family is happy, sitting around a table and tasting wine and delicacies. This is the busiest and happiest time for every household in the Spring Festival. At this time, no matter how far the journey is, people want to go back to their homes, get together with the whole family and enjoy the reunion dinner happily. People can not only enjoy a full table of rich food, but also enjoy the happy atmosphere of family reunion.

According to the traditional folk custom, the food on the New Year's Eve is very particular. There are cold dishes, stir-fried dishes, big dishes, snacks and so on on the table, but fish is generally indispensable. "Fish" and "surplus" are homophonic, symbolizing "auspicious and festive", and also meaning "more than one year, but don't eat it all at once", that is, "more than wealth (fish)" There are also vegetable heads. Have a good head. Cooking is a must-have dish for every family, which means "kiss and be hot". You must eat the first dish, which means "shine on you has a head." In Changzhou dialect, "green with a head" means "polite and knowledgeable", and every household should eat bean sprouts, because bean sprouts are similar to "ruyi", which means that bean sprouts cooked by Changzhou people in the New Year can be "ruyi and auspicious", and they should be cooked with dried bean curd, lotus root silk, oily rotten silk, dried bamboo shoots and chopped wild vegetables and pickles, commonly known as "family sacrifice head", which is a traditional vegetarian dish of Changzhou people in the New Year. There is also a dessert, I wish you a sweet life in the future. On this day, even those who can't drink, drink a little more or less to celebrate themselves and their families entering the New Year and celebrating that everyone is one year older. Different customs and habits of the Spring Festival reflect the rich traditional cultural characteristics of the Chinese nation.

What I want to explain here is that with the change and development of the times, the custom of Chinese New Year is also changing. Now people's material living standards have generally improved, and the New Year's Eve dinner has already gone beyond the scope of "eating", but lies in the warmth and care between people. The New Year's Eve dinner has both nostalgia for the dying old year and expectation for the coming new year.

New Year's Eve is the night of the last day of the twelfth lunar month, so the activities during this period are centered on saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new, eliminating disasters and praying for blessings. On New Year's Eve, in addition to offering sacrifices to ancestors, eating New Year's Eve, keeping New Year's Eve, posting Spring Festival couplets and setting off firecrackers, children have already knocked on Kuang Kuang, who was born on the Lantern Festival, to make the New Year in China more lively.

Spring Festival couplets evolved from "peach stalks" in the Warring States period more than two thousand years ago. According to Huainanzi, peach characters (peach stalks) are carved from peach wood. It is engraved with the curse of destroying disasters and reducing happiness, which changes every year. Meng Changjun, the Emperor of Shu after the Five Dynasties, had a whim during the Spring Festival and asked people to slice peach trees. He wrote a couplet on it: "Welcome to Qing Yu in the New Year and celebrate the festival in Changchun". This is the earliest Spring Festival couplets in China. As for the official birth of the name Spring Festival couplets, it was in the Ming Dynasty. After Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, made Jinling (Nanjing) his capital, he issued an imperial edict on New Year's Eve: "When officials and literati visit the New Year, they must write a pair of Spring Festival couplets." Since then, Spring Festival couplets have become popular, and every household should post Spring Festival couplets during the New Year.

Firecrackers. Changzhou is commonly known as firecrackers, and the custom of setting off firecrackers in the Spring Festival began in the Han Dynasty. In ancient times, firecrackers were set off by burning bamboo in a fire. Because the air in bamboo expands due to heat, it makes a crackling sound to ward off evil spirits, hoping for good luck and happiness in the coming year. After the Tang and Song Dynasties, firecrackers made of gunpowder were invented. Every time the Chinese New Year is celebrated to 12, that is, at 0: 00 on New Year's Day, when the old and new years alternate, firecrackers are ringing in every household at this time. When the door is opened in the morning of the Spring Festival, firecrackers are set off first, which is called "opening the door to set off firecrackers". After the firecrackers, the ground was broken red, which was called "full house red" in the old society. According to the old custom, you can't sweep the floor on New Year's Day, otherwise it will sweep away the wealth. At this time, the streets were full of anger and happiness.

According to the old custom, Chinese New Year cooking is not for fun, but for cooking well. Fortunately, the Chinese New Year's food is so rich that you can't finish it in a few days. On the first morning of the new year, you can eat a sugar garden or a jiaozi or a sugar cake prepared in advance, which means that the new year is full of gardens and sweetness. On the first day of the lunar new year, men, women and children put on new clothes, and there are activities such as beating gongs and drums, adjusting dragon lanterns, dancing lions and dancing the god of wealth in the streets and alleys. On the second day of New Year's Day, people began to go out to pay New Year's greetings, which began in the Han Dynasty and has been very popular since the Tang and Song Dynasties. During the Chinese New Year, the younger generation should pay New Year greetings to the elders, and the elders should give the younger generation lucky money. Giving children lucky money during the New Year in China is a traditional folk custom in China. The lucky money is full of blessings from the elders to the younger generation. Nowadays, "Happy New Year" has become a traditional custom among the people in China, visiting relatives and friends, visiting each other, and celebrating the New Year. When people meet, they are all smiling, holding their fists and saying congratulations such as "Congratulations", "Congratulations on getting rich" and "Good health". Of course, you can't go out to pay a New Year call empty-handed, but you should bring some gifts. In the past, on the first day of the Lunar New Year, the host entertained guests with "Yuanbao tea" (olive tea) or sweet jujube lotus seed tea. Longan, longevity fruit, red dates, dried persimmons, big chestnuts, oranges, sweets, melon seeds and cakes were put on the stage to entertain guests, meaning "good luck". New Year's greetings are a way for people to express their best wishes to each other, commonly known as: New Year's greetings will last until the first half of the first month. In the past, people were usually busy for their livelihood, and they had no free time to communicate with each other. Only when they have more time during the New Year, do relatives and friends get together on the occasion of the New Year.

According to the old folk custom, the first night of the Lunar New Year is the time for "mice to marry women". In order not to disturb the mice, people go to bed early on the first night of the Lunar New Year. As the saying goes, if you disturb the mouse for one day, it will disturb you for one year. In fact, people have been busy for many days for the Chinese New Year, and it has been very hard. On New Year's Eve, they stayed up almost all night. It's time to go to bed early on the first day of the new year.

Changzhou people think that the fifth day of the first month is the birthday of Bodhisattva Reuters (goddess of wealth), and firecrackers are constantly ringing in the morning. In the old days, every household, especially shops, had to set up a sacrifice to "burn the head of the road", that is, "pick up the god of wealth" and pick up the god of wealth early, commonly known as "grab the head of the road", in order to grab the house with the god of wealth as soon as possible for the blessing of the god of wealth. Take back the god of wealth, and in the new year, the shop will start to open.