What festival is the Spring Festival?

The Spring Festival is the biggest traditional folk festival in China, and it is a folk festival integrating blessing, entertainment and food. The Spring Festival has a long history, which evolved from ancient times praying for the New Year at the beginning of the year, and carries rich historical and cultural connotations in its inheritance and development. New Year's greeting activities are centered on offering wishes and praying for blessings, and are carried out in the form of eliminating the old, worshipping ancestors, exorcising evil spirits and praying for a bumper harvest. The content is rich and colorful, lively and festive, and the annual flavor is rich, which embodies the essence of traditional culture of Chinese civilization. During the Spring Festival, various New Year celebrations will be held all over the country. Due to different regional cultures, the contents or details of customs are different and full of national characteristics.

The 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, posting couplets, eating New Year's Eve, celebrating New Year's Eve, dancing dragons and lions, worshipping gods and ancestors, praying for disaster relief, setting off firecrackers, setting off fireworks, circling gods, racing boats, holding temple fairs, playing gongs and drums, holding cursor flags, lighting lanterns and drinking. Traditional festival ceremonies and related custom activities are important contents of festival elements, bearing rich and colorful festival cultural connotations. Ancestor worship not only covers all the ancient traditional festivals in China, but also is the eternal theme of folk festivals in China.

1. Spring Festival custom paste Spring Festival couplets

According to the ancient calendar, December 30th of the lunar calendar is called "New Year". Get up in the morning on New Year's Day, you need to stick a door god and paste Spring Festival couplets. Spring Festival couplets are unique folk symbols in China. Sticking Spring Festival couplets is a very grand project.

The so-called "Spring Festival couplets" are made of red paper and then beautiful blessing words are written on the red paper. In fact, this is also the organic integration of culture and Spring Festival. When people put red Spring Festival couplets on both sides of their homes, that is, "every family always wants new peaches for old ones", it actually means that the prelude of the Spring Festival has been officially opened.

Sticking Spring Festival couplets can also be called "Sticking Year Red" in ancient times, including not only the Spring Festival couplets on both sides of the gate, but also the scarlet letter "Fu" on the gate. Regardless of posting Spring Festival couplets or the word "Fu", it is actually to express people's good wishes for the New Year. In some places, two "door gods", Qin Qiong and Wei Chijingde, are labeled, believing that families can ward off evil spirits and avoid disasters.

Setting off firecrackers

The custom of setting off firecrackers on New Year's Eve has a history of more than two thousand years. Although this custom has been basically banned in many places for environmental protection reasons, it still exists in some remote areas. Legend has it that firecrackers are set off on New Year's Eve to drive away the "Nian" beast.

At this critical moment of "the yuan of the year, the yuan of the month, and the yuan of the time", when firecrackers resound through the land of China, it can not only scare away the "year" beast, but also mean that the new year will be more prosperous. Today, there are still many places that light a pile of "prosperous fires" on New Year's Eve. I hope that when we bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new year, the whole family will have all the best luck and good luck.

"Besides firecrackers, the spring breeze also brought warmth to Tusu."

In the sound of firecrackers, the old year has passed and the new year has arrived. After the Spring Festival, it is the vernal equinox. People should start preparing for spring ploughing, and everything is developing in the direction of prosperity. In fact, the main function of the custom of setting off firecrackers on New Year's Eve is that ancient people wish good luck after the New Year to drive away bad luck.

On New Year's Eve, besides setting off firecrackers and offering sacrifices to ancestors, there is also a very important custom of "observing the old age", which is also called observing the old age fire or taking photos of the old. On New Year's Eve, all the candles in the house should be lit, and the whole house should be brightly lit. And this custom can be called "wasting photos". The main purpose is to add wealth to the family in the new year.

3. New Year's Eve and lucky money

In many parts of our country, New Year's Eve is actually the New Year's Eve when the whole family, old and young, don't sleep. And I don't go to bed until after eight o'clock in the first day. The main moral is that I hope my family will be safe and healthy. Children, in particular, can grow up healthily only on New Year's Eve.

Many areas will give the younger generation "lucky money" before eating the New Year's Eve dinner. Younger children need to bow and kowtow to their elders to get their own "lucky money" The so-called "lucky money" can play the role of "eliminating evil spirits" and is a kind of care and blessing from the elders to the younger generation.

Get the lucky money and you can spend the first year safely. Lucky money has the meaning of exorcising evil spirits and keeping peace in folk culture. The original intention of lucky money is to suppress evil and drive away evil. Because people think that children are easy to be invisible, they use lucky money to suppress evil spirits. Countdown to the New Year, the elders will give it to the younger generation, indicating that they have lucky money. It contains the concern and sincere blessing of the elders to the younger generation.

3. New Year's Eve dinner

In fact, the highlight of the Spring Festival Gala is "New Year's Eve", also known as reunion dinner, reunion dinner and so on. No matter whether the family is rich or poor, we should prepare a sumptuous "New Year's Eve". It is a very happy thing for the family to sit around and eat jiaozi and rich dishes, recall the past and look forward to the future.

In the south, the New Year's Eve dinner is usually dominated by seafood and vegetables, while in the north, big fish and big meat are put on the table. At the end of the year, families get together for a reunion dinner, which is actually one of the most worthwhile customs in the Spring Festival.

There are usually fish and chicken on the dinner table, indicating that there are plans for more than a year. The so-called plan refers to people's livelihood, and people's livelihood is the most important thing in the new year. Lettuce and raw garlic mean making money and calculating. Southerners can also make a plate of sausages, hoping that the family will live a long and healthy life forever.

conclusion

"Cherish this night, this night in the street. Don't say goodbye when the candles run out, the cock crows old and new. The hustle and bustle is far away, and the wine welcomes spring. Who will be the last person to win the cup tomorrow? "

This is Except Night written by Lu Tong, a great poet in the Tang Dynasty. The author thinks that it not only writes the happiness of saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new, but also depicts the bustling scene of people on New Year's Eve.

Spring Festival is one of the most lively and meaningful traditional festivals in China. The countdown to the Spring Festival begins on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month. Until now, when people celebrate the Spring Festival, it is also from the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month to the Lantern Festival on the 15th of the first month. In order to maintain the festive scene of the Spring Festival, many people also attach great importance to the dragon's rise on February 2, thinking that the Spring Festival can only be finished after February 2.

Writing here, the author can't help but sincerely sigh that although the Spring Festival is a traditional festival of the Chinese nation, its real significance lies not in customs, but in the happiness of family reunion and the harmony, health and happiness of relatives.