Happy Spring Festival. What to write in the handwritten newspaper, and what to ask for, such as the custom of the Spring Festival.

In modern folk customs, celebrating the Spring Festival is also called Chinese New Year. In fact, the origins of New Year and Spring Festival are different.

So how did the year come from? According to folklore, in ancient China, there was a monster called Nian, with long tentacles and a ferocious face. I lived at the bottom of the sea in 2000, climbed ashore every New Year's Eve, devoured livestock and killed people. "Year" came, the trees withered and the grass grew; After the Year, everything grows and flowers are everywhere. How to spend a year? It is said that Nian is most afraid of red, fire and explosion. Since then, every year on New Year's Eve, every family has posted red couplets and set off firecrackers to drive away the "Nian" beast; Every household has a bright candlelight, so it is better to wait for the New Year. In the early morning of New Year's Day, we should say hello to our relatives and friends and celebrate each other's safe passage for one year. This custom has spread more and more widely, and has become the most solemn traditional festival among the people in China.

Although there was a custom of Spring Festival in ancient China, it was not called Spring Festival at that time. Because the Spring Festival referred to at that time was the "beginning of spring" among the 24 solar terms.

The Northern and Southern Dynasties generally referred to the Spring Festival as the whole spring. It is said that the Lunar New Year was officially named Spring Festival after the Revolution of 1911. Because the solar calendar was used at that time, the first day of the first lunar month had to be renamed as "Spring Festival" in order to distinguish between farmers and farmers.

Folk culture of Spring Festival

Sweep the dust "twelfth lunar month, dust and sweep the house". In the Yao and Shun era, China had the custom of sweeping dust during the Spring Festival. According to the folk saying: Because of the homonym of "dust" and "Chen", sweeping dust in the Spring Festival means "getting rid of the old and not being new", and its original intention is to sweep away all bad luck and bad luck. This custom has placed people's desire to break the old and create new ones and their prayers to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. Whenever the Spring Festival comes, every household should clean the environment, clean all kinds of electrical appliances, and remove and wash bedding curtains. Everywhere is filled with the joyful atmosphere of cleaning and welcoming the Spring Festival cleanly.

Sticking Spring Festival couplets is also called door couplets, Spring Festival couplets, couplets and peach symbols. It depicts the background of the times and expresses good wishes with neat, dual, concise and exquisite words, which is a unique literary form in China. Every Spring Festival, no matter in urban or rural areas, every household should choose a pair of red Spring Festival couplets and stick them on the door to add festive atmosphere to the festival.

It is also common to hang New Year pictures in urban and rural areas during the Spring Festival. Thick black and colorful New Year pictures add a lot of prosperous and joyful festive atmosphere to thousands of families. New Year pictures are an ancient folk art in China, which reflects people's simple customs and beliefs and places their hopes on the future. New Year pictures, like Spring Festival couplets, originated from "door gods".

Standing guard on New Year's Eve is one of the most important annual customs. The custom of vigil on New Year's Eve has a long history. Everyone stays up all night waiting for the dawn, which is called "watch".

Firecrackers There is a folk proverb in China called "Open the door and set off firecrackers". That is, when the new year comes, the first thing for every household to open the door is to set off firecrackers to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. Setting off firecrackers can create a festive and lively atmosphere, which is a kind of entertainment in festivals and can bring happiness and good luck to people.

On the first day of the new year, people get up early, put on the most beautiful clothes, dress neatly, go out to visit relatives and friends and wish each other a happy new year. There are many ways to pay New Year's greetings, some of which are led by the same patriarch from door to door. Some colleagues invited several people to pay New Year greetings; Others get together to congratulate each other. This is called "group worship". When paying New Year greetings during the Spring Festival, the younger generation should first pay New Year greetings to their elders and wish them health and longevity. The elders can distribute the lucky money prepared in advance to the younger generation. It is said that lucky money can kill evil spirits, because "old" and "special" are homophonic, and the younger generation can spend a year safely with lucky money.

In ancient agricultural society, housewives began to prepare food for the Spring Festival from the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. Because curing bacon takes a long time, it is necessary to prepare it as soon as possible.

Steamed rice cake is a must-have food for almost every family because of its homophonic "high year" and diverse tastes. The styles of rice cakes are square yellow and white rice cakes, which symbolize gold and silver and express the meaning of making a fortune in the New Year.

The night before New Year in China is called Reunion Night. Wanderers who are away from home have to travel thousands of miles to go home, and the whole family has to sit around and wrap up jiaozi for the New Year. Because the word "he" in dough mixing means "he"; Jiaozi's "jiao" and "glue" are homophonic, and "harmony" and "glue" have the meaning of reunion, so jiaozi is used to symbolize the reunion of acacia; It is very auspicious to make friends with older people; In addition, jiaozi, which is shaped like an ingot, has the auspicious meaning of "making a fortune" when eating jiaozi in the New Year. All the families get together to pack jiaozi, so it's fun to celebrate the Spring Festival.

Comparison of several generations celebrating the Spring Festival

Grandparents: In those days, the Spring Festival was generally an important festival. A few days before the Spring Festival, the shopkeeper and the guys in the market will handle all the accounts. The person in charge will have dinner with all the people on the day before the New Year. There used to be a habit of serving a whole plate of chicken at dinner, and the guy with his head pointed at would be fired. Only he can eat this plate of chicken. Therefore, in the old China New Year, serving food was very particular. At that time, there was no Spring Festival Gala or anything. Families will get together and return to their hometown from other places. They will cook delicious meals in the year on New Year's Eve, which is a very difficult time for poor families. At night, the children of rich families will play in the yard with lanterns, and the elders at home will give lucky money to the younger generation after dinner, and press it under the pillow when they keep watch at night. On the first day of junior high school, eat a lucky orange early in the morning. The first sentence is congratulations, and the next few days are to visit relatives and friends.

Mom and Dad's Generation: At this time of reform and opening-up, people who go out will go home to celebrate the New Year with their elders, and the New Year's Eve dinner has also become a jiaozi with millet porridge and other foods as the main food. /kloc-around 0/2 o'clock, families began to set off firecrackers, and elders began to give out red envelopes. The younger generation said a lot of happy words to bless the elders, and the lucky money was no longer recovered, which became the children's private money. The only change is the appearance of the Spring Festival Gala. People in China began to watch the Spring Festival Gala and stayed up all night. Some towns in the south of the Yangtze River set off firecrackers, put up Spring Festival couplets and hang lanterns at night for a week.

The emergence of our generation after 1980s and 1990s has given the Spring Festival a western color, especially this year's 20 10. The first day is Valentine's Day, Chinese and Western Spring Festival, with red roses in one hand and Spring Festival couplets in the other. Spring Festival Gala is not important in the eyes of some new young people. They started the Spring Festival in their own way and set off fireworks in Jiangnan.