"The Religious Connotation of "Burning the First Incense" and "Ringing the First Bell

Wherever there are Chinese people, there is the annual flavor of Chinese New Year. On the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar, people prepare rich and exquisite food in advance to celebrate this important festival. And they call this behavior as New Year's Eve, Dui Nian, Celebrating the New Year, Spring Festival and so on.

During the New Year, people visit their friends and relatives, gather to celebrate, soothe their souls and recuperate in a festive atmosphere.

Therefore, the traditional festival of Chinese New Year usually includes a series of religious activities and ceremonies. Many believers will visit temples to pray for blessings at the dawn of the new year, hoping to be blessed by the Buddha for peace and good fortune.

The custom of "burning the first joss stick" and "banging the first bell" also came into being.

Burning the first incense

Since the birth of Buddhism, the burning of incense has been used to welcome and make offerings to the Buddha. In the Buddhist view, the real meaning and purpose of burning incense is to express respect, gratitude and remembrance of the Buddha. By doing so, one will naturally be blessed with all the blessings and wisdom, and achieve everything one desires. In the view of the incense burner, one can communicate with the spirits through burning incense and convey one's wishes to the Buddha, so that one's wishes can be fulfilled. Therefore, in Buddhism, there is "incense for the Buddha," that is, incense can communicate people's confidence in the Buddha, as if the Buddha's messenger, it is called the Buddha.

Believers believe that New Year's Eve, burning incense, you can get a safe and smooth year, which brings great psychological comfort to people. It can be said that burning the first incense one can show the piety of the believers, the second will bring good luck and good fortune for the believers, so that their wishes early conveyed to the gods, to realize their own aspirations, and get the great blessing of the gods. And for modern people, the pursuit of good luck and fortune is still an everlasting theme.

Ringing the head bell

Ringing the bell verse says: "hear the bell, trouble light; wisdom long, bodhi born; away from hell, out of the fire pit; wish to become a Buddha, degree of living beings" usually, visitors, incense to the temple are to ring the bell three times, it is said to ring the bell three times, respectively, on behalf of the blessing, fortune, life. It is said that ringing the bell three times represents happiness, fortune, and longevity. Fortune refers to good fortune, fortune refers to good fortune, fortune refers to good fortune, longevity refers to good fortune, and longevity. So all the people who go to the temple to burn incense to Buddha, most of them have to ring the bell three times, in order to pray for good health, good fortune, luck, worry elimination, good root growth.

Therefore, the Spring Festival to the temple bell, but also to pray for the next year, body health, good fortune and fortune.

In the old days, during the Spring Festival, people would worship the ancestral tablets, send Zao Wang to heaven, honor the three stars of fortune, wealth and longevity, and post door gods and peach charms. Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism and Buddhism all have a place in the worship of the Spring Festival, the Spring Festival, almost the traditional mainstream religious beliefs and folk religious beliefs of China's big gathering, big show.

The modern Spring Festival, in people's minds, has been very different from the old Spring Festival.

But the many religious ethics and norms embedded in the Spring Festival are still of modern significance. This is mainly manifested in the fact that celebrating the Spring Festival can purify and enrich the tired and exhausted mind, enhance the harmony between man and nature, enable people to learn to be thankful and sincerely pray for blessings, increase communication with relatives and friends, and strengthen people's spiritual identity, group identity and social identity.