Seven things to do in the Spring Festival in Chaoshan, China

Chinese New Year is the biggest and most lively traditional festival of the year for the Chinese people, and in the Chaoshan region of China, the Chinese New Year has a lot of festivals and folklore that originated from and are different from those in the Central Plains. So let's find out today, what are the seven things that people in the region do when the traditional Chaoshan Spring Festival arrives.

Shave your head for the New Year

The Chao proverbs say, "If you have money or not, shave your head for the New Year". The Chaoshan people love to be clean and tidy, so they call getting a haircut a shave, and say, "Shave your head, and you'll get three millimeters". The old Shantou New Year's custom, the first fifteen is not shaved, so before the year, male (especially young boys) must shave their heads, the female must be "pulled face", in order to face the new year with a glowing face.

"Pulling the face" is a special craft of Chaoshan women's hairdressing and beauty, before, women only get married or enjoy this treatment on New Year's Day. That is, please use the line to pull out the sweaty hair on the bride's forehead and temples, and fix the curved crescent eyebrows. Now, the beauty of the girl as long as you spend a few dollars, by the grannies a hand, a few threads carefully dressed, the face will overflow with youthful radiance.

Chaoshan people do things in trouble, often said "the first day of shaving encountered a beard", because of the fear of trouble, so the Chaoshan people before the year to pick up their own clean and fresh, their "ya three millimeters", others see also "happy three millimeters". "happy three millimeters". In addition to shaving, children are bathing to try new clothes, the old customary rumor, if you forget to take a bath on the night of New Year's Eve, the future will be turned into a cow.

In addition, the New Year's Eve must not dry clothes. Because drying clothes on New Year's Eve, this year is not dry, next year is also dry. Therefore, the tide of the proverb said: "thirty night drying shirt - this year is not jing (sound 'knife') next year also want to jing." That is, sooner or later, the meaning of the end, which is the Spring Festival taboo.

Special New Year's goods to catch fresh

New Year's Eve, the Chaoshan people have been busy on the streets to prepare for the special New Year's goods, families or buy chickens, geese and ducks, or to do the fish, meat and fresh, or various types of kuey teow to prepare for New Year's Eve; or to add a new clothes, or to buy New Year's Eve paintings, such as New Year's flowers. In particular, it is necessary to buy oranges, green olives and other fruits to symbolize good luck and welcome friends and relatives.

Crispy and tender kuey teow meat

The days before Chinese New Year, the housewives of Chaoshan families are very busy, the proverb says: "The year to the festival, not idle to cry." In the past, making kuey teow was a must, and what the Chaoshan people call "kuey teow" is a kind of general name for cakes made during the New Year festival. The sticky rice flour, glutinous rice flour, mung bean flour, flour, mixed with a variety of condiments, steamed into a variety of kuey teow.

A folk proverb says: "On the night of the 30th, I borrowed a kuey teow frame to avoid thinking about it." Nowadays, many people in the city no longer make their own kueh kueh but buy it directly on the street, and the only thing that must be homemade on New Year's Eve is the Teochew kueh kueh meat with crispy skin and tender meat. Kuey teow is an indispensable dish for the Teochew people at New Year's Eve, and the ingredients are quite complicated, so the family's making of kuey teow has become an indispensable part of the Teochew people's New Year's Eve scenery and flavor. In the old days, whether the New Year's kuey teow was well made or not, whether it was beautiful or not, was also an important condition to measure whether a Chaoshan daughter-in-law was virtuous or not.