New Year's Eve Customs in Qufu

Confucius' hometown has a lot to say about New Year's Eve--Qufu New Year's Customs

Watch the New Year's Eve on Lunar New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve on the 30th of Lunar New Year's Eve is the last night of the year, which is commonly known as the "end of the year," and on this night, people routinely have to "Year-end" (light candles, do not sleep all night). At this time, all the New Year's supplies have long been ready, courtyard indoor sanitation is also new, people began to put the new Spring Festival couplets and door god posted on the door. In Qufu, there are two kinds of door deities, namely, the Martial Door Deity and the Cultural Door Deity. The Martial Door Deity is pasted on the outer door, which is traditionally a two-paneled door in China, and the Martial Door Deity is also a two-paneled door, called Shentian and Yubi, which are said to be the ancient gods that subdued demons and subdued devils and were later interpreted to be the two generals of the Tang Dynasty, Qin Qiong and Yuchi Jingde. It was later interpreted as the images of two military generals of the Tang Dynasty, Qin Qiong and Yuchi Jingde. Wen Men Shen (文門神) is affixed to the doors of halls and compartments, usually with colorful paintings such as "招财进宝", "五子登科", and so on. Qufu local left for the top, right for the bottom, the two door god who is on the left and who is on the right, the position is fixed, can not be changed at will, if you paste the wrong, called anti-posting door god, will lead to a year of all the things do not attempt to smooth, left and right difficult, so Qufu has a saying, called "anti-posting door god left and right difficult".

Confucian Spring Festival Couplets

The Spring Festival Couplets in Qufu are extremely elaborate, and many of them have been passed down from generation to generation, for example, "A true character starts from the five virtues, and a great article comes from the six scriptures", "Poetry and books are the most valuable in heaven and earth, and filial piety and brotherly love are the most important things within the family", and "The home of Lu is full of gentlemen". "The home of Lu is full of gentlemen, and Nishan is close to saints", "The most joyful and silent is filial piety and fraternal duty, and the flavor of soup is poetry and books", etc., which are very strong in Confucian culture. Couplets written with yellow Dan paper or red gold paper, most of this color paper has a white edge, commonly known as "white head", and do not cut away, but intentionally stay in the lower end of the couplet, take the "white head to old age," the meaning of.

In addition to the Spring Festival couplets on the door and the God of the Door, the wall or tree outside the front door facing the door should be pasted with "Going out to see the joy", in the shadow wall, the second door, the door of the hall on both sides of the sticker "Fook" (this "Fook"). "Fook" character (this "Fook" character should be posted when the head down, to take the "Fook to the" harmonic), but also in the mill, tanks, pots and other utensils on the paste a similar "You" symbol, symbolizing the old and the new.

Sacrifices

Sacrifices are the centerpiece of the entire Spring Festival celebration, so the most important thing to do on New Year's Eve is to prepare for them. Sacrifice to heaven and earth is in the hall outside the door on the east side of the incense platform, the platform with new broomcorn millet straw (sorghum poles at the top) surrounded by a square shed, called the "heaven and earth shed", which placed the heaven and earth card, written: "heaven and earth three ten thousand souls of the ten true Zai the God of the place". There are two candlesticks and an incense burner in front of the tablet.

Ancestors are worshipped in the main hall (the main room in the center), where an eight-immortal table and a bar table are placed against the wall in the center of the hall, and in the middle of the bar table is the general tablets with the inscription "The Deity of the Three Generations of Clansmen in the Outer Honin Sect," flanked on both sides and at the back are the tablets with the names of the deceased fathers and ancestors and their relatives inside and outside the family, and the names of the deceased members of the Honin clan and their relatives inside and outside the family, all of which are written in one place. The shrines of the deceased's names are arranged in a left-right arrangement. Two candlesticks are placed on the table of eight immortals, and in the center of the candlesticks is an incense burner.

Some people also enshrine the "Baojia Shangxian" tablet in the east room of the hall. Zaojun is still worshipped in the kitchen.

After placing these tablets, people start to prepare the fire paper, which is a kind of roughly made, flimsy and easy-to-flame paper with a yellowish color. It is believed that the paper, when burned, reaches the hands of the deceased loved ones and becomes money that can be used in the other world. Therefore, people prepare the fire paper with great care. The first step in the preparation of the paper is to make rows and rows of the paper with the imprints of the square holes that were used in the past to make money. The second process is to fold the paper into the shape of a dollar or a gold brick and put a few joss sticks inside, so the paper is ready.

New Year's Eve evening, is to welcome the ancestral spirits home for the New Year's time, the men of each family under the leadership of parents, playing lanterns, carrying trays (poor people with no tray with a dustpan), which puts the "three generations of the clan" tablets, three incense, four paper Yuanbao, to meet the ancestral spirits home for the New Year's, called the "welcome the old". "Welcome the old". This ceremony is very important, often to the intersection of the thoroughfare street, will be placed on the road leading to the direction of the ancestral forest, a circle around the incense, Yuanbao together in front of the tablets lit and burned, the parents to kowtow to the tablets of four heads. After the incense and paper are incinerated, the tablets are placed back on the tray, and the parents chant, "All the grandmothers and grandfathers are coming home for the New Year!" Then the eldest son or grandson solemnly carries the tablets in the tray, welcomes them home, puts the tablets in the center of the rows of tablets on the big table, and then inserts lighted incense into the incense burner and burns Yuanbao. Since then, until the end of the New Year to send the "old" until the stove must be continued day and night, can not be interrupted.

After welcoming the "old" gods home, a wooden stick should be placed on the ground in front of the gate, called the "bar gate stick". It is said to prevent homeless ghosts from entering the house. The dinner at the end of the year on New Year's Eve is not particularly elaborate, mostly dumplings as the main food, and poor families can eat at any time. No matter what kind of meal is served, it must be offered to heaven and earth and ancestors before the family can eat. Because this meal is the last meal of the year, it is also called the "farewell meal". Sacrificial activities are carried out at five o'clock at night, after dinner, began to "save for the dish" (prepare for the dish), that is, the first offerings of the dish, respectively, filled with bowls, placed in the kitchen cauldron steamer or grate, in order to prepare for the midnight "distillation of the offerings" (heated in a steamer) after the sacrifice. The dishes are placed in bowls on steamers or grates in the kitchen cauldron for the midnight ritual. Vegetables are mainly offered in four places: one is the heaven and earth shed, the second is the ancestor spirit, the third is the family fairy, and the fourth is the Zaojun master. The number of offerings at each place is different, but they are all singular, usually five samples and five bowls in front of the spirits of Heaven and Earth, three samples and three bowls in front of the spirits of the Ancestors and the Family Preservation Immortals, and only one bowl for the Master of the Zaojun. Three kinds of offerings is a big square of cooked meat, crispy meat bowl, a bowl of meatballs; five kinds of offerings in the three kinds of vegetables on the basis of the same steamed whole rooster, the same deep-fried whole carp, to take the year "auspicious (chicken) celebrating the surplus (fish)" meaning; a bowl of offerings is a bowl of three kinds of vegetables to save a bowl of mixed flowers for the whole offerings. Saving vegetables, each bowl of vegetables under the hot cooked cabbage gang, called "vegetable bottom", the more the bottom of the vegetable the better, implying that the bottom of the family is thick. Above the square meat, pork, meatballs should be set less and even, to cover the bottom of the dish, meaning that can not "show the bottom", you can avoid disaster. Poor people, can not afford to buy a whole chicken, fish, they only buy three kinds of food, which is called "home of the availability. Saving dishes, all the people can use carp, only the Kong family can not be used, the reason is that the Kong's second ancestor's name Kong Carp, not only can not use the carp ancestor, even the name of the carp is also due to avoid ancestor taboo and change the name of the "red fish", Qufu people are also known as the carp for the "red fish".

After the "save offerings", the hostess sprinkled a circle of wheat bran around the cauldron of distillation offerings, and at the same time, sprinkled bran along the gate inside the bar door stick, courtyard wall roots, under the eaves, signifying that the family is filled with bran (blessing) gas. There are also farmers to spread some sesame straw, take sesame blossoms and high auspicious meaning.

At night, when all the offerings are ready, people try to get some sleep. Some people stay up all night, which is called "observing the new year". Qufu local to start the ritual called "hair 祃", New Year's Eve, the night of the fifth hour before zero, the people in every household will have to get up, wash their hands and faces. The men were busy dispersing "Yuanbao", starting from the gate to the courtyard dispersal, double door on each side of a pair, single door by the turn fan to put a pair of heaven and earth shed to put four pairs of three pairs of ancestors in front of the family fairy to put two pairs of zaogun in front of a pair of the rest of the cattle pen, toilet, well, mill road, chicken nest, the treasury and so on a pair of each put. At the same time, candles are scattered, one pair in front of the main door, the second door, the door of the hall, the heaven and earth shed, the ancestor's tablets, the house-keeper's tablets, and one pair in front of the Zaojun. When spreading incense, there is one on each cypress branch on the side of each door, one whole strand of incense in front of the Heaven and Earth Shed and the ancestors' spirits, three in front of the Baogaisen, one in front of the Zaojun, and one in front of each of the other places where the Yuanbao are placed. At the same time, each table should be placed in front of two wine cups, one in front of Zaojun. In addition, the firecrackers should be picked and hung up, ready to be set off. Women get up and wash, immediately after the kitchen burn pot "distillation for vegetables", steamed buns, cakes, etc.. After the distillation is done, the male members of the family send the offerings to the Heaven and Earth Shed in order, and the male parents take them and place them on the offerings. Chicken is served first, with the head facing inward, called "Chicken Offering Head"; then fish, with the spine facing inward, called "Fish Offering Spine"; and then pork, crispy pork, and jiuzi. Each dish is sprinkled with spinach, called "vegetable cap". Finally on the bun, flower cake on two plates, placed symmetrically around. Each plate contains five buns, the bottom three, the top two to plane stacked on top of the buns are dotted with five red spots. The flower cakes are date cakes, each with three to five layers. After serving the dishes in the heaven and earth shed, the three dishes in front of the ancestors' spirits in the hall are served. The offerings for ancestors are generally less than those for heaven and earth, and most of them do not have chickens or fish. Often, after the ritual is completed, the chickens and fish in the heaven and earth shed are moved over for the "old ones" to share, to show that heaven and earth are the most important things and the "old ones" are the second most important things. Lastly, the offerings are made in front of the spirits of the family protectors. The bowl of offerings in front of Zaojun is brought directly from the pot and placed on the table.

After the offerings are placed, the wine cups on each altar should be filled with wine. After all the dishes are served, it is close to midnight. Then, candles and incense are lit, from the outside of the gate in order to the inside. The incense for Heaven and Earth, the ancestors, the Family Protection Immortal, and Zaojun must be lit by the male head of the family and respectfully inserted into the incense burner. At the same time, in front of the heaven and earth shed burning God's Religion (a kind of plate printing all the gods drawings), lighting all over the Yuanbao, lighting firecrackers. A time of incense, light filled the courtyard, firecrackers shake the sky. This is the moment of resignation of the old year to welcome the new year's grand ceremony - Fali. In the city, people are hearing the sound of firecrackers in the Confucius House before the successive "Fazhiao", because all the people can not be earlier than the people's homes, "the saint's family" first New Year's. In the rural folk are to watch the firecrackers. And in the rural folk, are to see the stars or to burn incense to calculate the time to arrange their own. In short, the thrifty people called the New Year, the earlier the better.

In the firecrackers and cigarettes shrouded lights and candles in a brilliant atmosphere, people in every household began to kowtow to pay homage. First, a male family member, who is the eldest of the family, is waited on by his children and grandchildren, and pays homage to the gods of heaven and earth in front of the heaven and earth hut. Before kowtowing, they pour the wine offered to the gods in front of the altar, which is called "pouring the wine," and then bow, kneel down and kowtow four times, then get up and bow again, and then pour the wine again. Afterwards, they go to the hall to kowtow to their ancestors, the same ceremony as the one for Heaven and Earth; then they go to the upper east room to pay homage to the God of Family Protection, and finally to the kitchen to pay homage to the God of Zaojun. After the parents have finished paying homage, they will carry the candles in the heaven and earth hut and shine them all over the yard. During the ceremony, all the men in the family, including the boys, kowtow to Heaven and Earth, the ancestors, the Baogaisen, and the Zaojun in order of seniority. During this time, the women have already finished preparing vegetarian dumplings in the kitchen, and the young men take them to each place of worship in order to offer them to the gods, except for Zaojun, who offers one bowl of dumplings, and the rest of the family offers two bowls of dumplings. After the dumplings are offered, the women kowtow to heaven and earth, the ancestors, the family immortals, and Zaojun in order of seniority.

After worshipping heaven and earth, ancestors, and gods and goddesses, they begin to kowtow to the senior members of the family before the ancestors in the hall. The highest-ranking male and female elders in the family are made to sit on chairs on both sides of the eight-immortal table to be honored. With the eldest son in the lead, kowtow four times to the ancestors anew, and when he gets up to make a bow, he should say, "Kowtow to my father!" Kneel down and kowtow one more time, then stand up and make a bow and say, "Kowtow to my mother!" In this way, after the eldest kowtow, the second, third and fourth kowtow to their ancestors, kowtow to their parents, and kowtow to their brothers and sisters-in-law. After the sons kowtow, the grandchildren kowtow; after the men kowtow, the female family members kowtow for their elders in order of seniority, regardless of gender. When kowtowing, they should first kowtow four times to their ancestors, and when they get up to make a bow, they should say the name of which elder they are kowtowing for, and then kneel down and kowtow one by one. The youngest child kowtowed to the most, to the old man, grandmother, father, mother, grandfather, mother, two grandfather, two mother ...... or uncle, aunt, aunt, brother, sister and so on in order to kowtow, can never miss one. This is the most warm and peaceful moment in the family. After kowtowing for the elders, the elderly and the elders to the underage boys and girls to reward kowtow money, called "on behalf of the age of money". The younger generation congratulates the elders on their longevity, and the elders also congratulate the children on growing up a year older. For the first year of the newly married daughter-in-law, the in-laws should also be rewarded "New Year's money".

New Year's Eve Dinner

After the ritual of sacrificing and kowtowing, the whole family begins to eat New Year's Eve dinner, eating the New Year's Day bun and drinking New Year's Eve wine. The food is mostly ready-made greens and coleslaw, which must have lettuce or spinach, to take the auspicious meaning of "birth wealth" and "more wealth". The main meal is vegetarian buns. Everyone must eat this meal, and there should be leftovers. If you are not at home for New Year's Eve because of business, someone else should eat on your behalf.

Eating dumplings at the New Year's Eve dinner is particularly interesting because everyone gets to eat dumplings with a special meaning. Most of the dumplings are made by the housewife herself, and they are served in a bowl according to the characteristics of each type of dumpling, so that the person who serves the dumplings understands to whom the bowl is intended. For example, buns with bran, peanuts, and long nuts are usually given to the elderly, buns with money are given to the man of the house, and buns with dates and chestnuts are given to newlyweds. Children will have no care, just for fun, what kind of can be given. But the children are often very serious, they eat a special meaning of the buns, often will be happy for a year, can not eat will be unhappy for a year, they do not realize that this is a special arrangement of adults, only for good luck.

Farmers keep horses, cows, sheep, chickens, dogs, pigs and other livestock, but also by parents and other pro to their pens, circles before the call, reward them with buns, in order to figure out the year's six animals thrive, good luck and peace.

New Year's Eve

After paying homage to the ancestors of heaven and earth and eating New Year's Eve dinner, people began to pay homage to each other. First from the family branch of the nearest, the most respected start, door to door to their homes kowtow, and then to the near neighbors, neighbors, township home kowtow to pay homage to the New Year.

Neighbors and neighbors to pay tribute to the way, unlike the family's own clan between the year the honored by the younger generation kowtow gift as peace of mind, but extraordinarily courteous. Where to other doors outside the family name kowtow, the family's eldest son (or other son) to bend half a knee to hold kowtow people's right arm to block the drive, can not let the guests kneel down to show that "do not dare to be". If the guest insists on worshipping, the sons of the family should accompany the guest to kowtow four times to the ancestral tablets. After standing up and bowing, the guests again to the elders greeted the kowtow, the eldest son of the family will again block; if the kowtow head and can not block the time, the guests will be allowed to kowtow, and the son of the family shall be respectfully standing in the east side of the waist arching, to the guests to return a half salute to show humility and gratitude. If the worshipper's seniority is low, he should gradually kowtow to each of the elders of the family one by one, and the worshipper will be politely blocked one at a time, and the result is still until the kowtow is finished. As for the generation between each other kowtow to pay respect to the New Year, the host family should absolutely bend half a knee to stop, and finally the host and the guest bowed to each other, and the words of joy to stop. The men in the family should finish paying homage to each other before dawn, and then pay homage to their neighbors one after another. Generally before noon to pay homage to the end. Neighbors visit each other, after worshiping a little chilly a few words on the go, usually do not sit.

After the morning, women are groomed, dressed neatly, began to visit the door to pay homage to the New Year. The order is the same as the men, the first home, after the neighbors. When they go to each house to pay homage to kowtow, the owner of the daughter-in-law generation to block the driver to thank. Whether men or women, on the street or in the family, the first time we meet, we have to say to each other, "good new year" or "congratulations on wealth" and other congratulations on the auspicious words, the man arched his hand and bowed, women do not make a bow, only greetings. In recent years, more than not the arching ceremony, but only to greet each other.

The reason why the custom of New Year's greetings has endured, because this etiquette can regulate interpersonal relations, plus the depth of their feelings. Through the New Year's Eve, the elders more respect for elders, elders more and more love and care for the elders, neighbors, if there has been a verbal dispute or conflict between the grudges, once stepped into the door to the old man a head kowtowed down, it is said to have been donated to the former, to eliminate the barriers. For thousands of years, this custom in the folk I do not know how many conflicts to help people solve, so that people in the new year back to good, and live in harmony.

Walking relatives

Since the second day of the first month, the folk began to walk with each other to pay homage to their relatives, in the past to honor the elders kowtow, but also to the relatives of the proximate branch of the family kowtow to pay homage to the New Year. This kind of walking relatives to pay tribute to the New Year etiquette is the first to walk close relatives, after walking old relatives. Relatives to go to each other for many days, plus waiting to come to the ritual (meat), often to the seventh, eighth, and even until the first month before the fifteenth. In the past, most people's living conditions are not too rich, the preparation of the annual food will not be too much. If entertaining guests can reach the standard of "white bread buns fine noodle soup, crispy meatballs cabbage gang", that is the level of the middle family. Therefore, the folk proverb says: "Relatives to the first seven or eight, but also no tofu and no residue."

Qufu custom from the first to the first ten, this "ten days" is ten people, things, things on behalf of the day, commonly known as "chicken one, dog two, cat three, dog (dingo) four, pig five, goat six, people seven, grain eight, fruit nine, vegetables ten. That is, the first day of the first month is the chicken day, the second is the dog day, the third is the cat day, the fourth is the wild dog day, the fifth is the pig day, the sixth is the goat day, the seventh is the human day, the eighth is the valley day, the first nine is the fruit of the day, the first ten is the vegetable day. People believe that the ten days, the weather, wind and rain, the Lord of the corresponding "day" of good and bad luck, disaster. Such as the first day of the sunny, this year's chickens will not be plague, such as rainy days, the year's chickens are very many disasters and diseases. Another example is the eighth for the Valley Day, the day the weather is sunny and, then the grain harvest, such as rainy or windy, then the year sowing grain may be poor. Therefore, the Qufu proverb has: "New Year's ten good days, do not have to ask the gods," said, meaning that the year must be the sky no disaster, no disaster of the good years.

In this "ten days", Qufu people attach the most importance to the seventh and eighth days. On the seventh day of the month, there is a custom of making small tofu for vegetable leaves. It is said that people eat vegetables and tofu on this day can be free from disasters and diseases. On the eighth day, Qufu people do not use rice and noodles to cook, do not push the mill, intended to prevent harm to the grain. The other eight days have no special taboos. It can be seen, in the birthplace of Confucian culture in Qufu, the Spring Festival has maintained an extremely traditional, original way of life. The local government attaches great importance to the development of the Spring Festival tourism products, "Confucius hometown New Year's Eve Tour" and "home for the New Year" two special products is one of the successful representatives. Starting from the 23rd day of the 12th month of the lunar calendar until the 15th day of the first month of the lunar calendar, during this period, foreign guests and overseas compatriots can go to the local people's homes, fully in accordance with local customs, and Confucius hometown people to celebrate the Spring Festival, and the hosts to experience the joy of the festival together. Learn the Chinese "New Year" of various traditional rituals, procedures, hands-on dumplings, Spring Festival couplets, firecrackers, dragon and lion dances, lanterns, and hosts to "keep the New Year", pay respect to each other, and experience a strong sense of affection, friendship and warmth of the family atmosphere.