Annual local customs

Speaking of local traditional culture, the most distinctive thing to say is Shandong customs. Here are some introductions:

The last day of the twelfth lunar month is a day other than December, and the nights other than December are called New Year's Eve, New Year's Eve, Big Festival Night, anniversary Dian and so on. Han people call it New Year's Eve and New Year's Eve. The zero point of New Year's Eve is a watershed for two years. As the saying goes, "One night for two years, five hours for two years."

There are many activities outside the sun, which mainly have three characteristics: one is ringing (setting off firecrackers), the other is red (posting Spring Festival couplets), and the third is fire (lighting a lamp to keep the year).

New Year pictures and Spring Festival couplets:

New Year pictures are popular in all parts of Shandong, which are very rich in content, including various stories such as Tang Priest's Buddhist scriptures, historical stories such as Li Zicheng's Chu and Han Dynasties, and opera stories such as back to Jingzhou, the legend of the white snake and landscape paintings. The forms of New Year pictures are nave, single opening and four screens. Among many New Year pictures, chicken pictures, fish pictures and doll pictures are more common, because chicken symbolizes auspiciousness, fish symbolizes wealth and food, and doll symbolizes prosperity. Almost every stick grilles in Jiaodong, Binzhou, chiping and other places, the window grilles are generally red, and the contents are different.

Besides this day, the main activities are hanging calligraphy and painting in Tang Jia, posting Spring Festival couplets, New Year pictures, window grilles, offering sacrifices to heaven, asking God and so on. Family hall (scroll painting), calligraphy and painting should be posted in the middle of the hall. The content of Spring Festival couplets is very rich. Generally, Spring Festival couplets showing family style are posted on the front door, such as "Faithful and honest family heirloom, poems and books will be handed down from generation to generation". On the wall facing the door, couplets such as "Look up and see the happy event" and "Vientiane update" should be posted. On the gate, couplets like "Prosperity, People's Peace and Prosperity" should be posted to pray for longevity and happiness. On both sides of the nave, "Happiness is like flowing water in the East China Sea" shops should post couplets such as "Business is booming all over the world and financial resources are flourishing in the Three Rivers", on both sides of Tiandi Hall, they should post couplets such as "kowtowing in the morning and evening, and incense in the morning and evening", and on both sides of the hall, they should post couplets such as "Happiness every year, peace every month" to pray. Grain depots are labeled with "Five Grains Flourishing" and "Five Grains Man Cang", pigsty is labeled with "Six Livestock Flourishing", barn is labeled with "Mules and Horses Full of Pants", buses are labeled with "Traveling thousands of miles a day and traveling 800 miles at night", and other places are also labeled with the word "Fu" (in some places, the word "Fu" is reversed, meaning "Fu is here"). In the coastal rural areas of Luxi, Long Island and Penglai, someone died at home, and for three years, red couplets were not posted, but green couplets were used instead. Fishermen along the coast of Rizhao put couplets on fishing boats and put them on the bow in the afternoon except Sunday. On the mast of the five-mast wind ship, they hung the words "The general is majestic in all directions", "Two generals travel thousands of miles a day", "Three generals obey orders", "Four generals have a safe journey" and "Five generals succeed" respectively. Fishermen in Changdao County hang Lamy flags for fishing boats in the morning, hang lanterns at night, set up sacrificial platforms, beat gongs and drums, set off firecrackers, burn incense paper and offer sacrifices to the sea dragon king.

The 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month is the day of offering sacrifices to stoves, which is commonly called "off-year" by the Han people, also known as off-year, off-year and off-year festival. On this day, the kitchen god was sent to heaven to say things, called sending the kitchen stove, retiring the kitchen stove and getting drunk.

The sacrifice of the stove was held on the evening of the 23rd. There is a portrait of the kitchen god in Jiaodong area on the wall of the kitchen stove in the east of the main room. On both sides, there is a pair of couplets "Heaven speaks well, returning to the palace brings good luck", which is the "head of the family". When offering sacrifices, put candied fruits and a bowl of noodle soup, then burn incense and kowtow, take off the old kitchen god and burn it, that is, send the kitchen god to heaven. When cooking, add some cereal and miscellaneous grains to feed the horse of Kitchen God. There used to be a saying that "men don't Yue Bai, women don't offer sacrifices to stoves". In Shandong, men usually offer sacrifices, but in Enxian and Boping, women lead their children to burn incense and worship the stove. After the old stoves were burned, some put up new stoves at that time, while others were put up on New Year's Eve, so the couplets had the words "Go to heaven on the 23rd and come down on the first day of the first month".

Sweet and sticky food is often used in sacrificial stoves. Honeydew melons and dates are commonly used, sheep dates and dried persimmons are also used in Linqu area, glutinous rice cakes and small honeydew melons are used in Weihai, and millet cakes or jujube cakes are added in Wudi, Enxian, Boping, Zhaoyuan and Rizhao, which means sticking the mouth of the kitchen god to prevent him from speaking ill of God or making the kitchen god's mouth sweet, so it is called this in Chengwu and other places. Some people put some distiller's grains or wine at the door of the stove, which is called "drunken living and dreaming of death".

In addition to honeydew melons, some offerings are jiaozi, which means that the Han people "got up and left jiaozi to save face", some noodles, some boiled horses, cooked chicken with straw, and let the kitchen god ride to heaven, and have a good trip. After the sacrifice, a farewell ceremony will be held. The family knelt in front of the statue of Kitchen God, kowtowing and burning the old statue of Kitchen God and a paper horse. At the same time, the old man murmured: "Kitchen God, please go to heaven, say more good things, say less bad things, and bring all the grains." People who are in urgent need of having children read: "On the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the Kitchen God went to the Western Heaven. Say nothing nice and bring a fat boy on his ponytail." This will even send the kitchen god away. Zichuan, Zhaoyuan and other places have the custom of divination after quitting the kitchen, that is, quietly going out to hear people predict good or bad luck. After quitting the kitchen, it is said that the gods went to heaven. In all is Forgiveness and Han Nationality, those who are too poor to get married at this time are called "chaotic years". In ancient times, it was called 10 days after the great cold, and marriage was not prohibited. Now most rural people get married at the end of the year. The customs of China and Macau are unique. "Xie Zao" is one of the most traditional China customs preserved in Macau.

On the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, people in Macao called it "Xie Zao". According to the tradition in China, Macau people also give the kitchen god sugar, saying that it is to paste the mouth of the kitchen god with sugar, so as not to speak ill of him in front of the Jade Emperor.

Macao people celebrate the New Year from the 28th of the twelfth lunar month, which is a homophonic word in Cantonese. Most business owners invite their employees to have a "reunion dinner" at the end of the year to show their prosperity and good luck. From the 28th of the twelfth lunar month, we can truly feel the annual flavor of Macao.

On New Year's Eve, watching the Spring Festival and visiting the flower market are two major events for Macao people to bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new year. Shousui is playing mahjong, watching TV, catching up and chatting, enjoying family happiness; Probably influenced by Christmas and Valentine's Day in the West, people in Macao are also scrambling to buy some auspicious flowers and trees to welcome the New Year. Now this has become a custom in Macao.

Macau holds a flower market on Lunar New Year's Eve, mostly peach blossoms, daffodils, potted bamboos and potted oranges. Flowers are rich and prosperous, wishing peace and a bright future in the new year.

On the day of the Spring Festival, Macao people pay attention to "benefiting the market", which is a red envelope. On this day, when the boss meets the employees, the elders meet the younger generation, and even the married see the unmarried, they must "benefit the field".

"Profit market" is to show good luck. Macao people call New Year's Day the "opening year". The custom is to eat "New Year's Eve", and you must have Nostoc flagelliforme, lettuce and carp to make money.

After the Chinese New Year, Macau has completely returned to the traditional Chinese New Year custom in China. Until the Lantern Festival, it is also a fireworks festival, playing with dragons and lions, and being in high spirits. Spring Festival is a traditional festival for China people. Taiwan Province Province, a beautiful treasure island, is closely related to Chinese mainland. The folk customs of the Han nationality in Taiwan Province are basically the same as those in Chinese mainland, but they also have their own characteristics.

Sit around the fire/stove

In Taiwan Province Province, families, big and small, sit around a round table and eat hot pot and have dinner together, which is called "around the stove". People who take part in the fireplace, big or small, should put chopsticks on everything on the table. Women who usually don't drink should also take a symbolic sip of wine for good luck. Every dish on the table is very interesting when "around the stove": fish balls (pills) and meatballs mean "three yuan" and symbolize reunion. Radish, like Minnan dialect, is called "vegetable head" in Taiwan Province Province, which means "good color head" and symbolizes good luck. The "chicken" of the whole chicken is the homonym of "home" in Taiwan Province Province, that is, "starting from eating chicken". Some fried foods are fried with oil and fire to show "prosperity". Taiwan Province province is interpreted as "fat". Eating cockroaches means "getting rich". Vegetables "around the stove" do not have to be chopped with a knife. Wash and cook well, don't bite it off when eating, but slowly eat it into your stomach from beginning to end and wish your parents a long life. When you are "around the stove", if someone at home goes out and can't come back in time, you should also set aside a seat and put this person's clothes on the empty seat. It means the whole family misses him.

Zou Chun

This is the "Happy New Year" that Han people in Taiwan Province Province often say, and it is still very popular today. Every time people go to a spring outing, they will say something auspicious to each other. The host will take out candy packed in cinnabar wooden boxes or Kowloon plates and offer sweet tea to show the intimacy between the host and the guests. When the guests leave, the host and guests give each other red envelopes.

Eat long-term vegetables

During the Spring Festival, compatriots in Taiwan Province Province have the habit of eating longevity dishes. The so-called long dish is actually mustard with long stems and leaves and bitter taste. They think this dish has long leaves and silk, which symbolizes longevity. Some people deliberately add some long vermicelli when cooking, saying that it will last forever. It is generally known that vegetables can absorb oil. During the Spring Festival, big fish and big meat are greasy. Eating some vegetables can not only relieve oil, but also regulate appetite. Therefore, Taiwan Province compatriots' habit of eating "long-term dishes" during the Spring Festival is a scientific diet.

Debt avoidance drama

In the past, during the Spring Festival in Taiwan Province Province, the Han people had such a unique and humanistic program-"Debt Avoidance Play", which was performed in some temples on New Year's Eve. People who owed others debts years ago, in order to avoid creditors coming to collect debts, secretly ran to the "debt avoidance drama" in front of the temple to "watch the play". At this time, if the debt collector or the debt collector just rushes down the "debt avoidance play" to ask someone for money, it will not only arouse "public anger", but also be "beaten by groups", making it boring. The play lasted from New Year's Eve to New Year's morning. In this way, those "theatre goers" who avoid debt can go home safely to "celebrate" the New Year. This custom still exists in some Han villages in Taiwan Province Province.