Traditional customs of the Spring Festival in Guangzhou

Spring Festival is the Lunar New Year and the most important traditional festival in China and Guangzhou. The Spring Festival in Guangzhou has not only the basic contents of the Spring Festival in China, but also its own local characteristics. From the middle of December of the lunar calendar; Before New Year's Eve, the word "Fu" or New Year pictures were hung on the gate or in the hall. Some people even hung the word "Fu" upside down, meaning "Fu". On New Year's Eve, some families go to hotels and restaurants to have a reunion dinner and then "go shopping". From the first day to the fifteenth day, when relatives, friends or acquaintances pay New Year greetings to each other, married or elderly people should give "gifts" (that is, red envelopes) to unmarried people or children to show good luck. Eating "Tangyuan" on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month means that the whole family will be safe and happy in the new year. The customs of the Spring Festival in Guangzhou are different from those in other regions: 1,1The Spring Festival market is held from February 28th to New Year's Eve, and millions of people take part in the flower market. 2. arranging flowers. Every family should buy them, including oranges, daffodils and flower arrangements. 3. Celebration Day. People's Day is the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, and many people in Guangzhou hold rich family banquets to celebrate it.

Have a family reunion dinner, visit the flower street, children and unmarried people receive red envelopes, set off fireworks and firecrackers, dance dragons and lions, and place oranges, daffodils and flowers. ...

Everyone knows these customs, but how did they come from?

Guangzhou's earliest Spring Festival custom of shopping in Flower Street was handed down from the Ming Dynasty. There is still a period of history. At that time, in the south of Haizhu District, Huadiwan in Fangcun District was rich in all kinds of flowers, which were gradually bought and sold in the market during the Spring Festival and later spread to Flower Street.

How did the dragon and lion dances come about? Legend has it that in ancient times, there was a fierce lion in Guangzhou who often went to people's homes to eat people. A great hero heard about it and decided to kill the lion. He took two knives and cut off the lion's head with one knife. In order to commemorate the great hero who killed the lion, dragon and lion dances were produced.

There are many differences between the Spring Festival customs in Guangzhou and those in other places. For example, in other places, only children give red envelopes, while in Guangzhou, only children and unmarried people give red envelopes.

Happy new year, send big oranges.

On the first morning of the new year, people get up and put on new clothes. The first thing they do is to pay homage to themselves. It is often the younger generation who wishes the elders first, and then the elders give them expectations. After breakfast, each of them pays a New Year call to relatives and friends. As the saying goes, "the first day and the second day have the meaning of New Year's greetings, and the third day and the fourth day have no intention of New Year's greetings." It is said that the sooner you pay a New Year call, the more you can see its sincerity. Therefore, some people go to pay New Year greetings to relatives and friends immediately after getting up, and then eat after coming back.

No matter how many gifts people bring, oranges are indispensable. Big orange takes its homonym "Daji". It doesn't matter if you take more and less, but it can't be odd. People who pay New Year greetings enter the doors of relatives and friends, and they should look at different people and say different greetings. Say "Happy New Year" and "Longevity is better than Nanshan" to the old people, and they will grin. For those who have jobs, saying "smooth work" and "progress in the new year" will make the listeners very happy; If you are a business person, what you hear most is "making a big profit in the New Year" and "making a fortune and benefiting the market"; If children are studying, what they want most is to make progress in their studies and achieve excellent results in the new year. Send this greeting to them, and they will be very friendly to you. Before leaving, the host will leave two oranges in the gift of the recipient, and then exchange his oranges in order to bring good luck to the other party. Humorous people often only put two oranges in their trouser pockets when they go out to pay New Year's greetings. After the New Year call, the two oranges are still in his trouser pocket. Therefore, good-hearted people call the New Year's greetings at the beginning of the year "orange-changing movement".

(of a person) return to one's place of origin or unit.

On the second and third day of the first month, the married daughters go back to their parents' homes to celebrate the New Year with their husbands and children. When a daughter returns to her mother's house, there must be a big bag of biscuits and sweets distributed by her mother to her neighbors, just like the scene of the New Year. If there are many daughters at home, and these daughters don't come back on the same day, then we must share one at a time. The gift is quite thin, just four biscuits. But it reflects the deep affection, the real "courtesy is light and affection is heavy", and expresses the girl's miss for the villagers. When the girl goes home, if there is a nephew at home, menstruation has to pay again. Although she gave lucky money on New Year's Day, this time it had a different meaning. The daughter must return to her husband's house before dinner.

Guangzhou Spring Festival taboo

Because the first month is the beginning of a year, Guangzhou people often regard it as a sign of good or bad luck in the New Year, so there are many "taboos" during the New Year. In terms of language, all unlucky words such as "broken", "bad", "nothing", "death", "light", "ghost", "killing", "illness", "pain" and "poverty" are taboo. It is also necessary to avoid crying of babies, because crying is "not winning the first prize", which indicates illness and disaster. Therefore, even if the child is in trouble on this day, don't fight or reprimand him, lest he cry endlessly. Behavior, end cup, end plate, end bowl, end plate should be extra careful not to break. When you accidentally break them, taking water is just a form. The custom of prohibiting sweeping the floor is gradually being eliminated, because firecrackers are set off during the Spring Festival, people come and go, and there are a lot of scraps of paper and garbage on the ground. It's really harmful not to clean. Therefore, starting from paying attention to hygiene, many young people are not very particular about these traditional taboo customs.

Creditors are not allowed to collect debts on this day, because it is considered unlucky for both borrowers and borrowers. Also avoid taking things from other people's pockets. People think that pulling out a pocket on the first day of the first month may lead to the danger of being "hollowed out" for one year.

Avoid dead people and funerals, because it will bring bad luck to the family. At the same time, don't have a haircut on this day, because people always associate a haircut with a funeral on this day. On this day, even killing is forbidden. Killing is considered to lead to disasters such as knife disaster, soldier disaster and blood disaster. However, now people's living standards have improved, and they have no scruples about eating fresh food for quick appetite.

In terms of diet, taking medicine is strictly prohibited on this day. Otherwise, I think it will lead to illness all the year round and take medicine constantly. There are several ways to avoid eating meat for breakfast on the first day of junior high school: one is to eat this meal quickly, and the effect is equal to one year; Another metaphor is frugality, not extravagance and waste.