Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Traditional culture - What are the folk customs of Spring Festival in China?

What are the folk customs of Spring Festival in China?

Spring Festival The Spring Festival on the first day of the first lunar month is the most grand and distinctive traditional festival of the Chinese nation, and it is also one of the most lively ancient festivals, commonly known as "Chinese New Year".

In the folk, the traditional Spring Festival begins with Laba Festival or offering sacrifices to stoves, and lasts until after the fifteenth day of the first month, with New Year's Eve, the first day of the first month and the Lantern Festival as its climax. During the Spring Festival, people hold various celebrations, all of which focus on offering sacrifices to gods and buddhas, paying homage to ancestors, saying goodbye to the old year and welcoming the new year, and praying for a bumper harvest. The celebrations are colorful and have strong local characteristics.

Spring Festival couplets affixed to Spring Festival couplets, also known as "spring stickers", "door pairs" and "couplets", are a kind of red festive element "Year Red" affixed during the New Year.

It depicts a beautiful image and expresses good wishes with neat, concise and exquisite words. It is a unique literary form in China and an important custom in China New Year. When people post New Year greetings (Spring Festival couplets and blessings, etc.). ) put it at their doorstep, which means the official start of the Spring Festival. Every Spring Festival, no matter in urban or rural areas, every household should take off beautiful red couplets and stick them on the doors to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, thus increasing the festive atmosphere. Another source of Spring Festival couplets is spring stickers. The ancients posted the word "Yichun" more and more at the beginning of spring, and then it gradually developed into Spring Festival couplets, expressing the good wishes of the working people in China to ward off evil spirits and avoid disasters and welcome good luck. It is said that this custom originated in the Song Dynasty and became popular in the Ming Dynasty.

Eat New Year's Eve, also known as New Year's Eve, reunion dinner, reunion dinner and so on. Especially on New Year's Eve.

People who work outside will go back to their hometown to reunite with their families before New Year's Eve. China people's New Year's Eve is a family reunion dinner, which is the most important dinner for a family at the end of the year. New Year's Eve is the highlight before the New Year every year. It is not only rich in color, but also pays attention to a variety of meanings. Traditionally, New Year's Eve is eaten after ancestor worship. Sacrifice to the gods and ancestors before eating the New Year's Eve dinner, and then eat it after the worship ceremony.

New Year greeting is a traditional folk custom in China, and it is a way for people to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, and express their best wishes to each other.

In ancient times, the original meaning of the word "Happy New Year" was to pay New Year greetings to the elderly, including kowtowing to the elderly, congratulating them on a happy New Year and greeting their lives. In case of friends and relatives of the same generation, you should also salute and congratulate. With the development of the times, the custom of New Year greetings is constantly adding new contents and forms. In addition to following the previous New Year greetings, etiquette telegrams, telephone calls, short messages and online New Year greetings also came into being. Generally speaking, the time to pay New Year greetings is from the first day to the fifth day. Visiting relatives and friends after the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month is a memorial to the early years, and visiting relatives and friends before the fifteenth day after the fifth day of the first month is a memorial to the old age. Early old age belongs to the nature of emergency or remedy to avoid regret. There is a folk proverb: it is not too late to celebrate the New Year with a heart.

Keeping old has two meanings: first, the old man keeps old as "quitting the old", which means cherishing time; The other is that young people keep watch for their parents and elders and prolong their lives; The "longevity" of observing the old year means nostalgia for the past old year and hope for the coming new year.

"Keeping old age" is one of the traditional customs of China folk New Year's Eve, and there are also some sayings such as wasting one's time and enduring the New Year. It means that on New Year's Eve, families get together and stay up late to welcome the Lunar New Year. There are many legends about guarding the old age: It is said that Grandma Chef is the daughter of the Jade Emperor, who was banished to the mortal world and found it unbearable to see the sufferings of the people. On the occasion of the Chinese New Year, I was replenished by wisdom, and I went back on New Year's Eve. That night, every household was awake, praying for Grandma Cook to come back. Since then, this custom has been passed down from generation to generation, so "keeping the age" also means gratitude.

Lucky money, one of the old customs, the elders should distribute the lucky money prepared in advance to the younger generation after meals. It is said that lucky money can kill evil spirits, and the younger generation can spend a year safely with lucky money. Lucky money has the meaning of exorcising evil spirits and keeping peace in folk culture. The original intention of lucky money is to suppress evil and drive away evil. Because people think that children are easy to be invisible, they use lucky money to suppress evil spirits.