The Spring Festival Customs and Corresponding Time in Honghu Lake

On the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, it is "Mouse Marries Women Day". You can't set off firecrackers and make noise on this day, or the mice will make noise all day.

In the east of Honghu Lake, the customs of Longxi Bird's Nest and other towns and villages are the opposite. On this day, the children of every family broke the gourd ladle and cursed the mouse loudly.

Second, the New Year's Eve?

December 30th, commonly known as New Year's Eve. ?

On this day, we should first clean the indoor and outdoor sanitation, prepare enough domestic water from the first day to the third day of the first month, post Spring Festival couplets or door gods on the gate, post the words "Open the door in great anger" on the left gate, and then begin to worship the ancestors. ?

Rich people set up sacrificial tables, burning candles and incense for ancestral tablets and three animals (one pig head, one sheep head and one cow head), meat dishes and gold and silver ingots. Ordinary people only provide ancestral tablets, light candles to burn incense and offer rice sacrifices. ?

Then the whole family is busy cooking all kinds of delicious New Year's Eve dinners. When a sumptuous dish is ready, set off firecrackers outside the gate and then close the gate. The whole family, men, women and children, sit down according to their generations and have a reunion dinner, which is called "reunion dinner". After dinner, everyone takes a bath, puts on new clothes, lights ancestral graves and burns money to make paper. ?

At night, all the lights in the house are on, which means that the whole family will be prosperous in the coming year. Especially the hall (living room) is brightly lit, and then the whole family get together to play cards and stay up all night, which is called "keeping the old age".

Third, Chinese New Year?

The first day of the first lunar month is also called "New Year". ?

At zero o'clock in the morning, the whole family held lanterns outside the door, burned "getting rich" and other things according to the direction selected by the almanac (imperial calendar), set off firecrackers, looked up at the sky, bowed down, and prayed to God to bless the good weather and all the best in the coming year, commonly known as "going out". ?

After that, the younger generation pays New Year greetings to the elders in turn, and the elders send red envelopes "lucky money" to the younger generation who pays New Year greetings. This is also the motivation for children to "keep the old age" in the New Year, cheer up and stay up all night. ?

At dawn, the whole family of men went to the ancestral grave to burn incense and pay homage. After the completion, neighbors congratulated each other on the New Year, commonly known as "Running Year". ?

The next day, my daughter and son-in-law took their children with them, carrying big bags of cigarettes, wine and new egg cakes, and went to their parents-in-law's house to pay New Year's greetings. Grandchildren pay New Year greetings to grandparents, who give them red envelopes. ?

On the fourth day of the third grade, relatives and friends began to visit each other to pay New Year greetings. We get together to drink and eat. There are many tourists in the street, such as those who sing ancient operas, shadow play, lion dance, play with dragon lanterns, row dragon boats and throw dragons. The excitement didn't end until the fifteenth day of the first month.

Fourth, the Lantern Festival?

The fifteenth day of the first month is the Lantern Festival, which is the last day of the Spring Festival. Xindi has the saying that "the year is half a month old". ?

On this day, every family steamed zongzi, and Xindi and the towns and villages in the west wrapped jiaozi, and the towns and villages in the east wrapped dumplings (Yuanxiao). The streets of Xindi compete to play dragon lanterns, phoenix lanterns, walk on stilts, dance mussels and row lotus boats. ?

In the evening, there is a saying in Xindi called "thirty fires and fifteen lights". There are thousands of lights in urban and rural areas, lanterns are competing, and the whole family goes out. The street is brightly lit, and the dragon lanterns tied with cloth and grass string up every household. Drums, cheers and firecrackers are endless all night. ?

Children play with all kinds of lanterns, walk all over the streets, wear all over the house, and say, "Ho, ho, get rid of the fur dog!" " Words like that.

There are many taboos during the Chinese New Year: from the first day of the first month to the third day of the first month, all domestic water is not allowed to spill. Sweeping the floor can only start at the gate, and the house is full of rubbish. The reason is that China traditionally thinks that water belongs to wealth, and garbage is also a part of family wealth.

So don't abandon the door, otherwise, you won't make a fortune within a year. Don't say unlucky words such as "death", "illness" and "ghost", let alone swear words, because these words will bring bad luck. On the third day, after the "Send the Year" ceremony, the taboo was cancelled and everything returned to normal. ?

The Chinese New Year's diet is very particular. Get up in the morning and eat snacks such as orchid root, snow jujube, Beijing fruit, peel, fruit, magnolia slice and fried rice candy. Drink egg rice wine or make lard glutinous rice flour, which is called "dry tea", and then eat nine stews for breakfast. The staple food is cooked mung bean skin, shredded pork and egg noodles, and the soup fried rice is called "wet tea". ?

Lunch and dinner are the most abundant, with four plates and four bowls, four plates and eight bowls or ten bowls. Steamed meat, steamed fish, steamed lotus root, meatballs, fish balls, lotus root balls, braised wild ducks or geese, and stewed lotus root soup with pig bones are essential. ?

Eat midnight snack at night, drink tremella lotus seed soup, vermicelli chicken soup and so on. Rich people drink ginseng bird's nest soup.