What are the characteristics of Shandong Spring Festival custom?

1, post Spring Festival couplets and post blessings. Sticking Spring Festival couplets has been popular since the Song Dynasty, and every family has the custom of sticking Spring Festival couplets every New Year. Spring Festival couplets, commonly known as "door-to-door" and "spring post", are a kind of couplets. Because they were posted during the Spring Festival, they are called Spring Festival couplets. On the eve of the Spring Festival, every household should put up red Spring Festival couplets. A pair of festive and warm Spring Festival couplets expresses people's good wishes to welcome the New Year and look forward to a new life.

2. Speech. Like other regions, Shandong people's "New Year" begins with the "small year" on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month. In the past, "off-year" was called "No Cooking Day". It is said that this day is the day when Kitchen God reports to the Jade Emperor about his family's work, study and life. Therefore, on this day, people should "worship the kitchen god" at home, set up an altar to worship the kitchen god, and send him to heaven to report on his work in order to pray for happiness.

3, jiaozi, Fried Spring Festival. In Shandong, it's an important annual activity on New Year's Eve to package jiaozi and fry New Year's goods. Every household buys jiaozi and fries new year's goods. After breakfast, the children began to put up Spring Festival couplets and set off firecrackers. The female elders at home began to pack jiaozi, and the male elders began to fry new year's goods. Jiaozi has different fillings according to personal taste, but "vegetarian jiaozi" is a must for every family. "New Year's goods" are also different according to personal preferences, including fried lotus root, fried hairtail, fried spiced meat and so on.

4. Family room, please. The ceremony of inviting family members to the family auditorium should be held on the evening of the 30th. At that time, an altar and incense table were to be set up first. Some people wanted to hang a "Family Hall Axis" (a kind of New Year picture similar to nave's, with the names of ancestors, paintings of the courtyard and New Year's greetings), and the offerings were to be filled with chickens, ducks, fish and snacks. After these preparations are completed, the male elders at home will go to the intersection or the open space in front of the door, burn paper and kowtow, and lead the deceased relatives home for the New Year. "Jiatang" will stay at home until the fifth day.

5. New Year's Day. The custom of visiting the New Year during the Spring Festival has a long history. On New Year's Eve, the younger generation pays New Year greetings to their elders. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, neighbors pay New Year greetings to each other and congratulate them on "good luck in the Spring Festival". On this day, all people wear new clothes and every family pays a New Year call. The street became lively, and everyone laughed and laughed. There is also the custom of getting up early to pay New Year greetings in the southwest of Shandong Province. Usually from 4 am, people come to pay New Year greetings one after another.