What are the traditional Chinese New Year customs?

Traditional New Year's Customs:

1. Killing the New Year's Pig

Killing the New Year's pig is a traditional New Year's custom in rural Hanzhong, usually around the winter solstice of the lunar calendar. When each family kills a pig, they have to ask for help and invite their neighbors, usually the head of the pig, all the offal and part of the pork, made into a delicious dish, and invite relatives and neighbors to gather together to celebrate the year's harvest. This custom has been passed down to this day and is commonly known as: "Eat Butcher's Soup". The remaining meat is usually smoked into bacon, good bacon, the mouth flavor mellow, thin not stuffed teeth, fat not greasy mouth.

2, sacrificial stove

The sacrificial stove is a traditional folk custom. Legend has it that on this day of the New Year, the king of the stove to the Jade Emperor to report to the mortal merits of the day, the king of the stove is gluttonous, as long as there is sugar to eat, his mouth will be sealed, so the festival of the stove are not without maltose, in order to the king of the stove in front of the Jade Emperor not to say bad things, but also in the stove pasted on the "heavenly words good, the lower realm of peace," the couplet. People pray for a safe and prosperous New Year by sacrificing zaos. After the "sacrificial stove", people will follow the customary system of orderly preparations for the arrival of the Spring Festival.

3, sweeping the house

Sweeping the house is Hanzhong prevalent for a long time the traditional customs, the whole family all hands, clean houses, courtyards, scrubbing pots and pans, dismantling bedding, clean to welcome the New Year, not only good for health, but also sends the people to break the old and build up a new wish and prayers of the old and welcome the new.

4, spring herdsman said spring

Spring herdsman said spring is a traditional custom in Hanzhong. It is said that in the early years of the Tang Dynasty, the emperor told the people to plant their fields well and harvest more food, and specially sealed a kind of "spring herdsmen", so that they go to each household to send the "festival table" (that is, the later spring post). Spring herdsmen think that since the rural areas to send the table, should also say some auspicious words, they slowly rise "say spring" custom. Every New Year's Eve, the spring herdsmen wearing official hats, dressed in official clothes, go from village to village to rap, usually a single performance, sometimes into the streets or villages with dense households, to take the duo singing, singing and joint singing.

5, the purchase of New Year's goods

Purchase of New Year's goods (do New Year's goods) custom has a long history. In the past, life was limited by the conditions, people did not buy a lot of samples of New Year's goods. Nowadays, the significance of purchasing New Year's goods is not purely for food and clothing, but often to reward oneself for a year's hard work and to celebrate the New Year. If New Year's is a ritual, then New Year's goods are the carrier of this ritual, which awakens people's perception of the flavor of the New Year. The wide array of New Year's goods carries great care for the family and signifies a good harvest for the coming year.