Why we keep the lamps lit and stay up all night on New Year's Eve

The reason for keeping the lamps lit and staying awake all night on New Year's Eve is to keep watch.

There is a custom in the folklore to keep the lanterns on all night to drive away the poor ghosts, so that the coming year will be smooth. And on New Year's Eve, we have to light the lamps all night long. New Year's Eve until the first fifteenth Lantern Festival, every family should hang red lanterns, to the night to light up the lanterns, and to point a night, can not turn off the lights, meaning that the life prolonged, the incense continues.

Chinese folk in the New Year's Eve has the custom of the New Year's Eve. The New Year's Eve vigil begins with the New Year's Eve dinner, which is eaten slowly, from the time the lanterns are lit to the time the dinner is served, and some people have to eat it until late at night. According to the "Jing Chu Yearly Records", the custom of having New Year's Eve dinner has been practiced at least during the North and South Dynasties.

On this night of "one night and two years, five nights and two years," families were reunited and gathered together. The whole family sits together, refreshments and fruits on a table. New Year's Day offerings, a large plate of apples is indispensable, which is called "peace and security". In the north, some people have to provide a pot of rice, burned before, to provide for the New Year, called the "New Year's Eve rice", is a year of leftover rice, year-round food, this year also ate the meaning of the food of the past year.

Other customs of New Year's Eve:

1, ancestor worship

that is, ancestor worship, the Chinese will never forget the deceased ancestors in their own families during the holidays, and the Spring Festival is no exception. At this time we will make offerings of food or flowers as a token of our appreciation, is a common ceremony adopted by Chinese people in China, the form of ancestor worship may be different depending on religious beliefs, but the significance of honoring our ancestors is the same.

2, New Year's Eve dinner

Eating New Year's Eve dinner is the most lively and enjoyable time of the Spring Festival for families. On New Year's Eve, the sumptuous New Year's dishes on the table, the whole family reunion, sitting around the table, *** eat a reunion dinner, the heart of the fullness is really difficult to describe.

3, the pressure of the year

Night, with the advent of the old and the new moment, firecrackers, laughter, blessing the New Year's sound into a piece, intertwined, the family presented a passionate, joyful and peaceful scene. Children are most looking forward to this time, but also the most excited, they have to kowtow to the elders to pay tribute to the New Year, the elders will be busy to give "New Year's Eve money". New Year's Eve money is known as "pressure Soun money", "pressure victory money", which first appeared in the Han Dynasty.