Chinese New Year Customs in Zhucheng, Shandong Province

The first day of the first lunar month is the Spring Festival, commonly known as "Chinese New Year", which is the most solemn traditional festival among the people. Zhucheng, Linyi, Jimo and other places have to pay homage to their ancestors in addition to the moon. Landlords in guanxian, Laiyang, Guangrao and Postal City also entertain their tenants in the Mid-Autumn Festival.

After the "Laba Festival", people began to be busy with the Spring Festival, buying and rushing to make new clothes and sorting out new year's goods. There are a wide variety of goods in and out of shops and bazaars. New Year pictures, couplets, incense, candles, firecrackers and fireworks are hung on the market, and the market is crowded and scrambling to buy them, which is a scene before the festival. Bowls, chopsticks, firecrackers, fireworks, candles, incense and paper must be bought, which means that everyone will be prosperous and happy in the new year. After the fifteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, every household should prepare food for the festival, such as milling rice, smearing pancakes, steaming cakes (steamed bread), which means "New Year's Eve", making tofu, which means "the whole family is blessed", steaming rice cakes, which means "climbing high every year", cutting meat, killing chickens (auspicious) and buying fish, which means "more than enough every year". There is a saying that "the dowry that can't be compensated is endless." Around the 23rd, every household cleaned the house, painted the walls, and bid farewell to the old and welcomed the new.

On New Year's Eve, every household puts up Spring Festival couplets, door stickers, stick grilles, stick grilles, New Year pictures and lanterns, and their rooms and courtyards look brand-new. In the afternoon, the water tank is full of water to prepare firewood for the New Year. Most of the firewood is bean stalks and sesame stalks, and there are "burning bean stalks and making scholars"; Burning sesame stalks is a big official. Every household has a smoky kitchen, cooking, cooking, cooking and mixing jiaozi. The dishes must be "combined dishes" and "fish" in order to "keep the whole family safe for more than a year". In the evening, the man dressed up and led his children and grandchildren to worship their ancestors, burned paper and whipped them, and told them to go home for the New Year. At this time, every family has built a platform for the god of wealth, the family hall and heaven and earth, and made all preparations for the festival. After dinner, set up offerings, carry lanterns to the crossroads or village head according to the established direction, visit the god of wealth and pick up the family school. When welcoming, burn incense, paper, kowtow and set off firecrackers at the established place; When you arrive at the gate, you will burn incense and paper, kowtow, ask your ancestors or the god of wealth to be in place and set off firecrackers in the yard. After the job is done, put a "Mense" at the gate to prevent evil spirits from sneaking into the house; Scattering straw in the yard means preparing the god of wealth, and the ancestors feed the horses; Lighting candles and incense, brightly lit, staying up all night, is also called keeping the year. The whole family sat together, eating candy and melon seeds and celebrating New Year's Eve.

At midnight, people will distribute paper horses and firecrackers to wrap jiaozi. The elders led their children to worship the heavens and the earth, first offering sacrifices to their ancestors and kowtowing, praying for the safety of the whole family and all the best, and the festive atmosphere reached its climax. After that, the whole family, old and young, drank reunion wine and had a farewell dinner. Rice is vegetarian dumplings with copper coins in them. Whoever eats them means making a fortune in a year. Keep quiet when eating jiaozi, don't pull the bellows, and don't say bad words such as "broken", "dropped" and "rotten". After dinner, the younger generation kowtows to the elder, and the elder gives the younger generation "lucky money". Later, men and women went out to pay New Year greetings to their elders and neighbors.

On the first day of the first month, men, women and children all wear festive costumes. They meet and say "Happy New Year" and "Rich New Year" to each other. On this day, I don't work, commonly known as "playing the New Year", and there are few guests from relatives and friends.

On the second day, every family got up early to see off the "family hall". After dinner, I went to worship my ancestors and said "Last year's grave". That day, I began to take gifts to visit my relatives. Generally, there is a saying that "I see my mother-in-law on the second day and the third day, and I see menstruation on the fourth day and the fifth day".

At the same time, entertainment activities such as folk juggling, walking on stilts, playing dragon lanterns and singing operas are widely carried out. Until the fifteenth day of the first month.