Customs of Spring Festival holiday

Spring Festival, commonly known as "Chinese New Year", is a grand and distinctive ancient folk festival in China, and it is also one of the most lively traditional festivals. Spring Festival, in a narrow sense, refers to the first day of the first month, the first day of the New Year; Broadly speaking, the Spring Festival is from Laba Festival or off-year to the 15th day of the first month of the following year, which is considered as the Spring Festival. There are many customs among them. Next, I sorted out a Spring Festival custom.

First of all, clean

According to Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals, as early as the Yao and Shun era, China had the custom of sweeping dust during the Spring Festival. Because "dust" and "Chen" are homophonic, sweeping dust in the Spring Festival has a new meaning, meaning "getting rid of the old and not being new", hoping to sweep all bad luck out of the house.

Second, paste couplets, blessings and door gods.

On the afternoon of the day before the Spring Festival, children will paste couplets on the door with paste and brushes, and then let the adults below see if they are pasted correctly. Some are pasted on the crosshead of the lintel, and couplets are pasted on the left and right sides of the door. Others put blessings on doors, walls and lintels to express people's yearning for a happy life. Others will stick pictures of door gods on the door panels, praying for a safe year and adding festive atmosphere.

Third, offering sacrifices to ancestors and gods.

Sacrificing to God during the Spring Festival is a custom all over China. The customs of offering sacrifices to gods are similar all over the country, but the purpose is basically the same. They all pray for good weather, good harvests and good luck in the coming year.

Sacrificing ancestors is generally after offering sacrifices to gods, and customs vary from place to place. In our hometown, every day before lunch, every household sends a representative to the ancestral temple with food and offerings, and the ancestral temple will not close until the fifteenth day of the first month.

Four, eat jiaozi, eat jiaozi, eat rice cakes.

In most parts of the north, it is a custom to eat jiaozi in the morning during the Spring Festival, and a coin is often put in the jiaozi. Whoever eats a coin will be said to be the happiest person in the family that year. In Huai 'an, Jiangsu, there is a custom of eating jiaozi in the morning. In Kaifeng City, Henan Province, people will eat jiaozi during the Spring Festival. There is also the habit of eating rice cakes in the New Year, and the taste of rice cakes varies from place to place.

Five, shou sui, give lucky money.

Keeping New Year's Eve is also one of the most important activities in the Spring Festival. Neighbors and friends get together, or family get together, some play cards, some watch the Spring Festival party, and everyone stays up all day, waiting for dawn to welcome the arrival of the New Year.

Lucky money is the favorite custom of children and the younger generation. After the New Year's Eve dinner, the elders will give coins to the younger generation respectively, and wear copper coins in strings on the children's chests with red lines, saying that they can suppress evil spirits and drive away ghosts. This custom has been popular since the Han Dynasty. Of course, there are no copper coins now, and they are usually cash in red packages.

Spring Festival is the most important festival in China, and many customs have been passed down from generation to generation. I listed some important customs on it. If you have anything to add, please leave a message in the comments below.