About the Chinese traditional festival customs, origin, legends, cultural background, in short, the more complete the better.

The Spring Festival, the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar, also known as the lunar year, commonly known as "New Year". This is one of the grandest and most lively traditional festivals in China. The history of the Spring Festival is very long, it originated in the Yin Shang period at the end of the year the gods and ancestors activities.

The Spring Festival is here, meaning that the spring will come, the recovery of grass and trees renewed, a new round of sowing and harvest season will begin. People have just passed through a long winter of ice and snow, grass and trees withered, have long been looking forward to the days of spring, when the new spring is coming, naturally, to be full of joy singing and dancing to meet this festival.

Over the centuries, people make the New Year celebrations have become very colorful, every year from the 23rd day of the lunar month to the 30th, the folk called this period of time "Spring Day", also known as the "dust day", in the Spring Festival before the dust to engage in sanitation, is a traditional habit of our people. Our people have traditional habits.

Then it is the family to prepare for the New Year's goods, about ten days before the festival, people began to busy purchasing items, New Year's goods, including chickens, ducks, fish and meat, tea, wine, oil and soy sauce, North and South fried goods, sugar bait and fruits, to buy enough, but also to prepare for some of the New Year's Eve when visiting friends and relatives when the gift, the children to add a new coat and a new hat, ready to wear on New Year's Day.

Prior to the festival in the residence of the door to paste the red paper and yellow letters of the New Year message, that is, written in red paper Spring Festival couplets. Inside the house posted brightly colored auspicious New Year's paintings, clever girls cut out beautiful window flowers pasted on the windows, hanging red lanterns or sticking the word "Fu" and the God of Fortune, the God of the Door, etc., the word "Fu" can also be pasted upside down, passers-by read the word "Fu" upside down, that is, the blessing of the arrival of the festival, all of these activities are to add enough to the festivities of the atmosphere of festivities.

Another name for the Spring Festival is the New Year. In past legends, Nian was an imaginary animal that brought bad luck to people. When the year came. Trees wither and no grass grows; once the year passes, everything grows and flowers are everywhere. How can the year pass? It needs to be blasted with firecrackers

, so there is the custom of burning firecrackers, which is actually another way to set off a lively scene.

The Spring Festival is a happy and peaceful holiday, but also a reunion of loved ones, children away from home in the Spring Festival to go home to celebrate. The night before the New Year's Eve, is the old year's Lunar New Year's Eve, also known as New Year's Eve, also known as the reunion night, in this time of transition between the old and the new, the New Year's Eve is one of the most important annual activities, New Year's Eve night, the whole family stay up to keep watch together, get together to drink soundly, *** enjoy the joy of family, the northern region in the New Year's Eve to eat dumplings, dumplings, dumplings, dumplings, and the word is together; dumplings and dumplings and cross the harmony of the meaning, but also take more years of intercourse The dumplings have the meaning of "getting together" and "turning over the year". In the south, it is customary to eat New Year's cake on New Year's Day, a sweet and sticky cake that symbolizes the sweetness of life in the new year.

To the first rooster crows, or the New Year's bells ringing, the street firecrackers, loud and clear, the family is full of joy, the new year began, men and women, young and old, dressed in festive attire, the first to the elders of the family New Year's Eve wishes, the festival there are to the children of the New Year's Eve money to eat New Year's Eve dinner, the second and third began to go to relatives to see their friends and to pay tribute to each other, congratulations on the blessing, say some Congratulations to the new happy, Congratulations on the new year, congratulations, congratulations, good New Year and other words, ancestor worship and other activities.

The warm atmosphere of the festival is not only overflowing in every household, but also full of streets and alleys, some places on the market there are lions, dragon lanterns, fireworks, swim in the flower market, temple and other customs. During this period of lanterns all over the city, the streets are full of tourists, lively, unprecedented, straight to the first month of the 15th Lantern Festival, the Spring Festival is really the end.

The Spring Festival is the most important festival of the Han Chinese people, but the Manchu, Mongolia, Yao, Zhuang, white, mountain, Hezhe, Hani, Daur, Dong, Li and a dozen other ethnic minorities also have the custom of the Spring Festival, but the form of the festival is more of their own national characteristics, more flavorful.

The origin of the Spring Festival and the legend

The Spring Festival and the concept of the year, the original meaning from the agricultural, the people of ancient times the growth cycle of the grain known as the "year", "Shuowen. Wo part": "year, the grain is also ripe:. In the Xia and Shang dynasties produced the summer calendar, the cycle of the moon for the month, a year divided into twelve months, each month to not see the moon for the day for the first day of the first month of the first day of the month of the son of the time known as the first of the year, that is, the beginning of the year, also known as the year, the name of the year is from the Zhou Dynasty, to the Western Han Dynasty to formally fixed, and has been continued to the present day. But the first day of the first month in ancient times was known as "New Year's Day", until China's modern Xinhai Revolution victory, the Nanjing Provisional Government in order to comply with the farming season and facilitate statistics, the provisions of the summer calendar in the civilian population, in the government agencies, factories, mines, schools and organizations in the implementation of the Gregorian calendar to the Gregorian calendar for the first day of the first month of New Year's Day, the first day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, known as the Spring Festival.

September 27, 1949, the new China was founded, in the first plenary session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, adopted the use of the world's common calendar calendar, the first day of the first month of the Gregorian calendar as New Year's Day, commonly known as the solar year; the first day of the first month of the Lunar Calendar is usually in the spring before and after the start of the first lunar month, and thus the first day of the first month of the Lunar Calendar is designated as "Spring Festival ", commonly known as the year of the lunar calendar.

Traditionally, the Spring Festival refers to the period from the Lunar New Year festival on the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, or the Zaos Festival on the twenty-third day of the Lunar New Year, until the fifteenth day of the first month of the Lunar New Year, which culminates in New Year's Eve and the first day of the first month of the lunar year. In the Spring Festival this traditional festival period, China's Han Chinese and most ethnic minorities have to hold a variety of celebrations, most of these activities to worship God and Buddha, ancestors, in addition to the old and the new, welcome Jubilee to receive the blessing, pray for a good year as the main content. Activities in the form of colorful, with a strong ethnic characteristics.

One of the legends of the Spring Festival: the year of the year

The year of the year, that is, in the last night of the old year, do not sleep, stay up to meet the arrival of the new year's custom, also known as the New Year's Eve year-observation, commonly known as the "year of the year". Explore the origins of this custom, in folklore is an interesting story:

The ancient times, there is a ferocious beast, scattered in the mountains and dense forests, people called them "year". It is hideous, ferocious nature, specializing in eating birds and beasts, scales and insects, a day to change a flavor, from knocking insects have been eaten to the living, so that people talk about the "year" color change. Later, people slowly mastered the "year" of the law of activities, it is every three hundred and sixty-five days scurrying to the crowd of places to taste a mouthful of food, and the time of the infestation are in the dark, and so on, until the rooster breaks dawn, they will return to the mountains and forests to go.

Calculating the date of the "New Year" rampage, the people will be this terrible night as a pass to brake, called "New Year's Pass", and came up with a whole set of New Year's Pass approach: every night, every family is ahead of time to do a good job of dinner, extinguish the fire! Net stove, and then all the chicken coop cattle pen tethered to the front and back doors of the mansion are sealed, hiding in the house to eat "New Year's Eve dinner", because this dinner has the meaning of bad luck and uncertainty, so organized very sumptuous, in addition to the whole family to eat together to express the harmony and reunion, but also have to be in the meal before the sacrifice to the ancestors, praying for the blessing of the gods of the ancestors, and the gods of the ancestors, and the gods of the ancestors. Peacefully through the night, after dinner, who do not dare to sleep, sitting together in a crowded chatting courage. Gradually formed the habit of New Year's Eve to stay up and keep the New Year's Eve.

The custom of keeping the New Year's Eve rose in the North and South Dynasties, and many literati in the Liang Dynasty had poems about keeping the New Year's Eve. "One night is even a double year, and the fifth night is divided into two years." People light up candles or oil lamps and keep vigil all night, symbolizing that all evil plagues

diseases are driven away, looking forward to an auspicious new year. This custom has been passed down to this day.

The Spring Festival legend of the second: Wannian created the calendar said

Legend, in ancient times, there is a young man named Wannian, to see that the festival was very chaotic, there is a desire to set the festival of the intention. But bitterly unable to find a way to calculate the time, one day, he went up the mountain chopping wood tired, sitting under the shade of a tree to rest, the movement of the shadow of the tree inspired him, he designed a sundial measuring the shadow of the sun counting the time of the day, determine the time of the day, and later, the dripping springs on the cliffs inspired him, he made a five-tiered funnel pot, to calculate the time. Over time, he realized that every 360 days or so, the seasons rotated and the length of the day was repeated.

The king of the country at that time, named Zu Yi, was also often distressed by the unpredictability of the weather and wind. When Wannian learned of this, he took a sundial and a funnel pot to the emperor and explained to Zuyi the reasoning behind the operation of the sun and the moon. Zu Yi listened to the dragon's face, felt reasonable. So left Wannian, in front of the Temple of Heaven to build the Sun and Moon Pavilion, built the sundial and funnel kiosk. And he hoped to measure the laws of the sun and the moon, to project the exact time of morning and evening, to create the calendar, and to benefit the people of the world.

On one occasion, Zu Yi went to learn about the progress of the Ten Thousand Years Test Calendar. When he ascended to the Altar of the Sun and the Moon, he saw a poem engraved on the stone wall beside the Temple of Heaven:

Sunrise and sunset are three hundred and six, and the weeks begin at the beginning.

The grass and trees wither and prosper in four seasons, and there are twelve rounds in a year.

Knowing that Wannian's creation of the calendar had come to fruition, he personally ascended to the Sun and Moon Pavilion to see Wannian. Wannian pointed to the sky and said to Zuyi: "It is now the twelve full months, the old year is over, the new spring begins again, pray for the king of the country to set a festival". Zu Yi said, "Spring is the first day of the year, let's call it Spring Festival". This is said to be the origin of the Spring Festival.

Winter to spring, year after year, Wannian after a long period of observation, careful projection, developed an accurate solar calendar, when he presented the solar calendar to the succeeding king, already full of silver beard. The king of the country was y touched, in order to commemorate the achievements of Wan Nian, the solar calendar named "Wan Nian Calendar", Wan Nian as the sun and moon life star. Later on, people put up a picture of the star of longevity on New Year's Day, which was said to be in honor of the highly respected Wannian.

The Third Legend of the Spring Festival: Posting Spring Festival Couplets and Door Gods

The custom of posting Spring Festival Couplets is said to have begun about a thousand years ago in the period of the Later Shu, which is supported by history. In addition, according to the Jade Candle Canon and the Yanjing Yearly Record, the original form of the Spring Festival couplets was what was known as the "Peach Symbol".

In ancient Chinese mythology, there was a world of ghosts, in which there was a mountain with a big peach tree covering 3,000 miles, and on the top of the tree there was a golden chicken. Whenever the golden rooster crowed in the morning, the ghosts that had gone out to roam at night would be rushed back to the ghostly realm. The gate of the Ghost Realm was situated in the northeast of the peach tree, and by the gate stood two godmen named Shentan and Yubi. If a ghost did something harmful at night, the gods would immediately find it, catch it, tie it up with a rope made of mango reeds, and feed it to the tiger. Therefore, all the ghosts in the world were afraid of Shentian and Yubi. So the folk used peach wood to carve into their likeness and put it in front of their house to avoid evil and prevent harm. Later, people simply carve the name of God Tantui and Yubi on the mahogany board, thinking that this can also suppress the evil to go to the evil. This kind of peach wood board was later called "peach talisman".

To the Song Dynasty, people began to write couplets on the mahogany board, without losing the significance of the mahogany to suppress evil, the second is to express their good wishes, the third is to decorate the portal, in order to beautiful. And in the red paper symbolizing the joy and auspiciousness of writing couplets, the New Year on both sides of the doors and windows, to express people's prayers for good luck in the coming year.

In order to pray for a family's well-being, people in some places still retain the habit of sticking door gods. It is said that when two door gods are posted on the front door, all demons and ghosts will be afraid. In folklore, the door god is a symbol of righteousness and force, the ancients believe that people with strange looks often have magical endowments and extraordinary skills. They are upright and kind-hearted, to catch ghosts and demons is their nature and responsibility, people look up to the ghost hunter Zhong Kui, that is, this kind of strange looks. So the folk god of the door is always angry eyes, grim-looking, holding a variety of traditional weapons, ready to fight with the ghosts and demons that dare to come to the door. Since the doors of our houses are usually two doors open to each other, the door gods are always in pairs.

After the Tang Dynasty, in addition to the previous two generals Shentian and Yubi, people also took Qin Shubao and Yuchigong, two Tang Dynasty military generals, as door gods. Legend has it that when Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty was sick, he heard the ghosts and demons outside his door calling out and had no peace all night. So he asked these two generals to stand beside the door with weapons to guard it, and the next night there were no more ghosts to disturb him. Later, Emperor Tang Taizong had the two generals' images painted and pasted on the door, and this custom began to be widely spread among the people.

Customs of the Spring Festival

The Spring Festival is an ancient festival in China, but also one of the most important festivals of the year, how to celebrate this festival, in the development of thousands of years of history, the formation of a number of more fixed customs, many of which are still handed down to this day.

Sweeping

"Lunar New Year's Eve, dust sweeping the house"

According to "Lv's Spring and Autumn Annals", China in the Yao and Shun era, there is a Spring Festival dust sweeping custom. According to folklore: because the "dust" and "Chen" consonant, dust sweeping in the New Year has "in addition to the meaning of Chen Bu Xin", the intention is to all poor luck, bad luck all swept out the door. This custom is the desire of the people to break the old, and the prayer of the old and welcome the new.

Whenever the Spring Festival is approaching, every household has to clean the environment, wash all kinds of appliances, dismantle and wash the bedding curtains, sprinkle the six village courtyard, dusting the dust and cobwebs, dredge the dark ditches and nullahs. Everywhere overflowing with joyful health, clean and welcome the new year's happy atmosphere.

Spring Festival couplets

Spring Festival couplets, also known as door-to-door, spring stickers, couplets, couplets, peach symbols, etc., it is neat, couplets, concise, sophisticated text depicting the background of the times, expressing the best wishes, is China's unique form of literature. Every Spring Festival, whether urban or rural, every family has to select a large red spring couplets posted on the door, for the festival to increase the festive atmosphere. This custom began in the Song Dynasty, began to prevail in the Ming Dynasty, to the Qing Dynasty, the Spring Festival couplets of ideology and artistry have been greatly improved, Liang Zhangzhu prepared the Spring Festival couplets monograph "Threshold Lian series of words" on the origins of the couplets and various types of works of the characteristics of the discourse.

There are many types of spring couplets, which, according to their place of use, can be divided into door centers, frame pairs, horizontal phi, spring strips, and doufang. "Door" in the upper center of the door panel; "frame" on the left and right door frame; "Phi" on the horizontal wood of the door winks; "Chunzhi "according to different contents, posted in the corresponding place;" bucket catty "also called" door leaf "for the square diamond, more in the furniture, shadow wall.

Pasted window and upside down "Fu" character

In folklore, people also like to put all kinds of paper cuttings on the window - window flowers. Window flowers not only set a festive atmosphere, but also decorative, appreciative and practical in one. Paper cutting in China is a very popular folk art, for thousands of years by the people's favorite, because it is mostly affixed to the window, so it is also known as "window flowers". Window flowers with its unique generalization and exaggeration of the auspicious events, good wishes expressed in the best possible way, will be decorated with festivals red hot and rich.

At the same time as the Spring Festival couplets, some people have to put large and small "Fu" characters on the doors, walls and lintels of their houses. The Spring Festival sticker "Fu" character, is China's folk custom from a long time ago. The character "福" refers to good fortune and good luck, and it expresses people's desire for a happy life and their wish for a better future. In order to more fully reflect this yearning and wishes, some people simply stick the word "Fu" upside down, indicating that "happiness has arrived" and "good fortune has arrived". Folk will also be "Fu" word fine as a variety of patterns, patterns have the star, longevity, carp jump Dragon Gate, the five valleys, the dragon and phoenix, and so on.

New Year's Paintings

The Spring Festival hanging stickers in urban and rural areas is also very common, thick black colorful New Year's Paintings to thousands of families added a lot of prosperity and joy of the festive atmosphere. New Year's paintings are an ancient folk art in China, reflecting the people's simple customs and beliefs, and holding their hopes for the future. New Year's paintings, like spring scrolls, originated as "door gods".

With the rise of woodblock printing, the content of the New Year's paintings has not only limited to monotonous themes such as the God of the Door, has become colorful, in some of the New Year's paintings in the workshop produced the "three stars of fortune, fortune and longevity," "Heavenly Officials Provide Blessings," "five grains and plenty of prosperity," "six animals," "welcome the spring to receive the blessing of" and other classic colorful New Year's paintings, in order to satisfy the people's joyful praying for the New Year's good wishes.

Chinese New Year's Paintings are produced in three important places: Taohuayu in Suzhou, Yangliuqing in Tianjin and Weifang in Shandong; and the three major schools of Chinese New Year's Paintings have been formed, each with its own characteristics.

China's earliest collection of Chinese New Year paintings is the Southern Song Dynasty's woodcut New Year paintings of "With the fairness of the country's face", which depicts four ancient beauties, namely, Wang Zhaojun, Zhao Feiyan, Banji and Lvzhu. The most widely circulated folk painting is the one of "The Mouse Marrying Her Marriage". It depicts an interesting scene of a mouse marrying a bride in accordance with the customs of the earth. In the early years of the Republic of China, Zheng Mantuo of Shanghai combined the lunar calendar and New Year's paintings. This is a new form of New Year's paintings. This combination of two and one of the New Year's paintings, later developed into a wall calendar, and is still popular throughout the country.

Watch the New Year's Eve

Watching the New Year's Eve is one of the most important New Year's activities, and the custom of watching the New Year's Eve has a long history. The earliest record is found in the Western Jin Dynasty Zhou Chu's "Land and Customs": New Year's Eve night, each with the gift, known as "feed the year"; wine and food invited, known as "don't year"; young and old get together to drink, wishing to complete, known as the "share the year"; all night, everyone is the most important activity. "

The first time I saw this is when I was a young man and I had to wait for the day to dawn, so I called it the "New Year's Eve".

"One night even double the year, five nights divided into two days", New Year's Eve, the whole family gathered together, ate the New Year's Eve dinner, light up candles or oil lamps, sitting around the fireplace chatting, waiting for the time to say goodbye to the old and welcome the new, the all-night vigil, symbolizing all the evil plague and epidemic according to the run drive away, looking forward to a new year of good luck. This custom gradually prevailed, to the early Tang Dynasty, Tang Taizong Li Shimin wrote a "year-keeping" poem: "cold resignation from the winter snow, the warmth of the spring wind". Until today, people are still accustomed to the New Year's Eve to welcome the new year.

Anciently, there are two meanings of year-end vigil: the elderly year-end vigil for the "resignation of the old year", there is the meaning of the treasure of time and light; young people year-end vigil is to extend the life of their parents. Since the Han Dynasty, the time of the transition between the old and new year is usually the middle of the night.

Crackers

Chinese folk "open door firecrackers". That is, at the dawn of the new year, the first thing that families do when they open the door is to set off firecrackers, to beep and blare the sound of firecrackers to get rid of the old and welcome the new. Firecrackers is a Chinese specialty, also known as "firecrackers", "cannonballs", "firecrackers". Its origin is very early, so far has a history of more than two thousand years. Firecrackers can create a festive and lively atmosphere, is a kind of festival entertainment, can bring people joy and good luck. With the passage of time, the application of firecrackers is more and more widely used, varieties and colors are also increasingly numerous, every major festival and joyous celebration, and marriage, building, opening, etc., are to set off firecrackers in order to show the celebration, figure a good luck. Now, Hunan Liuyang, Guangdong Foshan and Dongyao, Jiangxi Yichun and Pingxiang, Wenzhou, Zhejiang and other areas is China's famous hometown of firecrackers, the production of firecrackers colorful, high-quality, not only sells well across the country, but also exported to the world.

Welcome to the New Year

On the first day of the New Year, people get up early, put on the most beautiful clothes, dressed neatly, go out to visit friends and relatives, pay respect to each other, wishing good luck in the coming year. Worship a variety of ways, some of them are the same clan leader led a number of people to go door to door to pay tribute to the New Year; there are colleagues invited a few people to pay tribute to the New Year; there are also get together to congratulate each other, known as the "group worship". Because of the time-consuming and labor-intensive door-to-door New Year's greetings, some of the upper-class people and the scholarly community used the posters to congratulate each other, which developed into the later "New Year's card".

The Chinese New Year, the late generation should first pay tribute to the elders, wishing the elders a long life and well-being, the elders can be prepared beforehand the New Year's money to the elders, it is said that the New Year's money can be pressed to stop the evil spirits, because the "age" and the "spirit" consonant, the elders get the New Year's money can be a year of peace and security. It is said that New Year's money can keep evil spirits at bay, because "year" and "spirit" sound alike. There are two kinds of New Year's money, one is a colorful rope threaded and braided into the shape of a dragon, placed at the foot of the bed, which is recorded in the "Yanjing Yearly Record"; the other is the most common, that is, wrapped in red paper by the parents of the money given to the children. New Year's money can be rewarded in the evening after the New Year's greetings in public, can also be in the New Year's Eve when the child is asleep, by the parents secretly placed under the child's pillow. Now the elders for the younger generation to send the custom of the new year's money is still prevalent.

Chinese New Year food customs

In the ancient agricultural society, about since the eighth day of the first month of the Lunar New Year, housewives will be busy with the New Year's food. Because it takes a long time to pickle the preserved meat, it must be prepared as early as possible. Many provinces in China have the custom of pickling preserved meat, of which the preserved meat in Guangdong Province is the most famous.

Steaming rice cakes has become a must-have for almost every family because of its resonance with the word "nian gao" and its varied flavors. There are square-shaped yellow and white rice cakes, symbolizing gold and silver, which are meant to bring wealth in the New Year.

The flavor of rice cakes varies from place to place. Beijingers like red date rice cake, white rice cake and white rice cake made of river rice or yellow rice. Hebei people like to add jujubes, small red beans and mung beans to the rice cakes and steam them together. Northwestern Shanxi in Inner Mongolia and other places, New Year's Eve used to eat yellow rice flour fried rice cakes, some also wrapped with bean paste, date paste and other fillings, Shandong people use yellow rice, red dates steamed rice cakes. Northern rice cakes are mainly sweet, or steamed or fried, some people simply dip sugar to eat. In the south, rice cakes are both sweet and salty, such as those in Suzhou and Ningbo, which are made of round-grained rice and have a light flavor. In addition to steaming and deep-frying, they can also be sliced and stir-fried or boiled in soup. Sweet rice cakes are made from glutinous rice flour with sugar, lard, roses, osmanthus, mint and veggie paste, and are so well made that they can be steamed or dipped in egg white and deep-fried.

The night before the real New Year is called the Night of Reunion, when people who are away from home have to travel thousands of miles to come back home, and the whole family has to sit together to make dumplings for the New Year. The dumpling method is to make dumpling skin with flour, and then use the skin to wrap the filling, which is a variety of contents, including various kinds of meat, eggs, seafood, seasonal vegetables, etc., and can be put into the filling, and the orthodox way of eating dumplings is to boil it with water, and then fish it up to be accompanied by vinegar, garlic, and soy sauce. The orthodox way of eating dumplings is to boil them in water and then dip them in soy sauce flavored with vinegar, garlic, and sesame oil. Dumplings can also be deep-fried and cooked (potstickers). This is because the word "he" (和) means "to merge" (合), and the words "饺子" (饺子) and "交" (交), which mean "to merge" and "to merge" (合), harmonize with each other. The words "合" and "交" have the meaning of getting together, so dumplings are used to symbolize reunion and happiness; they are also taken as the meaning of a new year's handover, which is very auspicious; in addition, dumplings resemble a Yuanbao (元宝), so eating dumplings on New Year's Day carries the auspicious meaning of "inviting wealth and prosperity" (招财進宝). In addition, eating dumplings on New Year's Day also carries the auspicious meaning of "inviting wealth and prosperity". Families get together to make dumplings and talk about the New Year in a happy way.

Introduction of Winter Solstice Festival

Winter Solstice is a very important festival in China's lunar calendar, but also a traditional festival, and there are still many places that have the custom of Winter Solstice Festival. The winter solstice is commonly known as the "winter festival", "long solstice festival", "YaYu", etc. As early as two and a half thousand years ago, the winter solstice is a very important festival in China's lunar calendar. As early as two thousand five hundred years ago in the Spring and Autumn Period, our country has used the earth to observe the sun to determine the winter solstice, it is the twenty-four solar terms in the earliest development of a. The time in December of each year, the solar calendar. The time is between December 22nd or 23rd on the solar calendar every year.

The winter solstice is the day with the shortest day and the longest night in the northern hemisphere throughout the year, and after the winter solstice, the day will get longer day by day. Ancient people on the winter solstice is: the Yin pole of the arrival, Yang Qi began to grow, the day south to the shortest day to the longest shadow of the sun, so it is said "winter solstice". After the winter solstice, the climate around the world have entered one of the coldest stage, which is often referred to as "into the nine", China's folk "cold in the three nine, hot in three volts," said.

Modern astronomical science, the winter solstice, the sun shoots directly at the Tropic of Capricorn, sunlight on the northern hemisphere is the most tilted, the northern hemisphere, the shortest day, the longest night, after this day, the sun and gradually move north.

In our country in ancient times on the winter solstice is very important, the winter solstice is treated as a large festival, there was a "winter solstice is as big as the year," said, and there are customs to celebrate the winter solstice. The book of han said: "winter solstice yang qi up, jun dao long, so congratulations." People think: after the winter solstice, the day is longer than one day, Yang Qi rise, is the beginning of a cycle of festivals, is also an auspicious day, should be celebrated. The Book of Jin" on the record "Wei Jin winter solstice day by all the countries and bureaucrats to congratulate ...... its instrument subdivided into the first day." This shows the importance of the winter solstice in ancient times.

Now, some places still take the winter solstice as a festival. Northern regions have the custom of slaughtering sheep, eating dumplings and wontons on the winter solstice, while southern regions have the habit of eating winter solstice rice balls and winter solstice long thread noodles on this day. Various regions also have the custom of offering sacrifices to the sky and ancestors on the day of the winter solstice.

The origin of the winter solstice festival and legend

The winter solstice festival originated in the Han Dynasty, flourished in the Tang and Song dynasties, and continues to this day. The "Qing Jia Lu" even has "winter solstice is as big as the year" said. This shows that the ancients attached great importance to the winter solstice. People believe that the winter solstice is the natural transformation of yin and yang, is a blessing from heaven. The Han Dynasty to the winter solstice for the "Winter Festival", the government should be held to congratulate the ceremony known as "He winter", routine vacation. After the Han Book" has this record: "before and after the winter solstice, the gentleman to be quiet and quiet body, all the government officials, do not listen to politics, choose the auspicious moment and then save." So this day the court up and down to take a holiday, the army on standby, the border closed, business, friends and relatives with food gifts, visit each other, happy to have a "quiet body" holiday.

Tang, Song period, the winter solstice is the day of sacrifice to the ancestors, the emperor on this day to the outskirts of the ceremony held in heaven, the people on this day to the parents of the elders of worship, and now there are still some places in the winter solstice this day to celebrate the festival.

One of the winter solstice legends

In the past, the old Beijing had "winter solstice wontons summer solstice noodles". According to legend, during the Han Dynasty, the Huns in the north often harassed the border, and the people had no peace. At that time, there were two leaders of the Hun tribe, the Huns and the Tuns, who were very cruel. The people hated them so much that they wrapped them into horns with meat and took the sound of "Hun" and "Tun" and called them "Hundun". Hate to eat, and seek to quell the war, can live in peace. Because the first made of wontons is in the winter solstice this day, in the winter solstice this day every family to eat wontons.

Eating "pinch frozen ears" is the winter solstice in Henan people eat dumplings commonly known. The reason for this custom? According to legend, Nanyang medical saint Zhang Zhongjing had been an official in Changsha, he returned home when he sued for his old age in the snowy winter, the cold winds piercing the bones. He saw the villagers on both sides of the White River in Nanyang clothes, there are a lot of people's ears were frozen rotten, the heart is very sad, and asked his disciples in Nanyang Guandong set up a medical hut, with mutton, chili peppers and some cold-expelling medicinal herbs placed in a pot to cook, fish out and chopped up, wrapped in dough to look like an ear, and then put down in the pot to cook and make a kind of medicine called "Cold-expelling Ear Soup and then put down the pot to cook, making a kind of medicine called "Cold-expelling and Ear-correcting Soup" for the people to eat. After serving, the folks' ears were cured. Later, every winter solstice people will imitate to do to eat, so the formation of "pinch frozen ears" this custom. Later, people called it "dumplings", and some called it "flat food" and "hot noodle dumplings", and people also have legends of eating winter solstice dumplings do not freeze.

Winter Solstice Legend No. 2

The custom of eating dog meat on the winter solstice is said to have begun in the Han Dynasty. According to legend, Liu Bang, the founder of the Han Dynasty, ate dog meat cooked by Fan Kuai on the winter solstice and found the flavor particularly delicious and praised it. Since then, the custom of eating dog meat on the winter solstice has been formed in folklore. Nowadays, people have to eat dog meat, mutton and all kinds of nourishing food on the winter solstice, in order to have a good omen in the coming year.

Winter Solstice Legends of the third

In the Jiangnan water towns, there is the winter solstice night the whole family gathered **** eat red beans and glutinous rice custom. According to legend, there is a man called **** Gong's, his son is not talented, evil, died on the winter solstice this day, after death into an epidemic ghost, continue to brutalize the people. However, this epidemic ghost is most afraid of azuki beans, so people cooked and ate azuki bean rice on the day of the winter solstice to drive away the epidemic ghost,

Customs of Winter Solstice

The winter solstice has been developed over thousands of years, and has formed a unique seasonal food culture. Such as wontons, dumplings, dumplings, red bean congee, corn cakes, etc. can be used as food for the festival. There were more popular "winter solstice feast" also has a lot of names, such as eating winter solstice meat, offer winter solstice plate, for winter solstice group, wonton winter worship.

The more common custom of eating wontons on the winter solstice. As early as the Southern Song Dynasty, Lin'an people ate wontons on the winter solstice, began to worship ancestors, and then gradually spread, folk "winter solstice wontons summer solstice noodles," said. Hundun development so far, more become a variety of names, production of different, fresh and tasty, all over the country, loved by the people of the famous snacks. Wonton name a lot of places such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang and most of the places called wontons, while Guangdong is said to be wonton, Hubei, said the bag of noodles, Jiangxi, said the soup, Sichuan, said the copious, Xinjiang, said Qu Qu and so on.

Eating dumplings is also a traditional winter solstice custom, especially prevalent in Jiangnan. "Soup dumplings" is the winter solstice necessary food, is a kind of glutinous rice flour made of round dessert, "round" means "reunion", "complete! "Round" means "reunion" and "complete", and eating soup dumplings on the winter solstice is also called "winter solstice dough". Folk have "eaten dumplings a year older" said. Winter Solstice Dumplings can be used to offer sacrifices to ancestors, and can also be used to give gifts to friends and relatives. In the old days, Shanghainese people paid most attention to eating soup dumplings. There is an old poem that says: "Every family pounded rice to make soup dumplings, knowing that it is the winter solstice day of the Ming Dynasty."

There are many places in the north, in the winter solstice this day have eaten dog meat and mutton custom, because the winter solstice after the weather into the coldest period, Chinese medicine that mutton and dog meat have yang tonic body has the effect of the folk so far there is the winter solstice have the custom of tonic.

In our country Taiwan also preserved the winter solstice with nine layers of cake ancestor tradition, with glutinous rice flour pinched chicken, duck, turtle, pig, cow, sheep and other symbols of good luck in the meaning of Fuk Luk Shou animals, and then steamed with a steamer layer steamed to ancestor, to show that we do not forget the old ancestors. The same family name with the clan on the winter solstice or around the agreed upon date, set to the ancestral shrine in accordance with the order of the eldest and youngest, one by one to pay homage to the ancestors, commonly known as "ancestor worship". After the ceremony, a feast is organized to entertain the ancestors. We all drink, and contact each other's feelings after a long period of separation, which is called "eating ancestors."

The winter solstice festival

Ancestors have been passed down from generation to generation in Taiwan as a sign of not forgetting one's "roots".

The winter solstice is a rich festival, and it is rumored that the winter solstice used to be a very lively day in the historical Zhou Dynasty, when it was New Year's Day.

In today's Jiangnan belt still have: eat the winter solstice night rice long a year of saying, commonly known as "add years".