Chinese New Year Customs in Anhui or Tongling

The 30th year is the beginning.

New Year's Eve

Clean the house, doors, windows and furniture. After such a clean-up, it seems that every household has moved into a new house.

Buying new year's goods-eating, drinking, having fun and eating well is the most important thing in Chinese New Year. I have to buy vegetables for seven days these days, because there is nothing to sell in the food market from the first day to the seventh day. Rural families should also make their own tofu, kill pigs and steam some pasta.

New Year's Eve in China

In the morning, men hang lanterns and put up Spring Festival couplets at home. Of course, the most important thing is to worship ancestors. Every household should sweep the floor, take out the garbage, pour sewage, burn incense and light candles, set off firecrackers, set up offerings and kowtow to the ancestors. If an old man dies this year, he will go out to the grave to "burn paper money" to send the New Year's Eve dinner, and the Spring Festival couplets at home cannot be posted in red.

Women are immersed in cooking in the kitchen, cooking enough food for three days. Because according to the custom, uncooked rice can't be planted three days before Chinese New Year. Old people should repeatedly tell their children and grandchildren that it is wise to be careful what they say and do during the New Year, otherwise it will be unlucky all year round.

From 2 pm to 4 pm, it is called New Year's Eve, but in fact, most families eat in the afternoon. Housewives set dishes, wine and rice and invite the elderly and elders to eat. There are generally more than twenty dishes on the table, and the number of dishes is even. There should be meatballs and silver carp in the dish (fish can't move chopsticks).

My favorite thing is to set off firecrackers before New Year's Eve. The atmosphere of setting off firecrackers at home is very strong, but the biggest firecrackers must be set off before New Year's Eve. My uncle prepares 30 thousand firecrackers every year, and then hangs them on bamboo poles to light them. Children are most excited at this moment, because on New Year's Eve, besides firecrackers, they will also get lucky money that they have been waiting for a year.

Zero, zero is the time to set off fireworks and firecrackers. Thousands of households set off fireworks and firecrackers at the same time, forming a spectacular scene, and the sky was half red.

After new year's day

On the first day of New Year's Day, the first thing to do when opening the door is to set off the "opening gun" at your own door. Deafening firecrackers herald a prosperous new life in the new year. After the "opening cannon" is released, it is time to pay a New Year call. According to the established order, it is generally to pay New Year greetings to uncles and family elders who are close to home first, then uncles, fathers-in-law, uncles and uncles, and finally friends and neighbors. During the New Year's greetings, every household should prepare tobacco, alcohol, fruit and snacks to entertain guests. However, for people like us who have limited holidays, there will be no New Year greetings.

■ "Past" year

On the seventh day of the People's Day, watch Nuo Opera.

Liu Street, where my grandfather is located, is the most concentrated area of Chizhou Nuo Opera. Nuo opera is usually performed in the ancestral temple on the seventh day of "People's Day". Nuo opera is actually a kind of ritual drama to worship the land or ancestors. In the afternoon, the Nuo Opera team will pass by every house, and we need to set off firecrackers and pick up the Bodhisattva.

For example, before the official performance of "Liu Kao Zhong", there is an umbrella dance as a cushion, which is a dance to worship the gods. I saw a young man wearing a costume and a mask, constantly turning a scarlet umbrella, standing on the rhythm of gongs and drums or squatting or standing.

I happened to meet Wang Zhaoqian, a consultant of China Nuo Opera Research Association. He is over 70 years old. He began to pay attention to the local Nuo opera in Chizhou from 1953, and put the seventh day here every year. He told me that Nuo originated in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, and it was a dance of witches in Shang and Zhou Dynasties. Umbrella dance is the most representative one, which is recorded in ancient books. In Shang and Zhou Dynasties, it was thought that the sky was a cover and the sky was like an umbrella. Umbrella dancing is actually dancing in the sky. I hope God can help people bring good weather.

After the umbrella dance, it is the main performance. All the people are still wearing masks, female or male, more or less, singing the lyrics of making dolls-I can't understand them. Teacher Wang explained that the play is divided into 18 segments, which is now a New Year greeting and the most performed segment during the Spring Festival. It sang Liu Chengming's birthday wishes to his hometown elders.

To tell the truth, I really can't see the beauty of the play, but I was infected by my hometown elders in the ancestral hall. Their faces are full of joy in the New Year and expectations for the coming year. The habit of watching Nuo opera has penetrated into their blood since they were very young and has become an indispensable part of Chinese New Year.

■ "old" year

The ceremony of "seeing Master Jujube off" is easier than before.