10 Traditional customs of New Year's Eve Festival

The traditional customs of New Year's Eve are 10: On New Year's Eve, lanterns are hung, ancestors are worshipped, lucky money is given, New Year's Eve is celebrated, Spring Festival couplets are posted in stick grilles, home is set off at zero, and firecrackers are set off.

1, New Year's Eve dinner

New Year's Eve is also called reunion dinner. According to Zonggu's records of Jingchu times, there was a custom of eating New Year's Eve dinner at least in the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Because it is winter, northerners often put hot pot in the middle of the table, so it is also called stove.

The dishes of Northern people's New Year's Eve often include jiaozi, fish, rice cakes and long dishes. Because jiaozi looks like a gold ingot, representing wealth; Fish is inexhaustible, because in Chinese, "fish" and "fish" are homophonic, meaning "more than one year". The rice cake has the meaning of "rising year by year"; Eating vegetables for a long time means longevity.

Step 2 hang lanterns

On New Year's Eve, besides putting up Spring Festival couplets, red lanterns are hung. This custom has been rising in China for 1800 years, and it has existed since the Western Han Dynasty. On New Year's Eve, everyone will hang red lanterns and have a happy reunion to create a harmonious and festive atmosphere and look forward to a prosperous new year.

3. ancestor worship

Sacrificing ancestors is the first important event on New Year's Eve. In many parts of our country, on this day, people will put rich meals and lit incense sticks at home, and parents will lead their children to worship. In some rural areas in the north, people burn paper money at home. On New Year's Eve, light candles, pour wine and set dishes in front of ancestors' statues. The whole family held a grand sacrifice ceremony to express their feelings of "pursuing the future with caution". It was not until our ancestors had dinner that people began to enjoy it.

4, lucky money

The ancients were very particular about lucky money. The copper coins used need a lot of money and new money, and then they are made into various shapes with red ropes. Some wear hundreds of copper coins, meaning "longevity"; Others wear auspicious shapes, such as carp, ruyi and dragon, which means "money dragon" and "money surplus" to bring good luck.

Step 5 Step on the annual activities

On New Year's Eve, our people will hold an annual stilt walking activity, that is, sesame stalks are stuck in the courtyard in the shape of gold ingots made of yellow paper rolls and stored in a bundle, which is called a "cornucopia". Then the whole family crushed it with their feet to make "old" and "broken" homophonic, and borrowed the auspicious meaning of sesame blossom to wish the family prosperity and express their wishes and prayers for the new year.

6, shou sui

It is also a long-standing custom to observe the New Year's Eve. As early as the Western Jin Dynasty, there was a clear record in the local customs: "I stayed up all night and stayed in my old age until dawn." According to legend, observing the old age is to prevent a unicorn who is most afraid of fire, red and sound. Therefore, people wear red clothes, light red lights, paste red paper, set off fireworks and firecrackers, burn incense and pray all night, and have the custom of "observing the old age" on New Year's Eve.

7. Post Spring Festival couplets

Spring Festival couplets, also known as "door pairs", "spring stickers", "couplets" and "couplets", belong to a kind of couplets and are a unique literary form. This pair of the world's earliest Spring Festival couplets, "Three Yang began to spread, and four orders began to open", was recorded on the Dunhuang suicide note unearthed in the Tibetan Sutra Cave in Mogao Grottoes, written by Liu in the Tang Dynasty in the eleventh year of Kaiyuan (723). The folk custom of sticking couplets on Spring Festival has been popular since Ming Dynasty, and the birthplace of this trend is Nanjing. Now people in Jiangnan pay attention to posting Spring Festival couplets on the morning of New Year's Eve.

8. stick grilles

In the folk, people also like to stick various paper-cuts on the windows-window grilles. Window grilles not only set off the festive atmosphere, but also integrate decoration, appreciation and practicality. Paper-cutting is a very popular folk art in China, which has been loved by people for thousands of years. Because it is often pasted on the window, it is also called "window grilles". With its unique generalization and exaggeration, window grilles show auspicious things and good wishes incisively and vividly, and decorate festivals with colorful colors.

9, zero must go home

After the reunion dinner is over with laughter, the family will sit around the TV to watch the Spring Festival Gala, or go to relatives' homes to chat, but they must get home before zero. At zero, the whole family should "keep watch" at home. When the hands of the clock pass 12 o'clock, people will set off firecrackers already prepared to celebrate the arrival of the New Year.

10, set off firecrackers

There is a folk saying in China that "open the door and set off firecrackers". That is, when the new year comes, the first thing for every household to open the door is to set off firecrackers to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. Its origin is very early, and it has a history of more than two thousand years. Setting off firecrackers can create a festive and lively atmosphere, which is a kind of entertainment in festivals and can bring happiness and good luck to people.