Traditional Folk Stories of Spring Festival in Hangzhou

Legend: Ancient plague ghosts caused trouble and harmed the world. Although this ghost is fierce, he is most afraid of red beans. The ancestors discovered this weakness, and on this day they dressed up as ghosts with red beans and shouted, "Hey! Hey! " "The villagers played drums and wore hutou, and King Kong Lux drove away the epidemic." (Chronicle of Jingchu Age) was originally used by the people to drive away the plague, and then it gradually became entertaining and developed into a local opera.

Custom: Sacrificing the stove is on the 23rd or 24th of the twelfth lunar month, also called off-year. As for the victim's kitchen god, there have been different opinions. "Taiping Yu Lan" said: "The Yellow Emperor cooked and died as a kitchen god." "Huainan Pan Ziying Xun" said: "Emperor Yan is a fire official and death is a kitchen god." Xu Shen regards Zhu Rong, the son of Zhuan Xu, as the kitchen god in the Five Classics, and so on.

2. Spring Festival:

Legend has it that the ancients originally took beginning of spring as the Spring Festival. Yang Zhenchuan in the Later Han Dynasty said, "There is no snow in winter, no rain in spring, and people are worried." The Spring Festival here is actually the beginning of spring, because most of the traditional festivals in ancient times are related to agriculture. When Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty started the Spring Festival on the first day of the first month. In ancient times, the Spring Festival had many names, such as Yuanri, New Year, Yuanshuo, Zheng Chao, New Year, Xinzheng and so on. Spring Festival is the most festive festival among the traditional festivals in China.

Custom: For example, dishes and food eaten in the New Year should be crowned with auspicious nouns to show happiness. When making tea in the morning, pay attention to putting an olive on the bowl cover, which is for the sake of "gold ingot". Soybean sprouts should be renamed as "Ruyi". When cooking, you should call it "kissing hot" Every meal must have a fish head, but you can only eat it with chopsticks. It is called "leftover head" and "leftovers". The custom in Jiangnan is to prepare a bowl of braised crucian carp on the 30th of the twelfth lunar month and give it symbolically on holidays. It will not be eaten until the seventh day of the first month or the Lantern Festival, which is called "more than one year". Don't turn the fish upside down when eating it, and avoid the danger of capsizing when taking a boat.

Besides these, during the Spring Festival, no unlucky words, no crying, no swearing, no sweeping the floor, no begging for fire, no fetching water or pouring water are allowed. On New Year's Eve, rice has been washed in advance, with a liter for the whole family, a liter for heaven and earth, and a liter for livestock, commonly known as "grain for thousands of years". There is no work, labor, etc.

3. Lantern Festival:

Legend: According to legend, Emperor Wendi of the Han Dynasty (179- 157 BC) celebrated the suppression of Zhu Lu's rebellion on the 15th day of the first month. Every night, he will go out to play and have fun with people. In ancient times, night was the same as night, and the first month was also called January. Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty designated the fifteenth day of the first month as the Lantern Festival, and this night was called Yuanxiao.

Custom: Eating Yuanxiao on the 15th day of the first month is a long-standing custom in China. People eat glutinous rice balls on the Lantern Festival, which actually means missing their loved ones and longing for reunion.

Flower viewing lanterns, in order to promote Buddhism, Emperor Han Ming ordered "burning lanterns to show Buddha" in palaces and temples on the fifteenth night of the first month. Since then, the custom of putting lights on the Lantern Festival has spread from being held only in the court to the people. That is, on the fifteenth day of the first month, both the gentry and the people hang up lights, and the urban and rural areas are brightly lit all night.