Zhaoqing Sihui Customs

Before New Year's Eve, people in Sihui will be busy making preparations for all kinds of New Year's goods: buying chickens, geese, ducks, fish and meat; making new clothes and accessories; buying new furniture and utensils; and purchasing New Year's paintings and spring scrolls. Especially to buy oranges, green olives and other fruits as a symbol of good luck and welcome friends and relatives of the fruit. The old custom before the New Year, men must be new haircut, women must be "pulled face", now more women for hair cut beauty. December 24th of the lunar calendar is the "gods" to the sky "duty" time. From this day onwards, every household is cleaned, and all the objects and tents are cleaned, which is called "hoarding". One or two days before New Year's Eve, families make various kinds of kueh kueh to prepare for the New Year. On New Year's Eve, all family members have to rush back home for a reunion. On New Year's Eve, the whole family gathers around the stove for a reunion dinner. After the meal, adults give "New Year's money" to children and children to their parents' elders. It is the night of the farmhouse tank to be stored full of water, rice tank to be filled with rice, lights can not be extinguished, to symbolize "years and years of surplus", "year after year," the good omen. The New Year's Eve custom is very common. Waiting for the arrival of the New Year, the New Year's bell ringing, families firecrackers. The first day of the first month of the lunar calendar, known as the first day of the new year, the beginning of spring. Day side of the dawn of the sound of happy cannons, families in the hall on the big table, red plate full of Daji (i.e., citrus, citrus is larger than oranges, so it is called Daji), green olives and a variety of fine sweets, the door is decorated with lanterns and lanterns, and the younger generation of the previous generation to the blessing of the tea. On this day, most people will eat vegetarian, at least not meat for breakfast. After breakfast, adults and children with children to take Daji to friends and relatives to pay tribute to the New Year, hosts and guests to each other new positive as expected, congratulations Fazhan Fu Fu and other auspicious words; hosts invited guests to Daji, betel nut (the ancient custom of betel nut, today, with green olives instead of), *** Pinfujing Tea, the guests on the gift of Daji congratulations on the master of the good luck and good fortune, the master to Daji back, commonly known as the turn of the tribute type of exchange for the Ji, intended to return to the good wishes. Early in the morning, a lot of lion dance class and Ying Ge team beat gongs and drums to the village households to pay homage to New Year's greetings, the owner of the firecrackers to welcome. There are also hand shaking leaves (commonly known as the money tree) or hand-held book with "fortune" and other auspicious sentences small red paper pasted on people's doors; or blowing suona, knocking the bamboo board, singing songs, do the four sentences, say auspicious words from house to house to congratulate the New Year, are to take advantage of to beg for some reward money. The second and third day of the countryside pueblo more than organized to celebrate the Lunar New Year cultural and recreational activities, in addition to set up a tent performances Teochew opera, mountain opera, do shadow play, there are large drum and gong team, tiger and lion team, Ying song team, dragon dance team, such as parade along the streets of villages and villages to perform. Nowadays, there are also movies, ball games, calligraphy and painting exhibitions, riddles and so on. During the day and at night, people travel in groups to enjoy the festival, which creates a lively and joyful atmosphere to welcome the Spring Festival. The New Year's Eve is approaching after the houses of families have been dressed up and made new. Housewives are busy preparing the most sumptuous and meaningful New Year's Eve dinner of the year. As the name suggests, the New Year's Eve dinner is a time for families to get together and eat together without forgetting their deceased ancestors. Therefore, after a family has prepared the New Year's Eve dinner, the first thing they must do is to "pay homage to their husbands" (offer sacrifices to their ancestors). When making offerings to the ancestors, the incense burner representing the ancestors should be brought down from the shrine and placed on the offering table, then incense should be burned and prayers should be made to invite the ancestors to have their meal. Then the eldest and the youngest kneel in order, which fully demonstrates the traditional virtue of the Sihui people to be prudent and filial first. After the festival, the meal used for ancestor worship is reheated, a big table is set up in the hall, and the family gathers around the Jian, which is a wonderful moment of reunion for every family. No matter how far apart the family is or how many problems they have, this is the time to laugh and be happy, not to talk about sadness or quarrel. After dinner, the housewife is busy cleaning up the dinner table, so a big cleaning activity will begin. This cleaning was not very elaborate, but was purely for the sake of cleanliness, unlike the one at the end of the year, when the grass had to be swept and scrubbed with pine boughs. Then the fire was built and the preparation of the offerings for tomorrow's sacrifice, the fasting food, began. There are many kinds of fasting food, some taro, some sweet potato, some are made of dates, some are made of peanuts, taro and sweet potato together. All the ingredients for making the fasting dishes should be prepared in the afternoon and allowed to dry. To deep-fry the dishes, put an iron pot on the stove when the fire is ready and fill it with a large amount of peanut oil. When the oil boils, the ingredients are mixed with a batter and put into the pot, and it squeaks and bubbles in the frying pan. When it is cooked, it is yellow, fragrant and very attractive. At this time, if there are guests at home, the hostess will offer a plate of freshly fried vegetables, and then make fragrant work tea, so that you can taste the deliciousness of the famous Sihui snacks. Sending New Year's Money Sending New Year's money is an important part of the Spring Festival custom in Sihui, where the elders have to give money to their offspring, and those who can earn money have to send money to their elders. The money can not be sent straight, but to be very carefully packaged in a package, or with a piece of red paper wrapped look. This is commonly known as "pressure belly waist", meaning that the year from beginning to end, the waist bag will be full of solid, rich. Particularly interesting is that the child before going to bed, parents will be a large-denomination banknotes in the child's belly pocket, wake up after the banknotes will be retrieved. New Year's Eve, send big orange New Year's Eve, also known as "worship". Early on the first morning, people get up and put on new clothes, the first thing is to worship their own family, often the first generation to bless the elders, and then the elders and then give the elders to the expectations of the future generations. After breakfast, each to their own friends and relatives to pay tribute to the New Year.