New Year's Eve, are there any differences in customs across the region?

On New Year's Eve in Hong Kong, families come together for a reunion dinner. The names of most of the dishes at the reunion dinner contain auspicious meanings. After the reunion dinner, people usually go to the Lunar New Year's Eve market to visit the flower market. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, people start to celebrate the New Year formally by putting up spring scrolls, New Year paintings, dragon dances, lion dances, etc., as well as going to friends and relatives to pay respect to the New Year. Macao's New Year's customs have a distinctive flavor. One of the most traditional Chinese New Year customs preserved in Macau is the "thanking of the stove". On the 23rd day of the Lunar New Year, the god of Zao is sent to Macau, which is called "thanking Zao". The New Year's Eve celebration begins on the 28th day of the Lunar New Year. On New Year's Eve, the New Year's Eve vigil and the flower market are the two major events for Macanese to celebrate the old and welcome the new. The New Year's Eve celebration involves playing mahjong, watching TV and chatting about old times. Macau organizes a flower market during the Lunar New Year's Eve, with peach blossoms, daffodils, potted bamboos and potted oranges, which are a sign of good prospects for the New Year. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, Macao people pay attention to the "Lai Si" to indicate good luck. "Lai Si" means red packets, which are given to bosses when they meet their employees, to elders when they meet their juniors, and even to married people when they meet their unmarried ones. Macao people call the second day of the Lunar New Year "New Year", to eat "New Year" meal, must be hairy vegetables, lettuce, carp, intended to take its wealth and road. Beijing, Lunar New Year's Day, a lot of things at home Since entering the month of Lunar New Year, there are literati writing under the eaves of the marketplace Spring Festival couplets, in order to earn some silver for the New Year. After the festival, the new spring scrolls are gradually glued and hung in thousands of homes, giving them a new look. Some people with Zhu paper, some with red paper, only the inner court and the royal family princes and so on, as a rule, with white paper, inlaid with red and blue edges, not the clan shall not be unauthorized use. In the waxing moon will be bundled up in a belly in a small apparatus, placed in the ground five feet or so, burning fire, so that the ground is slightly warm, plum blossoms on the gradual release of white, with a paper cage, to the market to sell, small peach, Yu Li, Yingchun can be so. In the prosperous areas, they set up mats and scaffolds to sell paintings. Women and children compete to buy, for fun. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, the street sells congee and fruit lined up in the market. More walnuts, persimmons, dates, chestnuts, dried lingzhi rice people, shoulder basket storage, called and sold. Next, there were fat pheasants, Guandong fish, wild cats, wild rasps, preserved meat, iron bird, deep-fried noodle cake, big Buddha flower, doo light thousand sheets, and floor zhuangyuanbao. After the 10th day of the lunar month, they sell guard paintings, door gods, hanging money, gold and silver foils, ingot and yellow money, pin gold inverted you, horse burnt paper, glass mirrors, and window eyes. After the 20th, they sell sugar melons, sugar cakes, glutinous rice and bamboo cakes, Guandong sugar. Bad grass copied beans, is the 23rd to send the stove when the supply of the gods and horses. There are also selling kilns, copper and silver for porcelain bowls, the capital of the incense burner candlestick; smothered gourd, children to save money; support pots and pans, the stove used to help Cuan. To the 25th after the sale of sesame straw, pine and cypress branches, South Cangzhu for the "simmering age" of the use. Lunar month, the price of all things are more expensive than the weekdays, so there is a "Lunar month, soil and water is expensive three proverb. Elderly people at this time, always want to advise the younger generation to spend money carefully, so there is "twenty-seven or eighty-eight, flat to take the product grasp" of the proverb. The eighth day of the waxing moon for the royal family waxing, family cooking fruit porridge. The day before the good rice and beans, to the fruit carved into figures like life style. Three more congee into, the whole family get together to eat, feed relatives and neighbors, for Laha congee. Laha congee is made of yellow rice, white rice, river rice, millet, lingzhi rice, chestnuts, red cowpeas, peeled jujube puree, etc., boiled in water, and dyed red peach kernels, almonds, melon seeds, peanuts, hazelnut stalks, pine nuts and sugar, red ponds, Zuo Zuo grapes, for coloring. Do not use lotus seeds, lentils, Job's tears, hanging Yuan, with the flavor is hurt. Every seven days to wax, it is stripped of the fruit to wash the vessel, the night operation, to dawn when the porridge is cooked. In addition to ancestor for Buddha, feed friends and relatives, not after noon. And with red dates, walnuts, etc. made of lions, children, etc., to see the ingenuity. Lahai Royal River up ice cellar, through the river water storage kiln, Taiyi pond up ice storage snow pool ice kiln, open the door to transport, summer out of the very easy to use. On the twenty-third day of the end of the day, the family worship stove, yard pole, hanging lanterns. Offerings are soup and stove rice, sugar melons and sugar cakes, feeding the gods and horses to incense lees fried beans and water pots. The men worship the gods and wish them good luck. The women would clean the stoves in their inner rooms, paint them with clean mud, and burn incense to worship in silence. Every December, on the 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd within four days, by the Chintian Supervisor to choose an auspicious date, the usual seal, issued by the world, all the implementation of public holidays. Thereafter, the pear orchard theater to choose a day to close the stage, eight classes perform together, to the next New Year's Day is blessed to open the theater. School children, in the "seal" after the schoolteacher also let the vacation, called "school year". Twenty-five days to New Year's Eve is said to be "chaotic day". "On the 27th, you wash away your guilt, and on the 28th, you wash away your dirt." At the end of the year, the leftover medicines of the year were discarded outside the door, and the collected prescriptions were put together and burned, which was called "Throwing away a hundred diseases". Burning pine branches, cypress leaves, southern Cangzhu, and auspicious dan in the furnace is called "simmering the year". The day before New Year's Eve is called "Little New Year's Eve", when families set up banquets and people visit each other, which is called "Farewell to the Year". The day before New Year's Eve is called "Small New Year's Eve," and the day before that is called "Bie New Year's Eve." Families make wine and feasts, and people visit each other for three days. New Year's Eve a lot of old reasoning New Year's Eve, people python robes and coats out to visit friends and relatives, called the "farewell". Family members bow to their elders, also called: "farewell". Newly married couples must go to the father-in-law's home to say goodbye, otherwise it is disrespectful. New Year's Eve from the family court to the door, all walking outside to sprinkle sesame straw, which is called "step on the year". New Year's Eve, the night son of the first turn, outside the door of the torch, firecrackers competing. Shoulder moped clusters, car and horse clattering. Hundred officials to the court, congratulations on New Year's Day. At this time, the sound of firecrackers like waves of thunder, spread throughout the countryside, all night long. More mixed with the sound of rattlesnake drums, selling melon seeds to relieve boredom sound, selling rice and white wine ice marigold sound, selling cinnamon head oil shaking call the sound of the lady, sell the fine powder sound, and the sound of the firecrackers, and the up and down, it is really good to hear. "Tumin home, new clothes, Su belt, worship God and ancestor; burning germanium and silk, Mashuang family reunion, offering pepper plate, pouring cypress wine, whole steamed cake, sip powdered soup. Going out to welcome the joy, to participate in the medicine window, visit the shadow window, with the invitation to congratulate the festival." If you meet friends or relatives on the road, you will salute them, and then wish them, "Happy New Year." "As for the entertainment, the openwork will be fruit for tea, ten brocade hotpot **** food, soup is goose oil square patch, pork buns, Jiangmi cake, yellow millet; wine and food is cured chicken bacon, bad heron phoenix fish, pheasant claws, deer and rabbit preserved; fruits are pine, hazelnut and lotus Qing, peach, apricot and melon kernel, chestnut and jujube branch round, hawthorn cake Gengcai, green branch grapes, white son of pomegranate, qiu bo pear, apples and fruits, lion citrus phoenix tangerine, orange slices of Yangmei. They are also mixed with sea and mountain treasures, and the family is confused with the market points. Even if you are not a close friend, you must offer three cups of festival wine. If you forget your feelings, why don't you get drunk!" As the saying goes, "When you're at a new festival, it's better to go to a thousand homes than to sit at one. And the four horse clamor, happy all day, really can be said to be the very moment of victory. Tianjin Lapa'er: Tianjin people call the eighth day of the Lunar New Year "Lapa'er" and have the custom of drinking Lapa congee. Many people in Tianjin also soak garlic in vinegar on this day, which is called "Lapacho Vinegar". Laha vinegar" not only taste mellow, and not bad for a long time. Stroll Niangniang Palace: the fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year's Eve began, all kinds of New Year's goods are on the market, to the Niangniang Palace as the axis of the Palace of the Palace of the North Street is bustling. Boys to the Niangniang Palace, the first goal is the wind gourd, adult men to this place, can not forget to buy lanterns, women come here is mostly "wash dolls. From the Niangniang Palace tethered back to the "doll" every year to "wash a round", which is the festival before the women must do things. Sugar Melon Sacrifice: On the 23rd day of the Lunar New Year, which is the day of the ascension of Zaowang to heaven, families buy sugar melons and wait until 12 o'clock at night to sacrifice to Zaowang. After the incense is burned out, the Zaowang statue is invited to light a fire and burn it, and then buy a new Zaowang statue on New Year's Eve, which is also called "Zaowang Yazi" to replace it, year after year, and so on. Hanging money: Hanging money is cut and carved with colored paper patterns, pasted on the windows and doors of the glass and horizontal prongs, as the Spring Festival festive atmosphere of the embellishment. The money can only be damaged on the fifth day of the first month of the year, otherwise it means a year of bad luck. "Broken Five": Tianjin people call the fifth day of the first month "Broken Five". On this day, families eat dumplings, chopping boards to chop ding dong loud, so that the neighbors hear, to show that they are chopping "small people. Tianjin people attribute bad things to the "little man" body, get rid of the "little man" in order to be lucky, smooth, the fifth night firecrackers, but also to avoid the meaning of evil and disaster. Hubei Hubei Tuanfeng people drink chicken soup for the first meal of the Spring Festival, symbolizing the "Qingtai peace". Among them, the main laborers also eat chicken claws, meaning "New Year's catching money", "hopeful students" to eat chicken wings, meaning that they can spread their wings and fly, when the family ate chicken bones, "outstanding" meaning. Zigui people ate the first meal of the sleeve fried artemisia, take its harmonic "hundred good" for good luck. Jingzhou, Shashi area, the first meal to eat eggs, meaning "real, good luck". In case of guests, to eat two boiled very tender, can see through the egg white yolk of the "poached egg", meaning "silver wrapped in gold, gold wrapped in silver, gold and silver". Wuchang to the fourth day of the first month for the "new son-in-law congratulations", the new son-in-law back to the in-laws, must put up with the in-laws teasing and not angry. Huangpi New Year's order for "the first worship home, the second maternal uncle, the third back to the in-laws". Family members who are in mourning, must be written in a basket paper service word posted at the door, thank you for the New Year's greetings. Xiaogan Xiaogan is located in the Jianghan Plain, but the festival customs and most areas of northeastern Hubei are basically the same, but also unique interesting. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, people first worship heaven and earth, family gods and elders, and then go out to pay homage to the New Year. Worship is not ask the affinity, known as "worship no size". When a New Year's visitor arrives at home, he or she is sure to stay for a long time and is treated with mochi. As the saying goes, "If you pay homage to the New Year, the mochi will be cracked." The New Year's Day is usually celebrated until the third and fourth days of the lunar calendar. People here also have the custom of judging the production of the New Year by the cries of the birds they hear on the first day of the year. Five birds first call is appropriate for ducks; magpies first song is appropriate for chickens; dawn sparrow noise is a good year; people also believe that the first day of the dog barking is not a good omen. New Year's Eve at 12 o'clock, each family should be a good model of the gold dollar to the door, on behalf of the new year will attract wealth into the treasure on the first day of the first two days of the New Year, people do not sweep the ground, do not draw water or even do not start the fire, the meal are pre-cooked, known as the "New Year's Eve". On the third day of the year, people start to pick up water and burn paper money by the well to "buy water". Door god should also be taken down on the second day of the year and burned, the proverb says: "the third day of the year burned the door god paper, everyone looking for physiology." At the beginning of the new year, lift the pen to write, in the past to use red paper to write a "new positive lift the snake pen, all good luck" words pasted on the wall. The 15th day of the first month of the Chinese New Year is the climax of the Spring Festival, and the gongs and drums are banging loudly. When there are no gongs and drums or when there are fewer gongs and drums, people take the tin cans as gongs and drums. That's why there is a popular saying in Xiaogan: "Knocking on a tin can on the first half of the first month". Dragon lantern will be the center of the first month of the 15th festival activities of Xiaogan folk. People usually start to tie the dragon from the eighth day of the first month, but also tie lions, colorful boats, bamboo horses, stilts, platforms and other styles. On the fifteenth day of the first month, men, women, children and old people travel together and sing all kinds of colorful words. Cailian boat to go from village to village, see what the family will sing what words, such as "the old man to add life, the young peace, the family as you wish, the four seasons of the big flat, the five grains, deer and cranes with the spring, the seven stars, the eight immortals at the door, a long time to be rich, ten blessings such as the auspicious words. On the night of the Lantern Festival, Xiaogan also has the local custom of inviting seven sisters, asking for the success of the year and begging for money. The seventh sister, locally called Zhang Qi, is said to be the seventh daughter of the Jade Emperor, who is the most skillful and kind-hearted. One day, she learned that there was a young man named Dong Yong in Danyang (present-day Xiaogan), who had to sell himself as a slave because his family was poor and could not afford to bury his dead father. Deeply moved, she went to heaven to make a hundred-year marriage with Dong Yong, and the match was made under the big locust tree. Unfortunately, the matchmaker's acacia tree was so happy that he said "100 years of good luck" as "100 days of good luck", which made Dong Yong's sixth sister only have a hundred days of destiny. The seventh sister used her skillful hands to weave 10 pieces of silk to ransom Dong Yong, ready to rectify the homeland love for a white head. Unexpectedly, the Jade Emperor was informed of the great anger, urgently called the seventh sister back to the palace, the seventh sister had to endure the pain and fly away. Her weaving school into a shuttle stone, the loom stayed on earth, people can still hear in the dead of night, "click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click" the sound of the loom. Every year on the night of the fifteenth day of the first month, girls dressed in costumes gathered at the shuttle stone, holding a needle and thread box to the seventh sister begging, singing begging song. After singing the begging song, the girls would also ask whether the year is good or bad, how lucky or unlucky they are, and whether they can get married. In addition, some people use glutinous rice flour to make the shape of a goose egg, so that pregnant women burn "goose eggs" to account for the birth of a boy or girl. Egg cracked on the omen birth female, egg up small warts omen birth male. Local folklore also says that the night of the 15th of the first month is the day of the rat marriage, people can not be noisy at home. Women have to light a hemp oil lamp under the bed and say, "Please ask the Red Queen to look at the lamp." It is said that in this way, there will be no bedbugs in a year. People also use bamboo baskets to throw over the house to account for the abundance or failure of cotton. Yang is the main harvest, the servant is a poor harvest. In addition, filial piety area there is an interesting custom, five nights, people use fire to shine chestnut, pear and other fruit trees, while shining side of the knife and axe to beat the trunk. One person knocked while asking: "knot or not?" A person next to it should say: "knot! "It is said to do so in the new year will be full of fruit. Wenzhou, Zhejiang Open Door Cannon: the first morning of the first day, the first thing every family is scrambling to play the "open door cannon", the whole city a firecrackers, symbolizing the old to welcome the new and pick up the blessing, commonly known as "catch the year". Playing the "door cannon" also has the practice, generally is the first small firecrackers a string, called "100 children gun"; and then put a double sound of big firecrackers, big firecrackers only three hair, meaning that can be lifted a year of plague plague obscurity, and said to receive the New Year. Requirements for three rounds are loud, loud and clear sound, the most auspicious. Common belief that playing "open the door cannon" the sooner the better, symbolizing that this year, do whatever will go smoothly, such as the intention to get rich, planting people will have a bumper crop. Some places in the open door when the cannon, but also read in the mouth: "open the door, fire the cannon; wealth is also to, hi also to." General firecrackers of the outer skin and the inner skin are a color red, after burning paper flowers all over the ground, Can in the cloud brocade, forming a full color, joyful. Now firecrackers have been banned in towns, but in rural areas and fishing islands can still be set off. Worshiping the six gods: After opening the door to firecrackers, men and women in each family put on new clothes. The housewife burns Buddha tea, and offers various offerings in Jiangxi porcelain bowls to the incense burner. Ancestors' images are hung in the center hall, and the ancestors are worshipped first, followed by the six gods (the God of Stove, the God of the Eaves, the Master of the White Tiger, the God of the Well, the God of the Land, and the God of Wealth). Folk believe that these six gods and goddesses are the protectors of each family, and they are worshipped in the New Year to pray for the safety of the population and the prosperity of the family throughout the year. Receive three gods: after worshiping the six gods, and in the atrium set up a small square table, a bowl of rice, covered with red paper, around the sticky solid, placed on the table, burning incense and candles, worship, called "receive three gods" (i.e., Taoism's Yu Qing, Shang Qing, Tai Qing), after the sacrifice moved indoors until the fourth day of the first month of the new year, to send the gods to withdraw from the seat. Ancestor worship: In the old days, at noon on the first day of the first month of the year, in Dongtou County, each family should worship their ancestors. The ceremony is hosted by the housewife. First, offerings are listed, wine cups and chopsticks are set up, and yellow wine is poured into the wine compotes. A bench should be placed in the center of the god and the offering table, then red candles are lit and incense is burned on the incense burners of all the shrines for the ancestors, the three gods, the land god, the stove god, and so on. When the red candle has burned about three-quarters of the way through or the incense will be burned out, then start burning "gold paper" (a kind of gold foil, folded into the shape of a treasure of paper money, the common belief that after the chanting of scripture to be effective), set off firecrackers. Finally, the food is removed, and the chairs in front of the offering table are moved before the food is removed. When worshipping the ancestors, the gifts on the offering table are not allowed to be moved; all offerings that have been worshipped, with the exception of pastries and fruits, must be re-cooked or steam-heated before they are eaten. Otherwise, they are considered disrespectful to the gods and ancestors. Line incense: early in the morning on the first day of the first month, the old "line incense" custom. The city's civil and military officials, the crown with a moped, full deacon, sounding a gong to open the way to the temple line incense, the prestige of the ceremony is very prosperous, each family and the elderly and family members of the day is not yet light, has been bathed and dressed, competing first rushed to the community temple or nearby temples to open the temple door and burn the first incense, incense lamps, and some even so much as the New Year's Eve do not sleep, in the temple to keep and so on. Ohio time, hurry to burn incense, show piety. Common belief that the first person rushed to point on the incense is most auspicious, so there is a race to be the first to point the first pair of candles custom. As the saying goes, "Whoever opens the temple door earliest, this year must earn big silver." Elderly people go to temples to worship the temple god, mainly pray for blessing the new year auspicious, the whole family peace. But because of the class, industry, gender, age and other different, come to worship the god of endless, there are seeking business to get rich, there are seeking agricultural harvest, there are seeking children to renew the heir, and so on. Larger temples such as Dongou Wang Temple, worshipers should give the temple blessing red packets, such as prayers, the first day of every year, the rich, to use up to more than a hundred pounds of large candles to return the wish. Kaizheng: in the old days in dongtou island, every family 30 night watch to c d time or so, should hold "Kaizheng" ceremony. It is presided over by the head of the family or the person in charge of the family's production and life. The presiding officer should be "purified" (i.e., to abstain from sex on New Year's Eve) and bathe the whole body, and should not touch anything dirty before the "opening of the main". The table is placed in front of the door or in the patio, and two benches should be padded on the foot of the table to make the table elevated. Offerings are three animals, fish, fruit, pastries, vegetarian noodles, etc., on both sides of a pair of foot-long red candles, commonly known as "overnight". Kaizheng", the presiding officer lit "overnight", burning incense three columns, the whole family kneeling, palms together to ask the sky, a devout prayer, praying for God's blessings, blessing the whole family in the new year, peace, wealth, all the best. After the prayer, the whole family stood in silence for a while, and then burned "gold paper" firecrackers. Finally, the withdrawal of food. 80's, has been the "open positive" time advanced to midnight zero hour, accompanied by CCTV ringing the New Year's bell. Ceremony is also more simple, some just firecrackers, fireworks. But more firecrackers, especially the "hundreds of guns", and even several thousand strings together, the sound is loud, long, lively and unusual. Worship Tea: On the morning of the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar, Dongtou Island still retains a custom called worship tea. The tea is made of jujubes, cinnamon balls, rice cakes, etc. The sweet tea is called "jujube tea", which takes its auspicious meaning: jujubes - more and more prosperous days, cinnamon balls - family reunion, safe and smooth, rice cakes - step by step to get higher. Worship tea" is divided into two parts: one is to worship the ancestors, a small bowl, offered to the God of the stove in front of the statue; the second is to worship the God of the stove, are to burn incense and candles, burn gold paper, firecrackers. After worshiping the tea, each member of the family will have a bowl to drink. Because the first meal of the New Year is to drink soup, so, in the days to come, or go out, or work at home, if the rain is blocked, people will be "the first day of the first month of the soup," this self-deprecating. After drinking tea, and then burn the line noodles to eat, commonly known as "longevity noodles", both for luck, wishing the whole family a long life, but also because of the tea is not full enough, as an addition to the food, can be harvested in one fell swoop. Breakfast: the first day of the first month of breakfast, Wenzhou people like to eat cake (a kind of cooking and steamed into a sweet rice cake). Eat, cut the cake into thin slices, and then the soy sauce meat in the fat meat is also cut into thin slices, embedded in the two slices of cake between, eat up sweet with salt, a unique flavor. Some people also eat dumplings, or cook a bowl of vermicelli with a hard-boiled egg on top. These foods contain "year high", "reunion" symbolism. Some people cook New Year's Eve rice and eat pounded cake and muffin at the same time. In Pingyang, eat rice cakes and dumplings, some first drink brown sugar soup, after adding noodles and eggs; in Taishun, the housewife to make sugar tea, steamed sugar cake, end out of the vegetable head (salted radish) to the family "sweet mouth, good luck". But Yueqing Yandang area, then eat brown. New Year's Eve, each family to cook a pot of rice dumplings, such as the first day of the year early, the whole family to eat. It is said to eat rice dumplings have two meanings, one is because of rice dumplings and "Zong" homophonic, take the meaning of nostalgia for the ancestors; two is because of rice dumplings and "in" the word homophonic, take the meaning of fame in. In Yueqing, the average person uses jujube, persimmon cake, dumplings. In Yueqing Baishi Town, the first day of dinner to eat soup dumplings, mushy soup, the first cake. When going to sleep, shoes are placed in front of the bed to seek blessings from the Heavenly Palace. In the city during the Spring Festival, guests have offered Yuanbao tea custom, that is, put two fresh olives in the tea, not only the tea flavor fragrance, Dan see in the yellowish-green tea broth floating olives, shaped like a Yuanbao, commonly known as the "Yuanbao tea", containing New Year's good luck, the colorful head of wealth. Dim sum with round-eyed meat or lotus seeds, red dates, but also meatballs, eggs and vermicelli. New Year's greetings: On the first day of the morning, first at home, the younger generation bowed to the elders in order, called "New Year's greetings". From the second day onwards, neighbors, relatives and friends pay homage to each other. If you meet in the road, long bow to congratulate (now nodding and shaking hands to say hello), but also each other's palms chest said "New Year's Day". To each family door to congratulate each other on the new year, also known as the "New Year", "worship". First, the next generation went out to the elders to pay homage to the New Year, and then the generation back to pay homage, it is called "back to the New Year". Newlyweds first to the in-laws to pay homage to the New Year, said "worship the first year", after the generation to the funeral home to pay homage to the New Year, said "worship the New Year". According to old habits, Wenzhou people do not walk relatives on the first day of the first month. Worship time is generally the second to the tenth or extended to the fifteenth. In Cangnan, called "visit the first month", to the general relatives to go home, have to bring gifts. 50 years ago, agricultural products are relatively simple, mostly cinnamon, lychee, jujube, jujube, brown sugar, persimmons, etc., with special straw paper wrapped in red paper sealed on the top (some of the printed congratulations to the New Year's lace lettering), it is known as the "paper pong package", also known as the "high package", "red package". Each package of gifts about half a catty, how many packages need to be sent, according to the relatives of the situation set. In the old days, the South Shop, every Chinese New Year, to buy red packets of people in particular. From December 20, every night after 9:00 pm, the shopkeepers are busy wrapping red envelopes late into the night, each person can also eat a bowl of mustard fried rice cakes as a night meal. If business is good, they are wrapped until after the Lantern Festival. Some stores only pack twenty or so red dates in a red envelope. It's funny to say that after the east sends the west, the west then sends the south ......, and finally, the bag is broken, the red dates in the bag are dug a hole by the children to touch and eat, and sometimes there is only one left, and it's still being sent to and fro. In Yongjia Nanxi River in the middle and lower reaches of the area, in the first Spring Festival just married, son-in-law to his parents-in-law home to pay tribute to the New Year, to do the rice cake, commonly known as the "door cake". Cooked with white rice flour, put in a stone mortar pounded mushy, kneaded into a rice block, and then placed in a wooden mold, printed into a round and flat rice cakes, the front has a pattern, such as the double immortal and cooperation, Liu Hai dedication of money, Scholarship Elephant and other characters. The quantity to be made is one quart, about 50 pairs to 100 pairs. In addition to this, there should be pork, muffins, longevity noodles (Suo-myeon) and so on. In Wencheng, paying New Year's visit is called "Maungnyeon". In the old days, such as bringing children over the age of one to "look" grandma and grandpa, generally choose three, six, nine days, called "three, six, nine, no taboo". Going out, in the child's brow and the tip of the nose painted with red or black ink, meaning to avoid "brats" offenders. On the fourth day of the first month, most of the folk do not travel, do not work, because with the "dead" resonance, the people who speak southern Fujianese, on the ninth day of the first month of the taboo. Because the "nine" and "dog" harmony. In Yueqing, the first day of the year not out of the local to visit friends and relatives. Baixi and other places even the second day is also listed as a taboo day, such as into the countryside do not ask the customary people rush to the door, will be accused of face to face. From the third day of the year, did not look forward to the "New Year's Eve" picking the gold box to look at parents-in-law, aunt and uncle, godparents, and also line to pay tribute to the New Year, commonly known as "look forward to the first month". Gifts to muffin or pounded cake, followed by fish, meat and lychee, kuiyuan, etc., red seal Yuanbao paper package, the custom provides that the old relatives of four, the new relatives of six. The above are looked forward to (including looking forward to the New Year's Eve) elder relatives, generally in the light of the beginning of the period before the return to worship, if the son-in-law, nephews, godchildren's grandparents, parents are already dead, then you can send the son to go. Where the first time in the first month of visiting friends and relatives, regardless of seniority, are required to carry two red envelopes; the person being visited must make tea, cooking snacks, or host a banquet, otherwise, the custom is considered rude. In Pingyang, nephews return to his grandmother's home for the first time to pay tribute to the New Year, the grandmother's family has sent calves. In Dongtou, the same is the daughter back to her mother's home, it is necessary to carry "red bucket" to the parents, to show filial piety. The so-called "red bucket", refers to the carving or red lacquer of the small wooden bucket, which is filled with cooked food, as well as large fish and meat as a condiment made of pasta or glutinous rice, generally in the 2.5-5 kilograms or so. The saying goes: "Give birth to a child soul streamer pole, give birth to a woman red bucket treasure". Meaning that the birth of a son, after the death of some people wearing mourning, mourning raised soul streamers; gave birth to a daughter, the first month of the "red bucket" filial piety. 70's, the custom of lifting the red bucket basically disappeared, the "paper pong package" is also extinct, and instead of sending wine, meat and canned food. During the Spring Festival, to come to pay New Year's greetings to friends and relatives, most of the host family to stay and drink wine hospitality, commonly known as "called New Year's wine", that is, spring feast, there are also special wine feasts to invite friends and relatives to drink. Generally, the food and wine are more sumptuous. If friends and relatives with children under 16 years old (virtual age) to come, then, we must give these children the New Year's money, known as "pressure belly pocket". When friends and relatives leave, there should be a return gift, usually sweets, pastries, water chestnuts and so on. Old custom, if you do not go to the New Year's Eve, is a sign of broken relatives, so some of the old relatives (relatives of the previous generation) the next generation to take turns to go to the New Year's Eve, four seasons and eight sections of the old relatives did not have to deal with, but the Spring Festival must go to the New Year's Eve. Hall layout: New Year's Day, the rich family in the hall, high hanging red gold life screen (family longevity of the old man can) or large paintings and calligraphy, screen in front of a long table, the left end of the Nianqing, adorned with safflower, the right end of a finely engraved screen, the center or pendulum clocks, or pendulum large treasure. Around a pair of large tin table (some weighing more than a hundred pounds, high and people), inserted with large candles. Long table arranged in front of two square tables, both sides in addition to the same display of large tin table, large candles, there is a pair of bright corner lamps (commonly known as "Hall Light"), the middle of the two tables and a large yuanbao (made of a bucket of glutinous rice and brown sugar), inserted silver flowers, wrapped with colorful red, on the top of a few horizontal citrus, symbolizing the source of wealth into the door. In addition, the display of a number of Jiangxi kiln pots, planted on a variety of flowers, such as plum, lilac, daffodil, Buddha nails, and so on, in the pots attached to the red paper strips written with the word "auspicious" in front of the long table and the square table, hung with embroidered red satin table surroundings, the left and right corners of the configuration of the finely carved gold-lacquered railing, the two sides of the narthex is full of paintings and drawings. On both sides of the arrangement of large chairs and coffee table, draped in large red satin embroidered chair cape, placed on a few dishes of refreshments. Such as guests, divided into guests and hosts seated, in addition to refreshments, there are lacquer-painted wooden tray tray jiangxi tea into the tea or lotus seeds, cinnamon and other snacks, there are also dumplings, red dates. This day, even the room of the bed curtains, bed amount, bedding and so on, are washed and replaced, even the dresser and mirror, are draped in silk embroidered mirror cover, all the beams, eaves on the edge of the steps above, are hung up beautiful lanterns, only the front beam hanging two pairs of red gauze lamps, to show the grandeur. New Year open pen: readers with large red paper, writing auspicious words, or "four seasons of the year, read a lot of good luck," such as this, this is called "New Year open pen", there are also written longer, such as "New Year open pen, great luck. All seasons of the year, all the best. Business is booming, the source of wealth. The six animals are thriving, and the five grains are plentiful. The family Qingji, the population is healthy. The wind and rain are favorable, and the country is at peace." After they are written, they are pasted on the wall. Those who know how to write poems will be touched by the situation and make a few new poems of self-encouragement. Set Yuanbao: each family with brown sugar and glutinous rice, indica rice made of large and small Yuanbao, take the meaning of fortune, where the home for the storage of objects, such as barns, rice tanks, bookcases, boxes and cages, closets, drawers, altar jars, etc., are put on a small Yuanbao. Wear new clothes: the first day, people have to wear new clothes, also contains the meaning of sending the old to welcome the new. In the old days, the rich gentry, rich family tweed and silk wear a new; poor families wear even if it is coarse old clothes, but also neat and clean, different from the weekdays, in order to be the lucky day of the New Year. Children wear big red clothes, young women of course, full of red, even the old woman also tied a big red skirt, because the folk to red symbolizes good luck. Children are usually forbidden to wear brightly colored clothes, today is the exception, there are in the red coat over the net, wearing a tiger's claw, some people are still in the children's belts, hanging on the small knife and sword, shells, wood or copper engraving of the gossip, is to "ward off evil" means. Now people are wearing has been a big change, color, style, texture more bright and colorful, and to a high level of development. But the point of wearing new clothes to welcome the New Year is unchanged. Travel: On the first day of the first month of the year, go out and choose the direction. First burn incense in front of the God of the stove, and then take an empty pot, put a spoon in the middle, rotate hard, according to the last stop of the handle pointed in the direction of the head, by a person with a shear to go, and then hear and remember to meet the first person to speak the words to cut (virtual action), meaning that half of it, return to divination, which is called the "incense divination", commonly known as the "divination shear listening. Pleasant mouth color: every New Year's Eve, the Wenzhou area folk like to discuss the mouth color, only allowed to speak auspicious words, avoid speaking unlucky words." Relatives entertainment, auspicious words, that is, the year gifts must be added to the peace money, Mannianqing cypress and other things, otherwise referred to as a good luck." (Qing Sun Tongyuan, "Yongjia Wenshi Records")