Traditional lion dance in Liangshui Town, Liaocheng

How to eat the Spring Festival in old Beijing: Beijing folk song: "Melon sacrifices to the stove, the Spring Festival is coming". The first food to enter the festival is honeydew melon, kwantung sugar and other snacks used for "offering sacrifices to the stove", which are made of colloidal maltose and slightly sour in sweetness. This is an excellent food in an era when life is not very rich. Moreover, there are honeydew melons and Guandong sugar at home, which indicates that the Spring Festival is not far away. Of course, the "Kitchen God" doesn't eat fireworks, and this kind of "bribe" that hopes that the "Kitchen God" will speak well in heaven and keep safe in the underworld naturally becomes a thing in the mouth of children.

Old Beijingers pay special attention to "New Year", so they have: "Wife, don't be greedy. After Laba, it is the New Year, and Laba porridge will be drunk for a few days. Twenty-three, twenty-three, honeydew melon will stick, twenty-four, clean the house, twenty-five, fry tofu, twenty-six, stew mutton, twenty-seven, kill cock, twenty-eight, make noodles, twenty-nine, steam steamed bread. Laba porridge, fried tofu, stewed mutton and so on listed in folk songs are all delicacies during the Spring Festival in old Beijing. Today, these are commonplace, but in the fifties and sixties, you can only feast your eyes on Chinese New Year.

There are only the above kinds of food during the Spring Festival, which is certainly not rich. For example, the cakes used in ancient times to worship the gods and ancestors-honey and saqima-are not only the food of Manchu, Mongolian and other ethnic minorities in Beijing, but also the necessary food in Beijing. Some wealthy Beijingers used to eat fish on New Year's Eve. Fish must be carp, originally in the name of offering sacrifices to gods, and later associated with the auspicious language of "more than good luck and celebration" Fish is both delicious and sacrificial.

As for jiaozi on New Year's Eve, jiaozi, a vegetarian, is used to worship God, while everyone eats meat. People who are not rich are stuffed with meat and vegetables. Even the poorest families will eat jiaozi's "program" during Chinese New Year. Besides jiaozi and rice cakes, people in "old Beijing" will try "bean paste"-a cold dish made of skin, dried bean curd, soybeans, green beans and watercress, which is amber in color and similar to "frozen meat". In addition, there is "Mustard Dun", which is a cold dish used to accompany wine and appetizer. People eat a lot of greasy food in festivals, which is easy to get angry and produce phlegm. These cold dishes can make up for this defect.

When all kinds of vegetarian dishes are ready, Beijingers will also prepare sweets, dried fruits, melon seeds and "miscellaneous fruits", which are today's assorted preserved fruits. At that time, these snacks were delicious food when people sat around the fire and died.

Nowadays, almost all the offerings and traditional foods in the name of offering sacrifices to ancestors and gods have been preserved, but they are not so conspicuous. As for today's Spring Festival, the dinner table can only be summarized by the word "abundance". What Sichuan and Shandong dishes and raw seafood will appear on the dinner table of the people's New Year's Eve? People who say "new school" will go to the grand hotel to "grab a meal" to welcome the Spring Festival!

Laba eats Laba porridge: the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month is also a festival in old Beijing. On this day, of course, the most important thing for every household is to cook Laba porridge. There are several different opinions about the origin of Laba porridge: some say it is a sacrifice to Shennong, some say it is in memory of Yue Fei, and some say it was handed down by Zhu Yuanzhang. But the most popular one is to commemorate the Buddha.

According to the Buddhist "Pu Yao Jing", Sakyamuni escaped from the palace, became a monk in Kazan, studied classics and spent six years in the mountain. When he finished his studies, it was the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month in China, which is what ordinary Buddhists call "Sakyamuni Enlightenment Day". According to the karma sutra, due to six years of asceticism, Sakyamuni had no time to take care of his personal food and clothing. He only eats some hemp and wheat every day, and he has not enough to eat and wear all the year round. When he graduated from school, he was in rags and skinny. Tired, he walked down Kadu Mountain and sat by the Nile River, begging from the villagers. Cowherd women in the village used bowls of Meng to help milk and cooked them for Sakyamuni to eat, which made Sakyamuni's body recover quickly. After Buddhism flourished, in order to commemorate this event, it was stipulated that this day was the day when the ancient Indian people "fasted and became monks" and gave alms to the poor. After Buddhism was introduced into China, giving alms on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month gradually became the custom of cooking Laba porridge. In the Ming Dynasty, Chen wrote "Biography of Heaven": "On the eighth day of December in Tokyo in the Song Dynasty, seven treasures and five flavors of porridge were sent to the temples in the capital." The "seven treasures and five flavors porridge" mentioned here refers to "Laba porridge". "Laba porridge" is cooked in some Buddhist temples in China to commemorate the story of a cowherd on the Nile River who rescued Sakyamuni.

Ordinary people not only cook Laba porridge to worship Buddha, but also regard it as a gift from relatives, friends and neighbors.

Laba porridge was cooked with adzuki beans and glutinous rice in ancient times, and then the materials were gradually increased. People in the Southern Song Dynasty carefully compiled "Old Wulin Stories" and said, "Cooking porridge with walnuts, pine nuts, milk mushrooms, persimmon mushrooms and persimmon chestnuts is called Laba porridge." Up to now, people in Jiangnan, Northeast China and Northwest China still keep the custom of eating Laba porridge.

Laba porridge is made of many kinds of materials, generally, beans such as kidney beans, peas, red beans, cowpeas, mung beans, millet, rice and sorghum rice are mixed with rice and boiled with dried fruits such as jujube and chestnuts. When drinking, add seasonings such as brown sugar, white sugar, rose and sweet clover. Exquisitely, glutinous rice, coix seed, water chestnut rice, chicken head rice and lotus seed meat are mixed together to make porridge, and then preserved fruit, litchi meat, longan meat, pine nuts, peach kernels, moss and HongLing are covered with patterns, which are really beautiful and delicious. Eating a steaming bowl of Laba porridge in winter is delicious and nutritious, which can really increase happiness and prolong life.

In addition to cooking Laba porridge, there is also the folk custom of soaking Laba garlic. On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, I put the peeled garlic cloves in the jar, filled with vinegar, sealed them and kept them in a warm place until I ate jiaozi on New Year's Eve. The soaked garlic cloves are green as jade. They taste sour and slightly spicy, and they really have a special taste.

Legend has it that Laba will be poorer next year without porridge. Laba porridge, which was drunk in the imperial palace in the Qing Dynasty, was cooked and paid tribute by lamas in the Lama Temple.

The Messenger Laba Porridge is a popular folk song: after Laba, the debt is mainly paid at home. Generally, on the thirtieth day of the twelfth lunar month, no one collects debts.

People's King, 23rd: On the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, every household in old Beijing worships a stove. Beijing folk song "Door God Chef" sings: "Every year, every family is busy, and on the 23rd, people are king. There is a table in the middle with two plates of sugar on both sides. A bowl of water from black soil and hay burns a fragrance in the stove. The host of the family came to bless and praised the kitchen god for his good luck. " This folk song describes the ostentation and extravagance and the real scene of every household offering sacrifices to stoves in old Beijing.

China Shang Dynasty had the saying of Kitchen God. There is a record in Zhuangzi Sheng Da that "the stove is harmful". Sima Biao commented: "bun, kitchen god, dressed in red, looks like a beautiful woman." "Huainan Ji Zi Lun Xun" said: "Emperor Yan made a fire. Death is a stove. " Gao said, "Yan Di Shen Nong, taking fire as virtue, worships his ancestors in the kitchen god." At that time, it was a memorial to the ancestor Kitchen God. It is said that the kitchen god knows the good and evil of every household. Therefore, Lian said, "If Heaven speaks well, you will be blessed when you return to the palace." When will the chef return to the palace? Probably before the Spring Festival. It is in the new year that we should wish this family luck and peace. This is a beautiful wish.

Kitchen God is also a Vulcan. Vulcan's name is Zhu Rong, or Huilu. Zhu Rong's legendary Zhu Rong was named Chi Di in the name of fire, so later fire officials thought it was called Zhu Rong. One was regarded as a fire official when the emperor was a beast, and later generations were honored as Vulcan. Vulcan, originally for the benefit of mankind, has also become synonymous with fire. Old Beijingers worship the Kitchen God and Vulcan, because since ancient times, dry weather is the time when fires frequently occur around the Spring Festival. It is very necessary to be careful of fire.

There is a saying in a Beijing proverb: "Laba porridge is a messenger, a deadly candy and a life-saving boiled cake", which means Laba porridge conveys the information of the upcoming Spring Festival. One year later, the creditors will be forced to pay debts. The 23rd is the most critical time to pay debts, so it is the deadly Kwantung Sugar. Jiaozi is eaten in the middle of the night on New Year's Eve. Generally, creditors will not come according to the rules. Some poor families don't have enough to eat and can't afford the Guandong sugar sacrifice stove. Therefore, there is a folk song in old Beijing that says, "Kitchen God, whose real name is Zhang, has a bowl of cold water and three incense sticks. This year, the boy is poor and will eat Guandong sugar next year. " "In the past, there were many Kitchen God temples in Beijing, and every household worshipped the Kitchen God. Except for ethnic minorities, almost all Han people have the custom of being king of the people. Kitchen God is a folk kitchen god, also known as kitchen king, kitchen king and kitchen god. In order to express gratitude to the inventor of fire, primitive people worship their ancestors every summer, symbolizing fire, and the stove also represents fire. In northern China, there is a custom of offering sweets to the stove on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month. As the saying goes, "Twenty-three, melon paste, twenty-five, dust removal". Dust removal is not only beneficial to environmental sanitation, but also to fire prevention, because if some combustible garbage is completely removed, a fire factor will be removed.

Sweeping houses on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month: "Sweeping the Year Wind" prevailed in the Tang Dynasty. According to Song and Wu's Dream, "at the end of December ... everyone, big or small, sweeps the house, cleans the dust and dirt, cleans the family ... and prays for peace in the new year." It has been passed down from generation to generation, forming the custom of sweeping houses before the Spring Festival. Even poor families with few people have to clean their houses. This is not only a preparation to meet the lower bound of the gods, but also an important measure to eliminate filth, bad luck and poverty. Cleaning the house is really a troublesome thing, but it must be done. The owner of the big house instructed his servant to do it; Generally, the whole family, old and young, will move the indoor furniture and furnishings to the yard to wipe them clean, especially the bronzes on them must be polished. For indoors, it is mainly to sweep away the tower ash and cobwebs on the ceiling in the corner, tear off the old New Year pictures on the wall, and paste them after painting or pasting them; On new year's eve, tear off the old window grilles on the glass windows, wipe them clean and paste new ones; In particular, Buddhist temples and ancestral temples should be carefully cleaned. Sacrificial vessels such as incense burners, wax sticks, flower tubes, sea lamp bowls and sacrificial bowls must be polished, and old couplets and hanging money before and after the Buddha statues must be taken down and burned.

After cleaning the house, people also have to "choose an auspicious day" to take a bath, shave their heads and get a haircut in the bathhouse or at home, which means to say goodbye to the old and welcome the new.

After cleaning the house, the whole family began to prepare for the New Year, and invited wax paper yards, offerings, writing couplets, cutting window grilles, buying hanging money, New Year pictures and setting off firecrackers to prepare for the New Year.

Celebrate the 30 th of the twelfth lunar month: the 30 th of the twelfth lunar month is New Year's Eve. If it is off-year, New Year's Eve is the 29th of the twelfth lunar month. People call this day "thirty years". Among all the festivals, the 30th is the busiest and happiest day in old Beijing.

First of all, we should put up Spring Festival couplets. Spring Festival couplets written in red paper should be posted on both sides of the street gate and door of every household, and horizontal comments should be posted on the lintel. Most of the contents of Spring Festival couplets are to increase happiness, longevity and wealth. It's all auspicious words anyway. Followed by the door god. The gatekeeper of old Beijing used Qin He of the Tang Dynasty, a white face and a black face, one left and one right. It is said that exorcism is their specialty. Some families have to put up thousands of posters. Hanging money is also called hanging money. Cut it with red paper or colored paper and stick it on the doors and windows. It is said that poverty can be avoided.

It is said that from the evening of the 30th to the early morning of the first day, the gods will come down to inspect the good and evil on earth. Among these gods, there are the god of wealth and landlords. On the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the kitchen god who spoke well from heaven also returned to earth at this time and continued to be his "head of the family". At this time, people should be respectful and cautious, burn incense and kowtow. Please take good care of your god in the new year.

New Year's Eve is the most delicious time for old Beijingers. First of all, the whole family get together for a reunion dinner and enjoy the richest food in a year. Most of the dishes are stewed fish, stewed meat, stewed chicken, meatballs, braised pork and other meats, as well as fresh and refreshing cold dishes, such as kohlrabi and spicy dishes made in red robes, as well as sweet and spicy cabbage and mustard tuber. Jiaozi is the main staple food, and mutton, cabbage or pork and leek are generally used as stuffing. When eating jiaozi, don't forget to season it with Laba vinegar.

On the eve of New Year's Eve, everyone should get together and say more auspicious words during the dinner, which indicates that the future will be harmonious, beautiful and complete.

According to the custom of old Beijing, you can't sleep on New Year's Eve, so everyone should have a good night with him. This is called "shou sui". "Shounian" has two meanings. For older people, this means cherishing the time on New Year's Eve. Young people stay old in order to prolong the life span of their parents. Setting off firecrackers to celebrate the Spring Festival has a history of more than 2,000 years in China. The ancients burned bamboo and made a sound, which was called "firecrackers". "Popular Frontier Tour" said: "In ancient times, firecrackers were really made of bamboo, so Tang poetry was also called explosive pole. Later generations rolled paper and called it firecrackers. " The original intention of firecrackers is to scare and drive away evil spirits. "Chronicle of Jingchu's Age" records: "The first day of the first month is the day of three yuan, and chickens crow and set off firecrackers in front of the court to get rid of Shan Gui." "Nerve" says: "There are people in the western hills, more than a foot, more than a foot, not afraid of people; Sometimes it is cold and sometimes it is hot, which is called mandrill. In the fire of bamboo, there was a beep, but mandrill was frightened.

Later generations followed its shape and used gunpowder for it. "This is superstition, of course. Today we set off firecrackers, although it means to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, but it is not superstitious.

Spring Festival custom-lion dance

Whenever "firecrackers kill the old year", on the vast land of our country, traditional lion dance activities appear in towns and villages with warm spring breeze and cheerful gongs and drums. For the annual Spring Festival, it adds a rich atmosphere of joy.

Lion dance is a traditional folk sports activity in China, which originated in the Southern and Northern Dynasties.

According to legend, in May of the 23rd year of Yuanjia in Song Wendi (AD 466), the secretariat of Jiaozhou in the Song Dynasty was ordered to attack Lin Yi, and Wang Fanyang of Lin Yi also took part in the war with elephant soldiers. Because this elephant soldier rode on the back of a tall elephant with a spear, it was difficult for enemies with only short weapons to get close to it, and the soldiers in Song Jun began to suffer a big loss. Later, Zong Yi, a pioneer officer and general Zhenwu, came up with an idea. He said that all animals are afraid of lions, and elephants may be no exception. As a result, many fake lions are made of noodles and hemp overnight, painted in colorful colors, and their mouths are particularly wide open. Each "lion" was covered by two soldiers and hidden in the grass. He also dug many deep and big traps around the scheduled battlefield. The enemy drove the elephant army to attack, and Zong Yi released the fake lion with a bow. One by one, the "lions" turned their mouths and headed for the elephants.

The elephant turned around in horror, and Zong Yi took the opportunity to order the soldiers to put all the crossbows together. The frightened elephants immediately ran around desperately, many of them fell into traps, and both people and elephants were captured alive. ..... From then on, lion dance was first popular in the army, and then spread to the people. Bai Juyi, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote "Missions to the Western Regions", including "Masked Man Zi and Masked Lion, carved with wood as the head and tail; Gold-plated eyes with silver teeth, rising sweaters with ears ... ". It can be seen that there was a modern lion dance in the Tang Dynasty.

Why do people like to dance lions during the Spring Festival? It is said that in the early Ming Dynasty, a monster appeared in Foshan, Guangdong. It appears in the suburbs of Foshan every year, destroying crops everywhere and endangering people and animals. People in the countryside are miserable, so they tie bamboo grates into several lion models and paint them in various mottled colors. When the monster appeared, gongs and drums rang, lions danced together and rushed at the monster. The monster was frightened and turned around and ran away. Therefore, every year during the Spring Festival, gongs and drums are played, and people go door-to-door and dance lions to celebrate the New Year, to show the intention of eliminating holes and insects and predicting good luck.

Besides the Spring Festival, lion dancing is often used for entertainment on festive days. In the folk lion dance, two people play a big lion (some areas are called Tai Lion), one plays a little lion (some areas are called Shao Lion), and the other plays a warrior, holding a hydrangea as a guide, and first kicking to induce the lion to dance. With the speed of the drums, the lion suddenly looked up, turned to look down, turned to lie prone, shook his head and wagged his tail in various ways, which was full of fun. In imitation actions, there are actions such as licking hair, wiping feet, scratching head, washing ears, worshipping and rolling. In terms of skills, there are stairs, overpasses, three mountains, caves, downhill, bowling, spitting and picking green.

Spring Festival custom-playing dragon lanterns

During the Spring Festival, many towns in China have the habit of "playing with dragon lanterns".

"Playing Dragon Lantern", also called "Dragon Dance" and "Dragon Dance", is a popular folk dance in China.

Ancient China people created the image of dragons to express their good wishes. According to legend, the ancients called dragons, phoenixes, unicorns and turtles four spirits. Beautiful shape, bright colors, rigid and flexible lines. Shining unique artistic brilliance in the long river of history. As early as Shang and Yin Dynasties, bronze wares and bones were engraved with dragon patterns. The dragon pattern of bronze wares in the Zhou Dynasty has been gradually perfected. "Playing with dragon lanterns" has become quite common among the people in the Han Dynasty. In the performances of "Shehuo" and "Dance Team" in the Tang and Song Dynasties, "playing with dragon lanterns" has become a common form of performance. Wu's Dream in the Song Dynasty records that Lin 'an (now Hangzhou), the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, "on the night of the Lantern Festival, the grass is tied into a dragon, covered with green curtains, and there are thousands of lights and candles, which are like double dragons."

In ancient times, people regarded "dragon" as the embodiment of good luck, representing the wish of good weather. Therefore, dragon dancing is used to pray for the dragon's blessing, so as to achieve good weather in the four seasons and abundant crops. People dance with bamboo, iron bars and colorful dragons made of satin or cloth for fun, showing a cheerful mood. Through the continuous processing and manufacturing of folk artists, "playing dragon lantern" has developed into a kind of folk dance art with perfect form, equivalent performance skills and romantic color, which is deeply loved by the masses.

The performances of "Playing Dragon Lantern" include "Playing Pearl with Single Dragon" and "Playing Pearl with Double Dragon"

Two kinds. The dragon's body consists of many sections, each of which is about five feet apart. The first section is called a gear. The "knots" that make up the dragon body are generally singular. (such as sections 9, 11 and 13). Faucets are also divided into different weights, generally about 30 kg. Those who light candles in the Dragon Ball are called "Dragon Lantern" and those who don't are called "Bulong".

In terms of gameplay, local styles are different and each has its own characteristics. Playing nine knots is mainly based on tricks, and the more common moves are: dragon swimming, dragon drilling crotch (piercing flowers), head and tail drilling, dragon wagging tail and snake shedding. In the dragon dance, no matter what tricks are performed, the performers have to start with broken steps. Playing the 11 th and 13 th dragons mainly shows the dragon's movements, that is, the dragon leaps after the red orb, rising and falling, as if flying in the clouds; Up and down, like breaking the waves into the sea, winding and moving, it looks good.

There is also a habit of playing dragon lanterns in rural areas, that is, not only playing in the village, but also performing in other villages and "competing" in the wide streets and squares of towns or cities. During the Spring Festival to the Lantern Festival, with the sound of gongs and drums and firecrackers, various folk "dragon dance" teams showed their magical powers, causing crowds to watch.

local

The customs of the Spring Festival

Spring Festival is an ancient festival in China, and it is also the most important festival in a year. How to celebrate this festival has formed some relatively fixed customs and habits in thousands of years of historical development, and many of them have been passed down to this day.

1. Dust removal

"On the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, dust sweeps the house". According to Lv Chunqiu, China had the custom of sweeping dust during the Spring Festival in the Yao and Shun era. According to the folk saying: Because of the homonym of "dust" and "Chen", sweeping dust in the Spring Festival means "getting rid of the old and not being new", and its original intention is to sweep away all bad luck and bad luck. This custom has placed people's desire to break the old and create new ones and their prayers to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. Whenever the Spring Festival comes, every household should clean the environment, clean all kinds of electrical appliances, remove and wash bedding curtains, sweep six yards, dust cobwebs and dredge culverts in open channels. Everywhere is filled with the joyful atmosphere of cleaning and welcoming the Spring Festival cleanly.

paste up Spring Festival couplets

Spring Festival couplets are also called door couplets, spring stickers, couplets, couplets and peach symbols. They depict the background of the times and express good wishes with neat, dual, concise and delicate words, which are unique literary forms in China. Every Spring Festival, no matter in urban or rural areas, every household should choose a pair of red Spring Festival couplets and stick them on the door to add festive atmosphere to the festival. This custom began in the Song Dynasty and was popular in the Ming Dynasty. By the Qing Dynasty, the ideological and artistic quality of Spring Festival couplets had been greatly improved. Liang Zhangju's monograph Poetry of Spring Festival couplets discusses the origin of couplets and the characteristics of various works.

There are many kinds of Spring Festival couplets, which can be divided into door heart, frame pair, cross string, spring strip and bucket square according to the place of use. The "door core" is attached to the center of the upper end of the door panel; The "door frame pair" is attached to the left and right door frames; "Cross-dressing" is posted on the crossbar of the door; "Spring strips" are posted in corresponding places according to different contents; "Dou Jin", also known as "door leaf", is a square diamond, often attached to furniture and screen walls.

3. stick grilles, pour the word "fu"

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.

While putting up Spring Festival couplets, some people have to put large and small "Fu" characters on doors, walls and lintels. Sticking the word "Fu" during the Spring Festival is a long-standing folk custom in China. The word "Fu" symbolizes good luck and wishes for a happy life and a bright future. In order to fully reflect this yearning and wish, some people simply put the word "Fu" upside down, indicating that "Fu has arrived" and "Fu has arrived". Others elaborate the word "Fu" into various patterns, such as longevity, longevity peach, carp yue longmen, abundant grains, dragons and phoenixes, and so on.

Paste new year pictures

Hanging New Year pictures during the Spring Festival is also very common in urban and rural areas. Thick black and colorful New Year pictures add a lot of prosperity and festive atmosphere to thousands of families. New Year pictures are an ancient folk art in China, which reflects people's simple customs and beliefs and places their hopes on the future. New Year pictures, like Spring Festival couplets, originated from "door gods". With the rise of block printing, the content of New Year pictures is not limited to monotonous themes such as door gods, but has become rich and colorful. Some New Year pictures workshops have produced classic color New Year pictures, such as Fu Lushou's Samsung, God bless the people, abundant crops, prosperous livestock and welcoming the New Year, to meet people's good wishes of celebrating and praying for the New Year. There are three important producing areas of Chinese New Year pictures: Taohuawu in Suzhou, Yangliuqing in Tianjin and Weifang in Shandong; Three schools of New Year pictures have been formed, each with its own characteristics.

The earliest existing collection of New Year pictures in China is the woodcut New Year pictures of the Southern Song Dynasty, which depict four ancient beauties: Wang Zhaojun, Zhao, Ban Ji and Lvzhu. The most popular folk painting is the Year of Marrying the Rat. It depicts an interesting scene in which a mouse marries a bride according to human custom. In the early years of the Republic of China, Zheng of Shanghai combined the monthly calendar with the New Year pictures. This is a new form of New Year pictures. This new year's picture, which was combined into one, later developed into a calendar and has been popular all over the country.

Step 5 keep your age

Keeping the Lunar New Year's Eve is one of the most important activities, and the custom of keeping the Lunar New Year's Eve has a long history. The earliest record can be found in the Local Records of the Western Jin Dynasty: on New Year's Eve, all parties give gifts to each other, which is called "the year of giving back"; Wine and food are invited, which is called "not old"; Young and old get together to drink and wish a complete song called "age division"; Everyone stays up all night, waiting for dawn. This is the so-called "shou sui".

On New Year's Eve, the whole family get together, eat New Year's Eve, light candles or oil lamps, sit around the stove and chat, wait for the time to bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new year, and keep vigil all night, which symbolizes driving away all evil diseases and epidemics and expecting good luck in the new year. This custom gradually became popular. At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong, wrote a poem "Shou Sui": "Cold words and winter snow, warm with spring breeze". To this day, people are used to celebrating the New Year's Eve.

In ancient times, observing the age has two meanings: the old man's observing the age means "resigning from the old", which means cherishing time; Young people keep their age in order to prolong the life of their parents. Since the Han Dynasty, the time for the alternation of the old and new years is generally at midnight.

Setting 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. Firecracker is a specialty of China, also known as "Firecracker", "Firecracker" and "Firecracker". 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. With the passage of time, firecrackers are more and more widely used, and there are more and more varieties and colors. Every major festival and happy celebration, as well as marriage, building, opening, etc. We should set off firecrackers to celebrate and make good luck. At present, Liuyang, Hunan, Foshan and Dongyao, Yichun and Pingxiang, Jiangxi, Wenzhou, Zhejiang and other regions are famous fireworks towns in China. The firecrackers produced have many colors and high quality, which are not only sold well all over the country, but also exported to all parts of the world.

7. Happy New Year

On the first day of the new year, people get up early, put on the most beautiful clothes, dress neatly, go out to visit relatives and friends, and wish each other good luck in the coming year. There are many ways to pay New Year's greetings, some of which are led by the same patriarch from door to door. Some colleagues invited several people to pay New Year greetings; Others get together to congratulate each other. This is called "group worship". Because it takes time and effort to pay New Year greetings at home, some elites and scholars later congratulated each other with stickers, thus developing the later "New Year cards".

When paying New Year greetings during the Spring Festival, the younger generation should first pay New Year greetings to their elders and wish them health and longevity. The elders can distribute the lucky money prepared in advance to the younger generation. It is said that lucky money can kill evil spirits, because "old" and "special" are homophonic, and the younger generation can spend a year safely with lucky money. There are two kinds of lucky money, one is to put colored rope in the shape of Jackie Chan at the foot of the bed, which was recorded in Yanjing year; The other is the most common, that is, parents wrap the money distributed to their children in red paper. Lucky money can be given in public after the younger generation pays New Year's greetings, or it can be secretly put under the child's pillow by parents when the child falls asleep on New Year's Eve. It is still very popular for elders to give lucky money to younger generations.

8. Eating habits during the Spring Festival

In ancient agricultural society, housewives began to prepare food for the New Year from the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. Because curing bacon takes a long time, it must be prepared as soon as possible. Many provinces in China have the custom of curing bacon, among which Guangdong is the most famous.

Steamed rice cake, because of its homophonic "high year" and diverse tastes, has almost become a must-have food for every household. The styles of rice cakes are square yellow and white rice cakes, which symbolize gold and silver and express the meaning of making a fortune in the New Year.

The taste of rice cakes varies from place to place. Beijingers like to eat jujube rice cakes, 100-fruit rice cakes and white rice cakes made of glutinous rice or yellow rice. Hebei people like to add jujube, red beans and mung beans to rice cakes and steam them together. In northern Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and other places, it is customary to eat yellow wheat fried rice cakes during the New Year, and some people will also stuff them with bean paste and jujube paste, while Shandong people steam rice cakes with yellow rice and red dates. The rice cakes in the north are mainly sweet, steamed or fried, and some people simply eat them with sugar. There are sweet and salty rice cakes in the south, such as those in Suzhou and Ningbo, which are made of japonica rice and have a light taste. In addition to steaming and frying, you can also slice and fry or cook soup. Sweet rice cake is made of glutinous rice flour with sugar, lard, rose, osmanthus, mint, vegetable paste and other ingredients. They are fine in workmanship and can be steamed directly or fried with egg white.

The night before the real Chinese New Year is called Reunion Night. A wanderer who has left his hometown has to go home from thousands of miles away. During the Spring Festival, the whole family will sit around and wrap jiaozi. Jiaozi's practice is to use flour to make dumpling wrappers first, and then use leather bags to fill them. The contents of stuffing are varied, and all kinds of meat, eggs, seafood and seasonal vegetables can be stuffed. The orthodox practice in jiaozi is to cook it with clear water, remove it and mix it with vinegar, minced garlic and vegetables. There are also methods of frying jiaozi and baking jiaozi (fried dumpling). Because the word "he" in dough mixing means "he"; Jiaozi's "jiao" and "glue" are homophonic, and "harmony" and "glue" have the meaning of reunion, so jiaozi is used to symbolize the reunion of acacia; It is very auspicious to make friends with older people; In addition, jiaozi, which is shaped like an ingot, has the auspicious meaning of "making a fortune" when eating jiaozi in the New Year. All the families get together to pack jiaozi, so it's fun to celebrate the Spring Festival.

There are more customs in the north than in the south, such as jiaozi and stick grilles. Various patterns symbolize good luck in the coming year, including the wearing and exquisiteness of some zodiac signs.

Eating rice cakes, jiaozi and glutinous rice balls during the Spring Festival is one of the customs of China people. Because of its homophonic "high year", rice cakes are rising year by year. In addition, they have a variety of tastes, which are especially popular with the citizens in Hangjiahu area, and the market space is very large. Tangyuan, which means round and round, is a traditional food for the Spring Festival. Eating jiaozi in the New Year is influenced by the Chinese New Year custom in the north, but complicated procedures such as mixing flour, chopping stuffing and rolling skin are prohibitive, so quick-frozen jiaozi has become a big selling point in supermarkets.