General process of Chinese New Year

Sweep the dust-the folk proverb says: on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, sweep the house dust ". The north is called cleaning the house and the south is called dust removal. Indoor and outdoor, behind the house, thoroughly clean up, clothes and appliances, wash a new look, and greet the Spring Festival cleanly.

Door painting-According to Shan Hai Jing, when Li Shimin was ill, he often heard amityville horror's voice in his dream, so that he couldn't sleep at night. At this time, two generals, Qin and Weichi Gong, volunteered to stand on both sides of the door. As a result, the palace is safe. Li Shimin felt sorry that the two generals were too hard, so he ordered the painter to paint their mighty images on the door, which is the so-called "keeper". According to Cai Yong's Random Thoughts in the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were statues of Shen Tu and Lei Yu stuck on the door in the Han Dynasty, which evolved into woodcut New Year pictures in the Song Dynasty. Later, people rushed to follow suit, and after several evolutions, they formed their own unique style, that is, the current New Year pictures. The earliest existing New Year picture in China is the Song version of Meitu of the Sui Dynasty.

Spring Festival couplets evolved from "peach stalks" in the Warring States period more than two thousand years ago. According to Huainanzi, peach characters (peach stalks) are carved from peach wood. It is engraved with a spell that destroys happiness, and it changes every year. Meng Changjun, the Emperor of Shu after the Five Dynasties, had a whim during the Spring Festival and asked people to slice peach trees. He wrote a couplet on it: "Welcome to Qing Yu in the New Year and celebrate the festival in Changchun". This is the earliest Spring Festival couplets in China. As for the official birth of the name Spring Festival couplets, it was in the Ming Dynasty. After Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, made Jinling his capital, he made an imperial edict on New Year's Eve: "When the official family visits the New Year, they must write a Spring Festival couplets." Since then, Spring Festival couplets have become popular, and every household should post Spring Festival couplets during the New Year.

Fireworks-The custom of setting off firecrackers in the Spring Festival began in the Han Dynasty. According to "The Story of Meng Jing Times" written by Nan Liang Zonggu, "On the first day of the first month ... the rooster crowed, and people set off firecrackers in front of the court to drive away evil spirits from Shan Yao." In ancient times, firecrackers were set off by burning bamboo in a fire. Because the air in bamboo is heated and expanded, it makes a "crackling" sound to ward off evil spirits, hoping for good luck and happiness in the coming year. After the Tang and Song Dynasties, firecrackers made of gunpowder came into being.

New Year's greetings-According to the Miscellaneous Notes of Lu Rongyuan in Ming Dynasty, the custom of New Year's greetings was first implemented in Kyoto in Ming Dynasty. When dealing with officials, whether you know them or not, you should worship each other, while the people worship their relatives and friends. In the Qing Dynasty, it was popular to send "greeting boxes" during the Spring Festival, that is, to send New Year cards to relatives and friends in exquisite and beautiful decorative boxes to show solemnity. In today's China, "Happy New Year" has become a traditional custom. Dear friends and colleagues visit and greet each other.

Lucky money-It is a traditional folk custom in China to give children some lucky money during the Spring Festival. The lucky money is full of blessings from the elders to the younger generation. In China, there are some popular stories about the origin of lucky money. For example, in ancient times, there was a demon with black hands and white body called Chong, who came out to harm children every New Year's Eve. So people burn lights all night and put copper coins on children's pillows to ward off evil spirits. This is the so-called "special protection" and "special suppression", which is later "old protection" and "old suppression". But these legends have no basis in history. When did the custom of lucky money really begin? & gt& gt

In ancient times, it was popular for literati to pay New Year greetings to each other. The New Year drill is today's New Year card, which evolved from ancient business cards. According to Zhao Yi's research in the Qing Dynasty, there was no paper in the Western Han Dynasty, so bamboo was cut into thorns, and the book was named "Ming Thorn". Later, people embroidered the words "business card" on the brocade with red wool. After the Eastern Han Dynasty, wood was replaced by paper, which was called "famous paper". In the Six Dynasties, it was called "Ming" for short, and in the Tang Dynasty it was called "door-shaped". Song dynasty was also called "hand stab" and "door stab". It was called "Inch Chu" and "Red Sheet" in Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Eating custom in Spring Festival

Laba porridge was originally a religious festival food of Buddhism. Dieting and Dieting Custom in the Year of China: Before becoming a Buddha, Sakyamuni traveled all over India to find the true meaning of life. When he arrived in Magadah in northern India, he was tired and hungry and fainted. At this time, a shepherdess saw this scene and quickly took out her lunch and fed it to Sakyamuni bit by bit. Shepherdess's lunch is a mixture of all kinds of food, including all kinds of wild fruits collected. Sakyamuni ate this delicious lunch and recovered. Later, he bathed in the Nellian River, sat under a bodhi tree and meditated. He became a Buddha in early December. Since then, every year on the day of "La Qi", monks in the temple have to take fresh dried fruits and put them in washed utensils and stay up all night until dawn. The cooked porridge will be used to worship Buddha. At that time, the monks in the temple will recite the scriptures and then drink porridge as a souvenir. This is the origin of Laba porridge. Buddhism has spread far-reaching in our country and followed this custom. As for the ingredients of Laba porridge, almonds, peach kernels, preserved fruits, glutinous rice, soybeans and beans were used in the Northern Song Dynasty. Walnuts, pine nuts and persimmon chestnuts were used in the Southern Song Dynasty. Porridge in the Yuan Dynasty is dark red, also known as red porridge and cinnabar porridge. Red raw materials such as red beans, lotus seeds, peanuts and red dates may be used.

In the Song Dynasty, Meng Yuanshen recorded in "Dream of Tokyo": On December 8, "Buddhist baths were held in various temples, and seven treasures and five flavors of porridge were given to his disciples, which was called Laba porridge. Everyone is a Japanese family and eats fruit porridge. "

According to the legend of Anhui people, when Zhu Yuanzhang was a child, he herded cattle for the landlord and was often hungry because he could not cook. One day, he found a hole in a hut. He reached down and touched it, but it was a mouse's "granary"! There are rice, soybeans, red dates, chestnuts and other things in it, so he put these grains together in the pot and cooked a pot of hot porridge, which was delicious. After Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor, he was tired of eating delicacies all day and wanted to change his taste. On the day of Laba, he suddenly remembered cooking porridge from a mouse hole when he was a child, and now he ordered the chef to cook porridge with various cereals. After eating it, I was very happy and named this porridge "Laba porridge".

Since then, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties have followed this dietary custom, which was the most popular in Qing Dynasty. There is a poem that says, "Laba cooks a double bow, and hazelnuts and peach kernels are dyed red. I like to ask my children to look at it. The Buddha's shadow is boundless. "

In the Ming Dynasty, rice, ginkgo, walnuts and chestnuts were added to cook porridge.

The famous Lama Temple Laba porridge, in addition to glutinous rice, millet and other grains, also has diced mutton and cream. Porridge noodles are sprinkled with red dates, longan, walnuts, raisins, melon seeds and green shredded pork.

Laba porridge, also known as eight-treasure porridge, is made of eight materials (such as longan, coix seed, cereal, glutinous rice, mung bean, red bean, kidney bean, peanut, etc.). ).

New Year's Cake-Eating New Year's Cake during the Spring Festival, "Choose a year to win the year to pray for the New Year." It means that every year goes well.

The types of rice cakes are: white rice cakes and yellow rice cakes in the north; There are water mill rice cakes in Jiangnan; There is glutinous rice in the southwest; There are red turtle cakes in Taiwan Province province.

In the book Dialect of Han Dynasty, the title of "Gao" was popular in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. Jia Sixie's Book of Qi Yaomin records the production method. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, cakes have developed into snacks supplied in the market all year round, and the flavors in the north and south are different.

There are two kinds of rice cakes in the north: steamed and fried. In addition to steaming and frying, there are other methods in the south, such as frying in slices and cooking in soup.

Jiaozi —— As early as the 5th century, jiaozi was a common food for Han people in the north. At that time, jiaozi was "shaped like a crescent moon, and the world was delicious." But at that time, jiaozi ate soup, so it was called "Wonton". In the Tang dynasty, eating was the same as today. 1972, Jiaozi was found in a Tang Dynasty tomb in Turpan, Xinjiang, with seven different shapes from those in modern times. Jiaozi was called "Jiaozi" in Song Dynasty, and it also appeared in novels of Qing Dynasty. There was a word "flat food" in Hu Sihui's Eating in Yuan Dynasty. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were new names such as "dumplings", "water snacks" and "boiled cakes".

After the mid-Ming Dynasty, jiaozi gradually became a traditional food for the Spring Festival in the north. Because jiaozi is shaped like an ingot, it means "turning money into treasure".

During the Spring Festival, jiaozi pays attention to wrapping at twelve o'clock on New Year's Eve, which means "making friends at a young age".