What are the customs of the Lunar New Year?

1, sacrificial stove

The twenty-third of Lunar New Year, commonly known as the small year, legend has it that this day is the day of Zaowang master in the sky, and therefore to sacrifice the God of the stove. Ballad has twenty-three, sugar melon sticky, referring to the annual Lunar New Year twenty-three or twenty-four days of the festival of the stove, the folk have long had the so-called official three people four boat family five, that is, the official in the Lunar New Year twenty-three days, the people in the twenty-fourth day, the people on the water in the twenty-fifth day to hold a festival of the stove.

It is said that every year on the twenty-third day of the lunar month, the king of the stove to the sky to the Jade Emperor to report the good and bad of the family, so that the Jade Emperor reward and punishment. Therefore, when sending the stove, people in front of the Zao Wang statue of the table for candy, water, beans, forage grass, of which, the latter three is for the Zao Wang ascension of the mount preparation. Zaos worship, but also the sugar (or honey) melted, smeared on the mouth of the Zaosheng, so that he can not speak ill of the Jade Emperor there, said: to say good things in heaven. Folk legend has it that Master Zaobao went up to heaven to sue the earth for good and evil, and once that family is accused of evil deeds, the major crime will reduce his life by 300 days, and the minor crime will reduce his life by one hundred days. This saying is more widely circulated.

2, eat stove sugar

3, sweep the dust

After the festival of stove, people began to prepare for the New Year. Every year from the lunar calendar from the twenty-third day to the New Year's Eve, China's folk called this period of time to welcome the spring day, also known as the dust day. Sweeping dust is the end of the year cleaning, the north called sweeping room, the south called duster. Dust before the Spring Festival, is the traditional habits of the Chinese nation.

Dust sweeping is mainly all the rooms thoroughly cleaned once, housewives usually first the furniture in the house with a sheet, etc. cover up, with a headscarf or towel will be wrapped up, and then use the broom will be clean up and down the walls. After sweeping, scrubbing tables and chairs, rinsing the floor, with clean, neat, bright to welcome the arrival of the New Year.

4, cut the window

Cut and paste the window is also the more prevalent folkloric activities in the small year. The content of a variety of animals, plants and other palms, such as magpies, swallows through the peach willow, peacocks play peonies, lions rolling embroidered balls, three sheep (Yang) Kaitai, two dragons play pearls, deer and crane Tongchun (six contracts spring), five bats (Blessing) hold life, rhinoceros looking at the moon, Lotus (Lian) year fish (Yu), mandarin ducks in the water, the Liu Hai play gold cicada, and the two immortals, and so on.

Shear window is one of the old women's game dexterity handmade, every New Year's Eve, dexterous women will wave the scissors, drawing on red paper, then there is no need to draw drawings of the women's skills, are generally improvisation, randomness is very strong. Nowadays, paper-cutting is also a kind of artwork to beautify life, and you can also have fun in paper-cutting.

5, write spring couplets

Writing spring couplets is also a small year of folk activities. Spring Festival couplets are very important to drive away ghosts and evil spirits, and keep families safe and sound. It is said that the Spring Festival couplets in the Zhou Dynasty more than 2,000 years ago were peach charms (peach stalks) with incantations engraved on them, and every New Year's Day you get a pair of them to hang on both sides of the front door.

There are many types of Spring Festival couplets, which can be divided into door centers, frame pairs, horizontal phi, spring strips, and doufangs, depending on where they are used. The heart of the door is attached to the upper center of the door panel; the frame is attached to the left and right door frames; the horizontal Phi is attached to the horizontal wood of the door winks; the spring strip according to different content, posted in the corresponding place; bucket catty also known as the door leaf, for the square rhombus, more pasted in the furniture, the wall of the shadow.

6, haircut, catch messy marriage

According to the northern custom, the day of the New Year, adults and children should be bathed in a haircut. Folk have money or no money, shaved head for the New Year's saying. The traditional custom of not getting a haircut in the first month, as well as the idea of wanting to have a beautiful New Year, so that the public have developed the habit of getting a haircut before the Spring Festival beauty.

After the twenty-third, the folk believe that the gods went to heaven, a hundred taboos. Marrying a daughter-in-law, hiring a girl without choosing the day, known as the rush messy marriage. The folk song has a year Yanyan countryside marriage busy, Yichun post to tease the spring light. Sisters talk privately in front of the lamp, to keep the year this year is the cave of the saying.