How should we celebrate the Spring Festival?

China's Spring Festival is usually kicked off with the sacrifice of the stove. In the folk song, "23, sugar melon sticky" refers to the annual festival on the 23rd or 24th day of the Lunar New Year, and there is the so-called "government three, people four, boat family five," that is, the government on the 23rd day of the Lunar New Year, the general people on the 24th, and the people on the water on the 25th to hold a festival of the stove.

Sacrifice of the stove, is a folk in our country has a great influence, widely spread custom. In the old days, almost every house had a "Zao Wang" god in the stove room. People call this god "Sifu Bodhisattva" or "Zaojun Sifu", and legend has it that he is the Jade Emperor's "Nine Heavenly East Kitchen Sifu Zaowangfujun", responsible for the management of the family's stove fire, was worshiped as a family's protective deity. Most of the Zaowang niches are located on the north or east side of the stove room, with the statue of Zaowang in the center. For those who do not have a Zaowang niche, there are also those who put the idol directly on the wall. Some of the idols depicted only one person, Zao Wang, while others had two persons, a man and a woman, and the goddess was called "Zao Wang's grandmother". This is probably an imitation of the image of an earthly couple. Most of the statues of Lord Zao also have the calendar of the year printed on them, with words such as "Master of the East Kitchen", "Supervisory God of the Earth", and "Head of the Household" to indicate the status of the God of Vesta. On both sides of the posters are couplets that read "Good things are said in heaven, and peace is guaranteed in the world below" to bless the whole family.

Since the New Year's Eve of the previous year, Zao Wang Wang has been staying at home to protect and monitor the family; on the 23rd day of the Lunar New Year, Zao Wang Wang will ascend to heaven to report to the Jade Emperor in the sky on the family's good or bad deeds, and the ceremony of sending Zao Wang to the Jade Emperor is known as "sending Zao" or "resigning from Zao". Based on the report of the Zaos, the Jade Emperor will then hand over to the Zaos the fate of the family in the new year, which should be good or bad. Therefore, for the family, the report of the Zaowang master is really of great interest.

The Zaobao ceremony is usually held at nightfall. The family first goes to the stove room, sets up a table, pays homage to the Zaowang master in the shrine on the stove wall, and offers sugar melons made of caramel and flour. Then, they make paper horses and feed grass to the animals. Offering caramelized sugar to Zaowang is to sweeten his old man's mouth. In some places, sugar is smeared around the mouth of Zaowang, saying, "Say more good things, don't say bad things." This is to stuff the mouth of Master Zao with sugar, so that he will not say anything bad. In the Tang Dynasty, there is a record of "applying wine lees on the stove to make Zaosi drunk" in the "Records of the Years and Seasons in the Emperor's Chariot". After smearing the mouth of Zaowang with sugar, people would take down the statue of the god and ascend to heaven together with paper and smoke. In some places, sesame stalks and pine branches are piled up in the yard at night, and the image of Zaojun, which has been offered for a year, is invited out of the shrine and burned, together with paper horses and grass, on fire. The yard was brightly lit by the fire, and the family bowed around the fire, praying as they burned: This year is the twenty-third, to send Zaojun to the Western Paradise. There is a strong horse, there is grass, a smooth and safe journey. The sugar melons are sweet and sweet, so please say good words to the Jade Emperor.

Send Zaojun, some places there are still several beggars, disguised, singing Zaojun song from house to house, Zaojun dance, called "Zaojun God", in exchange for food.

Send stove customs in China's north and south of the country is extremely common, Mr. Lu Xun has written "gengzi send stove that is the case" poem: only chicken gum teeth sugar, canonical clothes for petal incense. There are no long things in the house, not only less yellow sheep.

He said in the article "Zaojun day of the send": "Zaojun ascension day, the street also sells a kind of sugar, the size of a citrus, in our place there is also this thing, but flat, like a thick small pancake. That's called 'Gum Tooth Molasses'. The original intention was in asking Zaojun to eat it and glue his teeth so that he could not flirt and speak ill of the Jade Emperor." The allusion to the "yellow sheep" in Lu Xun's poem comes from "The Book of the Later Han Dynasty - The Biography of Yin Zhi": "During the reign of Emperor Xuan Di, Yin Zifang was a filial and benevolent man. Lunar morning cooking, and the stove God see, Zifang worship again to be celebrated; home has a yellow sheep, because of the sacrifice. Since then, after the storm to the rich. To know three generations, and then prosperous, so after often to wax day sacrifice stove and recommend yellow sheep." Yin Zifang saw the God of the stove, kill yellow sheep sacrifice, and then made good luck. From then on, the custom of killing a yellow sheep to sacrifice to the stove has been passed down.

The offerings for Zaos in the Tang and Song dynasties were quite abundant. The Song Dynasty poet Fan Chengda's "Zaosi words" made an extremely vivid depiction of the folk festival of Zaosi at that time: Ancient legend of the twenty-fourth day of the waxing moon, Zaojun towards the sky want to talk about things. The cloud car, wind and horses stayed a little, and the family had cups and plates for the ceremony. The pig's head is rotten and the fish is fresh, the bean paste is sweet and loose, and the rice bait is round. Men offer their daughters to avoid it, and sprinkle wine and burn money to make Zaojun happy. Don't be angry at the maid's struggles, or at the cats and dogs that touch you. I will send you to the gate of heaven with a full stomach and a long spoon and a short spoon, so don't go back to the clouds and beg for a share of the profits.

The sacrificial stove on the 23rd day of the Lunar New Year is closely related to the New Year. This is because, a week later, on the night of the 30th day of the Lunar New Year, Lord Zao comes to earth with the other gods with the good and bad fortune that the family should get. Lord Zao is believed to lead the way for the gods in heaven. The other gods ascend to heaven again after the New Year, but only Zao Wangwang stays in people's kitchens for a long time. The ceremony of welcoming the gods is called "receiving the gods", and for Lord Zao it is called "receiving the stove". The ceremony is usually much simpler on New Year's Eve, when you just need to put on a new stove lamp and burn incense in front of the stove niche, and that's the end of it.

There is a saying that "men don't worship the moon, women don't sacrifice to the stove". In some places, women do not sacrifice the stove, it is said, Zaowang master looks like a white man, afraid of female sacrifice stove, there is a "male and female suspicion". The origin of Zao Wang Wang has a long history. Among the Chinese folk gods, Zao is considered to be very old. As early as in the Xia Dynasty, he was already a great god worshipped by the people. According to the ancient book "Rituals - Rituals" Kong Yingda sparse: "Zhuanxu's son Ri Li, Zhu Rong, sacrificed to the god of the stove." Zhuangzi. Dasheng" recorded: "The stove has a bun." Sima Biao commented: "Bun, the god of the stove, dressed in red, like a beautiful woman." In the "Clasp of Parks. It is also written in the "Micro Purpose" that "On the night of the moon's darkness, the god of the stove also goes up to heaven for the white man's sins." These records are probably the source of the sacrifices to the God of Vesta. In addition, or that the god of the stove is drilling wood for fire "flint man's"; or that is the Shennong's "fire officer"; or that is the "yellow emperor as stove" "Su Jili"; or that the god of the stove is surnamed Zhang, a list of the word Ziguo; many say different things. There is an interesting story circulating in the folklore.

It is said that in ancient times, there was a family surnamed Zhang, two brothers, brother is a plasterer, brother is a painter. The brother's specialty is the work of the pan pan, East Street please, West Square invited, all praised him for the high craftsmanship of the base of the stove. Over the years, he became famous and was honored as "King Zhang Zao" by all the people in the area. Speaking of Zhang Zao Wang is also strange, no matter to whose home base stove, such as the other family has a dispute, he loves to meddle. When he meets a noisy daughter-in-law, he wants to persuade, and when he meets a fierce mother-in-law, he also wants to say, as if he is an old elder. In the future, all the neighbors would go to him for anything, and everyone respected him. Zhang Zaowang lived to be seventy years old, and it was the night of the twenty-third day of the Lunar New Year when he died. Zhang Zaowang died, Zhang family can be a mess, the original Zhang Zaowang is the head of the family, the family things are at his command, and now the elder brother left the earth, the younger brother will only poetry and painting, although has been the flower of the armor, but has never been in charge of the housework. Several daughters-in-law are clamoring to split the family, the painter was stirred to do nothing, all day long sad face. One day, he finally came up with a good idea. On the twenty-third day of the waxing moon, the first anniversary of the death of Zhang Zaowang, late at night, the artist suddenly called the whole family woke up, saying that the big brother manifested itself. He will be son and daughter-in-law of the whole family to the kitchen, only to see the dark walls of the stove, floating candlelight vaguely revealed Zhang Zao Wang and his late wife's appearance, the family were stunned. The artist said: "I dreamed that my elder brother and sister-in-law had become immortals when I went to bed, and the Jade Emperor appointed him as the 'Nine Heavenly East Kitchen Secretary Zao Wang Fu Jun'. You guys are always lazy, sisters-in-law do not get along, do not respect and filial piety, make the family God uneasy. My elder brother knows that you are making a fuss about the separation of the family and is very angry, so he is going to go up to heaven to report to the Jade Emperor, and come down to the world on the night of the 30th day of the New Year to punish you." Children nieces and nephews-in-law heard these words, horrified, immediately kneeling down and kowtowing, busy fetching Zhang Zao Wang usually love to eat sweets to offer on the stove, pleading with Lord Zao for forgiveness. From then on, often noisy uncles and brothers and daughters-in-law no longer dare to make a scene, the whole family live together peacefully, the young and old live in peace. After this incident was known to the neighbors, the rumor spread, and they all rushed to the Zhang family to find out the truth. In fact, the night of the twenty-third day of the waxing moon on the wall of the stove stove king, is the painter pre-drawn. He is a fake big brother manifestation of the spirit of the town to scare the children nieces and nephews, I do not expect this method is really effective. So when the neighbors came to find the painter to find out the situation, he had to pretend to be real, the painted stove king statue distributed to the neighbors. Such as these, passed along the countryside, every family's stove room are affixed with the Zaowang statue. As the years went by, the custom of making offerings to Zao Wang on the 23rd day of the Lunar New Year and praying for the safety of the whole family was formed. After the custom of Zaosai was spread, since the Zhou Dynasty, the imperial palace also included it in the festival, and the rules of Zaosai were set up throughout the country, which became a fixed ritual.

Ragdoll 2006-1-13 03:02

Posting Spring Festival Couplets

[color=Blue] Spring Festival Couplets, originated from peach symbols." Peach symbols", Zhou dynasty hanging on both sides of the gate rectangular peach wood board. According to the book of the Later Han Dynasty and the Book of Rituals, the peach runes were six inches long and three inches wide, and on the peach boards were written the names of the two gods "Shentian" and "Yubi"." On the first day of the first month, the peach symbol is made on the household, the name of the immortal wood, all the ghosts are afraid of." Therefore, the Qing Dynasty, "Yanjing chronicle" said: "Spring Festival couplets, that is, peach symbols."

During the Five Dynasties, in the court of Western Sichuan, some people wrote couplets on peach charms. According to the "song history, shu shi family" said: after shu lord meng chang made bachelor chapter xun title peach board, "to its non-worker, since the pen title cloud: 'new year nayuqing, jiajie number evergreen'", this is our country's first pair of spring couplets. Until the Song Dynasty, spring scrolls were still called "peach symbols". In Wang Anshi's poem, there is a line "Thousands of doors and tens of thousands of households, always changing the new peach for the old one". In the Song Dynasty, peach charms were changed from peach wood to paper, called "spring stickers".

Ming Dynasty, the peach charm was renamed "spring couplets". Ming Dynasty Chen Yunzhan "hairpin cloud building miscellany," contained: "the set of spring couplets, since the beginning of the Ming Taizu. Imperial capital of Jinling, New Year's Eve before the sudden decree: public officials and the general public shall be added to the door of the Spring Festival couplets a picture of the emperor appeared in the micro line." Zhu Yuanzhang not only personally out of the city in micro clothes, viewing the laughter and music, he also personally inscribed spring couplets. He passed by a family, see the door has not been posted on the Spring Festival couplets, they went to ask, know that this is a family of castration of pigs, has not yet hired someone to write. Zhu Yuanzhang specially for the pig castration people wrote "hands split the road of life and death, a knife cut off the root of right and wrong" of the Spring Festival couplets. Couplet is apt and humorous. After the Ming Taizu this advocate, since then the Spring Festival couplets will become customary, has been handed down to this day. [/color]

Ragdoll 2006-1-13 03:03

The Legend of Fukuji

[color=Orange] Every Spring Festival, every family will put up the word "Fukuji" (福)on the door, wall, and lintel of the house. Spring Festival sticker "Fu" character, is our country folk custom for a long time. According to the "Dream Liang Records" records: "the New Year's Day in the near and far, the mat store hundreds of goods, painting the door god peach symbols, welcome the spring card children ......"; "the common people's home regardless of the size of the family, all cleaned the door to go to the dust and dirt, the net family, change the door god, hanging Zhongxu, nail peach symbols, stick the spring card, the festival of the ancestors". The text of the "sticker spring" is written on red paper "Fu" word.

The word "fu" is now interpreted as "happiness", while in the past it meant "good fortune" and "good luck". The Chinese character "福"("福"), both in the present and in the past, is a symbol of people's desire for a happy life and their wish for a better future. In order to more fully reflect this yearning and wishes, the folk simply will "Fu" word upside down sticker, said "happiness has been down" "fortune has arrived." Fu" word upside down in folklore there is a legend. Zhuzhang, the founder of Ming Dynasty, used the character "福" as a secret mark to prepare for murder. Kindly Queen Ma in order to eliminate this disaster, the size of the city's families must be in the morning before the door in their own home posted a "Fu" character. Naturally, no one dared to disobey Empress Ma's order, so every house put up the word "Fu" on its door. One of the families could not read or write, so they put the word "Fu" upside down. The next day, the emperor sent people on the street to check, and found that all the families have posted the word "Fu", and there is a family to put the word "Fu" upside down. The emperor was furious at the report and immediately ordered the imperial guards to decapitate that family. Queen Ma saw that things are not good, busy to Zhu Yuan Zhang said: "that family knows that you visit today, deliberately put the word of fortune upside down, this is not the meaning of "fortune"? When the emperor heard that it made sense, he ordered the release of the family, and a big disaster was finally eliminated. Since then, people have been posting the character upside down for good luck and in honor of Empress Ma.

The folk will also be "Fu" word fine as a variety of patterns, patterns have the star of longevity, longevity peach, carp jump Dragon Gate, the five valleys, the dragon and phoenix, and so on. In the past, the folk have "the 24th day of the Lunar New Year, the family wrote a big word," said, "Fu" word was mostly handwritten, and now the market, stores are sold in. [/color]

[img]/rite/NYNpic/cj-05.gif[/img]

Ragdoll 2006-1-13 03:04

New Year's Eve Dinner

[color=Purple] New Year's Eve is an extremely important day for Chinese people. On this day people prepare to get rid of the old and welcome the new by having a reunion dinner. In ancient China, some prison officials even let prisoners go home to spend the New Year's Eve with their families, which shows how important the "New Year's Eve dinner" was to the ancient Chinese.

Family is the cornerstone of Chinese society, and the annual New Year's Eve dinner fully demonstrates the mutual respect and love of Chinese family members, which makes the relationship between the family even closer. Family reunion often makes the head of the family in the spirit of comfort and fulfillment, the elderly see children and grandchildren, the family size *** to talk about the family, the past care and raising children to pay the effort is not in vain, this is how happy. The younger generation, too, can take this opportunity to express their gratitude to their parents for their upbringing.

Children playing with firecrackers, but also the housewives in the kitchen is the busiest time, New Year's dishes are done a few days before, and the New Year's Eve dinner is always in the New Year's Eve on the day of the cook to do out. In the north, the dumplings on the first day of the New Year are also wrapped up on the evening of the thirtieth. At this time the cutting boards of the families are thumping and busy chopping meat and vegetables. At this time, the sound of the chopping board from every household, the sound of firecrackers from the streets and alleys, small stores and stores out of the "chopping and popping" sound of the abacus and the rhythmic sound of the accounts, mixed with the sound of laughter everywhere, one after another, the ocean full of ears, interweaving into the New Year's Eve joyful music.

Speaking of the knife and anvil sound of New Year's Eve, Deng Yunxiang wrote "Yanjing Native Records" but recorded a very bleak story of New Year's Eve: the poor in the old days of life is difficult, thirty nights is a pass. There was a family whose husband had not yet returned with money by the late evening of the 30th, "the family had run out of bottles and corn, and there were no New Year's goods. Woman at home to put the children to bed, at a loss, heard the neighbor's anvil sound, pain to the extreme, do not know whether the husband can take some money or something back, do not know how to live tomorrow this year, but also afraid of their own home no anvil sound to make people laugh, then take a knife to chop empty anvil, while thumping the chopping, while the tears weeping down ......, this story makes people listen to it. Indeed heartbreaking.

Eating New Year's Eve dinner, is the Spring Festival families the most lively and enjoyable time. New Year's Eve. Abundant New Year's Eve dishes on the table, the whole family reunion, sitting around the table, *** eat a reunion dinner, the heart of the fullness is really difficult to describe. People are enjoying the table full of delicacies, but also to enjoy the happy atmosphere, the table has a big dish, cold pots, hot fried, snacks, generally less than two things, one is the hot pot, the other is the fish. One is fish. Hot pot boiling, steaming, warm and provocative, indicating that the red hot; "fish" and "Yu" resonance, is a symbol of "good luck", but also a metaphor for "year after year". There are also turnips, commonly known as "choy tau", wishing good luck; lobster, popping fish and other fried food, wishing prosperity for the family, such as "blazing fire cooking oil". Finally, more for a sweet food, wishing sweet days ahead, this day, even if you do not drink alcohol, but also more or less drink a little. In ancient times, New Year's Eve drinking, pay close attention to the quality of wine, some wine is no longer available, leaving only many moving wine names, such as "grape spirits", "orchid cocktails", "Yichun wine", "plum blossom wine", "peach blossom wine", "Tusu wine", etc. Among these wines, the most popular is the "Tusu wine". Among these wines, the one that has been passed down for the longest time and is the most popular is Tusu Wine. But how did Tusu Wine get its name? And what was it made of? The legend never varies.

Tusu is the name of a kind of grass, and some people say that tusu is an ancient kind of house tail because the wine brewed in this kind of house, so it is called tusu wine. It is said that Tu Su wine was created by Hua Tuo, a famous doctor at the end of the Han Dynasty, and its formula is rhubarb, atractylodes, cinnamon sticks, windproof, peppercorns, aconite, epiphyllum, and other traditional Chinese medicines into the wine immersion and become. This kind of medicine has the efficacy of benefiting qi and warming yang, dispelling wind and dispersing cold, and avoiding the evil of epidemics. Later by the Tang Dynasty famous doctor Sun Simiao spread. Sun Simiao every year in the waxing moon, always want to give a packet of medicine to the neighbors, telling everyone to medicine brew wine, New Year's Eve into drink, can prevent the plague. Sun Simiao also named his house "Tu Su House". Afterwards, through generations, drinking tusu wine became a New Year's custom. In ancient times, the method of drinking Tusu Wine was very unique. Generally speaking, people always start drinking from the oldest person, but drinking Tusu Wine is just the opposite, starting from the youngest person. That is to say, when a family gathers to drink Tusu Wine, they start from the youngest children first, and the older ones come after them, drinking a little bit of wine one by one. The Song Dynasty writer Su Zhe's poem "New Year's Day" says: "Drinking Tusu at the end of the year, I don't realize that I am more than seventy years old." It is this custom that is spoken of. Some people did not understand the significance of this custom, and Dong Xun explained, "The young get the year, so they are congratulated; the old lose the year, so they are punished." This custom was still prevalent in the Song Dynasty. For example, Su Shi said in his poem "Outside Changzhou City on New Year's Eve", "But I will put my poverty and sorrows on a long and healthy life, and I will not quit drinking tusu at the end of the day." Su Shi in his later years, although poor and downtrodden, but the spirit is very optimistic, he believes that as long as the body is healthy, although old age does not care, the last penalty to drink Tusu wine naturally do not have to excuse. This unique order of drinking, in ancient times, every time people have all kinds of feelings, so people have a deep impression. Until the Qing Dynasty, this custom is still unfailing. Today, this custom is no longer practiced on a large scale, but the custom of drinking these medicinal wines on festivals or during the week still exists.

The New Year's Eve dinner has a lot of names, different from the north and south, with dumplings, wontons, long noodles, Lantern, etc., and each has its own instructions. Northern people are accustomed to eating dumplings on New Year's Eve, is to take the old and the new, "change of year," the meaning of the child. And because the white dumplings are shaped like silver dollars, a pot of dumplings on the table to symbolize the "New Year's fortune, Yuanbao rolled in" meaning. When some dumplings are wrapped, several coins sterilized in boiling water are wrapped into them, saying that whoever eats them first will earn more money. The custom of eating dumplings was passed down from the Han Dynasty. According to legend, Zhang Zhongjing, the sage of medicine, saw that the ears of the poor were frostbitten in the winter months, so he made a kind of "Cold-removing Ear Soup" for the poor to cure frostbite. He used mutton, chili peppers and some cold and warm herbs, wrapped in dough into an ear like "Jiao Er", boiled in a pot, distributed to the poor to eat, people ate, feel warm, two ear heat. Afterwards, people followed suit and the tradition has been passed down to this day. Eating wontons in the New Year is to take the meaning of the beginning. Legend has it that the world was chaotic before the creation of the world, Pangu opened up the sky and the earth, so that there is a universe of four sides, long noodles, also known as longevity noodles. Eating noodles in the New Year is a wish for a long life of 100 years.

"Tusu" was originally a broad-leaved grass. Southern folk custom, some houses painted on the Tu Su grass as a decoration, this house is called "Tu Su". According to some books, people living in Tusu made a kind of wine called Tusu wine. It is made from several kinds of herbs. According to Zunsheng Bazian (Eight Notes on Zunsheng) by Tu Long of the Ming Dynasty, "Tu Su formula: sixteen baht of rhubarb, fifteen baht of atractylodes, fifteen stalks of tangerine root, fifteen baht of Shu Pepper, eighteen baht of gui xin with the eyes removed, six baht of peeled aconite, and twelve baht of peeled umbilical cord bark." The ancients divided one tael into twenty-four ju. Prepared according to these portions and according to the recipe, it becomes Tu Su Wine."

If we analyze the medicinal properties and efficacy of the seven herbs contained in Tusu Wine, we know very well that it combats the plague. The function of rhubarb is to remove all kinds of stagnant and turbid qi and to push out the old, so it is called the general of medicines. Atractylodes is a stomachic, diuretic, and antipyretic, and when taken for a long time can lighten the body and prolong life. Platycodon grandiflorus can tonify blood and qi, remove cold and heat, dispel wind paralysis, and poison the cup. Shu Pepper also detoxifies, kills worms and strengthens the stomach. Gui Xin functions to dissolve blood stasis, invigorate blood circulation, disperse cold and relieve pain. Aconite removes wind paralysis, removes lumps and warms the internal organs. Woluzha can expel poison, antiseptic, and tranquilize the mind. Combining the functions of these medicines, it can be affirmed that it is an effective remedy against epidemics.

So it seems that the ancient custom of drinking tusu at the New Year's Eve is quite reasonable. In particular, drinking tusu can be said to be a mass movement to prevent epidemics, and it is well worth studying the comrades of mass hygiene as a reference material. [/color]

[img]/rite/NYNpic/002.gif[/img]

Ragdoll 2006-1-13 03:06

Vigilance of the New Year

[color=Red] The folk of our country have the custom of vigilance of the New Year's Eve. The New Year's Eve vigil begins with the New Year's Eve dinner, which is eaten slowly, from the time of the lantern to the table, and some people have to eat until late at night. According to the record of "Jing Chu Yearly Records", there was a custom of having New Year's Eve dinner at least in the North and South Dynasties.

The custom of observing the New Year's Eve is not only a way of saying goodbye to the passing years, but also a way of expressing hope for the coming New Year. Ancient people wrote in a poem of "keeping the New Year's Eve": "We are invited to keep the New Year's Eve at A Rong's house, and the wax torch passes the red to the blue yarn; thirty-six years are all wasted, and we cherish the years from this night." Cherishing years is a common human feeling, so Su Shi, a great poet, wrote the famous lines of the New Year's Eve: "Will there be no year next year, and I am afraid of wasting my time; I will make every effort to do my best this evening, and the youths can still be boasted!" This shows the positive significance of New Year's Eve.

The New Year's Eve celebration is commonly known as the "New Year's Eve". Why do you call it "boiling the year"? There is an interesting story that has been passed down from generation to generation: according to legend, in the ancient flood era, there was a vicious monster, people called him "year". Every New Year's Eve, the beast will crawl out of the sea to hurt people and animals, destroy the fields, disaster in the people who have worked hard for a year. People in order to avoid the beast of the year, the night of Lunar New Year's Eve, the sky is not dark on the early close the door, do not dare to sleep, sit and wait for dawn, in order to kill time, but also for the courage, they drink. Waiting for the first morning of the year the beast no longer come out, only dare to go out. People meet each other, congratulations, congratulations, congratulations, thankful not to be eaten by the beast of the year, so after many years, nothing happened, people on the beast of the year to relax their vigilance. On the night of the 30th of one year, the beast suddenly scurried to a village in Jiangnan, a village of people almost eaten up by the beast, only one family hanging red curtains, wearing red clothes of the newlyweds are safe and sound. There are a few children, in the yard lit a pile of bamboo at play, the fire red, bamboo burning "pop" burst, the beast turned here, saw the fire scared to turn their heads and fled. Since then, people know that the beast is afraid of red, afraid of light, afraid of the sound, every year-end, every family will stick red paper, wear red robes, hanging red lanterns, banging gongs and drums, firecrackers, so that the beast will not dare to come back. In the poem "Shijing-Xiaoya. Tingliao", there is a record of "the light of Tingliao". The so-called "Tingliao" is made of bamboo poles and other torches, bamboo poles burn, the air in the bamboo expansion, bamboo cavity burst, emitting crackling sound, which is also the "firecrackers" origin. However, in some places, the villagers do not know the New Year beast afraid of red, often eaten by the New Year beast. This matter later spread to the sky of the purple star, he in order to save the people, determined to eliminate the beast of the year. One year, he waited for the beast to come out, he used a fireball to knock it down, and then used a thick iron chain to lock it on a stone pillar. From then on, every New Year, people always burned incense and asked Zi Wei Xing to come down to the world to keep the peace.

The above is the origin of the legendary New Year's Eve vigil.

On this night of "one night and two years, five nights and two years", families are reunited and gather together. The whole family sits together, refreshments and fruits on a table. New Year's Day offerings, a large plate of apples is indispensable, which is called "peace and security". In the north, some people also want to provide a pot of rice, burned before, to provide for the New Year, called the "New Year's Eve rice", is leftover rice year after year, year-round food, this year also ate the meaning of the food of the past year. This pot of next year's rice is generally mixed with rice and millet to cook, Beijing slang called "two rice", in order to have yellow and white, which is called "gold and silver, gold and silver pot full of" "gold and silver rice". Many places in the New Year's Eve prepared cakes and fruits, are trying to get a lucky mouth: eat jujube (early spring), eat persimmon cakes (everything is as good as it can be), eat almonds (happy people), eat long-life fruit (immortality), eat rice cakes (a year higher than a year). On New Year's Eve, the family, while eating and laughing. There are also popular families push pai gow, roll dice, betting on pokies, playing mahjong, the sound of noise and laughter into the climax of the New Year's Eve joy.

The whole world is looking forward to the arrival of the New Year's zero hour. [/color]

[img]/rite/NYNpic/007.gif[/img]

Ragdoll 2006-1-13 03:07

Red envelopes (New Year's money)

[color=Pink]Handing out red envelopes is a Chinese New Year's custom, and the Chinese love the color red because it symbolizes vitality, happiness and good luck. The Chinese love the color red because it symbolizes vitality, happiness and good luck.

Handing out red envelopes to underage children (according to Chinese beliefs, married people are considered adults) is a way of bringing them good wishes and good luck. The money in the red packet is just to make the children happy and its main significance is in the red paper as it symbolizes good luck. Therefore, it is impolite to open the red envelopes in front of the elders who distribute them.

When paying tribute at the Spring Festival, the elders will distribute the pre-prepared New Year's money to the younger generation. It is said that the New Year's money can suppress the evil spirits, because "year" and "spirit" harmonize, and the younger generation will be able to spend the year in peace when they get the New Year's money. There are two kinds of New Year's money, one is to colorful rope threaded woven into the shape of a dragon, placed at the foot of the bed, this record is found in the "Yanjing Yearly Record"; the other is the most common, that is, wrapped in red paper by the parents of the money given to the children. New Year's money can be given in public after the younger generation pays homage to the New Year, or it can be placed under the child's pillow by the parents when the child falls asleep on New Year's Eve.

Folk believe that when the New Year's money is given to the child, when the evil spirits, demons or the "New Year" go to harm the child, the child can use the money to bribe them to turn bad luck into good luck. Qing people Wu Man Yun "New Year's money" poem in the cloud: "a hundred and ten money through the colorful line long, divided again pillow from the collection, the discussion of firecrackers to talk about xiao price, added to the children of the night busy". From this point of view, the new year's money is tied to a child's heart, and the child's new year's money is mainly used to buy firecrackers, toys and sweets and other festive things.

Now the elders for the younger generation to send the custom of the New Year's Eve money is still prevalent, the amount of the New Year's Eve candied fruit from dozens to hundreds of ranging, the New Year's Eve money is mostly used by children to buy books and school supplies, the new fashion for the New Year's Eve money to give a new content. [/color]

[img]/img2009/04/20/3lian33.jpg[/img]

Ragdoll 2006-1-13 03:08

New Year's Firecrackers

[color=Orange] When the midnight crosses the positive son, the New Year's bells ring, the whole of China's earth The firecracker sound is heard in the sky. In this "year of the yuan, the month of the yuan, the time of the yuan" of the "three yuan" moment, some places are still in the courtyard of the base of the "prosperous fire" to show that the prosperous gas through the sky, prosperous and prosperous. In the blazing fire around the fire, the children set off firecrackers, joyfully jumping around, then, the house is bright lights, in front of the court is brilliant sparks, outside the house is the sound of the sky, the lively atmosphere of New Year's Eve pushed to the climax. Poets and ink masters throughout the ages have always praised the coming of the New Year with the most beautiful poems. Wang Anshi's poem "New Year's Day" reads: "The sound of firecrackers marks the end of the year, and the spring breeze sends warmth to the people. A thousand doors and tens of thousands of households are filled with pupils on the New Year's Day. The new peach is always replaced by the old one.

Depicting the grand festive scenes of our people celebrating the Spring Festival, the Qing Dynasty, Pan Rong ah in the book "Imperial Capital Years and Years of Jisheng" book, the New Year's Eve firecrackers at that time made the following record: "the second of New Year's Eve, the night of the intersection of the door of the precious torch competition, the Jade Coral competition sound. And firecrackers such as waves of thunder, all over the countryside, all night without stopping." The Dream of the Red Chamber" is also depicted: "the yard under the screen frame, will be set up fireworks hanging ready, the fireworks are all tribute from various places, although not very big.... But very delicate. All colors of the story is complete, sandwiched between the various colors of the fireworks. Between words. Outside a colorful put and put. And there are many 'stars in the sky', 'nine dragons into the clouds', 'a sound of thunder on the ground', 'flying ten ringing' and so on the sporadic small cannonballs." From this can also be seen in the old days of the New Year fireworks spectacle.

The sound of firecrackers is the sign of the old and the new, the festive mood of the flow. The businessman's family. Firecrackers have another meaning: they are in the New Year's Eve firecrackers is for the new year Dafa Dali. However, according to the old custom that, to honor the God of Fortune to compete first, firecrackers to the back. Legend has it that if you want to make a fortune, you have to fire the firecrackers at the end of the night to be considered sincere. In the old days, from the night of the Spring Festival to open the door of wealth, there will be sent to the God of Fortune, holding a paper print of the God of Fortune outside the door yelling: "Send the God of Fortune to come!" At this time the master of the house, in order to show welcome to the God of Wealth, will take the reward money to the people, send the God of Wealth in the mouth, of course, always have to say some auspicious words. For example: "Gold, silver and treasure roll in"! The left side has a pair of golden lions, the right side has a pair of golden phoenix "and so on! And so on and so forth. There is another is dressed up like the God of Wealth, dressed in red robes, wearing a hat, mouth hanging fake beard, carrying a yellow bag to collect money, followed by a few gongs and drums, to distribute the God of Wealth from door to door like, in order to ask for reward money. Whenever you arrive at the door of a person's house, you will sing: "The left side is full of gold and silver coffers, and the right side is full of treasures." A large number of auspicious words, endless, until the host joyfully received the red paper God of Wealth statue, give them some money, these people dressed up as the God of Wealth, thank you, then vigorously beat for a while, in the dong dong ding dong sound of gongs and drums, turn to other homes.

The first thing everyone does when they return to the house after setting off the firecrackers is to worship heaven and earth, welcome the gods, and pay homage to their ancestors. In ancient times, this kind of ritual was prevalent. Because of the different customs around the different forms of ancestor worship, some to the field to visit the ancestral tomb, some to the ancestral ancestral worship, and most of the ancestors at home will be placed in order in the main hall, display offerings, and then the worshippers in the order of the eldest and youngest on the incense kneeling. Southerners also after ancestor worship, check the calendar contained in this year's auspicious direction, burning lanterns and torches, pots of wine, incense ringing firecrackers, open the door to travel to meet the God of joy, said "out of the sky" or "travel", Zhejiang called "out of the search", Shanghai, called "Tou Hei Shen Fang". This custom is to tend to good luck, praying to the gods to bless a year of everything goes smoothly. New Year's Eve is to stay up all night, all night. At night, housewives are busy hanging lanterns and colorful decorations, posting spring couplets, cutting window clings, pasting New Year's paintings, and decorating the house with red and green flowers, adding a rich atmosphere to the festival. Perhaps the thing that children look forward to the most is the New Year's money. New Year's money is sent by the elders to the younger generation, some families are after the New Year's Eve dinner, everyone sitting at the table is not allowed to go, and so everyone finished eating, by the elders to the younger generation, and encourage their children and grandchildren in the new year to learn to grow up and do well. Some people are parents in the night when their children are asleep, put them under the pillow, more people are small children gathered in the main hall, shouting grandparents, mom and dad Happy New Year, kneeling in line; and then reach out for red envelopes. Even to the bedroom of the grandparents, all ran to the edge of the bed, yelling: "New Year's money, New Year's money!" The old man is still not lively enough, pretending to be petty, from bargaining to the siege of groping, and finally the old ancestor's red envelopes to dig out, we looted, only to whistling and scattered. The old man is happy to see this scene, but I think this is a good omen of the New Year everything goes well.

People's traditional concepts, always like in the New Year, more good luck, I hope everything goes well, which has many old customs. Such as everywhere there is a ban on the use of brooms of custom, that the use of brooms in the New Year will sweep away the luck, sweep away the fortune, the new year will be difficult to make good luck. If you have to sweep the floor, you have to sweep from the outside to the inside. In order to make this custom popular, but also set the first day of the first month for the "broom birthday". New Year's Day also can not scold the child, speak must be especially careful. If a child carelessly smashed the rice bowl, we will never scold him, but instead said he "years of peace", because "broken" "years of" harmonic punch an ominous atmosphere. In the New Year, adults most? /ca>