What changes have taken place in the form of Chinese New Year since the development of the times?

Inheritance and modernization of folk customs during the Spring Festival

Any folk custom is not static, and the process of its inheritance is also a process of variation, and the Chinese New Year folk custom is no exception, both in China and Japan.

Before the fifth year of Meiji (1872), like China, Japan celebrated the Lunar New Year. However, from the fifth year of Meiji, the solar calendar was changed and the lunar calendar was abolished. This is a big change, and every year these two years is different from China. Interestingly, however, the traditional Chinese New Year customs, from New Year's Eve to Lantern Festival, such as offering sacrifices to ancestors, greeting gods, observing the old age, paying new year's greetings, and giving out red envelopes (lucky money) are well preserved in Japan, but the time for doing things is moved to the first day of the New Year (of course, Japanese Chinese New Year customs also contain many new factors of the times). Looking back at China, the Lunar New Year has always been paid more attention than the Gregorian New Year. Although many new people expressed their dissatisfaction and wanted to cancel the Lunar New Year, the people ignored it, so it has not changed so far. In recent years, the government has respected public opinion and set the Lunar New Year (commonly known as the Spring Festival) holiday as long as the political holidays on May 1 and November 11, with seven days. It has taken many measures to ensure the supply of materials, especially transportation, so that tens of millions of migrant farmers can go home in time for the Spring Festival, and it also tries to organize cultural and tourism activities during the Spring Festival. In this way, the traditional Lunar New Year is more grand and lively than the Gregorian New Year with only one holiday. However, after careful investigation, it is not difficult to find that the custom of Chinese New Year is also undergoing various changes in China today. In China, which is rapidly transforming from a traditional society to a modern society, on the one hand, the custom of Chinese New Year is inherited, on the other hand, it is constantly developing and adding new factors. In the following interview, I will make some analysis on the change of China New Year custom from traditional to modern from several aspects, such as giving away stoves, greeting the God of Wealth, and celebrating Lantern Festival.

1, oven delivery

Sending stoves on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month is still the first major event for rural residents in many towns and villages in the north and south of China. But in cities, especially big cities, it is rarely or almost no longer carried out (except suburban villages). The key is that stoves and cooking in modern life are essentially different from ancient earthen stoves. The status of Kitchen God has changed and its importance has weakened. Not only the kitchen god, but also the whole system of ghosts and gods, and the relationship with people is not as close as in ancient times. The need and enthusiasm of city people to sacrifice stoves to send ghosts and gods to communicate naturally decreased.

The scale and piety of people in villages and towns have also changed greatly, and the general trend is getting smaller and weaker. For example, there used to be a saying called "three officials, three people, four boatmen and five", which reflected the phenomenon of sending stoves one day sooner or later. It has also become an unwritten rule, that is, the government 23 gives stoves, the people 24 give stoves, and the boat people living on the water 25 need to give stoves. This ranking clearly marks the hegemony of the government and the social level, and also shows that people at that time attached importance to offering sacrifices to the kitchen god-even bribing ghosts and gods should give priority to the government! The boat people who have no position on land have no fixed stoves, so they come last. However, this phenomenon has changed with the indifference of the government and even officials. Nowadays, the official sacrifice of stoves has become history, and urban residents almost no longer send stoves. Sending stoves in rural areas is just a traditional and inertial behavior. What is the demand and who will stick to this order? When the younger generation in rural areas grow up, offering sacrifices to the kitchen god will become an old story handed down by their ancestors, leaving only an old saying and an idea, which will make them even more careless and unable to seriously implement it. The relationship between man and God is alienated in modern life. People care more about themselves. Even in the traditional Spring Festival, people don't give priority to the relationship with God as before. They take communicating with God and asking God to speak well as the first and most important thing to do.

In fact, the change in the behavior of offering sacrifices to stoves did not start today, nor did it start from this end. For example, in ancient times, offering sacrifices to the stove was an old woman's business. Book of rites? Zheng Xuan's note on "Ritual Vessels" once said that the kitchen was an old woman's sacrifice. It is reasonable for the old ladies to cook at home and walk around the stove all day, which is also the main sacrifice to the kitchen god at the end of the year. However, it changed later. Because the kitchen god is the head of the family, the status of the old woman does not match it, so the male parents will be the chief priests instead. Later, when offering sacrifices to the kitchen god, even women were not allowed to look. In the Qing Dynasty, Ji Fu Tong Zhi and Guangxu Shuntian Fu Zhi both quoted A Brief Introduction to the Scenery of the Imperial Capital, saying, "Today, men sacrifice, but women are not allowed to see, offering sweets. If young girls are forbidden to spit, they will be black if they get fat. " Not only women can't see the sacrificial stove, but girls can't even eat the candy left over from the sacrifice. Adults made up taboos that scared them, scaring them not to have any improper ideas about eating the candy left over from the sacrifice. You can also say that they have good intentions. But this is too unreasonable, so there are some minor adjustments in real life. Like Beijing, especially in rural areas, men are priests who burn incense, while women are in the form of accompanying sacrifices. The priorities are still very clear, but the family sacrifice seems to be less rigid and more human. There are many reasons for this small adjustment. If it is accumulated for a long time, quantitative change will lead to qualitative change. In fact, I am afraid that today's kitchen god sacrifice has never restricted women's participation, which virtually overthrew the law that "women are not allowed to sacrifice to the kitchen god".

On New Year's Day, many areas in China still retain the custom of "jumping into the kitchen" since modern times. twelfth month of the lunar year

Four "beggars are in the city, and they pretend to be men and women and dance with bamboo leaves and holly, which is called the king of the kitchen." Another dressed as Zhong Kui was holding a sword, and another dressed as a child was dancing and begging along the door. "The origin of this custom should be related to ancient exorcism, and it has developed. If you have never heard that the chef is married, in order to conform to the custom of exorcism of husband and mother, you should give him a chef; Combined with activities such as jumping and adding officials and singing happy songs in the New Year, it has formed a new style. Up to now, many people can perform this kind of performance in towns and villages all over the country. They improvise on New Year's Day or ordinary festive days (such as the opening of shops and the birth of children). ), not only added joy to the festival, but also earned money for yourself.

The custom of offering sacrifices to stoves is gradually fading, but in terms of time concept, the consciousness of entering the new year stage from the late twelfth lunar month is still widespread in modern times. In rural areas, at this time, instead of being busy with agriculture, you can spend more energy on preparing for the New Year. In the city, except for schools, although there is no holiday yet, the changes in the market, the rendering of advertisements and the work arrangements of various units all make people feel that the New Year is coming. Before New Year's Eve, things like dust removal, cleaning, beautifying the environment and taking a bath will be carried out quickly from now on.

Step 2: keep your age

Although New Year's Eve was the day before the New Year, it was the first climax of the New Year, and it still is. All the holiday preparations must be completed this evening, and there will be a series of activities tomorrow. Housewives should also have a good rest and not be busy for the time being. So the 30th anniversary is often the busiest day, especially for office workers.

Modern people are still used to calling New Year's Eve "New Year's Eve". Those who work or travel outside must get home this afternoon at the latest. Most people come back earlier than this day and will feel great regret for missing New Year's Eve. Great changes are taking place in the urban and rural areas of contemporary China. A large number of rural laborers enter cities, and migrant workers are not afraid of how far away from home, but they are always eager to go home for the New Year. Tens of millions of migrant workers go home for the Spring Festival and return to their workplaces after the Spring Festival, which brings great pressure to the transportation from the middle and late twelfth lunar month to the middle and late first lunar month every year. In addition, compatriots from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and overseas Chinese often choose to visit relatives at this time, thus forming the "Spring Festival travel rush" climax with China characteristics. China city government, especially the transportation department, needs to make special arrangements for "Spring Festival travel rush Peak" every year and spare no effort to guarantee it. However, in the past ten years, although the situation has gradually improved, it is still unimaginable for people who have no personal experience to buy tickets at railway stations, bus stations and airports, the arrogance of ticket sellers (commonly known as "scalpers") and the crowded and chaotic waiting scenes. This has become a new feature of Chinese New Year in China. There are many superficial reasons for its formation, and the deep reasons are inseparable from traditional customs and concepts.

In order to respect traditional customs and appease migrant workers who really can't go home, all localities attach great importance to their life during the Chinese New Year and sometimes organize recreational activities for them. Since ancient times, wanderers have written many sad songs about homesickness besides at night. Today, it is still a pity that I can't go home and reunite with my relatives during the New Year. In China, no matter the north or the south, no matter which nationality, almost all people have the same heart, which is the real source of the enduring folk custom of the Spring Festival in China for thousands of years.

There are many traditional ceremonies on New Year's Eve, such as hanging gods to worship ancestors, offering sacrifices to gods, and even bowing down and kowtowing. This set was still very popular until the 1920s and 1930s, especially in the homes of some squires. For example, the four Lu families in Luzhen, Shaoxing described in Lu Xun's novel Blessing are typical.

The modern trend is that this set is gradually disappearing from simplification, but the speed of change is not balanced. In some places, some people become slow, and they can still see the fragments of old musical instruments. As for the traditional hanging pine, hanging peach symbols, sticking to the door, setting off firecrackers and so on. , which means exorcism and witchcraft, and deformed preservation. Modern people still like to leave the door open, hang green branches, arrange flowers indoors, stick Spring Festival couplets on the door (such as lucky money, Fu Lushou, Guandi and Guanyin Samsung) or stick the word "Fu" upside down; I still like setting off firecrackers or fireworks. In recent years, the patterns and sizes of fireworks have developed greatly. However, most modern people only do this to beautify the environment, increase happiness and entertain themselves, and pay little or no attention to the traditional meaning of praying, wishing and expelling furtiveness. In the process of folklore inheritance, the form remains the same but the connotation is different, and it is a regular phenomenon that the old tradition is skillfully combined with the factors of the times.

Due to the development of modern media, as well as the response and deliberate forging to the enthusiastic response of the people, a new Chinese New Year custom is taking shape, that is, family reunion and watching the Spring Festival Gala on New Year's Eve every year. In Japan, watching the "Red and White Songs" is * * *. Family reunion on New Year's Eve is a traditional holiday custom. In the past, it was mostly to worship ancestors, and families sat around, chatting and having dinner to celebrate the New Year. Adults like to play mahjong or poker, while children hold lucky money and set off fireworks and firecrackers, waiting for the New Year bell to ring. Now, in addition to business as usual, you can also watch CCTV's Spring Festival Gala, which makes it more interesting to stay in Taiwan on New Year's Eve. 1983, China CCTV organized and broadcast the Spring Festival Gala for the first time, which was very popular. Since then, it has been held every year for 20 years and has become a reserved program that has attracted the attention of the entertainment circle and the public. In an era when televisions were rare, this program not only reunited the whole family, but even brought together several neighbors and even the whole village. With the popularity of TV sets, the scale of reunion has shrunk, but it is still a prominent phenomenon for the whole family to sit around and watch this program on New Year's Eve. As mentioned above, it is the main content to arrange entertainment activities for migrant workers who stay in the city for the New Year and let them watch the Spring Festival Gala. Some people question the various problems of the Spring Festival Gala, especially its organizational process and artistic quality. Admittedly, there are many places that need to be improved, and the world that can be put into use is extremely vast, but it must continue, and the only and most fundamental reason is that the people of the whole country need it. If the broadcast and watching of the Spring Festival Gala becomes a healthy new folk custom due to long-term persistence and continuous improvement, it is a good thing anyway.

3. Happy New Year

Traditional New Year greetings are an effective means to strengthen and lubricate interpersonal relationships. Modern people have a deeper understanding of this and are more conscious of their actions.

Sleep, so the wind has not faded, there is development.

Since the founding of New China, in addition to the traditional New Year greeting activities among relatives, friends, colleagues, teachers and students, it has also inherited the form of "group worship", that is, within a certain range or group circle, choose a place and agree on a time for organized collective New Year greetings. This is not only a meaningful activity, but also simplifies and reduces the procedures and time for personal visits. And in doing so, there is no constraint between very close people. In addition to group worship, you may still want to visit alone. After a long time, the form of group worship has also changed slightly. Generally speaking, before the official annual leave, it is held in various units or groups. On this day, everyone who can attend will attend, and even bring their families (mainly underage children). At the get-together, the leaders of the unit spoke, colleagues chatted, performed some programs and ate sweets and peanuts, which was not only the farewell at the end of the year, but also the group worship in the New Year. This practice is becoming more and more popular and has formed a custom. In some large units, in order to avoid the tedious work of subordinates to pay New Year greetings to their superiors, some leading groups also practice New Year greetings. Usually, a day is chosen before the year, attended by officials at all levels, and a simple ceremony is held to exchange year-end condolences and New Year wishes. Although the Spring Festival reception hosted by the State Council and CPPCC is a political activity (it can be traced back to the Yuan Dynasty in ancient court, but its nature and form are fundamentally different), it also means to pay a New Year call to all walks of life in the country by meeting representatives from all walks of life-this meaning is often pointed out directly in the host's speech-and it has also formed a habit and evolved into a new folk custom.

The annual leave time is limited, but there are many people who need to pay New Year greetings, and some people are not in one place. What should I do? The ancient people in China took the form of sending a name thorn (saying my name, hometown, official position and greeting) rather than visiting in person. The original purpose of tattooing this name is only to announce the name, and it has nothing to do with New Year's greetings. This appeared in the Qin and Han Dynasties. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the audience with the elders and nobles was often given permission before they formally met. In the Song Dynasty, the famous thorn was used to commemorate the New Year's festival, but it was not limited to the New Year. The careful "Return to the Heart and Miscellaneous Knowledge" said: "It is common for those who can't kiss each other with a bunch of thorns to be thrown by a servant over and over again." What is said here is "the gift of exchanging greetings", which shows its wide application. The same book also said: "Nowadays, customs have become very thin. There used to be big and small shapes. The big shape is all paper, and the small shape is half paper. This time, the thorn is too big, and it is full of palms, which shows that the ceremony is thin. " It seems that the famous thorn of Song people developed late, and its size is quite similar to today's business cards. Giving names to thorns has great advantages in completing etiquette and saving time, but it has also become a cold ceremony and has been criticized by people. In modern times, due to the progress of written media and combined with foreign experience, New Year cards and New Year cards were developed. In this way, it is not only convenient for postal services in a country to pay New Year greetings, but also not difficult to pay New Year greetings to friends all over the world. A few years ago, with the rapid development of China Telecom, the telephone became popular, the cost gradually decreased, and people with faster and faster pace of life turned to telephone to pay New Year greetings. In recent years, with the rapid development of electronic technology, computers have entered thousands of households. Therefore, it is very common to send greeting cards online to pay New Year greetings, and the folk custom of paying New Year greetings has entered an omnipotent virtual space. This is also in line with the concept of saving paper and precious wood resources.

With the continuous development of science and technology, human communication tools will make great progress. What new changes will be made in the way of Chinese New Year in the future? It's hard to predict the details. But the fact that mobile phones have more and more functions is enough to make people believe that the younger generation will get more and more interesting new contact methods, including the way to pay New Year greetings. It should be pointed out that no matter how the form changes, the New Year greeting is always a folk relic, and its essence is always to promote or lubricate interpersonal relationships. The constant change of form and the relative stability of essence are thus dialectically and harmoniously unified. As long as the essence remains unchanged, the more diverse and modern the forms, the better.

Of course, anything that goes too far will inevitably become negative. In the Song Dynasty, the lesson of paying New Year's greetings by stabbing people's names became a false ceremony for literati, which deserves serious attention in time when the virtual electronic world is expanding infinitely. Imagine that if the old drawbacks reappear, the true feelings expressed by people through scientific and technological means are not from the heart, but modern gifts. Isn't that actually the cancellation and denial of the simple nature of the folk custom of New Year greetings?

4. welcome the god of wealth

Visiting the God of Wealth is an important part of the Spring Festival. This kind of activity existed in the past and continued into modern times. Many local chronicles

There is a record of welcoming the god of wealth on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. There are many ways of greeting, such as kowtowing to the temple, offering money, saluting and praying, and lighting candles and hanging statues at home and burning incense to worship. Qing Tongzhi wrote in the "Shanghai County Records": "On the fifth day (the first month), I received the god of wealth, sold fish with fresh carp, and said,' Send the silver ingot fish'. At dusk, I will drink and say' God of Wealth Wine' ". This is a move with the meaning of praying for witchcraft. In the north, there is a custom of "breaking the Five Years" and "sending the poor" on this day. The former stipulates that you can't break utensils and say unlucky things on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, while the latter salutes the "poor" with a certain ceremony, which should be an activity of taboo and blessing. Whether praying, taboo or praying, the motive is to drive away poverty and hope for wealth. Because it is an auspicious day to welcome the god of wealth, many businesses attach great importance to it. Often the day before, there was a sacrifice to the god of wealth, fish and fruits were placed on the long table, incense was lit, and the boss led the clerk to bow down and pray one by one, and then set off firecrackers. When the store opens the next day, it is expected to be profitable. And those who jump officials, dance the god of wealth and sing happy songs, that is, those who perform and beg in front of the store on this day, the store must not coax them into refusing, but give the performers rice cakes to eat or give some money.

This folk custom has been in a state of relaxation for a long time in New China for various reasons, but it has not only recovered in recent years, but also has a growing trend. It turns out that folk festivals have the names of various gods sacrificed by local people. For example, in 2000, the author participated in the Dragon Head-lifting Festival in Zhao County, Hebei Province, and in the greenhouse built in the square, he witnessed more than 0/00 tablets of gods and bodhisattvas enshrined by the people in the four townships, and the gods were crowded under one shed. Only the god of wealth enjoys the treatment of living alone in a shed without mixing with the gods. The villagers worship and offer sacrifices, and they will also get separate, special and richer incense sticks. It can be inferred that the god of wealth occupies a high position in the minds of today's people.

Ordinary festivals are still like this, and the New Year to welcome the God of Wealth is of course more grand. The specific dates and practices vary from place to place, either in the first day or in the second day, with the fifth day being the most common. But no matter which day, there must be a move to meet the god of wealth in the New Year, and the whole country is no exception from south to north. For example, in Northeast China, the God of Wealth is worshipped the next day and welcomed on the fifth day. According to the fact that Wu Yun's fifth day is the birthday of the God of Wealth, also known as "Five-way God of Wealth Day", there are various opinions about the so-called Five-way God of Wealth, or that Wu Yun was a brother who robbed the rich and helped the poor before his death, and his nature remained unchanged after his death. Or Yunnai East Road is auspicious, West Road is rich, South Road is favorable, North Road is precious, and Middle Road is mysterious. Among them, Tan Xuan Marshal Zhao Gongming is the most respected God of Wealth. In addition, there are many people from Wenhe, such as Bi Gan, Guan Di and Cai Bo. People only pay attention to the god of wealth, burning incense from the first day to the fifth day, and on the fifth day, they will burn lanterns and whip and offer sacrifices, and bow to it devoutly.

According to the "Shanghai County Records", it is very popular in the Yangtze River estuary to welcome the God of Wealth with live carp. During the Chinese New Year, people of all ages like to hang live carp on the paper-printed dragon gate, which intuitively means "carp yue longmen". People think that carp yue longmen has become a dragon. "Fish-shaped dragon" means a complete change of fate and a great leap in status. From then on, we will have good luck, scholars will become officials, businessmen will get rich, and so on. It is said that there is such a wind in the north. The northeast is the god of wealth, but also live carp, two red ones, tied with red silk thread, surrounded by the middle. This is called "one fish and two waters", and it is also called "Qing Ji has more than enough".

Shanghai has always had a strong commercial atmosphere, and people are very concerned about wealth, so it is natural to pay special attention to welcoming the God of Wealth during the Spring Festival. In recent years, due to the open economic policy, production and commerce have become more prosperous. Businessmen feel that business is easy to do and money is easy to make. Endless business opportunities have aroused their endless desires and made them have greater expectations for making a fortune. Even ordinary people hope that their income will improve next year, such as improving their grades, raising their wages or winning prizes. Therefore, from the evening of the fourth day to the early morning of the fifth day, except for places where firecrackers are strictly prohibited, the whole city is bound to hear firecrackers, and the four fields are constantly ringing, which is even worse than New Year's Eve. It turns out that Shanghainese used to go to the temple to burn incense and pray in the early morning of the first day of New Year's Day. Nowadays, more people, especially young people and businessmen, prefer to burn incense on the fifth day of the lunar new year, which is more conducive to welcoming the god of wealth. Therefore, several famous temples in Shanghai, such as Jing 'an, Jade Buddha, Longhua and Old Town God Temple, are bound to be crowded this day. Take Longhua Temple as an example, the number of people rushing to burn incense on the fifth day of each year is increasing year by year. By last year, there was almost a phenomenon of "overcrowding". Even people who paid a high price to burn incense on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year may not be able to get in. Tickets for entering the temple on the fifth day of junior high school are more and more expensive, which brings considerable income to the temple and also produces new forms of corruption. Some people think this kind of ticket is a good bribe. Some businessmen not only try to burn incense on their heads, but also buy this ticket for relevant officials, which is similar in nature to smearing the mouth of the kitchen god with honey.

Welcoming the revival of the custom of God of Wealth can reveal the psychological and living conditions of some people in China today. They don't want to stay poor, but they are expected to become rich, or they are already quite rich, but still not enough. Therefore, although they know that the blessing of God of Wealth is illusory, they would rather believe it than ignore it or offend it. Modern people's welcome to the god of wealth is an inheritance of ancient rituals of offering sacrifices and praying for ghosts and gods, but its connotation has changed greatly. In short, the fear of God is greatly weakened, and the motivation to be a man is particularly prominent. In the inheritance of folk customs, the relationship between form and connotation is very complicated and subtle.

5. celebrate the lantern festival

Lantern Festival is a festival, which lasts for three days from the 15th to 17th of the first month, and has a set of established routes.

Things are standardized, and it is also a part of the Spring Festival. After the Lantern Festival, the Spring Festival officially ended. Lantern Festival was originally related to offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors, such as offering sacrifices to the goddess of the ancient countryside, which was set on this day. However, as mentioned above, Lantern Festival was an annual national carnival in ancient times. For two thousand years, these two meanings have been inherited, but the degree of inheritance is different. At present, the situation of Lantern Festival in various places is roughly as follows: although the act of offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors still exists, it has been simply omitted, and some contents such as offering sacrifices to the gods of the valley have disappeared; The focus of the festival is more on commercial sales, folk food and entertainment, and the color of "being human" is increasingly strong. But like the Tang and Song Dynasties, the royal family, nobles, officials and people participated in the whole city, but it never happened again. There are many reasons for this situation, mainly because of the legalization of the Spring Festival holiday (seven days) and the continuous enrichment of its contents (including the relocation of some activities, such as the choice of temple fairs held in various places during the Spring Festival holiday), while the Lantern Festival has no holidays, most people have to go to work, and only rural areas have leisure time, so its excitement is at least weakened in cities, while the carnival of the ancient Lantern Festival is mainly in cities. Compared with ancient times, today's Lantern Festival is hardly a carnival. At present, there are three legal holidays in China, namely May Day, November Day and Spring Festival. Is it possible that one of them will turn into a new carnival? It also depends on the development of holiday customs.

An important part of the ancient Lantern Festival was watching lanterns. There are many names and patterns of lanterns, which are scattered in Tokyo's Chinese Dream and other ancient records. As a traditional folk craft, making lanterns has spread to modern times, and its evolution trend is that the skills of making handmade paper and silk are gradually declining, and some stunts even die because of the death of folk artists. However, with the intervention of modern scientific and technological means, Lantern Festival lanterns have been reborn. On the one hand, the new giant lanterns compete with each other; on the other hand, there are more and more traditional activities such as watching lanterns and solve riddles on the lanterns. The progress of material production conditions directly leads to the transformation of Lantern Festival lanterns from tradition to modernity.

The special food of Lantern Festival is called Yuanxiao in the north and Zi Yuan or Tangtuan in the south. Although there are all kinds of snacks in the street on this day, Yuanxiao or Tangtuan is an essential food for every family. The size of the Lantern Festival in the north is different from that of jiaozi in the south, but the important difference lies in the practice. One is to repeatedly roll the cut stuffing in slightly wet rice flour (Yuanxiao, larger), and the other is to wrap the stuffing in ground glutinous rice flour (jiaozi, smaller); And because of the different tastes of the north and the south, the fillings are also very different. The stuffing of Yuanxiao is mostly sesame, peanut, adzuki bean and red fruit. There are many kinds of jiaozi, including Ningshi (Ningbo), Suzhou (Suzhou), Yangzhou (Yangzhou), Guangzhou (Guangzhou) and Sichuan (Chengdu). Ning style, its stuffing is not only kneaded with sesame mixed with diced lard, but also chopped with fresh pork, which is close to Cantonese style, while Yang style is also stuffed with dried vegetables. It is worth noting that in recent years, southern jiaozi has quite a tendency to invade the north. In 1950s and 1960s, Beijing couldn't buy southern jiaozi. In the 1980s and 1990s, food stores in Beijing could see southern jiaozi everywhere at any time. This is an example of the food customs in the south flowing to the north.

On the fifteenth day of the first month, every household eats jiaozi and Yuanxiao, and the grand occasion remains the same. This round glutinous rice dessert was originally used to worship ancestors and gods in ancient times, but now it has become a popular food. After eating the Lantern Festival jiaozi, the New Year is really over, and the Lantern Festival marks a perfect end to the traditional New Year in China.