New Year custom

On New Year's Day, people usually set off firecrackers, worship various gods and kill chickens and geese. Major local stations will also hold New Year's Eve parties, perform and celebrate, and the whole family will sit around and watch and have dinner, which will be round, warm and happy.

The following are specific customs:

Drink pepper and cypress wine

It has appeared in the four-person monthly order of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Pepper is Chinese prickly ash. The ancients said that pepper is the essence of jade star, with fragrant smell, which makes people light and anti-aging. Cypress is a cypress leaf, which is regarded as an elixir by the ancients and can avoid all diseases. Zanthoxylum bungeanum and cypress can be soaked in wine separately, or they can be put into wine together for drinking. Drinking pepper and cypress wine can cure diseases and prolong life. Drinking pepper and cypress wine has spread among the people so far, and it has been practiced in Licheng, Shandong Province and Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province in the Ming Dynasty.

Eat dumplings

Eating jiaozi on New Year's Day was popular in northern Ming and Qing dynasties. For example, wanping county, a suburb of Beijing, said in the Wanbu Miscellanies written by Shen Bang during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty that "you can live a long life by making a flat food on the first day of the New Year." Eating rice cakes on New Year's Day was very popular in Ming and Qing Dynasties, especially in the south. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Volume II of Scenery of the Imperial Capital recorded that on the first day of the first month, "I was excited to wash, eat jujube cakes and eat rice cakes every day". In Jiajing, Hebei Province in the north, Wei County recorded that local people ate "steamed mutton cakes".

Setting off firecrackers

Setting off firecrackers is a traditional folk custom in China, which has a history of more than two thousand years. According to legend, it was to drive away a monster named Nian. At midnight, the New Year bell rang and firecrackers shook the whole sky of China. In this "three yuan" moment of "year yuan", "month yuan" and "time yuan", some places still set up "Wang Huo" in the courtyard, which means that the air is prosperous and prosperous. It pinned the good wishes of the working people in China for good luck.

Drink peach soup

That is, the leaves, branches and stems of peaches are boiled and drunk. The ancients used peach as the essence of the five elements, which could resist evil spirits. Be a hundred ghosts, so drink them. Eating soup cake: ancient food, wheat flour products boiled in water. Soup cakes are noodles. In Song Dynasty, noodles and other foods were very popular on New Year's Day. Ancient superstitions were used to exorcise ghosts and welcome the New Year.

The origin of New Year's Day

In ancient China, New Year's Day refers to the first day of the summer calendar (lunar calendar and lunar calendar), that is, the first day of the first month. In western and modern China, New Year's Day refers to the first day of the first year of the year. Since the Gregorian calendar was introduced to China, the word New Year's Day has been used to mean the New Year.

According to legend, China's New Year's Day began in Zhuan Xu, one of the three emperors and five emperors, with a history of more than 5,000 years. The word "New Year's Day" first appeared in the Book of Jin: "March is the spring of New Year's Day". More than 4,000 years ago, when Emperor Yao was in power, he was diligent and loved the people, but his son was incompetent. He did not pass on the position of "emperor" to his son, but to Shun, who has both ability and political integrity. Later, Shun passed the throne to Yu, who made great contributions to flood control. Yu also did many good things for people like Shun. Later, after Yao's death, people took the day of offering sacrifices to heaven and earth and the first emperor Yao as the beginning of the year, and called the first day of the first month "New Year's Day" or "Jacky". This is the ancient New Year in China.

New Year's Day in the west began in 40 BC, when the Egyptians discovered that Sirius rose with the sun and the Nile rose immediately. Egypt takes the day when the Nile rises as the beginning of the New Year. 46 years ago, in order to bless the double-faced god "janus" (the door god in Roman mythology), Caesar designated this day as the beginning of the Western New Year. "Janus" later evolved into the English word "January".

The custom of New Year's Day varies from place to place. If we want to know more about New Year's Day, we need to study it in our daily life. Traditional festivals carry the glorious history of Chinese civilization for 5,000 years, inherit the wisdom of the ancients and spur the people to make continuous progress. Traditional festivals and excellent traditional culture affect the cultural self-confidence of the people in China, and also contain the tolerance of the people in China. Therefore, we should deeply understand the great social significance and value of tradition, and learn the excellent traditional culture of China better.