Northeast Chinese New Year special customs

Customs with Chinese New Year characteristics in Northeast China;

When I was a child, I often looked forward to the New Year. "Children are most looking forward to the New Year." That's right. During the New Year in China, we can have fun, laugh, set off firecrackers and light lanterns ... In short, the Year belongs to our paradise. Even if we make some mistakes, parents can "tolerate" it, because adults also like Chinese New Year. But now the whole family has moved to cities in the south of the Yangtze River. Every Spring Festival, I often hear my father's feelings: "This year is getting less and less interesting."

In the twelfth lunar month, my father often sits at the dinner table, drinks a little wine and tells me about the Chinese New Year custom in the rural areas of Northeast China. Now I have sorted out some customs of Chinese New Year in rural areas in Northeast China, so that those faded folk memories will warm up in remembrance. In this way, the Spring Festival is coming.

Tie lanterns

In Northeast China and Harbin, tying lanterns and hanging red lights on New Year's Eve are the most festive and vivid folk activities. As soon as we enter the twelfth lunar month, every household is busy with the New Year's Eve dinner, and every window is covered with red lanterns. Lantern is a kind of affection, a beautiful tribute to the years by the people in the north, and an annual custom activity that is suitable for all ages and everyone can participate in together. Legend has it that there are three ways to hang a red light: one is to celebrate, the other is to be auspicious, and the third is to greet the dead old man. They may not find their home after walking for too long, so they hang a red light to let them see their home clearly and go home for reunion. This is the gratitude and yearning of the simple northeast people for their ancestors.

In the first year of killing pigs, the whole family is happy, and in winter, bean bags talk about ghosts.

Killing pigs is an important way for Northeast people to welcome the New Year. Killing pigs in the twelfth lunar month is the coldest time of the year, and it is also the prelude to the arrival of "Year". On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, every family began to prepare for the New Year, catch up with new year's goods, do new year's goods and kill pigs, which was very lively and prosperous. Nowadays, killing pigs has become an important tourist activity. You can experience the rich northeast flavor through activities such as cook the meat, blood-enriching, and eating pork-killing dishes.

In the twelfth lunar month, in addition to killing pigs, every household must pack sticky bean bags, which is one of the favorite staple foods of northerners. Black land is rich in yellow rice. The yellow rice is washed, ground into powder, sieved and mixed into flour, heated moderately on a hot kang, and then wrapped with cooked red bean stuffing to make bean bags. Whether it's steamed or fried, it smells good. In the past, the old lady had to lead the big girls and little wives to work together. In order to prevent drowsiness, the old man tells "lies" while wrapping beans, and there is a saying that "wrapping beans in winter tells ghosts".

To fish, first boil the ice and collect it as an ice lantern.

In winter in the northeast, the cold ice and snow are covered with thick ice. People use a tool called an ice shovel to cut through the thick ice layer, and then catch fresh fish under the ice layer. This is called "winter fishing". "Winter fishing" has a long history. At present, there are not many intact primitive fishing activities in the world. Chagan Lake holds a grand fishing festival every winter. On the ice, people can participate in bonfire parties, fish festivals, lakes and other ceremonies to experience winter fishing activities.

Northeast China is an ideal place to make ice lanterns. People use ice cutters to get ice on the lake, and then use big ropes to drag the ice out of the water and transfer it away. At the ice lantern production site, old artists and young sculptors set about designing and carving. At night, ten thousand ice lanterns shine, and people swim in them, just like a fairyland.

Paste the ceiling with paper

Paste shed is a common decoration work in rural areas of Northeast China in 1970s, which is similar to the current decoration of house roofs. The house has been built, but it is always not a problem to look up and see the beams in the house. It's neither elegant nor hygienic. Therefore, anyone who can get by and loves cleanliness hangs a shed. Of course, the hanging shed is naturally not a ceiling or something. Besides, the countryside at that time could not afford this. In order to save trouble, some people pull a large piece of plastic cloth as the ceiling in their own houses, and more people hang sheds with sorghum stalks smeared with yellow mud. After the shed, some old newspapers and books were found and pasted, which became the so-called paste shed. Paste shed is a craft job, and there is no room for carelessness. At that time, there were several people in Northeast China who were very popular: one master of ceremonies, two carpenters, three bricklayers and four teachers of yin and yang. This paste shed should rank fifth.

Paint the wall with plaster.

There is a special wallpaper, but it is not the high-grade wallpaper for decorating rooms today, but the blue printed paper used by rural people to paste mud walls in the 1960 s and 1970 s. Northerners call it paste shed paper. It is as thick as a newspaper, one foot square and huge in flowers. Against a white background, it is full of folk flavor. Store 100 pieces are sold by the knife, and each piece of paper is two or three yuan. If you just paste the roof of the shed, three knives of paper will be enough, and four walls will cost about ten knives. First, lay a knife of paper flat on the table, dip it in a small amount of paste with a brush and brush it gently along the four sides. After brushing, pick up a piece of paper and hand it to the people in the paste shed. The people in the paste shed carefully held the paper and began to paste it from the top of the shed. Put it in your mouth with a broom, wipe it from top to bottom after pasting, and smooth the wrinkles caused by uneven pasting.