What's New Year's Eve like in China?

New Year's Eve has a special meaning in the hearts of China people. On the most important day at the end of this year, no matter how far away, the wanderers have to rush home to reunite with their families, say goodbye to the old year with firecrackers and set off fireworks everywhere to welcome the new year.

The last day of Nian is called Nian, and that night is called New Year's Eve. It is connected with the beginning and end of the new year, and is called "the end of the poor month, the end of the new year". This is New Year's Eve, and it is also an important time node to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. Because New Year's Eve usually falls on the 29th or 30th of the twelfth lunar month, it is also called New Year's Eve. On New Year's Eve, people pay special attention to it. Every household is busy cleaning the courtyard, saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new, decorating the lanterns and welcoming the ancestors home for the New Year, and offering sacrifices with rice cakes, three sacrificial meals and three teas and five wines. ?

On New Year's Eve, there have been many customs since ancient times, such as offering sacrifices to ancestors, celebrating the 30th anniversary, having a reunion dinner, posting New Year greetings and hanging lanterns, which have been passed down to this day and lasted for a long time. Influenced by Chinese culture, New Year's Eve is also a traditional festival for overseas Chinese in countries with Chinese cultural circles and around the world. In 2007, according to national holidays and anniversaries, New Year's Eve officially became a legal holiday in China. In 20 14, New Year's Eve was adjusted according to the State Council's decision to amend national legal holidays and anniversaries, and it was no longer a legal holiday in China.

New Year's Eve is extremely important for China people. On this day, people are ready to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, and have a family reunion dinner. Family is the cornerstone of China society, and the annual reunion dinner fully shows the mutual respect and care among family members in China, which makes the relationship between families closer. Family reunion often comforts and satisfies the head of the family spiritually. The old people see their children and grandchildren all over the house, and the family is happy. The care and hard work of raising children in the past were not in vain. How happy this is. The younger generation can also take this opportunity to express their gratitude to their parents for their parenting. ?

Eating New Year's Eve is the most lively and enjoyable time for every family to celebrate the New Year. On New Year's Eve, a table was full of rich New Year's dishes, and the family got together and sat around the table. * * * There are big dishes, cold dishes, stir-fried dishes and snacks on the table. Generally, there are two things, one is hot pot and the other is fish. The hot pot is boiling, steaming, warm and sultry, which indicates that it is thriving; "Fish" and "fish" are homophonic, which is a symbol of "auspicious celebration is more than enough" and also a metaphor for "more than enough every year". There are also radishes, commonly known as vegetable heads. Good luck. Lobster, fried fish and other fried foods, wish your family prosperity, such as "cooking oil with fire"

There are many famous dishes on the New Year's Eve, which are different in North and South, and each has its own emphasis. Northerners are used to eating jiaozi during Chinese New Year, which has been handed down from ancient times. The people at the bottom of the ancient north had a hard life, and it was their greatest hope not to go hungry all the year round. Food to improve their lives can only be eaten on major festivals and special days, and jiaozi, which is listed as the best food, is also the worst, so they eat jiaozi whenever they have the chance. ?

Sticking Year Red and Year Red are the general names of red festive elements such as Spring Festival couplets, door gods, window grilles, New Year pictures and blessings. Posting New Year greetings (Spring Festival) is a long-standing folk custom in China, which places people's longing for a happy life and wishes for a bright future.

Spring Festival couplets

According to the records in Jade Candle Collection and Yanjing Chronicle, the original form of Spring Festival couplets is what people call "Fu Tao". Spring Festival couplets are also called door couplets, spring stickers, couplets, couplets and peach symbols. They depict the background of the times and express good wishes with neat, dual, concise and delicate words, which are unique literary forms in China. Every Spring Festival, no matter in urban or rural areas, every household should choose a pair of bright red Spring Festival couplets and stick them on the door to add festive atmosphere to the festival. This custom began in the Song Dynasty and was popular in the Ming Dynasty. By the Qing Dynasty, the ideological and artistic quality of Spring Festival couplets had been greatly improved. Liang Zhangju's monograph Poetry of Spring Festival couplets discusses the origin of couplets and the characteristics of various works. There are many kinds of Spring Festival couplets, which can be divided into door heart, frame pair, cross string, spring strip and bucket square according to the place of use. The "door core" is attached to the center of the upper end of the door panel; The "door frame pair" is attached to the left and right door frames; "Cross-dressing" is posted on the crossbar of the door; "Spring strips" are posted in corresponding places according to different contents; "Dou Jin", also known as "door leaf", is a square diamond, often attached to furniture and screen walls. ?

Paper-cut for window decoration

In China, people also like to stick paper-cuts on window grilles. Window grilles not only set off the festive atmosphere, but also integrate decoration, appreciation and practicality. Paper-cutting is a very popular folk art in China, which has been loved by people for thousands of years. Because it is often pasted on the window, it is also called "window grilles". With its unique generalization and exaggeration, window grilles show auspicious things and good wishes incisively and vividly, and decorate festivals with colorful colors. ?

Paper-cutting is a very popular folk art in China, which has been deeply loved by people for thousands of years. Later, because most of the paper-cuts were pasted on the windows, the window grilles were named after them. The theme of window grilles is extremely extensive. Dramatic figures, historical legends, flowers, birds, fish and insects, landscapes, real life and auspicious patterns can all be the contents of window grilles, which can be described as ubiquitous. However, the most common patterns are flowers, plants and animals, which are auspicious and auspicious, and often take "auspicious and festive", "good weather and good luck", "abundant crops", "prosperous six animals", "more than every year, more than every year" and "precious flowers and birds" as the themes. ?

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While putting up Spring Festival couplets, some people have to put large and small "Fu" characters on doors, walls and lintels. Sticking the word "Fu" during the Spring Festival is a long-standing folk custom in China. The word "Fu" symbolizes good luck and wishes for a happy life and a bright future. In order to fully reflect this yearning and wish, some people simply paste the word "Fu" upside down, indicating that "Fu has arrived" and "Fu has fallen (arrived)". In fact, the word "fu" can't be pasted backwards. The gate is the place to greet Fu, and the word "Fu" should be pasted correctly. Generally, the place where the word "Fu" is pasted upside down is the water tank, trash can and cabinet at home. In China, the word "Fu" is carefully depicted and made into various patterns, such as longevity, longevity peach, carp yue longmen, abundant grains, dragons and phoenixes, and so on. ?

New Year picture

Hanging New Year pictures during the Spring Festival is also very common in urban and rural areas. Thick black and colorful New Year pictures add a lot of prosperity and festive atmosphere to thousands of families. New Year pictures are an ancient folk art in China, which reflects people's simple customs and beliefs and places their hopes on the future. New Year pictures, like Spring Festival couplets, originated from "door gods". With the rise of block printing, the content of New Year pictures is not limited to monotonous themes such as door gods, but has become rich and colorful. ?

Firecrackers There is a saying in China that "open the door and set off firecrackers". That is, when the new year comes, the first thing for every household to open the door is to set off firecrackers to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. Firecrackers are a specialty of China, also known as "firecrackers" and "firecrackers". They were written as "blasting poles" in the Tang Dynasty and also called "paper cannons" and "firecrackers" in southern China. If many individual firecrackers are connected in a string, they are called firecrackers, whips and whips. Setting off firecrackers can create a festive and lively atmosphere, which is a kind of entertainment in festivals and can bring happiness and good luck to people. ?

Regarding the evolution of firecrackers, Excellent Popular Arrangement records: "Ancient firecrackers. They are all popular with real bamboo, so Tang poetry is also called explosive pole. Later people roll paper for it. It's called firecrackers. With the passage of time, firecrackers are more and more widely used, and there are more and more varieties and colors. Setting off firecrackers has become a kind of entertainment with national characteristics. People set off firecrackers to celebrate the old year and the new year. ?

In ancient times, this custom was very popular. Due to different local customs and habits, the forms of ancestor worship are also different. Some go to the wild to sweep graves, and some go to the ancestral temple to worship their ancestors. Most of them put their ancestral tablets in the main hall in turn at home to show their worship, and then worshippers worship them in order of age. The ancients worshipped their ancestors, mostly making fish tanks filled with high bowls, which meant ringing the bell for dinner. Southerners pay special tribute to their ancestors. Most of them are eight bowls of big dishes, with hot pot in the middle, and cups and chopsticks are placed according to the spirit position. On New Year's Eve, New Year's Day and Lantern Festival, the hot pot is fanned out and the dishes are changed at any time. On New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, vegetarian cakes will be made, and on the last night, Lantern Festival will be held. Burn incense and kowtow every morning and evening and offer new tea. Although the forms of ancestor worship are different, most of them are hanging shadows on New Year's Eve, and the confession was withdrawn on the last night of the Yuan Dynasty. They are close to their relatives and friends. When they visit the New Year, they should also knock on the ancestral temple. They should not only pursue the future cautiously, but also preserve their virtue of respecting their ancestors.

In some parts of China, there is a custom of going to the grave on New Year's Eve, which is called giving new year's goods. The time to go to the grave is usually New Year's Eve afternoon. People send the prepared New Year's Eve dinner to the graves of their deceased relatives, so that the deceased relatives and the living can enjoy the delicious food on New Year's Eve together, in order to pin people's grief over their deceased relatives.

Keeping New Year's Eve is one of the annual customs, and it has a long history. The folk custom of keeping the old age is mainly manifested in that every household is lit with New Year's fire, and the whole family gets together to keep the "New Year's fire" burning all the time, waiting for the moment to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. On New Year's Eve, the lights were on all night. It is said that all houses light candles, especially under the bed, which is called "wasting light". It is said that after such lighting, the family's wealth will be more abundant in the coming year. In ancient times, the north and the south had different customs. In ancient northern China, the custom of keeping old was mainly "staying up all night" (vigil all night). For example, in the "Local Records" written at the beginning of the Jin Dynasty, it is said that everyone gives gifts on New Year's Eve, which is called "for the old"; Young and old get together and wish a complete song called "age division"; Sleeping all the year round, waiting for dawn, is called "guarding the age". In some places, on New Year's Eve, the whole family get together, eat New Year's Eve, light candles or oil lamps, sit around the fire and chat, and keep vigil all night, which symbolizes driving away all evil diseases and looking forward to good luck in the new year. ?

Hanging lanterns for the New Year is an ancient custom in China. Red symbolizes happiness, while round lanterns symbolize reunion and happiness. Red lanterns symbolize peace, harmony and prosperity. Lanterns in China are also called lanterns. It is said that it originated in the Western Han Dynasty more than 1800 years ago. Every year around New Year's Eve, people hang red lanterns symbolizing reunion to create a festive atmosphere. On New Year's Eve, a red lantern is hung at the door, a raging fire is burning in the hall, candles or oil lamps are lit, and the family is talking around the table. ?

Lucky money is one of the New Year customs in China. After dinner, the elders should distribute the lucky money prepared in advance to the younger generation. It is said that lucky money can kill evil spirits, and the younger generation can spend the first year safely when they get lucky money. Lucky money has the meaning of exorcising evil spirits and keeping peace in folk culture. The original intention of lucky money is to suppress evil and drive away evil. Because people think that children are easy to be invisible, they use lucky money to suppress evil spirits. There are many kinds of lucky money in history, which are generally distributed to the younger generation by the elders during the countdown to the New Year, indicating pressure and containing the care and sincere wishes of the elders to the younger generation; The other is given to the elderly by the younger generation. The "year" of this lucky money refers to the age and is intended to expect the elderly to live longer. Lucky money, also known as winning money, which can be traced back to the Han Dynasty, is not circulated in the market, but cast as an ornamental in the form of coins, which has the function of avoiding evil spirits. ?

Giving lucky money in the New Year reflects the care of the elders for the younger generation and the respect of the younger generation for the elders. It is a folk activity that integrates family ethics.

When New Year's Eve comes, people are forbidden to celebrate festivals and harvest, while taking a bath, changing clothes and cleaning to drive away epidemics and evil spirits. New Year's Eve taboos circulated among the people;

1, the word "fu" cannot be posted backwards. The gate is a place to welcome Fu, and the word "Fu" is posted directly. Generally, the places where the word "Fu" is pasted upside down are water tanks and garbage bins. ?

2. If the door of your house faces the door of your neighbor's house, you can hang two Chinese knots on the door frame outside your house to avoid disadvantages. ?

3. Avoid pouring sewage, taking out garbage, discarding sundries, sweeping the floor, sprinkling water and urinating everywhere. It is said that if you are not careful, it will spill on the immortal, and the immortal's anger will bring disaster to people. ?

Don't turn off the light at home and keep it on all night, whether you keep your birthday or not, which means the bright future. ?

Remember to pay off the debt before the new year. If you have been in debt for the New Year, you can't come to collect debts from the first day to the fifth day. ?

6, avoid saying unlucky words. ?

7. Fish is a must-have dish for Chinese New Year. When eating fish, leave the head and tail behind, which means that there will be not only food and clothing, but also a surplus in the coming year.