Folk Customs and Folkways Essay Tibet

1 The first day of the first month of the lunar calendar to the third day of the first month, the ancient name of Cuiduan, New Year's Day, now known as the Spring Festival, the Fuzhou people called "to do the year", is the most grand, the longest holiday folk festival of the year. At dawn, families open their doors, burn incense and fire cannons to welcome the New Year. This festival tradition has many taboos, say the first word, do the first thing, are concerned about good luck, in order to hope for a year of peace. At the beginning of the New Year, the first sentence to say "congratulations", "fortune", "peace" and other auspicious words, the other side also reported the corresponding good words. On that day, they do not sweep the floor, do not fetch water, do not carry burdens, do not chop firewood, do not wash clothes, do not take a bath, do not get a haircut, and do not say unlucky words. When the whole family woke up, they put on new clothes or wore clothes of the best texture. For breakfast, some eat tai ping ping (thread noodles, chicken and duck eggs) to wish for peace and longevity; some eat nian gao (brown sugar rice cake) to wish for a good year; some elderly people eat vegetarian to pray for a year of peace for the children and grandchildren of the family. On the first day of the year, the younger generation pays New Year's greetings to the elders, who give them New Year's money or candies and oranges.

The first day of the year do not go out, the second and third day of the year, people can visit friends and relatives, congratulate each other on the New Year. As the Qing Dynasty Wu Jijun said in "Fuzhou year bamboo stick lyrics": "Clan new clothes tend to people in front of the courtesy of modest joy; road meet **** bowed, fortune congratulations on the New Year." This is the landscape of Fuzhou Xinzheng in ancient times. People with married daughters should organize spring wine and invite their daughters, son-in-laws and grandchildren back to their mother's home for a feast and reunion. The women of the water boat family (? The women of the water boat family, wearing red flowers on their heads, blue shirts and green pants, and green shoes with cloth soles, boarded the shore in pairs and went from house to house, singing poems to celebrate the New Year in Fuzhou: "Auntie and sister-in-law celebrate the New Year with red umbrella lamps hanging in front of the hall; good? Good kuey teow sends the slaves to go, the golden character boards stand in front of the door." "After the old year, it's a new year, business is booming and you'll make a lot of money; congratulations and peace of mind, send the slave to the door. I'll send you a gift." This is called the "Chiu-mei Poem", which is also a congratulatory poem. It is also a New Year's greeting, which is a poem for good luck. It is also a New Year's greeting to show good luck. During the Spring Festival, Fuzhou streets and alleys, decorated with lanterns, fire trees and silver flowers, laughter, everywhere showing a festive atmosphere.

After the founding of the Chinese People's Republic of China, the party and government leaders at all levels before or during the festival, with gifts to the military martyrs, retired cadres and old labor models, such as the House of New Year's greetings. All relevant departments organize Spring Festival tours, carnivals and cultural evenings. Those old customs with superstitious colors gradually disappeared. In the early nineties, most homes were installed with telephones, and generally relatives and friends used the telephone to pay New Year's greetings to each other, reducing holiday traffic congestion.

Early in the morning on the fourth day, every household, burning incense "to receive God", to meet the stove king back to see things. All walks of life on vacation, firecrackers, stores open for business, factories start work, the authorities began to work. After the nineties, the practice time for adjustment, is now the first eight to work. Some service industries, the Spring Festival is still in business.

2 kinds of flowers, is a multi-ethnic country fifty-six nationalities surrounded by a flower, different nationalities, different flavors. Different customs create different holiday customs and mention holiday customs, I will first think of temple shopping, temple shopping this Beijing custom I believe we have heard a lot about it, but really seen the estimate is not much, then let me lead you to view this interesting folklore.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, temples inside and outside the city of Beijing are organized temple fair, temple fair is a large market. Early in the morning, outside the temple door stalls will yell up, a street was crowded, full of good mood, strolling into the temple door, the first thing that comes to mind is the year of the Chinese Zodiac, fluffy, porcelain, jade dazzling array of things, so that people's eyes. The luscious contraptions are discharged on the container in a neat and orderly manner, which is very eye-catching.

After visiting the exquisite handicrafts, they came to the food street ready to eat a meal, here around the aroma, ten miles away can also smell the fragrance to come. Food Street are snacks, gathered eight delicious, just look, have been drooling three feet play tired, come here, taste all kinds of delicacies, must be comfortable! I heard that the Beijing bazaar Ali Baba lamb kebab taste, meat fat, I can not hold back the excitement, looking for a few veterans, a dozen strings, sitting in a small chair while eating to look at the prosperous city, not happy, lamb kebab really delicious, a company of lamb kebab down, are not addicted, who called the snacks of Beijing, colorful and fragrant full of it?

Eat and drink enough, along with me to continue to view, all the way to the children's world, where there are children playing a variety of games with prizes, but also the New Year before the launch of the rare toys, "airsoft target", "sheep pulling the car", "force splitting Huashan", a variety of, each with its own unique temple games some exciting, some interesting, all let people open their mouths and eyes wide open, a feast for the eyes, the joy of it, I

While I did not play (the feeling of childish!), but these activities allow countless children to play, but also to play with the children's children, and the children's children's children's children's children's children's children's games. But these activities have delighted countless small children.

Play enough, bid farewell to the playground, with me to listen to the "national essence", with the heart to feel the true meaning of culture. Not early to the performance theater, it is really difficult to see the actors on the stage performance, the theater is ten miles and eight layers were surrounded by arts and culture enthusiasts. Here the program is colorful, endless, there are Beijing opera, opera, comedy, sketches, pantomime, etc., one after another, so that the audience off-stage addicted, familiar with the humming on the two songs, do not understand, but also with their hands in the air up and down the gestures, follow the melody, shaking his head, enjoy the sound of the Peking Opera, the sketches of the joy. After the performance of a play, clapping sound resounded throughout the venue, long echoed in the temple fair of the sky.

I jumped east and west, has been sweating like rain, but also enjoy it, although there is no firecracker festivities, but also do not lose the festive atmosphere, but added endless fun, the old temple fair, the new temple fair, east and west, north and south will be a big gathering, it has its own unique charm, it has its own hustle and bustle. The motherland has bred different nationalities, different folk style fifty-six flowers, each with a thousand colors, but the old Beijing's style, but let me for one of the cool!

3 Traditional Chinese festivals - Spring Festival

The first day of the first month of the lunar calendar every year is the Chinese New Year. Among the traditional Chinese festivals, this is one of the most important and lively ones. It is also called "Spring Festival" because it is celebrated at the end of winter and the beginning of spring.

The Chinese have many traditional customs for the Spring Festival. From the 23rd day of the Lunar New Year, people start to prepare for the New Year. During this period of time, families clean up, buy New Year's goods, put up window decorations, hang up New Year's paintings, write Spring Festival couplets, steam New Year's cakes, and make all kinds of food in order to prepare for the old and welcome the new.

The night before the Spring Festival is called New Year's Eve. New Year's Eve is a time for family reunions. The family sits together, eats a sumptuous New Year's Eve dinner, and talks and laughs until dawn, which is called the New Year's Eve celebration. When the clock strikes zero on New Year's Eve, people also eat dumplings. Ancient times called the zero hour for the "Zi Shi", New Year's Eve Zi Shi is the time of the new year and the old year, people at this time to eat dumplings, is to take the meaning of "more years of the child". This is also the origin of the name "gyoza" (饺子).

After New Year's Eve, it is the first day of the Lunar New Year. Starting from the first day of the year, people have to visit their relatives and friends to pay respect to each other. Paying respect to the New Year is an important custom of the Spring Festival. When paying New Year's greetings, everyone has to say some auspicious words wishing for happiness and health.

Customs of the Spring Festival - firecrackers

When the midnight handover is the son of the New Year bell ringing, the whole of China over the land, firecrackers ringing the heavens. In this "year of yuan, the month of yuan, the time of the yuan" of the "three yuan" moment, some places also in the courtyard base "Wang Huo", in order to show that the prosperous gas through the sky, prosperous and prosperous. In the burning fire around the fire, the children set off firecrackers, happy jumping around, this time, the house is bright lights, in front of the court is brilliant sparks, outside the house is the sound of the sky, the New Year's Eve atmosphere pushed to the climax of the bustling.

The sound of firecrackers is a sign of resignation and welcome the new year, the flow of festive mood. Business people. Firecrackers have another meaning: they are in the night of New Year's Eve firecrackers is for the new year a great deal of money. 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 of the golden lion, the right side of the golden phoenix" la! And so on and so forth. There is another is dressed up like the God of Wealth, dressed in red robes, wearing a hat, hanging on the mouth with a 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 clanging gongs and drums, turned 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 searching for Zhejiang is called "out of search", Shanghai is called "Tou Xi God 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, talking 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 are most afraid of small children said slipped out of the mouth, the beginning of the year to speak some less auspicious words, in addition to horizontal care vertical care, some places also use a piece of red cloth or straw paper to the children's mouth wipe, which means that the mouth as a butt, even if the words out of bad luck, but also equal to a fart. There are also people put oranges, lychees on the pillow, called "pressure year fruit". Oranges, lychees harmonic "auspicious", in order to seek good luck in the coming year. There is also a custom in some areas, is to steal the God of Fortune statue, and steal it to hide it in the crotch of the pants, in order to take the "God of Fortune into the library (pants)" the meaning of this idiom. In these whimsical and interesting customs, buried in how many generations of hardworking people pander to the God of Fortune's good intentions.

The morning of the Spring Festival, open the door, the first firecrackers, called "open the door cannonball". After the sound of firecrackers, broken red all over the ground, brilliant as a cloud of brocade, known as "full red". At this time, the street is full of gas, joyful.

Customs of the Spring Festival - window decals

The Spring Festival, people in many areas like to put a variety of paper cutouts on the window a window flower. Window flowers not only set a festive atmosphere, but also bring people the enjoyment of beauty, decorative, appreciative and practical in one.

Paper-cutting is a very popular folk art, has been loved by people for thousands of years, because it is mostly affixed to the window, so people generally call it "window flowers".

Paper-cutting is a very popular folk art, has been loved by people for thousands of years, because it is mostly pasted on the window, so people generally call it "window flowers". Window flowers with its unique generalization and exaggeration of auspicious events, good wishes expressed in the best, the festival decorated with red hot and rich, joyful.

Customs of Chinese New Year--Pastes the word "Fu"

Every New Year's festival, every family will be in the door of the house, on the wall, the lintel of the "Fu" characters of large and small. Spring Festival sticker "Fu" word, is our country folk custom for a long time. According to the "dream beam record" records: "the year in the near, mat store department store, painting the door god peach symbols, welcome the spring card child ......"; "the common people's home regardless of the size of the family, are cleaning the door to the village, go to the dust and filth, the net family, change the door god, hanging bells Xu, nail peach symbols, stick the spring card, sacrifices to the ancestors. Posting spring cards, sacrifices to the ancestors". 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. Kindness of Queen Ma to eliminate this disaster, so that the city size of the family 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 are visiting 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 month of Lunar New Year, the family writes a big word," said, "Fu" word was mostly handwritten, and now the market, the store are sold in.

Customs of the Spring Festival - year-end

China's folk on New Year's Eve has the custom of year-end vigil. 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", the custom of having New Year's Eve dinner has been practiced at least in the North and South Dynasties.

The New Year's Eve vigil on the 30th of January is commonly known as the "New Year's Eve". Why do you call it "boiling the year"? Folk for generations passed down such an interesting story: according to legend, in the ancient flood era, there is a vicious beast, people call 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 the 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 by the beast, only a family hanging red curtains, wearing a red dress 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 lights, gongs and drums, firecrackers, so that the beast will not dare to come back. Ancient people to burn bamboo poles, the air in the bamboo expansion, bamboo cavity burst, issued by the crackling sound, which is also known as "firecrackers" origin. However, some places, the villagers do not know that the beast is afraid of red, often eaten by the beast. This matter later spread to the sky of the purple star, he in order to save people, determined to eliminate the beast. 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 the star Ziwei to come down to the world to keep them safe.

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 the 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 cooked with a mixture of rice and millet, Beijing colloquialism called "two rice", in order to have a yellow and white, which is called "gold and silver, gold and silver pot full of" the "gold and silver rice This is called "gold and silver rice". Many places in the New Year's Eve in the preparation of 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 everlasting fruit (longevity), 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 pushing pai gow, rolling dice, betting on pokies, playing mahjong, the sound of noise and laughter into the climax of the New Year's Eve joy.

Customs of the Spring Festival - New Year's greetings

New Year's greetings is a traditional Chinese folk custom, is a way for people to say goodbye to the old and welcome the new, and express their good wishes to each other. In ancient times, the original meaning of the word "New Year's greeting" was to pay respects to the elders, including bowing to them, congratulating them on a happy New Year, and greeting them for a good life. When there are relatives and friends of the same generation, they should also bow to congratulate them.

The New Year's greetings generally begin at home. On the morning of the first day of the new year, the younger generation to get up, the first to the elders to pay tribute to the new year, blessing the elders a long and healthy life, all the best. After the elders to be worshiped, will be prepared in advance "new year's money" to the younger generation. After paying New Year's greetings to the elders at home, when people meet outside, they should also congratulate the New Year with smiles on their faces and say to each other "congratulations on wealth", "four seasons as you wish", "Happy New Year" and other auspicious words. words, around the neighbors or friends and relatives also visit each other to pay tribute to the New Year or invite each other to drink entertainment.

Anciently, if or neighborhood friends and relatives too much, it is difficult to visit all over the door, the servants will be sent to bring business cards to pay tribute to the New Year, known as the "fly post", the door of each house to stick a red paper bag, written on the "receive the blessings of the two words, that is, for the holding of the fly post with. To this day, the Chinese New Year's gift of New Year's cards, New Year's cards, is the legacy of this ancient send each other fly post.

With the development of the times, the custom of New Year's greetings is also constantly adding new content and form. Now people in addition to the inheritance of the past New Year's Eve, and the rise of ceremonial telegrams to pay tribute to the New Year and telephone New Year's Eve.

Traditional Chinese Festivals - Lantern Festival

The 15th day of the first month of the lunar calendar is the traditional Chinese Lantern Festival. Because the first month is also called the New Year's month, and the night of the fifteenth day of the first month is the first full-moon night of the year, and the word "night" means "night", the festival on the night of the fifteenth day of the first month is called the Lantern Festival.

On the Lantern Festival, Chinese people have the custom of enjoying lanterns and eating Lanterns. As the saying goes, "the 15th day of the first month is the day of lanterns", so the Lantern Festival is also called the Festival of Lights.

The custom of enjoying lanterns at the Lantern Festival has a history of more than 2,000 years. On the day of the Lantern Festival, lanterns and colors are displayed everywhere, and it is very lively. As soon as the night arrives, people go in groups to see the lanterns. Colorful palace lanterns, wall lamps, character lamps, flower lamps, horse lanterns, animal lamps, toy lamps ...... into a sea of lights. Some lanterns also have riddles written on them, which attracted the audience to scramble to guess.

Eating Lantern Festival is a traditional Chinese custom. The food was available as early as the Song Dynasty, more than 1,000 years ago. Yuanxiao is a kind of small round ball made of glutinous rice flour, covered with a filling made of sugar and various kinds of nuts, which is cooked and tastes sweet and savory. Because this food is eaten on the day of Lantern Festival, people later called it Yuanxiao. The Chinese people hope that everything will be successful, and to eat the Lantern Festival on the first full moon night at the beginning of the year is to hope