Social practice report of Spring Festival

Investigation report on Spring Festival customs

1. Why do elders give their children lucky money during the Spring Festival?

On New Year's Eve, children will get lucky money from their elders. Why should children be given lucky money during the Spring Festival?

Here is a widely circulated story. Legend has it that in ancient times, there was a small demon with black hands and white body named Chong who came out to harm people every New Year's Eve. It touched the head of the sleeping child three times with its hand, and the child cried with fear. Then he had a fever, talked nonsense and got sick from then on. After a few days, the fever subsided, but the clever child became a dementia fool. People are afraid that fetishism will harm children, so they sit up with lights on, which is called "fetishism".

In Jiaxing, there is a family named Guan, and the husband and wife have a son in their later years, which is regarded as the apple of their eye. On New Year's Eve, I forced them to play for fear that they would harm the children. The child wrapped eight copper coins in red paper, opened them, opened them again, and played until he fell asleep. Eight wrapped copper coins are placed on the pillow. The couple didn't dare to close their eyes and stayed with their children all night. In the middle of the night, a strong wind blew the door open and blew out the lights. When the little black boy touched the child's head with his bare hands, a light broke into the child's pillow. Chong hurriedly withdrew his hand and ran away screaming. Mr. and Mrs. Guan told everyone that wrapping eight copper coins in red paper was to scare away those special people. Everyone also learned to wrap eight copper coins in red paper and put them on pillows after the children's New Year's Eve. Sure enough, I never dare to hurt children again. It turned out that these eight copper coins were exchanged by the Eight Immortals, which helped the children secretly scare away the admirers. Therefore, people call this kind of money "lucky money", and because of the homonym of "worship" and "year old", it is called "lucky money" over time.

In the history of our country, there were lucky money very early. The earliest lucky money is also called "winning money" or "winning money". This kind of money is not the currency circulating in the market, but a coin-shaped exorcism product specially cast for wearing and appreciating. This kind of wearing article in the form of coins first appeared in the Han Dynasty. Some coins have characters on them, and all kinds of auspicious characters are cast on the front, such as "Long live the Millennium", "Peace in the world" and "Eliminating disasters and eliminating evil". On the back, dragons and phoenixes, turtles and snakes, Pisces, swords and stars are cast.

In the Tang Dynasty, the court was in vogue for issuing money in spring. At that time, the Spring Festival was "beginning of spring Day", and it was a day of mutual worship in the palace. There was no such custom among the people. Twenty-six volumes of Zi Tong Zhi Jian record that Yang Guifei gave birth to a child. "Xuanzong personally saw it and gladly gave her gold and silver money to wash the child." The money for washing children mentioned here is not only a congratulatory message, but also an amulet given to newborns by their elders to ward off evil spirits.

After the Song and Yuan Dynasties, beginning of spring was replaced by the first day of the first month, which was called the Spring Festival. Many customs originally belonging to beginning of spring have also been transferred to the Spring Festival. The custom of giving money in spring has evolved into the custom of giving children lucky money. The Chronicle of Yanjing written by Dunchong, Fu Cha in the Qing Dynasty recorded the lucky money in this way: "It is called lucky money to wear money with colored ropes, weave it into a dragon shape and put it at the foot of the bed. Children are given by elders. Also called lucky money. "

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, most lucky money was given to children with red ropes. After the Republic of China, it evolved into wrapping 100 copper coins in red paper, which means "long life" and giving lucky money to adult generations. Red paper is wrapped in an ocean, symbolizing "abundant financial resources" and "millions of profits". After money is changed into paper money, parents like to choose new paper money with related figures for their children, because the homonym of "Lian" and "Lian" indicates that future generations will "get rich again and again" and "get promoted again and again".

From the above description, we can easily find that the custom of lucky money has a long history. It represents a good blessing from the elders to the younger generation. It is an amulet given to children by elders. I wish them good health and good luck in the new year.

2. Why do you want to eat jiaozi during the Spring Festival?

Jiaozi is a folk food with a long history and is deeply loved by people. There is a folk saying "delicious but not as good as jiaozi". During the Spring Festival, jiaozi has become an indispensable delicacy.

According to "Guangya" written by Zhang Yi, wei ren of the Three Kingdoms, there was a crescent-shaped food called "Wonton" at that time, which was basically similar to the shape of jiaozi now. By the time of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, wonton had been "shaped like a crescent moon, and it was delicious all over the world". Presumably, when jiaozi cooked it, he didn't take it out and eat it alone, but put it in a bowl with the soup, so people called jiaozi "wonton" at that time. This way of eating is still popular in some areas of our country. For example, when people from Henan and Shaanxi eat jiaozi, they should put some small ingredients such as coriander, chopped green onion, shrimp skin and leek in the soup.

By about the Tang Dynasty, jiaozi had become exactly the same as jiaozi now, so it was fished out and put on a plate to eat by itself.

Jiaozi was called "Joule" in Song Dynasty, which is the etymology of the word "Jiaozi" in later generations. This kind of writing can still be seen in the following Yuan, Ming, Qing and Republic of China.

Jiaozi was called a "flat food" in the Yuan Dynasty. During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, Shen Bang's Miscellaneous Notes on Ten Thousand Parts recorded: "New Year's Day, New Year's Day ...... as a patch food". Liu Ruoyu's "Proceedings" records: "Eat fruit snacks on New Year's Day and eat a plaque immediately." The "plaque" of the "plaque food" in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties is now commonly used as "ping". A kind of "flat food" may come from Mongolian.

Some new names about jiaozi appeared in Qing Dynasty, such as "jiaozi", "Water Snack" and "Boiled Bean". The increase of Jiaozi's names shows that its geographical spread is expanding.

The folk custom of eating jiaozi during the Spring Festival was quite popular in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Generally, jiaozi should wrap it up before New Year's Eve 12, and eat it at midnight. At this time, it is the beginning of the first day of the first lunar month. Eating jiaozi means "making friends when you are young", and "Zi" is homophonic with "jiaozi", which means "reunion" and "good luck".

There are many legends about eating jiaozi during the Spring Festival. One is to commemorate the creation of Pangu and end the mixed state. The other is to use it as a homonym of "wonton", which means "five grains are abundant" In addition, it is said that eating jiaozi's folk language is related to Nu Wa's making people. When Nuwa soil caused people, the ears of loess people were easily frozen off because of the cold weather. In order to prevent the ear from being fixed, Nuwa put a small eye on the ear, tied it with a thin thread, and put the other end of the thread in the mouth of the loess man to bite, so that the ear would be fine. In order to commemorate the achievements of Nu Wa, ordinary people wrapped jiaozi, molded adult ears with flour, wrapped them with stuffing (thread) and ate them with their mouths.

Jiaozi has become an indispensable program food for the Spring Festival. The reasons are as follows: First, jiaozi is shaped like an ingot. During the Spring Festival, people eat jiaozi, which sounds like "making money into treasure". Secondly, jiaozi has stuffing, which is convenient for people to put all kinds of auspicious things into stuffing and place their hopes for the new year.

When wrapping jiaozi, people usually wrap Jin Ruyi, sugar, peanuts, dates and chestnuts into stuffing. Eat the best and sugar, life will be sweeter in the coming year, eat peanuts, live a long and healthy life, eat dates and chestnuts, and have a baby early.

In some areas, when people eat jiaozi, they have to match some non-staple food to show their good luck. If you eat tofu, it symbolizes the happiness of the whole family; Eating persimmons symbolizes all the best; Eat three fresh vegetables. It symbolizes that Sanyang opens Thailand. People in Taiwan Province Province eat fish balls, meatballs and seaweed, symbolizing reunion and wealth. Jiaozi has various fillings and making methods. Even the same kind of jiaozi has different ways of eating: Daur people in Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang want to cook jiaozi with vermicelli broth. Then even the soup with jiaozi to eat; In some areas of Henan, jiaozi is cooked with noodles, which is called "gold thread penetrates gold ingot".

Jiaozi cuisine not only brings joy to people, but also becomes an important part of China's food culture.

3. How do ethnic minorities spend the Spring Festival?

The traditional Spring Festival in China is not only a traditional festival of Han people, but also a traditional festival of ethnic minorities. During the Spring Festival, ethnic minorities, like their Han compatriots, held various folk activities, which were colorful and jubilant.