What are the customs during the Spring Festival?

1, dust removal

"Sweep the dust for twenty-four times in the Spring Festival, and sweep the house". According to Lu Chunqiu, China had the custom of sweeping the dust during the Spring Festival in the Yao and Shun era. According to the folk saying: Because of the homonym of "dust" and "Chen", sweeping dust in the Spring Festival means "getting rid of the old and not being new", and its original intention is to sweep away all bad luck and bad luck. This custom has placed people's desire to break the old and create new ones and their prayers to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. Whenever the Spring Festival comes, every household should clean the environment, clean all kinds of electrical appliances, remove and wash bedding curtains, sweep six yards, dust cobwebs and dredge culverts in open channels. Everywhere is filled with the joyful atmosphere of cleaning and welcoming the Spring Festival cleanly.

Step 2: keep your age

Keeping the Lunar New Year's Eve is one of the most important activities, and the custom of keeping the Lunar New Year's Eve has a long history. The earliest record can be found in the Local Records of the Western Jin Dynasty: on New Year's Eve, all parties give gifts to each other, which is called "the year of giving back"; Wine and food are invited, which is called "not old"; Young and old get together to drink and wish a complete song called "age division"; Everyone stays up all night, waiting for dawn. This is the so-called "shou sui". Since the Han Dynasty, the time for the alternation of the old and new years is generally at midnight.

3. Happy New Year

When paying New Year greetings during the Spring Festival, the younger generation should first pay New Year greetings to their elders and wish them health and longevity. The elders can distribute the lucky money prepared in advance to the younger generation. It is said that lucky money can kill evil spirits, because "old" and "special" are homophonic, and the younger generation can spend a year safely with lucky money. There are two kinds of lucky money, one is to put colored rope in the shape of Jackie Chan at the foot of the bed, which was recorded in Yanjing year; The other is the most common, that is, parents wrap the money distributed to their children in red paper. Lucky money can be given in public after the younger generation pays New Year's greetings, or it can be secretly put under the child's pillow by parents when the child falls asleep on New Year's Eve. It is still very popular for elders to give lucky money to younger generations.

4. Post Spring Festival couplets

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 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.

5. New Year pictures

It is also common to hang New Year pictures in urban and rural areas during the Spring Festival. Thick black and colorful New Year pictures add a lot of prosperous and happy holiday 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. Some New Year pictures workshops have produced classic color New Year pictures, such as Fu Lushou's Samsung, God bless the people, abundant crops, prosperous livestock and welcoming the New Year, to meet people's good wishes of celebrating and praying for the New Year. There are three important producing areas of Chinese New Year pictures: Taohuawu in Suzhou, Yangliuqing in Tianjin and Weifang in Shandong; Three schools of New Year pictures have been formed, each with its own characteristics.

The earliest existing collection of New Year pictures in China is the woodcut New Year pictures of the Southern Song Dynasty, which depict four ancient beauties: Wang Zhaojun, Zhao, Ban Ji and Lvzhu. The most popular folk painting is the Year of Marrying the Rat. It depicts an interesting scene in which a mouse marries a bride according to human custom. In the early years of the Republic of China, Zheng of Shanghai combined the monthly calendar with the New Year pictures. This is a new form of New Year pictures. This new year's picture, which was combined into one, later developed into a calendar and has been popular all over the country.

Step 6 set off firecrackers

There is a folk 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. Firecracker is a specialty of China, also known as "Firecracker", "Firecracker" and "Firecracker". Its origin is very early, and it has a history of more than two thousand years. 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.

With the passage of time, firecrackers are more and more widely used, and there are more and more varieties and colors. Every major festival and happy celebration, as well as marriage, building, opening, etc. We should set off firecrackers to celebrate and make good luck. Liuyang, Foshan and Dongyao in Hunan, Yichun and Pingxiang in Jiangxi, and Wenzhou in Zhejiang are all famous fireworks towns in China. The firecrackers produced have various colors and high quality, which are not only sold well all over the country, but also exported to all parts of the world.

7. ancestor worship

At the beginning of the new year, the first thing to do is to worship the ancestors. In some places, this etiquette is called "worshipping ancestors during the Spring Festival" because ancestors are called "relatives" rather than gods.

Sacrifice to ancestors is usually carried out at home. In some places, every family hangs portraits of their ancestors in the hall, but most areas are for ancestral tablets. Around midnight on New Year's Eve, before opening the door and setting off firecrackers, ancestor worship activities began. Wine, delicacies and seasonal fruits are placed in front of ancestral tablets for ancestors to enjoy; After lighting the scented paper candle, parents lead their children to knock on the door for sacrifice. When you worship your ancestors, you should report the festive events that happened at home in the past year, from marrying a daughter-in-law, recruiting a daughter, giving birth to a child, and how your life is.

Folklore experts say that the significance of ancestor worship in the New Year is to pursue the future with caution, to respect ancestors, and to pray for future generations to be prosperous and all the best, which shows the traditional ethical thought of the Chinese nation.

8, pick up the gods

Receiving God means dividing the old year into the new year, but the time of receiving God is not uniform. Some people begin to hold ceremonies as soon as their children arrive, some people begin to receive gods at midnight when their children are "right", and some people do so after their children are "right". The ceremony of receiving gods was held at the table of heaven and earth, presided over by the oldest person in the family. Because the immortals live in different directions in heaven, the lower bound naturally comes in different directions. As for who to meet and where to come from, we should check the "constitution book" in advance, lead the whole family to hold incense in the yard, and follow their instructions to meet the gods. For example, Xin Weinian's "Constitution Book" states that "God of Wealth is due east, God of Wealth is due south, you God is northeast, West God is southwest, and Tai Sui God is southwest". After kowtowing according to the position, stand still until the incense is exhausted, and then kowtow. Finally, take down the fragrant roots, idols and ingots, put them into the money and grain pots already prepared in the yard, and burn them with pine branches and sesame stalks.

9.hurry up

After receiving the gods, sesame stalks spread from the street gate to the door of the house, and people walked on it, making a noise, which was called "stepping on the old" or "stepping on the special". Because "year old" and "year old" are homophonic, which means to drive away evil spirits in the new year.

10, connect with the god of wealth.

In the old days, when the financial door was opened at midnight after the Spring Festival, people sent the God of Wealth. The God of Wealth shouted outside the door with a piece of paper in his hand: "Here comes the man who sent the God of Wealth!" " At this time, the owner of the house welcomed the arrival of the god of wealth and gave the reward to the bearer. Say something auspicious when sending the god of wealth, such as "gold and silver treasures are rolling in!" There are a pair of golden lions on the left and a pair of golden phoenix on the right.