What are some interesting Spring Festival traditions?

The Spring Festival (Spring Festival) is the grandest traditional Chinese festival. On the first day of the first month of the summer calendar, also known as the lunar year, commonly known as "New Year", "New Year". The Spring Festival has a long history, which originated in the Yin Shang period at the end of the year to the gods and ancestors activities. Spring Festival humanities significance of the Spring Festival is here, means that spring will come, everything is recovering grass and trees renewed, a new round of sowing and harvesting season will begin. People have just passed through the ice and snow, grass and trees withered the long winter, have long been looking forward to the days of spring blossoms, when the arrival of the Spring Festival, naturally, full of joy singing and dancing to meet the festival. For thousands of years, people make the New Year's celebrations become very colorful, every year from the 23rd day of Lunar Lunar New Year to the 30th, the folk called this period of time, "Spring Day", also known as the "dust day", before the Spring Festival sweeping dust and sanitation, is the people of our country has always been traditional custom of our people. Then is the family to prepare for the New Year's goods, about ten days before the festival, people began to busy purchasing items, New Year's goods, including chickens, ducks, fish and meat, tea, wine, oil and soy sauce, North and South fried goods, sugar bait fruit, are to buy enough, but also to prepare some of the New Year's Eve when visiting friends and relatives when the gift, the children to add a new coat and a new hat, ready for the New Year when to wear. Before the festival in the residential door to paste red paper and yellow letters of the New Year message, that is, written in red paper Spring Festival couplets. Inside the house posted brightly colored auspicious New Year's paintings, clever girls cut out beautiful window decorations and paste them on the windows, hanging red lanterns in front of the door or sticking the Chinese character for blessings and the God of Fortune, the God of the Door, etc., the character for blessings can also be pasted upside down, passers-by read the blessings upside down, that is, the blessings of luck to the festival, all of these activities are intended to add a festive enough atmosphere. Another name for the Spring Festival is New Year's Eve. In the legends of the past, Nian was an imaginary animal that brought bad luck to people. Once the year came. Trees wither and no grass grows; once the year passes, everything grows and flowers are everywhere. How can the year pass? Need to use firecrackers to blast , so there is the custom of burning firecrackers, which is actually another way to bake a lively scene. The Spring Festival is a happy and peaceful holiday, but also the reunion of loved ones, children away from home in the Spring Festival to go home to celebrate. The night before the New Year's Eve, is the old year's Lunar New Year's Eve, also known as New Year's Eve, also known as the reunion night, in this time of transition between the old and the new, the New Year's Eve is one of the most important annual activities, New Year's Eve night, the whole family stay up to keep the New Year's Eve, get together to drink soundly, *** enjoy the joy of family, the northern region in the New Year's Eve to eat dumplings, dumplings, dumplings, and the word is the first and the noodles, and is the word; dumplings and dumplings and cross the harmony of the joints and cross the meaning, and also take more years of intercourse The dumplings have the meaning of "getting together" and "turning over the year". In the south, it is customary to eat New Year's cake on New Year's Day. The sweet and sticky cake symbolizes the sweetness of life in the new year. To the first rooster crows, or the New Year's bells ringing over, the street firecrackers, loud and clear, the family is full of joy, the new year began, men and women, young and old are wearing festive dress, the first to the elders in the family New Year's wishes, the festival there are to the children's New Year's Eve money, eat New Year's Eve dinner, the second, the third began to go to the relatives to see their friends, each other New Year's Eve, congratulations on the blessing, say some congratulations on new year's Eve, Congratulations to the rich, congratulations, good, etc., activities such as ancestor worship. Good and other words, ancestor worship and other activities. The Spring Festival is the most important festival of the Han Chinese, but Manchu, Mongolia, Yao, Zhuang, white, mountain, Hezhe, Hani, Daur, Dong, Li and other dozens of ethnic minorities also have the custom of the Spring Festival, but the form of the festival is more of their own national characteristics, more flavorful. The origin of the Spring Festival and the legend of the Spring Festival and the concept of the year, the original meaning from the agricultural, the ancient people of the grain growth cycle known as the "year", "Shuowen. Wo part": "year, the grain is also ripe:. In the Xia and Shang dynasties produced the summer calendar, the cycle of the moon for the month, a year divided into twelve months, each month to not see the moon for the day for the first day of the first month of the first day of the month of the son of the time is called the head of the year, that is, the beginning of the year, also known as the year, the year's name is from the Zhou Dynasty, to the Western Han Dynasty to formally fixed, and has been continued to the present day. But the first day of the first month in ancient times was called "New Year's Day", until after the victory of the Xinhai Revolution in modern China, the Nanjing Provisional Government in order to comply with the agricultural season and facilitate the statistics, the provisions of the civil use of the summer calendar, the government agencies, factories, mines, schools and organizations in the implementation of the Gregorian calendar to the Gregorian calendar of the first day of the new year for the New Year's Day, the first day of the first month of the Lunar New Year, the Chinese New Year. Traditionally, the Spring Festival refers to the period from the Lunar New Year festival on the eighth day of the Lunar New Year or the Zaos Festival on the twenty-third day of the Lunar New Year until the fifteenth day of the first month of the Lunar New Year, with New Year's Eve and the first day of the first month of the Lunar New Year as the climax. During the Spring Festival, the Han Chinese and most of the ethnic minorities in China hold various celebrations, most of which are mainly devoted to the worship of Gods and Buddhas, paying tribute to ancestors, getting rid of the old and bringing in the new, welcoming good fortune, and praying for a good year. Activities in a colorful form, with strong national characteristics. The Spring Festival originated from the "Waxing Sacrifice" in China's primitive society. It is said that at the end of the day, people kill pigs to sacrifice to God, praying for the coming year, the wind and rain, and a good harvest. People painted their faces with vermilion sand, decorated their faces with bird wings, and sang and danced. As for the name "Spring Festival", it was first mentioned in "The Book of the Later Han Dynasty - Yang Zhen": "There was no snow in winter, and no rain in the Spring Festival, which made all the bureaucrats anxious." September 27, 1949, the new China was founded, in the first plenary session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, adopted the use of the world's common calendar calendar, the first day of the first month of the Gregorian calendar as New Year's Day, commonly known as the solar year; the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar is usually around the time of spring, and therefore the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar as the Spring Festival", commonly known as the The first day of the first month of the lunar calendar is usually around the beginning of spring. One of the legends of the Spring Festival: the New Year's Eve vigil, that is, in the last night of the old year do not sleep, stay up to meet the arrival of the new year's custom, also known as the New Year's Eve vigil, commonly known as the "New Year's Eve". Explore the origins of this custom, in folklore is an interesting story: the ancient times, there is a ferocious beast, scattered in the mountains and dense forests, people call them "year". It is hideous, vicious, specializing in eating birds and beasts, scales and insects, a day to change a flavor, from knocking insects have been eaten to the living, so that people talk about the "year" color change. Later, people slowly mastered the "year" of the law of activities, it is every three hundred and sixty-five days scurrying to the crowd of places to taste a mouthful of food, and the time of infestation are in the dark, until the cock crows at dawn, they will return to the mountains and forests. Calculated the date of the "year" rampage, the people will be this terrible night as a gate to brake, called "New Year's Eve", and came up with a set of New Year's Eve approach: every night, every family is done in advance of the evening meal, put out the fire and clean the stove, and then put the chicken coop Cattle fences all tied up, the front and back doors of the house are sealed, hiding in the house to eat "New Year's Eve dinner", because this dinner has the meaning of bad luck and uncertainty, so it is very rich, in addition to the whole family to dine together to express the harmony and reunion, but also have to be in the meal before the sacrifice to the ancestors, praying for the blessing of the gods of the ancestors, and peacefully through the night, and after eating dinner, no one will have a good time, and then the fire will be turned off. After dinner, no one dares to sleep, sitting together in a crowded chat. Gradually formed the habit of New Year's Eve to stay up to keep the New Year's Eve. The custom of keeping the New Year's Eve rose in the North and South Dynasties, and many literati in the Liang Dynasty had poems about keeping the New Year's Eve. "One night is even a double year, and the fifth night is divided into two years." People light candles or oil lamps and keep vigil all night, symbolizing that all evil plagues and diseases will be driven away, and looking forward to an auspicious new year. This custom has been passed down to this day. Spring Festival Legend No. 2: Wannian created the calendar said that according to legend, in ancient times, a young man named Wannian, see the festival was very chaotic, and had the intention to set the festival accurate. But the bitter can not find a way to calculate the time, one day, he went up to the mountains to cut firewood tired, sitting in the shade of a tree to rest, the movement of the tree inspired him, he designed a measurement of the sun and shadow counting the time of day sundial, the determination of the time of day, and later, the cliffs on the drip of the fountain inspired him to inspiration, and his hands to do a five-tiered funnel pot, to calculate the time. Over time, he realized that every 360 days or so, the four seasons would rotate and the length of the day would repeat itself. The king of the country at that time was called Zuyi, who was also often distressed by the unpredictability of the weather winds and clouds. Wannian knew, took the sundial and funnel pot to see the emperor, to Zuyi clear reasoning for the operation of the sun and the moon. Zu Yi listened to the dragon's face, felt reasonable. So leave Wannian, in front of the Temple of Heaven to build the Sun and Moon Pavilion, built the sundial and funnel kiosk. And hope to be able to measure the sun and moon law, project the accurate morning and evening time, create the calendar, for the benefit of the people of the world. Once, Zu Yi went to find out the progress of the Ten Thousand Years Test Calendar. When he ascended to the Altar of the Sun and the Moon, he saw a poem engraved on the stone wall beside the Temple of Heaven: "The sun rises and the sun sets three hundred and six times, the cycle begins again and again from the beginning.　The grass and trees wither and prosper in four seasons, and there are twelve rounds in a year." Knowing that Wannian had created the calendar, he personally climbed up to the Sun and Moon Pavilion to visit Wannian. Wannian pointed to the sky and said to Zu Yi, "It is now the twelve full months, the old year is over and the new spring begins again, so I pray that the king of the country will set a festival." Zu Yi said, "Spring is the first day of the year, let's call it Spring Festival". This is said to be the origin of the Spring Festival. As winter turned to spring, year after year, Wannian, after a long period of observation and careful projection, formulated an accurate solar calendar, which was full of silver whiskers when he presented it to the succeeding ruler of the country. The king of the country was y touched, in order to commemorate the achievements of Wan Nian, the solar calendar named "Wan Nian Calendar", Wan Nian as the sun and moon life star. Later on, people put up a picture of the star of longevity on New Year's Day, which is said to be in honor of the highly respected Wannian. Chinese New Year Legend No. 3: Posting Spring Festival Couplets and Door Gods It is said that the custom of posting Spring Festival Couplets began about a thousand years ago in the period of Hou Shu, which is supported by history. In addition, according to the Jade Candle Canon and the Yanjing Shishiji (Records of the Years and Times of Yanjing), the original form of the Spring Festival couplets was the so-called "Peach Symbols". In ancient Chinese mythology, there is a world of ghosts, in which there is a mountain with a big peach tree covering 3,000 miles and a golden rooster at the top of the tree. Whenever the golden rooster crowed in the morning, the ghosts that had gone out to roam at night would be rushed back to the ghost world. The gate of the Ghost Realm was situated in the northeast of the peach tree, and by the gate stood two godmen named Shentan and Yubi. If a ghost did something harmful at night, the gods would immediately find it, catch it, tie it up with a rope made of mango reeds, and feed it to the tiger. Therefore, all the ghosts in the world were afraid of Shentian and Yubi. So the folk used peach wood to carve into their likeness and put it in front of their house to avoid evil and prevent harm. Later, people simply carve the name of God Tantui and Yubi on the mahogany board, thinking that this can also suppress the evil to go to the evil. This kind of mahogany board was later called "peach talisman". To the Song Dynasty, people began to write couplets on the mahogany board, one does not lose the significance of mahogany to suppress evil, the second is to express their good wishes, the third is to decorate the portal, in order to beautiful. And write couplets on red paper to symbolize the joy and auspiciousness of the New Year, posted on both sides of the doors and windows, to express people's prayers for good luck in the coming year. In order to pray for a family's well-being, people in some places still retain the habit of sticking door gods. It is said that if two door gods are posted on the front door, all demons and ghosts will be afraid. In folklore, the door god is a symbol of righteousness and force, the ancients believe that people with strange looks often have magical endowments and extraordinary skills. They are upright and kind-hearted, to catch ghosts and demons is their nature and responsibility, people look up to the ghost hunter Zhong Kui, that is, this kind of strange looks. So the folk god of the door is always angry eyes, grim-looking, holding a variety of traditional weapons, ready to fight with the ghosts and demons that dare to come to the door. Since the doors of residential houses in China usually open in pairs, the door gods are always in pairs. After the Tang Dynasty, in addition to the previous two generals Shentian and Yubi, people also took Qin Shubao and Yuchigong, two Tang Dynasty military generals, as door deities. According to legend, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty was sick and heard the ghosts and demons outside his door, which made him feel uneasy all night long. So he asked these two generals to stand beside the door with weapons to guard it, and the next night there were no more ghosts to disturb him. Later, Emperor Tang Taizong had the images of the two generals painted and pasted on the door, and this custom began to spread among the people. Common Customs of Spring Festival Dust Sweeping "On the 24th day of the Lunar New Year, dusting and sweeping the house", according to "Lv's Spring and Autumn Annals", China in the Yao and Shun era, there is a Spring Festival custom of dust sweeping. According to folklore: because of "dust" and "Chen" harmonized, dust sweeping in the New Year has the meaning of "get rid of Chen Bu Xin", and its intention is to sweep out all the poor luck and bad luck. This custom is a symbol of people's desire to break away from the old and bring in the new and their prayers for the old and the new. Whenever the Spring Festival comes, every household has to clean up the environment, wash all kinds of appliances, dismantle the bedding curtains, sprinkle clean the courtyard, dust dust cobwebs, dredge the nullahs and ditches. Everywhere overflowing with joy to do health, clean and welcome the new year's happy atmosphere. Spring Festival couplets Spring Festival couplets, also known as door-to-door, spring stickers, couplets, couplets, peach symbols, etc., it is neat, couplets, simple, sophisticated text depicting the background of the times, expressing the best wishes, is China's unique form of literature. Every Spring Festival, whether urban or rural, every family should select a large red spring couplets posted on the door, for the festival to increase the festive atmosphere. This custom began in the song dynasty, in the ming dynasty began to prevail, to the qing dynasty, the spring couplets of ideology and artistry have been greatly improved, liang zhang toru prepared by the spring couplets of the monograph "sillian series of words" on the origin of the couplets and all kinds of works of the characteristics of the discourse. There are many kinds of spring couplets, according to its use place, can be divided into door heart, frame pair, horizontal phi, spring strip, bucket square and so on. The "door heart" is pasted in the center of the upper part of the door panel; the "frame pair" is pasted on the left and right door frames; the "horizontal phi" is pasted on the horizontal wood of the door winks; the "spring strip" is pasted on the horizontal wood of the door winks; the "spring strip" is pasted on the horizontal wood of the door winks according to different contents. "according to different contents, pasted in the corresponding place;" bucket catty "also known as" door leaf ", for the square diamond-shaped, more pasted in the furniture, shadow wall. Stickers and inverted "Fu" word in the folk people also like to stick a variety of paper cuttings on the window - window flowers. Window flowers not only set a festive atmosphere, but also decorative, appreciative and practical in one. Paper cutting in China is a very popular folk art, for thousands of years by the people's favorite, because it is mostly affixed to the window, so it is also known as "window flowers". Window decoration with its unique generalization and exaggeration will be auspicious events, good wishes expressed to the fullest, will be decorated with festivals red hot and rich. At the same time of putting up Spring Festival couplets, some people have to put large and small "Fu" characters on the door, wall and lintel of their houses. Chinese New Year sticker "Fu" character, is China's folk custom from a long time. The character "福" refers to good fortune and good luck, and it expresses people's desire for a happy life and their wish for a better future. In order to more fully reflect this yearning and wishes, some people simply stick the word "Fu" upside down, indicating that "happiness has arrived" and "good fortune has arrived". Folk there will be "Fu" word fine as a variety of patterns, patterns of longevity, longevity peach, carp jump Dragon Gate, the five valleys, the dragon and phoenix, and so on. New Year's Paintings New Year's Paintings are also very common in urban and rural areas during the Spring Festival, and the thick black and colorful New Year's Paintings add a lot of prosperity and joy to the celebratory atmosphere of thousands of households. New Year paintings are an ancient folk art in China, reflecting the simple customs and beliefs of the people and holding their hopes for the future. New Year's paintings, like spring scrolls, originated as "door gods". With the rise of woodblock printing, the content of the New Year's paintings has not only limited to monotonous themes such as the God of the Door, become colorful, in some of the New Year's paintings in the workshop produced the "Three Stars of Fortune and Longevity," "Heavenly Officials Provide Blessings," "Five Grains and a Plentiful Harvest," "Six Animals Prosperity," "Welcoming the Spring to receive the blessings of" and other classic colorful New Year's paintings, in order to satisfy people's joyful prayers for the New Year's good wishes. There are three important production areas of Chinese New Year paintings in China: Taohuayu in Suzhou, Yangliuqing in Tianjin and Weifang in Shandong; forming three major schools of Chinese New Year paintings, each with its own characteristics. The earliest collection of Chinese New Year paintings in China is the woodcut New Year paintings of the Southern Song Dynasty, "With the fairness of the country's face", which depicts four ancient beauties, namely, Wang Zhaojun, Zhao Feiyan, Banji and Lvzhu. The most widely circulated folk painting is the one of "The Mouse Marrying Her Marriage". It depicts an interesting scene of a mouse marrying a bride in accordance with the customs of the earth. In the early years of the Republic of China, Zheng Mantuo of Shanghai combined the lunar calendar and New Year's paintings. This is a new form of New Year's paintings. This combination of two and one of the New Year's paintings, later developed into a wall calendar, and is still popular throughout the country. New Year's Eve The evening of the last day of the lunar year. The last day of the year is called "New Year's Eve. The last day of the year is called "New Year's Eve", and that night is called "New Year's Eve". On New Year's Eve, people often stay up all night, called the New Year's Watch. Su Shi wrote "Keeping New Year's Eve": "Children are strong enough not to sleep, and they keep vigil all night long." There is a legend about the origin of New Year's Eve: there was a vicious beast called Xi in ancient times, our ancestors had suffered from the threat of this most ferocious beast, which came out at the end of the year to harm people, and later, people found that Xi was afraid of three things, the color red, the light of the fire, the sound. So in the winter people hang red-colored mahogany boards on their doors, burning fires in front of the door, and staying up all night, knocking and banging. On that night, "Yu" broke into the village, saw the red color and firelight in every house, and heard the loud noise, so scared that he ran back to the mountains and never dared to come out again. After the night was over, people congratulated each other and celebrated their victory with lanterns and colorful decorations, drinking and feasting. So later on the night of the New Year's Eve, every family posted red spring couplets, firecrackers, to drive away the beasts of the night. In order to seek peace in the new year. This custom has been passed down since then, and the night of New Year's Eve is called New Year's Eve. The New Year's Eve New Year's Eve is one of the most important New Year's Eve activities, and the custom of observing the New Year's Eve has a long history. The earliest record is found in the Western Jin Dynasty, Zhou Chu's "The Records of Customs and Lands": on the night of New Year's Eve, each person gives gifts to the other, known as "feeding the year"; wine and food are invited to each other, known as "parting the year"; the elders and young people get together to drink, and wishing for the completion of the year, known as "parting the year"; everyone spends the whole night to keep the New Year's Eve. "The whole night, waiting for the dawn, is called "observing the new year". "One night even double the year, five nights divided into two days", the night of New Year's Eve, the whole family gathered together, ate the New Year's Eve dinner, light up candles or oil lamps, sitting around the stove chatting, waiting for the time to say goodbye to the old and welcome the new, the all-night vigil, symbolizing all the evil plagues and epidemics according to the run away, looking forward to the new year of good luck and good fortune. This custom gradually prevailed, to the early Tang Dynasty, Tang Taizong Li Shimin wrote a "year-keeping" poem: "cold resignation from the winter snow, the warmth of the spring wind". Until today, people are still accustomed to the New Year's Eve to welcome the new year. In ancient times, there are two meanings of year-overs: the elderly year-overs for the "resignation of the old year", there is the meaning of the precious time; young people year-overs, is to extend the life of parents. Since the Han Dynasty, the time of the transition between the old and the new year is usually the middle of the night. Firecrackers Chinese folk "open door firecrackers". That is, at the dawn of the new year, the first thing that families do when they open the door is to set off firecrackers, to beep and blare the sound of firecrackers to get rid of the old and welcome the new. Firecrackers is a Chinese specialty, also known as "firecrackers", "cannonballs", "firecrackers". Its origin is very early, so far has a history of more than two thousand years. Firecrackers can create a festive and lively atmosphere, is a kind of festival entertainment, can bring people joy and good luck. With the passage of time, the application of firecrackers is more and more widely used, varieties and colors are also increasingly numerous, every major festival and joyous celebration, and marriage, building, opening, etc., are to set off firecrackers in order to show the celebration, figure a good luck. Now, Hunan Liuyang, Guangdong Foshan and Dongyao, Jiangxi Yichun and Pingxiang, Zhejiang Wenzhou and other areas is China's famous hometown of firecrackers, the production of firecrackers colorful, high-quality, not only sells well across the country, but also exported to the world. Spring Festival Food Customs In the ancient agricultural society, about since the eighth day of the lunar month, housewives will be busy opening the New Year's food. Because of the long time needed to pickle the preserved meat, it must be prepared as early as possible. Many provinces in China have the custom of pickling preserved meat, among which the preserved meat in Guangdong Province is the most famous. Steamed rice cakes have become a must-have for almost every household because of the sound "nian gao" and the variety of flavors. There are square-shaped yellow and white rice cakes, symbolizing gold and silver, which are meant to bring wealth in the New Year. The flavor of rice cakes varies from place to place. Beijingers enjoy red date rice cakes, white rice cakes and white rice cakes made from river rice or yellow rice. People in Hebei like to add jujubes, small red beans and mung beans to the rice cakes and steam them together. Northwestern Shanxi in Inner Mongolia and other places, New Year's Eve used to eat yellow rice flour fried rice cakes, some also wrapped with bean paste, date paste and other fillings, Shandong people with yellow rice, red dates steamed rice cakes. Northern rice cakes are mainly sweet, or steamed or fried, some people simply dip sugar to eat. In the south, rice cakes are both sweet and salty, such as those in Suzhou and Ningbo, which are made of round-grained rice and have a light flavor. In addition to steaming and deep-frying, they can also be sliced and stir-fried or boiled in soup. Sweet rice cakes are made from glutinous rice flour with sugar, lard, roses, osmanthus, mint, and veggie paste, and are delicately crafted and can be steamed or dipped in egg white and deep-fried. The night before New Year's Eve is called the Night of Reunion, when people who are away from home have to travel thousands of miles to come back home, and the whole family has to sit together to make dumplings for New Year's Eve. The method of making dumplings is to make dumpling skins out of flour first, and then use the skins to wrap up the fillings, and the fillings are all kinds of stuffings, such as various kinds of meats, eggs, seafood, and seasonal vegetables. The proper way to eat the dumplings is to boil them in water and then dip them in soy sauce with vinegar, garlic and sesame oil. Dumplings can also be deep-fried, or cooked (potstickers). This is because the word "he" (和) means "to merge" (合), and the words "饺子" (饺子) and "交" (交), meaning "to merge" (合) and "to merge" (交), mean the same thing. The words "合" and "交" have the meaning of getting together, so dumplings are used to symbolize reunion and happiness; they are also taken as the meaning of a new year's handover, which is very auspicious; in addition, dumplings resemble a Yuanbao (元宝), so eating dumplings on New Year's Day carries the auspicious meaning of "inviting wealth and prosperity" (招财進宝). In addition, eating dumplings on New Year's Day also carries the auspicious meaning of "inviting wealth and prosperity". Families get together to make dumplings and talk about the New Year in a happy way. Open Door Firecrackers On the morning of Chinese New Year, when the door is opened for good luck, firecrackers are set off first, which is called "Open Door Firecrackers". 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 auspicious, joyful. New Year's Day in the Spring Festival is an important activity, is to new friends and neighbors to congratulate the New Year, the old term for New Year's Day. Han Chinese New Year's Eve style, the Han Dynasty has. After the Tang and Song Dynasty is very popular, some do not have to go in person, can be used to throw congratulations on the post. The Eastern Han Dynasty called "prick", so the business card is also known as the "name prick". After the Ming Dynasty, many people stick a red paper bag in front of the door, specializing in name badges, called "door book". On the first day of the New Year, people get up early, put on the most beautiful clothes, dressed neatly, go out to visit friends and relatives, pay respects to each other, wishing good luck in the coming year. Worship a variety of ways, some of them are the same patriarch led a number of people to go door to door to pay tribute to the New Year; there are colleagues invited a few people to pay tribute to the New Year; there are also get together to congratulate each other, known as the "group worship". Because of the time-consuming and laborious New Year's visit, some upper-class people and scholars later used the posters to congratulate each other, which developed into the later "New Year's Pieces". Spring Festival to pay tribute to the New Year, the younger generation should first pay tribute to the elders, wishing the elders a long life and well-being, the elders can be prepared in advance of the New Year's money to the younger generation, it is said that the New Year's money can be pressed to the evil spirits, because of the "age" and the "spirit" harmonic, the elders to get the New Year's money can be peaceful and safe! The new year's money is said to keep evil spirits at bay. There are two kinds of New Year's money, one is to colorful rope threaded braided into the shape of a dragon, placed at the foot of the bed, this record is found in the Yanjing Yearly Record; the other is the most common, that is, wrapped in red paper by the parents of the money given to the children. New Year's money can be rewarded in the evening after the New Year's greetings in public, can also be in the New Year's Eve when the child is asleep, by the parents secretly placed under the child's pillow. Now the elders for the younger generation to send the custom of the New Year's money is still prevalent. Folk visit each other in the form of New Year's Eve, according to each other's social relations, can be roughly divided into four categories: one is to go to relatives. The first day must go to the father-in-law, shall bring gifts. After entering the door first to the Buddha statue, ancestral images, tablets each line three kowtow salute, and then to the elders in turn kneeling. You can stay to eat and play. The second is a courtesy visit. Such as to colleagues, friends to pay New Year's greetings, the door into the house, only to the Buddha three kowtow, such as the host and the Department of the same generation is only required to arch a bow, such as their own older, should still take the initiative to kneel down, the host should be off the seat to do to help the shape, even said free to show humility. This situation is generally not appropriate to sit for a long time, two polite words to say goodbye. After the master was worshiped, should choose a day to return to worship. The third is a thank-you visit. Where a year to people owe love (such as lawyers, doctors, etc.) to buy some gifts to send, through the New Year's opportunity to express gratitude pillow. Fourth, the door-to-door visit. For the left and right neighbors of the neighborhood, not much interaction in the past, but meet all can say, to the New Year's Jubilee, just to the yard, meet each other with a clasped fist and said: "Gong Xi Fa Cai", "a Shun Hundred Shun," in the house to sit down for a while only, not very much etiquette.　New Year's greeting 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 term "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 on a good life, etc. When there were relatives and friends of the same generation, they would also pay respects to the elders. In the case of friends and relatives of the same generation, they should also bow to congratulate them. In ancient times, if or neighborhood friends and relatives are too many, 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 paste a red paper bag, written on the "receive the blessing" two words, that is, for the bearer to put the fly post with. This custom began in the Song Dynasty upper class. The Qing Dynasty's "Yan Tai Yue Ling" described the Beijing New Year's Festival as follows: "This is also the month when pieces fly and empty cars go." It became fashionable. Large families ad hoc "door book" to remember the guests and fly piece of correspondence, the door book of the first page of the virtual "pro-arrivals" four people: one said the life of a hundred years old master, live in a hundred years of the Square Lane; one said the rich Yu masters, live in Yuanbao Street; one said that you have no great people, live in the university scholar's house; One said the blessing of the old master, live in the five blessings building. In order to try to auspicious to curry favor. To date, the Chinese New Year gift of New Year's tablets, New Year's cards, is the legacy of this ancient fly post each other. Upper-class scholarly men had the custom of throwing congratulations to each other with famous posters. Zhou Hui of the Song Dynasty said in Qingbo Magazine: "During the year of Yuanyou of the Song Dynasty, the New Year celebrations were often held on behalf of the servants with name tags". At that time, the scholars traveled widely, if around the door to pay tribute to the New Year, both time-consuming, but also exhausting energy, so some of the relationship is not close to the friends do not go in person, but to send a servant to take a kind of paper with plum blossom paper cut into two inches wide, three inches long, written on the top of the name of the recipient of the congratulations, address and congratulations on the words of the card to go to on behalf of the New Year's greeting. People in the Ming Dynasty to visit instead of New Year's greeting. Ming Dynasty distinguished painter, poet Wen Zhengming in the "New Year" poem described: "do not seek to meet but through the visit, the name of the paper towards the full sheltered hut; I also cast a number of paper with the people, the world hate Jane not suspected of false". Here the "famous prick" and "famous visit" is the origin of the present New Year's card. New Year's cards are used for contacting and exchanging greetings, which are both convenient and practical, and even today they are still popular. About from the Qing Dynasty, New Year's Day and add the form of "reunion", the Qing Yi Lan master in the "Side Hat Yu Tan" said: "Beijing in the first of the year, routine reunion, in order to unite the friendship of the year, in order to Dunhuang feelings", "every year by the book red booking guests, food and drink banquet, for the end of the day joyful. Food and drink banquet, for the end of the day to enjoy". The first five days of the first month of the year, most families do not receive women, known as the "taboo door". Only men go out to pay New Year's visits, and women have to wait until after the sixth day of the first month to go out to visit. The New Year's visit extends for a long time, until around the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first month. Paying New Year's visits in the evening is called the "Night Festival," and after the tenth day of the first lunar month, it is called the "Lantern Festival. If, for some reason, the customary rituals are not performed, those who make up the rituals later are called "paying homage to the New Year". Occupy the year Old folk to enter the new first few days of the weather to account for the new year into the year. It began with the Han Dongfang Shuo's "years accounted for", that after eight days of age, one day for the chicken day, two days for the dog, three days for the pig, four days for the sheep, five days for the cattle, six days for the horse, seven days for the Weiman, eight days for the valley. If the day is sunny, then the host of things prosperous, when the day is cloudy, the host of the day is not prosperous. Later generations followed their habits, that the first day to the tenth, the weather is clear, no wind and no snow as auspicious. Later generations from the occupation of the year developed into a series of rituals, celebrations. There is the custom of not killing the chicken on the first day, not killing the dog on the second day, not killing the pig on the third day ...... of the first seven days of the execution. The ancient Chinese New Year in the doors and windows of the painting chicken to drive away the ghosts and monsters evil. In the book "Xuanzhongji" written by the Jin Dynasty, it talks about this heavenly chicken on Doushuo Mountain, which was mentioned earlier, saying that the heavenly chicken crowed when it was just rising and the first sunlight shone on this big tree. When it crowed, all the chickens in the world followed. So the chicken cut for the Chinese New Year actually symbolizes the Heavenly Rooster. However, there is also an ancient myth that the chicken is a metamorphosis of the Chongming bird. It is said that during the time of Emperor Yao, the friends from the other side paid tribute to a kind of heavy bright bird that could ward off evil spirits, and everyone welcomed the arrival of the heavy bright bird, but the tribute envoys didn't come every year, so the people carved a wooden heavy bright bird, or casted a heavy bright bird in bronze and put it on the gateway, or painted a heavy bright bird on the windows and doors, to scare off the evil spirits and demons, and make them not dare to come back again. Because of the heavy Ming bird similar to chicken, and then gradually changed to painting chicken or cut window flowers pasted on the windows and doors, that is, become the source of the art of paper-cutting later generations. China's ancient especially valued the chicken, called it "five virtues of the bird". Han Shi Wai Zhuan" said, it has a crown on the head, is Wen De; feet after the distance can fight, is Wude; enemy in front of the dare to fight, is courageous; food to greet the same kind of benevolence; vigil does not lose time, dawn dawn, is the virtue of faith. So people not only in the New Year cut chicken, but also the first day of the new year as chicken day.