The origin and customs of the Spring Festival

The Spring Festival refers to the traditional Chinese New Year on the lunar calendar in the Chinese character culture circle, the traditional name for the new year, the big year, the new year, but also known verbally as the degree of the year, celebrate the new year, the New Year, the Spring Festival in ancient times had referred to the spring in the festival, was also regarded as the beginning of the year, and was later changed to the beginning of the first day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar began to be the New Year, is generally believed to at least to the fifteenth day of the first month (on the first year of the New Year Festival) New Year before the end of the

The Spring Festival is commonly known as the Since the first year of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the first day of the first month of the summer (lunar calendar) for the "first of the year" (i.e., "year"), the date of the New Year's Day is thus fixed, and continues to this day, the New Year's Day is known as the "New Year's Day". After the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, the Chinese calendar (solar calendar) was adopted to count the years, and January 1 of the Chinese calendar was called "New Year's Day" and the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar was called "Spring Festival". Yearly festivals, also known as "traditional festivals", have a long history, are widely spread, and are characterized by great popularity, mass popularity, and even universality. The New Year's Day is a day to get rid of the old and bring in the new. Although the New Year's Day is set on the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar, the activities of the New Year's Day are not limited to the first day of the first month. From the Lunar New Year's Day on the twenty-third (or twenty-fourth), people will begin to "busy year": sweeping the house, washing hair and bathing, preparation of the New Year's Day apparatus, etc., all these activities, there is a **** the same theme, that is, "out with the old and in with the new". People with grand ceremonies and enthusiasm, to welcome the New Year, to welcome the spring. [1]

The year and evening of the anime standard like the New Year's Day is also a day of worship and pray for the year, the ancients said that a cooked grain for a "year", the five grains for the "great year". In the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, there has been a Spring Festival wallpaper 2 (34) once a year to celebrate the activities of the harvest. Later, sacrificing to heaven and praying for the New Year became one of the main elements of the New Year's custom. Moreover, such as the god of the stove, the god of the door, the god of wealth, the god of happiness, the god of the well and other gods, in the New Year's festival, are ready to enjoy the incense on earth. People take this opportunity to thank the gods for their past care and pray for more blessings in the new year. New Year's Day is also a time for family reunions and ancestor worship. New Year's Eve, the whole family gathered together, ate the "New Year's dinner", the elders to the children to distribute "New Year's money", the family sat down "to observe the New Year". At the time of the New Year's Eve, firecrackers went off, culminating in the activities of saying goodbye to the old year and welcoming the new year. Each family burns incense to pay homage to heaven and earth, sacrifices to the ancestors, and then pays New Year's greetings to their elders, followed by congratulations from relatives and friends of the same clan. After the New Year's Day, they begin to visit friends and relatives and give each other gifts to celebrate the New Year. The New Year's Day is also a festival of popular entertainment and revelry. After the New Year's Day, a variety of colorful recreational activities are carried out: playing lion, dragon dance, twisting rice-planting songs, stilt walkers, juggling plays, etc., for the New Year Festival has added a rich and festive atmosphere.

Therefore, the festival has become the grandest festival of the Chinese nation, combining prayers, celebrations and entertainment. To this day, in addition to the worship of gods and ancestors and other activities than the past has been diluted, the main customs of the New Year's Day, are intact to inherit and develop. The Spring Festival is an important carrier of the excellent traditions of the Chinese culture, which contains the wisdom and crystallization of the Chinese culture, unites the pursuit of life and emotional support of the Chinese people, and passes down the concepts of family ethics and social ethics of the Chinese people. After thousands of years of accumulation, the colorful Spring Festival folklore has formed a deep and unique Spring Festival culture. With the improvement of material living standards, people's demand for spiritual and cultural life is growing rapidly, and the desire for family, friendship, harmony and fulfillment is even stronger, the Spring Festival and other traditional festivals are receiving more and more attention and concern from all walks of life. To vigorously carry forward the Spring Festival condensed by the excellent traditional culture, highlighting the old and welcome the new, the blessing of reunion and peace, prosperity and development of the theme, and strive to create family harmony, stability and unity, joy and peace of the celebratory atmosphere, and promote the Chinese culture is everlasting and constantly developing and expanding. [2]

As the Spring Festival approaches, people pick up new year's goods, and on New Year's Eve, the whole family gathers for New Year's Eve dinner. New Year's paintings and spring couplets are posted.

With the establishment of the new China, the Spring Festival celebrations are more colorful. Not only retained the folk customs of the past, eliminated some activities with feudal superstitions, and added a lot of new content. Make the Spring Festival has a new flavor of the times. December 23, 1949, the People's Government of the People's Republic of China *** and the People's Republic of China provides for an annual Spring Festival holiday of three days.

China is a multi-ethnic country, each ethnic group has a different form of New Year. The Han Chinese, Manchu and Koreans celebrate the Spring Festival in much the same way, with family reunions, people eating rice cakes, dumplings and a variety of hearty meals, putting up lanterns and colorful decorations, setting off firecrackers, and wishing each other well. The celebrations during the Spring Festival are extremely rich and varied, including lion dances, dragon juggling, stilt walking, and running on dry boats. In some areas people follow the past ancestor worship God activities, praying for a new year of wind and rain, peace, harvest. Ancient Mongolia, the Spring Festival called "white festival", the first month called white month, is the meaning of good luck. The Tibetans celebrate the Tibetan New Year. The Hui, Uyghur and Kazakhs celebrate the Gulbang Festival. The Spring Festival is also a grand festival for the Miao, Boys and Yao. [3]

The New Year's celebration is the custom of staying awake on the last night of the old year to welcome the arrival of the new year, also known as the New Year's Eve celebration, commonly known as the "New Year's Eve celebration". 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, ferocious nature, 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 activities of the law, 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 the infestation are in the dark, and so on, until the cock crows at dawn, they will return to the mountains and forests to go.

Calculating the date of the "New Year" rampage, the people will be this terrible night as a pass to brake, called "New Year's Pass", and came up with a whole set of New Year's Pass approach: every night, every family is ahead of time to do a good job of dinner, extinguish the fire! Net stove, and then all the chicken coop cattle pen tethered to the front and back doors of the mansion 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 organized very sumptuous, in addition to the whole family to eat 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 the gods of the ancestors, and the gods of the ancestors. Peacefully through the night, after dinner, who do not dare to sleep, sitting together in a crowded chatting courage. 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, a custom that has been passed down to this day.

Wannian Creates Calendar Saying

Legend has it that in ancient times, a young man named Wannian, seeing that the seasons were very chaotic at that time, had the intention of trying to set the seasons right Shouxingtu, but struggled to find a way to calculate the time. One day, he went up the mountain to cut firewood tired, sitting under the shade of a tree to rest, the movement of the shadow of the tree inspired him, he designed a sundial measuring the sun and shadow counting the time of day, to determine the time of day, and later, the dripping springs on the cliffs inspired him, and he had his hands on a five-tiered funnel pot to calculate the time. Over time, he realized that every 360 days or so, the seasons rotated and the length of the day was repeated.

The king of the country at that time, named Zu Yi, was also often distressed by the unpredictability of the weather and wind. When Wannian learned of this, he took a sundial and a funnel pot to the emperor and explained to Zuyi the reasoning behind the operation of the sun and the moon. Zu Yi listened to the dragon's face, felt reasonable. So left Wannian, in front of the Temple of Heaven to build the Sun and Moon Pavilion, built the sundial and funnel kiosk. And he hoped to measure the laws of the sun and the moon, to project the exact time of morning and evening, to create the calendar, and to benefit the people of the world.

On one occasion, Zu Yi went to learn about 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:

Sunrise and sunset are three hundred and six, and the weeks begin at the beginning.

The grass and trees wither and prosper in four seasons, and there are twelve rounds in a year.

Knowing that Wannian's creation of the calendar had come to fruition, he personally ascended to the Sun and Moon Pavilion to see Wannian. Wannian pointed to the sky and said to Zuyi: "It is the twelve full months, the old year is over, the new spring begins again, I pray that the king of the country to 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.

Winter to spring, year after year, Wannian after a long period of observation, careful projection, developed an accurate solar calendar, when he presented the solar calendar to the succeeding king, already full of silver beard. The king of the country was y touched, in order to commemorate the achievements of Wannian, the solar calendar named "Wannian Calendar", sealed Wannian as the sun and moon life star. Later on, people put up the picture of the Longevity Star on New Year's Day, which is said to be in honor of the highly respected Mannian.

Posting Spring Couplets and Door Gods

Legend of Peach Symbols

Peach Symbols Wang Anshi of the Song Dynasty, in his poem "Yuan Day," wrote: "Thousands of doors and ten thousand households are teeled with old symbols, and new peaches are always replaced with old ones." [4], describing the light of the first day. The words "桃" and "符" in the poem are intertextual, meaning that new peach symbols are always exchanged for old ones - to get rid of the old and bring in the new. There is a beautiful legend about the Peach Symbol. A long time ago, Dushuo Mountain in the East China Sea had a beautiful scenery, and there was a peach forest on the mountain, in which there was a huge peach tree with thick branches and leaves, which was curved and coiled for 3,000 miles, and the peaches were so big and sweet that a person who ate the peaches from this tree could be turned into a god. One dark night, some ghosts with green faces and fangs, red hair and green eyes tried to steal the peaches. The two brothers, Shentan and Yushi, who owned the peach forest, used peach branches to defeat the ghosts and fed them to a tiger watching the mountain with a straw rope. From then on, the two brothers were so famous that the ghosts and monsters were afraid of them, and after their death, they became immortals specializing in punishing evil spirits. In later times, people used one-inch wide and seven to eight-inch long peach wood boards to paint the images of the two immortals, Shentan and Yubi, and hung them on both sides of their doors to drive away ghosts and evil spirits, and these boards were called "peach amulets". With the change of the times, the peach charm itself is also changing, and later people will write the names of the two gods in the peach charm, instead of the picture, and then later, and then developed to the "title of the peach charm", that is, the number of words is equal, the structure of symmetry, the meaning of the corresponding short poems written in the peach charm, which is the predecessor of the Spring Festival Couplets.

Ancient New Year's cards

The New Year's cards that are common in modern society were already practiced in ancient China. As early as the Song Dynasty, the royal aristocrats and scholars of the family and relatives have been used between the special New Year's greeting piece, called "name prick" or "name sticker". It is the plum blossom paper paper cut into about two inches wide, three inches long card, written on their names, addresses. A red paper bag is glued to the door of each house, called the "door book", on which is written the name of the owner to receive the name sticker (name sticker). The worshipper casts the name sticker in the door book, that is, to pay tribute to the New Year, which has the same meaning as the modern New Year's greeting card. [5]

Customs of the Spring Festival dust sweeping

"Lunar New Year 24, dust sweeping the house", according to the "Lv's Spring and Autumn Annals", China in the Yao and Shun era on the Spring Festival dust sweeping custom. According to folklore: because the "dust" and "Chen" consonant, dust sweeping in the New Year has "in addition to the meaning of Chen Bu Xin", the intention is to all the poor luck, bad luck, swept out the door. 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 and wash the bedding curtains, sprinkle the six capitals of the courtyard, dusting dust cobwebs, dredge the nullahs and ditches. The whole place is filled with the joyful atmosphere of sanitation and cleanliness to welcome the new year.

Watch the New Year's Eve

Watch the New Year's Eve is one of the most important New Year's activities, the custom of watching the New Year's Eve has a long history. The earliest records are found in the Western Jin Dynasty, Zhou Zhi's "Land and Customs": New Year's Eve night, each with the gift, known as "feed the year"; wine and food invited, known as the "other year"; young and old get together to drink, wishing to complete, known as the "sub-year"; all night, everyone is the most important activity. "

Since the beginning of the year, the Chinese people have been waiting for the daybreak to come, so it is called "keeping the year-end vigil".

Since the Han Dynasty, the time of the transition between the old and new year is usually the middle of the night.

Welcome to the New Year

On the first day of the New Year, people got up early, and later some of the upper class and the scholarly community used the stickers to congratulate each other, which led to the development of what became known as the "New Year's Pieces".[7]

The first day of the New Year was the first day of the New Year. [7]

Posting 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 Spring Festival couplets collection (20) depicting the background of the times, express 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 pasted on the door, for the festival to increase the festive atmosphere. This custom began in the Song Dynasty, began to prevail in the Ming Dynasty, to the Qing Dynasty, the Spring Festival couplets of ideology and artistry have been greatly improved, Liang Zhangzhu prepared the Spring Festival couplets monograph "Threshold Lian series of words" on the origins of the couplets and various types of works of the characteristics of the discourse.

There are many types of spring couplets, which, according to their place of use, can be divided into door centers, frame pairs, horizontal phi, spring strips, and doufang. "Door" in the upper center of the door panel; "frame" on the left and right door frames; "Phi" on the horizontal wood of the door winks; "Chunzhi "according to different contents, posted in the corresponding place;" bucket catty "also called" door leaf "for the square diamond, more in the furniture, shadow wall.

Pasted window and upside down "Fu" character

In the paste the Spring Festival at the same time, some people in the house door, wall, lintel on the large and small [8] "Fu" character. Spring Festival sticker "Fu" word, is China's folk custom from a long time. The character "福" refers to good fortune and 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 will also be "Fu" word fine as a variety of patterns, patterns have the star, longevity, carp jump Dragon Gate, the five valleys, the dragon and phoenix, and so on.

New Year's Paintings

The Spring Festival hanging stickers in urban and rural areas is also very common, thick black colorful New Year's Paintings to thousands of families added a lot of prosperity and joy of the festive atmosphere. New Year's paintings are an ancient folk art in China, reflecting the people's simple customs and beliefs, 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 Province; three major schools of Chinese New Year paintings have been formed, each with its own characteristics.

China's earliest collection of Chinese New Year paintings is the Southern Song Dynasty "with the fairness of the country's face" woodcut New Year paintings, the painting is Wang Zhaojun, Zhao Feiyan, Banji and green beads of the four ancient beauties. 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.

Firecrackers

The Chinese folk saying is "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.

Watching the Spring Festival Gala

[9] The Spring Festival Gala, commonly referred to as the "Spring Festival Gala", is a variety show organized by China Central Television (CCTV) on the evening of New Year's Eve on the Lunar New Year's Day in celebration of the Lunar New Year.

The fact that CCTV organized the Spring Festival Gala in 1983 was a coincidence. But the gala has become the Chinese people's "new folklore, new culture", the annual New Year's Eve must see the TV dinner. From the perspective of cultural development, CCTV's Spring Festival Gala has created a precedent for TV variety shows and triggered a major change in the content and mode of expression of Chinese TV media. Its success not only firmly established its own position, but also spawned a series of similar programs on CCTV, such as Variety Show, Zhengda Variety Show, Qu Yuan Miscellany, Chinese New Year Opera Gala, Chinese New Year Song and Dance Gala, Spring Festival Gala for various ministries and commissions (e.g., Spring Festival Gala for the Ministry of Public Security), and various festive variety shows for the National Day, May Day, Mid-Autumn Festival, and New Year's Day, etc. Subsequently, local variety shows of all sizes across the country were held in the same place. Subsequently, the country's large and small local television stations frequently follow suit and strive for innovation.

Variety programs have become a large-scale form of media culture. The Spring Festival Gala has provided the basic model and blueprint for the development of Chinese TV variety culture.

Edit this section of the basic process of the 23rd and 24th day of the lunar month

Small New Year

New Year's cultural cartoon like (8) 23 or 24 of the lunar month is also known as "Small New Year", is the day of the folk festival of the stove. In the ballad "twenty-three, sugar gourd sticky" refers to the annual Lunar New Year 23 or 24 days of the sacrificial stove. There is a saying that "the government three, the people four, the boat family five", that is, the government on the twenty-third day of the Lunar New Year, the general people's homes on the twenty-fourth day, the water family for the twenty-fifth day of the festival of the stove. Xiao Nian is the beginning of the Spring Festival celebrations, and there are two main activities: sweeping the New Year's Eve and sacrificing to the stove. In addition to this, there is the custom of eating zaosugar, and in some places, eating fire roast, eating sugar cake, oil cake, and drinking bean curd soup.

Sacrificing the stove

Sacrificing the stove is a custom that has a great influence in Chinese folklore and is widely spread. In the old days, almost every house had a "Zao Wang" god in the stove.

Steaming steamed buns

After the 23rd day of the Lunar New Year, every family steams steamed buns. There are two types of steamed buns: those for honoring the gods and those for visiting relatives. The former solemn, the latter flower tip. Especially to make a big jujube mountain, in order to be ready to worship Zaojun. "When a family steams flower buns, the four neighbors come to help." This is often a great opportunity for folk women to show off their dexterity, and a flower bun is a handicraft.

Writing Spring Festival couplets

After the 23rd day of the Lunar New Year, every household will write Spring Festival couplets. Folk say that every god must be posted, every door must be posted, and every object must be posted, so the Spring Festival has the largest number of couplets and the most complete content. The couplets in front of the deities are especially elaborate, mostly words of worship and prayers. Common god couplets are: "Heavenly grace is as deep as the sea, and the virtue of the earth is as heavy as the mountain"; land god couplets: "White jade is created from the earth, and gold comes out of the earth"; god of wealth couplets: "Lord of the heavenly source of wealth, and god of the earthly blessing and fortune"; well god couplets: "The god of the well is the god of the earth, and the god of the earthly blessing and fortune is the god of the earth". "The God of Wealth's couplet reads, "The well can connect to the four seas, and the family can reach the three rivers". Face grain silos, corrals and other places in the Spring Festival couplets, are expressed warmly celebrate and hope, such as "grains, six animals thrive"; "rice and noodles as thick as a mountain, oil and salt as deep as the sea"; "cattle like a tiger in the South Mountain, the horse like the North Sea Dragon "; "sheep year after year, lamb month after month," and so on. In addition, there are some single couplets, such as each indoor sticker "head up to see the joy", the door opposite sticker "go out to see the joy", the prosperous fire on the sticker "Wang Qi Chong Tian", the yard sticker "Full of gold in the yard", "deep roots" on the tree, "White Tiger" on the stone mill and so on. Couplets on the door, is the face of a family, special attention, or lyrical, or write the scene, rich in content, wonderful words.

Eating Zao sugar

Zao sugar is a kind of malt sugar, sticky, it is drawn as a long sugar stick called "Guandong sugar", pulled into a flat round type is called "sugar melon". Put it outside the house in winter, because of the cold weather, sugar melon solidified solid and some tiny bubbles inside, eat it crunchy, sweet and crispy, unique flavor. The real Guandong sugar hard, drop can not be broken, eat must be split with a kitchen knife, the material is very heavy and very fine. Slightly sour taste, no honeycomb in the middle, each piece weighs one or two, two or four, the price is also more expensive. Sugar melon with sesame and no sesame two kinds,

Sugar made into melon shape or melon shape, the center is empty, the skin is not as thick as five points, although the size of the different, but the transaction is still calculated by the amount, the large sugar melon weighing one or two pounds, but used as a front, buy very few people.

Sweeping the dust

After the Zaosai festival, preparations for the New Year officially begin. Sweeping dust is the end of the year cleaning, the north said "sweeping room" sticker (19), the south called "dusting". According to folklore, because of "dust" and "Chen" homophonic, the New Year dust sweeping "in addition to the meaning of Chen Bu Xin", the intention is to put all the "poor luck! ", "bad luck" are swept out. This custom is the desire of the people to break the old, and the wish of the old and welcome the new prayers.

Lunar month 29, Lunar New Year's Eve

Every year, the evening of the last day of the lunar month, the last day of the lunar year (the month of the 30th, the month of the 29th), called "New Year's Eve". It and the Spring Festival (the first day of the first month) is the first and last, is the people of the old and welcome the new day. Because the lunar calendar has thirty days in the big month and only twenty-nine days in the small month, the date of New Year's Eve is also different from twenty-nine and thirty. However, this day is often referred to as "New Year's Eve", regardless of whether it is the 29th or 30th day. New Year's Eve night family reunion to eat New Year's Eve dinner (the last meal of the year in the lunar calendar), New Year's Eve dinner after the New Year's Eve money and boiled the New Year's Eve (vigil) custom,

Zhou, Qin period of the end of each year, the palace to hold a "big exorcism" rituals, beat the drums to expel the plague of ghosts, known as the "by removing", and later, also known as the "by removing", and later, also known as "by removing". By removing", later also known as the day before New Year's Eve for the small in addition, that is, the small New Year's Eve; New Year's Eve for the big in addition, that is, the big New Year's Eve.

Place heaven and earth table

Watch the Spring Festival gala to eat New Year's Eve dinner

Children playing with firecrackers, but also is the housewives in the kitchen the busiest time, New Year's dishes are done a few days before, and New Year's Eve dinner always have to be in the kitchen on the day of the New Year's Eve to do out. In the north, the dumplings on the first day of the New Year are also wrapped up on the evening of the thirtieth. At this time the cutting boards of the families are thumping and busy chopping meat and vegetables. At this time, the sound of the chopping board from every household, the sound of firecrackers from the streets and alleys, the sound of the abacus and the sound of the accounts from small stores, mixed with the sound of jokes and laughter everywhere, one after another, the ocean full of ears, interweaving into the New Year's Eve joyful music.

The New Year's Eve dinner is the most lively and enjoyable time of the year for families. On New Year's Eve, the sumptuous New Year's dishes on the table, the whole family reunion, sitting around the table, *** to eat a reunion dinner, the heart of the fullness is really hard to describe.

Watch the Spring Festival Gala

While this is not an ancient custom, but into the 80's, due to the popularity of television, the Spring Festival Gala has become an essential cultural "feast" for the Chinese people (5), every year more than a billion people around the world through the TV or the Internet. The Chinese government has also been working on the development of the country's economy, and the country's economy is still in decline.

The New Year's Eve celebration

People are accustomed to observing the New Year's Eve and welcoming the new year.

Picking up the gods

Treading on the gods

After picking up the gods, sesame stalks are spread from the street door to the door of the house, and people walk on them, making crackling noises, which is known as "stepping on the New Year's Eve", or also called "stepping on the gods". Because the "broken" and "Soun" homophonic, to take the meaning of the beginning of the New Year to drive away evil spirits.

Receiving the God of Fortune

In the old days, from the night of the Spring Festival, when the door to the fortune was opened, there was the God of Fortune, holding a paper print of the God of Fortune outside the door, yelling, "Send the God of Fortune to me!" At this time, the master of the house to show welcome the God of Fortune to come, they will take the reward money to the people. The god of wealth sender will say some auspicious words, such as "Gold, silver and treasure roll in!" "The left has a pair of golden lion, the right has a pair of golden phoenix" and so on the mouth color.

In addition, there are dressed in red robes, wearing a hat, mouth hanging on the beard, the body of the back of the yellow bag, dressed in the likeness of the God of Wealth, followed by a few gongs and drums, door-to-door distribution of the God of Wealth, in order to ask for reward money. Each to the door of people, singing "the left side of the pile full of gold and silver bank, the right side of the treasure full of house pile" and a bunch of auspicious words, until the master joyfully received the God of Wealth like to give them some money, these people thank you, more vigorously knocking for a while. In the sound of the gongs and drums, they moved on to other households.

The first day of the first month

Firecrackers

On the morning of the Chinese New Year, when the door opens for good luck, firecrackers are set off first, which is called "opening the door to 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 gas, joyful.

Welcome to the New Year

On the first day of the New Year, men got up early, and then some upper-class people and the scholarly community used the name stickers to congratulate each other, which developed into the later "New Year's card".

Occupying the year

Drinking Tusu wine

Gathering wealth

The second day of the first month

The second day of the first month of the first lunar month (the third day of the first month of the first lunar month in the northern region), daughters who married out of the country have brought their husbands and children back to their mother's home to pay tribute to the year of the mother's family

Sacrificing to the God of Wealth (the North)

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The third day of the first month

The third day of the first lunar month is the time when Nuwa created the New Year, and it is also a time to celebrate the birth of a newborn. The third day of the first month of the lunar calendar is the day when Nuwa created the sheep, so it is called "Sheep Day". On this day, people are not allowed to kill sheep, and if the weather is good, it means that the sheep will be raised well during the year, and the people who raise them will have a good harvest.

Burning door god paper

On the third day and night of the old days to the New Year's Day and Festival of the pine and cypress branches and festivals hung door god door paper and so on and incineration, to show that the year is over, and to begin to make a living. Proverbs have "burned the door god paper, personal search physiology".

Gu Zi birthday

Folk thought that the third day of the first month of the Gu Zi birthday, this day to pray for the year, and forbidden to eat rice.

Small Year's Day

Tianqing Festival. Song dynasty court festival, Song Zhenzong Dazhong Xiangfu first year, because of rumors of heavenly books down to earth, Zhenzong issued an imperial edict, the first three days of the first month of the day for the Tianqing Festival, officials and other leave for five days. Later, it was called the Small New Year's Day, which is the same as the Yearly Day without sweeping the ground, begging for fire or drawing water.

Posting "Chikou"

In southern China, on the morning of the third day of the Lunar New Year, "Chikou" (forbidding the mouth) is posted to make people feel that Year-round can be in and out of peace, not to have a quarrel with people or a variety of unfortunate disasters, home more wealth into the treasure, all the best.　

"Sending the New Year"

The New Year ceremony is usually held at night to send the gods and ancestors back to heaven.

The fifth day of the first month

The god of wealth on the fifth day of the first month, commonly known as the broken five.

Folk have the custom of eating dumplings, which signifies inviting wealth and prosperity. The main purpose is to send the poor, welcome the God of Fortune and open the market for trade.

Sacrificing to the God of Wealth (in the south)

Sending the Poor

Sending the poor on the fifth day of the first month of the Lunar New Year is a very distinctive custom of ancient Chinese folklore at this time of the year. Its meaning is to offer sacrifices to the poor ghosts (poor gods). Poor ghost, also known as "poor son", according to legend, poor ghost is the son of Zhuan Xu. He was weak and short, and liked to wear rags and drink rice. Shaanxi Hancheng area, broken five this day, avoid going out, and will be fresh meat in the pot roast, but also fried beans, so that the collapse of the sound, that can collapse away from the poor gas, and seek wealth. In addition, the old New Year's Eve or the fifth day of the first month to eat especially full, commonly known as "fill poor pit". Widely popular folk custom of sending poor, reflecting the Chinese people generally hope that the old and welcome the new, send away the old poverty and misery, to meet the new year's good life of the traditional psychology.

Opening

The old custom of the Spring Festival during the size of the store from the first day of the year closed, and in the first five days of the market. Commonly known as the fifth day of the first month for the sacred day of wealth, that the choice of this day to open the market will attract wealth and treasure. The stock market is also open on this day.

The seventh day of the first month of the year

The seventh day of the first month of the year is the Day of the People, also known as the "People's Victory Festival", "People's Celebration Festival", "Population Day", "people seven days" and so on. Legend has it that the goddess of fire (20) Nuwa first created the world, after making animals such as chickens, dogs, pigs, cows, horses, etc., on the seventh day of the creation of human beings, so this day is the birthday of mankind. The Han Dynasty began to have a human day festival custom, after the Wei and Jin Dynasties began to pay attention. Ancient human day has to wear "people win" custom, people win is a kind of headdress, also known as color win, Hua Sheng. From the Jin Dynasty onwards, there are cut color for flowers, cut color for people, or openwork gold foil for people to paste the screen, also worn in the hair. In addition, there is also the custom of climbing high and writing poems. After the Tang Dynasty, pay more attention to this festival, every human day, the emperor gave qunchen color wisps people win, and high feast qunchen. If the weather is clear on the seventh day of the first month, the main year's population is safe, smooth entry and exit.

"Smoked day"

Folk this day to eat spring rolls "box vegetables" (a cooked meat food), and in the courtyard pancake "smoked day".

Eating Seven Treasures Soup

Seven Treasures Soup is a soup made of seven kinds of vegetables, eaten on the day of the people, in order to take the auspicious omen, and said that this thing can remove the evil, cure all diseases. Different places have different products, different fruits and vegetables are used, and there are also differences in their meanings. Guangdong Chaoshan with mustard, kale, leeks, spring vegetables, celery, garlic, thick petals; Hakka people with celery, garlic, green onions, coriander, leeks with fish, meat, etc.; Taiwan, Fujian with spinach, celery, green onions and garlic, leeks, mustard, capers, cabbages and so on. Among them, celery and green onions signify cleverness, garlic signifies calculating, and mustard greens make people live a long life.

Send the fire god

In the Shandong Peninsula, the seventh day of the first month, but also "send the fire god", the children choose a two-meter stick, with wheat straw to tie it, which is said to be "fire god". At dusk, one end of the "fire god" is lit in front of the house, and the children hold the other end of the "fire god" and run to a place far away from the house until it burns out. This event is meant to send the "fire god" out of the house, so that there will be no fire in the house for a year and the house will be safe and secure.

The eighth day of the first month

The eighth day of the first month, according to legend, is the birthday of Guzi. If the weather is sunny on this day, there will be a good harvest of rice for the year, while a cloudy day will result in a bad year.

Shunxing

Shunxing is also known as the star of sacrifice. On the night of the eighth day of the first month, people, whether or not they go to the temple incense worship star (i.e., Shunxing), and so on the sky stars out of the China Knot (16) all together, each family will hold a Shunxing sacrificial ceremony. Star festival, to put a "golden lamp" (yellow lamp) and lighted in the case, stove, threshold, pots and other places, called "scattered lamps and flowers", there is to avoid the meaning of ominous. After the end of the star festival, the whole family get together to eat a meal of Lantern.

Praying for blessings

On the eighth day of the first month, there is a "release" activity, which is to take some of the fish and birds raised at home outside and release them into the wild.

Liu Dong in the Ming Dynasty in the "Imperial Capital Scenery" recorded that: "the eighth day of the first month, Shideng Lane release, cage birds, pots of fish and shrimp, baskets of snails and mussels, Luo Hall in front of the monks to do the Sanskrit, thousands of each other, the vertical feathers flying in the air, the sins of the land on the house, move when it is to go, the water and so on, casting the Imperial City of the Jinshui River in the net shoots of the bait of Hsi to."

The eighth release, not only reflects the ancients respect for nature, harmony with the virtues, but also expresses the beginning of the new spring, looking forward to a variety of creatures in the world to prosper and develop the good wishes.

The ninth day of the first month

The ninth day of the first month of the first day of the first month of the day, legend has it that this day is the birthday of the Jade Emperor, the supreme deity of the heavenly realm, commonly known as the "God of Heaven". The "God of Heaven" is the "Jade Emperor", which Taoism calls the "First Heavenly Father", is the highest god in the universe, he is the highest god in charge of the gods of the three realms and the ten directions as well as all the souls on earth, representing the "supreme god" of the universe, the "supreme god" of the world. He is the supreme god in charge of all the gods in the three realms and all the spirits on earth, and represents the supreme "heaven". The main customs are sacrificed to the Jade Emperor, Taoist temple fasting, etc., some places, the day when women prepared incense and candles, fasting bowls, set up in the Tianjing alleyway in the open air to worship the heavens, and ask for blessings from the God of Heaven.

Lunar New Year's Eve

"Lapa Lapa Porridge Festival". On the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, it is customary to drink Laha congee throughout China.

According to historical records, the history of drinking Laha congee in China has been more than a thousand years. The earliest began in the Song Dynasty, every Laha this day, whether rich or poor, every family to drink Laha congee. The earliest Laha congee is cooked with red beans, and then evolved, plus local characteristics, gradually colorful. "Laha congee", also known as "seven treasures congee" "five flavors congee", not only fragrant and sweet, but also can smooth the stomach gas, fluid, and therefore quite popular with people like to eat. With the development of the times, more and more patterns of Laha congee has developed into a snack with local flavor. Lapa, itself is a traditional festival, and is the prelude to the New Year Festival, it can be said that Lapa Festival opened the prelude to the Spring Festival. "Children, children, you do not want, after the Laha child is the year" "eat Laha rice, the year to do". After the Laha Festival, the Spring Festival is approaching, people will begin to buy new year's goods, cleaning, furnishing the room, with a new look to meet the arrival of the "year".

New Year's Eve

Northern Years Dumplings Dumplings night meal has a tradition of eating dumplings, but the custom of eating dumplings is not the same, the South there are still some places where the Spring Festival is concerned about eating New Year's Day, year after year (cake), symbolizing that the harvest a year than a year higher than a year, a year after a year of the realm of the realm of the realm of the realm of the realm of the realm.

Yuanxiao

South is called "dumplings", in Jiangsu, Shanghai and other places, the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year have the custom of eating dumplings.

Spring Cake

People say, there is seawater, Spring Festival wallpaper (20) where there are children of China, and there are children of China, there is the Spring Festival. Looking at the Chinese land, look at the five continents and all over the world, every Spring Festival, the ceremonial flowers bloom, dragon dance flying, laughter rippling, Spring Festival lively China, the Spring Festival is also going to the world.

The Spring Festival is not only the Spring Festival of the Chinese people, but also the Spring Festival of the world.

The Spring Festival is first and foremost a festival of loved ones, a festival of the family, and people, especially Chinese people, attach the greatest importance to family and affection. There is an old Chinese saying: "Eat dumplings on the 30th day of the Lunar New Year, there are no outsiders", which means that people who are busy all year round, people who are drifting all over the place, usually go home for the Spring Festival, two generations of fathers and children, grandchildren and grandchildren, and even the four generations in the same family, toast and bow, father is kind and son is filial, mother is kind and wife is good, people enjoy their family and friends with firecrackers, drums and gongs, and laughter, and they all enjoy their family. laughter, enjoying the warmth of the world.