How to Write a Political Essay on Chinese New Year Customs

Customs of the Spring Festival

In the long, long history, the Spring Festival has evolved from germination to stereotypes, forming unique and colorful customs of the Chinese nation. During the Spring Festival, the Han Chinese and many ethnic minorities in China hold a variety of activities to celebrate. These activities are to worship ancestors and respect for the elderly, thanksgiving and pray for blessings, family reunions, old and new, welcome the Jubilee, pray for a good year as the main content, with a strong ethnic characteristics.

Zaoshen worship

Zaoshen worship is a very influential and widely spread custom in China's folklore. In the old days, almost every family had a "Zao Wang" god in the kitchen. Legend has it that he is the Jade Emperor's "nine days of the East Kitchen Secretary Zao Wang Fu Jun", responsible for the management of the family's stove fire, people call this god "Secretary for the life of the bodhisattva" or "Zao Jun Secretary for the life of the", as a This god is worshipped as the protector of the family. The folk song "Twenty-three, Sugar Melon Sticky" refers to the annual stove festival on the twenty-third or twenty-fourth day of the Lunar New Year, and there is the so-called "Officials Three, People Four, Boat Family Five", that is, the official government on the twenty-third day of the Lunar New Year, the general people's families on the twenty-fourth day, and the water householders on the twenty-fifth day of the Lunar New Year. held a sacrificial stove.

Legend has it that by the twenty-third day of the lunar month, Zaoshengyi will ascend to heaven and report to the Jade Emperor on the good and bad of this family for a year, and the Jade Emperor, according to the Zaoshengyi's report, will then be the family in the new year should be given the fate of the fate of the Zaoshengyi's hand. The ceremony of sending the god of the stove is called "sending the stove" or "resigning from the stove", in which the people offer red candles and sugar melons, and send the god of the stove to heaven in a grand ceremony, praying that the god of the stove will "say good things in heaven, and bring good fortune down to the world". Nowadays, this custom is still practiced in many rural areas. [Video] The King of Zao [Video] Zao is also a symbol of home

Dust Sweeping

"On the 24th day of the lunar calendar, dust sweeping day". The first step in welcoming the new is to get rid of the old. Sweeping dust is the end of the year cleaning, the north called "room sweeping", the south called "dusting". Sweeping dust before the Spring Festival, is a traditional folk custom in China. Dust day, the whole family up and down all hands, cleaning houses, courtyards, scrubbing pots and pans, dismantling bedding, clean to welcome the New Year. In fact, people use the harmonization of "dust" and "chan" to express their will to get rid of chan and the old. [Video] Why do we need to sweep the house on the 24th day of the lunar calendar?

Posting Spring Festival couplets

Posting Spring Festival couplets, an activity during the Spring Festival, began to flourish in the Song Dynasty, and it was customary to post them in every home during the New Year.

Spring Festival couplets, commonly known as "door pair", also known as "spring post", is a kind of couplets, because in the Spring Festival posted, so called Spring Festival couplets. A source of spring couplets is the peach charm. Initially, people used peach wood to carve human figures to hang next to the door to avoid evil spirits, and later painted the image of the door god on peach wood, then simplified to inscribe the name of the door god on the peach wood board. Another source of spring couplets is the spring stickers, the ancients in the spring day more stickers "Yichun" two words. The real popularity of spring couplets began in the Ming Dynasty, and Zhu Yuanzhang's advocacy. According to historical records, one year before New Year's Eve, Zhu Yuanzhang had ordered every family to post a pair of spring couplets on the door to celebrate. Originally, the spring couplets were inscribed on mahogany boards, but later they were written on paper instead. The color of mahogany is red, and red has the meaning of good luck and avoiding evil, so most of the spring couplets are written on red paper.

The Spring Festival couplets can be called the Chinese nation's original artistic wonders, it is elegant and popular **** appreciation of the characteristics of the generations of people loved. Someone once summarized the Spring Festival couplets: "two lines of text, supporting the heaven and earth; a pair of couplets, comment on the ancient and modern." Posting Spring Festival couplets is an important New Year's folklore. On the eve of the Spring Festival, every family puts up red spring couplets, a pair of festive and enthusiastic spring couplets expresses people's good wishes of welcoming the new year and looking forward to a new life. The Changing Face of Spring Festival Couplets [VIDEO] Why do we need to put up Spring Festival Couplets? How did the Spring Festival couplets come about? Folklore experts talk about the Spring Festival couplets

Posting New Year's Paintings

New Year's Paintings, like the Spring Festival couplets, originated from the "God of the Door". With the rise of engraving and printing, the content of the New Year's paintings has not only limited to the god of the door and so on, and gradually invited the god of wealth to the home, and then in some of the New Year's paintings workshop produced the "three stars of fortune, luck and longevity," the "heavenly officials blessed", "the five grains," "the six animals," "to welcome the spring to receive the blessing of the New Year and other colorful New Year's paintings, in order to satisfy the people's happy prayers for the year's good wishes. Since Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, advocated the posting of Spring Festival couplets in the Spring Festival, New Year's paintings were also influenced by the influence of these couplets and then flourished. Taohuaowu in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, Yangliuqing in Tianjin and Yangjiabu in Weifang, Shandong Province are the three important production areas of New Year paintings in China. In the early years of the Republic of China, a new form of combining the calendar and the New Year's paintings appeared in Shanghai, which later developed into today's wall calendar.

Posting the word "Fu" upside down

In China, people often use the word "Fu" to express their desire and pursuit of good fortune, good luck and happiness. Whenever the old and new moments, families have to put the word "Fu" on the door of the house, meaning that the blessing into the door. Many places also posted upside down "Fu" word, the use of "down" and "to" the harmonic, meaning "Fu to".

New Year's Eve is the last night of the year, and the Spring Festival, the first and last together, is "one night even double the year, five years divided into two years," an important moment. "In addition to the meaning of "go", New Year's Eve means "the end of the month and the end of the year", which means that the old year is over and the coming year will be a new year. New Year's Eve is the first climax of the festival. The New Year's Eve celebration, commonly known as the "New Year's Eve celebration", begins with the New Year's Eve dinner. New Year's Eve dinner is the most family-friendly, full of warmth and peace of the family feast, at this time, people not only enjoy the table full of delicious food, but also enjoy the strong affection and festive celebrations. After the New Year's Eve dinner, in addition to young children, the whole family began to observe the New Year's Eve, *** with the old and welcome the new. In the Jin Dynasty, there is a New Year's Eve vigil custom, the North and South Dynasties has been very common, into the Sui and Tang Dynasty after the vigil is very popular, the Song Dynasty, following the Tang style is more prevalent. In addition, the Han Dynasty has been the night of New Year's Eve drink pepper cypress wine (with herbs prepared wine) in order to drive away evil spirits to dispel the custom, later changed to drink Tusu wine, Wang Anshi has a poem "the spring breeze sends warmth into the Tusu". Nowadays, in the south of China, there is still the custom of drinking tusu wine when the whole family gathers on New Year's Day.

On New Year's Eve, China's folk will also be held to step on the activities of the year, that is, in the yard will be sesame stalks glued to the yellow paper rolled into the shape of a treasure, saved into a bundle, known as the "treasure bowl". Then, the whole family with their feet will be crushed to "broken" harmonic "year", and borrowed sesame blossoms of the auspicious symbolism of the high, wishing the family to prosper, to express the blessings of the new year and prayers. Nowadays, the custom of stepping on the age has been replaced by firecrackers,>> Folklore experts: the Spring Festival sticker "Fu" word is for praying for auspicious

New Year's Eve dinner

The whole family together to eat a reunion dinner is an important custom of New Year's Eve. As the most important traditional festival in China, the Spring Festival is a great opportunity for family reunions, especially as many people become busier and busier at work. The reunion meal on New Year's Eve is also called the New Year's Eve dinner, and according to the Zong Security Department's "Jing Chu Yearly Records", the custom of having a New Year's Eve dinner existed at least during the Northern and Southern Dynasties. In the past, families used to cook a sumptuous dinner at home. Nowadays, some families avoid the hassle by simply putting the New Year's Eve dinner in a restaurant. No matter where you eat, the theme of reunion will not change.

New Year's Eve money

On New Year's Eve, the elders give the younger generation new year's money, which is also known as pressure money. Because the word "year" harmonizes with the word "evil", the elders hope that the money can drive away evil spirits and protect the children from disasters. New Year's money is a token of the elders' hope and love for their children, so students should not compare the amount of new year's money with each other, but should focus on the emotional value of it. At the same time, to rationalize the use of the new year's money, put it in the study or do some meaningful things. >> "New Year's money" is an integration of family ethical relations of folk activities

Firecrackers

Chinese folk "open the door firecrackers", that is, the arrival of the new year, the first thing to open the door of the family is to set off firecrackers, in order to open the door to the new year. Is to set off firecrackers, to split the sound of firecrackers to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. Firecrackers is a recreational activity of Chinese festivals, can bring joy and good fortune, in China has more than 2,000 years of history.

According to historical records, the earliest firecrackers are made of bamboo poles and other flammable torch. Because bamboo is abundant in the south of China, this custom was first popularized from the south. When the bamboo burns, the air in the bamboo joints expand, causing the bamboo cavity burst, making a crackling sound, the name of the firecracker also came from this. About the Tang Dynasty, people put gunpowder in the bamboo tube to ignite. Song Dynasty people have been commonly used inside the gunpowder paper rolls instead of bamboo tubes, which is now the firecrackers.

Chinese New Year Reunion ("Junjie on the throne")

Welcoming

Welcoming is an important activity during the Chinese New Year, which, like the reunion dinner on New Year's Eve, is a Chinese New Year custom that best reflects the "flavor of the year". In the past, the order of the family New Year's Eve for a worship of heaven and earth, two worship ancestors, three worship high hall. Generally on the first day of the New Year, the younger generation to the elders to pay tribute, wishing the elders blessings such as the East China Sea, longevity than Nanshan. After the New Year to relatives to pay homage, the general rule is the first day to pay homage to the family, the second day to pay homage to the family in law, the third day to pay homage to relatives. In classmates, colleagues, friends, collaborators, neighbors should also pay New Year's greetings to each other. In the "New Year's greetings," the sound of congratulations, close the distance between the heart and mind, enhance the feelings of people. As the old saying goes, the New Year's greetings are "to link the friendship of the year, in order to township feelings".

The Spring Festival reunion is an ancient Chinese New Year custom. In the past, the New Year's Day people should be in a circle, so that they can see each other, not to worship not. Now, every year in the Spring Festival in the **** Central and State Council will be held in the Spring Festival reunion, when the party and state leaders to the people of all ethnic groups in the country, compatriots in Hong Kong and Macao, compatriots in Taiwan and overseas compatriots to pay tribute to the New Year, and people from all walks of life get together, the old to welcome the new, *** celebrate the New Year.

Nowadays, the information society, the way to pay tribute to more colorful, the traditional group worship, door-to-door visits are still inherited, but the phone to pay tribute to the New Year, text message to pay tribute to the New Year, online New Year's Eve and other emerging ways to pay tribute to the New Year is also more and more fashionable. These ways are not as intuitive as door-to-door New Year's Eve, but very convenient, efficient, people can be more casual, more appropriate to grasp the time of New Year's Eve, suitable for modern people's concept of life and the rhythm of life, is the old New Year's Day folklore and modern information technology lifestyle combination of products. At the same time, the SMS New Year's Eve to the New Year's Eve content and beautiful poetic style, sincere and humorous emotions cleverly and exquisitely combined, the content of the rich personality, or light-hearted humor, or full of interest, or very philosophical, or teaching, or warm and romantic, or sincere blessings, the formation of the New Year's Eve folklore in a beautiful landscape. In fact, regardless of the past, present, or future, no matter how the form of New Year's Eve changes, from people's heart of the Spring Festival wishes and blessings are always the same. Worship is a way for people to express their good wishes to each other on the first day of the Lunar New Year, there are four forms of Chinese folk worship

Stroll in the temple

Stroll in the temple, is the majority of Chinese people's Spring Festival complex, it is indispensable to the New Year's custom. The Spring Festival temple fair is the earliest folk religious ceremonies, temple fair time, usually by monks, Taoist priests to do "magic" or "dojo" to worship God, people also want to incense pilgrimage, make a wish, return the wish, seek blessings. During the temple fair, there are also vendors and folk art performances. The temple fair has many traditional projects that have a long history and are loved by the people, such as lion dance, dragon dance, rice-planting songs, stilt walkers, running boats and so on.

Watching the social fire

In addition to the temple fair, the folk self-performance and self-entertainment of the social fire is also a long history of the annual festival entertainment. Social fire originated from the ancient worship of the land god and fire god. Social, that is, the land god; fire, that is, fire ancestor, is the legendary fire god. In China, which is famous for its agricultural culture, land is the foundation of people's foothold, and it lays the material foundation for the survival and development of human beings. Fire, is the source of cooked food and warmth, but also essential to the survival and development of mankind, ancient people with primitive thinking that fire also has a "spirit", and regarded as a special meaning of the gods to be worshipped, so the formation of the concept of fire. Ancient land and fire worship, produced the custom of sacrificing to the community and fire. With the development of society, the rituals of social fire gradually become a grand scale, rich in content, a variety of folk entertainment.

Chinese knot

The Chinese knot is also known as the long knot, each knot is knotted from end to end with a red rope. Chinese knot originated in ancient times, when there was no writing, people in order to remember certain things, in a rope coiled on different knots to show memory, which is "knotting rope to remember things". At that time, in addition to remembering important things in production and life, this method was also used by young people to express their love. As a kind of decorative artwork, the Chinese knot gives people an impression of simplicity and good fortune. It contains a strong ethnic vernacular flavor and an elegant appearance, reflecting both the mystery of the ancient times and the spirituality of the Chinese people. Therefore, it quickly became the object people hung indoors during the Spring Festival, or gave to each other. Elegant shape, antique flavor to the traditional festivals add peaceful, auspicious atmosphere.