Request a 1,000 word essay on "New Year's Customs in Your Hometown".

Where is your hometown? If you don't tell me, who knows what to do with you?

There are two on the Internet, you look at it

The first one:

My hometown Luyi in Henan Province is located in the eastern part of the Central Plains of the yellow floodplain, and it has a tradition that on the first day of the new year, every family only eats "vegetarian flat food" (vegetarian dumplings), "fire vegetables" and "maternal grandmother".

The morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, the day of the family breakfast a kind of, are only eating with leeks, eggs, vermicelli package "vegetarian flatbread" and with carrot shreds, soybean sprouts, vermicelli modulation of the "fire dishes". The old people said, the first day of the year is the beginning of the year, this day to eat vegetarian food, is to remind people can not spend a lot of money, fish and meat, to live frugally. The carrot shreds in the "fire dish" symbolize red-hot, the soybean sprouts symbolize jin yu mantang, and the vermicelli symbolizes long-lasting flow of water.

The second day of the Lunar New Year is the first day of the relatives, the daughter dragged her family back to her mother's home to buy a gift, there is an indispensable, that is, "big bun". Old people say, before the family are generally very poor, white bread is a rarity, only a few days to eat on New Year's Day, so the "big bun" has become the most important gift. The best thing about the New Year is that every family will have the best food and wine to entertain their friends and relatives, and these are exactly the things that they usually can't afford to eat.

The diligence of the hometown New Year's Eve custom and the now fashionable "low-carbon life" can be said to be on the same path in a sense.

The second:

The Spring Festival is undoubtedly the most important traditional festival of the Chinese people, and for thousands of years, New Year's paintings, paper cuttings, spring scrolls, firecrackers and other New Year's traditions have been an integral part of New Year's Eve. With the changes of the times, some traditional customs began to decline, some new "New Year's custom" is arising. New and old customs are being transmuted.

Experts say, for the excellent traditional customs, we need to protect and inheritance; for the new "New Year's custom", we need to continue to innovate. In this way, our year is more dynamic, more brilliant.

From New Year's Paintings to Spring Festival Gala: The Inheritance of Old and New "New Year's Customs"

"Every Spring Festival, Wuqiang New Year's Paintings are the first thing that brings joy to our hometown. New Year's paintings are everywhere here, competing with each other until the demand for them reaches saturation in every village for every household with purchasing power. With fewer New Year paintings, how difficult and withering the annual festivals of these loess plains will become." These are famous writer Tie Ning's memories of the Spring Festival of her childhood.

The earliest Chinese New Year paintings can be traced back to the Han Dynasty, and for thousands of years they have been essential to the Spring Festival.

There is a model of a typical northern residence in the Museum of New Year Paintings in Wuqiang County, Hebei Province, from which one can find the weight of New Year paintings in the Spring Festival. In this residence, New Year's paintings are everywhere: there is a door god at the gate of the courtyard, a god of wealth at the door of the house, a nave with a center hall, wall paintings on the wall, bed paintings on the bed, paintings of the king of the stove on the stove, and the cow porch and the horse stables can't be pulled down. All kinds of New Year's paintings are in their place, never ambiguous.

Feng Jicai, chairman of the Chinese Folk Literature and Artists Association, said the significance of the year is especially valued in agrarian societies and is essential as a way to publicize the ideals of life and visualize the New Year's paintings. Connoisseurs of New Year's paintings describe them as "televisions on the wall" because they have long been more than just decorative and festive, and more often than not, they are a medium for people to acquire knowledge and information.

This kind of "TV set on the wall" has spent a thousand years in the glorious period, to the 1980s, Chinese New Year paintings experienced the last heyday at the beginning of the century, and then to the demise of the period. Perhaps coincidentally, from this time onward, real television sets became commonplace, and television, far more rich in entertainment and edification than New Year's paintings, was quickly accepted and increasingly enjoyed.

The direct link between the Spring Festival and television is the Spring Festival Gala, which was launched by China Central Television (CCTV) in 1983 and has been warmly welcomed by the masses. 20 years on, the Spring Festival Gala has been held once a year, and despite the growing debate, it is undeniably still an indispensable part of New Year's Eve for the majority of the population. "

The decline of New Year's paintings may be inevitable, a product of its time.

Internet age: digital New Year's Eve

The 70-year-old grandfather will often tell his teenage grandson about the past, and in particular, he will fondly recall the Spring Festival when he was a child: the first month of the Lunar New Year, I smelled the breath of the year. On the eighth day of the first month of the Lunar New Year, we ate Laha congee, sacrificed to the god of the stove on the 23rd day of the Lunar New Year, swept the house on the 24th day of the Lunar New Year, purchased New Year's goods from the 25th to the 28th day of the Lunar New Year, sacrificed to the ancestors on the 29th day of the Lunar New Year, set off firecrackers on the 30th day of the Lunar New Year, ate New Year's Eve dinner, and kept vigil. On the first day of the New Year, wear new clothes, pay homage to the New Year's Eve to ask for New Year's money. Until the sixteenth day of the first month, the year comes to an end.

The teenage grandson of these customs, some clear, some seem to understand, some did not experience. Growing up in the "E-era", many things are done on the Internet. Technology has made the New Year's custom a new carrier, the New Year's custom from the reality transferred to the virtual network.

Twenty years ago, 12-year-old Wang Wei took his father's hand and walked all the way from his home to the New Year's market, squeezing into the crowd. Shopping for New Year's goods is a major event in the Chinese New Year. At that time, the Lunar New Year markets across China were a hustle and bustle. On that occasion, Wang Wei said, the crowd swept him and his father apart, and he cried in fear.

On Feb. 10, 2007, Wang Wei, who was already past his prime, sat down in front of his computer, went to a shopping site and found everything he wanted: rice, peanut oil, frozen dumplings and so on, payable on delivery, without having to pay delivery charges. Wang Wei said, online shopping has lost the field to buy a lot of fun, but there is a loss will be gained, online variety of New Year's Eve, some are still not available on the local market, the most satisfied with his online shopping so that he saves a lot of time.

The way of paying homage to the New Year is also changing. Many people still remember being led by their parents when they were young, walking from house to house, "congratulations, bring the red packet".

Video New Year's greetings, e-mail and greeting card New Year's greetings, SMS MMS New Year's greetings, blog New Year's greetings, a variety of online New Year's greetings to make people far away from the sky become close at hand, you can see his appearance, but also can hear his voice. Through the network to convey each other's thoughts and greetings, even 10 years ago, this kind of thing is still not even dare to think.

In the digital age, New Year's traditions are also becoming more and more digital. Online, you can even make virtual dumplings, set off virtual firecrackers, you can think of things online can basically realize. The traditional Chinese New Year has merged with modern technology, and the Internet has added new vigor to the Spring Festival.

Facing the fading and the need to retain

Firecrackers, Spring Festival couplets, paper cuttings, New Year's paintings, for many years, these things are the Spring Festival can not be missing. But as times change, these traditional Spring Festival props are gradually going into decline.

The situation of New Year's paintings is obvious, it is facing not only the problem of shrinking market, but also the generation of New Year's painting artists. Tianjin Yangliuqing New Year's paintings heir Huo Qingshun said, New Year's paintings seem simple, in fact, is divided into the outline, engraved plate, overprinting, painting, framing and other processes, the previous artists as long as they can master one or two of them, can be called folk art everyone. 2003, Tianjin City, found that mapping survey, the old master of the process of New Year's paintings have been very few artists left. In Wuqiang County, Hebei Province, another hometown of the New Year's Paintings, there are only about 80 old artists in engraving and printing, with an average age of more than 40 years old, and many of them have changed their profession when the New Year's Paintings were in decline.

Thirty years ago in northern China, instead of the glass windows of today, households had glass in the lower half of the frame and hemp paper in the upper half. For the sake of aesthetic appeal, people put paper cutouts on the hemp paper, called "window flowers. In the yellow and gray color of the northern winter, the window flowers bring people a unique and beautiful scenery. Every year on the 24th day of the Lunar New Year, tearing off the old window clippings and putting up new ones is the top priority of the day. People post the window clings to say "out with the old and in with the new".

Like New Year's paintings, paper cuttings are all-encompassing, and under the hands of veteran artists, they include flowers, birds, fishes and insects, deepening legends, and historical stories. ...... But, like the fate of New Year's paintings, it is now difficult for ordinary people to see it, and it has become a favorite of museums and collectors.

Many traditional New Year's customs are fading. Whether it's New Year's paintings, paper cuttings or spring couplets, they are products of China's "New Year culture," which carries folk beliefs, philosophy, morality, entertainment and education. In the face of the decline of the excellent New Year's culture, it is particularly important to protect and inherit, advocate and promote.