What are the New Year's Eve customs of Hunan people?

Hometown New Year customs

The Spring Festival is the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar, also known as the lunar year, commonly known as "New Year". It is one of the grandest and most lively traditional festivals in China. The Spring Festival has a long history, which originated in the Yin Shang period at the end of the year to sacrifice to the gods and ancestors.

China has many hometown customs, different provinces and cities have different hometown customs:

1. dust day

China in the era of Yao and Shun on the Spring Festival dust custom. According to folklore: because the "dust" and "Chen" consonant, dust sweeping in the New Year has the meaning of "remove Chen Bu Xin", meaning that all the poor luck, bad luck, all sweep out the door. This custom is based on people's desire to break the old and bring in the new and their prayers for the old and the new. Whenever the Spring Festival comes, every family has to clean the environment and wash all kinds of utensils. Everywhere overflowing with joyful health, clean and welcome the new year's happy atmosphere.

2. Buy New Year's goods

Then it is the family to prepare for the New Year's goods, the Spring Festival about ten days before, people began to busy purchasing goods, New Year's goods, including chickens, ducks, fish, meat, sugar bait and fruit, etc., to buy enough, but also to prepare for some of the New Year's Eve when visiting friends and relatives when the gift, the child to buy new clothes and new hats, ready to wear on New Year's Day.

3. Stick Spring Festival couplets

Before the Spring Festival in the house on the front door of the red paper yellow (black) words of the New Year message, that is, written in red paper Spring Festival couplets. The house is pasted with brightly colored auspicious New Year's paintings, cut out beautiful window (red) pasted on the windows, hanging large red lanterns or sticking the word "Fortune" and the God of Fortune, the God of the Door, and so on. Fukuji can also be pasted upside down, passers-by a read Fukui down (to), that is, the blessing has arrived, all these activities are to add enough festive atmosphere for the holiday.

4. Firecrackers

Another name for the Spring Festival is the New Year. In the legends of the past, the New Year was an imaginary animal that brought bad luck to people. When the year came. Trees wither and no grass grows; once the year passes, everything grows and flowers are everywhere. How can the year pass? It needs to be blown up with firecrackers, so there is the custom of firecrackers, which is another way to set off a lively scene.

5. Family reunion

The Spring Festival is a happy and peaceful holiday, but also the reunion of loved ones, children away from home in the Spring Festival are family members have to go home to get together. 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 year-end vigil is one of the most important New Year's activities, New Year's Eve night, the whole family stay up to keep watch and get together to drink soundly. Northern regions in the New Year's Eve have the custom of eating dumplings, dumplings, dumplings and noodles, and the word is together; dumplings and dumplings and cross harmonized, and cross and cross the meaning of getting together, meaning more years of cross the son. In the south, it is customary to eat New Year's cake on New Year's Day. The sweet and sticky rice cake symbolizes the sweetness of life in the new year.

6. New Year's Day

On the first day of the New Year, people get up early, put on their best clothes, dress up neatly and go out to visit friends and relatives. There are many ways to pay New Year's call: some are the same patriarch to lead many people from door to door to pay New Year's call; some colleagues invited a few people to pay New Year's call; there is also a get together to congratulate each other, known as the "reunion call". Because of the time-consuming and labor-intensive door-to-door New Year's greetings, some people came up with the idea of sending letters instead of running or talking, which later developed into "New Year's greeting cards".

7. Give red envelopes

The Spring Festival when the New Year's greetings, the younger generation should first give the elders to pay tribute to the New Year's Eve, wishing the elders good health, the elders can be prepared beforehand the New Year's Eve money to the elders, it is said that the New Year's Eve money can be pressed to stop the evil spirits, because the "age" and the "spirits It is said that the New Year's money can keep evil spirits at bay, because "year" and "spirit" are homophonic, and the younger generation can spend the year in peace if they get the New Year's money. There are two kinds of New Year's money: one is made in the shape of a dragon with colored ropes threaded through it and placed at the foot of the bed; the other is the most common, which is wrapped in red paper and distributed to children by their parents. New Year's money can be given in person after the younger generation pays their respects, or it can be secretly placed under the child's pillow by the parent when the child is asleep on New Year's Eve.

8. New Year's Eve

The night of the last day of the lunar year. The last day of the year is called the "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". People often stay up all night on New Year's Eve, called the New Year's Eve. There is a legend about the origin of New Year's Eve: there was a vicious beast called Xi in ancient times, which would come out to harm people at the end of the year. Later, people found out that Xi was afraid of three things, red color, fire and loud noise. So in winter, people hung red-colored mahogany boards on their doors, burned fires in front of their doors, and stayed 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, and wine and banquets. So later on the night of New Year's Eve, families stick red spring couplets, firecrackers, to drive away the beast of the night. In order to seek peace in the new year, this custom has been passed down since then, the night of the 30th of the year will be called New Year's Eve.

9. Stickers

There are also many people in the Spring Festival hanging stickers, 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 simple customs and beliefs of the people and holding their hopes for the future. New Year paintings, like spring scrolls, originated from the "door god". Nowadays, the contents of New Year paintings are not only limited to monotonous themes such as door gods, but have become colorful, and in some New Year paintings workshops, such classic colorful New Year paintings as "Three Stars of Fortune, Luck and Longevity," "Heavenly Officials Provide Blessings," "Five Valleys in Abundance," "Six Animals in Prosperity," and "Welcoming the Spring to Receive Blessings" have been produced in order to satisfy people's wishes for the celebration and prayers for the New Year.

10. New Year's Eve wine

New Year's Eve with the family, wine dinner, or invite friends and relatives to eat with friends and drink, known as the "New Year's Eve wine". Because New Year's Eve is the dividing line between the old and the new year, eating wine, meaning that the old and new years from this night and divided. Therefore, this meal, rich or poor, should try to do more sumptuous. "Year-end wine" is also known as "New Year's Eve dinner", eat year-end wine is very auspicious, in the past, the banquet will be used in ten cinnabar high red bowl, holding ten kinds of cold dishes, called "ten full". In addition to chicken and meat, there should be peanuts (jiezi), mandarin oranges (daji), carp (jump dragon gate), tofu (family cleanliness) and so on. Eat over the New Year's Eve wine, we find their own entertainment, and often stay up all night, called "keep watch", also known as "looking forward to the New Year's Eve".