Write a short essay on Chinese New Year, a traditional Chinese festival

Legend has it that in the ancient times, there was a monster called "Nian", with the body image of a dog, which came out to make trouble on the 30th day of the Lunar New Year. Many people are victimized by it, people to this time of the year are very afraid! However, with the passage of time, people later found that the year is afraid of the sound of firecrackers exploding, so every time it is going to come out when people will put firecrackers to scare it, so that it does not dare to come down to harm people. Therefore, people can safely pass this period of time. And this time is called "New Year".

The Spring Festival has slowly become a traditional festival in China, which has been passed down from generation to generation, and the various customs and cultures of the Spring Festival have been passed down from generation to generation.

At the beginning of the New Year, the Spring Festival is approaching, and according to the traditional customs of China, every household in the city and the countryside always puts up a new Spring Festival couplet to mark the end of the old and the beginning of the new, hoping to spend the New Year's Eve in harmony and ushering in the New Year's Eve in a sweet and beautiful way. It can be said that the Spring Festival is a traditional festival unique to our country, while the Spring Festival couplets are a traditional culture unique to our country. This is because the Spring Festival originated from our country's long history and culture, the Spring Festival is accompanied by the annual Spring Festival came into being, into the homes of ordinary people, into people's social life and customs.

China's ancient Spring Festival couplets can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period, when the Spring Festival couplets are carved in the door of the wooden rafters or stone pillars, there are also seal engraved in the hanging door of a long bamboo sheet, and later ink writing on silk thick tape (the northern people call it a front) to decorate the door. After the invention of papermaking in ancient China, the Spring Festival couplets were written on paper banners by literati and ink writers, and then developed to be written on red paper and posted in the door pavilions and halls.

On the occasion of the Spring Festival, when you visit friends and relatives or stroll along the streets and alleys, take advantage of the pleasure to pay attention to appreciate the new Spring Festival couplets posted in every house, in the word and appreciate the meaning of the words can indeed be pleasing to the eye, cultivate the senses. If you have the heart to savor and recite the wonderful couplets, it is a kind of art appreciation with special interest. For example: The old Ushi and the new Cin have new ambitions, and the ox returns to the tiger and leaps in spring. The cow runs to the tiger and the tiger roars in the spring of the nine states.

Songs that have been circulating around the world also reflect the customs of the Spring Festival and are quite interesting. For example: (Beijing) Twenty-three, sugar gourd sticky; twenty-four, sweeping day; twenty-five, push corn; twenty-six, go hang meat; twenty-seven, slaughter a chicken; twenty-eight, put the surface hair; twenty-nine, steamed buns; thirty night guard a night, the first day of the New Year a twist.

The food culture of the Spring Festival is also worth studying. After the houses were dressed up, New Year's Eve was approaching. Housewives are then busy preparing to make the most sumptuous and meaningful New Year's Eve dinner of the year. As the name suggests, a New Year's dinner is a meal where families gather together to celebrate the New Year, not forgetting even their deceased ancestors. Therefore, after a family has made a New Year's Eve dinner, the first thing they must do is to "pay homage to their husbands" (offer sacrifices to their ancestors). When making offerings to the ancestors, the incense burner representing the ancestors should be brought down from the shrine and placed on the offering table, then incense should be burned and prayers should be made to invite the ancestors to have their meal. Then the elders and children kneel in order, which fully demonstrates the traditional virtues of being prudent and filial. After the festival, the meal for the ancestors is reheated, a big table is set up in the hall, and the family gathers around the Kin, which is a wonderful moment of reunion for every family. No matter how far apart the family is or how many problems they have, this is the time to laugh and be happy, not to talk about sadness or quarrel. After dinner, the housewife is busy cleaning up the dinner table, so a big cleaning activity will begin. This cleaning was not very elaborate, but was purely for the sake of cleanliness, unlike the one at the end of the year, when the grass had to be swept and scrubbed with pine boughs. Then the fire was built and the preparation of the offerings for tomorrow's sacrifice, the fasting food, began. There are many kinds of fasting food, some taro, some sweet potato, some are made of dates, some are made of peanuts, taro and sweet potato together. All the ingredients for making the fasting dishes should be prepared in the afternoon and allowed to dry. To deep-fry the dishes, put an iron pot on the stove when the fire is ready and fill it with a large amount of peanut oil. When the oil boils, the ingredients are mixed with a batter and put into the pot, and it squeaks and bubbles in the frying pan. When it is cooked, it is yellow, fragrant and very attractive. At this time, if there are guests at home, the hostess will offer a plate of freshly fried vegetables, and then make fragrant work tea, so that you can taste a variety of snacks and delicious.

Sending New Year's money is an important part of the Chinese New Year custom, in which the elders distribute money to their offspring, and those who are able to earn money also send money to their elders. The money can not be sent straight, but to be very carefully packed in a Li Shi package, or with a piece of red paper package to see. This is commonly known as "pressure belly waist", meaning that the year from beginning to end, the waist bag will be full of solid, rich. Particularly interesting is that the child before going to bed, parents will be a large-denomination banknotes in the child's belly pocket, wake up after the banknotes will be retrieved.

New Year's Eve, also known as "worship". On the first morning, people get up and put on new clothes, the first thing is to worship their own family, often the first generation to bless the elders, and then the elders and then to the elders to the expectations of the younger generation. After breakfast, each to their own friends and relatives to pay tribute to the New Year. Proverb: "have the intention to worship the first day of the year, two, no intention to worship the third and fourth." Said is to pay tribute to the New Year the earlier the more to see its sincerity. Therefore, some people get up and immediately to relatives and friends to pay tribute to the New Year to go, back to eat.

The Spring Festival also has many taboos. Speech, where "broken", "bad", "no", "death", "light "bad", "no", "dead", "light", "ghost", "kill", "sick", "pain", "lose", "poor" and other unlucky words, are forbidden to say. Also taboo baby crying, because crying is "no head color", signs of disease, disaster. Therefore, even if the child has caused trouble on this day, can not beat him or scold him, so as to prevent him from crying endlessly. Behavior, end cups, plates, bowls, dishes to be extra careful, can not be broken, accidentally broken, in the water a custom has been in vain form only. Prohibition of sweeping the custom is also slowly being eliminated, because during the Spring Festival firecrackers, people come and go, the ground confetti, garbage, especially more, not to clean up indeed impede the elegance. Therefore, from the hygienic point of view, many young people are also on these traditional taboos and customs do not pay much attention to. Debtors are not allowed to come to the door on this day to collect debts, because it is believed that this day to collect debts on both sides of the borrower and lender are inauspicious. Also taboo from other people's pockets out of things, people believe that the first day of the first month of the pocket to let people pull out, may lead to a year are "empty" the danger. Jealous of the dead, also jealous of the funeral, because it will bring bad luck to the family. At the same time, avoid the day haircut, because people in this day, day always like to haircut with the funeral associated. This day even avoid killing, killing is believed to lead to knife disaster, military disaster, blood disaster and other calamities, but now people's standard of living has improved, eat something fresh, in order to fast for the mouth and stomach, there is nothing to worry about.

The Spring Festival is a traditional festival in China, and our new generation of secondary school students should inherit and carry forward this traditional culture.