Traditional Chinese customs: What to eat on the sixth day of the Lunar New Year

The food eaten on the sixth day of the Lunar New Year is as follows in folk songs: dumplings on the first day of the Lunar New Year and noodles on the second day of the Lunar New Year, zhuanzi zhuan home on the third day of the Lunar New Year, and pancakes and scrambled eggs on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year.

Knead dough on the fifth and sixth day of the lunar month, fry rice cakes on the seventh and eighth day of the lunar month, white rice on the ninth and tenth day of the lunar month, porridge with eight treasures on the eleventh and twelfth lunar month, Chuan Tang Wan on the 13th and 14th lunar month, and Yuanxiao Yuan on the 15th day of the first lunar month.

So on the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, people in the north eat more pasta, while people in the south generally eat more dumplings or other pasta products.

Let me add some little knowledge about the sixth day of the Lunar New Year. The sixth day of the Lunar New Year is a special day in the first month. According to folk custom, it is the last day of the Six Animals (Horse Day). There are three major customs on this day: Custom 1: The sixth day of the Lunar New Year is the Horse Day.

Day, known as Yi Fei in ancient times, is the day when people really start to work or do business.

Since the beginning of the first lunar month, cleaning is not allowed until the fifth day of the lunar month, and feces accumulate in the toilets. So on this day, we do a big cleaning to clean the usually dirty toilets.

Therefore, it is called "Yi Fei" (but nowadays people mostly use new bathroom equipment, so this custom is no longer used).

This day also means that the working people of old China began to go to the fields on this day to prepare for spring plowing.

Custom 2: Giving away horses to poor people on the sixth day of the Lunar New Year and giving away poor ghosts.

Legend has it that the poor god is Jiang Ziya's wife. In order to prevent poor ghosts from entering their homes during the Spring Festival, people hang red notes on their doors to prevent her.

I don’t know when the poor god in Beijing became a male, and became a god worshiped by bargemen.

On this day, housewives at home have to throw out the garbage accumulated during the festival, which is called giving away to the poor. The paper hanging on the door can also be taken off and thrown out at the same time, which is called giving away to the poor. Custom 3: Good business opening and good luck on the sixth day of the Lunar New Year for shops and restaurants.

The business has just officially opened, and firecrackers will be set off, which is no less than the situation on New Year's Eve.

The sixth day of the first lunar month was the day when merchants of all sizes "opened the market" in the old days, and red couplets with the words "Good luck opening the market, everything goes well" would be posted on the door panels.

Firecrackers are set off before opening to show good luck.