Spring Festival customs reflect those traditional Chinese concepts, thoughts, and culture

Spring Festival is the most solemn traditional festival among Chinese people. On the first day of the first lunar month of the lunar calendar, it is also called the lunar year, commonly known as "Chinese New Year" and "New Year". The Spring Festival has a long history. It originated from the activities of worshiping gods and ancestors at the beginning and end of the year during the Yin and Shang Dynasties. According to the Chinese lunar calendar, the first day of the first lunar month was called Yuanri, Yuanchen, Yuanzheng, Yuanshuo, New Year's Day, etc. in ancient times. It was commonly known as the first day of the new year. During the Republic of China, the Gregorian calendar was switched to the Gregorian calendar. January 1st of the Gregorian calendar was called New Year's Day. The first day of the lunar calendar was called New Year's Day. The first day of the month is called the Spring Festival.

The Humanistic Significance of the Spring Festival

The Spring Festival is here, which means that spring is coming, everything is revived, the vegetation is renewed, and a new round of sowing and harvesting seasons is about to begin. People have just passed through the long winter of ice and snow, and the vegetation has withered, and they have long been looking forward to the days of warm spring and blooming flowers. When the New Year arrives, they will naturally welcome this festival with joy, singing and dancing.

For thousands of years, people have made New Year celebrations extremely colorful. Every year from the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month to the 30th day of the twelfth lunar month, this period of time is called "Spring Welcome Day" by the folks. It is called "Dust Sweeping Day", and it is a traditional habit of our people to sweep dust and maintain hygiene before the Spring Festival.

Before the festival, New Year messages written in red paper and yellow letters should be pasted on the door of the house, that is, Spring Festival couplets written on red paper. Brightly colored New Year pictures with auspicious meanings are posted in the house. Ingenious girls cut out beautiful window grilles and paste them on the windows. In front of the door, hang red lanterns or paste the word "Fu" and the statues of the God of Wealth and the Door God. The word "Fu" can also be pasted upside down, so that passers-by can say blessing If it falls, it means blessing has arrived. All these activities are to add enough festive atmosphere to the festival.

Another name for the Spring Festival is the New Year. In past legends, Nian is an imaginary animal that brings bad luck to people. The year comes. The trees are withered and the grass is barren; as the year passes, everything grows and flowers are everywhere. How can the year pass? It is necessary to use firecrackers to blast the house, so there is a custom of burning firecrackers. This is actually another way to heighten the lively scene.

The Spring Festival is a happy and peaceful festival, and it is also a day for family reunions. Children who are away from home have to go home to celebrate the Spring Festival. The night before the New Year is the 30th night of the twelfth lunar month of the old year, also called New Year's Eve, also called Reunion Eve. At this time of transition between the old and the new, staying up late is one of the most important annual activities. On New Year's Eve, the whole family stays up together. Staying up on New Year's Eve, gathering together to drink and enjoy family happiness. In northern areas, there is a custom of eating dumplings on New Year's Eve. The method of making dumplings is to mix the noodles first, and the word "harmony" means "he"; the word "jiaohe" in dumplings is homophonic, and "he" and "jiao" mean "get together". Meaning, also takes the meaning of "Gengsui Jiaozi". In the south, it is customary to eat rice cakes during the New Year. The sweet and sticky rice cakes symbolize the sweetness and prosperity of life in the new year.

When the first rooster crows, or the New Year’s bell rings, firecrackers blast in the streets, and every family is filled with joy. The new year has begun, and men, women, old and young are all dressed in festive costumes. First, we give New Year greetings to the elders in the family. During the festival, we also give New Year's money to the children and have a New Year's dinner. On the second and third day of the Lunar New Year, we start visiting relatives and friends, paying New Year greetings to each other, congratulating each other, saying congratulations on the new year, congratulations on getting rich, and congratulations. , wishes for a happy New Year, and activities such as ancestor worship.

The warm atmosphere of the festival not only permeates every household, but also fills the streets and alleys everywhere. In some local markets, there are lion dances, dragon lanterns, fire performances, flower markets, temple fairs, etc. custom. During this period, the city is full of lanterns and the streets are full of tourists. It is very lively and unprecedented. The Spring Festival is not really over until after the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month.

The Spring Festival is the most important festival for the Han people, but more than a dozen ethnic minorities such as Manchu, Mongolian, Yao, Zhuang, Bai, Gaoshan, Hezhe, Hani, Daur, Dong and Li also have the custom of celebrating the Spring Festival. The form of celebrating the festival has its own national characteristics and is more meaningful.

The origin and legend of the Spring Festival

The concepts of the Spring Festival and the year originally came from agriculture. In ancient times, people called the growth cycle of the grain "year", "Shuowen." "Hebu": "In the year, the grain is ripe."

The lunar calendar was produced during the Xia and Shang dynasties. The moon cycle was used as the month, and the year was divided into twelve months. The day when the moon was not visible was called the new moon of each month. The first day of the first lunar month was called the first day of the year, which is the first day of the year. Beginning, also called Nian, the name of Nian started from the Zhou Dynasty. It was not officially fixed until the Western Han Dynasty and continues to this day. But in ancient times, the first day of the first lunar month was called "New Year's Day". It was not until the victory of the Revolution of 1911 in modern China that the Nanjing Provisional Government stipulated the use of the lunar calendar among the people in order to adapt to the agricultural season and facilitate statistics, and the Gregorian calendar was implemented in government agencies, factories, mines, schools and groups. , the first day of the first lunar month of the Gregorian calendar is called New Year's Day, and the first day of the first lunar month of the lunar calendar is called the Spring Festival.

The Spring Festival in the traditional sense refers to the period from the twelfth lunar month's eighth day of the twelfth lunar month or the twelfth lunar month's twenty-third lunar month to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, with New Year's Eve and the first day of the first lunar month as the climax. During the Spring Festival, a traditional festival, my country's Han nationality and most ethnic minorities hold various celebration activities. Most of these activities focus on worshiping gods and Buddhas, paying homage to ancestors, removing the old and bringing in the new, welcoming the new year, welcoming good fortune, and praying for a good harvest. The activities are rich and colorful with strong national characteristics.

The Spring Festival originated from the "December Festival" in my country's primitive society. It is said that at the end of the twelfth lunar month, people kill pigs to offer sacrifices to God, praying for good weather and abundant harvests in the coming year. People paint their faces with cinnabar, decorate them with bird wings, sing and dance. As for the name "Spring Festival", it was first seen in "Book of the Later Han Dynasty·Yang Zhen": "There is no snow in winter, no rain in the Spring Festival, and all officials are anxious."

On September 27, 1949, New China was founded. , at the first plenary session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, it was adopted that the world's common Gregorian calendar era be used, and the first day of the first month of the Gregorian calendar is designated as New Year's Day, commonly known as the Gregorian calendar year; the first day of the first lunar month is usually around the beginning of spring, so The first month of the lunar calendar is designated as the "Spring Festival", commonly known as the lunar year.

One of the Spring Festival legends: Staying up late on New Year's Eve

Staying up late on New Year's Eve is the custom of not sleeping on the last night of the old year and staying up late to welcome the arrival of the new year. It is also called staying up late on New Year's Eve. The common name is "staying through the year". Looking into the origin of this custom, there is an interesting story circulated among the people:

In ancient times, there was a ferocious monster that lived scattered in the deep mountains and dense forests. People called them "Nian". It has a ferocious appearance and a ferocious nature. It specializes in eating birds, animals, and scale insects. It changes its taste every day, ranging from kowtowing insects to living people, making people talk about the "New Year". Later, people gradually grasped the activity pattern of "Nian". It would rush to crowded places to taste fresh food every three hundred and sixty-five days, and its appearance time would always be after dark, until the rooster crows and dawn. , they returned to the mountains and forests.

Having calculated the date when the "New Year" would be rampant, the people regarded this terrible night as a critical moment, called it "New Year's Eve", and came up with a whole set of ways to celebrate the New Year's Eve: every day. On this night, every household has prepared dinner in advance, turned off the fire and cleaned the stove, fastened all the chicken pens and cattle pens, sealed the front and back doors of the house, and ate the "New Year's Eve dinner" hiding in the house. The dinner has an unlucky meaning, so it is very sumptuous. In addition to having the whole family gather around to dine together to express harmony and reunion, one must also offer sacrifices to the ancestors before eating, pray for the blessings of the ancestors' gods, and spend the time in peace. That night, after dinner, no one dared to go to sleep. They huddled together and chatted to strengthen their courage. Gradually, we formed the habit of staying up late on New Year's Eve.

The custom of keeping the year old arose in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and many literati in the Liang Dynasty wrote poems and essays about keeping the year old. "One night lasts two years, and the fifth watch divides two years." People light candles or oil lamps and keep vigil all night, which symbolizes driving away all evil plagues and looking forward to good luck in the new year. This custom has been passed down to this day.

Spring Festival Legend 2: Wannian created the calendar

According to legend, in ancient times, there was a young man named Wannian who had an idea when he saw that the seasons were very chaotic at that time. The plan to set the seasons accurately. But he couldn't find a way to calculate time. One day, when he was tired from going up the mountain to chop firewood, he sat under the shade of a tree to rest. The movement of the tree shadows inspired him. He designed a dial to measure the sun's shadow and measure the time of the day. Later, the dripping spring on the cliff inspired him, and he made a five-layer clepsydra to calculate time. As time went by, he discovered that every three hundred and sixty days, the four seasons cycled around again, and the length of the days repeated themselves.

The king at that time was named Zu Yi, and he was often distressed by the unpredictable weather conditions. After Wan Nian found out, he took the sundial and the clepsydra to see the emperor and explained to Zu Yi the principles of the movement of the sun and the moon. After Zu Yi heard this, Long Yan was overjoyed and felt that it made sense. So he left ten thousand years to build the Sun and Moon Pavilion in front of the Temple of Heaven, and built the sundial platform and leaky pot pavilion. He also hopes to accurately measure the laws of the sun and the moon, calculate the accurate morning and evening times, and create a calendar to benefit the people of the world.

Once, Zu Yi went to learn about the progress of the ten thousand year test calendar. When he climbed up to the Sun and Moon Altar, he saw a poem engraved on the stone wall beside the Temple of Heaven: "The sun rises and sets three hundred and six times, and it starts over again. The grass and trees wither and flourish in four seasons, and one year has twelve circles." Knowing that there are ten thousand years. The creation of the calendar has been completed, and I personally went to the Sun and Moon Pavilion to visit Wannian. Wan Nian pointed to the sky and said to Zu Yi: "Now is the end of the twelve months. The old year is over and the new year has begun. Please pray to the king to set a festival." Zu Yi said: "Spring is the beginning of the year, so let's call it the Spring Festival." It is said that this is the origin of the Spring Festival.

Winter passed and spring came, year after year, ten thousand years after long-term observation and careful calculation, an accurate solar calendar was formulated. When he presented the solar calendar to his successor, his face was full of silver. Must. The monarch was deeply moved. In order to commemorate Wannian's achievements, he named the solar calendar "Wannian Calendar" and named Wannian the sun, moon and longevity star. Later, people hung pictures of longevity stars during the Chinese New Year, which is said to commemorate the ten thousand years of great virtue and respect.

Spring Festival Legend Three: Pasting Spring Festival Couplets and the Door God

It is said that the custom of pasting Spring Festival couplets began in the Hou Shu period more than a thousand years ago, which is evidenced by history. In addition, according to the records of "Jade Candle Collection", "Yanjing Chronicles" and other works, the original form of Spring Festival couplets is what people call "Peach Talisman".

In ancient Chinese mythology, it is said that there is a world of ghosts. There is a mountain in it. There is a large peach tree covering three thousand miles on the mountain, and there is a golden rooster on the treetop. Whenever the golden rooster crows in the morning, the ghosts who wandered out at night will rush back to the ghost land. The gate of the ghost realm is located in the northeast of the peach tree. There are two gods standing by the gate, named Shen Tu and Yu Lei. If a ghost does something harmful to nature at night, Shen Tu and Yu Lei will immediately discover it and catch it, tie it up with a rope made of awning reed, and send it to feed the tiger. Therefore, all the ghosts in the world are afraid of Shen Tu and Yu Lei. So people carved their images out of peach wood and placed them at their doorsteps to avoid evil and harm. Later, people simply engraved the names of Shen Tu and Yu Lei on peach boards, believing that doing so could also suppress evil and eliminate evil. This kind of peach wood board was later called "Peach Run".

In the Song Dynasty, people began to write couplets on peach boards, one without losing the meaning of peach wood to suppress evil, the other to express their good wishes, and the third to decorate the door for beauty. Couplets are also written on red paper, which symbolizes joy and auspiciousness, and are pasted on both sides of doors and windows during the New Year to express people's best wishes for good luck in the coming year.

In order to pray for the happiness, longevity and health of the family, people in some places still retain the habit of sticking to the door god. It is said that if two door gods are posted on the door, all monsters and ghosts will be intimidated. Among the people, the door god is a symbol of righteousness and force. The ancients believed that people with strange looks often have magical talents and extraordinary abilities. They are upright and kind-hearted, and it is their nature and responsibility to catch ghosts and demons. Zhong Kui, the ghost-hunting master that people admire, has such a strange appearance. Therefore, the folk door gods always have angry eyes and ferocious looks, holding various traditional weapons in their hands, ready to fight any ghosts who dare to come to the door. Since the doors of Chinese houses usually have two doors opening opposite each other, door gods always come in pairs.

After the Tang Dynasty, in addition to the previous two generals Shen Tu and Yu Lei, people also regarded the two Tang Dynasty generals Qin Shubao and Yuchi Gong as door gods. According to legend, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty was ill and heard ghosts calling outside his door, making him restless all night. So he asked the two generals to stand guard by the door with weapons in hand, and the next night there were no more ghosts to disturb him. Later, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty asked people to draw the images of these two generals and paste them on the door. This custom began to spread among the people.

Common customs during the Spring Festival

Sweeping the dust

"On the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month, dust the dust and sweep the house." According to the records of "Lu Shi Chun Qiu", our country was in Yao and Shun In ancient times, there was a custom of sweeping dust during the Spring Festival.

According to folklore: because "dust" and "chen" are homophonic, sweeping dust in the New Year means "removing the old and spreading the new", and its purpose is to sweep away all bad luck and bad luck. This custom entrusts people with their desire to destroy the old and establish the new and their prayers to say goodbye to the old and usher in the new. Every Spring Festival comes, every household has to clean the environment, wash all kinds of utensils, remove and wash bedding and curtains, sweep the Liulv courtyard, dust away dirt and cobwebs, and dredge open ditches and ditches. Everywhere is filled with the joyful atmosphere of doing hygiene and welcoming the New Year cleanly.

Spring couplets

Spring couplets are also called door pairs, spring posts, couplets, couplets, peach charms, etc. They describe the background of the times and express good wishes with neat, dual, concise and exquisite words. It is a unique literary form in my country. Every Spring Festival, every household, whether in urban or rural areas, selects a red Spring Festival couplet and pastes it on the door to add a festive atmosphere to the festival. This custom originated in the Song Dynasty and became popular in the Ming Dynasty. By the Qing Dynasty, the ideological and artistic quality of Spring Festival couplets had been greatly improved. Liang Zhangju’s Spring Festival Couplets monograph "Three Couples on the Threshold" has a detailed introduction to the origin of the couplets and the characteristics of various works. All discussed.

There are many types of Spring Festival couplets. According to the place of use, they can be divided into door centers, frame pairs, horizontal drapes, spring strips, bucket squares, etc. The "door center" is affixed to the upper center of the door panel; the "frame pair" is affixed to the left and right door frames; the "horizontal stripe" is affixed to the crossbar of the door; the "spring strips" are affixed to the corresponding places according to different contents; "Dojin" is also called "door leaf", which is square and diamond-shaped, and is often posted on furniture and screen walls.

Pasting window grilles and pasting the word "福" upside down

In the folk, people also like to put various paper-cuts - window grilles - on their windows. Window grilles not only enhance the festive atmosphere, but also integrate decoration, appreciation and practicality. Paper-cutting is a very popular folk art in my country and has been loved by people for thousands of years. Because it is mostly pasted on windows, it is also called "window flower". With its unique summary and exaggeration techniques, window grilles vividly express auspicious symbols and good wishes, decorating the festival with prosperity and splendor.

At the same time as pasting Spring Festival couplets, some families have to paste large and small "福" characters on their doors, walls, and lintels. Posting the word "福" during the Spring Festival is a long-standing folk custom in my country. The word "福" refers to blessing and luck, expressing people's yearning for a happy life and their wishes for a better future. In order to more fully reflect this yearning and wish, some people simply paste the word "福" upside down to express "happiness has arrived" and "blessing has arrived". Folks also use the word "Fu" to make various patterns in detail, such as longevity stars, longevity peaches, carps jumping over dragon gates, good harvests, dragons and phoenixes, etc.

New Year pictures

Hanging New Year pictures during the Spring Festival is also very common in urban and rural areas. The thick black and colorful New Year pictures add a lot of prosperity and joy to thousands of households. New Year pictures are an ancient folk art in my country, reflecting the people's simple customs and beliefs, and reposing their hopes for the future. New Year pictures, like Spring Festival couplets, originated from the "door god". With the rise of woodblock printing, the content of New Year paintings is no longer limited to monotonous themes such as door gods, but has become rich and colorful. In some New Year painting workshops, "Three Stars of Fortune, Luxury and Longevity", "Blessings from Heavenly Officials", "Five Grain" Classic color New Year pictures such as "Prosperous Harvest", "Prosperity of Six Livestocks", "Welcoming Spring and Receiving Good Luck" can satisfy people's good wishes of celebrating the good year. There are three important producing areas of New Year paintings in our country: Taohuawu in Suzhou, Yangliuqing in Tianjin and Weifang in Shandong. They have formed three major schools of Chinese New Year paintings, each with its own characteristics.

The earliest New Year paintings collected in our country today are the woodcut New Year paintings of the Southern Song Dynasty, "Slender and Slender with the Beauty of the Country", which depict four ancient beauties: Wang Zhaojun, Zhao Feiyan, Ban Ji and Luzhu. The most widely circulated among the people is a New Year painting of "Mouse Marriage". It depicts an interesting scene of a mouse marrying a bride according to human customs. In the early years of the Republic of China, Shanghai Zheng Mantuo combined the calendar with New Year pictures. This is a new form of New Year pictures. This two-in-one New Year picture later developed into a wall calendar, which is now popular all over the country.

New Year's Eve

The evening of the last day of the lunar year. In addition to removing the old and replacing the old with the new. 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, which is called staying up all night. Su Shi's "Shou Sui": "Children are forced not to sleep, but stay together all night and have fun.

"There is a legend about the origin of New Year's Eve: In ancient times, there was a ferocious monster named Xi. Our ancestors were threatened by this most ferocious beast. It came out to harm people at the end of the year. Later, people discovered that Xi They are afraid of three things: red color, fire, and noise. So in winter, people hang red peach boards on their doors, burn fires at the door, and stay up all night, banging and banging. On this night, "Xi" breaks in. In the village, when every house was illuminated with red lights and heard a loud noise, they were so frightened that they ran back into the mountains and never dared to come out again. As the night passed, people congratulated each other, put on lights, drank and held banquets to celebrate the victory. In the following New Year's Eve, every household would put up red Spring Festival couplets and set off firecrackers to drive away New Year's Eve beasts and seek peace in the new year. This custom has been passed down since then, and New Year's Eve is called New Year's Eve.

Keeping the year old on New Year's Eve is one of the most important annual customs. The custom of keeping the year old has been around for a long time. It is called "feeding the new year"; inviting people to drink and eat together is called "farewelling the new year"; the elders and the young gather together to drink and give complete blessings, which is called "parting the new year"; everyone stays up all night waiting for the dawn, which is called "keeping the new year together"

"One night is two years old, five o'clock is divided into two days." On New Year's Eve, the whole family gets together, has New Year's Eve dinner, lights candles or oil lamps, sits around the fire and chats, waiting for the time to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. Staying up all night symbolizes driving away all evil plagues and looking forward to good luck in the new year. This custom gradually became popular in the early Tang Dynasty. In the early Tang Dynasty, Emperor Taizong Li Shimin wrote a poem about "keeping up the year": "Cold farewell". Winter snow brings warmth to the spring breeze." To this day, people are still used to staying up late on New Year's Eve to welcome the new year.

In ancient times, staying up late had two meanings: the older person staying up late meant "saying goodbye to the old year" and cherishing the old year. The meaning of time; young people stay up late to prolong the life of their parents. Since the Han Dynasty, the time when the new year changes from the old year to the new year is usually at midnight.

Firecrackers in Chinese folklore. When the New Year arrives, the first thing every household does when they open the door is to set off firecrackers to welcome the new year with the sound of beeping firecrackers. Firecrackers are a specialty of China, also known as "firecrackers" and "firecrackers." ", "Firecrackers". Its origin is very early and has a history of more than 2,000 years. Setting off firecrackers can create a festive and lively atmosphere. It is an entertainment activity during the festival and can bring joy and good luck to people. With the With the passage of time, the use of firecrackers has become more and more widespread, and the varieties and colors have become increasingly diverse. During major festivals and happy events, as well as weddings, house construction, openings, etc., firecrackers must be set off to celebrate and for good luck. Liuyang in Hunan, Foshan and Dongyao in Guangdong, Yichun and Pingxiang in Jiangxi, and Wenzhou in Zhejiang are famous hometowns of fireworks in my country. The firecrackers they produce are of various colors and high quality, and are not only sold throughout the country, but also exported to the world.

Spring Festival Food Customs

In ancient agricultural societies, from about the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, housewives would be busy preparing food for the New Year because it took a long time to pickle preserved meat. , so it must be prepared as early as possible. Many provinces in our country have the custom of pickling preserved meat, among which Guangdong Province’s preserved meat is the most famous.

Steamed rice cake. Rice cake has become a must-have seasonal food for almost every household because of its homophonic pronunciation of "year high" and its varied tastes. The styles of rice cakes include square yellow and white rice cakes, which symbolize gold and silver and convey the meaning of getting rich in the new year.

The taste of rice cakes varies from place to place. Beijingers like to eat red date rice cake, mince rice cake and white rice cake made from glutinous rice or yellow rice. People in Hebei like to add jujube, red beans, mung beans, etc. to rice cakes and steam them together. In northern Shanxi and Inner Mongolia and other places, it is customary to eat fried rice cakes made with yellow rice flour during the Chinese New Year. Some are also filled with bean paste, date paste and other fillings. Shandong people steam rice cakes with yellow rice and red dates. Northern rice cakes are mainly sweet and can be steamed or fried. Some people even eat them dipped in sugar. The rice cakes in the south are both sweet and salty. For example, the rice cakes in Suzhou and Ningbo are made from japonica rice and have a light taste. In addition to steaming and frying, it can also be sliced ??and fried or cooked in soup. The sweet rice cake is made of glutinous rice flour with ingredients such as sugar, lard, rose, osmanthus, mint, and sujiang. It is carefully made and can be steamed directly or dipped in egg white and fried.

The night before the actual Chinese New Year is called Reunion Eve. People who have traveled far away from home have to rush home thousands of miles away. The whole family will sit together to make dumplings for the New Year. The dumplings are made by mixing the dough first. Make dumpling skins, and then use the skins to wrap the fillings. The content of the fillings can be varied, including various meats, eggs, seafood, seasonal vegetables, etc. The orthodox way to eat dumplings is to boil them with water, scoop them out and season with Eat with soy sauce of vinegar, minced garlic, and sesame oil as condiments. There are also ways to eat fried dumplings and baked dumplings (pot stickers). Because the word "和" in noodles means "合"; the characters "dumpling" and "Jiao" in dumplings are homophones, and "合" and "Jiao" also mean getting together, so dumplings are used to symbolize reunion and joy; and they are also used to symbolize reunion. The meaning of Jiaozi is very auspicious; in addition, because dumplings resemble ingots in shape, eating dumplings during the Chinese New Year also has the auspicious meaning of "bringing in wealth and treasure". The whole family gathers together to make dumplings, talk about the New Year, and have fun.

Open the door and firecrackers

On the morning of the Spring Festival, when the door opens, firecrackers are set off first, which is called "opening the door and firecrackers." After the sound of firecrackers, the ground was filled with red, as bright as clouds and brocade, which was called "Full of Red". At this time, the streets were full of auspiciousness and joy.

New Year's greetings

An important activity during the Spring Festival is to go to new friends' homes and neighbors to wish them a happy New Year, which was formerly known as New Year's greetings. The custom of paying New Year greetings among the Han people has been around since the Han Dynasty. It became very popular after the Tang and Song Dynasties. Some people who did not need to go there in person could send their congratulations with name cards. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was called "thorn", so the business card was also called "name thorn". After the Ming Dynasty, many families put a red paper bag on their door to collect name cards, called a "door book".

On the first day of the new year, people get up early, put on their most beautiful clothes, dress up neatly, and go out to visit relatives and friends, pay New Year greetings to each other, and wish good luck in the coming year. There are many ways to pay New Year's greetings. Some are led by the clan leader and several people go from house to house to pay New Year's greetings; some are colleagues inviting a few people to pay New Year's greetings; and others get together to congratulate each other, which is called "group worship." Since it was time-consuming and laborious to pay New Year greetings at home, some upper-class figures and scholar-bureaucrats later used various stickers to congratulate each other, and the later "New Year's greeting cards" developed from this.

When paying New Year greetings during the Spring Festival, the younger generation should first pay New Year greetings to the elders, wishing the elders longevity and health. The elders can distribute the New Year's money prepared in advance to the younger generation. It is said that the New Year's money can suppress evil spirits, because "year" and "evil" "Homophonous" means that if the younger generation gets the lucky money, they can spend their first year in peace. There are two types of New Year's money. One is made of colorful ropes threaded into a dragon shape and placed at the foot of the bed. This record is found in "Yanjing Years' Notes"; the other is the most common, which is given by parents wrapped in red paper. Children's money. New Year's money can be given to the younger generation in public after paying New Year's greetings, or parents can secretly put it under the child's pillow when the child is asleep on New Year's Eve. Nowadays, the custom of elders distributing lucky money to younger generations is still popular.

The forms of mutual visits between people to pay New Year greetings can be roughly divided into four categories according to their social relationships:

The first is visiting relatives. On the first day of the new year, you must visit your father-in-law and bring gifts. After entering the door, first kowtow three times to the Buddha statue, the image of the ancestors, and the tablets, and then kneel down to the elders in turn. You can stay to eat and play.

The second is a courtesy visit. If you are wishing New Year greetings to colleagues or friends, as soon as you enter the house, you should only kowtow three times to the Buddha statue. If you are the same generation as the host, you only need to bow your hands and bow. If you are older than you, you should still take the initiative to kneel down and the host should get down from the seat and make a gesture of support. Even saying "no courtesy" shows humility. In this situation, it is generally not advisable to sit for long periods of time. You can only say a few polite words before leaving. After the host has been worshiped, he should choose a day to return to worship.

The third is a grateful visit. Anyone who has been in debt to others over the past year (such as lawyers, doctors, etc.) should buy some gifts and send them to them as a way to express their gratitude during the New Year.

The fourth is door-to-door visits. We don't have much contact with our neighbors on weekdays, but we can always talk to each other when we meet. When New Year's Eve comes, we just go to the courtyard, hug each other's fists and say: "Congratulations on getting rich," "Everything goes well, everything goes well." Just sit there for a while, not much etiquette.

In ancient times, there were differences between New Year greetings and New Year greetings: New Year greetings were to kowtow to the elders; New Year greetings were to congratulate each other. Now, in some agencies, organizations, companies, and schools, everyone gathers together to congratulate each other, which is called "group worship."

New Year greetings are a traditional custom among Chinese people. It is a way for people to bid farewell to the old year, welcome the new year, and express their best wishes to each other.

In ancient times, the original meaning of the word "bainian" was to congratulate the elders on the New Year, including kowtowing to the elders, giving wishes, wishing them a happy new year, and greeting them with well-being. When you meet relatives and friends of the same generation, you should also give congratulations.

In ancient times, if there were too many relatives and friends in the neighborhood and it was difficult to visit them all, servants would be sent to bring business cards to pay New Year greetings. This was called a "flying post". A red paper bag was posted in front of each house with the words " The two words "receive blessings" are used to inherit flying posts. This custom began in the upper class society of the Song Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty's "Yantai Moon Order" describes the Beijing New Year: "It's the moon, the movies are flying, and the empty carriages are driving away." It became fashionable. Rich families have a special "door book" to record the comings and goings of guests. There are four virtual "visitors" on the front page of the door book: one is an old man with a longevity of 100 years, who lives in Baisui Fang Lane; the other is a rich man named Yu. , lives in Yuanbao Street; one is called Mr. Gui Wuji, who lives in the University Scholar's Archway; the other is Mr. Fu Zhaolin, who lives in the Wufu Building. In order to seek good fortune and seek luck. To this day, giving out New Year's cards and greeting cards during the Spring Festival is a legacy of the ancient tradition of sending flying messages to each other.

It is a custom for upper-class scholar-bureaucrats to congratulate each other with name cards. Zhou Hui, a native of the Song Dynasty, said in "Qingbo Magazine": "During the Yuanyou years of the Song Dynasty, servants were often used to carry famous thorns to celebrate the New Year." At that time, the scholar-bureaucrats had many contacts, and it would take both time and energy to visit people from all over the world to pay New Year greetings. Therefore, some friends who were not close to each other did not go there in person. Instead, they sent servants to bring a two-inch wide, three-inch paper cut from plum blossom paper. An inch-long card with the name, address and congratulatory words of the congratulatory person written on it is sent to express New Year greetings on your behalf. In the Ming Dynasty, people paid homage instead of paying New Year greetings. Wen Zhengming, an outstanding painter and poet of the Ming Dynasty, described it in his poem "New Year's Greetings": "I don't ask for a meeting, but for a visit. Famous papers come from the dynasty and fill the house. I also throw in a few papers with others. The world hates them for being simple but not for being empty." The "Ming Ci" and "Ming Ye" mentioned here are the origins of today's New Year's cards. New Year's cards are used to connect feelings and exchange greetings. They are convenient and practical and are still popular today.

Since about the Qing Dynasty, New Year greetings have added the form of "group worship". Qing Dynasty native Yi Lanzhu said in "Side Hat Yu Tan": "At the beginning of the year, the capital routinely performs group worship to connect the New Year. "Friendship, to strengthen the nostalgia", "Every year, guests are booked by the New Year Book Red, and they have meals and banquets to enjoy the day."

With the development of the times, the custom of New Year greetings has constantly added new content and forms. Nowadays, in addition to following the previous methods of New Year greetings, people have also developed ceremonial New Year greetings via telegrams and telephone calls.

However, from the first to the fifth day of the first lunar month, most families do not accept women, which is called "taboo". Only men can go out to visit the New Year, while women must wait until after the sixth day of the first lunar month to visit. The New Year greeting activities will be extended for a long time, until around the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month. Visiting people to pay New Year greetings in the evening is called the "Ye Bao Festival", and after the tenth day of the Lunar New Year, it is called the "Lantern Festival", so there is a joke that "if you are willing to pay New Year greetings, it is not too late to eat cold food."

If for some reason you fail to follow the rituals and make up for it in the future, it is called "paying homage to your old age".

Accounting for the New Year

In the old days, the weather was cloudy and sunny in the first few days of the new year to predict the success of the year. The theory begins with "Sui Zhan" written by Dongfang Shuo of the Han Dynasty, which states that eight days after the end of the year, one day is the chicken day, the second day is the dog day, the third day is the pig day, the fourth day is the sheep day, the fifth day is the cow day, the sixth day is the horse day, and the seventh day is the horse day. One day is a great man, eight days is a valley. If the day is sunny, the object will flourish; if the day is cloudy, the object will not prosper. Later generations followed this custom and believed that the weather from the first to the tenth day of the lunar month was auspicious with clear weather, no wind and no snow. Later generations developed from accounting for age into a series of sacrifices and celebrations. There is a custom of no killing of chickens on the first day of the lunar month, no killing of dogs on the second day of the lunar month, no killing of pigs on the third day of the lunar month, and no execution on the seventh day of the lunar month.

Chicken stickers

Zhuxian Town wooden New Year pictures

In ancient times, chickens were painted on doors and windows during the Spring Festival to drive away ghosts and evil spirits. The "Xuanzhong Ji" written by the Jin Dynasty talks about the aforementioned rooster on Dushuo Mountain. It is said that when the sun just rose and the first ray of sunlight shone on this big tree, the rooster appeared. It cried. As soon as it crows, all the chickens in the world will crow. Therefore, the chicken cut during the Spring Festival actually symbolizes the rooster. However, in ancient mythology, there is also a saying that the chicken is the transformation of the Chongming bird. It is said that during the reign of Emperor Yao, the friendly countries that passed over paid tribute to a Chongming bird that could ward off evil spirits. Everyone welcomed the arrival of the Chongming bird. However, the tribute envoys did not come every year, so people carved a wooden Chongming bird or cast a Chongming bird. Placing the bird on the doorway or painting the Chongming bird on the doors and windows can scare away demons and ghosts so that they do not dare to come again.

Because the Chongming birds resemble chickens, people gradually changed to painting chickens or cutting window grilles and pasting them on doors and windows, which became the source of paper-cut art in later generations. In ancient my country, chickens were particularly valued and were called “the bird of five virtues”. "Han Shi Wai Zhuan" says that it has a crown on its head, which is a virtue; it has a distance behind its feet and can fight, it is a martial virtue; it dares to fight in front of the enemy, it is a brave virtue; it has food to greet its kind, it is a benevolent virtue; it keeps vigil without losing sight of others. When the dawn comes, it is faith. So people not only cut chickens during the Chinese New Year, but also designate the first day of the New Year as Rooster Day.