This is the correct posture for traditional New Year greetings

The Spring Festival greetings originated from the first year of the year sacrifice. At the beginning of the new year, the ancients prayed for a good harvest and prayed to the gods to bless their loved ones to spend the new year safely, so they knelt down and prayed to the gods. This kind of worship and prayer in the New Year sacrificial ceremony is the original form of New Year greetings. Later, it evolved from the sacrificial ceremony into the New Year greeting custom among people.

New Year greetings are a ritual that Chinese people attach great importance to. Relatives, teachers, students, colleagues, friends and other close relations must have New Year greeting etiquette when celebrating the New Year. In some particularly close family relationships, it is an indispensable etiquette for the younger generation to pay their elders an annual New Year greeting. If this etiquette is missing in a certain year, something special must have happened that makes it impossible to perform the etiquette or the relationship between the two parties. A serious problem has arisen; if the relationship between the two parties is normal and they do not pay New Year's greetings, it would be a serious discourtesy of the younger generation, and the elders will be very concerned about "picking gifts."

As an important etiquette among people with close relationships such as relatives, colleagues, and friends, the custom of New Year greetings not only closes the interpersonal relationship, but also becomes a human burden. In the Song Dynasty, it became popular to deliver congratulatory thorns instead of congratulations on entry. He Ci is equivalent to today's greeting card. On it, you write congratulations, sign your name, and some also write the gift you are sending. You or send a servant to deliver it to the other person's door. This method is suitable for colleagues and people who are not very close but need to communicate emotionally. As for relatives and friends, they still need to pay New Year greetings in person.

In modern society, although New Year greetings are still valued by people, in general, they have been greatly simplified, especially in cities. In the city, New Year greetings are usually done without meeting in person. In the past, people mostly used phone calls. Since mobile phones have become a common communication tool, sending New Year greetings text messages and WeChat has become a convenient and fashionable way to greet the New Year. However, in particularly close relationships, sending New Year greetings through text messages or WeChat is not acceptable, such as particularly close family relationships, teacher-student relationships, etc. Juniors or those with lower status still have to come to visit and greet New Year greetings in person, such as colleagues, classmates, friends, etc. who are very close to each other. They also pay New Year greetings to each other in the form of gatherings. There is a big distance between New Year greetings in modern cities and the original meaning of New Year greetings. There is no longer the activity of "asking gods" or the act of kneeling down. It has evolved into a New Year's greeting among relatives and friends. The most common New Year greetings are "Have a good New Year". The word "worship". As for New Year greeting text messages and WeChat messages, they are colorful and have various styles.

In Hebei, Shandong, Henan and other places, the ancient custom of kneeling down to pay New Year greetings is still retained. This way of paying New Year greetings is often regarded as a local style of New Year greetings. In fact, it is a remnant of the common way of paying New Year greetings in ancient my country today. In Jing County, Hebei Province, New Year greetings are the most valued and longest-lasting annual custom among villagers. New Year greetings here are face-to-face greetings, without the aid of modern communication methods. Although everyone has mobile phones, relatives and villagers do not use mobile phones to pay New Year greetings.

Compared with New Year greetings in ordinary cities, New Year greetings in Jingxian County have the following characteristics:

First, there is a specific time

New Year greetings in Jingxian County start from the early morning of the first day of the first lunar month and end on the tenth day of the first lunar month. In some cases, due to the large number of relatives who "cannot make it" before the tenth day of the first lunar month, the extension is extended to before the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, people pay New Year's greetings at home and in the village. After the second day of the Lunar New Year, they go to other villages to pay New Year's greetings to relatives. New Year greetings must start in the early morning of the first day of the first lunar month. No one says New Year greetings before New Year's Eve. What urban people often say, "Wish you a happy New Year" and "Wish you a Happy New Year in advance" are not acceptable here. Although we have to reunite and "stay up" on the New Year's Eve and sleep very late, we must get up early on the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year. Getting up early on this day means living a "heart-filled" life, which indicates that you will be diligent and have good harvests throughout the year. On this day, whose firecrackers are set off early will be admired by others, and those who set off firecrackers late will be laughed at for being sloppy. After cooking the dumplings and setting off the firecrackers, the juniors began to pay New Year greetings in front of the ancestral paintings in the hall.

Second, there is a specific place

New Year greetings in Jing County, Hebei Province must be held in the main hall of the home. Pictures of ancestral spirits are hung on the north wall of the hall, and cloth banners hanging on both sides have couplets written on them, such as "The merits of our ancestors will be passed down to generations, and our descendants will have good fortune and longevity." Incense is burning on the offering table, and fish, meat, dumplings and other offerings are placed.

In recent years, the overall lifestyle and internal structure of the village have undergone significant changes, but the traditional way of greeting the New Year in Jingxian County is still tenaciously passed down.