What are the customs of celebrating Chinese New Year in the north?

"Sugar melons are sacrificed to the stove. When the New Year comes, the girl wants flowers, the boy wants cannons, and the old man wants a new felt hat!" Old Beijingers celebrate the New Year, usually starting with "Laba Festival" and continuing to the Lantern Festival After the holidays. A folk song in Beijing in the old days said: Wife, please don’t slander, it’s the New Year after Laba Festival; after a few days of Laba porridge, it will be twenty-three; on the twenty-third, sugar melons will stick, and on the twenty-fourth, the house cleaning day will be twenty-three. Five is to make tofu, twenty-six is ??to cut the meat, twenty-seven is to slaughter the New Year chicken, twenty-eight is to make noodles, twenty-nine is to steam steamed buns, thirty is to stay the night, and go to pay New Year greetings on the first day of the new year. ”

On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, every family cooks Laba porridge. It is said that this day is the day when the Buddha attained enlightenment. At that time, Sakyamuni used an alms bowl to make alms and obtained grains to satisfy his hunger. In order to commemorate him, later generations make a meal every year On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, various kinds of rice and beans are also used to make porridge for the Buddha.

On the twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar month, every household will hold a ceremony to worship the Kitchen God. Offer sugar, water and mosses from Guandong to the Kitchen Lord. People respect this Kitchen Lord so much that he can "say good things to God and keep the lower world safe"!

After offering sacrifices to the Kitchen God, People begin to prepare for the New Year. Every house must be cleaned thoroughly to prepare for the New Year. Door gods are posted on the door, Spring Festival couplets are posted on the door frames, "hanging notes" are hung on the door lintels, sesame straw is placed in front of the door, and paper cuttings are posted on the windows inside the house. Post New Year pictures.

New Year's Eve and the first day of the Lunar New Year are the climax of the Spring Festival. There were many old customs at that time, and no one was allowed to use scissors or say unlucky words. "The God of Wealth is here" was heard, so people from every household ran out and invited the "God of Wealth" with a few copper coins, and respectfully offered them at home. On New Year's Eve, as usual, people did not sleep, which was called "staying up late". Everyone sat around the fire, laughing, beaming, and rejoicing indoors, while the children set off firecrackers in the street at midnight, and the whole family sat together to eat "New Year's Dumplings" to start the new year. .

During the Spring Festival in Beijing, another grand event was the temple fairs and various flower fairs organized by private parties. In the old days, there were more than 700 temples in Beijing and its suburbs. Open to pilgrims and tourists. There are markets inside and in front of temples, called temple fairs. Beijing temple fairs are the most famous in Baiyun Temple, Dazhong Temple, Dongyue Temple, etc. The flower fairs in the suburbs are most active during the Spring Festival, and almost every village has its own fair. Every village has a flower festival with a variety of performances, including stilts, land boats, peace drums, flag dances, lions, carts, bamboo horses, etc. Some villages also set up greenhouses, hang lanterns and perform various performances.

The jubilant atmosphere, colorful New Year pictures, crackling firecrackers and people's warm mood are intertwined, bringing joy and warmth to people

There are more customs in the north than in the south. , such as making dumplings and pasting window grilles, various patterns, implying good luck in the coming year, including some of the zodiac year's clothing and attention, there are countless food customs on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day since the Ming and Qing Dynasties. There are obvious differences from the north. In the north, many dumplings are eaten on New Year's Eve, which is a homophonic word for "Geng Sui Jiao Zi". Some put sugar in the dumplings to pray for a sweeter life in the coming year; others put them in individual dumplings. Whoever eats one coin will get rich in the new year. In the South, people usually eat Yuanxiao and rice cakes on New Year's Eve. Yuanxiao is also called "tangyuan", "dumpling" and "yuanzi". It means a happy and sweet reunion. The rice cake is made of glutinous rice, which means "higher every year". To this day, the custom of making dumplings during the New Year in the north and making glutinous rice balls during the New Year is still very common.

Rice cakes, dumplings and glutinous rice balls are one of the customs of the Chinese people. Because the rice cake is homophonic to "niangao", which means rising every year, and it comes in a variety of flavors, it is especially popular among the people in Hangzhou, Jiaxing and Huzhou, and has a huge market space. Tangyuan means reunion and is a traditional food during the Spring Festival. Eating dumplings during the Chinese New Year is influenced by the Chinese New Year customs in the north, but the complicated procedures such as mixing noodles, chopping stuffing, and rolling out the skin are prohibitive. Therefore, quick-frozen dumplings have become a big selling point in supermarkets.

The customs of celebrating the New Year in the north may need to be more particular. Although the days of hahaha on the pit heads have been bid farewell to, there does not seem to be any large-scale improvement in the tradition.

Women in the family are always the busiest during this period, especially since it is the New Year's Eve. The first thing they do when they wake up early is to prepare the New Year's goods, including cooking chicken, mincing meat and stuffing, removing scales from fish, peeling shrimps, and cooking vegetables. Slicing, dough and dough, everything is done in a regular and familiar way. Almost every household in the north is "big", not in wealth but in people, so during the New Year, eating has become a very serious problem: can't find a table big enough to accommodate a dozen people. So the women in the family have to make some sacrifices again - waiting for the second set of meals. The battlefield after the table battle will eventually fall to these "backward troops" to clean up. The New Year dinner is always eaten earlier than usual, because there is still room in the stomach to fill up the first meal of the first day of the new year - dumplings. Undoubtedly, this delicious meal must be hosted by the good wife and mother at home. This is not a tradition where men are superior to women, it is just a formality and no one will complain about it.

The highlight of New Year's Eve is that at 8pm the whole family will be waiting for the Spring Festival Gala to start. However, after 5 hours, people will be nagging again. It seems that It has become a custom to always give some opinions on the celebrations arranged in this way. I didn't keep silent. After all, I had closed the door to my house and was hiding at home to chat. There was no elegance or vulgarity involved, and I didn't have to worry about any secrets that would be revealed.

This is the first day of the 15 days of the new year. The streets on the first day of the new year are just deserted. Northerners who are not good at staying up late will always feel particularly tired on this day. Therefore, during the party, the number of people lying down will be several times more than usual. Of course, such courtesy only belongs to men and children. A woman has to practice the familiar routine again just like yesterday, and the day is over.

It’s the second day of the Lunar New Year, and it’s time to take a break. When I open my eyes again, I have to visit another house again