Who knows the New Year customs in Honghu, Hubei? Urgent, urgent, urgent, urgent, urgent, urgent, urgent

The Chinese New Year is not only the happiest festival of the Chinese nation, but also the busiest festival. There are many customs in it. Here I will talk about our local New Year customs in Honghu.

1. Reunion. In order to celebrate the Reunion Year, no matter how far away from home, we have to rush home to celebrate the New Year. The Mid-Autumn Festival is about reunion, and the Chinese New Year is about family reunion in the true sense.

2. Sacrifice the stove. The twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar month is the day when people worship the stove. It is said that every year on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the Kitchen God will go to heaven to report the good and evil deeds of the family to the Jade Emperor, so that the Jade Emperor can reward and punish them. Therefore, when delivering the stove, the male host places candies, water, beans, and mosses on the table in front of the Stove King's statue; among them, the last three items are to prepare the Stove King's mount for ascension to heaven. When offering sacrifices to the Stove, Guandong sugar must be melted over fire and applied to the Stove Lord’s mouth. In this way, he could not speak ill of the Jade Emperor. In addition, on the night of New Year's Eve, the Kitchen King and the gods will come to earth to celebrate the New Year. On that day, there must be ceremonies to "receive the stove" and "receive the gods". After every household burns sedans and horses, pours three cups of wine, and sends away the Kitchen God, it is their turn to worship their ancestors.

3. Do things for the New Year. It’s time to grow malt, boil sugar, mix it with fried rice to make sesame candy, make glutinous rice glutinous rice cakes, make gold nuts and sesame dates, pickle cured fish and bacon, deep-fried magnolia chips, sweet potato chips...

4. Get rid of the old and welcome the new. Clean the cobwebs and dust in the house, scrub the doors and windows, wash the sheets and clothes, paint the old house white, and buy new clothes for the whole family so that the family can wear new clothes during the Spring Festival and give people a brand new feeling.

5. Worship the souls of ancestors. (1) From the twenties of the twelfth lunar month to New Year's Eve, you need to write talisman packages and burn Yin coins to the ancestors' souls so that they can have money to spend in the underworld. (2) On the 30th day of the twelfth lunar month, the male host will take his descendants to weed and build soil for their tombs, and on New Year’s Eve, they will light lanterns (like paper lanterns) for them. (3) On the first day of the Lunar New Year, descendants should take their tombs to burn incense, burn paper money, and set off firecrackers to worship.

6. Taboo. (1) The twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month is Xiaonian, the day when mice marry girls. In order for the Rat to marry his daughter quietly and smoothly, don't push the wheels. Otherwise, the rats will make you restless for a year. (2) Language taboos. Do not use unlucky words such as "death" or "ghost" in your language, especially children. (3) Because good things come in pairs, the number of dishes served on New Year's Eve or for spring guests should be ten, twelve, or fourteen bowls, such an even number. (4) Before New Year’s Eve, all garbage at home should be taken out. It is not allowed to take out garbage on the first, second and third day of the lunar month. The garbage during the New Year is wealth, and wealth cannot be thrown away. We can only wait until the third day of the Lunar New Year before dumping it. The remnants of firecrackers must also be cleaned up after the third grade of junior high school.

7. Have a reunion dinner. The housewife cooks herself, and the rest of the family helps with the cooking. They wash, cut, and bake the food from the morning until three, four, or five o'clock in the afternoon when the food is ready. The male host affixes the couplets, then worships the ancestors, lights incense on the altar, puts out wine and meat as a sacrifice, respectfully kowtows to the ancestors three times, and then sets off firecrackers. After these procedures are completed, the family can sit around the table and have a reunion dinner.

8. Stay up late. It turns out that when there was no TV, the whole family would sit around the fire and talk. Talk about the harvest of the year and the plans for the new year. Or guess lantern riddles, or play some cards as a family until dawn to welcome the new year. Nowadays, there are TVs to watch, and most of them watch the Spring Festival Gala. After midnight when the New Year arrives, firecrackers will be set off to symbolize receiving wealth and blessings. Thousands of households are blasting firecrackers together, becoming a village that never sleeps and a sea of ??firecrackers, which is the climax of the Spring Festival.

9. Happy New Year. (1) The new daughter-in-law should pour sugar and tea and give her blessings to the elderly on the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year before her parents-in-law, grandpa and grandma get up. (2) Descendants who get married should buy Spring Festival gifts for the elderly, focusing on food, such as cakes, golden fruits, dates, persimmons, etc. (3) The male host should take his children, elders, uncles, aunts and other elders to pay New Year greetings early in the morning, and then pay New Year greetings to each other with fellow villagers. (4) When someone comes to your home to pay New Year greetings, the host will treat them with cigarettes, tea, fruits, etc. (5) If a child wishes you a happy New Year, you should take out a red envelope and give it to him. The amount of red envelopes depends on economic conditions. In the 1960s and 1970s, it was one yuan or two yuan, and now it is ten yuan to one hundred yuan. (6) "Parents on the first day of the Lunar New Year, mother-in-law on the second day of the Lunar New Year." This means that the daughter-in-law should first pay New Year greetings to her parents on the first day of the Lunar New Year, and then pay New Year greetings to her father-in-law and mother-in-law on the second day of the Lunar New Year. (7) A new uncle should buy New Year greetings for his father-in-law and mother-in-law on the second day of the Lunar New Year, and then buy cigarettes and alcohol for every elder of his father-in-law's clan to pay New Year greetings.

It turns out that if there is a big family, there are thirty or forty families, and the new uncle sometimes has to accept dinner invitations from ten families a day.

10. Eat gold ingots on the first day of the new year. On the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, people eat Yuanxiao or poached eggs, saying: If you eat this gold ingot, you will get rich in the new year.

11. Burn incense. From the first to the third day of the Lunar New Year, people should mourn the deaths of relatives and friends in the previous year. It is necessary to burn three pillars of incense, burn some paper money, and set off firecrackers to express condolences to the souls of the deceased. The host will entertain the mourners with tobacco, alcohol, breakfast, and meals from morning to night.

12. Play with dragon lanterns, colorful boats, and lions. Some village groups spontaneously organize dragon lanterns, colorful boats, and lion games, and they go to each village group to pay New Year greetings. The villagers will watch and cheer. This is the most lively scene during the Spring Festival. The leader should recite a few lines of limericks aloud to bless each family when congratulating them. The host mainly offers red envelopes or cigarettes. If the person playing is related to the host, he or she should buy red cloth or red clothing material as a gift and give a whole carton of cigarettes. On the fifteenth day of the year, dragon lantern players have to collect water. Legend has it that if dragon lantern players don’t collect water, villagers will suffer from major floods in summer.

13. On the ninth day. The ninth day of the first lunar month is commonly known as the "Shang Ninth Day". It is a custom among the people to set off firecrackers to send New Year greetings. New Year greeters consider it as a sign of friendship that they have not left the Ninth Day. If it passes the ninth month, it is considered a good year. Women welcome Zigu God at night, saying "please Qi Miss" (please Qijie). In rural areas of our country, some people also perform some sacrificial activities on the "Shangjiu Day". Every year on the ninth day of the first lunar month, some people in the village are busy asking gods to come down to earth to ask about the annual harvest, the water situation that year, and what kind of crops have good harvests. They can give people a reference. Of course, no one really takes those words. Seriously, no one can blame them if it's not accurate. Because they can say a lot of nice things and be lucky, they are also people's vision.

14. Celebrate the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the year. (1) On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, every family makes big dumplings. Use fine rice, pork, dried tofu, ginger, garlic, etc. as the filling, and use cooked fine rice as the outer layer. The steamed dumplings are fragrant. If the dumplings are cooled down later and baked in the stove, they will be fragrant and crispy. (2) At night, lanterns are hung in front of the doors of every house, and some children also play with lanterns. (3) Set off firecrackers and fireworks for the last time. It echoes around New Year's Eve, indicating the end of the Spring Festival.

15. On the fifteenth night, chase Chiang’s dog. On the night of the 15th, old people and children held torches and shovels and ran to vegetable fields and crop fields. While shoveling with shovels, they shouted: "Drive out Chiang's dog!" (The term "Chiang's dog" may be a reference to Chiang Kai-shek before liberation. He hated Chiang Kai-shek and described him as a pest). Legend has it that this can drive away the pests on the ground and win a good harvest for the year.

"In every household, there are always new peaches to replace the old talismans." The years are busy and the New Year is busy. Women have the hardest time during the New Year. They have to be busy preparing New Year's food, buying New Year's goods, and lighting fires and cooking; men are busy collecting harvests, etiquette, reception, and playing cards; children are busy playing with toys, setting off firecrackers, and setting off fireworks. . One yuan begins again, and everything is renewed. With the rapid development of the new situation, customs have changed and many etiquettes have been omitted, but what remains unchanged is the thousands of years of traditional Spring Festival, which pursues a harmonious heart and never forgets the roots of China.

I wish our people happiness and health forever! I wish our Spring Festival will always be prosperous! I wish our Chinese nation prosperity and strength!