Customs during the Spring Festival

It’s the annual Spring Festival again

Let’s learn about Chinese New Year customs

1. Sweep dust

“The second day of the twelfth lunar month Fourteenth, dust and sweep the house." According to "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals", my country had the custom of sweeping dust during the Spring Festival in the era of Yao and Shun. 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.

Legend has it that the ancients believed that there was a three-corpse god attached to each person's body. Like a shadow, he followed the person's whereabouts and was inseparable. The Three Corpse God is a guy who likes to flatter and gossip. He often spreads rumors and causes trouble in front of the Jade Emperor, describing the human world as ugly. Over time, in the Jade Emperor's impression, the human world was simply a dirty world full of sin. once. The three corpse gods secretly reported that the world was cursing the Emperor of Heaven and wanted to rebel against the Heavenly Court. The Jade Emperor was furious and issued an edict to quickly find out the chaos in the world. Anyone who resented the gods or despised the gods would have their crimes written under the eaves. Then let the spider build a web to cover it as a mark. The Jade Emperor also ordered Wang Lingguan to go down to the realm on New Year's Eve. Anyone who met a marked family would be killed and no one would be spared.

Seeing that this plan was about to succeed, the three corpse gods took the opportunity to fly down to the mortal world. Regardless of the crime, they viciously marked the eaves and corners of each house so that Wang Ling Palace would kill them all. While the Three Corpse Gods were doing evil, the Kitchen Lord discovered his whereabouts and was shocked. He hurriedly found the Kitchen Lords of various families to discuss countermeasures. So, they came up with a good idea. From the day when the stove is delivered on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month to the New Year's Eve, every household must clean the house. If the household is not clean, the Stove Lord will refuse to enter. Home. Everyone followed the Stove Lord's instructions before he ascended to heaven, sweeping away the dust, dusting away the cobwebs, cleaning the doors and windows, and making their homes look brand new.

When Wang Lingguan went down to the realm on New Year's Eve to check, he found that the windows of every house were bright and clean, the lights were bright, people were reunited and happy, and the world was extremely beautiful. Wang Lingguan couldn't find any sign of bad deeds, and felt very strange. He rushed back to heaven and reported to the Jade Emperor about the peace and happiness in the world and praying for a happy new year. The Jade Emperor was greatly shocked after hearing this, and issued an edict to imprison the three corpse gods. He ordered that they should be slapped three hundred times and imprisoned forever in the heavenly prison. This human disaster was saved thanks to the Kitchen God's rescue. In order to express gratitude to the Stove Lord for helping people eliminate disasters and blessing Zhang Xiang, people always start sweeping the dust after delivering the stove, and they are busy until New Year's Eve.

2. Stick to the door god

There is a custom of sticking to the door god during the New Year in various parts of our country. The original door god was carved into a human form of mahogany wood and hung next to the person. Later, the portrait of the door god was painted and posted on the door. The legendary brothers Shen Tu and Yu Lei specialize in controlling ghosts. With them guarding the door, evil spirits big and small dare not come in to cause harm. After the Tang Dynasty, there were paintings of the fierce generals Qin Qiong and Yuchi Jingde as door gods, and there were also paintings of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei as door gods. There is one door god statue on the left and right door respectively. Later generations often painted a pair of door gods as civil and military. There are three types of door gods: the first type is the "door god", which is usually posted on the car door or the entire door. It is about four or five feet high and two or three feet wide. The second type is the "street door god", which is usually posted on the small street door. It is about two feet high and one foot wide. These two door gods are two gods, one with a black face and one with a white face. White left and black right, white good and easy, black ferocious and evil, each holding a yue. The third category is the "house door god", which is slightly smaller and more limited than the street door god. It also has two gods, black and white, but there are also two gods, black and white, who are seated. The most common thing on the door of the house is a picture of "Qilin delivering his son", two dolls painted with powder and grease and combed with prince crowns, each riding a Qilin. This kind of door god was supposed to be posted on the door of the newly married house to bring good luck, and later it became a New Year decoration on ordinary street doors.

Zuiyu said 5 years ago: I like this one

3. Post Spring Festival couplets

Spring couplets are also known as "door pairs" and "spring posts", which are couplets It is a kind of flower that is posted during the Spring Festival, hence the name. One source of Spring Festival couplets is Taofu. At first, people carved human figures in peach wood and hung them by the door to ward off evil spirits. Later, they painted the image of the door god on the peach wood, and then simplified it to inscribing the name of the door god on the peach wood board. Another source of Spring Festival couplets is spring stickers. The ancients often posted the word "Yichun" on the Beginning of Spring, which later developed into Spring Festival couplets. The real popularity of Spring Festival couplets began in the Ming Dynasty, related to Zhu Yuanzhang's advocacy.

According to the "Miscellaneous Theory of Hairpin Cloud Tower" written by Chen Shanggu of the Qing Dynasty, one year when Zhu Yuanzhang was preparing to celebrate the New Year, he ordered that a Spring Festival couplet be posted on the door of every house to celebrate. Originally the Spring Festival couplets were inscribed on peach boards, but later they were rewritten on paper. The color of peach wood is red, and red has the meaning of good luck and warding off evil spirits, so the Spring Festival couplets are mostly written on red paper. However, the temple uses yellow paper, and the mourning system (when mourning is not completed) uses white, green, and yellow colors. White paper is used in the first year, green paper in the second year, yellow paper in the third year, and red paper is used after the fourth year of mourning. Paper. Because the Manchu people were still white, the Qing court Spring Couplets used white paper, with blue edges wrapped on the outside and red stripes on the inside.

4. Pasting the Chinese character "福"

While pasting Spring Festival couplets, some families have to paste large and small "福" characters on their house 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.

5. Set up a heaven and earth table

This is a temporary offering table specially designed for New Year’s Eve. Generally, homes that do not have a large Buddhist hall attach great importance to the Heaven and Earth Table, because they usually make less offerings to the Buddha and pay a large reward to the gods and Buddhas at the end of the year. In addition, this table is mainly used to receive the gods. The content of the Heaven and Earth Table is different from that of the permanent Buddhist hall. In addition to the usual hanging money, incense candles, five offerings, and large offerings, most of the idols enshrined there are also temporary, such as: "hundred percent", It is a woodcut album of god statues; "Eighteen Buddhas and Gods in the Three Realms of Heaven and Earth" is a full deity code printed with watercolor woodcut on large yellow edge paper; portraits of the three stars of fortune, longevity and longevity, etc. Some of the above statues were burned immediately after receiving the gods, such as "100%". Some have to wait until Powu or even the Festival of Lanterns to burn them. The location of the heaven and earth table is not uniform. If the main room has a wide space, it can be placed in the house. If there is no space in the house, it can be placed in the courtyard. Legend has it that this night is when the gods from the sky descend to the realm, so there is a custom among the people to receive the gods.

6. Set off firecrackers

Chinese people have a saying of "opening firecrackers". That is to say, when the New Year arrives, the first thing every household does when they open the door is to set off firecrackers to ward off the old and welcome the new with the beeping sound of firecrackers. Firecrackers are a specialty of China, also known as "firecrackers", "firecrackers" and "firecrackers". It originated very early and has a history of more than 2,000 years. Setting off firecrackers can create a festive and lively atmosphere. It is a festive entertainment activity that can bring people joy and good luck. With the passage of time, the application of firecrackers has become more and more widespread, and the varieties and colors have become more and more numerous. 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. Wang Anshi's poem "Yuan Ri": The sound of firecrackers marks the end of the year, and the spring breeze brings warmth to people. Thousands of households are always replacing old talismans with new peaches. It depicts the festive scene of our people celebrating the Spring Festival.

7. Eat New Year’s Eve dinner

When the children are playing and setting off firecrackers, it is also the busiest time for the housewives in the kitchen. The New Year dishes have been prepared a few days ago. , and the New Year’s Eve dinner is always cooked by the chef on New Year’s Eve. In the north, dumplings for the New Year's Day are also made on the 30th night. At this time, every chopping board was busy chopping meat and chopping vegetables. At this time, the sound of chopping boards came from every house, the sound of firecrackers came from the streets and alleys, the "crackling" sound of abacus and the mellow sound of accounting reports came from the small shops, mixed with the laughter everywhere, one after another. , filled with ears, intertwined into a cheerful New Year's Eve movement.

Eating New Year’s Eve dinner is the most lively and happy time for every household during the Spring Festival. New Year's Eve. The table is filled with sumptuous New Year dishes, and the whole family is reunited. Sitting around the table and having the reunion dinner together, the sense of fulfillment in my heart is really indescribable. People not only enjoy the table full of delicacies, but also enjoy the happy atmosphere. There are big dishes, cold basins, hot stir-fries, and snacks on the table. Generally, two things are indispensable, one is hot pot. One is fish. The hot pot is boiling, steaming, warm and sultry, indicating that it is prosperous; "fish" and "yu" are homophonic, which symbolizes "abundance in auspicious celebrations" and also means "abundance every year". There are also radish, commonly known as cabbage, which is used to wish good luck; lobster, fried fish and other fried foods are used to wish prosperity for the family, just like "fire cooking oil". The last part is usually a sweet dish, wishing you a sweet life in the future. On this day, even if you don’t know how to drink, you can drink a little.

There are many famous New Year’s Eve dinners, which vary from north to south, including dumplings, wontons, long noodles, yuanxiao, etc., and each has its own specialties. Northerners are accustomed to eating dumplings during the Chinese New Year, which means "Geng Sui Jiao Zi" (Geng Sui Jiao Zi), the transition between the old and the new. And because the white flour dumplings are shaped like silver ingots, serving them on the table symbolizes "making a fortune in the new year, and the ingots rolling in". When making dumplings, some people also wrap a few coins that have been sterilized in boiling water, saying that whoever eats them first will make more money. The custom of eating dumplings was passed down from the Han Dynasty. According to legend, the medical sage Zhang Zhongjing saw that the ears of the poor were rotten by the frost during the twelfth lunar month of winter, so he made a "Quhan Jiao Er Decoction" to treat frostbite for the poor. He used mutton, chili peppers and some cold-warming medicinal materials, wrapped them in dough to make ear-shaped "Jiao Er", cooked them in a pot, and distributed them to the poor. After eating, people felt their whole body warm and their ears warm. Later, people followed suit and it has been passed down to this day. Eating wontons during the New Year means taking the beginning of the new year. Legend has it that the world was in a state of chaos before it was created. Pangu created the world, and then there were four directions in the universe and long noodles, also called longevity noodles. Eating noodles in the New Year is a wish for a hundred years of longevity.

8. Staying up late

Staying up late on New Year’s Eve is one of the most important annual activities. New Year's Eve refers to the night of the last day of the twelfth lunar month every year, which is connected with the Spring Festival (the first day of the first lunar month). The word "Chu" in "New Year's Eve" means "to go; to change; to change". The meaning of New Year's Eve is "the end of the month and the end of the year." People have to get rid of the old and replace the old with the new. means, it is the last night of the whole year in the lunar calendar. Therefore, the activities during this period are centered around eliminating the old and bringing in the new, eliminating disasters and praying for blessings.

Staying up until the end of the year is commonly known as "staying up until the end of the year." The New Year's Eve dinner starts with the New Year's Eve dinner. This New Year's Eve dinner should be eaten slowly, starting from the time when the lanterns are turned on. Some people have to eat until late at night. The custom of staying up late on New Year's Eve has been around for a long time. The earliest record can be found in the "Fengtu Zhi" of Zhouchu in the Western Jin Dynasty: On New Year's Eve, each person greets each other with gifts, which is called "giving the new year"; "Dividing the year old"; everyone stays up all night waiting for dawn, which is called "keeping the year old". The custom of keeping the year old includes not only a feeling of nostalgia for the passing years, but also a good hope for the coming New Year.

"One night is two years old, five o'clock is divided into two days." On New Year's Eve, the whole family gets together to have New Year's Eve dinner, light candles or oil lamps, sit around the fire and chat, waiting to bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new year. At this time, the all-night vigil symbolizes driving away all evil plagues and looking forward to auspiciousness in the new year. This custom gradually became popular. In the early Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem about "keeping the year old": "The cold leaves the winter snow, and the warmth brings the spring breeze." To this day, people are still used to staying up late on New Year's Eve to welcome the New Year.

9. New Year's money

New Year's money is given by the elders to the younger ones. In some families, after the New Year's Eve dinner, everyone sits at the table and is not allowed to leave until everyone has finished eating. , distributed by elders to younger generations, and encourage children and grandchildren to learn and make progress in the new year and be a good person. In some homes, parents wait for their children to fall asleep and put them under their pillows at night. In other homes, children gather in the main hall, shout Happy New Year to grandparents, parents, and mom, kneel down in line, and then reach out for red envelopes. They even went to the grandparents' bedroom and ran to the edge of the bed together, shouting: "New Year's money, New Year's money!" The old man didn't think it was lively enough, so he pretended to be stingy, went from bargaining to besieging and groping, and finally dug out the ancestor's red envelope. After everyone looted everything, they dispersed. The old man was overjoyed when he saw this scene, thinking it was a good sign that everything would go well in the new year. Giving lucky money during the New Year reflects the care of the elders for the younger generation and the respect of the younger generation for the elders. It is a folk activity that integrates family ethical relationships. There is a nursery rhyme that says: Samsung is in the south, and every family pays New Year greetings; the younger ones kowtow, and the older ones give money. If you don't want money, just turn your face and leave.

10. Ancestor worship

Due to the different etiquette and customs in different places, the forms of ancestor worship are also different. Some go to the wild to visit the ancestor tombs, some go to the ancestral hall to worship the ancestors, and most of them go to the ancestral hall to worship the ancestors. At home, the ancestral tablets are placed in the main hall in order, and the offerings are displayed. Then the worshipers offer incense and kneel down in order of eldest and youngest. When the Han people worship their ancestors, they usually make fish and meat bowls, which are served in high bowls, which is quite similar to eating with bells and cauldrons. For southerners living in Beijing, ancestor worship is particularly grand. Most of them are eight bowls of dishes, with a hot pot in the middle and cups and chopsticks according to the spiritual position. On New Year's Eve, New Year's Day and New Year's Eve, the hot pot is fanned out and the dishes can be changed at any time. Banner people worship their ancestors, which is different from Manchuria and Mongolia. Mongolian Banner people offer yellow rice noodles fried in butter, which are fried in sesame oil and dipped in white sugar when they are removed, which gives them a different flavor.

Manchurian bannermen worshiped their ancestors and offered walnut cakes, hibiscus cakes, apples, and plain wax sandalwood, which was extremely quiet and solemn. On New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, vegetarian dumplings are served, and on Yuan Yuan night, Lantern Festival is served. Every morning and evening, incense is burned, kowtow is offered, and new tea is offered. Although the forms of ancestor worship vary, most of them are hung on New Year's Eve and the offerings are withdrawn on the night of the Lantern Festival. Relatives and friends who are close to each other must also visit the ancestor hall when paying New Year's greetings. Not only should they be careful to follow the distant past, but they will never forget their intentions, because of the virtue of respecting their ancestors. , also saved by this.

11. Drink Tusu wine

Tusu wine is a medicinal wine. In ancient customs, the whole family drank Tusu wine on Yuan Day to dispel unhealthy energy. The method of making Tusu wine is: use one penny of rhubarb, one penny and five cents of platycodon, one penny and five cents of Sichuan pepper, one penny and eight cents of osmanthus heart, one penny and two cents of dogwood, and one or two pieces of saposhnikovia. Take it up at Yinshi, fry it with wine for four to five times and boil it. In ancient times, the way to drink Tusu wine was very unique. Most people always start drinking from the oldest ones; but when drinking Tusu wine, it is just the opposite, starting from the youngest ones. Probably the younger ones grow up day by day and drink first to show their congratulations, while the older ones drink later to show their retention as each year passes. The Song Dynasty writer Su Che's poem "Chu Ri" said: "I drink Tusu at the end of the year, and I am more than seventy years old before I know it." This is the custom. This unique drinking order often evoked various emotions in ancient times, so it left a deep impression on people.

12. Every other year's meal

In the north, some families also provide a bowl of rice, which is cooked before the New Year and served during the New Year. It is called "every other year's meal" and is served every year. If there is leftover food, we can’t finish it all year round, so this year we will still eat the food from the previous year. This pot of rice and millet is usually cooked with a mixture of rice and millet. As the saying goes in Beijing, it is called "two rice rice" because it is yellow and white. This is called "gold and silver rice," which means "there is gold and silver, and the pot is full of gold and silver." The cakes, fruits and pastries prepared in many places during the observance of the New Year are all intended to bring good luck: eating dates (early spring), persimmons (all goes well), almonds (happy people), longevity fruit (immortality) ) and eat rice cakes (which get higher every year). On New Year's Eve, the whole family ate, had fun, talked and laughed.

13. New Year greetings

On the first day of the New Year, people get up early, put on their most beautiful clothes, dress up neatly, go out to visit relatives and friends, and pay New Year greetings to each other. I wish you good luck in the coming year. There are many ways to pay New Year's greetings. Some are led by the head of the same clan 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. There are also people who gather 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 and wish them 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 spirits" "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.

14. Go back to your natal home

On the second and third day of the first lunar month, married daughters take their husbands and children back to their natal home to pay New Year greetings. When a daughter returns to her parents' home, she must bring a big bag of biscuits and candies, and her mother distributes them to the neighbors and folks, just like during the Chinese New Year. If there are multiple daughters in the family, and these daughters do not come back on the same day, then they have to come one at a time. The gift is quite thin, just four biscuits. However, the affection it reflects is very strong, and the true meaning is "little etiquette but heavy affection". It expresses the girl's deep longing for her fellow villagers. When the girl returns home, if there is a nephew at home, the aunt will have to dig into her pocket again. Although the money was given to her on the first day of the Lunar New Year, the meaning this time is different. This custom is called "eating the sun and the day" by Chaoshan people. As the name suggests, it is just for lunch, and the daughter must rush back to her husband's house before dinner.