Heze new year custom

Heze is located in the southwest of Shandong Province, so what are the Chinese New Year customs in Heze? Let's take a look at Heze's Chinese New Year custom!

In Heze, the custom of China New Year is to celebrate the 23rd lunar month. The main activity is to "send Grandpa Zao (Zao Jun) to heaven, usually in the evening. Together with Zhao Jun, he sprinkled wine and lit a fire, spoke well in heaven and offered a tribute. The couplet next to the statue of Zhao Jun is usually: Heaven speaks well, the lower bound is safe, and the head of the family is criticized horizontally.

Spring Festival couplets are posted at noon on New Year's Eve, and "going to the forest" (cemetery) invites people (elders who died at home) to go home for the New Year. At night, every household will light lanterns, and women will wrap jiaozi together. After jiaozi, the old people usually go to bed. Some young people watch TV, and some get together to drink and stay up late.

On the first day of New Year's Day, parents will wake up the whole family at about four o'clock in the morning, put on new clothes, offer sacrifices to grandpa and door gods, set off firecrackers and eat jiaozi for breakfast (this is our "New Year's Eve"). After eating jiaozi, if the host family usually leaves a middle-aged person to take care of the elderly and pay New Year's greetings, others will go out to pay New Year's greetings. Generally, they go to relatives' homes near the door to pay a New Year call and kowtow to their elders, and then relatives near the door get together to pay a New Year call to other people's homes. From the village west to the village east, no matter what the surname is, as long as there are old people at home, they all worship again. These activities were all finished before dawn. When the east is red, all the years have been worshipped.

Put up Spring Festival couplets in other places.

On the morning of the 30th, every household was busy posting Spring Festival couplets. Those who have posted couplets are not allowed to come to the door again. In addition to the couplets at every door, all kinds of blessings and spring characters should be written and posted in every corner where they can be posted, and grain shops should be labeled "Five Grains are abundant"; In places such as sheepfolds and pig pens, it is necessary to post "cattle and sheep are full of columns and six livestock are prosperous"; Cowpea, etc. should be labeled as "the head of the trough is prosperous"; Bicycles should be labeled as "Wan Li on a daily trip and 8,000 at night"; Motor vehicles should be affixed with auspicious couplets such as "safe passage". As soon as the couplets were posted, the festive atmosphere of the New Year came out immediately. The task of posting Spring Festival couplets every year is on me. Because there are many yards at home, before dawn, I began to get busy, taking out the Spring Festival couplets my father bought, cutting, sorting and pasting them. I have been busy all morning. A few years ago, I still couldn't tell the upper and lower couplets of Spring Festival couplets, and then I slowly summed up the rules.

Every year on the afternoon of the 30th, the family begins to get busy, some pressing dumpling wrappers, some wrapping jiaozi, and the division of labor is very clear. A few years ago, I was assigned to the ranks of dumpling wrappers. The dumpling wrappers pressed by one person can supply three people with jiaozi. But this year, because it was already 30 in the morning after I got home, this task did not belong to me. My mother pressed the dumpling skin early, and eldest sister-in-law and second sister-in-law wrapped jiaozi neatly. In our country, jiaozi is usually filled with meat, sugar and coins. Here, let's talk about the jiaozi stuffed with this coin. Because there are many family members, every household has a coin jiaozi every year. Whoever can eat is blessed. Someone will definitely ask, the shape of the jiaozi of the coin is definitely different from that of ordinary jiaozi. Yes, it is different when you look closely. However, we should also know that our jiaozi rice is eaten at four o'clock in the morning of the first day of junior high school, and both parents casually use spoons in the cauldron, so it is difficult and impossible to eat jiaozi with coins.

Please let the elders go home for the New Year.

On the evening of 30, it's time to invite your family. Please go to the grave, burn incense and paper, set off some firecrackers and kowtow, and take the dead relatives home for the New Year. When inviting family members, they usually hold incense and say, "Grandpa, grandma, it's the New Year. Now let's go home for the New Year." People who invite family members will set a table in the center of the hall with offerings (chicken, duck, fish, etc.). ) On it, there are two chairs next to it for ancestors to sit on. Usually the next night, we send them to the family hall, burn the memorial tablet, then burn incense and paper, and grandparents will return to the cemetery.

There are many things about eating jiaozi.

In the first pot of jiaozi in the early morning of New Year's Day, four chopsticks should be put in a small bowl, and the family will face west with a hot jiaozi. When the family lights four sticks of incense, they will worship the West three times and say "Chinese New Year, ancestors, go home for Chinese New Year", then burn paper money and set off firecrackers. This process is called "please be old", which is the concrete embodiment of our local filial piety culture. When eating jiaozi, there is another custom, that is, you can't finish the first bowl of jiaozi, so you must have one or two bowls left. As long as I can remember, I have often heard from my family that this is called more than a year, and I will not let my family finish this meal without the next meal. This custom may be out of date when the country basically realizes a well-off society, but I think it is also a good tradition to inherit thrift in the local area.

It is essential to kowtow for the New Year.

Chinese New Year kowtowing may not be a custom in many places, but it has always been preserved here. After eating jiaozi at four o'clock in the morning of the first day, it is time for the younger generation to kowtow to the elders and the young people to pay New Year greetings to the elders. Go door to door and kowtow to the elders to pay New Year's greetings. Sometimes in the yard of our predecessors, people will kneel all over the floor, which is really spectacular. I only followed this kowtow in recent years. I used to kowtow to my parents every year, and it was my big brother and second brother who kowtowed to other families. In recent years, my parents have gradually let me follow. In the past two years, I also realized the significance of kowtowing, that is, no matter where you are, the younger generation should kowtow to the elders, and the young people should kowtow to the elders to pay New Year greetings. There are rules for kowtowing, and most of them follow the rule from near to far. After kowtowing near the door, go to the other end of the village to kowtow. There is a uniform standard for kowtowing. Men usually kowtow four times in front of the head of the family and once to the old man. I knocked over the whole village and felt much warmer. Because it was still before dawn, I could meet many people in the street, but most of them couldn't see each other. Just listening to the familiar voice, they pay New Year greetings to each other. On the street, I only heard "Uncle, I am here to kowtow, Grandpa, Happy New Year and other greetings."

Son-in-law has mixed feelings.

On the second day of the first month, our custom here is: on this day, all the old, middle-aged and young wives who have not yet become mother-in-law or mother-in-law will get married. To lead her husband and children back to their parents' home for New Year's greetings, commonly known as "visiting their parents' home", unmarried children who have grown up will go to their grandmother's home for New Year's greetings. Although the hairy son-in-law usually sees her parents-in-law, it's just like "the mouse sees the cat". He is cautious and only knows his work performance, but on the second day of the second day, his parents-in-law should treat his son-in-law well.

Speaking of son-in-law, I have to mention the newly married son-in-law. The second day of the first month is really bitter with sweet. Sweet, the new son-in-law is only the guest of honor on this day, and it is also the highest standard special treatment they enjoy in their husband's family in this life. But they also have "accidents". When they come to the old man, the children in the village can stop him together. Someone stopped to have a cigarette, and someone threw snowballs and ice cubes at him! Therefore, the relatives of the woman's family should plan the route for him in advance, let him enter the village quietly, and then slip away quietly after dinner, but the child is sharp-eyed and generally has an "encounter". This kind of experience has become less and less in recent years. After all, people's thinking has changed.

The bigger the cake, the more sincere it is.

The newly married husband's family must ask the bride to bring the flower cake back to her family before the fifteenth day of the first month. I also asked the old people why they had such a custom, but they couldn't say anything specific. They only knew that it was a group worship and a celebration, which made her family feel the love of her husband's family for the bride. There are two kinds of raw materials for flower cake, one is jujube and the other is flour. I remember when I was a child, when my brother got married, I steamed flower cakes at home. At that time, several neighbors came to my house to help, some kneading dough and some making flowers. They are very busy. In the past, a flower cake was about 10 Jin, so it could be steamed on the stove by itself. But this is different. You have to go to a store that specializes in steaming steamed buns, because the size and shape of flower cakes are bigger than before, reaching more than 60 kilograms. According to neighbors, the bigger the cake, the more it can represent the sincerity to the bride's husband's family.

Visiting relatives and friends, drinking is essential.

On the third day of the first month, I visited my relatives at home. In the evening, we will pack jiaozi, cook jiaozi, set off firecrackers, send immortals to heaven and earth, and send ancestors. This is called "annual ring", which means that the climax of China New Year has ended. From the first day to the fifteenth day (usually visiting relatives before the fifth day, because some people who go to work leave on the sixth day), people will visit relatives and friends with each other and strengthen emotional exchanges. "If you want to have deep feelings, you have to be bored." In this period, wine is essential. I suffered greatly from it, and I drank almost every day at home these days. Relatives and friends can meet once a year to talk about the gains and losses in the past year and think about the work in the new year. Most of this is done on the wine table. Parents prepare food and drinks for visitors, and they can eat together once a year, and they must drink a few more cups.

Other China New Year customs

On New Year's Eve, a stick will be placed horizontally in front of the house, indicating that the devil can't enter the house and the good luck at home can't flow out. The access control stick should be placed on the fifteenth day of the first month. It is said that one day later, one year is safe; Children are not allowed to talk nonsense when steaming steamed bread and frying things. Why are steamed buns not ripe? How much oil is there in the pot? This is the most taboo. Children are usually driven away. Besides, I don't want anyone to visit me when I do these things. It is said that it is afraid of bringing bad luck. Let's step on the gas. When I get up first, I can't pour the washing water out of the house. It's all a washing dish, so I always get up early and take the first place. You can't sweep the floor or pee outside before dawn.

Every place has its own Chinese New Year custom, and I won't spend too much Chinese New Year outside. But I think it's really fun to spend the New Year in the countryside. Some people think that the taste of Chinese New Year is getting more and more talked about. If some city people can go to the countryside to feel the atmosphere of the New Year there, feel the traditional Chinese New Year way, paste couplets, wrap jiaozi, kowtow to the New Year, and feel the simple words of rural people, maybe there will be another Chinese New Year experience.