Gaomi Spring Festival customs and habits

The customs and habits of the Spring Festival in Gaomi: cooking Laba, offering sacrifices to stoves, preparing for the new year, keeping vigil on New Year’s Eve, paying New Year greetings and sending off New Year wishes.

Laba

Every year on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, commonly known as "Laba", every household has "Laba Boiled" (boiled with eight kinds of crop fruits) for breakfast The resulting porridge has now evolved into the famous eight-treasure porridge) and hence the saying "if you drink the cooked Laba rice, you will count the years".

Sacrifice to the Stove

On the twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar month, it is the day to celebrate the Stove (Sacrifice to the Stove). It is also called "Celebrating the Small New Year". It is inevitable to eat dumplings at noon, and the main activities are in the evening. After this day, people will eat dumplings at noon. Take the Stove Lord's vacation and go back to heaven to "celebrate the New Year"! At the dinner party for the Stove Lord, there is only one special dish "Tang Guaer" (folk handmade maltose). One saying is: let the Stove Lord eat it. , Speak more sweet words when you get to heaven.

Preparing for the New Year

"Quit the stove, the New Year is coming!" Then people started to be busy with the New Year. The mothers-in-law, daughters-in-law, sisters-in-law, and aunts-in-law in every household started making dumplings, steaming buns, and making rice cakes. It was not until New Year's Eve that they finally got a clue and started preparing for the New Year's Eve dinner.

Vigil

Chopping stuffings, making noodles, making dumplings, and frying bowls are all women's business. Men lead the children together, pasting couplets and hanging zhuzi ( New Year pictures written on the ashes with the names of the clans and clans), tidying up the offerings (offering table), and placing the offerings.

New Year's greetings

After the young and old men of the clan visited each other to pay New Year's greetings, the mother-in-law, daughter-in-law and children came bustling to the street to watch stilt walking, yangko dancing, long dragon dancing, and Mao opera. , bustling with excitement.

Send off the New Year

The second day of the Lunar New Year is the day to send off the New Year. One day after each family's arrival, the men would carry a load of water and put it in the yard to drink for the ancestors and their horses. The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law make a pot of dumplings under the fire, and offer them again in the place where they were offered on the fifth day of the new year. They have to burn paper and kowtow at each place.

The children picked up a big firecracker and set it off outside the gate. The adults kowtowed outwards, which meant sending their ancestors and gods home.