What are the customs on the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month during the Spring Festival: baking steamed buns and pasting Spring Festival couplets on windows

Customs on the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month: Steamed steamed buns and pasted Spring Festival couplets on the window grilles

Today is the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month, commonly known as the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month in my country, and one of the traditional customs of the Han Chinese Spring Festival . Han folk songs about this day include "On the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, make noodles" and "On the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, make cakes and steamed buns with applique flowers." Han folk customs and traditions: On the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, every household will start preparing staple foods for the New Year, whether making noodles or steamed buns.

In traditional customs, meat for the New Year should be prepared on the 26th and 27th of the twelfth lunar month. On the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month, it is time to prepare pasta. In the past, social development was low, and there was no modern and more convenient baking powder. Ordinary noodles were easily spoiled if they were made a few days in advance. Only leavened noodles did not like spoiling, so I made the noodles on the 28th, preparing for the first to fifth days of the first lunar month. At the same time, this is also because the old custom believes that steamed buns cannot be steamed from the first to the fifth day of the Lunar New Year.

On this day, customs vary from place to place. People in Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province, have to steam "cakes, steamed buns and two bamboo baskets"; people in Hebei Province "steam jujube flowers" to prepare offerings to their ancestors on New Year's Eve; people in Henan Province also "steam steamed buns and fry the Ge Pagoda on the 28th." Beijingers are slow to "steam the noodles" only on this day and wait until the 29th to "steam the steamed buns". Folks in Beijing are very particular about not using fire to steam buns or stir-fry vegetables from the first to the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, because the homophonic pronunciation sounds like a quarrel. For the happiness and beauty of the year, people prepare the food for the year after the New Year in advance, and then just boil it. Nowadays, there are many kinds of steamed buns sold outside and they are not expensive, so fewer and fewer people make their own dough and steam buns on weekdays. However, every new year, many people will still make dough on the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month and prepare to steam steamed buns the next day, according to the habits passed down by their elders.

In addition to making dough, you also need to "stick flowers", that is, stick New Year pictures, Spring couplets and window grilles. Among them, the custom of posting Spring Festival couplets originated from the ancient "Peach Talisman". The ancients used peach wood as a tree to ward off evil spirits. "Dian Shu" said: "Peach is the essence of the five trees, so it suppresses evil spirits." By the Five Dynasties, Meng Chang, the monarch of Later Shu, was elegant and good at literature. He ordered people to inscribe peach charms every year. It became the origin of the Spring Festival couplets of later generations, and the inscription on the peach charm "New Year's Day, Happy Festival, Changchun" became the first "Spring Festival Couplet" recorded in Chinese history. Later, with the advent of printing, the custom of posting Spring Festival couplets using red paper instead of peach wood appeared. Every household pastes the word "福" (福), large and small, on their doors, walls and lintels to express their yearning for a happy life and wishes for a better future. (Leng Zhonghua)