What are the customs during the Spring Festival and what do they mean?

Spring Festival customs include:

1. Posting New Year's red is the collective name for posting Spring Festival couplets, door gods, New Year pictures, blessing characters, horizontal batches, window grilles, etc., because these are posted during the New Year Red is a festive element, so it is collectively called "New Year Red". Pasting New Year red is a traditional Chinese New Year custom. It reflects the customs and beliefs of the people, adds to the festive atmosphere, and expresses people's good expectations for the new year and new life.

2. New Year’s Eve dinner is one of the New Year’s customs. It is also called New Year’s dinner, reunion dinner, reunion dinner, etc. It especially refers to the family dinner at the end of the year and New Year’s Eve. The New Year's Eve dinner originates from the ancient year-end sacrificial ceremony, where people gather together for a meal after paying homage to gods and ancestors. The New Year's Eve dinner is the highlight of the year. It is not only colorful, but also very special. Before eating the family reunion dinner, worship the gods and ancestors first, and then start the meal after the worship ceremony is completed.

On the banquet there are usually chickens (meaning good fortune), fish (meaning abundance every year), oysters (meaning good market), nostoc (meaning fortune), yuba (meaning abundance), and lotus roots (meaning wealth). (intelligent), lettuce (means wealth), raw garlic (means calculation), etc. for good luck. The Chinese New Year's Eve dinner is a family reunion dinner. It is the most sumptuous and important dinner at the end of the year.

3. Fasting Day: worship God in the morning and set off firecrackers. On the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, vegetarian dishes are used to worship the Tai Sui God. Breakfast must be vegetarian, including vermicelli, yuba, nostoc, mushrooms, etc. All the vegetarian dishes that should be eaten this year are eaten in this morning, so that later on, you can eat a lot of fish and meat.

4. Burning door-god paper: In the old days, on the third day and night of the Lunar New Year, the pine and cypress branches and the door-god paper hung during the festival were burned together to indicate that the new year was over and work had to start again. As the saying goes, "Burn the door god paper, and you will find your own health."

5. Send gifts to the poor: The sixth day of the first lunar month is also called Horse Day. Giving gifts to the poor on this day is a very unique custom among Han people. Various regions in China have their own methods of providing relief to the poor, each of which is different. But the meaning is basically the same, they are all about sending away the poor. It reflects the traditional psychology of ancient people who generally hope to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, bid farewell to the poverty and hardship of the past, and welcome a better life in the new year.

The ancient customs included in Dongfang Shuo's "Sui Zhan" of the Han Dynasty believe that the first day of the first lunar month is Rooster Day, the second day is Dog Day, the third day is Pig Day, the fourth day is Sheep Day, and the fifth day is Sheep Day. The first day of the lunar month is the ox day, the sixth day is the horse day, and the seventh day is the human day. According to Chinese folklore, this is because when Nuwa created all living things, she created the six animals first and then humans. Therefore, the first to the sixth day of the lunar month are the days of the six animals.