What are the customs during the Spring Festival?

Spring Festival is the Chinese New Year in China, commonly known as Spring Festival, Chinese New Year and New Year's Eve, also known as Chinese New Year and New Year's Eve. It is a folk festival that integrates the old and the new, worships ancestors, prays for evil spirits, reunites relatives and friends, and entertains food.

The custom of the Spring Festival is the custom of China people during the Spring Festival. Due to the different regional cultures, the customs in different parts of China are different in content or details and have strong regional characteristics. The common traditional Chinese New Year customs in China include: preparing new year's goods, pasting New Year's red, offering sacrifices to stoves, removing dust, hanging New Year's pictures, stick grilles, putting Chinese characters upside down, New Year's Eve, setting off firecrackers, wearing new clothes, eating jiaozi, celebrating New Year's Eve, dancing dragons, hanging lanterns, taking lucky money, eating jiaozi, setting off firecrackers, worshipping New Year's Eve, watching social fires, walking on stilts and putting lanterns.

I think there are six customs and traditions worth mentioning in the Spring Festival. Let's take a look:

? One of the customs of the Spring Festival: Sticking Year Red?

On the 29th or 30th, every household hangs "Nian Hong" (Nian Hong is the general name of Spring Festival couplets, door gods, New Year pictures, blessings, banners, window grilles and so on. Because these are all red festive elements hung up during the Chinese New Year, they are collectively called "Year Red"). Sticking New Year Red is a traditional New Year custom in China, which reflects people's customs and beliefs, adds festive atmosphere and places people's good expectations for the new year and new life.

Sticking Spring Festival couplets: According to literary works such as Jade Candle Collection and Yanjing Year, the prototype of Spring Festival couplets is what people call "Fu Tao". Another source of Spring Festival couplets is spring stickers. The ancients posted the word "Yichun" every day when they were in beginning of spring, and later they gradually developed into Spring Festival couplets. Sticking Spring Festival couplets is also called sticking couplets, Spring Festival couplets, couplets and peach symbols. It depicts the background of the times and expresses good wishes with neat, dual, concise and exquisite words, which is a unique literary form in China. Every Spring Festival, no matter in urban or rural areas, every household should choose a pair of red Spring Festival couplets and stick them on the door to add festive atmosphere to the festival. ?

New Year pictures: It is also common to hang New Year pictures in urban and rural areas during the Spring Festival. Colorful New Year pictures add a lot of prosperous and happy holiday atmosphere to thousands of families. New Year pictures are an ancient folk art in China, which reflects people's simple customs and beliefs and places their hopes on the future. With the rise of block printing, the content of New Year pictures is not limited to monotonous themes such as door gods, but has become rich and colorful.

Window grilles and the word "Fu": In the folk, people also like to stick various paper-cuts on the windows-window grilles. Window grilles not only set off the festive atmosphere, but also integrate decoration, appreciation and practicality. At the same time, some people have to write "Fu" on doors, walls and lintels. Others elaborate the word "Fu" into various patterns, such as longevity, longevity peach, carp yue longmen, abundant grains, dragons and phoenixes, and so on.

? The second custom of Spring Festival: Bao jiaozi?

Eating jiaozi on New Year's Eve is one of the most important folk customs in northern China. In jiaozi on the 30th, because it is an important part of festivals, many rules and established customs are stipulated. These customs are designed to cater to the needs of the New Year atmosphere.

When wrapping jiaozi, people usually wrap Jin Ruyi, sugar, peanuts, dates and chestnuts into stuffing. Eat the best and sugar, life will be sweeter in the coming year, eat peanuts, live a long and healthy life, eat dates and chestnuts, and have a baby early.

There is also an interesting story about this custom in folklore: a long time ago, in a poor mountain village, there was a poor family who often ate the last meal without the next one. On New Year's Eve, there is no white flour and vegetables at home, and I am worried when I listen to the neighbors cutting vegetables. Helpless, I had to borrow rice noodles from relatives and friends. After mending the noodles, I made some miscellaneous vegetables, stuffed them into the stuffing, and wrapped jiaozi. Because the noodles are borrowed, the wrapped jiaozi is particularly precious. When placed, it is circled from the inside out, which is very neat and beautiful. Kitchen God, who just came back from heaven, was very happy after seeing it. There is a rich man in the same village, and his family is very rich. He is used to eating delicacies on weekdays and doesn't care about jiaozi at all. On New Year's Eve, stuffing is made of meat, eggs and other materials, wrapped into jiaozi and placed on the curtain. Jiaozi, a small material, tastes completely different after being cooked in the pot. Pork stuffing became a radish dish. And the poor family's jiaozi turned into a stuffed egg. It turned out that the chef was very dissatisfied with the attitude of the rich man's family, Bao jiaozi. In order to punish him, he secretly changed two jiaozi. The next day, it spread in the village. From then on, no matter how busy people are, 30-year-old jiaozi should be neatly arranged to win a "happy circle".

? The third custom of the Spring Festival: Happy New Year?

Paying New Year's greetings is the oldest folk custom in China. During the Spring Festival, the activities of exchanging feelings between relatives are a way for people to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, and express their good wishes to each other. New Year's greetings refer to visiting relatives and friends on the first day of New Year's Day and greeting each other. Origin of the custom of paying New Year greetings: In ancient times, the original meaning of the word "New Year" was to pay New Year greetings to the elderly, including kowtowing to them, congratulating them on a happy New Year and greeting their lives. In case of friends and relatives of the same generation, you should also salute and congratulate. On the first day of the new year, people get up early, put on new clothes, go out to visit relatives and friends, and wish each other good luck in the coming year. There are many ways to pay New Year's greetings. Some are householders leading several people from house to house. Some colleagues invited several people to pay New Year greetings. Others get together to congratulate each other. This is called "group worship".

In the Song Dynasty, friends and relatives would greet each other, which was an early New Year card. In the Ming Dynasty, the design of New Year cards was more perfect and exquisite. Not only the sender's name and address are printed on the email, but also "Happy New Year" and greetings are written. With the development of the times, the custom of New Year greetings is constantly adding new contents and forms. Nowadays, people not only follow the old way of paying New Year greetings, but also begin to pay New Year greetings by SMS and telephone.

? The fourth custom of the Spring Festival: Open the door and set off firecrackers?

There is a folk saying in China that "open the door and set off firecrackers". That is, when the new year comes, the first thing for every household to open the door is to set off firecrackers to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. Firecracker is a specialty of China, also known as "Firecracker", "Firecracker" and "Firecracker". Its origin is very early, and it has a history of more than two thousand years.

Setting off firecrackers can create a festive and lively atmosphere, which is a kind of entertainment in festivals and can bring happiness and good luck to people. When it comes to the origin of firecrackers, we have to mention an animal named "Shan Sao". When people camp in the wild deep in the forest, they will light bonfires. In order to prevent the invasion of hawthorn, people lit bamboo in the bonfire and scared it away with the crack of bamboo. Later, with the appearance of gunpowder, people began to burn saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal in bamboo tubes, so the "deflagration war" came into being. Since the Song Dynasty, people have replaced bamboo tubes with paper tubes and hemp sticks wrapped in gunpowder, which has become "firecrackers".

When the door is opened in the morning of the Spring Festival, firecrackers are set off first, which is called "opening the door to set off firecrackers". After the firecrackers, the ground is broken red, which is the so-called "full house". At this time, the streets are full of anger and joy.

? The fifth custom of the Spring Festival: Dragon Dance?

Dragon dancing, also known as "playing with dragon lanterns" and "dragon dancing", is one of the traditional dance forms of China people's Spring Festival customs. Every festival, there is a custom of dragon dancing everywhere. ? Dragon dance originated in the Han Dynasty and has gone through several generations. Dragon dance was originally a ritual to worship ancestors and pray for rain, and later it gradually became an entertainment activity. In the Tang and Song Dynasties, dragon dancing has become a common form of expression in festivals. ?

About the origin of dragon dance, there is a folk legend: One day, the Dragon King suffered from unbearable back pain and took all the medicines in the Dragon Palace, but it still didn't work. I had to become an old man and come to this world for treatment. The doctor felt strange after feeling the pulse and asked, "You are not human, are you?" The dragon king can't hide it, so he has to tell the truth. So the doctor changed him back to his original shape and caught a centipede from the scales around his waist. After being poisoned and bandaged, the Dragon King recovered completely. To thank the doctor for his treatment, the Dragon King said, "As long as you dance and play with dragons like me, you will have a good weather and a good harvest." . After this incident came out, people thought that dragons could sow clouds and rain, and they would dance dragons and pray for rain every drought. There are also the rules of spring dance Qinglong, Summer Dance Red Dragon, Autumn Dance White Dragon and Winter Dance Black Dragon.

Dragon dance originated from the ancient people's worship of dragons. During the festival, people will dance dragons, starting from the Spring Festival, and then "dragon heads up" in February and the Dragon Boat Festival. When dancing the dragon, the dragon follows the hydrangea to make various movements, interspersed, and constantly shows various postures such as twisting, waving, leaning back, kneeling, jumping and shaking. Therefore, dragon dancing to pray for peace and harvest has become the traditional Chinese New Year custom culture of Han people all over the country.

? The sixth custom of the Spring Festival: Welcome the God of Wealth?

Welcoming the God of Wealth is an ancient traditional Spring Festival custom in China. Because China folklore says that the fifth day of the first month is the birthday of the God of Wealth, after the first day of the first month, the next most important activity is to welcome the God of Wealth. On the night before God of Wealth's birthday, every household will hold a banquet to celebrate God of Wealth. The custom of "welcoming the God of Wealth" varies from place to place in China. In some places, the god of wealth is received on the first day of the first month, while in other places, it is received on the fourth and fifth days of the first month.

Since ancient times, China people have believed in many gods of wealth, including "God of Wealth", "God of Wealth", "God of Wealth", "God of Wealth" and "God of Wealth". The fourth day of the first month (also known as the fifth day of the first month) is related to the origin of the god of wealth, five immortals or five immortals: according to legend, there are five brothers whose initials are all "immortals", so they are called "five immortals". Rob the rich and help the poor before death, punish the evil and promote the good after death, and bless the poor. There are five temples of God of Wealth outside Andingmen in Beijing.

In China, there are many differences in the custom of "receiving the God of Wealth". In some places, the god of wealth is received on the first day of the first month, while in other places, it is received on the fourth and fifth days of the first month. In the early morning of May 1 in Suzhou, Shanghai, Chongqing and other places in the Qing Dynasty, people beat gongs and drums to set off firecrackers and make sacrifices to prepare for the god of wealth. People think that whoever receives the God of Wealth first will get more benefits, so those who meet God are scrambling for fear of being late and making the God of Wealth unhappy, which leads to the custom of "grabbing the road".

The customs and activities of the Spring Festival are different in the north and south, but they are basically the same in one thing, that is, family reunion, visiting relatives and friends, visiting elders and so on. I hope we can remember these customs full of affection and good wishes and pass them on from generation to generation.