What is the order of New Year greetings?

It is said that the custom of welcoming the New Year comes from the activities of expelling the monster Nian in ancient times. When the monster was driven away, everyone went out of the house and bowed to congratulate each other, which was the beginning of "Happy New Year".

In ancient times, New Year greetings were also called "festival worship". According to Lu of the Southern Song Dynasty: "On the first day of the first month (that is, the first day of the first month), elite people (according to: referring to civilians), both men and women, wear new clothes to worship heaven."

In the Qing Dynasty, Lu also said: "Men and women worship their parents during the Spring Festival. When it's over, the host leads them to be humble or sends their children to congratulate them, which is called New Year's greetings. Those who don't meet at the end of the year also worship each other at this time ... so, they want to have a proverb, "It's not too late to pay homage to festivals. "The custom of New Year's greetings only became popular in the Ming Dynasty. Ming people write more notes on this matter. At that time, it seemed better to drink New Year's greetings than later generations. In modern times, southern Fujian and Taiwan Province Province also call New Year greetings "Walking in Spring".

The order of New Year greetings depends on their relationship. Usually, New Year's Day is dedicated to paying New Year greetings to parents or parents-in-law, the second day is to pay New Year greetings to parents-in-law or other family members, and only after the third day is it to pay New Year greetings to peers or relatives and friends.

Politely speaking, you should bring a New Year gift when you pay a New Year call. In the old days, it was customary for people who came to visit New Year's greetings to accept only some gifts, and others should be humble and give a "profit market" in return. At the same time, in order to receive visiting Chinese New Year guests at any time, it is necessary to prepare a "full box" of Chinese New Year candy. In the "full box", squares of different shapes are filled with nuts, candied fruit, melon seeds and sesame candy.

In addition, there are some special New Year greetings in various places. For example, in some places in our province, it is not appropriate to pay New Year's greetings on the third day of the Lunar New Year, which is called "red mouth", which means it is easy to cause disputes; In some areas of Jiangsu, people will stay for dinner during the New Year. After greeting each other, the host and guests will welcome them into the restaurant for dinner, sit for a while and then leave. At the next house, it's like this again. Guizhou people's New Year greetings are limited to close relatives or intimate friends. During the Spring Festival, every family is closed. Anyone who knocks at the door must look out through the door first. If they are not close relatives, they are all rejected. Some places in Anhui are not good at receiving guests, but they just refuse according to the rules and are happy to welcome them at last.

In order to avoid the fatigue caused by many relatives and friends, people invented "group worship" to let everyone get together and pay New Year greetings to each other. The behavior of "group worship" is said to have originated from the officialdom of the Qing Dynasty and is still used by administrative agencies and social organizations.

Nowadays, it has become a common practice to pay New Year greetings by telephone and SMS.