What are the customs of New Year's Day in China?

New Year's Day, that is, January 1st of the Gregorian calendar, is commonly known as "New Year" in most countries in the world. Yuan means "beginning", and the beginning of every number is called "yuan"; Dan means "day"; "New Year's Day" means "the first day". "New Year's Day" usually refers to the first day of the first month in the calendar.

? Customs of New Year's Day:?

? First, drinking pepper and cypress wine

has appeared in the Four People's Moon Order in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Pepper is Zanthoxylum bungeanum. The ancients said that pepper is the essence of Yuhengxing, with a fragrant smell, which makes people light and resistant to old age. Cypress is cypress leaf, which was regarded as an elixir by the ancients, and it can avoid all diseases. Pepper and cypress can be soaked in wine separately, or they can be put into wine together for drinking. Drinking pepper and cypress wine can get rid of illness and live longer.

Yu Xin in the Southern Dynasty wrote "Zhengdan Mengdi Wine": "Zhengdan will make evil wine, and the New Year will bring you a long life cup. The cypress leaves come with the inscription, and the pepper flowers come one by one. " It depicts the joy of being rewarded with pepper and cypress wine on New Year's Day. In the Tang Dynasty, Wu Pingyi's poem "Offering Bones to the Officials of the Yuan Dynasty" expressed his wish to serve the Emperor of Ten Thousand Years with a healthy and long life with the words "I wish to hold the longevity of the cypress leaves".

Drinking pepper and cypress wine has been handed down among the people, and it was practiced in Licheng, Shandong Province and Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province in the Ming Dynasty.

? Second, paste Spring Festival couplets

Spring Festival couplets, also known as "spring stickers", "door pairs" and "couplets", are one of the red festive elements "Year Red" pasted during the New Year. It depicts beautiful images and expresses beautiful wishes with neat, concise and exquisite words. It is a unique literary form in China and an important custom for Chinese people to celebrate the New Year. When people put up New Year's scrolls (Spring Festival couplets, blessings, window grilles, etc.) at their doorsteps, it means that the Spring Festival officially kicks off. ? Each couplet has a horizontal shawl and the word "Fu", while the Spring Festival couplets, like "Everything goes well", are simply pasted in appropriate places, such as doorposts.

In fact, Spring Festival couplets (including couplets and spring couplets) were written with a brush by a special person in ancient times, so they are commonly known as "waving spring". Every Spring Festival, no matter in urban or rural areas, every household should pick beautiful red couplets and stick them on the doors to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, so as to increase the festive atmosphere. Another source of Spring Festival couplets is spring stickers. The ancients posted the word "Yichun" more and more in beginning of spring, and then it gradually developed into Spring Festival couplets, expressing the good wishes of the working people in China to ward off evil spirits and disasters and welcome good fortune.

? Third, setting off firecrackers

There are two meanings of setting off firecrackers on New Year's Day:

One of them:

Setting off firecrackers on New Year's Day has a long history, which was first used to drive away evil spirits and ghosts. According to traditional folklore, it is said that firecrackers are set off on New Year's Day to drive out "mandrills". Mandrill was a ferocious one-horned ghost in ancient times, but it was most afraid of noise, so people used the explosion of burning bamboo to scare it away. With gunpowder, people put gunpowder into bamboo tubes to make firecrackers, and then made paper tubes, also known as firecrackers or firecrackers.

The second statement:

In ancient times, New Year's Day was called New Year's Day. In the Republic of China, New Year's Day became January 1 of the solar calendar, while New Year's Day was called Spring Festival. Setting off firecrackers on New Year's Day can create a festive atmosphere, and the red color after setting off firecrackers everywhere represents joy, happiness and auspiciousness. Therefore, in this festive festival, we will set off firecrackers to celebrate.

In China, there are many customs like New Year's Day. The arrival of New Year's Day heralds the end of the old year and the beginning of the new year. The beginning of the new year's spring return to the earth, the glorious beginning of the new year, is the beginning of showing your new side. The atmosphere of New Year's Day will play up the whole nation. I also wish everyone all the best in the new year.