China's Unique Spring Festival Customs

The Chinese New Year custom in rural areas of southern Fujian is different from that in cities.

Rural farmhouses have many houses and doors. In addition to posting Spring Festival couplets, there are two red paper sugarcane trees on both sides of the door, which are called "door sugarcane". The dialect "sugarcane" is similar to "Jia", which means to enter a good environment. In the hall, there are New Year's Eve dinners, long vegetables and cakes on the table, and "spring branches" tied with red and yellow paper are inserted, which means that food is abundant all year round, auspicious and rich.

Every household should pile sweet potatoes, vines and sticks outside the door and light them until there is smoke around the fire. The man jumped over this pile of flames according to his generation, thinking, "Jump in and make a fortune every year;" Jump out, carefree * * *; Skip the east, the grain is not empty; Skip the west and money will roll in. " This is called "fire group", which symbolizes burning the evil spirits of the old year, eliminating disasters and welcoming a clean and prosperous New Year. "

After jumping off the fire and uniting the beam, clean the hall with a new broom, put the broom barrels together after sweeping, and put the garbage beside the door, hoping to get out of the broom again and help make a fortune. At the same time, we must collect some ashes from the jumping fire and put them in the charcoal stove, which is called "Tianwang", symbolizing more prosperity.

Parents lead their children to sit around the stove, which is called "keeping watch around the stove". It is best to stay up late. It is said that this is to prolong the life of parents. At this time, the elders give the younger generation lucky money, which is called "dividing the circle".

Menton source:

In the past, the countryside was generally not rich. Some people hold a "closing ceremony" before the Chinese New Year if they owe foreign debts, that is, cross their doors with red paper that says "closed", then put a cane on one side, called "Yimen sugarcane", and light two incense sticks and put some sacrifices.

So this means that the family will not open the door to welcome guests during the Chinese New Year, and people who are in debt will not be too embarrassed after seeing it.

Later, as people's lives became more and more affluent, there were fewer and fewer cases in which they could not pay their debts during the New Year. However, the "opening sugarcane" in the "closing ceremony" is inherited, and it is also from the outside to the inside, that is, "opening sugarcane".

The reason why people do this is to warn themselves that they should continue to work hard this year and not slack off, otherwise sugar cane will not look good outside next year; Secondly, the taste of sugarcane is sweet, which means that in the new year, the days can be sweet and beautiful. So years ago, every household began to be busy making "doors and vines".