What are the customs during the Spring Festival?

◆ China New Year customs and allusions

Off-year, that is, the 23rd or 24th of the twelfth lunar month, is the beginning and foreshadowing of the whole Spring Festival celebration. Its main activities include two items: sweeping the year and offering sacrifices to stoves. Sweeping the year, that is, sweeping the dust, is actually doing a lot of household hygiene. Northerners take the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month as a small year, which is called "sweeping houses". Southerners regard the 24th of the twelfth lunar month as the Lunar New Year, which is called "blowing dust". On this day, every household gets up at dawn, cleans houses and windows, washes clothes, washes pots and pans, and carries out a clean and thorough cleaning. According to the records in the Collection of Relics, this custom can be traced back to more than 3,000 years ago. It is a religious ceremony for Han ancestors to drive away epidemic ghosts and pray for well-being. Later, "dust" and "Chen" were homophonic.

Sacrificing a stove is to sacrifice the stove god to heaven. Ancient science and technology were underdeveloped. People regard Kitchen God as the God in charge of family diet, and think that Kitchen God will go to the Jade Emperor to report his work on New Year's Eve. The jade emperor's rewards and punishments for this family are all in the kitchen god's report. The most folk sacrifice on the stove is "honeydew melon". When honeydew melon is sweet, the kitchen god can only say sweet words in front of the jade emperor. It is said that honeydew melons are sticky and can stick to the kitchen god's teeth, so that he can't speak ill of him. When offering sacrifices, the statue of Kitchen God, which has been offered for one year, is taken down and burned as a sacrifice to heaven. To this day, there is still a folk saying that "honeydew melons offer sacrifices to the stove and come in the New Year".

New Year's Eve refers to the last day of the twelfth lunar month (February 6 this year), which is connected with the Spring Festival (the first day of the first month). The word "except" in "New Year's Eve" is "go; Easy; "Alternation" means "the old year ends here and the new year begins tomorrow morning", so the activities in this period are centered on saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new, and praying for disaster relief. There are three main activities on New Year's Eve: having a reunion dinner, offering sacrifices and observing the New Year. One of the most striking features is observing the Year.

Shousui is commonly known as "staying up late", that is, on New Year's Eve, Da Dan doesn't sleep. Legend has it that there was a fierce monster called Nian in ancient times, which came out to devour people and animals on the last night of the twelfth lunar month, endangering people. Later, people found that its weakness was fear of fire and sound, so on New Year's Eve, people stayed up all night, lit a fire, burned bamboo and made it explode. This monster did not dare to do evil in 2008. Since then, the custom of staying up late for sex on New Year's Eve has been left. However, there is still an important job in guarding the old age: jiaozi, and jiaozi with vegetarian stuffing. This is the hope that in the new year, it will be "flat and light, safe and smooth". Some people put sugar, peanuts and other things in jiaozi. Those who eat sugar live a long life, while those who eat peanuts live a long life.

There are still many taboos about observing age. For example, sweeping the floor is forbidden. During the off-year holiday, the corners that are difficult to reach at ordinary times should be cleaned. But from New Year's Eve to New Year's Day, even if the ground is chaotic, it is customary to think that it will "break the money". For another example, banning cutting and saying "no" are all psychological reflections of people's wish for good luck.

Five days of Spring Festival

The first day to the fifth day of the lunar new year is generally the main festival of the Spring Festival, and various folk festivals are fully displayed in these five days. Let's introduce it from several aspects. See what the biggest traditional festival in China looks like, and what's the evolution and anecdote.

eating habits

The diet during the Spring Festival is very particular. The northern folk proverb says, "jiaozi on the first day, zygote on the second day, zygote on the third day, and pancake rolls eggs on the fourth day". Jiaozi is one of the important foods in the Spring Festival. In addition to eating jiaozi on New Year's Eve (the last day of the twelfth lunar month), you should also eat jiaozi on the first and fifth days of the first month, but the way to eat jiaozi in these three days is quite different. Jiaozi eaten on New Year's Eve must be vegetarian, which means that the coming year will be safe and plain, and jiaozi can't cook it all at once; The first day I ate jiaozi, I must have eaten it on New Year's Eve (that is, last night). When eating jiaozi on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, it must be made into a "lace shape", commonly known as "squeezing a villain's mouth", in order to prevent a villain from playing tricks on others and making good luck in the coming year.

Another tradition of the Spring Festival is the rice cake, which is made of glutinous rice and divided into north and south. In the north, rice cakes are steamed and fried, mostly sweet. In the south, rice cakes are fried piece by piece and cooked in soup, which is sweet and salty. Because Nian is homophonic with glutinous rice, eating glutinous rice rice cakes means that people are taller every year, which is people's expectation for the New Year. Over time, sticky rice cakes become sticky rice cakes.

Bedroom department

Traditionally, during the Spring Festival, the bedroom layout should be decorated with four stickers, namely Spring Festival couplets, New Year pictures and blessings, and stick grilles.

Post Spring Festival couplets:

It originated from the red wooden boards hanging on both sides of the door to exorcise evil spirits (the ancients believed that mahogany had the function of exorcism). After Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, unified the world, it was a custom to ask people all over the world to post couplets during the Spring Festival, praising the unity of the country, making the country prosperous and the people safe. "Song Shi * Shu Jia" records the earliest Spring Festival couplets in history, "Spring Festival in Qing Yu, Jia Festival Spring Festival couplets"

New year pictures:

From the content point of view, it caters to the people's psychology of seeking good luck and celebration. The common themes of bumper harvest, many children, many blessings and long life are Ma Gu's Birthday, Goddess's Parting Flowers, Kirin's Sending Children, Zhong Kui Fu Wei and so on. China's famous New Year pictures are produced in Yangliuqing in Tianjin, Taohuawu in Suzhou, Wuqiang in Hebei and Weifang in Shandong.

Post a blessing:

Commonly known as greeting the new year and posting the word "blessing", it is to pray for a good weather and a long life in the new year. When posting blessings, the word "fu" should be reversed and homophonic. This custom remained popular for a long time.

Velcro tape:

Window grilles are usually used to decorate rooms, such as window grilles, door stickers, wall grilles and snuff. They have different shapes, can create freely and have very rich themes. Common ones are "Fat Pig Arch", "Mouse Married" and "More and more every year". However, the materials are very uniform, red paper with a small amount of gold, platinum and colored paper.

Collective worship activities during the Spring Festival;

According to the traditional custom, the group worship during the Spring Festival has a certain time sequence. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, neighbors or their relatives usually pay New Year greetings to each other. The next day, the married children took their husbands back to their parents' home to pay New Year greetings. On the third day, my aunt and my cousin's sons and nephews exchanged New Year greetings. For those relatives and friends who are not local or difficult to meet, they can also send New Year cards. This custom began in the Han Dynasty and was customized in the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty. It was called "Niantie, Nianpian" and wrote holiday greetings to send to relatives and friends. When relatives and friends walk around each other, they should give lucky money to their unemployed minor children. Usually, lucky money is good luck every Friday and every ten days.

◆ New Year customs around the world

People all over the world like to greet the New Year in a unique way.

* Germans climb mountains and pray for good luck. Before the New Year bell rings, many Germans will climb into chairs. As soon as the bell rings, they will jump down and run behind the chair to show that they have forgotten the disaster. There is also a custom in rural Germany-tree climbing competition. It is said that the higher you climb, the better your luck. The person who climbs the highest every year will be called the "New Year hero". Germans will also put some fish scales in their wallets on New Year's Day, because fish scales are the mascots of the New Year, which indicates that financial resources are rolling in; Many people still nail horseshoes on the wall to "exorcise evil spirits"; On this day, bread and baked cakes are also made into circles, figures of eight, hearts or braids. It is said that these shapes can resist evil.

* The French drank too much to bid farewell to the old year. New Year's Day in France was originally 1 in April every year. It was not until 1564 10/4 that King Charles IX changed it to 1. On New Year's Eve, French families get together and drink champagne around the table. According to tradition, every household should finish the Tibetan wine on this night to avoid bad luck in the coming year; Everyone should be as drunk as a fiddler, so that the new year will have a new beginning. The French believe that the weather on New Year's Day indicates a new year. On the morning of New Year's Day, they went to the streets to watch the wind and divination. The south wind heralds a peaceful and hot year. When the west wind blows, there is a bumper harvest year for fishing and milking; If the east wind blows, the fruit will be rich; When the north wind blows, it is a poor harvest year.

* Belgians pay New Year greetings to animals. In Belgium, the first thing people do on New Year's Day morning is to pay New Year greetings to livestock. Belgians will go to cows, sheep and their pets, cats and dogs and solemnly greet them: "Happy New Year!" "

* Bulgarians sneeze. On New Year's Eve, Bulgarians want to sneeze when eating around the table, because whoever sneezes can bring happiness to the whole family. The owner of this family gave him a sheep, a cow or a pony to thank him for bringing happiness to the whole family. Bulgarians will turn off their lights for 3 minutes after the New Year bell rings 12. After turning on the lights, they will start eating special New Year cakes filled with various small gifts.

* Hungarians grab horns In Hungary, after the New Year bell rang, Hungarians took to the streets with horn toys and held an all-night carnival parade. People rob each other of their horns and blow them at the same time. It's very lively. After dawn, relatives and friends began to visit each other again and give each other New Year commemorative coins.

* Brazilians pull each other's ears. After the New Year bell rang, Brazilians held high torches and flocked to climb mountains. They scrambled to find the golden birch, a symbol of happiness. This activity is called "Looking for Happiness". It is said that only fearless people can find this rare fruit. In rural areas, there is also a unique custom of Chinese New Year-pulling each other's ears. When people meet on New Year's Day, they will hold each other's ears and express their blessings.

* Australia eats pies to choose the king of beans. Every New Year's Day, Australia has the custom of choosing the king of beans. Residents of rural towns or urban communities get together to eat pies. Whoever can eat the beans in the pie will become the local bean king. It is said that Bean King will be particularly lucky in the coming year.

* Japanese vegetarians seek good luck. New Year's Day is called "Zhengri" in Japan. On that morning, people eat traditional "regular breakfast", such as sugar taro and buckwheat noodles. For the next three days, the Japanese will be vegetarian and pray. However, people in Japanese cities have given up the tradition of being vegetarian on New Year's Eve and only eat vegetarian noodles on New Year's Eve, hoping to live a long and healthy life.

◆ ◇ Photo Gallery: A Grand View of World New Year Customs

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◆ New Year customs around the world

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