Legends, stories and customs about the Spring Festival "Legends, stories and customs about the Spring Festival" (Spring Festival)-(Origin)

1Feb. 25th: Pick up the Jade Emperor to drive out the chaos and manage the silkworm field.

Jieyu yellow

According to the ancient custom, when the Kitchen God goes to heaven, the Jade Emperor will personally descend to earth on the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month to investigate the good and evil on earth and decide the fortunes of the coming year. Therefore, every household offered his blessing, calling it "Meeting the Jade Emperor". On this day, we should be careful in our daily life and words, strive for good performance, win the favor of the Jade Emperor and bring good luck for the coming year.

Rush out of chaos

It was not until New Year's Eve that Kitchen God was sent to welcome him back. During this period, there is no god's jurisdiction on the earth. In "Everyone is Happy", many people get married, which is called "getting rid of chaos". Luannian is a special period designed by people to adjust their social life. At the end of the year and the beginning of the year, people have leisure and savings, and it is rare to be refined for peacetime. Today's focus:

This is a good time for people who want to do great things. Therefore, people invented this special time folk custom according to the needs of real life. It can be seen that in traditional society, people's life order is regulated by folk customs.

Zhao Tiancan

Also known as "burning field silkworms", "lighting field silkworms" and "burning field wealth", it is a popular folk custom of praying for the New Year in Jiangnan area. On the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month, a long pole tied with a torch will stand in the field, indicating the new year with the flame, and the thriving flame indicates the bumper harvest in the coming year. This activity is held in some places on New Year's Eve.

Thousand Lantern Festival

This is a religious festival of Mongolian and Daur. Mongolian is called "Ganming Zhuola", which means the Millennium Lantern Festival. On the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month, people make "Ganming Zhuola" and light it in the temple, thinking that the more points, the more auspicious it is. This festival custom is the most popular among Mongolians in Vilat, Xinjiang. On this day, local people eat roast beef and mutton and hold traditional sports and entertainment activities.

1February 29th: New Year's Eve.

Little new year's eve

The day before New Year's Eve is called "New Year's Eve", and people call it "Another Year" when greeting each other. Burning incense outdoors is called "Tianxiang", which usually takes three days.

1Feb. 3 1 New Year's Eve: Spring Festival couplets are posted on the Shenmen Gate to set off firecrackers.

New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve refers to the night on the last day of the twelfth lunar month, 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; "Alternating" means that New Year's Eve means "the month is poor and the old year is exhausted". People want to get rid of the old department and the old year, and the coming year means getting a new year. This is the last night of the Lunar New Year. Therefore, the activities during this period are all around changing the old for the new, eliminating disasters and praying for blessings.

During the Zhou and Qin Dynasties, an exorcism ceremony was held in the palace at the end of each year, and drumming was called exorcism, and then it was called exorcism on the day before New Year's Eve, that is, New Year's Eve. New Year's Eve is New Year's Eve, that is, New Year's Eve.

doorman

During the Spring Festival, there is a custom of putting up doors all over China. At first, the janitor carved mahogany into a human shape and hung it next to people. Later, it was painted as a janitor and posted on the door. The legendary brothers Shen Tu and Lei Yu specialize in ghosts. They guard the portal, and evil spirits dare not enter the portal to harm. After the Tang Dynasty, two brave soldiers, Qin Qiong and Wei Chijingde, were painted as gatekeepers, while Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were painted as gatekeepers. Every household has a door god, and later generations often draw a pair of door gods as martial arts. Door gods are divided into three categories: the first category is "door gods", which are mostly attached to doors or the whole door, about four or five feet high and two or three feet wide. The second kind is the "door keeper", which is attached to the small street door, about two feet high and one foot wide. These two door gods are two gods with a black face and a white face. White left black right, white easy, black evil, each holding a slap in the face. The third category is the "gatekeeper", which is slightly smaller and limited than the street keeper. It is also a black and white Er Shen, but there are also two black and white statues sitting like statues. At most, there is a photo of "Kirin sending the child" posted at the door, and there are two plump pink dolls with comb crowns, each riding Kirin. This kind of door god should have been stuck on the wedding door for good luck, and later it was also used as a New Year decoration for ordinary street doors.

paste up Spring Festival couplets

Spring Festival couplets, also known as "door-to-door" and "spring post", are a kind of couplets, named after being posted during the Spring Festival. One source of Spring Festival couplets is Fu Tao. At first, people carved figures out of mahogany and hung them by the door to ward off evil spirits. Later, they painted the door god on the mahogany, simplified it and wrote the door god's name on the mahogany board. Another source of Spring Festival couplets is spring stickers. The ancients posted the word "Yichun" more and more at the beginning of spring, and gradually developed into Spring Festival couplets. The real popularity of Spring Festival couplets began in the Ming Dynasty, which was related to Zhu Yuanzhang's advocacy. According to Chen Shanggu's Miscellaneous Notes on Mao Yunlou in Qing Dynasty, one year when Zhu Yuanzhang was preparing for the New Year, he ordered every household to post a Spring Festival couplets to celebrate. At first, Spring Festival couplets were carved on mahogany boards, and later rewritten on paper. The color of mahogany is red, which means good luck and avoiding evil spirits, so most Spring Festival couplets are written in red paper. However, temples are made of yellow paper, and toilet paper is made of white, green and yellow. Use white paper in the first year, green paper in the second year, yellow paper in the third year, and red paper after the funeral in the fourth year. Because Manchu is still white, the Spring Festival couplets in the Qing court are made of white paper, with blue borders on the outside and red stripes embedded inside.

Posting the word "Blessing", stick grilles, New Year pictures, and hanging thousands of pictures.

These all have folk functions of praying and decorating the residence. New Year pictures are an ancient folk art in China. They reflect people's customs and beliefs and place their hopes on the future. New Year pictures, like Spring Festival couplets, originated from "door gods". Spring Festival couplets developed from the names of Shen Tu and Lei Yu to figures, while New Year pictures still developed along the direction of painting. With the rise of block printing, the content of New Year pictures is no longer limited to the door gods, but gradually invites the god of wealth to their homes, and then in some New Year pictures workshops, colorful New Year pictures such as three stars of Fu Lushou, God bless the people, abundant crops, prosperity of six animals, greeting the spring and praying for blessings are produced to meet people's good wishes of celebrating and praying for the New Year. As Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of Ming Dynasty, advocated posting Spring Festival couplets, New Year pictures became popular, and three important producing areas of New Year pictures appeared in China: Taohuawu in Suzhou, Yangliuqing in Tianjin and Weifang in Shandong. Formed three schools of Chinese New Year pictures. In the early years of the Republic of China, Zheng of Shanghai combined the monthly calendar with the New Year pictures. This is a new form of New Year pictures. This two-in-one New Year picture was later developed into a calendar. Hanging a thousand is carved with auspicious words on red paper, accompanied by a long ruler and A Zhi, which is posted in front of the door, reflecting the symbol of peach. There are eight immortals hanging in front of the Buddha statue. Hanging thousands of households use more, and aristocratic families use less. Its yellow paper is three inches long and red paper is more than one inch long, which is a "small hanging thousand" and is used by shops. The earliest thousands of hanging coins were linked by making money (copper coins), which, like lucky money, had an overwhelming victory effect.

Tian di Ji Biao

This is a temporary table, specially designed for New Year's Eve. Generally, there is no big Buddhist temple house, and special attention is paid to the heaven and earth, because there are few sacrifices to the Buddha at ordinary times, and the Buddha is rewarded once at the end of the year. In addition, this table is mainly used to pick up the gods. The content of heaven and earth table is different from that of perennial Buddhist temples. In addition to hanging money, incense sticks, five sacrifices and big sacrifices, most of its idols are temporary, such as "Percent", which is a woodcut idol album; "Ba Shen, the Eighteen Buddhas in the Three Realms of Heaven and Earth" is a complete ceremony of color printing with rhubarb fringed paper. Fu Lushou Samsung photo, etc. Some of the above images are burned out after receiving god, such as "percentage" Others will not be burned until the fifth day or even the Lantern Festival. The position of the table is not uniform. If the room is spacious, you can put it inside. If there is no land at home, you can put it in the yard. Legend has it that this night is the time when the gods in heaven are in the lower world, so the people have this custom of receiving gods.

stay up late or all night on New Year's Eve

In our country, people have the habit of observing New Year's Eve, commonly known as "Enduring the Year". Watching the new year begins with eating New Year's Eve dinner. This New Year's Eve dinner should be eaten slowly, starting with lighting lanterns, and some families have to eat it until late at night. According to Zonggu's record of Jingchu's age, there was a custom of New Year's Eve dinner at least in the Northern and Southern Dynasties. The custom of observing the old age not only includes the feeling of farewell and nostalgia for the fleeting time, but also expresses the good hope for the coming New Year.

Setting off firecrackers

At midnight, the New Year bell rang and firecrackers shook the whole sky of China. In this "three yuan" moment of "year yuan, month yuan and time yuan", some places still set up "flourishing fire" in the yard to show the take-off and prosperity of Wang Qi. Around the blazing fire, the children set off firecrackers and danced happily. At this time, the bright lights in the house, the sparks in front of the court and the deafening noise outside the house pushed the lively atmosphere of New Year's Eve to a climax. Poets of all ages always praise the arrival of the New Year with the most beautiful poems. Wang Anshi s Poem Yuan Ri;