What are the customs on New Year's Day?

The official celebrated the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, and the folk celebrated the 24th of the twelfth lunar month (also known as the 23rd of the northern twelfth lunar month and the 24th of the southern twelfth lunar month), while the government boat held a ceremony to worship the kitchen stove on the 25th. So there is a folk custom called "the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month". After holding the sacrificial stove, they officially began to prepare for the New Year.

Sacrifice to the kitchen god

In ancient times, people thought that the kitchen god would say a few good words in front of the jade emperor, which would bring happiness to the family and bless the family safety in the coming year. Therefore, on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, every household has to offer sacrifices to the kitchen god and ask him to speak well and say auspicious words the day after tomorrow. This ceremony of sending the kitchen god is called "sending the kitchen stove" or "resigning the kitchen stove". On New Year's Eve, we will bring Kitchen God back. Because, on the night of New Year's Eve, Kitchen God will come to the earth to celebrate the New Year with the gods, and there will be ceremonies of "receiving the kitchen" and "receiving the gods" on that day. According to the local custom, the host and wives will not attend. In ancient times, there was a saying that "men don't Yue Bai, women don't sacrifice stoves".

After seeing off the Kitchen God, it was the turn to worship the ancestors, which was called "hanging shadows" by the people. Lin, a folklore expert in Tianjin, said that on New Year's Day, portraits or photos of ancestors should be hung on the wall, drinks and tributes should be prepared, and people should worship them until New Year's Eve.

sweep the dust

sweep the dust

The folk proverb says, "On the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, dust and sweep the house". After holding the sacrificial stove, they officially began to prepare for the New Year. Dust removal is year-end cleaning, which is called "house cleaning" in the north and "dust removal" in the south. Cleaning the dust before the Spring Festival is a traditional habit of China people. On the day of dusting, the whole family began to clean the house and yard together, scrub the pots and pans, dismantle and wash the bedding, and greet the New Year cleanly. In fact,

People use the homonym of "dust" and "Chen" to express their will to get rid of the old.

tofu

Push mill to make tofu

The folk proverb says, "On the 25th of the twelfth lunar month, grinding bean curd." In some places, there is also the custom of eating tofu residue before New Year's Eve. According to folklore, when the Kitchen God dies, the Jade Emperor will go to the lower bound to see if all the families are like the Kitchen God's performance, so all the families will eat tofu dregs to show their poverty and avoid the punishment of the Jade Emperor. Legend belongs to legend. In fact, eating tofu residue was actually inefficient in ancient times, and there was not so much delicious food (but sometimes people bought a big basket of tofu to eat, and so on). ).

Jieyu yellow

Both the old custom and the new custom believe that the kitchen god goes to heaven, and the Jade Emperor himself descended to earth on the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month to investigate the good and evil in the world and decide the fortune for the coming year. Therefore, every family worships it to pray for blessing, which is called "receiving 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, and at all times, many people get married, which is called "expelling chaos". Luannian is a special period designed by people to adjust their social life. At the end of the year, people have leisure and savings, which is a good opportunity for those who have little energy to do great things. Therefore, people invented this special time folk custom according to the needs of real life.

Zhao Tiancan

Zhao Tiancan, also known as "burning silkworm" and "burning field wealth", is a popular folk custom in Jiangnan area to pray for the New Year. 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

Thousand Lantern Festival is a religious festival of Mongolian and Daur. Mongolian is called "Ganming Zhuola", which means Thousand Lantern Festival. On the 25th of the twelfth lunar month, I made "Ganming Zhuola" and lit it in the temple, thinking that the more I ordered, the more auspicious it would be. 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.

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 first day of the first month. The word "except" in "New Year's Eve" is "go; Easy; "Alternate" means "the end of the poor month, the end of the old year". People should get rid of the old year and welcome the new year. Therefore, the activities during the period are centered on resigning the old and welcoming the new, eliminating disasters and praying for blessings.

At the end of every year in the Zhou and Qin Dynasties, a ceremony of "dancing Zhong Kui" and "exorcising evil spirits" was held in the palace, 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

There is a custom of putting up doors for the New Year in all parts of China. At first, the janitor carved mahogany into a human shape and hung it by the door. 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, so evil spirits dare not enter the portal to do bad things. After the Tang Dynasty, there were paintings of Zhong Kui's hometown saint Zhong Kui who blessed the town house, Qin Qiong and Wei Chijingde (Weichi Gong), Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. 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 "door god", which is a little smaller and more limited than the door god. It is also a black and white Er Shen, but there are also two black and white statues sitting like elephants. At most, there is a picture of "Kirin sending the child" on the door, and two dolls with powder and fat comb crowns are riding Kirin. This kind of door god should have been stuck on the wedding door to get lucky, and later it was also used for the New Year decoration of 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 posting during the Spring Festival. One source of Spring Festival couplets is peach symbols, which is why there is a poem "Every family always exchanges new peaches for old symbols every day". At first, people carved figures out of peach wood and hung them by the door to ward off evil spirits. Later, they painted the goalkeeper on the mahogany, and finally simplified it to write the name of the goalkeeper directly 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 pair of 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. Therefore, on New Year's Eve, people put the prepared Spring Festival couplets on the doors.

New Year picture

These all have folk functions of praying and decorating the residence. New Year pictures are an ancient folk art in China, which reflects people's customs and beliefs and places their hopes for 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. Then, in some New Year pictures workshops, colorful New Year pictures such as three-star pictures of Fu Lushou, blessing from Zhong Kui, blessing from God, abundant crops, prosperity of six animals and welcoming the new year are produced to satisfy 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.

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

China people had the habit of New Year's Eve, commonly known as "endure the New 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. Except very young children, others can't sleep all night. According to Zonggu's records of Jingchu's age, there was a custom of eating 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.

Open the door and set off firecrackers.

When the door is opened in the morning of the Spring Festival, firecrackers are set off first, which is called "opening the door to set off firecrackers". After the firecrackers, the ground is broken red, which is the so-called "full house". At this time, the streets are full of anger and joy.

Pay new year's call

An important activity of the Spring Festival is to go to friends, relatives and neighbors' homes to congratulate the Spring Festival, which used to be called New Year greetings. The wind of the Han people's New Year greetings began in the Han Dynasty. It was very popular after the Tang and Song Dynasties, and some people who are inconvenient to go in person can use famous cards to congratulate them. It was called "thorn" in the Eastern Han Dynasty, so the business card was also called "famous thorn". After the Ming Dynasty, many people put up a red paper bag at the door to collect famous posts, which was called "Menben".

Zhuxian Town Woodblock New Year Picture "Sticking Chicken"

According to their social relations, the forms of folk New Year greetings can be roughly divided into four categories:

One is to visit relatives. On the first day, you must go to your father-in-law's house and bring gifts. After entering the door, bow to the Buddha, ancestor statue and memorial tablet, and then bow to the elders in turn. You can stay for dinner and chat.

The second is a courtesy visit. If you want to pay a New Year call to your colleagues and friends, you should bow to the Buddha as soon as you enter the house. If you are equal to your master, you just need to bow down. If you are older than yourself, you should still take the initiative to bow your head. The host should get down from his seat to help you, or even say that he is not polite to show his humility. This situation is generally not suitable for sitting for a long time, so leave after a few pleasantries. After the host worships, he should pay a return visit another day.

The third is a thank-you visit. Anyone who owes money to others (such as lawyers and doctors) should buy some gifts and give them to express their gratitude on the occasion of New Year's greetings.

The fourth is a series of visits. For some neighbors, we didn't have much contact in the past, but we can get along well when we meet. On New Year's Eve, we just went to the yard and said "Congratulations on getting rich" and "Shun Shun Bai Shun" when we met. We just sit in the house for a while, without much etiquette.

In ancient times, there was a difference between New Year greetings and New Year greetings: New Year greetings were to knock on elders; The New Year is a time for peers to congratulate each other. Now some organs, organizations, enterprises and schools get together to congratulate each other, which is called "group worship".

With the development of the times, the custom of New Year greetings is constantly adding new contents and forms. In addition to following the old way of paying New Year greetings, people also began to pay New Year greetings by courtesy telegram and telephone.

Give lucky money

Lucky money is given to the younger generation by the elders. In some families, everyone is not allowed to leave the table after the New Year's Eve. After everyone has finished eating, the elders give it to the younger generation to encourage their children and grandchildren to learn and improve in the new year. In some families, parents will put lucky money under their pillows after their children fall asleep at night, which shows the care of the elders and the respect of the younger generation for the elders. It is a folk activity that integrates family ethics.

Zhansui

In the old society, due to the sunny weather in the first few days of Xinzheng, people put this year. Its theory began in Dong Fangshuo's "Year", which means that eight days after the year, one day is chicken day, two days are dogs, three days are pigs, four days are sheep, five days are cows, six days are horses, seven days are people and eight days are valleys. If it is sunny, things that belong to it will breed, if it is cloudy, the days that belong to it will not last long. Later generations follow their habits and think that the weather is sunny from the first day to the tenth day, and there is no wind or snow for good luck. Later generations developed from the occupation era to a series of sacrifices and celebrations. There is a custom of not killing chickens on the first day, dogs on the second day and pigs on the third day ... no execution on the seventh day and no threshing on the eighth day.

Tiehua chicken

In ancient times, during the Spring Festival, chickens were painted on doors and windows to drive away ghosts and evil spirits. The book Xuan Zhong Ji written by Jin people mentioned the pheasant on Dushuo Mountain mentioned above, saying that the pheasant crowed when the sun just rose and the first ray of sunshine shone on this big tree. When it crows, chickens all over the world crow with it. Therefore, the chicken cut during the Spring Festival is actually a symbol of pheasant. However, in ancient mythology, there is also a saying that chickens are deformed birds. It is said that during the reign of Emperor Yao, friends on the other side paid tribute to a bird that could ward off evil spirits. Everyone welcomes the arrival of birds, but the messengers who pay tribute don't come every year, so people carve a wooden bird, cast it in bronze and put it on the door, or paint on the doors and windows to scare away monsters and make them afraid to come again. Because birds look like chickens, they will gradually draw a chicken or cut window flowers and stick them on doors and windows, which will become the source of paper-cutting art in later generations. China paid special attention to chickens in ancient times and called them "birds with five virtues". "Biography of Korean Poetry" says that a crown on the head is Wende; There is a distance behind the foot to play, which is martial arts; It is brave for the enemy to dare to fight before; It is benevolence to have food to welcome the same kind; Vigilance and dawn are beliefs. Therefore, people not only cut chickens during the Chinese New Year, but also set the first day of the New Year as Chicken Day.

Jucai

It is said that the first day of the first month is the birthday of a broom, so you can't use a broom on this day, otherwise it will ruin your fortune, attract a "broom star" and cause bad luck. If you must sweep the floor, you must sweep it from the outside to the inside. Don't throw water on the garbage on this day, for fear of breaking the money. Today, this custom still remains in many places. Don't put a broom or take out the garbage on New Year's Eve. Prepare a big barrel of waste water to avoid splashing outside that day.

Sacrifice to the god of wealth (Eid al-Fitr)

In the north, the god of wealth sacrifices on the second day of the first month. On this day, both commercial shops and ordinary families will hold activities to worship the god of wealth. Families offered sacrifices to the God of Wealth who arrived on New Year's Eve. In fact, the bought rough printed matter was incinerated. I want to eat wonton at noon this day, commonly known as "Yuanbao soup". Fish and mutton were used as sacrifices. On this day, big businesses in old Beijing will hold large-scale sacrificial activities, and make sacrifices with "Five Sacrifices", that is, whole pigs, whole sheep, whole chickens, whole ducks and red live carp. I hope to make a fortune in the coming year.

International Children's Day

The second day of the first month is the traditional Children's Day, and children should pay New Year greetings to their parents-in-law. Chaoshan people call my uncle's return to his parents' home for dinner the next day "to have a midnight snack", which means to have lunch. Uncle and daughter must go back to their home before dinner.

Stones don't move.

On this day, all stone tools such as grinding and grinding can't be moved, and even sacrifices are set up to enjoy the stones, for fear of hurting crops. Also known as "stone does not move" and "ten does not move". Henan custom: On this day, every household pays tribute and burns incense on stones. You must eat steamed stuffed buns for lunch, thinking that you can make a fortune within one year after eating cake. In Yuncheng, Shandong and other places, there is a move to lift the stone god. In early Kuya, a crock was frozen on a smooth stone, and ten boys or girls took turns to carry it. If the stone does not fall to the ground, it indicates a bumper harvest that year.

Congratulations to the mouse for marrying a daughter.

Old folk letter. The rat worship activities held in the first month are also called "rat marries female" and "rat marries female". The specific date varies from place to place, some are the seventh day of the first month, some are the twenty-fifth day of the first month, and many areas are the tenth day of the first month. On the tenth day in Pingyao County, Shanxi Province, the cake was placed at the root of the wall and named "Congratulations to the mouse for marrying a girl". In Ningyuan, Hunan, 17 is the day when "mice marry women". It is forbidden to open cabinets for fear of disturbing mice. The night before, the children put candy, peanuts and so on. In the dark, I beat the pot cover and dustpan to make up for the mice. The next morning, they blocked the mouse hole, thinking that the mouse could be extinct forever. In other areas, mice go to bed early on the wedding day, and they won't disturb them. It is said that if you bother them for one day, they will bother you for one year.