Folk customs about the Spring Festival

Samsung is in the south, and every family pays New Year's greetings;

The younger generation kowtows and the older generation pays.

If you want money, turn around and leave.

Communicate with god

Receiving God means dividing the old year into the new year, but the time of receiving God is not uniform. Some people begin to hold ceremonies as soon as their children arrive, some people begin to receive gods at midnight when their children are "right", and some people do so after their children are "right". After the sacrifice, the immortals from all walks of life returned to the Heavenly Palace, ignoring worldly affairs, and after New Year's Eve, that is, when the New Year came, they came to the world for deliberation. The ceremony of receiving gods was held at the table of heaven and earth, presided over by the oldest person in the family. Because immortals live in different directions of heaven, the lower bound naturally comes in different directions. As for who to meet and where to come from, we should check the "constitution book" in advance, then lead the whole family to hold incense in the yard and follow their instructions to meet the gods. For example, Xin Weinian's "Constitution Book" states that "God of Wealth is due east, God of Wealth is due south, you God is northeast, West God is southwest, and Tai Sui God is southwest". After kowtowing in the direction, stand still until the incense is exhausted, and then kowtow. Finally, take down the fragrant roots, idols and ingots, and put them into the money and grain basins already prepared in the yard for burning. When burning, pine branches and sesame stalks burn together. When the gods were closed, firecrackers exploded and the atmosphere was extremely strong.

tread on

After receiving the gods, sesame stalks are spread from the street gate to the door of the house, and people walk on them and make a noise, which is called "stepping on the old age" or "stepping on the special". Because "broken" and "treasure" are homophonic, it means that the new year begins to exorcise evil spirits.

offer sacrifices to ancestors

In ancient times, this custom was very popular. Due to different local customs and habits, the forms of ancestor worship are also different. Some go to the wild to sweep graves, and some go to the ancestral temple to worship their ancestors. Most of them put their ancestral tablets in the main hall in turn at home to show their worship, and then worshippers worship them in order of age. Han people worship their ancestors and make more fish tanks filled with high bowls, which means ringing bells.

Southerners live in Beijing, and ancestor worship is particularly grand. Most of them are eight bowls of big dishes with hot pot in the middle, and cups and chopsticks are placed according to their positions. New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, Lantern Festival, hot pot fans, change dishes at any time. Manchu and Mongolian people sacrificed their ancestors. Mongolian flag bearer offered butter to stir-fry yellow wheat, fried it with sesame oil and dipped it in sugar when withdrawing the offering, which had a unique flavor. Manchu banner people offered walnut cakes, hibiscus cakes, apples and plain wax sandalwood to worship their ancestors, which was very quiet. On New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, vegetarian cakes will be made, and on the last night, Lantern Festival will be held. Burn incense and kowtow every morning and evening and offer new tea. Although the forms of ancestor worship are different, most of them are hanging shadows on New Year's Eve, and the confession was withdrawn on the last night of the Yuan Dynasty. They are close to their relatives and friends. When they visit the New Year, they should also knock on the ancestral temple. They should not only pursue the future cautiously, but also preserve their virtue of respecting their ancestors.

Send the god of wealth

In the old society, since the financial door was opened at midnight during the Spring Festival, there were people who sent the God of Wealth, holding a piece of paper and shouting outside the door: "The God of Wealth is coming!" At this time, in order to meet the God of Wealth, the owner of the house gave a reward to the bearer and sent it to the mouth of the God of Wealth. Of course, it is inevitable to say something auspicious. For example: "Gold and silver treasures are rolling in"! There are a pair of golden lions on the left and a pair of golden phoenix on the right! And so on. There is also a man dressed as a god of wealth, wearing a red robe, a gauze hat, a fake beard on his mouth and a yellow cloth bag to collect money, followed by several drummers, who distributed the god of wealth from door to door in order to ask for a reward. Every time people go to the door, they sing, "The left compartment is full of gold and silver, and the right compartment is full of treasure." A lot of good luck words went on until the owner happily took over the red paper statue of the god of wealth and gave them some money. After thanking them, they knocked on the door for a while and went to another house with the sound of gongs and drums.

Drink Tu Su wine.

Tu Su wine is a kind of medicinal liquor. In the ancient custom, the whole family drank Tu Su wine on January Day to eliminate unhealthy tendencies. Tu Su wine is made by hanging rhubarb, platycodon grandiflorum, Zanthoxylum bungeanum, Cinnamomum cassia, Cornus officinalis and Saposhnikovia divaricata in a well, picking them at the end of Yuan Dynasty and cooking them with the wine for four or five times. In ancient times, Tu Su wine was drunk in a unique way. Most people drink alcohol, always starting from the elderly; But drinking Tu Su wine is just the opposite, starting with the smallest. Perhaps young people grow up day by day, drinking first to congratulate them, and old people drinking late to retain them. Su Zhe, a writer in the Song Dynasty, wrote in the poem "Except for Japan": "Drinking Tu Su at the end of each year is not over 70 years old." It's a custom. In ancient times, this unique drinking order often caused people to have various emotions, so it left a deep impression on people.

Next year's meal

In the north, some families still have to provide a pot of rice, which was cooked before the New Year. It's called "annual meal", which means that there are leftovers every year, which can't be eaten all year round, and this year we still eat the grain of the previous year. This new year's rice bowl is usually cooked with rice and millet. As the saying goes in Beijing, for the sake of yellow and white, it is called "two rice". This is called "golden rice with gold and silver, gold and silver everywhere". In many places, cakes, melons and fruits are prepared to win a lucky one: eating dates (spring comes early), persimmons (all the best), almonds (gratifying), longevity fruit (immortal) and rice cakes (getting higher every year). On New Year's Eve, the family ate happily, talking and laughing.

The first day of the first month: New Year greetings, old stickers.

The first day of the lunar new year

Spring Festival is commonly known as "New Year's Day", formerly known as "New Year's Day". Du Taiqing in the Sui Dynasty said in the Five Candles Collection: "The first month is the end of the month, and one day is the Yuan Day, which is also a cloud and a cloud." The original meaning of "yuan" is "head" and later extended to "start" Because this day is the first day of the year, the first day of spring and the first day of the first month, it is called "Sanyuan". This day is also called "Three Dynasties" because it is still a year old, a month old and a day old. Because it is the first Shuori, it is also called "Yuanshuo". On the first day of the first month, there are other nicknames such as Shangri-La, Zheng Chao, Sanshuo and Shisan, meaning that the first day of the first month is the beginning of the year, month and day.

China is an ancient multi-ethnic country. According to their own cultural traditions and customs, different nationalities in different historical periods have determined their own New Year's Day, that is, to change "Zhengshuo" to the first day of the first month. Emperor Zhuan Xu and Xia Dynasty took the first month of Meng Chun as the yuan, that is, they used Yin Jian's summer calendar and took the first day of the first lunar month as New Year's Day. The Shang Dynasty used the ugly lunar calendar, with the first day of the twelfth lunar month as New Year's Day. The Zhou dynasty used the weekly calendar, which was completed, and the first day of November in the lunar calendar was New Year's Day. The Qin dynasty used the Qin calendar to build the sea, with the first day of the lunar calendar as New Year's Day; In the early Western Han Dynasty, the Qin calendar was still in use. In the first year of Liang Wudi Taichu (104), it was changed to the calendar created by Sima Qian and Luo, and the summer calendar was re-used, with the first day of the first lunar month as New Year's Day. In the future, except for Wang Mang, the lunar calendar was once used to build ugliness, and after Emperor Wu of the Tang Dynasty and Su Zong, the Zhou calendar was used to build children. All previous dynasties used the summer calendar until the end of the Qing Dynasty.

The Revolution of 1911 overthrew the imperial system, and the day before Sun Yat-sen took office in Nanjing from Shanghai, the Nanjing Senate decided to use the solar calendar to mark the year with the Republic of China. But the lunar calendar has existed for a long time, which is conducive to arranging farming. Therefore, people still pay attention to the lunar calendar.

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 called "full house". At this time, the streets were full of anger and joy.

Pay new year's call

An important activity of the Spring Festival is to congratulate the New Year at new friends and friends' homes and neighbors, 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 don't have 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".

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 down to the Buddha statue, ancestor statue and memorial tablet, and then bow down to the elders in turn. You can stay for dinner and play.

The second is a courtesy visit. If you want to pay a New Year call to your colleagues and friends, you should only bow to the Buddha statue three times when you enter the room. 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) in the past year will buy some gifts and send them to express their gratitude by taking the opportunity to pay a New Year call.

The fourth is a series of visits. For 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 go to the yard and say "Congratulations on getting rich" and "Shun Shun Bai Shun" when we meet, and 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 organizations, groups, enterprises and schools get together to congratulate each other, which is called "group worship".

New Year greeting is a traditional folk custom in China, and it is a way for people to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, and express their best wishes to each other. In ancient times, the original meaning of the word "Happy New Year" was to pay New Year greetings to the elderly, including kowtowing to the elderly, congratulating them on a happy New Year and greeting their lives. In case of friends and relatives of the same generation, you should also salute and congratulate.

In ancient times, if neighbors had too many relatives and friends, it was difficult to walk around the whole house. It's called "flying mail", and let the servant take the business card to pay a New Year call. There is a red paper bag in front of every house with the word "Fu Jie" written on it, which is the purpose of airmail. This custom began in the upper class of the Song Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty, Yantai's Order of Last Month described the Beijing New Year Festival: "It's the moon, the film flies, and the car goes empty." Become fashionable. A large family set up a "door book" to record the guests' communication and flight photos. There are four virtual "relatives" on the front page of the door: one is a centenarian living in centenarian lane; One said he was rich and lived in Yuanbao Street. One is your infinite adult, living in the university archway; One day, Fu Zhao visited his master and lived in Five Blessingg Building. For good luck. So far, the gift of New Year cards and greeting cards during the Spring Festival is the legacy of this ancient exchange of flying cards.

Scholars in the upper class have the custom of greeting each other with famous cards. Hui Zhou, a poet of the Song Dynasty, said in Qingbo magazine: "During the reign of Emperor Yuanyou of the Song Dynasty, people were often stabbed with servants in the name of Chinese New Year." . At that time, the scholar-officials had a wide circle of friends, and it took time and energy to pay New Year greetings everywhere. Therefore, some close friends did not go in person, but sent their servants to take a card cut with plum blossom stationery, two inches wide and three inches long, with the recipient's name, address and congratulations written on it. In the Ming dynasty, people visited instead of paying New Year's greetings. Wen Zhiming, an outstanding painter and poet in the Ming Dynasty, described this in his poem "New Year": "I don't want to meet each other, but I want to talk, and my famous articles are full; I also throw a few pieces of paper at people. The world is too simple and empty. " The "famous thorn" and "famous divination" mentioned here are the origins of today's New Year cards. New Year cards are used to connect feelings and exchange greetings, which are convenient and practical and still popular today.

From about the Qing Dynasty, the form of "group worship" was added to the New Year greetings. In "Jade Tan with a Hat on the Side", the master of the Qing Dynasty said: "At the beginning of the year, the capital must make a routine group worship to unite the friendship of the New Year and show the nostalgia", and "every year, we must book guests, discuss the value of new year's goods, eat and drink, and have a happy day".

With the development of the times, the custom of New Year greetings is constantly adding new contents and forms. Nowadays, in addition to following the previous way of greeting the New Year, etiquette telegrams and telephone greetings have mushroomed.

However, from the first day of the first month to the fifth day of the first month, most families do not receive women, which is called "taboo". It's just that men want to go out to pay New Year greetings, and women can't go out to visit until after the sixth day of the first month. New Year greetings will last for a long time until the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month. Visiting relatives and friends in the evening is called "night worship", and it is called "Lantern Festival" after October of the lunar calendar. So there is a joke that "it's not too late to have a cold meal".

If for some reason you don't follow the routine ceremony and make up for it in the future, it's called "worshiping the old"

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", that is, eight days after the Year, one day is rooster day, two days is dog, three days is pig, four days is sheep, five days is cow, six days is horse, seven days is great man and eight days is valley. If it is sunny, things that belong to it will breed, and 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, pigs on the third day ... and not executing the death penalty on the seventh 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 in Jin Dynasty mentioned the pheasant on Dushuo Mountain mentioned above, saying that it crowed when the first ray of sunshine shone on this big tree just after rising. 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 broom's birthday. You can't use a broom on this day, otherwise it will sweep away luck, ruin money, and bring "broom stars" and bring 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, many places still have the custom of cleaning up New Year's Eve. On the first day of New Year's Day, there was no broom or garbage, and a large barrel of wastewater was prepared to avoid splashing outside that day.

The second day of the first month: offering sacrifices to the god of wealth

Sacrifice to the god of wealth

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 held large-scale sacrificial activities, offering sacrifices with "five sacrifices", that is, whole pig, whole sheep, whole chicken, whole duck and red live carp, hoping to make a fortune this year. There are different opinions about who the God of Wealth is, mainly as follows:

Zhao Gongming, also known as Zhao Xuantan, was ordered by Zhang Tianshi to take care of the mysterious altar. This man came from The Romance of Gods, and Jiang Ziya named him "Tan Xuan, the God of Dragon and Tiger". Zhao Minglang, also known as Zhao's teacher, is the god of Xuanwu in Taoism. This sentence comes from "Three Religions Seeking God", and the full name of the holy name is: "Master Zhao Yuanshi, General Manager of Zheng Qing-Tan Xuan Flying Tiger Golden Wheel".

Bigan: My uncle Yin was dug up because of his loyalty and honesty. Because it was "unintentional", it was impartial. Later, people regarded it as a god of wealth, and it was recorded in Historical Records Yin Benji.

Fan Li: During the Spring and Autumn Period, the minister of Gou Jian, the King of Yue, helped the King of Yue defeat the State of Wu. Later, he made a fortune in business and changed his name to Tao Zhugong. Later generations regarded him as the god of wealth.

Guan Yu: Guan Yu in The Three Kingdoms is an omnipotent figure who values loyalty most. Later generations treated "righteousness" and "profit" equally and regarded them as the god of wealth. Generally speaking, Guan Yu is worshipped by many firms and thinks that he has a protective effect on them.

Among the above-mentioned gods of wealth, Fan Li and Bigan are called the gods of wealth, and Zhao Gong Shi Tian and Guan Yu are Wu Caishen. In addition, there are people who worship Taibai Star and call it the "King of Fortune Stars". Because Venus is also called Venus, and it will be the god of wealth. Others regard the Monkey King and the lucky boy as the gods of wealth.

Most of the folk offerings are made by Zhao Gongming, whose impression is very powerful, with dark face, thick beard, wearing a helmet and holding a whip, surrounded by cornucopia, big gold ingot, coral and other patterns, which set off a rich and luxurious effect.

On the third day of the first month: burning door god paper and fasting.

Burning door god paper

In the old society, on the third day, pine and cypress branches were burned together with the janitor's note hanging on the festival to show that the New Year had passed and it was time to start business. As the saying goes, "if you burn the janitor's paper, one will seek physiology."

Guzi birthday

People think Xiaomi's birthday is on the third day of the first month. On this day, people hope to sacrifice and pray for the new year. They don't eat rice.

Xiaonianchao

That is, tianqing festival. The court festival in the Song Dynasty, the first year of Song Zhenzong Dazhong Xiangfu, was spread all over the world because of the gobbledygook, so Zhenzong issued an imperial edict, which designated the third day of the first month as Tianqing Festival, and officials and others had five days off. Later, it was called Xiaonian Dynasty, which did not sweep the floor, beg for fire or draw water, just like the old dynasty. help me

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The Spring Festival, also known as Yuanri, New Year's Day, the Reform Movement of 1898, Chen Yuan, Yuanshuo, Nian Egg, Sui Nian, Nianchao, Xinzheng, Shouzuo, Sanyuan or Nian and New Year, is the first day of the summer calendar. Due to the different calendars, the first day of the first month of each generation is different: the first day of the first month of Xia Dynasty, the first day of December of Shang Dynasty, the first day of November of Zhou Dynasty, the first day of October of Qin Dynasty and the first day of the first month of Han Dynasty, which have continued to this day.

"Spring Festival" has different meanings from generation to generation. The Han Dynasty refers to the day of beginning of spring, the Southern and Northern Dynasties refers to the whole spring, and only modern times refers to the first day of the first month. It is a traditional festival with the longest history, the richest activities, the grandest etiquette, the most spectacular scenes and the most exquisite food in China. Among the 56 ethnic groups in China, 53 ethnic groups (except Tibetans, Bai ethnic groups and Dai ethnic groups) have to hold grand family banquets or ethnic banquets to celebrate, so it is also called "Daqing Banquet on January 1st".

The Origin of the Spring Festival

According to historical records, the Spring Festival was celebrated in Tang Yu, Sui in Xia Dynasty, Si in Shang Dynasty and Nian in Zhou Dynasty. The original meaning of "nian" refers to the growth cycle of grain, which is hot every year, so the Spring Festival is once a year, which means cool breeze. It is also said that the Spring Festival originated in "La Worship" at the end of primitive society. At that time, whenever the twelfth lunar month in spring came to an end, the ancestors slaughtered pigs and sheep, sacrificed ghosts and gods and ancestors, and prayed for good weather in the new year to avoid disasters. Their faces were painted with vermilion and bird feathers, and they sang, danced, ate and drank, which was very lively. about

Mutual New Year greetings began in the early Han Dynasty and were recorded in Tongdian.

Dietary Customs of Spring Festival in Past Dynasties

During the Eastern Han Dynasty, ancestor worship was an important activity and custom during the Spring Festival. According to Cui Ti's Four-person Monthly Order, "the first day of the first month is the day. ※. Bow to your wife and worship your ancestors. On the day of worship, when drinking wine, the family members are humble, regardless of size, ranking second in the ancestors. Children and daughters-in-law all serve Chili wine to their parents, saying that they are beaming. "

During the Southern Dynasties, families visited each other during the Spring Festival and held banquets and entertainment activities. According to the Chronicle of Jingchu written by Liang Chaozong Ba, "On the first day of the first month, ... young people and old people learned to dress up and pay tribute to them. ※. Pepper and cypress wine, peach soup Into the Tu Su wine, rubber teeth, and five spicy dishes. " There are also games such as drawing chickens, burning firecrackers, hanging ropes and making wishes.

During the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, the etiquette elements in the Spring Festival diet custom gradually increased. According to the Southern Song Dynasty-Shou's Liang Lumeng, "Doctors everywhere congratulate each other, fine men and women wear new clothes and pay New Year greetings to each other", and Brahma Lu Conglu records that "men and women take turns to pay homage to their elders, and the master leads their children out to visit relatives and friends, or stops sending their children to pay New Year greetings"; Qingbo Magazine said: "During the reign of Song Yuanyou, servants were often used to stab people in their name during the New Year". When relatives and friends pay New Year's greetings, the host family must hold a banquet, and the wine and meat are extremely rich. According to the "Jia Tai Hui Ji" records: "On New Year's Day, both men and women are happy, and it is a grand thing for lay people to set up wine and fruit drinks, and men and women worship in order. In order to congratulate their loved ones, they buy wine and food and take a vacation every five days. " In the Qing Dynasty, Ji Sheng said at the age of Emperor Jing: "The house of the gentry, add clothes, wear them, worship the gods and ancestors;" After burning silks, the family got together, offered pepper plates, poured cypress wine, helped steam cakes and sipped noodle soup. It was delicious. Go out to greet the relatives, go to the medicine temple, visit the cinema and celebrate Cambodia's birthday. Lu Yu's relatives and friends, then fell to, and wish "New Year's Day is the Spring of New Year", even if you don't kiss, you will have three glasses of wine. If you are forgetful, why don't you get drunk! As the saying goes, it is better to go to a thousand than to sit in one. And the horses and chariots are noisy, and chasing the sun is a very temporary victory. "

Dietary customs around the Spring Festival

Generally speaking, Chinese people eat rice cakes, jiaozi, Ciba, glutinous rice balls, poached eggs, big meat, whole fish, wine, oranges, apples, peanuts, melon seeds, sweets, fragrant tea and dishes. Accompanied by dusting, washing bedding, preparing new year's goods, pasting Spring Festival couplets, pasting New Year pictures, pasting paper-cuts, pasting blessings, lighting candles, lighting fires, setting off firecrackers, keeping old, giving lucky money, paying New Year greetings, visiting relatives and friends,

Many activities, such as visiting ancestral graves, visiting flower markets and raising social fires, are extremely enjoyable. For example, the New Year's Eve is particularly important: first, the whole family should get together, and those who have not returned for some reason should leave a seat and a set of tableware to show their reunion; Second, the food is rich, pay attention to "oral color", call the rice cake "step by step", jiaozi "Wanshun", wine "running water", eggs "big gold ingot" and goldfish "more than a year"; This kind of fish is not allowed to eat. It is called "Kanyu" and must be eaten until the first day of school. In areas where there are no fish in the north, carved wooden fish are mostly used instead; Third, the seats are orderly, mostly for ancestors. Grandchildren are in the middle, and their parents are in a lower position. Men, women and children should drink. Close the door when eating, and the excitement will be gone.

The home-cooked dishes of New Year's Eve have their own characteristics in different places. In the past, in Beijing and Tianjin, people usually cooked rice, stewed pork, beef and mutton, stewed chicken and cooked several dishes. Shaanxi family banquets are generally four or eight bowls. Four bowls are stir-fried dishes and cold dishes, and eight bowls are mainly stewed dishes and cooked food. Only meat dishes in southern Anhui include braised pork, tiger skin, meatballs, moo Shu pork, steamed pork, braised pork, pork liver, pork heart and pork belly products, as well as all kinds of fried pork slices and shredded pork. Eastern Hubei is "three steamed", "three cakes" and "three pills". "Three steaming" means steaming whole fish, whole duck and whole chicken; The "three cakes" are fish cakes, meat pies and sheep cakes;

"Three pills" are fish pills, meatballs and lotus root pills. Generally, people in Harbin fry eight dishes, 10 or 12 or 16. The main ingredients are nothing more than chicken, duck, fish and vegetables. The New Year's Eve dinner in Gannan is usually 12 dish. Some places in Zhejiang are generally the "top ten bowls", seeking the color of "complete happiness", mainly chicken, duck, fish and various vegetables. Nanchang, Jiangxi generally has more than a dozen dishes, paying attention to four cold dishes, four hot dishes, eight big dishes and two soups.

All over the country, there are one or several indispensable dishes on New Year's Eve, and these dishes often have some auspicious meanings. For example, in Suzhou, there must be vegetables (then happy dishes), bean sprouts (Italian food) and celery (hard-working) on the table. There must be a carp weighing about 1 kg in central and southern Hunan, called "Tuannian Fish", and a pig elbow weighing about 3 kg, called "Tuannian Elbow". There are two fish on the dining table in central and southern Anhui. One is the whole carp, which can only be seen but not eaten. It shows respect for ancestors, and it also means more than one year. The other is silver carp, which is edible and symbolizes the prosperity of children and grandchildren. The first bowl of Lai in Qimen family banquet is "Zhonghe", which is made of tofu, mushrooms, winter bamboo shoots, shrimp skin and fresh meat, meaning "harmony is precious".

There is a bowl of "chicken catches beans" on the dining table in Hefei, which means "grab money and get rich". The housekeeper wants to eat a chicken leg, which is called "grasping the money claw", which means making a fortune in the coming year. Anqing's head should eat a bowl of noodles before meals, which is called "money standard" Nanchang area must eat rice cakes, braised fish, fried rice noodles, eight-treasure rice and boiled thick soup, which in turn means annual rise, fish every year, abundant crops, string rice, eight-treasure rice and prosperity every year.

Northern areas like to eat jiaozi during the Spring Festival, which means unity, good luck and welcoming the New Year. In order to increase the atmosphere and fun of the festival, people in the past dynasties have put a lot of effort into dumpling stuffing. People keep their wallets in jiaozi. Whoever eats them will make a fortune next year. Wrap honey in jiaozi, and whoever eats it will represent the sweetness of life in the coming year and so on.

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The Spring Festival, as its name implies, is the Spring Festival. Spring has come, Vientiane is renewed, and a new round of sowing and harvesting season is about to begin again. People have enough reasons to welcome this festival by singing and dancing. So, before the festival, a New Year message with red paper and yellow characters was posted on the frontispiece. When Miss Chun comes to the door, she will read a sentence to express her best wishes for the New Year. With this idea, good luck really came. The same moral things are hanging red lanterns, sticking the word "Fu" and sticking the statue of the God of Wealth. The word "Fu" must be posted backwards, and passers-by will say "Fu has fallen", which means "Fu has arrived".

Another name for the Spring Festival is China New Year. What is "year"? It is a fictional animal, which will bring bad luck to people. "Year" came, the trees withered and the grass stopped growing; A year later, everything grew and flowers were everywhere. How to spend the year? Firecrackers are needed, so there is a custom of setting off firecrackers. 1993, the Beijing Municipal People's Government promulgated a law prohibiting the setting off of fireworks and firecrackers, making this centuries-old custom a thing of the past.

The Spring Festival is a family reunion festival, which is very similar to Christmas in the West. Children who leave home will have to travel thousands of miles back to their parents' home at this time. The night before the real Chinese New Year is called Reunion Night, and the whole family will sit around and wrap up jiaozi. Jiaozi's practice is to mix dough first, and the word "harmony" means "combination"; Jiaozi in jiaozi is homophonic with "dumpling", and "harmony" and "dumpling" have the meaning of reunion, so jiaozi is used to symbolize reunion.

The festive atmosphere will last for a month. There are ceremonies such as offering sacrifices to stoves and ancestors before the first day of the first month; In festivals, there are ceremonies to give lucky money to children and to pay New Year greetings to relatives and friends. Half a month after the festival is the Lantern Festival. At that time, lanterns were all over the city and tourists were all over the streets. After the Lantern Festival, the Spring Festival is over.

Spring Festival: Modern folk custom calls Spring Festival China New Year. In fact, the origin of Chinese New Year and Spring Festival is very different.

So how did the year come from? There are two main folk sayings:

One way of saying this is:

According to legend, there was a monster named Nian in ancient China, with long tentacles and a ferocious face. Nian lived on the seabed for many years, and climbed ashore every New Year's Eve, devouring livestock and killing people.

Therefore, every New Year's Eve, people in the village fled to the deep mountains to avoid the harm of the "Nian" beast.

On New Year's Eve this year, people in Taohua Village were taking refuge in the mountains when an old beggar came from outside the village. He was leaning on crutches, carrying a bag on his arm, with elegant silver whiskers and staring at Matthew.

Some villagers sealed windows and locked doors, some packed their bags, some herded cattle and drove sheep, and people shouted boo everywhere, which was a scene of panic. At this time, who still has the mind to take care of this begging old man?

Only an old woman in the east of the village gave the old man some food and suggested that he go up the mountain quickly to avoid Nian beast. The old man smiled and said, "If my mother-in-law lets me stay at home for one night, I will definitely drive Nian beast away.