Spring Festival is a traditional festival with a long history in China. How do we celebrate the Spring Festival? What are the traditional customs of Spring Festival? Let's take a look at the customs of the Spring Festival.
Dust sweeping
"On the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, dust sweeps the house." According to the Lv's Spring and Autumn Annals, China had the custom of dust sweeping during the Spring Festival in the era of Yao and Shun. According to the folk saying, because "dust" is homophonic to "Chen", the Spring Festival dust sweeping has the meaning of "removing Chen and spreading new", which is intended to sweep out all poor luck and bad luck.
This custom is based on people's desire to break through the old and start a new life, as well as their prayers to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. Every time the Spring Festival comes, every household should clean the environment, clean all kinds of equipment, remove the bedding and curtains, sweep the Liulu courtyard, brush the dust and dirt cobwebs, and dredge open channels and underground ditches. There is a joyous atmosphere of joyous hygiene and clean welcome to the New Year everywhere.
Sticking window grilles and upside down pasting of the word "Fu"
In the folk people also like to paste various paper-cut - window flowers on the windows. The window grilles not only set off the festive atmosphere, but also integrate decoration, appreciation and practicality. Paper cutting is a popular folk art in China, which has been loved by people for thousands of years. Because it is mostly pasted on windows, it is also called "window flower". With its unique generalization and exaggeration, the window grilles vividly display auspicious things and good wishes, and decorate the festival with prosperity.
When pasting couplets, every household will buy couplets like Fu, which should be pasted on the door, wall and door frame of the house. It has been a custom for a long time to paste blessings on the Spring Festival. The word "Fu" reflects good fortune and luck, and expresses people's yearning and wishes for future life.
In order to fully reflect this yearning and wish, some people simply paste the word "happiness" upside down to indicate that "happiness has arrived" and "happiness has arrived". There are also folk people who draw the word "Fu" into various patterns, such as longevity, longevity peach, carp jumping over the dragon gate, grain harvest, dragon and phoenix, etc.
post new year's scrolls
There are many grand couplets, such as door couplets, spring stickers and couplets. They describe the background of the times and express good wishes in neat, antithetical, concise and exquisite words, which is a unique form of literature in China. Every family, whether in rural or urban areas, has to stick Spring Festival couplets during the Spring Festival. With Spring Festival couplets, the festival atmosphere is more intense.
This custom started in the Song Dynasty and became popular in the Ming Dynasty. By the Qing Dynasty, the ideological and artistic quality of spring couplets had been greatly improved. Liang Zhangju's special book on spring couplets, Jilian Conghua, discussed the origin of couplets and the characteristics of various works.
There are many kinds of Spring Festival couplets, which can be divided into door center, frame pair, horizontal poncho, spring stripe, square fight, etc. The "door center" is pasted on the center of the upper end of the door panel; "Frame pair" is pasted on the left and right door frames; The "horizontal drape" is pasted on the beautiful crossbar; "Spring strips" are posted in corresponding places according to different contents; "Doujin" is also called "gate leaf", which is square rhomboid, and is mostly pasted in furniture and screen wall.
New Year pictures
Spring Festival New Year pictures are also common in urban and rural areas. The thick and dark New Year pictures add a lot of prosperity and joy to every family. New Year pictures are an ancient folk art in China, reflecting the simple customs and beliefs of the people and expressing their hopes for the future.
New Year pictures, like Spring Festival couplets, originated from "door gods". With the rise of wood block printing, the content of New Year pictures is not limited to monotonous themes such as door gods, but has become rich and colorful. In some New Year picture workshops, classic color New Year pictures such as Three Stars of Happiness, Longevity, Blessing of Heavenly Officials, Grain Harvest, Six Livestock Prosperity, and Greeting the Spring are produced to meet people's good wishes for celebrating and praying for the New Year.
There are three important producing areas of New Year pictures in China: Suzhou Taohuawu, Tianjin Yangliuqing and Shandong Weifang; It has formed three schools of Chinese New Year pictures, each with its own characteristics.
The earliest collected New Year pictures in our country today are woodcut New Year pictures of the Southern Song Dynasty, which are called "Graceful and Graceful in the Morning, Beautiful in the Country". The pictures are Wang Zhaojun, Zhao Feiyan, Banji and Lvzhu, four ancient beauties. The most popular among the people is a New Year picture titled "Mice Marry".
It depicts an interesting scene where a mouse marries a bride according to human customs. In the early years of the Republic of China, Zheng Mantuo in Shanghai combined the lunar calendar and New Year pictures. This is a new form of New Year pictures. This kind of New Year picture, which combines two into one, later developed into a calendar and has been popular throughout the country.
Shou Sui
New Year's Eve Shou Sui is one of the most important activities in the New Year, and the Shou Sui custom has a long history. The earliest record is found in the "Fengtuzhi" of Zhou in the Western Jin Dynasty: On New Year's Eve, all the friends and gifts are called "giving back to the old"; Drink and eat together, called "Biesui"; It is called "Fensui", where the elders and children gather to drink together and celebrate well; Everyone stayed up all night waiting for the dawn, which was called "Shousui".
"One night two years old, five minutes two days". On the New Year's Eve, the whole family gathered together, ate the New Year's Eve dinner, lit candles or oil lamps, sat around the stove and chatted, waiting for the time to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. All night vigil symbolized that all evil plagues and plagues were driven away, and looked forward to the good luck of the new year.
This custom gradually became popular later. At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem "Shousui": "Cold leaves winter snow, warm brings spring wind". Until today, people are still used to keeping watch on New Year's Eve. In ancient times, Shousui had two meanings: the elder Shousui meant "farewell to the old year", meaning to cherish time; Young people keep their parents alive to prolong their life. Since the Han Dynasty, the turning point of the new year and the old year is usually midnight.
Firecracker
There is a saying among Chinese people that "open the door to firecrackers". That is to say, when the new year is coming, the first thing for every household to open the door is to set off firecrackers, and use the beep beep beep sound of firecrackers to get rid of the old and welcome the new. Firecrackers are Chinese specialties, also known as "explosive firecrackers", "firecrackers" and "firecrackers".
The origin of firecrackers has been a long time, and so far it has a history of more than 2000 years. Setting off firecrackers can add a festive and lively atmosphere to the festival, and it is also a way of entertainment for the festival, which can bring joy and luck to people.
With the passage of time, firecrackers have become more and more widely used, and their varieties and colors are becoming more and more diverse. Firecrackers are set off in every major festival and celebration, as well as wedding, house building, opening, etc. At present, Liuyang in Hunan, Foshan and Dongyao in Guangdong, Yichun and Pingxiang in Jiangxi, Wenzhou in Zhejiang and other regions are famous fireworks towns in China. Firecrackers produced in various colors and high quality are not only popular throughout the country, but also exported to the world.
New Year greetings
On the first day of the New Year, people get up early, put on their most beautiful clothes, dress up neatly, go out to visit relatives and friends, pay New Year greetings to each other, and wish the coming year good luck.
There are many ways to pay New Year's greetings, some of which are family leaders leading several people to go door to door; Some colleagues invited several people to pay New Year's greetings; There are also people who get together to congratulate each other, which is called "Tuanbai".
Since it took time and effort to pay a New Year's visit, some upper class people and literati officials later used various stickers to congratulate each other, thus developing the later "greeting cards". During the Spring Festival, the younger generation should pay a New Year's greetings to the elders first to wish them longevity and health. The elders can distribute the New Year's money prepared in advance to the younger generation. It is said that the New Year's money can suppress the evil. Because "Sui" is homonymous with "Sui", the younger generation can spend a year in peace after receiving the New Year's money.
There are two kinds of New Year's Coins. One is a dragon shaped coin woven with colored ropes and placed at the foot of the bed. This record can be found in Yanjing Suishiji; The other is the most common, that is, the money distributed to children is wrapped in red paper by parents. New Year's money can be given to the younger generation in public after New Year's greetings, or it can be put under the child's pillow by the parents secretly when the child is asleep on New Year's Eve. Nowadays, the custom of elders giving lucky money to younger generations is still prevailing.
Chinese New Year Food Customs
In the ancient agricultural society, housewives were busy collecting food for the Spring Festival since the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. Because it takes a long time to pickle, it must be prepared as soon as possible. Many provinces in China have the custom of pickle, among which Guangdong Province is the most famous.
Steamed rice cakes, because of the homonym "Nian Gao" and the ever-changing taste, have almost become a must for every family. The pattern of rice cakes is yellow and white in the shape of a square, symbolizing gold and silver, which means to make a fortune in the New Year.
The taste of rice cakes varies from place to place. Beijingers like to eat red date rice cakes, hundred fruit rice cakes and white rice cakes made from rice or yellow rice. Hebei people like to add dates, small red beans and mung beans into the rice cake to steam together. In northern Shanxi, in Inner Mongolia and other places, people often eat fried rice cakes with yellow rice flour during the Spring Festival, some of which are stuffed with bean paste, jujube paste and other fillings, while Shandong people steam rice cakes with red dates.
In the north, rice cakes are mainly sweet, either steamed or fried, or eaten simply with sugar. In the south, rice cakes are both sweet and salty. For example, the rice cakes in Suzhou and Ningbo are made of japonica rice and have a light taste. In addition to steaming and frying, you can also slice and fry or boil soup. Sweet rice cakes are made with glutinous rice flour, white sugar, lard, roses, osmanthus, mint, vegetable paste and other ingredients. They are fine and can be steamed or fried with egg white.
The night before the real Spring Festival is called the reunion night. Travelers who are away from home have to come home thousands of miles away. The whole family should sit around and make dumplings for the Spring Festival. The way to make dumplings is to first mix noodles into dumplings skin, and then wrap leather with stuffing. The stuffing content is varied. All kinds of meat, eggs, seafood, seasonal vegetables, etc. can be filled. The orthodox way to eat dumplings is to boil them with water, Take it out and dip it in soy sauce mixed with vinegar, garlic and sesame oil.
There are also fried dumplings, fried dumplings (potstickers) and other eating methods. Because the word "He" in Hemian means "He"; The "dumpling" and "jiao" of dumplings are homophonic, and "he" and "jiao" also mean reunion, so dumplings are used to symbolize reunion; It is very lucky to take the meaning of taking more years to make children; In addition, because the dumpling looks like a treasure, eating it during the Spring Festival also has the auspicious meaning of "attracting wealth and treasure". A family of all sizes can make dumplings together and enjoy the Spring Festival.
Conclusion: After reading the above content, we must have a further understanding of the customs of the Spring Festival. I hope the above articles can help you. As the Spring Festival approaches, I wish you all a happy New Year, a happy family and a rolling source of wealth.
