The concepts of the Spring Festival and the Nian originally came from agriculture. In ancient times, people called the growth cycle of the grain "the Nian." It is divided into twelve months, and the day when the moon is not visible is called the new moon in each month. The first day of the first lunar month is called the beginning of the year, which is the beginning of the year, also called the year. The name of the year started from the Zhou Dynasty and ended in the Western Han Dynasty. It was officially fixed and continues to this day. However, the first day of the first lunar month in ancient times was called "New Year's Day". It was not until the victory of the Revolution of 1911 in modern China that the Nanjing Provisional Government stipulated the use of the lunar calendar among the people and in the government in order to adapt to the farming season and facilitate statistics. The Gregorian calendar is implemented in institutions, mines, schools and groups.
On September 27, 1949, at the first plenary session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the use of the Gregorian calendar, which is common in the world, was adopted. The first day of the first lunar month of the Gregorian calendar is designated as New Year's Day, commonly known as the Gregorian calendar year; the first day of the first lunar month of the lunar calendar is usually around the beginning of spring, so the first month of the lunar calendar must be regarded as the "Spring Festival", commonly known as the Lunar New Year. The Spring Festival in the traditional sense refers to the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. The twelfth lunar month, or the stove sacrifice, lasts until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, with New Year's Eve and the first day of the first lunar month being the climax of the Spring Festival. During the traditional festival of the Spring Festival, China's Han nationality and most ethnic minorities have to hold various celebrations. Most of these activities are based on worshiping gods and Buddhas, paying homage to ancestors, wiping out the old and bringing in the new, welcoming the new year, and praying for a good harvest. The activities are rich in variety and have strong national characteristics.
New Year---- --To explore the origin of this custom, there is an interesting story circulated among the people: In ancient times, there was a ferocious monster that lived scattered in the deep mountains and dense forests. People called them "Nian". They ate birds, beasts, and scale insects, changing their tastes one day, from kowtowing insects to living people, which made people talk about "Nian". Later, people gradually mastered the activity pattern of "Nian", which is a daily activity. Every three hundred and sixty-five days, it rushes to places where people gather to get a taste of fresh food, and the time it appears is after dark. When the rooster crows and dawn breaks, it returns to the mountains and forests, predicting that the "year" will wreak havoc. Therefore, the common people regarded this terrible night as the "New Year's Eve" and came up with a whole set of ways to celebrate the New Year: every night on this day, every household would prepare dinner in advance. Turn off the heat and clean the stove, then fasten all the chicken pens and cattle pens, seal the front and back doors of the house, and eat the "New Year's Eve dinner" in the house. Because this dinner has the symbol of bad luck, it is very rich. In addition to having the whole family eat together to express harmony and reunion, they must also offer sacrifices to their ancestors before eating, pray for the blessings of their ancestors, and spend the night safely. After dinner, no one dares to sleep. Sitting together and chatting to strengthen their courage gradually formed the habit of staying up late on New Year's Eve. The custom of staying up late on New Year's Eve began in the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Many literati in the Liang Dynasty wrote poems about staying up late for two consecutive years. "People light candles or oil lamps and keep vigil all night, symbolizing driving away all evil plagues and looking forward to good luck in the new year. This custom has been passed down to this day.
New Year Customs< /p>
Posting Spring Festival couplets and door gods
The custom of posting Spring Festival couplets began in the Hou Shu period more than a thousand years ago. This is evidenced by history. In addition, according to the "Jade Candle Collection", According to works such as "Yanjing Chronicles", the original form of Spring Festival couplets is what people call "Peach Talisman". In ancient Chinese mythology, it is said that there is a world of ghosts, with a mountain in it, and a tree on the mountain covering three thousand miles. There is a big peach tree with a golden rooster on the treetop. Whenever the golden rooster crows in the morning, the ghosts who wander out at night will rush back to the ghost domain. The gate of the ghost domain is located in the northeast of the peach tree, and there are two gods standing by the door. , named Shen Tu and Yu Lei. If a ghost does something harmful to nature at night, Shen Tu and Yu Lei will immediately find it and catch it, tie it up with a rope made of awnings, and send it to feed the tiger. Therefore, ghosts all over the world were afraid of Shen Tu and Yu Lei, so people carved their images in peach wood and placed them at their doorsteps to avoid evil and harm. Later, people simply carved the names of Shen Tu and Yu Lei on peach wood boards. , thinking that this can also suppress evil and eliminate evil. This kind of peach wood board was later called "Peach Talisman".
In the Song Dynasty, people began to write couplets on peach wood boards, one without losing the peach wood to suppress evil. The second meaning is to express one's good wishes, and the third is to decorate the door for beauty.
Couplets are also written on red paper, which symbolizes joy and auspiciousness, and are pasted on both sides of doors and windows during the New Year to express people's best wishes for good luck in the coming year. In order to pray for the good health of the family, people in some places still retain the habit of sticking to the door god. It is said that if two door gods are posted on the door, all monsters and ghosts will be intimidated. Among the people, the door god is a symbol of righteousness and force. The ancients believed that people with strange looks often have magical talents and extraordinary abilities. They are upright and kind-hearted, and it is their nature and responsibility to catch ghosts and demons. Zhong Kui, the ghost-hunting master that people admire, has such a strange appearance. Therefore, the folk door gods always have angry eyes and ferocious looks, holding various traditional weapons in their hands, ready to fight any ghosts who dare to come to the door. Since the doors of Chinese houses usually have two doors opening opposite each other, door gods always come in pairs. After the Tang Dynasty, in addition to the previous two generals Shen Tu and Yu Lei, people also regarded the two Tang Dynasty generals Qin Shubao and Yuchi Gong as door gods. According to legend, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty was ill and heard ghosts calling outside his door, making him restless all night. So he asked the two generals to stand guard by the door with weapons in hand, and the next night there were no more ghosts to disturb him. Later, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty asked people to draw the images of these two generals and paste them on the door. This custom began to spread among the people. The Spring Festival is an ancient festival in my country and the most important festival of the year. How to celebrate this festival has formed some relatively fixed customs and habits over thousands of years of historical development, and many of them are still passed down to this day.
Sweeping dust
"On the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month, dust and sweep the house." According to "Lu Spring and Autumn Annals", my country had the custom of sweeping dust during the Spring Festival in the era of Yao and Shun. According to folklore: because "dust" and "chen" are homophonic, sweeping dust in the New Year means "removing the old and spreading the new", and its purpose is to sweep away all bad luck and bad luck. This custom entrusts people with their desire to destroy the old and establish the new and their prayers to say goodbye to the old and usher in the new. Every Spring Festival comes, every household has to clean the environment, wash all kinds of utensils, remove and wash bedding and curtains, sweep the Liulv courtyard, dust away dirt and cobwebs, and dredge open ditches and ditches. Everywhere is filled with the joyful atmosphere of doing hygiene and welcoming the new year cleanly.
Spring couplets
Spring couplets are also called door pairs, spring posts, couplets, couplets, peach charms, etc. They describe the background of the times and express good wishes with neat, dual, concise and exquisite words. , is a unique literary form in my country. Every Spring Festival, every household, whether in urban or rural areas, selects a pair of red Spring Festival couplets and sticks them on the door to add a festive atmosphere to the festival. This custom began in the Song Dynasty and became popular in the Ming Dynasty. By the Qing Dynasty, the ideological and artistic quality of Spring Festival couplets had been greatly improved. Liang Zhangju’s Spring Festival Couplets monograph "Three Couples on the Threshold" has a detailed introduction to the origin of the couplets and the characteristics of various works. All discussed. There are many types of Spring Festival couplets. According to the place of use, they can be divided into door center, frame pair, horizontal batch, spring strip, square and so on. The "door center" is affixed to the upper center of the door panel; the "frame pair" is affixed to the left and right door frames; the "horizontal strip" is affixed to the crossbar of the lintel; the "spring strips" are affixed to the corresponding places according to different contents; "Jin" is also called "door leaf", which is square and diamond-shaped, and is often attached to furniture and screen walls.
Pasting window grilles and pasting the word "福" upside down
In the folk, people also like to paste various paper-cuts - window grilles on the windows. Window grilles not only enhance the festive atmosphere, but also integrate decoration, appreciation and practicality. Paper-cutting is a very popular folk art in my country and 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 summary and exaggeration techniques, window grilles vividly express auspicious symbols and good wishes, decorating the festival with prosperity and splendor. While pasting Spring Festival couplets, some families will paste the word "福" in large and small sizes on their house doors, walls and lintels. Posting the word "福" during the Spring Festival is a long-standing folk custom in my country. The word "福" refers to blessing and luck, expressing people's yearning for a happy life and their wishes for a better future. In order to more fully reflect this yearning and wish, some people simply paste the word "福" upside down to express "happiness has arrived" and "blessing has arrived". Folks also use the word "Fu" to make various patterns with detailed drawings, such as longevity star, birthday peach, carp jumping over the dragon gate, good harvest, dragon and phoenix showing auspiciousness, etc.
New Year pictures
Hanging New Year pictures during the Spring Festival is also very common in urban and rural areas. The thick black and colorful New Year pictures add a lot of prosperity and joy to thousands of households.
New Year pictures are an ancient folk art in China, reflecting the people's simple customs and beliefs, and reposing their hopes for the future. New Year pictures, like Spring Festival couplets, originated from the "door god". With the rise of woodblock printing, the content of New Year paintings is no longer limited to monotonous themes such as door gods, but has become rich and colorful. In some New Year painting workshops, "Three Stars of Fortune, Luxury and Longevity", "Blessings from Heavenly Officials", "Five Grain" Classic color New Year pictures such as "Prosperous Harvest", "Prosperity of Six Livestocks", "Welcoming Spring and Receiving Good Luck" can satisfy people's good wishes of celebrating the good year. There are three important producing areas of New Year paintings in our country: Taohuawu in Suzhou, Yangliuqing in Tianjin and Weifang in Shandong. They have formed three major schools of Chinese New Year paintings, each with its own characteristics. The earliest New Year paintings collected in our country today are the woodcut New Year paintings of the Southern Song Dynasty called "The Slender Face Appears with the Beauty of a Country" in the Southern Song Dynasty. It depicts four ancient beauties: Wang Zhaojun, Zhao Feiyan, Ban Ji and Lu Zhu. The most widely circulated among the people is a New Year painting of "Mouse Marriage". It depicts an interesting scene of a mouse marrying a bride according to human customs. In the early years of the Republic of China, Shanghai Zheng Mantuo combined the calendar with New Year pictures. This is a new form of New Year pictures. This two-in-one New Year picture later developed into a wall calendar, which is now popular all over the country.
Keeping the year old on New Year's Eve is one of the most important annual customs. The custom of keeping the year old has been around for a long time. The earliest record can be found in the "Fengtu Zhi" of Zhouchu in the Western Jin Dynasty: On New Year's Eve, each person greets each other with gifts, which is called "giving the new year"; "Dividing the year old"; everyone stays up all night waiting for the dawn, which is called "keeping the year old". "One night lasts two years, and the fifth watch divides two days." On New Year's Eve, the whole family gets together to have New Year's Eve dinner, light candles or oil lamps, sit around the fire and chat, waiting for the moment to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. The all-night vigil symbolizes Drive away all evil plagues and diseases, and look forward to a prosperous new year. This custom gradually became popular. In the early Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem about "keeping the year old": "The cold leaves the winter snow, and the warmth brings the spring breeze." To this day, people are still used to staying up late on New Year's Eve to welcome the new year. In ancient times, keeping up with the old age had two meanings: the elderly kept up with the old year to "say goodbye to the old year", which meant cherishing the time; the young ones kept up the old year to prolong the life of their parents. Since the Han Dynasty, the transition time between the new and the old year has generally been at midnight.
Firecrackers
There is a Chinese folk saying of "opening firecrackers". That is to say, when the New Year arrives, the first thing every household does when they open the door is to set off firecrackers to drive away the old and welcome the new. Firecrackers are a specialty of China, also known as "firecrackers", "firecrackers" and "firecrackers". It originated very early and has a history of more than 2,000 years. Setting off firecrackers can create a festive and lively atmosphere. It is a festive entertainment activity that can bring people joy and good luck. With the passage of time, the application of firecrackers has become more and more widespread, and the varieties and colors have become more and more numerous. During major festivals and happy events, as well as weddings, house construction, openings, etc., firecrackers must be set off to celebrate and for good luck. Now, Liuyang in Hunan, Foshan and Dongyao in Guangdong, Yichun and Pingxiang in Jiangxi, and Wenzhou in Zhejiang are famous hometowns of fireworks in my country. The firecrackers they produce are of various colors and high quality, and are not only sold well across 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, and go out to visit relatives and friends, pay New Year greetings to each other, and wish each other New Year’s greetings. Good luck in the coming year. There are many ways to pay New Year's greetings. Some are led by the head of the same clan and several people go from house to house to pay New Year's greetings. Some are colleagues inviting a few people to pay New Year's greetings. There are also people who gather together to congratulate each other, which is called "group worship". Since it was time-consuming and laborious to visit people’s homes for New Year’s greetings, some upper-class figures and scholar-bureaucrats later used various stickers to congratulate each other, thus developing the later “New Year’s greeting cards.” When paying New Year greetings during the Spring Festival, the younger generation should first pay New Year greetings to the elders and 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 evil spirits, because "Sui" and "祟" are homophonic, so the younger generation will receive the New Year's money. You can spend one year in peace. There are two types of New Year's money. One is made of colorful ropes threaded into a dragon shape and placed at the foot of the bed. This record is found in "Yanjing Years' Notes"; the other is the most common, which is given by parents wrapped in red paper. Children's money. New Year's money can be given to the younger generation in public after paying New Year's greetings, or parents can secretly put it under the child's pillow when the child is asleep on New Year's Eve. Nowadays, the custom of elders distributing lucky money to younger generations is still popular.
In ancient agricultural societies, from about the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, housewives would be busy preparing food for the New Year.
Because pickling cured meat takes a long time, it must be prepared as early as possible. Many provinces in my country have the custom of pickling cured meat, among which Guangdong Province’s cured meat is the most famous. Steamed rice cake. Rice cake has become a must-have seasonal food for almost every household because of its homophonic pronunciation of "year high" and its varied tastes. The styles of rice cakes include square yellow and white rice cakes, which symbolize gold and silver, implying the meaning of getting rich in the new year, and also implying prosperity in the coming year. The taste of rice cakes varies from place to place. Beijingers like to eat red date rice cakes, mince rice cakes and white rice cakes made from glutinous rice or yellow rice. People in Hebei like to add jujube, red beans, mung beans, etc. to rice cakes and steam them together. In northern Shanxi and Inner Mongolia and other places, it is customary to eat fried rice cakes made with yellow rice flour during the Chinese New Year. Some are also filled with bean paste, date paste and other fillings. Shandong people steam rice cakes with yellow rice and red dates. Northern rice cakes are mainly sweet and can be steamed or fried. Some people even eat them dipped in sugar. The rice cakes in the south are both sweet and salty. For example, the rice cakes in Suzhou and Ningbo are made from japonica rice and have a light taste. In addition to steaming and frying, it can also be sliced ??and fried or cooked in soup. The sweet rice cake is made of glutinous rice flour with ingredients such as sugar, lard, rose, osmanthus, mint, and sujiang. It is carefully made and can be steamed directly or dipped in egg white and fried. The night before the actual New Year's Eve is called Reunion Eve. People who have traveled far away from home have to rush home thousands of miles away. The whole family will sit together to eat the New Year's Eve dinner and make dumplings. The dumplings are made by mixing the noodles first. The skin is then used to wrap the stuffing. The content of the stuffing can be varied, including various meats, eggs, seafood, seasonal vegetables, etc. The orthodox way to eat dumplings is to boil them in water, scoop them out and then mix them with vinegar and garlic. Eat it with soy sauce and sesame oil as condiments. There are also ways to eat fried dumplings and baked dumplings (pot stickers). Because the word "和" in noodles means "合"; the characters "dumpling" and "Jiao" in dumplings are homophones, and "合" and "Jiao" also mean getting together, so dumplings are used to symbolize reunion and joy; and they are also used to symbolize reunion. The meaning of Jiaozi is very auspicious; in addition, because dumplings resemble ingots in shape, eating dumplings during the Chinese New Year also has the auspicious meaning of "bringing in wealth and treasure". The whole family gathers together to make dumplings, talk about the New Year, and have fun.
For a hundred years, the heaven and earth have regained their vitality and united the mountains and rivers. Peace and peace: the country is peaceful and the people are safe
A century of time has passed, the times are good, the country has been good for thousands of years, and now the world is new: everything is renewed
Spring flowers are smiling and firecrackers are increasing. Cheers and cheers: The house is full of joy
Spring couplets antithetical to the song "People's Peace, Guotai" and "Happiness" in pairs, flowers and a full moon. Horizontal comment: Guotai and People's Peace
The years are prosperous, the family is prosperous, the rich are in the prime of life, everyone is happy: Everyone is happy< /p>
The fifth watch is divided into two years, every year is satisfactory, and the night is two years old and every year is satisfactory. Congratulations on the New Year
Spring is full of flowers in the world, and blessings are coming to the small courtyard in the four seasons. Chang'an Hengbiao: Celebrate the Spring Festival
The spring rain moistens all things and the red plum blossoms embroider thousands of mountains: full of spring
Danfeng presents auspiciousness, the dragon presents auspicious red peach, New Year apricot welcomes the spring: the world is full of happiness
One door in Heshun has the word "Blessings and Peace" worth a thousand gold. Horizontal comment: Everything is renewed
Orioles sing, green willows and purple swallows cut in the spring breeze. Horizontal comment: Orioles sing and swallows dance
Huitong neighborhood, the door welcomes spring, summer, autumn and winter, and the world is full of good fortune. Xian, households are in the south, east, west and west. Wealth is high: auspicious stars are shining
The green bamboos are divided into three parts. The red plums are reporting spring to thousands of families. Hengbiao: Spring returns to the earth
Every year is good luck. Yuan Guang, may you have peace, happiness, and longevity all year round: auspicious stars shine high
All lakes and seas are spring-like, thousands of rivers and mountains are full of splendor. Hengbiao: Everything is renewed
Happy to live in a treasured land for thousands of years, and prosperity will shine on your family. Everything will be prosperous. Hengbiao: Happy Welcome the New Year
Welcome the New Year with joy, smile and bid farewell to the old year. Hengbiao: Welcome the New Year
The days increase, the years increase, people live longer, the spring is full, the world is full of blessings, the building is full of blessings: Chang'an in all seasons
< p>Smooth sailing, auspicious stars, everything will go well, and blessings will come to your door: money will be abundantA clean sweep of old habits, five lectures on four beauties, and new trends. Hengbiao: bid farewell to the old and welcome the spring
Spring will always bloom in a variety of colors all year round. Hengpi: Welcome the New Year