Spring Festival customs in old Beijing
As the sun sets and the sun rises, the stars move. Looking back on the past, history has left us with too many thoughts and conjectures, and these "customs of the year" are among them. one. For example, the Spring Festival custom has become the largest traditional folk festival in our country. The Spring Festival is more generally valued by people in the ancient capital, and a complete set of Spring Festival customs has been formed. The first day of the first month of the lunar calendar is the Spring Festival, commonly known as "New Year". The Spring Festival originated from the activities of worshiping gods and ancestors at the beginning and end of the year during the Yin and Shang Dynasties. The ancient Spring Festival was called "Yuan Day" and "New Year's Day". After the Revolution of 1911, the first day of the first lunar month was officially named the Spring Festival.
As far as Beijing is concerned, on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, every household will soak Laba vinegar (garlic), which begins to have a "New Year flavor". The folk song says: "Old lady, don't be upset. After Laba Festival, it will be the New Year. How many days will you drink Laba porridge? Lililala twenty-three..." The 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month is also called "Little New Year". There is a ballad that goes: "Tanggua is offered as a sacrifice to the stove. When the New Year comes, girls want flowers and boys want cannons...". Starting from this day, Beijingers become even busier, including offering sacrifices to stoves, cleaning houses, steaming steamed buns, buying New Year goods, pasting the word "福", pasting New Year pictures, cutting window grilles, and pasting couplets. Sticking to the door god and posting money, I have been busy until New Year's Eve, and I started to celebrate the New Year.
Beijing people always stick the word "福" upside down on doors, wardrobes, and water tanks, which means blessing has arrived. There are also many things to pay attention to when posting Spring Festival couplets. Generally, red Spring Festival couplets are posted on ordinary people's homes, and "horizontal markings" are posted on the lintels. In the inner court and the palaces of princes and princes, they all use white rice paper with red edges; those who keep the rule (those who have lost their father or mother) use blue paper; Temples use yellow paper. Spring couplets first began in Houshu during the Five Dynasties. It is said that the Prince of Shu wrote eight characters on the gate of his palace: "The sky hangs down for the rest of the year, and the earth connects to Changchun." This is the earliest Spring Festival couplet in China. People in Beijing post spring banners such as "Look up to see happiness" on the inner court of the house, "Go out to see happiness" on the outside of the house, and "The whole hospital will be bright" inside the courtyard.
In the past, most old Beijing houses had Buddhist niches or statues of gods. On New Year's Eve, the most important thing was to put up nine large offerings; there were a hall of honey offerings, a hall of cakes, and flower cakes. Fresh noodles, fruits from Chengtang, dried fruits from Chengtang, flower cakes in eight sizes, rice cakes and rice, vegetarian dumplings (or steamed), vegetarian stir-fried vegetables (or fried). Those from poor families also have to place offerings in three or five halls. People in Beijing celebrate the New Year with a focus on eating, drinking and having fun. These offerings are actually for people as well.
The New Year’s Eve dinner (also known as the reunion dinner) is essential for Beijingers and is also the most sumptuous dinner of the year. On New Year's Eve, both meat and vegetables are served together with the New Year's Eve meal. There are cold meats, large dishes and mouth-watering dishes. Cold meats include cold stewed pig, mutton, cold stewed chicken and duck. The big items include: Braised Pork, Braised Pork, Rice Noodle Pork, Red and White Meatballs, Sixi Meatballs. Cleansing dishes are generally tofu, green vegetables, luo shi, pickled vegetables and bergamot, etc. The staple food is mostly meat and vegetables.
Beijing people eat dumplings on New Year's Eve and the first day of the first lunar month, which means "Gengsuijiaozi". They always wrap dumplings in the shape of ingots and put sugar, copper coins, peanuts, dates, chestnuts, etc. in the dumplings. For example, if you eat sugar, it means a sweet life in the future; if you eat copper coins, it means you have money to spend; if you eat peanuts, it means longevity, because peanuts are also called longevity fruits; if you eat dates and chestnuts, it means early birth...
The customs of the Spring Festival in Beijing are so interesting!
The Spring Festival in our hometown has its own characteristics. From New Year’s Eve to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, there will be excitement every day. Although everyone is busy during the Spring Festival, if we compare busyness with joy, I think joy should account for more of it.
New Year's Eve is the most worthy of our celebration. Because at this moment, except for special reasons, generally everyone will return home, reunite with their families, have a sumptuous New Year’s Eve dinner, talk about the anecdotes of parting, taste delicious food with relish, and enjoy The joy of reunion. After the New Year's Eve dinner, we can go outside to watch the beautiful fireworks blooming in the night sky and listen to every festive blessing from everywhere. Walking in every street and alley of the town, you will truly feel the exciting moment. With the continuous improvement of people's living standards and the improvement of corporate scientific and technological capabilities, a variety of fireworks continue to emerge. The fireworks we see are becoming more and more beautiful, and people are setting off more and more fireworks. Especially this year, I feel that there are many changes. big.
In addition to the Spring Festival Gala at eight o'clock in the evening, around twelve o'clock, that is, at midnight, we can hear bursts of fierce firecrackers and firecrackers. Why is this? It turns out that this is to welcome the arrival of the new year!
On the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, we always eat glutinous rice balls or noodles. This is our traditional habit. From the first day of the lunar month to about the tenth day of the lunar month, we all go to the homes of relatives and friends to pay New Year greetings. When you go, you usually bring some gifts to express your politeness. The same goes for relatives and friends coming to visit. Whether we are visiting, or relatives and friends are visiting, the children must have made a lot of money, because they can get the New Year's money from the adults, and they feel so happy holding the New Year's money in their hands!
In the first month of the first month, every business will set off firecrackers when they open their doors for the first time. Businesses usually start work after the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, and they will also set off a large number of firecrackers, and some will set off fireworks, all of which present a festive scene. During the first month of the year, there are also various entertainment activities in our hometown, such as calligraphers writing and presenting Spring Festival couplets for everyone, and fans of Peking Opera and Yue Opera organizing concerts.
The Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month is another important festival during our Spring Festival. Every household will buy glutinous rice balls or make glutinous rice balls by themselves. Eating glutinous rice balls means that we are all reunited, harmonious and beautiful.
The Spring Festival in my hometown is colorful, and the happiest ones are of course our children. In addition to getting lucky money during the New Year, the happiest thing is that we can play easily and freely. Especially during the Spring Festival, boys can light firecrackers as much as they want. Every loud explosion heralds a happy cheer, and you can feel the excitement of your heartbeat even with your ears open. Although the adults did not play with us, they were very happy when they saw our happy faces!
The Spring Festival is a happy festival and a harvest festival. Let us celebrate it together!