The origin of setting off firecrackers during the Spring Festival
Why should firecrackers be set off during the Spring Festival?
Whether it's Chinese New Year holidays, marriage, school promotion, or even the completion of buildings and the opening of shops, people are used to setting off firecrackers to celebrate.
This custom has a history of more than 2000 years in China. The Story of Jingchu Times once recorded that on the first day of the first month, when the rooster crowed for the first time, everyone got up and set off firecrackers in their own yard to drive away the evil spirits of plague.
At that time, there was no gunpowder and paper, so people burned bamboo to make it burst and make a sound to drive away the plague. This is of course superstition, but it reflects the ancient working people's beautiful desire for Aetna.
In the Tang dynasty, firecrackers were also called "blasting poles", which probably meant that a long bamboo pole burned one by one and made a continuous blasting sound. Nanchang poet Lai Hu's poem "Early Spring": "The new calendar is only half open, and the pavilion is still bursting." I wrote the scene of burning bamboo poles during the Spring Festival.
Later, after constant chemical experiments, alchemists found that saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal together could cause combustion and explosion, so they invented gunpowder. Some people put gunpowder in a bamboo tube to detonate, and the sound was louder, which fundamentally changed the ancient custom of burning bamboo. By the Northern Song Dynasty, people had fireworks wrapped in roll paper, and there was a distinction between Dan sound and double sound. It was renamed "artillery warfare" and later "firecrackers".
The origin of setting off firecrackers during the Spring Festival
China people have a long tradition of setting off firecrackers during the Spring Festival. Why? This will start with the origin of "Year".
There is a folk saying: In ancient times, there was a fierce monster called Nian, which went door to door on the 30th of the twelfth lunar month, foraging for human flesh and killing creatures. One year, Nian came to a village on the night of the twelfth lunar month, and it happened that two cowboys were fighting for a bullwhip. Nian suddenly heard the sound of a whip in mid-air and ran away in fear. It fled to another village and saw a bright red dress drying in front of the door. It didn't know what it was, so it turned around and ran away. Later, he came to a village, looked into the door of a family, and saw that the lights were brightly lit and dizzy, so he had to slip away again, with his tail between his legs. From this, people realized that Nian was afraid of noise, red and light, so they thought of many ways to resist it and gradually evolved into the custom of celebrating the New Year today.
Setting off firecrackers originated from the act of exorcising ghosts, but today people set off firecrackers to celebrate the New Year, because ghosts are driven away and bad luck is driven away.
? What are the customs of the Spring Festival?
Folding New Year greeting cards
When paying New Year greetings during the Spring Festival, the younger generation should first pay New Year greetings to their elders and wish them health and longevity. Elders can prepare in advance.
It is said that lucky money can kill evil spirits, because "old" and "expensive" are homophonic, and the younger generation can spend the first year safely when they get lucky money. There are two kinds of lucky money, one is to put colored rope in the shape of Jackie Chan at the foot of the bed, which was recorded in Yanjing year; The other is the most common, that is, parents wrap the money distributed to their children in red paper. Lucky money can be given in public after the younger generation pays New Year's greetings, or it can be secretly put under the child's pillow by parents when the child falls asleep on New Year's Eve. It is still very popular for elders to give lucky money to younger generations.
Spring festival new year pictures
New Year picture
Hanging New Year pictures is also very common in urban and rural areas. Thick black and colorful New Year pictures add a lot of prosperity and festive atmosphere to thousands of families. New Year pictures are an ancient folk art in China, which reflects people's simple customs and beliefs and places their hopes on the future. New Year pictures, like Spring Festival couplets, originated from "door gods". With the rise of block printing, the content of New Year pictures is not limited to monotonous themes such as door gods, but has become rich and colorful. Some New Year pictures workshops have produced classic color New Year pictures, such as Fu Lushou's Samsung, God bless the people, abundant crops, prosperous livestock and welcoming the New Year, to meet people's good wishes of celebrating and praying for the New Year. There are three important producing areas of Chinese New Year pictures: Taohuawu in Suzhou, Yangliuqing in Tianjin and Weifang in Shandong; Three schools of New Year pictures have been formed, each with its own characteristics.
The earliest existing collection of New Year pictures in China is the woodcut New Year pictures of the Southern Song Dynasty, which depict four ancient beauties: Wang Zhaojun, Zhao, Ban Ji and Lvzhu. The most popular folk painting is the Year of Marrying the Rat. It depicts an interesting scene in which a mouse marries a bride according to human custom. 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 new year's picture, which was combined into one, later developed into a calendar and has been popular all over the country.
Folding firecrackers
There is a folk saying in China that "open the door and set off firecrackers". That is, when the New Year comes, the first thing for every household to open the door is to set off firecrackers.
Say goodbye to the old and welcome the new with firecrackers. Firecracker is a specialty of China, also known as "Firecracker", "Firecracker" and "Firecracker". Its origin is very early, and it has a history of more than two thousand years. Setting off firecrackers can create a festive and lively atmosphere, which is a kind of entertainment in festivals and can bring happiness and good luck to people.
With the passage of time, firecrackers are more and more widely used, and there are more and more varieties and colors. Every major festival and happy celebration, as well as marriage, building, opening, etc. We should set off firecrackers to celebrate and make good luck. Liuyang, Foshan and Dongyao in Hunan, Yichun and Pingxiang in Jiangxi, and Wenzhou in Zhejiang are all famous fireworks towns in China. The firecrackers produced have various colors and high quality, which are not only sold well all over the country, but also exported to all parts of the world.