The 53rd chapter of A Dream of Red Mansions describes the details of Jia's New Year. "It's the twelfth lunar month, and it's been closed in recent years. Lady Wang and Xifeng will be in charge of the annual customs." This is the same as today. As soon as I entered the twelfth lunar month, my husband was worried and busy at every meeting. Children's clothes will be given a new set from the inside out and from top to bottom. Now that the conditions are good, nephews are rare. Give them a new suit. It is also a time-consuming and laborious job to change all kinds of utensils, add bowls and chopsticks and change the ceiling at home in the past year. Needless to say, food and drinks, dried fruits, fruits, sweets, and chickens, ducks and fish that are not usually eaten need to be handled carefully. ...
There is a cloud in the nursery rhyme: "The twelfth lunar month is coming, and the year is near; On the fifth day, drink five beans; On the eighth day, Laba porridge; Twenty-three, burning; Twenty-four, sweeping the house; Twenty-five, beating gongs and drums; Twenty-six, see my uncle; Twenty-seven, kill a chicken; 28, paste it; Twenty-nine, playing shochu; Jiaozi on the 30th ",Mrs. Wang and Xifeng, who are manned by Jia Jia's daughter, will have to work hard again for some time.
Next, Ningguo House is also ready. Let's talk about Jia Zhen's side. He opened the ancestral temple, asked people to clean it up, packed up the offerings, and invited the Lord of God to clean up the house to hang the real image. "This is a man's business, ready to sacrifice the memorial tablet of god and ancestors. In fact, this is the original connotation of 2008. With the development of society and the change of people's ideas, offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors is more common in rural areas, especially in families with elderly people, but it is rare in cities. Those young people have gone on a trip, so offering sacrifices to the gods and ancestors is omitted.
(2) Reward
Let's look at this conversation again. Jia Zhen asked You Shi, "Did you get the reward for the New Year?" You Shi said, "Send Rong Er to prison today." Jia Zhen said, "Although our family didn't wait for the two pieces of silver, it was more or less the grace of the emperor ..." You Shi said, "That's what I said." The gift for the Spring Festival was given by the emperor. It reads, "Yan Jiarong, the Lord protector of Ning Guo, and Jia Yuanyong, the Lord protector of Ning Guo, gave me * * two for the Spring Festival, with a net discount of two. One day, Jia Rong, the standby bodyguard of Longwei, was led by the class and was served in the temple. " Most of us don't have this treatment today, but it's probably similar to the benefits that Jia Zhen said the unit gave us, such as rice and flour.
(3) Eat Nianjiu
Of course, Jia's family will also eat New Year's wine during the Spring Festival. The book says, "Go and ask your second aunt if there is an appointment for delicious wine in the first month. If it is drawn up, please study and understand, the list has been made, and it can't be repeated when you invite it again. I didn't pay attention to a few families in the New Year, not to mention that we didn't pay attention, as if the two agreed to make a fake love and were afraid of trouble. " Jia Rong promised to go there. At that time, I was holding a date list for inviting people to eat New Year's wine.
This is our New Year greeting and hospitality today. For Jia Jia, the New Year greeting guests have arrived. Fu and Fu will host the banquet respectively. Jia Zhen made it very clear that the days must not repeat themselves. Guo Rongfu is in the third grade, the second grade or the fourth grade. It can't be said that the eldest brother entertained guests, but the second brother just received gifts and had no seats. Obviously, ancient people paid great attention to etiquette and entertained guests. Today, people's awareness of greeting guests in the New Year has been greatly simplified. They may visit several relatives a day, and some simply don't eat a meal, which is convenient and convenient for entertaining guests.
After the novel, I wrote such a list, which read: 30 big deer, 50 roe deer, 50 roe deer, 20 Siamese pigs, 20 soup pigs, 20 dragon pigs, 20 wild boars, 20 domestic preserved pigs, 20 wild sheep, 20 domestic soup sheep, 20 domestic wind sheep and 2 sturgeons.
Ren is stubborn to his brothers and sisters outside the door: two pairs of live deer, four pairs of live white rabbits, four pairs of black rabbits, two pairs of live golden roosters and two pairs of west ducks. So many dazzling things are paid by Wu, the head of Jia farm. Wu represents Ningguo government in managing rural land and harvest, and he is the middleman. He didn't send so many things as in previous years. It can be seen that Jia's daily expenses of more than 300 people depend on the working people at the bottom. This is the privilege of the elite of the upper class. Today, we ordinary people didn't receive such a valuable tribute for the Spring Festival, let alone rent a child.
(D) Welcome door gods to paste couplets
As the year is approaching, the preparations made in front will come in handy. "Now is the twelfth lunar month, all kinds of colors. The two door gods have changed, linked and listed, and the peach characters have been oiled and completely new. " Rong Ning Erfu invited Jingdezhen, Qin Qiong and Er Shen, posted them on the gate, hung red lanterns and posted festive couplets, just as Wang Anshi wrote in his poem that "every family always trades new peaches for old ones". This is the same as inviting the door gods to post Spring Festival couplets on New Year's Eve today.
On the thirtieth day of the twelfth lunar month, all the people who were sealed by the Lady Dowager put on royal robes according to their grades, and they were introduced into the palace to pay their respects, and then into the ancestral temple to worship their ancestors. In the book, the scene is described in detail, and the clothing and sequence are extremely particular, which shows us the strict hierarchy of feudal society. Fortunately, in our new society, New Year doesn't need so many red tape.
(5) lucky money
This is New Year's greetings and New Year's wine. The book used a lot of pen and ink to write a very lively scene, just like the reunion dinner we had today. All the children and old people who left home went home, and the housewives presented us with a very rich meal. We can't sing poetry and drink, but everyone is talking and laughing, talking about the harvest of one year, the plans for the coming year, and the jubilant scenes. It is essential for the elders to give the younger generation lucky money.
We spent the New Year in Jiafu with Cao Xueqin, and learned that as soon as they entered the twelfth lunar month, the hostess bought new year's goods, and the male owner arranged sacrificial vessels to worship the gods and ancestors, and then received the Spring Festival reward from the emperor and the rent of land from the village head. On the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month, we put couplets on the door, and on the 30th we went to the Palace to pay homage to our ancestors. Then we ate New Year's wine and gave lucky money in the theater. This is really different from the way we celebrate the New Year today.