Speaking of Chinese New Year, it is inevitable to mention eating. For eating, Hangzhou people are more adept at "hands" and "flowers".
On New Year's Eve, Hangzhou people usually prepare several lucky dishes at home, such as pork intestines, which are often very smooth; Fish balls and meatballs are called balls; Cook the meat, the head of an owl, happens to have a girlfriend; Spring cake wrapped in shredded pork means gold wrapped in silver; Bean tooth is called ruyi dish; Peanut is called longevity fruit; Huangling meat, lotus root, water chestnut and red dates are cooked together, which is called rich. In Hangzhou dialect, the homonym of lotus root is you, and Huangling meat looks like an ingot. The increase of sound and shape equals wealth.
After dinner, let's take a look at the New Year activities of Hangzhou people:
During the Spring Festival, there are four kinds of entertainment activities in Hangzhou: gongs and drums, kites, dragon lanterns and fireworks. The so-called gongs and drums are also called New Year gongs and drums. In addition to big gongs and drums, crisp drums, small gongs and bamboo boards were added. On the fifth day of the first month, Niangong and Dagu are mostly used by merchants. In addition, Niangong and Dagu also have the function of poking fun at other entertainment activities. Hangzhou people have their own views on various New Year gongs and drums: named Yuanxiao Drum, Lucky Drum, sleet, 753; Those who listen to their voices and their words are called Fan Shi, Fengyunhui, Sixian gongs and drums; Hangzhou people who have neither rhythm nor words are collectively called firewood chopping.
The so-called kite is the "kite". The harrier takes thin bamboo as its bone, makes it into the shape of a bird, sticks it on paper or silk, threads it on a thread and flies in the wind. Hangzhou people have always been ingenious, and the shape of the harrier is colorful, including centipedes, butterflies, beauties, the moon, stars and so on. There is also a bamboo flute, which is tied to the head of a kite to let the wind enter the flute and make a sound like a kite. This type of kite is a kite. In addition, people in Hangzhou used to stick a long piece of paper on a small bamboo circle and put it into the thread. When the kite is placed high, bamboo rings and paper are attached to the wind, which is called lantern kite in Hangzhou.
The meaning of dragon lantern is relatively broad. To put it bluntly, it is made of paper or silk into lampshades of various shapes, which can shelter the candle from the wind. To put it bluntly, it is the general term for the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month or the fifteenth day of August. Originally, boat lights in Hangzhou were usually made of fine wood, tied into the shape of a boat, wrapped in leather paper or embedded with glass; There is also a lantern, which is tied into the shape of a horse with thin bamboo, but has no four legs. It is pasted with paper and divided into two sections. Each section lights a candle and binds it to the front and back of the child, just like riding a horse. There is also a kind of lantern, in which wheat straw stands upright and is inserted into thin nails. Above the lamp is a paper windmill, surrounded by people and horses with scissors. The windmill is driven by candle smoke, and the people on the lamp rotate. Lanterns and boat lights can only be hung but not moved. Lights of other shapes can quarrel with the Dragon Lantern Brigade in the street.
Fireworks and firecrackers are the general term for fireworks and firecrackers. The biggest fireworks should be set in an open place, mainly to see the flow of fireworks; Followed by the flower tube, from small to large, Xian Yi, old and young, after lighting up, listen to its sound and observe its shape; Once again, it is a gun stick, which is especially popular with children. After it set off, it only wanted to listen to its thrilling voice. At that time, most of the fireworks released by people in Hangzhou were flower tubes. There are famous wooden pots playing with the moon and golden pots, pond water rats, Jiulong water intake, Erlong playing with pearls, white geese laying eggs, old storks playing with the sunset, etc., which are not limited by terrain and can be cast everywhere.
One side's soil and water will brew the customs of the other side. The Chinese New Year custom in old Hangzhou embodies the folk customs of Hangzhou people, such as following fate, being open-minded, being brave, alert and humorous, loving life, knowing books and rituals, and being happy, which is really the blessing of Hangzhou people.
According to the legend that the dragon heads up on February 2, a folk festival custom in Shanxi, the second day of the second lunar month is the day when everything recovers. On February 2nd, the dragon looked up. This is a popular festival in Shanxi. In Shanxi, people are used to having their hair cut on this day, while in rural areas, they shave their heads to get rid of the filth of the past and welcome the prosperity in the coming year. Generally speaking, in the countryside, on February 2nd, we always improve our food and eat jiaozi, fried dough twists and pancakes. Vicissitudes Festival Vicissitudes Festival is a unique festival in Shanxi. The specific date of Tim Cang Festival is the 25th day of the first lunar month every year. Adding a warehouse means that farmers add food to the warehouse. It is on the basis of the original grain output that we want to increase the harvest and increase production, which has pinned people's good wishes for a bumper harvest in the coming year. Different places in Shanxi celebrate Lantern Festival in different ways. Some places symbolically add grain to the granary on the day of Tim Cang Festival, and some places eat spring cakes and pancakes on the day of Tim Cang Festival, and put cakes into the granary, which is called filling and adding warehouses. Some places make "rain lanterns" on the festival of jiacang. These lanterns are made of cereal flour, and twelve are as big as a small bowl. There is a lamp at the top of each lamp and a small gap at the edge of the lamp. Each gap represents a month in the four seasons of the year. After the lamp was steamed, it proved that there was the most soda in the lamp in the months when the pot was boiled. Then, according to the month when crops need rain most, what will be harvested this year is inferred as the basis for planting this year. Peach Blossom Festival March 1 day is the Peach Blossom Festival, which is really a special festival. This festival is in the peach blossom season. During the Peach Blossom Festival, unmarried women, young women and even children will put on dresses embroidered with "peaches", which are filled with garlic and herbs, sewn with pink cloth and embroidered with various silk threads, symbolizing youth and beauty, and metaphorically avoiding disaster, because the homophonic "escape" of peaches plays the role of amulet. Folk saying is, with the "Fu Tao", you can spend a year safely. On the day before Tomb-Sweeping Day Cold Food Festival, people in Jinzhong don't make a fire or cook, but eat cold food on this day. Locals call this day "Cold Food Festival". The Cold Food Festival lasted for more than two thousand years. During the Spring and Autumn Period, Jin Xiangong's son Zhong Er became the monarch of Jin and Jin Wengong. When the minister was enfeoffed, I forgot the old minister Jiezitui who "cut the shares to serve the king". When someone sent someone to ask Jiezitui, Jiezitui had been hiding behind Mianshan's mother in Wuxian County. Zhong Er then ordered the mountain to be burned in an attempt to force the meson to push the mother and son out of the mountain, but it backfired. The meson pushed him to death and died in the forest, with his mother holding a tree. Jin Wengong was remorseful, that is, he changed Mianshan to Jieshan, changed Wuxian to Jiexiu, and set meson on fire, that is, the day before Tomb-Sweeping Day, as the "Cold Food Festival". Stepping on wheat is a unique custom in southern Shanxi. Walking on the wheat is the happy mood of the new son-in-law after the local wheat harvest. jiaozi steamed the flour ground from the new wheat into the shape of a big moon to see her mother-in-law. It means wishing your parents-in-law a happy and healthy family and a bumper harvest. Beggar's Day is the seventh day of the seventh lunar month. On the evening of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, folk girls and young women have the custom of begging from Joe. Because the main participants in this festival are women, people also call it "Daughter's Day" and "Girls' Day". Shaanxi is one of the birthplaces of the Chinese nation, and the folk custom of Begging Qiaojie Festival is also quite popular. In the south of Shanxi, it is an ancient Hedong area in the history of China. Often on Tanabata, it is customary to make proper fruit watermelon with oil molasses to worship the Cowherd and Weaver Maid and beg for ingenuity. Now, folks often eat watermelons for the whole family as a souvenir on Qixi night. Also, on the night of Qixi, the girl's daughter-in-law brought a sewing kit and burned incense in her own yard and the ancestral temple in the village to ask for help from the Weaver Girl. In Tianchichuan, loufan county, Taiyuan City, there is a small river called Tianchi River, and there are dozens of villages on both sides of the river. Every year in the seventh month of the lunar calendar, there is a custom of "celebrating the festival". From the first day to the end of the month, villages celebrate festivals every day. On holidays, like the Spring Festival every year, couplets are put on the doors of every household. During the day, men, women and children beat gongs and drums, danced yangko in fashionable clothes, sang songs wishing a bumper harvest and congratulating the world on peace, and sang and danced happily; In the evening, like a wedding, every household lights a fire, sets off firecrackers, hangs lanterns on the doors, and plays eight concerts from house to house until midnight. Because of the "Festival", every village beats gongs and drums, so the locals named this festival here "Gong Knocking Festival". Mid-Autumn Festival The fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month is the Mid-Autumn Festival. It's time for the climate to turn cold this lunar season. People have superstitions, so they call this Mid-Autumn Festival "Ghost Festival". In the countryside at this time, people tied paper and sent clothes to their dead relatives. On the occasion of the Mid-Autumn Festival, most families will steam steamed buns and dough sculptures of various shapes. Most farmers will go to graves, sweep graves and burn paper at this time to pay homage to their old friends. This custom has lasted for thousands of years. Singing in the suburbs of Taiyuan, there is a rural custom that people call "singing". When singing, the villagers will invite the troupe in the city to perform in the countryside. Singing is usually once a year. There are many choices on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the eighth day of April, the sixth day of June, the fifteenth day of July and the fifteenth day of August, and there are also other times. The busy farming season is staggered, forming a relatively fixed program. Singing is not only a traditional folk custom, but also an important cultural lifestyle in rural areas. It is also a holiday to visit relatives and friends in the countryside, and it is still very prosperous.