Is the annual Lunar New year the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month? What are the differences between the north and the south
4hw.com.cn: the lunar new year in 2019 is coming soon. In many parts of the north, the Lunar New Year is the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month. Is the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month a lunar new year every year? What are the differences between the north and the south? Let's have a look.
Southern New Year custom
1. Dusting
On this day of the lunar new year, every family starts at dawn, sweeps the house, cleans the windows, cleans the clothes, brushes the pots and pans, and implements a clean and thorough sanitary cleaning. A few days before the new year, every family cleaned the house, which meant that the kitchen Lord would not take the soil away. According to the records of the collection of relics, this custom can be traced back to more than 3000 years ago. At that time, it was a religious ceremony for Han ancestors to drive away epidemic ghosts and pray for health. Later 'dust' is homonymous with 'Chen', so sweeping dust means sweeping away old things, which refers to both the old scale in the courtyard and the unhappiness encountered in the old year.
2. Sacrificial stove
That is, offering to send the kitchen god to heaven, so the small year is also called the kitchen offering Festival. On the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, people offer sacrifices to the stove. The statue of the kitchen god is pasted on the wall next to the stove facing the wind box. Most of the couplets on both sides are "Heaven says good things, and the lower boundary ensures peace". The second couplet is also written as "returning to the palace and descending auspicious", and the banner is "the head of the family". In the middle is the statue of Zaojun and his wife. Next to the statue, two horses are often painted as mounts.
On the table in front of the statue of the kitchen king, there are candy, water, cooking beans and hay; Among them, the last three are to prepare materials for the mount of the kitchen King's ascension. When offering sacrifices to the kitchen, we also have to melt Guandong sugar with fire and stick to the kitchen Lord's mouth so that it will not speak ill of the Jade Emperor. We also intend to make the kitchen King's mouth sweet and just say good words.
3. Eat rice cakes
In the south, it is a tradition in many places to make New Year cakes on the day of Xiaonian. New Year cake, also known as' New Year cake ', is homonymous with' high every year ', which means that people's work and life are improving year by year.
Northern New Year custom
Every year on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the kitchen god would go up to heaven to report the good and evil of the family to the Jade Emperor and let the Jade Emperor reward and punish them. Therefore, when delivering the stove, people put candy, water, cooking beans and hay on the table in front of the statue of the kitchen king. The latter three are to prepare materials for the mount of the kitchen King's ascension to heaven. When offering sacrifices to the kitchen stove, you should melt Guandong sugar with fire and apply it on the mouth of the kitchen god. In this way, he can't speak ill of the Jade Emperor. There is a folk custom of "men don't worship the moon and women don't sacrifice to the kitchen stove". Therefore, sacrifice to the kitchen god is limited to men. Tanggua, malt sugar, sesame sugar and other foods were originally used to wipe food on the kitchen god's mouth, and gradually evolved into snacks that children must eat in their childhood. There is a saying in Northwest Shanxi that "23 eat sesame candy, but you can't eat sesame candy and gnaw your fingers".
Sacrificial stove
It is also a day for Han people to sacrifice stoves. According to the folklore of the Han nationality, on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month every year, the kitchen god would go up to heaven to report the good and evil of the family to the Jade Emperor for reward and punishment. Therefore, when delivering the stove, people put candy, water, cooking beans and fodder on the table in front of the stove King statue
Among them, the last three are to prepare materials for the mount of kitchen King ascending to heaven. When offering sacrifices to the kitchen stove, you should melt Guandong sugar with fire and apply it on the mouth of the kitchen god. In this way, he can't speak ill of the Jade Emperor. In addition, on the evening of new year's Eve, the stove king will come to the world with the gods for the new year. On that day, there must be a ceremony to receive the stove and God. When every family burns sedan chairs and horses, sprinkles three cups of wine and sends away the kitchen god, it's their turn to worship their ancestors.
According to expert research, Xiaonian originated from people's worship of fire in ancient times. In the 'five sacrifices' in the Yin and Shang Dynasties and the' seven sacrifices' in the Western Zhou Dynasty, 'sacrificing stove' is an important content. After the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the kitchen god, as the object of "sacrificing the kitchen god", was gradually accepted by people, and the small year was basically formed as a festival.
However, in the Qing Dynasty, from the reign of Yongzheng, gods were worshipped in the Kunning Palace on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month every year. In order to save money, the emperor paid homage to the kitchen god. Later, the royal family and Baylor followed suit and offered sacrifices to the stove on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month. Since then, there have been differences between officials and people in different days.
In Chinese folk, the small year has the tradition of "officials, three people, four ships and five", that is, the official family's small year is the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the people's family is the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, and the aquatic family is the 25th of the twelfth lunar month.
The North has long been a political center, heavily influenced by officialdom, so it is mostly the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month in the lunar new year; On the contrary, the south is far away from the political center, and the Lunar New Year is the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month; The residents along the lake and sea have retained the tradition of boatman. The Lunar New Year is set on the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month.
Nanjing is quite special -- after Zhu Di usurped the throne in the Ming Dynasty, the people of Nanjing held a lantern party on the 15th of the first month of the first year of Yongle. They all miss the leniency of Zhu Yunwen's era, and the scene was better than the new year. Therefore, in Nanjing, the Lantern Festival has become a small year.