China's Spring Festival is a 'New Year's Day' in the traditional sense. The Spring Festival is a festival handed down from ancient times. After many vicissitudes of life, many traditional customs have gradually formed. Therefore, during the Spring Festival, there are fixed customs and ways to greet and celebrate the new year. These customs of greeting and celebrating the new year mostly focus on getting rid of the old and welcoming the new year, praying and blessing, and family reunion. What are the beautiful implications of various customs related to the Spring Festival? Let's talk about the different meanings of the customs of the Spring Festival.
Dust sweeping
'24, dust sweeping day'. To welcome the new year, we must first get rid of the old. Dust sweeping is the year-end cleaning. It is called "house sweeping" in the north and "dust dusting" in the south. Sweeping dust before the Spring Festival is a traditional custom among Chinese people. On the dust sweeping day, the whole family worked together to clean the house and courtyard, scrub the pots and dishes, dismantle and wash the bedding, and greet the new year cleanly. In fact, people use the homonym of "dust" and "Chen" to express their willingness to get rid of Chen and the old.
Sacrifice to kitchen god
Offering sacrifices to cookers is a folk custom with great influence and wide spread in China. In the old days, almost every kitchen was equipped with the throne of "kitchen Lord". It is said that he is the "king of the kitchen of Jiutiandong kitchen" granted by the Jade Emperor, who is responsible for managing the kitchen fires of each family. People call this God "life Bodhisattva" or "kitchen King life". He is worshipped as the protective god of the family. In the ballad, "23, tanggua sticky" refers to the sacrificial stove on the 23rd or 24th of the twelfth lunar month every year. There is the so-called "officials, three people, four boat families and five", that is, the government holds the sacrificial stove on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, ordinary people's homes on the 24th, and water people on the 25th. It is said that on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the kitchen god will ascend to heaven and report the good and evil of the family to the Jade Emperor. According to the report of the kitchen god, the Jade Emperor will hand over the fate of the family in the new year to the kitchen god. The ceremony of sending the kitchen god is called "sending the kitchen god" or "Ci kitchen". The people offer red candles and sugar melons to send the kitchen god to heaven with grand etiquette, hoping that the kitchen god will "say good things from heaven and bring good luck to the lower world". Nowadays, this custom is still followed in many rural areas.
post new year's scrolls
Spring Festival couplets, commonly known as' door pairs', also known as' spring posts', are a kind of couplets. They are called Spring Festival couplets because they are posted during the Spring Festival. One source of Spring Festival couplets is the Tao Fu. At first, people hung the human figure carved in peach wood beside the door to avoid evil spirits. Later, they painted the door god on the peach wood, and then simplified it to inscribe the name of the door god on the peach wood board. Another source of spring couplets is the spring paste. The ancients pasted the word "Yichun" on the beginning of spring. The real popularity of Spring Festival couplets began in the Ming Dynasty, which is related to the advocacy of Zhu Yuanzhang. According to historical records, one year before the Chinese new year, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered that each door should be pasted with a pair of Spring Festival couplets to celebrate. The original Spring Festival couplets were inscribed on a mahogany board, and later rewritten on paper. The color of mahogany is red. Red has the meaning of auspiciousness and avoiding evil spirits. Therefore, most Spring Festival couplets are written on red paper.
Paste New Year pictures
New Year pictures, like Spring Festival couplets, originated from the 'door god'. With the rise of engraving printing, the content of New Year pictures is not limited to door gods, but gradually invite the God of wealth to the home. Then, in some new year picture workshops, color New Year pictures such as three stars of fortune, longevity, heavenly official blessing, bumper harvests, prosperity of six livestock and greeting blessings in spring have been produced to meet people's good wishes to celebrate and pray for the new year. Because Zhu Yuanzhang, the great ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, advocated pasting Spring Festival couplets during the Spring Festival, New Year pictures also became popular under its influence. Taohuawu in Suzhou, Jiangsu, Yangliuqing in Tianjin and Yangjiabu in Weifang, Shandong are three important new year pictures producing areas in China. In the early years of the Republic of China, a new form combining the lunar calendar and New Year pictures appeared in Shanghai, which later developed into today's wall calendar.
New year's Eve vigil
New year's Eve refers to the evening of the last day of the year, which is connected with the Spring Festival. It is an important moment of "one night for two years, five watch for two years." In addition to the meaning of "yes" and "go", new year's Eve means "the month is poor and the year is over", which means that the old year will be removed and a new year will be added in the coming year. New year's Eve is the first climax of the new year's festival. ShouSui, commonly known as' boil the new year ', starts from eating New Year's Eve dinner. New year's Eve dinner is the most family friendly and warm and peaceful family banquet in a year. At this time, people not only enjoy the full table of delicacies, but also enjoy the strong family affection and festival celebrations. After the new year's Eve dinner, except for the young children, the whole family began to keep the year old and welcome the new year together. In the Jin Dynasty, there was the custom of keeping the new year's Eve. It was very common in the northern and Southern Dynasties. After entering the Sui and Tang Dynasties, keeping the new year's Eve was very popular, and the Tang style was more popular in the Song Dynasty. In addition, the Han Dynasty had the custom of drinking pepper and cypress wine (medicinal wine prepared with herbs) on New Year's Eve to ward off evil spirits and diseases. Later generations changed to drinking Tusu wine. Wang Anshi wrote a poem "spring breeze brings warmth to Tusu". Nowadays, there is still the custom of the whole family gathering and drinking Tusu wine during the new year's festival in the south of China.
set off firecrackers
There is a saying among Chinese people that "open the door with firecrackers", that is, when the new year comes, the first thing for every family to open the door is to set off firecrackers to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new year with the sound of crackling firecrackers. Setting off firecrackers is an entertainment activity in Chinese festivals, which can bring happiness and good luck to people!
Lucky money
On New Year's Eve, the elders should give the younger generation new year's money, also known as pressure wins money. Because 'Sui' is homonymous with 'sneaky', the elders hope that the new year's money can exorcise evil spirits and avoid disasters and bless the children's peace. New year's money reposes the ardent hope and deep love of the elders for the younger generation. Therefore, students should not compare the number of new year's money with each other, but should pay attention to its emotional value. At the same time, we should make rational use of lucky money, use it in study or do something meaningful.
New Year greetings
New year's call is an important activity during the Spring Festival. Like the reunion dinner on New Year's Eve, it is the Spring Festival custom that can best reflect the 'New Year's flavor'. In the past, the family paid new year's greetings in the order of one worship of heaven and earth, two worship of ancestors and three worship of the high hall. Generally, the younger generation pays new year's greetings to the elders on the first day of the new year and wishes them good luck and longevity. After the new year, the general rule is to pay New Year's greetings to relatives on the first day of the new year, the second day of the new year, and the third day of the new year. Students, colleagues, friends, collaborators and neighbors should also pay New Year's greetings to each other. In the sound of "Happy New Year", it shortens the distance between hearts and enhances people's feelings. As the old saying goes, new year's greetings' are based on New Year's friendship and local feelings'.