It is about to usher in the most important, grandest and grandest festival in China and the Chinese circle and even in East Asia - the Spring Festival!
Although we call it "Spring Festival", you know that we used to call this greatest festival, we call it "New Year"! This is the Chinese lunar calendar (also known as the lunar calendar), which refers to the period of change of the moon phase, that is, the length of the moon, which is the length of the month. The solar regression year is the length of the year, and the average calendar year is adapted to the return year. A method of dating). The Spring Festival is the first day of the Lunar New Year, so we call it the New Year.
Speaking of the New Year, you can't help mentioning the "year." It is said that the "Year" is a fierce monster. During the 30th night of the twelfth lunar month, he will go door-to-door to eat human flesh and meat and harm the soul. Later, people figured out that the "year" was afraid of ringing, afraid of red, and afraid of light, they thought of setting off firecrackers and wearing red clothes to defend it - so it gradually evolved into the custom of Chinese New Year.
The most important custom of the New Year is the year of the 30-year-old, the New Year's Day, and the reunion dinner.
Chinese folks have had the habit of keeping their old age on New Year's Eve from the Three Kingdoms period. Everyone starts from eating New Year's Eve, eating and eating one night, not sleeping all night, in order to welcome the arrival of the New Year. This custom not only expresses the attachment to the past year but also expresses the good expectations for the new year.
Since the old age should start from the New Year's Eve, you can't help but mention the dumplings and rice cakes. Chinese New Year is inseparable from dumplings and rice cake
Dumplings
Dumplings are an indispensable food for northerners during the Spring Festival. The northern Chinese people will eat dumplings during the Chinese New Year, but they are slightly different - some places eat dumplings at night, some places eat dumplings on the morning of the New Year's Day; some places eat vegetarian dumplings for 30 nights, New Year Eat meat dumplings for the first time. Dumplings, transliterated as "communication" - according to the ancient Chinese Heaven and Earth, the time method, from 11:00 pm to 1 am the next morning, when the child eats dumplings, it means the old and new, and good luck.
Rice cake, another indispensable food in the New Year's dinner - if the northerners must eat dumplings during the New Year, then the Chinese and Southern people must eat rice cakes in the New Year (the North also eats). "Butter", a kind of food originated from ancient China, was recorded in the book "Dang Dialect" of Yang Xiong in the Han Dynasty. In Jia Sizhen's "Qi Min Yao Shu", it is a clear explanation of the method of making. Eating rice cakes means that everything is going up year after year, symbolizing that year after year is better!
The customs of Chinese New Year are almost the same throughout China, but they are slightly different. Below, the author introduces the characteristics of the New Year. Choose Beijing, Guangdong and Sichuan.
Rice cake
Beijing is the representative of northern culture and represents the Northeast and Central Plains culture. So, what are the characteristics of the old Beijingers for the New Year?
Speaking of the old Beijingers Chinese New Year, you can't help but mention the temple fair - there are many temples in old Beijing, and there are many temple fairs! The temple fair is the biggest highlight of the old Beijing New Year.
The "temple" is the title of religious places in ancient China. There are basically two Buddhist and Taoist temples. It is said that during the Eastern Han Dynasty, Buddhism was introduced, and Taoism flourished. The two religions competed for the believers. They often held activities such as water and land and altars to attract customers. Over time, they added some entertainment activities such as drama and lion dance. Later, some small business hawkers found that these days were the time for mass gatherings, and they were profitable, so they went to buy and sell goods, and finally formed a temple fair.
In the old days, there were three temple fairs in Beijing - the National Temple Association, the Longfu Temple and the Baiyun Temple Fair. Huguo Temple is located in the north of Xisi Archway in Xicheng, Beijing, north of the inner mouth of Huguosi Street. The temple meeting in the first month is scheduled for the first seven or eight days of the first month. Longfu Temple is located in the west of Dongsi Archway in Dongcheng, Beijing. The temple meeting in the first month is scheduled to be on the 9th and 10th day of the first month. Baiyun Temple is located outside Beijing's Xibian Gate. There are temple fairs on the first day of the first lunar month. Religious activities are the mainstay.
Beijing Ditan Temple Fair
What are the customs of Sichuanese Chinese New Year? Compared with Beijing New Year, Sichuan people have a lot of attention to Chinese New Year.
Sichuanese eat Chinese dumplings for the New Year and do not eat dumplings. Beijing is eating the dumplings on the 15th of the first month, but the Sichuanese eat the dumplings on the first day of the New Year. Moreover, in Chengdu, people can't say "eat" in Chinese New Year, because "rice" and "criminal" are the same. In order to avoid sputum, they eat rice balls or noodles to pray for family reunion.
Sichuan people's New Year's Eve is also unique - there must be fish, and must be a whole, can not be cut, transliteration "more than a year"; New Year's Eve must have surplus, and the more the more, the better, This is because the first three days of the second day of the second year will have to eat the rest of the year, which is called surplus;
Finally, let's talk about the customs of Guangdong New Year.
In Guangdong, especially in Guangzhou, the New Year is indispensable. On the New Year's Eve, eating, shunning and visiting the flower market are three major events in the old Guangzhou. In the first month, when the north is still snowy, the south is already spring. In Guangzhou, during the Chinese New Year, there are more than a dozen flower markets competing to open. Guangzhou people buy flowers in the flower market, and there are deep folk customs behind them - buy a kind of valuable and valuable varieties, such as "fat tree", "rich bamboo", "golden fruit", in the new year, good luck The financial resources and luck are the dreams of every Guangzhou people.
After the first day is the second day. The second day is the day when the married woman returns to the province - also known as the "welcome day."
Why do women who marry only return to the door on the second day of the second day? This is because, according to ancient Chinese customs, "the water that the married daughter has poured out" is someone else's family. There is another saying that if the "married daughter" returns to her mother's New Year, her family will be poor for three years. So back to her mother's daughter can only eat lunch - rushed back to her husband's house before dinner. When women go home, they must bring gifts, called hands or accompanying hands. When a woman returns home, if there is a nephew in the family, the aunt’s must pay for it again, and the scorpion must be a double number.
In addition to women's provincial relatives on the second day of the first month, another important thing is to sacrifice the god of wealth. According to legend, the god of wealth, God, wants to "welcome the god of wealth" - this day, whether it is commerce or ordinary people, it is necessary to hold a god of sacrifices: worship and eat well, hoe, and sacrifice the God of Wealth received on New Year's Eve. . Finally incinerated things. At noon this day, Beijing customs have to eat.
There is another important day during the Spring Festival is "breaking five children" - the fifth day of the first month! The fifth day of the first month is the day of "sending the poor", which means to sacrifice the poor ghosts (the poor gods - the sons of the poor ghosts are the sorrows. So the day will set off firecrackers, then eat dumplings - because the dumplings are like ingots, meaning lucky Into the treasure. Finally, this day to open the market - the first four days of the first month of the first month of the industry to go out of business, but it is said that the god of wealth from the Tiangong, so "Welcome God" opened!
There is a saying in the Spring Festival that ends on the 15th of the first month. There are also sayings that it will not be officially finished until February 2 after the "Dragon looks up"! In short, its long time, the grand celebration, the significance, is the first in China!
After the Spring Festival, many people will stay away from their homeland and stay away from their loved ones - but the native land and their loved ones have never been far from them. The homeland will benefit from their bloody struggle, and their loved ones will also cheer for their struggle!
I wish every Chinese can climb up in the sound of firecrackers in the Spring Festival!
Good New Year!
