Huizhou's Spring Festival Customs

From the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month to the fifteenth day of the first month, the "Spring Festival" lasts for one month.

Laba wants to drink Laba porridge in the morning. This kind of porridge is usually cooked with glutinous rice and rice, and red dates, chestnuts, mung beans, peanuts, etc. are also put in it. Some people eat porridge all day, including sweet porridge for breakfast, salty porridge for lunch and light porridge for dinner. The monks in the temple pay attention to eating "Laba porridge". As the saying goes, "If you eat laba rice, you will do it in the coming year". Most people have started to do the New Year since this day. Grinding noodles, killing pigs and sheep, making new clothes and purchasing all kinds of new year's goods.

The 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month is a day for "offering sacrifices to the kitchen" and cleaning. According to legend, "Lao Zao Ye" is the head of the family. Every year, he goes to heaven to report on his work, "Go on the 23rd, and come back on the 15th of the first lunar month", "Official sacrifice is three, and people sacrifice is four". Generally, people often offer sacrifices on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, in order to make the kitchen god "say good things in heaven and keep peace in the lower world".

on this day, it is also necessary to "clean up the dust and filth, and clean the family". Carry large and small furniture to the yard and scrub it clean. Clean the roof, doors and windows indoors, and make the windows bright and clean to welcome the arrival of the Spring Festival. After the sacrifice, everyone was busy. Steamed buns, fried meatballs, fried hemp leaves, fried dumplings, cooking, etc., and prepared all kinds of things for the New Year. Each family tried their best to do it according to their own economic conditions.

The 3th day of the twelfth lunar month (the 29th day of the second lunar month, like this year) is "New Year's Eve". On this day, the whole family is reunited, and in addition to welcoming the old and welcoming the new, they have to go to the graveyard to worship their ancestors. Spring Festival couplets are also posted on this day. In the old society, there were many people who were in debt. They thought that with the Spring Festival couplets posted and the door gods guarding the door, debt collectors would not dare to come. At noon, the family should have a family reunion dinner, and at night, they should "soothe their nerves", offer sacrifices in front of the tablets of the gods and ancestors, burn incense and light wax to show their respect. The younger generation wants to "resign" to the elders, and the elders give the children lucky money, which makes the family happy. At this time, housewives are busy wrapping jiaozi, putting the wrapped jiaozi on the pot racket. No matter how few people are there, they should also wrap triple beats, which means "winning three yuan in a row", and there are also four beats and five beats, which means "Four Seasons are the best" and "Five children are admitted to the subject".

On New Year's Eve, firecrackers exploded all night. People go to bed very late, and some stay up all night. This is called "Shounian". The first day of the first month is the most grand. People get up before dawn, wear new clothes and pay New Year greetings to the gods, ancestral tablets and elders. Snack food (jiaozi) at 5 o'clock, and also in the middle of the night. Some people in the same village compete to get up early, saying that they are robbing money. Some people wrap copper coins (or coins) in a certain jiaozi, and whoever eats this jiaozi with money is the most "blessed".

during the spring festival, new year greetings are the most lively. After eating flat food, adult men who are "near the door" should gather together to go to their ancestors' graves. After dawn, the younger generation will pay a New Year call to their elders' home. Those with close relatives will kneel and kowtow, and the elders will give peanuts, hemp leaves and sugar to the younger generation.

from the second day of junior high school, I will go to my relatives' home to pay a New Year call. This kind of New Year greeting is very particular. Go to the closest relatives' home first, such as grandma's house and father-in-law's house, and then worship one by one according to the relatives and friends. Worshipers should bring gifts, and worshippers should hold banquets. New Year's greetings should be made in the morning, not in the afternoon, and not for people who are in mourning. Sometimes the worshippers have to pay a symbolic "New Year call" according to the situation, and the New Year call usually ends before the 15th day of the first month.

the fifth day of the first month is called "breaking the fifth day", commonly known as "off-year". I also eat flat food for breakfast, but the flat food I eat this time must be wrapped on the same day. This is called "pinching", which means breaking the bad things.

The 15th day of the first month is the Lantern Festival and the Lantern Festival. In the countryside, all children have to play lanterns, saying that "there is no light during the tenth five-year plan, and there is no wind in the field." Adults should also light lanterns to look after their own walls, saying that they can prevent scorpions and centipedes from biting in the future. On this night, all families will set off fireworks, saying that they can "stab" bad luck.