Investigation report on Spring Festival customs

Spring Festival is the oldest traditional festival in China, and there are many customs everywhere.

According to the data, the Spring Festival generally refers to New Year's Eve and the first day of the first month. However, among the people, the traditional Spring Festival refers to the sacrificial ceremony from the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month or the 23rd to the 15th day of the first lunar month in La Worship, culminating in New Year's Eve and the first day of the first lunar month.

All kinds of customs of the people in this period can be said to have requirements from the first day to the seventh day. It's annoying enough to really finish a whole set.

New year's day:

Generally speaking, families get together at home, don't go out, don't kill. You'd better eat fast and don't sweep the floor.

On the second day of the year:

New Year's Day is called "Opening the Year". The custom is to eat "New Year's Eve", usually accompanied by Nostoc flagelliforme, lettuce, oyster sauce and pig's hands, in order to make money. In many places in China, it is an important custom that daughters who get married after New Year's dinner should go back to their parents' home, and husbands should go with them and bring gifts when they go home. Why must it be in the second day (customs vary from place to place, and in many places it is the third day) instead of the first day? It is said that there are several sayings as follows: (1) Superstition holds that the deceased ancestors came home from the sky at the end of the year to enjoy sacrifices (some said the 28th of the twelfth lunar month, others said the 29th or 30th); (2) If the ancestors saw "outsiders" at home, they would not enter the home; (3) Married women are regarded as "outsiders"; (4) So married women can't spend New Year's Eve and the first day at home; (5) After the ancestors enjoy the sacrifice, the daughter can go home when she returns to the sky in the evening of the first day (or the second day). In addition, according to folklore, if a married daughter returns to Ning on the first day of the Lunar New Year, her family will become poor.

On the third day of the year:

On Akaguchi Day, it's easy to argue with people. In order to avoid trouble, everyone does not go out to pay New Year greetings to relatives and friends, but stays at home and worships God. Therefore, Akaguchi Day is also called "off-year dynasty".

According to folk custom, Chikou is also called "Red Dog Day", which is an unlucky day. Legend has it that red dogs are "angry gods", which will bring bad luck, so the third day of the first lunar month is an unlucky day, so it is not appropriate to go out for a feast; In addition, the word "red" means "extreme poverty", and going out to attack the red dog will bring poverty. If you must go out to pay a New Year call, you can put a bag on your body to relieve the breath.

Legend has it that the third night is the day when mice get married, so most people will go to bed early that night so as not to disturb the marriage of mice. There will be a custom of "mice sharing money" that night, and salt, rice and cakes will be scattered in the corner of the house for the mice to enjoy. These foods for mice are called "rice makeup", which means to enjoy a bumper harvest with mice in the new year.

On the fourth day of the year:

Go to work on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, and return to every household on the 4th of the first month. After noon, the ceremony of receiving God began: offering sacrifices, burning paper money and horses, setting off firecrackers, and letting God return to his position.

On the fifth day of the year:

Open a sacrifice to the god of wealth, and the lively atmosphere of the Spring Festival will end here. All the sacrifices offered to the gods can be removed. But the Orange Island Tower will not be demolished until the Lantern Festival. The garbage accumulated in the house can be removed today. In this way, the original rhythm of life came back. The fifth day of the fifth lunar month is also a day for offering sacrifices to the god of wealth. All walks of life prepare five kinds of sacrifices to pray for the blessing of the god of wealth.

Day 6:

On the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, everything returned to normal and the shops opened as usual. In the past, when firecrackers could be set off, they were set off before the store opened, as many as New Year's Eve.

Day 7:

People's Day, as its name implies, is a person's birthday. This is not someone's birthday, but the birthday of all mankind. As for the origin of festivals, it is pointed out in the "Challenge Book" that since the first day of junior high school, the order of creation in Heaven is [one chicken, two dog, three pigs, four sheep, five cows, six horses, seven people and eight valleys]. So the seventh day is a human day. On People's Day, Hong Kong people like to eat porridge. The so-called harmony is to hope to be the top student in high school in the examination room. People eat and eat, which means taking what they want.