What are the customs and meanings of the Spring Festival?

"Wear new clothes, paste Spring Festival couplets and buy firecrackers with lucky money." Spring Festival is the most distinctive traditional festival in China. The taste of the year is the most nostalgic taste. Do you know when the Spring Festival began? What do you do during the Spring Festival? Let's go into the Spring Festival and have a look!

1, dust removal

Years ago, the busy work was mainly to get rid of the old cloth, and sweeping dust was one of the customs of getting rid of the old cloth. The folk proverb says, "On the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, dust and sweep the house". 23/24 ended, and officially began to prepare for the New Year.

Sweeping dust means year-end cleaning, which is called "house sweeping" in the north and "house sweeping" in the south. Whenever the Spring Festival comes, every household should clean the environment, clean all kinds of electrical appliances, remove and wash bedding curtains, sweep six yards, dust cobwebs and dredge culverts in open channels. Everywhere is filled with the joyful atmosphere of cleaning and welcoming the Spring Festival cleanly.

According to the folk saying, sweeping dust in the Spring Festival means "getting rid of the old and replacing the new", because "dust" and "Chen" are homophonic. The purpose of sweeping dust is to sweep away all "bad luck" and "bad luck" in order to pray for the coming year; This custom places people's prayers and wishes to ward off evil spirits, avoid disasters, bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new year.

Step 2: keep your age

Shounian, also known as Shounian Fire and Zhaonian, has a long history and is one of the folk activities in China. On New Year's Eve before New Year's Eve, folk activities are mainly manifested in keeping the New Year by lighting a fire, that is, every household lights up and lights candles, and the whole family gets together to welcome the New Year. On New Year's Eve, burning lamps and candles all night is called "waste". It is said that after this pass, the family's wealth will be enriched in the coming year.

In some areas, all-night vigil (staying up until New Year's Eve) is also called vigil, that is, on New Year's Eve, the whole family get together, eat New Year's Eve, light candles or oil lamps, sit around the stove and chat, and keep vigil all night, which symbolizes driving away all evil diseases and epidemics.

3, lucky money

Lucky money is one of the customs of the Spring Festival. Lucky money is distributed by the elders to the younger generation. After dinner, the elders should distribute the lucky money prepared in advance to the younger generation. It is said that lucky money can kill evil spirits, and the younger generation can spend a year safely with lucky money. In some families, parents will put their children under pillows after they fall asleep at night.

Giving lucky money in the New Year reflects the care and sincere blessing of the elders to the younger generation. Lucky money has the meaning of exorcising evil spirits and keeping peace in folk culture. The original intention of lucky money is to suppress evil and drive away evil, because people think that children are easy to sneak around, so they use lucky money to suppress evil.

4. New Year's Eve dinner

It is one of the customs of Chinese New Year, also known as New Year's Eve, reunion dinner, reunion dinner and so on. Especially the New Year's Eve dinner. The New Year's Eve dinner originated from the ancient sacrificial ceremony at the end of the year, and it is a reunion dinner after offering sacrifices to the gods and ancestors. Reunion dinner is the highlight of the year ago, which is not only colorful, but also very meaningful. Worship the gods and ancestors before the reunion dinner, and eat after the worship ceremony.

Generally, there are chicken (representing a plan), fish (more than enough every year), oyster sauce (good for the market), Nostoc flagelliforme (rich), yuba (rich), lotus root (smart), lettuce (rich) and raw garlic (calculated). China people's New Year's Eve dinner is a family reunion dinner, which is the most abundant and important dinner in a year.

5. Happy New Year

Visiting relatives and friends is a way to celebrate the New Year. Paying New Year greetings is an important activity in the Spring Festival, and it is also a way for people to express their best wishes to each other. They visit relatives and friends, pay New Year greetings to each other, and say congratulations on getting rich, happiness and so on.

The meaning of New Year's greetings is to visit relatives and friends, congratulate each other on the New Year, and express feelings for relatives and friends and good wishes for life in the new year.