Haining Folk Customs during the Spring Festival

In Haining, we ate rice cakes this morning, which means "getting taller every year". Beating gongs and drums is called "year gongs and drums". Silkworm farmers sweep the floor on this day, which is called "sweeping silkworm flowers". When they met, they looked at each other with "the fragrance of silkworms and flowers" and prayed for a good harvest of silkworms. Jiashan countryside also has the custom of sticking cypress branches on the door. In Jiashan and Haining, some places don't cook on the first day of school and eat rice on New Year's Eve, which symbolizes that there is more than enough money every year. On that day, urban and rural residents began to visit relatives and friends to celebrate the New Year. During the Republic of China, there were acts of "seizing the land" and "seizing the kitchen god". "Receiving Kitchen God" means lighting candles and incense on the stove to "receive Kitchen God's rice cakes" and hanging new Kitchen God covers and "kitchen labels" to "welcome Kitchen God from the sky". There has been no such custom since liberation.