What to do before the Spring Festival?

What will we do during the Spring Festival?

1, dust removal

"On the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, the dust sweeps the house". According to "Lv Chunqiu", there was a custom of sweeping the dust during the Spring Festival in Yao, Shun and Yu dynasties. According to the folk saying: Because of the homonym of "dust" and "Chen", sweeping dust in the Spring Festival means "getting rid of the old and not being new", and its original intention is to sweep away all bad luck and bad luck. This custom has placed people's desire to break the old and create new ones and their prayers to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new.

2. New Year greetings

On the first day of the new year, people get up early, put on the most beautiful clothes, dress neatly, go out to visit relatives and friends, and wish each other good luck in the coming year. There are many ways to pay New Year's greetings, some of which are led by the same patriarch from door to door. Some colleagues invited several people to pay New Year greetings; Others get together to congratulate each other. This is called "group worship". Because it takes time and effort to pay New Year greetings at home, some elites and scholars later congratulated each other with stickers, thus developing the later "New Year cards".

When paying New Year greetings during the Spring Festival, the younger generation should first pay New Year greetings to their elders and wish them health and longevity. The elders can distribute the lucky money prepared in advance to the younger generation. It is said that lucky money can kill evil spirits, because "old" and "special" are homophonic, and the younger generation can spend a year safely with lucky money. There are two kinds of lucky money, one is to put colored rope in the shape of Jackie Chan at the foot of the bed, which was recorded in Yanjing year; The other is the most common, that is, parents wrap the money distributed to their children in red paper. Lucky money can be given in public after the younger generation pays New Year's greetings, or it can be secretly put under the child's pillow by parents when the child falls asleep on New Year's Eve. It is still very popular for elders to give lucky money to younger generations.

Step 3: keep your age

Keeping the Lunar New Year's Eve is one of the most important activities, and the custom of keeping the Lunar New Year's Eve has a long history. The earliest record can be found in the Local Records of the Western Jin Dynasty: on New Year's Eve, all parties give gifts to each other, which is called "the year of giving back"; Wine and food are invited, which is called "not old"; Young and old get together to drink and wish a complete song called "age division"; Everyone stays up all night, waiting for dawn. This is the so-called "shou sui".

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, wait for the time to bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new year, and keep vigil all night, which symbolizes driving away all evil diseases and epidemics and expecting good luck in the new year. This custom gradually became popular. At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong, wrote a poem "Shou Sui": "Cold words and winter snow, warm with spring breeze". To this day, people are used to celebrating the New Year's Eve.

In ancient times, observing the age has two meanings: the old man's observing the age means "resigning from the old", which means cherishing time; Young people keep their age in order to prolong the life of their parents. Since the Han Dynasty, the time for the alternation of the old and new years is generally at midnight.

4. New Year's Eve dinner

New Year's Eve is also called reunion dinner. According to Zonggu's records of Jingchu times, there was a custom of eating New Year's Eve dinner at least in the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Because it is winter, northerners often put hot pot in the middle of the table, so it is also called the stove.

5. Post Spring Festival couplets

On New Year's Eve, every family began to prepare stickers after breakfast. Putting up Spring Festival couplets together and talking and laughing can easily increase the joy of the family.

6. stick grilles

Window grilles not only set off the festive atmosphere, but also integrate decoration, appreciation and practicality. Stick grilles means to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new.

Step 7 set off firecrackers

Setting off firecrackers is something that everyone should do during the Spring Festival. Although the flavor of the year is not very strong now, firecrackers are still indispensable. Nowadays, many people are superstitious, so even if the taste is not enough, they will not stop setting off firecrackers. Of course, it's better to set off fewer firecrackers. You can buy electronics and put them at home, because firecrackers pollute the environment very much, and smog is caused by these pollution.

8. Invert the word "Fu"

While putting up Spring Festival couplets, some people have to put large and small "Fu" characters on doors, walls and lintels. Sticking the word "Fu" during the Spring Festival is a long-standing folk custom in China. The word "Fu" symbolizes good luck and wishes for a happy life and a bright future. In order to fully reflect this yearning and wish, some people simply put the word "Fu" upside down, indicating that "Fu has arrived" and "Fu has arrived". Others elaborate the word "Fu" into various patterns, such as longevity, longevity peach, carp yue longmen, abundant grains, dragons and phoenixes, and so on.