Hainan's Spring Festival custom

Eating New Year's Eve is the most lively and enjoyable time for every household in the Spring Festival. On New Year's Eve, a table of rich Chinese New Year's dishes, family reunion, sitting around the table and having a reunion dinner, I really can't tell you the sense of fulfillment in my heart. People not only enjoy the delicious food on the table, but also enjoy the happy atmosphere. There are big dishes, cold dishes, stir-fried dishes and snacks on the table. Generally, two things are indispensable, one is hot pot and the other is fish. The hot pot is boiling, steaming, warm and sultry, which indicates that it is thriving; "Fish" and "fish" are homophonic, which is a symbol of "auspicious celebration is more than enough" and also a metaphor for "more than enough every year". There are also radishes, commonly known as vegetable heads. Good luck. Lobster, fried fish and other fried foods, wish your family prosperity, such as "cooking oil with fire" Finally, I want a dessert. I wish you a sweet life in the future. On this day, even if I can't drink, I will drink a little.

There are many kinds of New Year's Eve dinners, including jiaozi, wonton, long noodles and Yuanxiao. , and each has its own emphasis. Northerners are used to eating jiaozi during the Spring Festival, which means "making friends when you are young". Because the white flour jiaozi is shaped like a silver ingot, the pots on the table symbolize the meaning of "getting rich in the New Year, and the ingots are rolling in". Some wrapped jiaozi and some coins sterilized with boiling water, saying that whoever ate first would make more money. The custom of eating jiaozi was handed down from the Han Dynasty. According to legend, Zhang Zhongjing, a medical saint, saw that the poor people's ears were frozen and rotten in the cold winter, so he made a kind of "cold-dispelling Joule soup" to treat frostbite for the poor. He used mutton, peppers and some herbs to drive away the cold and warm, made ear-shaped "corners" out of flour bags, cooked them in a pot and distributed them to the poor. After eating it, people feel hot all over and their ears are hot. Since then, people have followed suit and spread it to this day. Eating wonton in the New Year is based on its original meaning. Legend has it that the world was in a chaotic state before it was created, and Pangu created a universe with four long faces, also called longevity noodles. Eating noodles in the New Year is to wish you a long life.

Give lucky money

Lucky money is given to the younger generation by the elders. In some families, everyone is not allowed to leave the table after the New Year's Eve. After everyone has finished eating, the elders give it to the younger generation to encourage their children and grandchildren to learn and improve in the new year. In some families, parents put their children under pillows after they fall asleep at night, and in more families, children gather in the main hall, shouting Happy New Year to grandparents and parents, and queuing up to bow down; Then reach for the red envelope. They even took back their grandparents' bedrooms and ran to the bed together, shouting "lucky money, lucky money!" " The old man felt that it was not lively enough, so he pretended to be stingy. From bargaining to siege, he finally dug up the red envelope of his ancestors. Everyone took them and roared away. The old man was overjoyed to see this scene and thought it was a good sign for all the best in the new year. Giving lucky money in the New Year reflects the care of the elders for the younger generation and the respect of the younger generation for the elders. It is a folk activity that integrates family ethics.

There is a nursery rhyme cloud:

Samsung is in the south, and every family pays New Year's greetings;

The younger generation kowtows and the older generation gives money.

If you want money, turn around and leave.

Communicate with god

Receiving God means dividing the old year into the new year, but the time of receiving God is not uniform. Some people begin to hold ceremonies as soon as their children arrive, some people begin to receive gods at midnight when their children are "right", and some people do so after their children are "right". After the sacrifice, immortals from all walks of life returned to the Heavenly Palace, ignoring worldly affairs, and after New Year's Eve, that is, when the New Year came, they came to direct on earth. The ceremony of receiving gods was held at the table of heaven and earth, presided over by the oldest person in the family. Because immortals live in different directions in heaven, the lower bound naturally comes in different directions. As for who to meet and where to come from, we should check the "constitution book" in advance, then lead the whole family to hold incense in the yard and follow their instructions to meet the gods. For example, Xin Weinian's "Constitution Book" states that "God of Wealth is due east, God of Wealth is due south, you God is northeast, West God is southwest, and Tai Sui God is southwest". After kowtowing in the direction, stand still until the incense is exhausted, and then kowtow. Finally, take down the fragrant roots, idols and ingots, and put them into the money and grain basins already prepared in the yard for burning. When burning, pine branches and sesame stalks burn together. When the gods were closed, firecrackers exploded and the atmosphere was extremely strong.

tread on

After receiving the gods, sesame stalks are spread from the street gate to the door of the house, and people walk on them and make a noise, which is called "stepping on the old age" or "stepping on the special". Because "broken" and "treasure" are homophonic, it means that the new year begins to exorcise evil spirits.

offer sacrifices to ancestors

In ancient times, this custom was very popular. Due to different local customs and habits, the forms of ancestor worship are also different. Some go to the wild to sweep graves, and some go to the ancestral temple to worship their ancestors. Most of them put their ancestral tablets in the main hall in turn at home to show their worship, and then worshippers worship them in order of age. Han people worship their ancestors and make more fish tanks filled with high bowls, which means ringing bells.

Southerners live in Beijing, and ancestor worship is particularly grand. Most of them are eight bowls of big dishes with hot pot in the middle, and cups and chopsticks are placed according to their positions. New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, Lantern Festival, hot pot fans, change dishes at any time. Manchu and Mongolian people sacrificed their ancestors. Mongolian flag bearer offered butter to stir-fry yellow wheat, fried it with sesame oil and dipped it in sugar when withdrawing the offering, which had a unique flavor. Manchu banner people offered walnut cakes, hibiscus cakes, apples and plain wax sandalwood to worship their ancestors, which was very quiet. On New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, vegetarian cakes will be made, and on the last night, Lantern Festival will be held. Burn incense and kowtow every morning and evening and offer new tea. Although the forms of ancestor worship are different, most of them are hanging shadows on New Year's Eve, and the confession was withdrawn on the last night of the Yuan Dynasty. They are close to their relatives and friends. When they visit the New Year, they should also knock on the ancestral temple. They should not only pursue the future cautiously, but also preserve their virtue of respecting their ancestors.

Send the god of wealth

In the old society, since the financial door was opened at midnight during the Spring Festival, there were people who sent the God of Wealth, holding a piece of paper and shouting outside the door: "The God of Wealth is coming!" At this time, in order to meet the God of Wealth, the owner of the house gave a reward to the bearer and sent it to the mouth of the God of Wealth. Of course, it is inevitable to say something auspicious. For example: "Gold and silver treasures are rolling in"! There are a pair of golden lions on the left and a pair of golden phoenix on the right! And so on. There is also a man dressed as a god of wealth, wearing a red robe, a gauze hat, a fake beard on his mouth and a yellow cloth bag to collect money, followed by several drummers, who distributed the god of wealth from door to door in order to ask for a reward. Every time people go to the door, they sing, "The left compartment is full of gold and silver, and the right compartment is full of treasure." A lot of good luck words went on until the owner happily took over the red paper statue of the god of wealth and gave them some money. After thanking them, they knocked on the door for a while and went to another house with the sound of gongs and drums.

Drink Tu Su wine.

Tu Su wine is a kind of medicinal liquor. In the ancient custom, the whole family drank Tu Su wine on January Day to eliminate unhealthy tendencies. Tu Su wine is made by hanging rhubarb, platycodon grandiflorum, Zanthoxylum bungeanum, Cinnamomum cassia, Cornus officinalis and Saposhnikovia divaricata in a well, picking them at the end of Yuan Dynasty and cooking them with the wine for four or five times. In ancient times, Tu Su wine was drunk in a unique way. Most people drink alcohol, always starting from the elderly; But drinking Tu Su wine is just the opposite, starting with the smallest. Perhaps young people grow up day by day, drinking first to congratulate them, and old people drinking late to retain them. Su Zhe, a writer in the Song Dynasty, wrote in the poem "Except for Japan": "Drinking Tu Su at the end of each year is not over 70 years old." It's a custom. In ancient times, this unique drinking order often caused people to have various emotions, so it left a deep impression on people.

Next year's meal

In the north, some families still have to provide a pot of rice, which was cooked before the New Year. It's called "annual meal", which means that there are leftovers every year, which can't be eaten all year round, and this year we still eat the grain of the previous year. This new year's rice bowl is usually cooked with rice and millet. As the saying goes in Beijing, for the sake of yellow and white, it is called "two rice". This is called "golden rice with gold and silver, gold and silver everywhere". In many places, cakes, melons and fruits are prepared to win a lucky one: eating dates (spring comes early), persimmons (all the best), almonds (gratifying), longevity fruit (immortal) and rice cakes (getting higher every year). On New Year's Eve, the family ate happily, talking and laughing.

The first day of the first month: New Year greetings, old stickers.

The first day of the lunar new year

Spring Festival is commonly known as "New Year's Day", formerly known as "New Year's Day". Du Taiqing in the Sui Dynasty said in the Five Candles Collection: "The first month is the end of the month, and one day is the Yuan Day, which is also a cloud and a cloud." The original meaning of "yuan" is "head" and later extended to "start" Because this day is the first day of the year, the first day of spring and the first day of the first month, it is called "Sanyuan". This day is also called "Three Dynasties" because it is still a year old, a month old and a day old. Because it is the first Shuori, it is also called "Yuanshuo". On the first day of the first month, there are other nicknames such as Shangri-La, Zheng Chao, Sanshuo and Shisan, meaning that the first day of the first month is the beginning of the year, month and day.

China is an ancient multi-ethnic country. According to their own cultural traditions and customs, different nationalities in different historical periods have determined their own New Year's Day, that is, to change "Zhengshuo" to the first day of the first month. Emperor Zhuan Xu and Xia Dynasty took the first month of Meng Chun as the yuan, that is, they used Yin Jian's summer calendar and took the first day of the first lunar month as New Year's Day. The Shang Dynasty used the ugly lunar calendar, with the first day of the twelfth lunar month as New Year's Day. The Zhou dynasty used the weekly calendar, which was completed, and the first day of November in the lunar calendar was New Year's Day. The Qin dynasty used the Qin calendar to build the sea, with the first day of the lunar calendar as New Year's Day; In the early Western Han Dynasty, the Qin calendar was still in use. In the first year of Liang Wudi Taichu (104), it was changed to the calendar created by Sima Qian and Luo, and the summer calendar was re-used, with the first day of the first lunar month as New Year's Day. In the future, except for Wang Mang, the lunar calendar was once used to build ugliness, and after Emperor Wu of the Tang Dynasty and Su Zong, the Zhou calendar was used to build children. All previous dynasties used the summer calendar until the end of the Qing Dynasty.

The Revolution of 1911 overthrew the imperial system, and the day before Sun Yat-sen took office in Nanjing from Shanghai, the Nanjing Senate decided to use the solar calendar to mark the year with the Republic of China. But the lunar calendar has existed for a long time, which is conducive to arranging farming. Therefore, people still pay attention to the lunar calendar.

Open the door and set off firecrackers.

When the door is opened in the morning of the Spring Festival, firecrackers are set off first, which is called "opening the door to set off firecrackers". After the firecrackers, the ground is broken red, which is called "full house". At this time, the streets were full of anger and joy.

Pay new year's call

An important activity of the Spring Festival is to congratulate the New Year at new friends and friends' homes and neighbors, which used to be called New Year greetings. The wind of the Han people's New Year greetings began in the Han Dynasty. It was very popular after the Tang and Song Dynasties, and some people who don't have to go in person can use famous cards to congratulate them. It was called "thorn" in the Eastern Han Dynasty, so the business card was also called "famous thorn". After the Ming Dynasty, many people put up a red paper bag at the door to collect famous posts, which was called "Menben".

According to their social relations, the forms of folk New Year greetings can be roughly divided into four categories:

One is to visit relatives. On the first day, you must go to your father-in-law's house and bring gifts. After entering the door, bow down to the Buddha statue, ancestor statue and memorial tablet, and then bow down to the elders in turn. You can stay for dinner and play.

The second is a courtesy visit. If you want to pay a New Year call to your colleagues and friends, you should only bow to the Buddha statue three times when you enter the room. If you are equal to your master, you just need to bow down. If you are older than yourself, you should still take the initiative to bow your head. The host should get down from his seat to help you, or even say that he is not polite to show his humility. This situation is generally not suitable for sitting for a long time, so leave after a few pleasantries. After the host worships, he should pay a return visit another day.

The third is a thank-you visit. Anyone who owes money to others (such as lawyers and doctors) in the past year will buy some gifts and send them to express their gratitude by taking the opportunity to pay a New Year call.

The fourth is a series of visits. For neighbors, we didn't have much contact in the past, but we can get along well when we meet. On New Year's Eve, we just go to the yard and say "Congratulations on getting rich" and "Shun Shun Bai Shun" when we meet, and just sit in the house for a while, without much etiquette.

In ancient times, there was a difference between New Year greetings and New Year greetings: New Year greetings were to knock on elders; The New Year is a time for peers to congratulate each other. Now, some organizations, groups, enterprises and schools get together to congratulate each other, which is called "group worship".

New Year greeting is a traditional folk custom in China, and it is a way for people to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, and express their best wishes to each other. In ancient times, the original meaning of the word "Happy New Year" was to pay New Year greetings to the elderly, including kowtowing to the elderly, congratulating them on a happy New Year and greeting their lives. In case of friends and relatives of the same generation, you should also salute and congratulate.

In ancient times, if neighbors had too many relatives and friends, it was difficult to walk around the whole house. It's called "flying mail", and let the servant take the business card to pay a New Year call. There is a red paper bag in front of every house with the word "Fu Jie" written on it, which is the purpose of airmail. This custom began in the upper class of the Song Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty, Yantai's Order of Last Month described the Beijing New Year Festival: "It's the moon, the film flies, and the car goes empty." Become fashionable. A large family set up a "door book" to record the guests' communication and flight photos. There are four virtual "relatives" on the front page of the door: one is a centenarian living in centenarian lane; One said he was rich and lived in Yuanbao Street. One is your infinite adult, living in the university archway; One day, Fu Zhao visited his master and lived in Five Blessingg Building. For good luck. So far, the gift of New Year cards and greeting cards during the Spring Festival is the legacy of this ancient exchange of flying cards.

Scholars in the upper class have the custom of greeting each other with famous cards. Hui Zhou, a poet of the Song Dynasty, said in Qingbo magazine: "During the reign of Emperor Yuanyou of the Song Dynasty, people were often stabbed with servants in the name of Chinese New Year." . At that time, the scholar-officials had a wide circle of friends, and it took time and energy to pay New Year greetings everywhere. Therefore, some close friends did not go in person, but sent their servants to take a card cut with plum blossom stationery, two inches wide and three inches long, with the recipient's name, address and congratulations written on it. In the Ming dynasty, people visited instead of paying New Year's greetings. Wen Zhiming, an outstanding painter and poet in the Ming Dynasty, described this in his poem "New Year": "I don't want to meet each other, but I want to talk, and my famous articles are full; I also throw a few pieces of paper at people. The world is too simple and empty. " The "famous thorn" and "famous divination" mentioned here are the origins of today's New Year cards. New Year cards are used to connect feelings and exchange greetings, which are convenient and practical and still popular today.

From about the Qing Dynasty, the form of "group worship" was added to the New Year greetings. In "Jade Tan with a Hat on the Side", the master of the Qing Dynasty said: "At the beginning of the year, the capital must make a routine group worship to unite the friendship of the New Year and show the nostalgia", and "every year, we must book guests, discuss the value of new year's goods, eat and drink, and have a happy day".

With the development of the times, the custom of New Year greetings is constantly adding new contents and forms. Nowadays, in addition to following the previous way of greeting the New Year, etiquette telegrams and telephone greetings have mushroomed.

However, from the first day of the first month to the fifth day of the first month, most families do not receive women, which is called "taboo". It's just that men want to go out to pay New Year greetings, and women can't go out to visit until after the sixth day of the first month. New Year greetings will last for a long time until the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month. Visiting relatives and friends in the evening is called "night worship", and it is called "Lantern Festival" after October of the lunar calendar. So there is a joke that "it's not too late to have a cold meal".

If for some reason you don't follow the routine ceremony and make up for it in the future, it's called "worshiping the old"

Zhansui

In the old society, due to the sunny weather in the first few days of Xinzheng, people put this year. Its theory began in Dong Fangshuo's "Year", that is, eight days after the Year, one day is rooster day, two days is dog, three days is pig, four days is sheep, five days is cow, six days is horse, seven days is great man and eight days is valley. If it is sunny, things that belong to it will breed, and if it is cloudy, the days that belong to it will not last long. Later generations follow their habits and think that the weather is sunny from the first day to the tenth day, and there is no wind or snow for good luck. Later generations developed from the occupation era to a series of sacrifices and celebrations. There is a custom of not killing chickens on the first day, dogs on the second day, pigs on the third day ... and not executing the death penalty on the seventh day.

Tiehua chicken

In ancient times, during the Spring Festival, chickens were painted on doors and windows to drive away ghosts and evil spirits. The book Xuan Zhong Ji in Jin Dynasty mentioned the pheasant on Dushuo Mountain mentioned above, saying that it crowed when the first ray of sunshine shone on this big tree just after rising. When it crows, chickens all over the world crow with it. Therefore, the chicken cut during the Spring Festival is actually a symbol of pheasant. However, in ancient mythology, there is also a saying that chickens are deformed birds. It is said that during the reign of Emperor Yao, friends on the other side paid tribute to a bird that could ward off evil spirits. Everyone welcomes the arrival of birds, but the messengers who pay tribute don't come every year, so people carve a wooden bird, cast it in bronze and put it on the door, or paint on the doors and windows to scare away monsters and make them afraid to come again. Because birds look like chickens, they will gradually draw a chicken or cut window flowers and stick them on doors and windows, which will become the source of paper-cutting art in later generations. China paid special attention to chickens in ancient times and called them "birds with five virtues". "Biography of Korean Poetry" says that a crown on the head is Wende; There is a distance behind the foot to play, which is martial arts; It is brave for the enemy to dare to fight before; It is benevolence to have food to welcome the same kind; Vigilance and dawn are beliefs. Therefore, people not only cut chickens during the Chinese New Year, but also set the first day of the New Year as Chicken Day.

Jucai

It is said that the first day of the first month is broom's birthday. You can't use a broom on this day, otherwise it will sweep away luck, ruin money, and bring "broom stars" and bring bad luck. If you must sweep the floor, you must sweep it from the outside to the inside. Don't throw water on the garbage on this day, for fear of breaking the money. Today, many places still have the custom of cleaning up New Year's Eve. On the first day of New Year's Day, there was no broom or garbage, and a large barrel of wastewater was prepared to avoid splashing outside that day.

The second day of the first month: offering sacrifices to the god of wealth

Sacrifice to the god of wealth

In the north, the god of wealth sacrifices on the second day of the first month. On this day, both commercial shops and ordinary families will hold activities to worship the god of wealth. Families offered sacrifices to the God of Wealth who arrived on New Year's Eve. In fact, the bought rough printed matter was incinerated. I want to eat wonton at noon this day, commonly known as "Yuanbao soup". Fish and mutton were used as sacrifices. On this day, big businesses in old Beijing held large-scale sacrificial activities, offering sacrifices with "five sacrifices", that is, whole pig, whole sheep, whole chicken, whole duck and red live carp, hoping to make a fortune this year. There are different opinions about who the God of Wealth is, mainly as follows:

Zhao Gongming, also known as Zhao Xuantan, was ordered by Zhang Tianshi to take care of the mysterious altar. This man came from The Romance of Gods, and Jiang Ziya named him "Tan Xuan, the God of Dragon and Tiger". Zhao Minglang, also known as Zhao's teacher, is the god of Xuanwu in Taoism. This sentence comes from "Three Religions Seeking God", and the full name of the holy name is: "Master Zhao Yuanshi, General Manager of Zheng Qing-Tan Xuan Flying Tiger Golden Wheel".

Bigan: My uncle Yin was dug up because of his loyalty and honesty. Because it is "unintentional", it is impartial, and later people regard it as a god of wealth.