What are the customs in Suining?

The first climax of Chinese New Year is steamed bread. In the twelfth lunar month, every household is busy washing and drying wheat for flour, ready to start steaming. People here often say, "On the 28th day of the lunar calendar, there is more and more steaming".

Li Jiren steamed bread, in addition to the stuffing (adzuki bean, mung bean, cowpea), there are "solid steamed bread" without stuffing.

Nowadays, both urban and rural economies are improving, but the custom of steaming steamed buns in rural areas of Li Ji still exists. Steamed bread symbolizes "fullness" and "fatness" and indicates a happy life and auspicious days.

"Dust off" to welcome the Spring Festival

"Dust removal", that is, general cleaning, is not only a widespread ancient custom, but also a good hygiene habit worth promoting.

On the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, every household generally removes dust before sending the stove. According to folklore, dust removal is to remove bad luck and filth to ensure the safety of family members in the coming year. There is a saying called "When the New Year comes, it's refreshing to enjoy the peace with peace of mind". Excluding feudal superstition, "dust removal" is really beneficial to family hygiene, disease prevention and health care, and it is a scientific and healthy traditional custom.

Pickled fish and chicken

In the past, many people had to pickle salted meat, salted fish and air-dried chicken fish years ago, because the weather in December was dry and cold, and the pickled pickles could be preserved.

In the past, the countryside was poor, and some people didn't even know the taste of meat all year round. Only during the Spring Festival do they buy meat and fish. This seems incomprehensible to young people today, but it is a common phenomenon in the old society.

Spring Festival shopping

The year is approaching, and everyone's small families are going to buy new year's goods. The so-called new year's goods refer to all kinds of main and non-staple food, incense sticks, paper horses, door gods couplets, dried and fresh fruits, bowls, bamboo chopsticks, shoes and socks, clothes and hats and other items related to the New Year. Farmers go to town one by one with baskets and goods. People come and go in the streets, and traffic is heavy. Big bags and small bags, full of loads. When buying new year's goods, people are used to buying a pair of red chopsticks and a porcelain bowl to show that more people import and more people prosper. Nowadays, due to the improvement of living standards, the standard of handling new year's goods has changed greatly in terms of variety, quantity and quality compared with the past.

Feeding and receiving furnace

According to the custom of Li Ji, the common people "send stoves" on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, and there is a folk saying of "Jun, San and Si". According to legend, on the 23rd, the emperor's family sent a stove, but the people delayed it by one day.

In the past, Li set up every stove for the kitchen god. On the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, when the Kitchen God went to heaven, every household held a ceremony to deliver the kitchen stove. After dinner, clean the kitchen door, brush the kitchen table, and place offerings in front of the kitchen shrine: wine and rice candy for the kitchen god. This kind of candy is maltose, commonly known as "kitchen candy", which is particularly sticky. Couplets are posted on both sides: "Heaven says yes, and the lower bound is safe." Kitchen God specializes in human home. People were worried that he would speak ill of the Jade Emperor, so they stuck maltose on his mouth.

Nowadays, people's living standards have been greatly improved. People admire science and no longer believe in the greedy and talkative kitchen god and worship the kitchen god.