What's the difference between northerners and southerners in celebrating the Spring Festival?

Spring Festival is the most important and lively festival in China. For thousands of years, people have formed many grand and distinctive customs to celebrate the Spring Festival. In the vast land of China, the customs of the north and the south are influenced by the regional culture, and there are subtle differences in holiday food, distribution of new year's goods, ways of celebration and the amount of red envelopes, which have strong local characteristics.

First of all, the holiday food is very different: jiaozi is eaten in the north and Tangyuan is eaten in the south.

Jiaozi is a holiday food for the Spring Festival in northern China. Jiaozi's curved and full shape is similar to the traditional gold ingot, symbolizing prosperity and happiness in the new year. At the same time, Jiaozi is homophonic for "getting old", which means years change. My hometown is in Liaoning. When I was a child, during the Spring Festival, my family would always sit around and wrap jiaozi and tell us about our family, and wrap auspicious food such as sugar, coins and peanuts in jiaozi to add joy.

In the south, the food for the Spring Festival is glutinous rice balls or rice cakes. Tangyuan has a perfect shape and a beautiful meaning of family reunion. The homophonic "high every year" of rice cakes symbolizes the good omen for the rise of work and life in the new year. My father is from the south. Every year during the Spring Festival, he would bring me back festive rice cakes from his hometown in the south. The red dot with red inkpad on the white rice cake is a good sign that the day is getting better and better.

Second, there are differences in the distribution of new year's goods: northern steamed buns and southern bacon.

The preparation of new year's goods in the north is characterized by large quantity and boldness. Before the Chinese New Year, northerners will buy winter vegetables such as cabbage and radish in sacks and store them as new year's dishes. Daughter-in-law will steam dozens of pounds of steamed bread and steamed buns as staple food during the New Year. Conditional families will also kill a pig, and a delicious pig-killing dish on New Year's Eve is enough to repay the hard work of northerners in the past year. In addition, around the twelfth lunar month, every northern family will set up an oil pan to fry some Spring Festival snacks, such as meatballs and burnt leaves.

In the south, the preparation of new year's goods during the Spring Festival is the pursuit of variety and fine quality. The most common new year's goods in the south are all kinds of bacon sausages. If you see prepared bacon hanging from the eaves of southern families, it proves that the new year is coming. In addition, southern families will prepare all kinds of dried fruits. Chatting to relieve boredom is essential.

Third, there are different ways to celebrate: dragon dancing in the north and visiting temple fairs in the south.

During the Spring Festival, dragon lanterns will be danced in the south. This is a unique celebration that combines lion dance, dragon dance, floating boat, running bamboo and horse, walking on stilts and fishing lanterns. During the Spring Festival, the Dragon Lantern Team will dance door to door, adding a lively atmosphere to the New Year.

Temple fairs will be visited during the Spring Festival in the northern region. Temple fairs are generally held around the first day of junior high school, which is a traditional folk cultural activity integrating eating, drinking and having fun. Families in the north usually travel together, eat candied haws, Tang Hua and other snacks at temple fairs, and watch folk performances such as dragon and lion dances to ease the hardships of the past year.

Fourth, there is a gap in the amount of red envelopes: the amount in the north is large and the amount in the south is large.

In the north, red envelopes, also known as lucky money, are cash gifts from elders to younger generations during the Chinese New Year. Usually young people who are not married at home can get it, and the amount ranges from several hundred yuan to several thousand yuan. This kind of gift is also called lucky money, which means that the elders pray for peace for the younger generation.

Red envelopes are also called "gifts" in the south. The amount of red envelopes is generally small, usually around five to ten yuan. People will not only give red envelopes to relatives, but also give them to anyone like community doormen and cleaners. Unmarried employees in the company can also "make profits" for married employees, just for good luck.

In fact, when it comes to the custom of Chinese New Year, every place has its own characteristics. I also thought that when I was a child, my family would throw one on the roof and bury one underground, indicating that heaven and earth would bless the new year with good luck. One side of the soil and water support one side. China has a vast territory and rich resources, which also makes the Chinese New Year customs in China different from those in the north and the south. Although the ways are different, what everyone pursues is only the taste of Chinese New Year, that is, the happiness of family reunion.