"Twenty-three, sugar melon sticky; twenty-four, sweep the house", the 25th is the twenty-third lunar month, the northern part of the mainland is a small year, and the south is wrong the day after the twenty-fourth small year of the waxing moon. Folklore experts said that the small year is an important beginning of the new year, is the prelude to the Spring Festival, no matter which day the small year, no matter what the difference in customs, people's good wishes to resign the old and welcome the new are the same, and the good expectations of welcoming the good fortune are the same.
Poster Maker: Feng Juan
Why don't the South and the North celebrate the New Year on the same day? Tianjin folklore expert and columnist You Guoqing explained that the ancient Chinese people had the saying of "official three, people four, and boat five" in the small year, that is, the official family Waxing Moon 23 is a small year, the people waxing the 24th small year, and the water people's homes, fishermen, etc. are the 25th small year of the Waxing Moon. The reason for this division is that before the Song Dynasty, the north was mostly a political center and was deeply influenced by official culture, so people chose the twenty-third day of the waxing moon for a small year; on the contrary, the south was far from the political center, and the small year was the twenty-fourth month of the waxing moon. In addition, along the shores of Poyang Lake and other places, there are old boat customs, and the small year is selected to pass on the twenty-fifth day of the Waxing Moon.
"The people of the north and the south do not spend the New Year on the same day, which is closely related to the local history and culture, which also reflects the diversified and rich characteristics of Chinese folk life." Said by National Day.
In the New Year, both north and south, the common custom is to worship the god Vesta and sweep the house. Because of his relationship with the god Vesta in the sky, XiaoNian also has a mysterious charm and legend.
According to The National Day, the god of Vesta, people also call him "Si Ming Bodhisattva" or "Stove King Si Ming", folklore that the God of Vesta was originally a star in the sky, because of his mistakes, he was demoted to the human world by the Jade Emperor, managing the stove fire of each family, and at the same time having the duty of blessing and supervision. He was ordered to monitor the good and evil of the world, and returned to heaven every year on the twenty-third or twenty-fourth day of the waxing moon to report the situation on earth to the Jade Emperor, who rewarded the evil according to the words of the god Vesta. Therefore, when people sacrifice the stove, they often put various offerings in front of the statue of the stove god to "bribe" him and let him "say good things from heaven".
In the north, there are many places that pay attention to the use of sugar melons to sacrifice stoves. The sugar melon is made of maltose, sweet and sticky, intended to make the god of Vesta say more "sweet words", or it is believed that this sugar can stick to the mouth of the god of Vesta, so as not to say bad things about the family. In fact, sugar melons have finally become delicious in children's mouths.
"In the old days, in order to pray for blessings and obedience, people would also paste couplets such as 'Heaven says good deeds, the netherworld ensures peace' or 'Heaven says good things, return to the palace to descend auspiciously' on both sides of the statue of vesta, and the horizontal batch is 'the head of the family', so xiaonian is also called 'sacrifice stove festival'. However, with the development of the times and the change of lifestyle, especially the modern people living in the metropolis, the cooking and dining life has changed greatly, and even there is no stove, and it is impossible to sacrifice the stove like the old generation, and the relevant folk customs naturally fade away, but our vision of the old and the new, the expectation of a better life, etc., in the case of conditions, still need a certain sense of ritual to manifest, inherit, and protect. By the national day said.
After the sacrifice stove, people began to sweep the house for hygiene, the north is called "dust removal", the south is called "dust dust", people all kinds of washing and washing, intended to sweep the "poor luck obscure" out of the door, clean, refreshing to welcome the arrival of the Lunar New Year.
Yu Guoqing said that in the old days, on the day of the New Year, every household should be cleaned to make the home look new. Today, the great sanitation of the year ago is not limited to the day of the small year, the lunar calendar la eight passed, some people began to sweep the house, some people wiped the glass of the home and pasted it with hanging money, lucky characters, window flowers, etc., and then looked forward to the arrival of the new year in the "sound of firecrackers".
In addition to worshiping the god Vesta and sweeping the house, there are other differences between the north and south customs of the New Year. For example, in the north, there are customs such as cutting window flowers and eating dumplings, while in the south there are customs such as writing Spring Festival and eating rice cakes.
"Although the customs of the north and the south are not the same, they are all important ceremonies for the Chinese people to welcome the New Year, and they also contain people's expectations and wishes for a better life in the New Year." Said by National Day. (Reporter Zhou Runjian)