Manchu New Year customs

The manchu festival foods mainly include: sticky bean buns, sticky fire spoons, saqi horses, white flesh and blood sausages, bean noodle rolls (donkey rolling), Suzi leaf dumplings, rhubarb rice, hot pot, etc.; the wine they like to drink is mainly the "rice wine" brewed with rhubarb rice; the drinks that guests come to their homes to worship the New Year, and the drinks they drink are "mushy rice tea" made with stir-fried rhubarb rice and sorghum rice. 23rd Lunar Month: Manchus celebrate the New Year and make sticky bean buns, bean noodle rolls and other sticky foods. Sticky bean buns were gradually accepted by the Han people, and the bean noodle rolls were commonly known as "donkey rolling".

Chinese New Year's Eve: Manchu Chinese New Year's Eve to make Manchu traditional pastries——— Sachima, post couplets, window flowers, hanging notes (according to the eight flags, respectively, red, yellow, orchid, white), Fu characters, and give each other purses embroidered with "years of peace". Made from ingredients such as fine powder, eggs, sugar, sesame seeds, green red and melon kernels, Sachima is beautiful, fragrant and delicious, and is a festival with a unique national flavor that people love.

Chinese New Year's Eve afternoon, offerings and ancestor worship will be made. Ancestral shrines that are not often opened Chinese New Year's Eve noon. Five polished tin offerings were placed on top, two stacks of steamed buns were placed on the staple food, five in a stack, the pig's head was placed in the middle, the pig's nostrils were filled with green onions, and five bowls of dried rice were placed. The first bowl is a cooked "pork cube"; the second bowl is a carp in oil; the third bowl is fried pink flowers; the fourth bowl is a vegetarian green onion; and the fifth bowl is a tofu cube. The meat for the fangzi is four o'clock auspicious celebration; the fish is auspicious; the powder flower is to bless the descendants to make a fortune; the green onion should be cut off and tied into a handful, marking the wisdom and cleverness of the descendants of the family, and the glory of the ancestors. These sacrifices are placed on the table and eaten by the family after the sacrifice.

Chinese New Year's Eve, to pick up the gods, and after receiving the gods, put a horizontal log at the gate to prevent the ghosts from coming in. Chinese New Year's Eve also hung up door gods to drive away evil spirits and avoid ghosts, which was the result of absorbing Han customs, and the door gods were divided into "general door gods", "Fulu door gods", "judgment door gods", "baby door gods" and so on. The Imperial Palace in present-day Shenyang houses the god of the palace gate. Chinese New Year's Eve night to distribute "sacred paper", and then the junior men went to each family in the clan to "resign".

When the new Chinese New Year's Eve, the family eats dumplings, and also puts a few copper coins in the dumplings, and those who eat it are "happy all the time". Then pick up the gods and resign their lives to set off firecrackers. Lantern poles are erected in the courtyard of the house, and red lights are raised high.

The first day of the first lunar month: At the beginning of the new year, the Manchu families get up early, and the whole family gathers to eat reunion dumplings, commonly known as "Yuanbao". When cooking dumplings, the main family member shouted: "Is the little day up?" The others replied at the same time: "Get up!" "They compare the floating of dumplings from the bottom of the pot to the rise of the day. Then let the child climb up the cabinet and jump three times to show the new day "jump high". Then put on new clothes and hats, greet each other, and congratulate each other on the New Year. However, in the past, Manchu women had to wait until the sixth day of the first year before they could go out to visit the New Year. On this day, the younger generations have to kowtow to the elders to pray for the New Year (in the old days, women knelt down to pay the sideburns), and the parents had to give the children money to keep the age. Close relatives of the clan also pay homage to each other, and relatives and friends invite each other to feast and tell the old story together. Boys flock to set off fireworks, firecrackers, wooden plows, or gleefully skate, while girls and young women dress up and play Galaha (toys made of pigs or cow's knee bones) in full costumes.

The fifteenth day of the first month, the Yuanxiao Festival, also known as the Festival of Lights. In addition to receiving colored lanterns, the Manchus also made "ice lanterns" and displayed them for three days. In the early years, there were old customs, in Shenyang Siping Street (now Middle Street) held a lamp market, merchants pre-made all kinds of colorful lights, hanging in the doorway, there are characters, melons, animals, fish and crab lamps, strange tricks, horns to win the odd, but also mixed with Chen dragon lamps, lions, stilts, dry boats, songs, lamp officials and other dramas, scholars and women travel to see, filling the streets and alleys.

Song and dance are an important part of festival activities. According to the "Chronicle of the Bohai Kingdom", "When the officials and the people gathered to make music, they first ordered those who were good at singing and dancing, and several generations went forward, and the soldiers and women followed each other, and sang and sang harmony with each other, and the circle was tactful, and the trumpet was 'stepping on the chase'." "To chase is to step on stilts." To this day, this custom continues to this day. From the first to the fifth day of the first year, people gather together, singing, dancing, stepping on stilts, enjoying the entertainment, and in some places, young people also spontaneously organize performance teams, go to the village to perform, congratulate the New Year, and the festive atmosphere is more intense.

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Source: Auspicious Manchu