Tomorrow is Chinese New Year's Eve night! How much do your children know about the origins and customs of Chinese New Year's Eve?
Chinese New Year's Eve this festival evolved from the expulsion of the pre-Qin period. The so-called "expulsion" refers to the ancients' use of drumming on the day before the New Year to expel the "ghosts of the plague", which can be examined in the "Lü's Spring, Autumn and Winter Chronicle", and "expulsion" is the origin of the "Chinese New Year's Eve" festival.
Chinese New Year's Eve customs
1
Paste Spring League/Paste Fu Character
Chunlian, also known as "door pair", "spring paste", "couplet", "pair", belongs to a kind of Yanglian and is a unique literary form.
This world's earliest Spring League, "Sanyang Shibu, Four Orders And Initial Opening", is recorded in the Dunhuang Testament excavated from the Mogao Caves, written by Liu Qiuzi of the Tang Dynasty, in the eleventh year of the Kaiyuan Dynasty (723).
The folk custom of the Spring Festival of the people began to prevail from the Ming Dynasty, and the birthplace of the trend was Nanjing. At present, the people in the Jiangnan area pay attention to pasting the Spring Festival League in the morning of the Chinese New Year's Eve.
In fact, the sticker couplet is exquisite, according to the ancient customs, the upper link should be pasted on the top position. That is, when you are facing the door, the upper link is pasted in the direction of your right hand, and the lower link is the opposite.
As for the horizontal batch, according to the customs of the predecessors, it is best to write from right to left, but now there are also writing from left to right, how to be good, as long as it is pasted above the door frame, and the upper and lower positions can be compared left and right.
At the same time as pasting the Spring Festival, some people should paste large and small "Fu" characters on the door, wall, and lintel of the house.
Pasting the word "Fu" during the Spring Festival is a long-standing custom of mainland folk. The word "Fu" refers to blessings and good fortune, and pins people's yearning for a happy life and wishes for a better future.
In order to more fully reflect this yearning and wishing, some people simply paste the word "fu" upside down, indicating that "happiness has arrived" and "blessing has poured (to)".
In fact, the word Fu can not be pasted upside down, the gate is the place to welcome Fu Nafu, and the Fu word should be pasted. The place where fuzi is pasted upside down is generally a water tank, a garbage can, and a cabinet at home.
Chinese folk also have the "Fu" character finely drawn into a variety of patterns, the patterns are shou xing, shou peach, carp jumping dragon gate, five grains Fengdeng, dragon and phoenix Chengxiang and so on.
2
Dinner
The Chinese New Year's Eve meal of Chinese New Year's Eve night is also called the reunion meal, and according to Zong Ji's "Records of the Jingchu Years", at least in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, there was a custom of eating Chinese New Year's Eve meal.
Because it is winter, northerners often set up hot pot in the middle of the dining table, so it is also called an irori oven.
Northerners often Chinese New Year's Eve dishes include dumplings, fish, rice cakes, and long-term dishes.
Because dumplings resemble gold yuanbao, they have the meaning of wealth; fish cannot be eaten this dish, because in Chinese," "fish" and "Yu" are homophonous, which has the auspicious meaning of "every year there is more than enough"; rice cakes have the meaning of "rising every year"; Eating perennial dishes has the meaning of longevity.
In South China, there are many chickens, roast meat, hair vegetables, oyster sauce, etc., because "fat vegetable oyster sauce" and "fortune and good market" are harmonious. The typical Chinese New Year's Eve rice in Gangnam must have fish, a rich soup pot.
According to the old ritual, the traditional seats of the Chinese New Year's Eve Night are "Shangzuo Zundong" and "Facing the Gate". The chief of the annual feast is the eldest of the generations, and the last seat is the lowest. If it is a guest, the chief is the most honorable guest, and the host is the last. The chief did not sit down, the rest could not sit down, the chief did not move, everyone could not move.
3
Cut the window flowers
Of all the preparations, cutting and pasting window flowers is the most popular folk activity. After cutting the window flowers, they are pasted in the cleaned house, which adds a lot of New Year's joy to the home.
The window flower pattern has a variety of animals, plants, characters, etc., such as magpie Dengmei, peacock play peony, lion rolling hydrangea ball, three sheep (Yang) Kaitai, two dragon play beads, deer crane Tong Chun (six contract spring), five bat (Fu) Bo Shou, rhinoceros wangyue, lotus (lian) year fish (Yu), Mandarin duck playing water, bangs playing with golden cicadas, hehe erxian and so on.
4
bathe
Adults and children are required to take a bath and get a haircut. There is a saying in the folk that "there is no money, shave your head for the New Year".
The Lüliang area pays attention to washing feet on the 27th day of the Waxing Moon. On this evening, aunt Ruzi washed her feet with hot water. Girls who don't understand things, adults also have to help her scrub her feet clean, without leaving a little filth.
5
Keep the age
Chinese New Year's Eve is one of the most important annual activities, mainly manifested as Chinese New Year's Eve night lights are not extinguished all night, the age is called "burning the lamp to illuminate the year", that is, the Chinese New Year's Eve burn the lamp candles, all the houses are lit with candles, but also specially lit under the bed candles, called "light waste".
It is said that after such a year, the family will be enriched in the coming year.
In ancient times, the customs of the north and the south were different, and the custom of keeping the age in the north in ancient times was mainly to boil the Chinese New Year's Eve, such as the "Record of Customs" written by Zhou Chu of the Jin Dynasty: Chinese New Year's Eve night, everyone gave each other and gave gifts, called "giving the year"; the elder and the young gathered together, wishing for the completion of the song, called "dividing the age"; never sleeping, waiting for the dawn, called "keeping the age".
In some places, on the night of Chinese New Year's Eve, the whole family gathers together, eats Chinese New Year's Eve meals, lights candles or oil lamps, sits around the stove and chats, waits for the moment of resignation and welcome to the new, and keeps vigil all night, symbolizing the drive away of all evil plagues and diseases, looking forward to the auspicious new year.
6
Money
The ancients were very particular about pressing the old money, and the copper coins used were big money and new money, and then used red rope to wear various shapes.
Some wear hundreds of copper coins, taking the meaning of "long life and 100 years"; some wear auspicious shapes such as carp, ruyi, and dragon shape, taking the meaning of "money dragon" and "money yu", in order to bring auspicious wishes.
In addition to the elders sending children "pressed age money", some areas also have the custom of sending "pressing old age fruits". Chinese New Year's Eve night, the elders will put oranges, lychees and other melons and fruits on the child's pillow, taking the meaning of "auspicious" to wish the child a good luck in the coming year.
With the development of the times, the current "pressing money" is more direct and pure, generally using exquisite red packaging on red tickets, and then distributed to children, begging for a red and hot good head.
These 32 Chinese New Year's Eve poems
It is worth parents collecting for their children!
Chinese characters, expressed in ancient poems,
Whether it is the joy of resigning the old and welcoming the new,
Or the worries of nostalgia in a different place,
Always has a different charm!
finish
Image source: Photo Network, People's Daily Weibo
| Planning | New Media Center of Banquan Town Center Elementary School
| Edit | Xia Xiaohui
| Review | Yan Jing