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Chinese New Year's Eve, also known as the big Chinese New Year's Eve, Chinese New Year's Eve night, except the night, the year is divided, etc. It is the last night of the lunar month (December) every year. Division, i.e., the meaning of removal; sunset, means night. Chinese New Year's Eve is also a festival of resignation and new, unity and renewal.
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Chinese New Year's Eve customs
1. Eat Chinese New Year's Eve meal Chinese New Year's Eve
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, it has the meaning of wealth; the dish of fish cannot be eaten, because in Chinese,"fish" and "yu" are homophonous, and have the auspicious meaning of "every year there is more than one"; Rice cake has the meaning of "rising every year"; eating long-term 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.
2, Chinese New Year's Eve do not draw water
In the New Year, there is a taboo of "not drawing water", and people with wells should "seal the wells" before dusk on the day, add wooden covers to the wells, burn incense after offering pastries, and then open the cover and reuse it after three days.
3. Worship ancestors Chinese New Year's Eve
Ancestor sacrifice is the first major event of Chinese New Year's Eve. In many parts of the mainland, on this day, people will put rich meals in their homes, light incense candles, and parents lead their children and grandchildren to prostrate.
In some parts of the north, rural areas also burn paper money in their homes. Chinese New Year's Eve evening, in front of the ancestral statue, incense candles are lit, fine wine is poured, dishes are placed, and the whole family holds a solemn sacrifice ceremony to express the feeling of "cautiously chasing the distant future". After the ancestors had eaten Chinese New Year's Eve, people began to enjoy it.
4, Chinese New Year's Eve to give pressure money
The ancients were very particular about pressing old money. The copper coins used should be large and new, and then worn into various shapes with red rope. 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.
5. Chinese New Year's Eve activities
Chinese New Year's Eve night, mainland folk also hold a year-stamping activity, that is, in the courtyard, sesame stalks are glued to the shape of a yuanbao rolled with yellow paper and saved into a bundle, which is called a "cornucopia".
Then, the whole family stomped it with their feet to "break" and harmonize the "year", and borrowed the auspicious meaning of sesame blossom festival to wish the family prosperity and express blessings and hopes for the new year.
6. Keep the age Chinese New Year's Eve
Chinese New Year's Eve night vigil is also a long-standing custom, as early as the Western Jin Dynasty "Record of Customs" has a clear record: "Do not sleep all night, waiting for the dawn of the day to keep the age." ”
Legend has it that the purpose of keeping the age is to prevent the invasion of a unicorn, and this unicorn is most afraid of fire, red and sound, so Chinese New Year's Eve people wear red clothes, light red lights, paste red paper, set off fireworks and firecrackers, burn incense and pray, and stay up all night, and there is a custom of "keeping the age". The Jisheng of the Imperial Age records: "High-burning silver candles, drinking pine mash, sitting on Dadan, known as Shou Nian, and extending the year with a trillion." ”
Many places also call Chinese New Year's Eve night "auspicious night". On this night, both adults and children must say auspicious words, not obscure words, dirty words and disrespectful words, otherwise they will be unlucky for a year. Therefore, rejoicing, harmony, and reunion are the biggest themes of Chinese New Year's Eve Night.
7, Chinese New Year's Eve to turn on the light to sleep
Chinese New Year's Eve when you go to bed at night, you can't turn off the lights, and you can only turn off the lights until dawn on the first day of the New Year. Chinese New Year's Eve the whole night, the lights are generally not turned off in the home, especially the house that supports the ancestors.
8. Do not break the utensils Chinese New Year's Eve
Chinese New Year's Eve there is also the custom of breaking utensils. Folk believe that if the dishes and cups are broken on this day, it means that there will be "broken luck" in the new year.
Sometimes if you accidentally break the cup and plate on this day, the elders will wrap it in red paper and recite auspicious words such as "years and years (broken) peace" to remedy it. Folk believe that the fragments wrapped in red paper can be defused by placing them on the god case for a few days. Therefore, people will be cautious in their words and deeds in order to win a good lottery on this day of Chinese New Year's Eve in order to obtain an auspicious and satisfactory year.
9. Chinese New Year's Eve paste spring league
Chunlian, also known as "door pair", "spring paste", "couplet", "pair", belongs to a kind of Yanglian and is a unique literary form.
"Sanyang Shibu, Four Orders And Initial Opening" is the world's earliest Spring League, which is recorded in the Dunhuang Testament excavated from the Tibetan Scripture Cave of the Mogao Caves, written by Liu Qiuzi of the Tang Dynasty, in the eleventh year of the New Century (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.
10. Chinese New Year's Eve paste New Year paintings
New Year paintings, like the Spring Festival, originated from the "Door God".
With the rise of engraving and printing, the content of the New Year paintings was not limited to the door gods and the like, but gradually invited the god of wealth to the home.
In addition, in some years of painting workshops, colorful New Year paintings such as "Fulu Shou Three-Star Chart", "Blessing of Heavenly Officials", "Five Grains and Abundance", "Six Animals Prosperity", "Greeting Spring Blessings" and so on were produced in the painting workshops to meet people's good wishes for celebrating the New Year.
11. Chinese New Year's Eve window flowers
In the folk, people also like to paste various paper cuts on the windows - window flowers. Window flowers not only set off the festive atmosphere, but also combine decoration, appreciation and practicality.
Paper-cutting is a very popular folk art in the mainland, and has been loved by people for thousands of years, because it is mostly attached to the window, so it is also called "window flower". With its unique generalization and exaggeration, the window flower vividly expresses auspicious events and good wishes, and decorates the festival with red and rich.
12. Stick the word "Blessing" Chinese New Year's Eve
The Spring Festival sticker Fu character is a long-standing custom of Chinese folk. The Spring Festival sticker "Fu" is a blessing that pins people's yearning for a happy life and a wish for a better future.
There is no uniform standard for how the word "Fu" should be posted.
13, Chinese New Year's Eve must go home at midnight
The reunion Chinese New Year's Eve meal is eaten in a burst of laughter, and the family will sit around the TV to watch the Spring Festival Gala, or visit relatives' houses to chat, but they must return home before midnight.
At one to zero o'clock, the family must all "keep the year" at home, and when the hands of the clock pass through 12 o'clock, people will set off firecrackers that have been prepared to celebrate the arrival of the new year.
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Source: Xinhua News Agency
Editor: Xiao Lu Reviewer: Xi Ting Review: Deng Chuangong