On the first day of the Chinese New Year, the people worship each other for the New Year, and on the second day of the New Year, they will begin to go home to visit relatives, which is the second day of the first month of the first month to return to their mother's home. In the past, every year on the second day of the first lunar month, all daughters who married had to return to their mother's house, and their husbands and wives had to accompany them. Therefore, this custom is called "returning to the mother's house" in Chinese folk, also known as "going to the mother's house", and because the mother's family wants to welcome the son-in-law, this day is also called "Aunt's Day" and "Greeting the Son-in-Law's Day".
This time, the children of the mother's family should carry gifts when they return home, gifts for their parents, usually a large bag of candy, or biscuits, distributed by the mother to the neighbors, the picture is the New Year's celebration and liveliness.
In the past, in the folk, people believed that the daughter who married out could not return to the door on the first day of the first lunar month, and returning to the door would eat the mother's family poor, and only after the second day of the first month could she return to the mother's home. In Taiwan, there is such a folk proverb: "There is a father and a mother in the first two or three years, and there is no father and no mother to bear the burden." "This means that if a daughter with parents is born after the second day of the first lunar month, the mother's family will inevitably take back the reunion, only the daughter who has no father and no mother, no relatives miss, and the mother's family will not send someone to pick them up." There is also a proverb that says: "On the second day of the first lunar month, all the people on the road are Xiaosheng and Xiaodan", which refers to the day of the second day of the Chinese New Year, the streets are full of men carrying gifts and preparing to return to their mother's house with their wives.
The origin of the custom of "returning to your mother's house"
According to legend, the custom of returning to her mother's house on the second day of the Chinese New Year originated from Zhu Yuanzhang, the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty. It is said that after Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor, Princess Anqing married the capital Ouyang Lun. On the night of the first year Chinese New Year's Eve, the married sisters all went back to their in-laws' houses for the New Year, but the newly married Princess Anqing suspected that her mother-in-law's family was shabby, and she was the youngest daughter of Empress Ma, so she did not return to her in-laws' house, and had to spend the New Year with her parents in the palace.
Empress Ma, who had always been extremely strict with her children, persuaded Princess Anqing: "You are already a wife, and you must honor your in-laws and be considerate of your husband." How much they want to spend a lively reunion year with their new daughter-in-law who has just passed through the door! When the queen mother saw that her daughter was not stingy, she enlightened her, "You are the daughter of the emperor and do not return to her in-laws' house, although they cannot say anything, will they be happy in their hearts?" If you want to be fair, play upside down, in the future, after you become a mother-in-law, your daughter-in-law is a princess, and she will not be reunited with you in the New Year, will you be happy? "Well said, Princess Anqing has finally returned to her in-laws' house."
On the morning of the first day of the Chinese New Year, Zhu Yuanzhang was setting off firecrackers in the palace courtyard when he suddenly saw Princess Anqing and Ouyang Lun, the duke of The Horse, come to give them a New Year's greeting. Zhu Yuanzhang thought: I only sent you away last night, and this morning you came again, so he asked the princess, "Did you pay homage to your in-laws for the New Year?" Princess Anqing giggled and shook her head like a rattle. Zhu Yuanzhang was furious: "When I was emperor, I was a man, and ordinary people were also people!" Why don't you kowtow to your in-laws first in the new year, and the eldest old man goes far into the palace to worship us first?! Go for it! First go to your in-laws to pay homage to the New Year, honestly stay at home for a day to serve them, and come back to us tomorrow to pay our New Year's greetings! Zhu Yuanzhang said and went back to the study to write a couplet and handed it to his daughter, asking them to go back to ponder, and then threw them out. Princess Anqing went back and opened the couplet to see that it was: "The sheep kneels and milk, and the daughter-in-law respects the mother-in-law." Horizontal batch: It is natural. Later, this matter was spread, and Zhu Yuanzhang let Princess Anqing enter the palace to pay respects to the New Year was widely spread. Later generations of people also set this day as the custom of the daughter returning to her mother's home to visit her relatives, which has slowly been passed down to this day.
The diversity of ways to reunite in this day and age
Chinese has attached importance to blood relations since ancient times, and now, the custom of returning to her mother's house on the second day of the New Year has also provided a reason and opportunity for today's ordinary people to reunite, so that the sisters who have not seen each other for a long time can tell the old story and talk about the family. Now it is not as exquisite as in ancient times, people's New Year's way is also constantly changing, some people choose to rotate to go to the parents of both sides for the New Year, some people take both parents to travel together, and some people take both parents together for the New Year, the original "two families", because of the convenience of transportation and the improvement of living standards, have become a family. As we are familiar with the song singing, "with a smile with wishes, accompany the lover to often go home to see", due to the busy work on weekdays, the children run around all day, during the Spring Festival back to the "mother's home" provides an excellent opportunity for everyone to reunite, so that family affection can be more intense, so that our Chinese nation attaches importance to the family, the tradition of attaching importance to filial piety is inherited and spread.
Source: Guangming Network