New Year's Greetings: Celebrate the New Year and pay homage to them

Qing Dynasty Ding Guanpeng"Taiping Spring City Map" (partial)

The Spring Festival has a long history and many names, called "Zhengri" in the Han Dynasty, "Yuan Day" in the Tang and Song Dynasties, "New Year's Day" in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and commonly known as the New Year in folklore. As the beginning of the year, during the Spring Festival, worship the New Year, worship ancestors, visit temple fairs, receive the god of wealth, celebrate people's days, and the customs and activities are colorful. Among them, the New Year is an important holiday ceremony to celebrate the New Year and honor the elders.

During the Southern Dynasty, Zong Yi recorded in the "Jingchu Chronicle" that people at that time were to greet each other on the first day of the first lunar month, "The first day of the first month ... The eldest and youngest are dressed in crowns, and they pay homage to each other, and drink peach soup with pepper and cypress wine." At that time, the worship was mainly carried out within the family members.

After the Tang Dynasty, the object of worship was no longer limited to the family, and the worship of the New Year gradually developed into a ceremonial act with social significance. The bureaucratic dignitaries and literati of the Song Dynasty highly respected the New Year's greeting etiquette. However, it was not until the Ming and Qing dynasties that the New Year's greeting ceremony developed into a festival ceremony shared by the whole people.

Lu Rong recorded in the "Miscellaneous Records of Shuyuan" that the Spring Festival worship ceremony in Beijing during the Ming Dynasty was very popular. After the first day of the first year, the aristocratic officials and ordinary people in the capital went out to pay respects to the New Year, and "people who came and went on staggered roads for days." Suzhou people also attach great importance to the New Year, Gu Lu said in the "Qing Jia Lu" that when suzhou people celebrate the Spring Festival, men and women at home pay homage to their parents, and the parents lead the people to "visit their neighbors and friends", if they cannot visit in person, "or stop sending their children to congratulate them". Even those who usually do not want to see each other for some reason must pay homage to each other during the New Year, resolve contradictions with each other, and "even those who do not meet each other all their lives will also worship each other at the door at this time."

According to the custom, the first year of the New Year should be early, Kong Shangren said in the "New Year's Day", "drum horn plum blossoms add one, five more laughter to worship the New Year." If you go to the New Year in the evening, it is "the Year of the Night". Of course, the New Year is not limited to the first day of the first year, during the Spring Festival, some places can worship the New Year before the fifteenth, and some places can even worship the New Year before february 2. Whether the time is sooner or later, the most sincere and respectful heart of the New Year, as the saying goes, "there is a heart to worship the New Year, the Dragon Boat Festival is not late, there is no heart to worship the New Year, and the first day of the first year is also late."

There are many ways to worship the New Year, with relatives visiting the door to pay homage to the New Year, and those who are neglected to post the New Year. Visiting in person is the most solemn New Year's greeting. On the third year of Emperor Wenzong's reign (838), "Yuan Day", an event of great significance in the Chinese literary scene occurred in Luoyang, Henan Province. The two great poets of the Middle and Tang Dynasties, Bai Juyi of the "Poetry Demon" and Liu Yuxi, the "Poetry Hero", did not give new year greetings to higher-level officials during the Spring Festival, but chose to pay homage to their friends with a sharp heart. Since bai juyi and Liu Yuxi first met in Yangzhou many years ago, they have been singing continuously, and they can be called "literary friends and poetry enemies". When they met Luoyang again, the two were even more happy. In the early morning of the "First Day", Liu Yuxi was ordering people to prepare a palanquin to go to Bai Juyi to pay homage to the New Year, and overheard his family coming to report that Bai Juyi had already arrived. Liu Yuxi hurried to greet him, and after the two of them wandered around, they drank and talked together.

During the banquet, Bai Juyi composed a poem: "Twilight teeth will suddenly arrive, and one heart and one heart will be self-pitying." It is advisable to reduce food and eat gradually, and it is already happy to be more years old. The purple silk line is united, and the basket is shoulder to shoulder. With Jun TongJiazi, the wine of the year is the first. "As the years pass, the New Year has arrived, the two have grown a year older, who will drink this cup of wine to congratulate the New Year?" The reason why Bai Juyi asked this question is because according to folk customs, the order of drinking Tu Su wine on the "first day" is from small to large, the so-called "think well, big respect the small", and Bai Juyi and Liu Yuxi in the same year, there is a question of "who is the first to meet the old wine". But Liu Yuxi replied very crisply, "Gradually entering the number of years, happy to meet the new year." The earthquake fang tianli moved, and the Yin emperor returned. The door lane sweeps away the snow, and the forest garden is early plum. With Jun Tong Jiazi, Shou Jiu let the cup first". Although Liu Yuxi is the same year as Bai Juyi, Bai Juyi's birthday is the twentieth day of the first month, and "shoujiu let the cup first", indicating that Liu Yuxi's birthday is later.

"Celebrate the return of the past, and raise wine to wish each other." After the host and guest meet and say "New Xi Na Fu", they will sit around and feast, gossiping and gossiping, and all kinds of fine wine and food are indispensable at this time. The "Ji Sheng in the Age of Emperor Jing" records in great detail the food that Beijingers eat during the New Year's Greeting, there are tea, hot pot, "cut flowers and painted fruits for tea, ten jin hot pot for food", there are also soup points, "goose oil fang supplement, pork bun head, river rice cake, yellow rice dumplings", wine and rice are indispensable, "pickled chicken bacon, bad parts of the fish, pheasant claws, deer rabbit breast", as well as various fruits, "pine hazel lotus celebration, peach almond kernels, chestnut jujube branches, hawthorn cake Geng cake, green branch grapes, Baizi Gang Durian, Autumn Wave pear, Apple Po fruit, lion orange orange, orange slice Bayberry". In addition, you can also add some more at will, "Sea Mistake Mountain Treasure, Home Cuisine Market Point". Only a sumptuous wine and delicacy can express the joy of spending the New Year together.

Visiting the door to visit the New Year is a pleasure, but the festival period is limited, coupled with too many relatives and friends, it is difficult to visit one by one, and there is no way to deal with it. "I don't ask to meet but to be polite, and the famous paper is full of money; I also throw a few pieces of paper with people, and the world's feelings are too simple and not too vain." This is the Ming Dynasty Wen Zhengming's "Bai Nian" poem. It can be seen from this that at that time, it was very popular to send New Year's greeting stickers. His own home is full of all kinds of expensive New Year stickers, and he also follows the trend to send New Year stickers to others. Giving away New Year greetings is a common way for the ancients to worship the New Year. Bai Nian stickers are also called "famous thorns", "door thorns", "famous gurudwara", "red singles", "flying stickers" and so on. It was used as early as the time of Emperor Taizong of Tang.

During the Zhenguan period, Guotai Min'an. During the Spring Festival of one year, Emperor Taizong of Tang feasted on his courtiers and used red gold to suppress the New Year card engraved with the imperial book "Putian Tongqing", rewarding the courtiers and celebrating the festival. For ordinary literati and inkers, they cannot use red gold to suppress the New Year card like the emperor, but they also have ingenious ideas, carefully drawing various auspicious patterns such as flowers, birds and beasts, and characters on the paper, and then writing their names to send to relatives and friends to celebrate. Later, the production of the New Year's greeting post became more and more elaborate, and the packaging became more exquisite and intricate. There are not only single-page New Year stickers, but also different forms such as hinges and consecutive pages. Some of the Prayers are made of red silk and sprinkled with red gold to form a text; some are made of a whole brocade and pre-woven into auspicious words.

In the Qing Dynasty, the posters were not only signed and stamped, but also had a special worship box for the New Year's prayers. The box is made of precious wood, carved patterns, and even decorated with gold and silver, etc., which is very luxurious. In addition to placing a New Year's greeting post in the prayer box, sometimes valuable items such as antique treasures, gold and silver jewelry are also placed, which changes the nature of the New Year's greeting ceremony. In order to facilitate the timely preservation of the New Year stickers, each household will also paste a red paper bag in front of the door, commonly known as the "door book". In order to pray for good luck, the first page of the "Door Book" specially wrote four "pro-visitors", "Shou Bailing Old Lady, who lives in Baishengfang Lane; Rich Old Master Yu, who lives in Yuanbao Street; Gui Wuji Lord, who lives in the University Arch building; and Fu Zhao Lin, who lives in Wufu Building".

Unity is restored, and everything is renewed. On the occasion of the Spring Festival, relatives and friends greeted each other and exchanged auspicious blessings, which not only expressed respect and contacted emotions, but also promoted the continuous development of chinese festival etiquette traditions.

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