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New Year's Eve with "ceremony"
Luo Xueya
The New Year is the first traditional festival in China, and all Chinese are attached great importance to it. From the twenty-third day of the Waxing Moon to the fifteenth day of the first month, every day is full of flavor and etiquette.
China is a "state of etiquette" with a history of 5,000 years of civilization, and the etiquette and rituals handed down by the ancestors have been continued by people from generation to generation and passed on by word of mouth, and have long penetrated into the bits and pieces of life, becoming a custom, everywhere in the Chinese year.
My grandmother was illiterate, had not read the Confucian "three rites", and could not speak of the "eight rites and four rituals", but she was the enlightenment teacher of my New Year's etiquette. Every time we enter the New Year's Pass, she will take us to perform rituals, which is very ceremonial.
On the twenty-third day of the lunar month, my grandmother taught us to perform rituals and prayers, send the king of the stove to heaven, and bless the cooking smoke in the coming year. Then, they performed the dust sweeping ceremony and purification ceremony, and began to raise dust and carry out hygiene. Bathe and say "twenty-seven, wash the plague, twenty-eight, wash sloppy." Get a haircut and say "have money and no money, shave your head for the New Year".
Chinese New Year's Eve the most rituals and customs, there are rules for pasting couplets and hanging blessing characters; family reunions, worship of ancestors, and etiquette. Eating the New Year's dinner, there is exquisiteness: the head of the fish should be toward the elders present, big crisp, elbows and other big dishes, the elderly need to move chopsticks first; keep the age, the whole family sits together, chats freely, but it is forbidden to say unlucky words; New Year's Eve, zero point firecrackers, exorcism and blessing, resign the old and welcome the new; light a fire, a night across two years, the lights are endless, usually very frugal grandmother, that night the electricity is never stingy.
The breakfast on the first day of the Chinese New Year is tangyuan, and if anyone eats tangyuan wrapped in coins, everyone should wish him good luck in the New Year. Then, it is to go up the mountain to sweep the grave, which is the same prescribed action of our family for decades, grandparents are buried in the front and back mountains of the mining area, no matter how beautiful the sky is, we are rain or shine, thunder and thunder. Climb the hill to the cemetery, set off artillery, burn money paper, light candles, and bow down devotionally.
Next, it is the New Year' greeting, relatives and friends come to each other's doors to wish each other good luck, until the finale of the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month shines on, and a happy year can be regarded as the perfect end in etiquette.
After my grandmother's death, my mother began to preside over our family's New Year's eve. She is a teacher who loves traditional culture very much, and adds a bit of classics to the family's annual customs. She taught me that the New Year ritual originated from the "wax festival", which was a grand ceremony for the ancients of primitive society to celebrate the harvest at the end of the year. The ancient text also has the following words: "Since the Beginning of the Reign of the Emperor, the Five Rites have been manifested; at the time of Yao Shun, the Five Rites have been prepared"; the Confucian "Zhou Li", "Rites of Duty", and "Rites", which are more than 2,000 years after the Han Dynasty. To worship the New Year, the Southern Dynasty "Jingchu Chronicle" has a pattern: the first day of the first lunar month, "the elder and the young are dressed in the crown, and the next prayer is congratulated". Therefore, we dress neatly, first worship our elders at home, and then go out to pay homage to relatives and friends. After the younger generations pay homage to the elders, the elders should give the elders money and wish the younger generations peace.
Most of our medical staff, since the outbreak of the epidemic in 2020, the New Year has not gathered, there are always many people absent. But the mother's pressure money for the younger generation has never been absent, she said that the Song Dynasty had a "flying post" to worship the New Year, why can't I send the old age money remotely? As a result, the 90-year-old mother learned to send WeChat to send new year's greetings to the juniors who stuck to the front line of the hospital.
With the increasing improvement of people's material and spiritual civilization living standards, the New Year's etiquette is also constantly changing in the inheritance: Chinese New Year's Eve the New Year, most of them have become a family sitting around to watch the Spring Festival Gala; visiting the New Year has become a telephone, WeChat New Year's greeting; kneeling has become a handshake, shaking hands has become a bow or nodding greeting; New Year's tomb sweeping, the rumbling sound of firecrackers and smoke-filled paper money incense candles have become a bouquet of beautiful flowers to pay tribute.... However, no matter how it changes, the family style of family reunion, respect for the elderly and love for the young, filial piety, and advocating harmony will not change, and the good wishes for the blessing of the new year, the peace of the country, the people, and the happiness and health of the people will not change. Traditional civilized etiquette and customs will always accompany our Chinese New Year.
Source: Sichuan Provincial Local History Work Office
Author: Luo Xueya (retired medical staff, member of Luzhou Writers Association, member of Neijiang Writers Association)
Pictured: Fang Zhi Sichuan
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