Preamble:
Time flies, and soon it is the end of the year, and people seem to be busy again, busy preparing New Year's goods, busy cleaning, and busy welcoming the day of family reunion.
Nowadays, people are earning more and more money, but the taste of the New Year is getting weaker and weaker, and some places have even introduced measures to ban fireworks and firecrackers. Under the perception of such an atmosphere, sometimes the New Year is extremely quiet, and it seems that except for traveling, there is no difference from ordinary weekends.
Only in this province, the flavor of the New Year is particularly strong, and even at 2 o'clock in the middle of the night, you have to get up at 2 o'clock in the middle of the night, organize a group to visit the New Year, and kowtow everywhere, do you know where this is the custom Xi habits?
The mighty "New Year's Preparation" ceremony
This place has always been known as the "capital of etiquette", especially the series of preparatory "projects" before the Chinese New Year is even more amazing, and it is basically rare to see such a phenomenon in all parts of the country.
Nowadays, many people are looking for the taste of the year and looking for memories, so you might as well come to the small mountain village here to have a look, and you can indeed find the memories of the sixties and seventies.
In fact, before the New Year, the days before the New Year began to be busy, for Chinese, the New Year is of great significance, which means saying goodbye to the past year, beckoning to the new year, and also implying the expectation of the new year.
The author lived in such a place when he was a child, and during the period before the Chinese New Year, when he came home from school every day, he would see that the old people at home were busy preparing for the New Year's goods, and that feeling was extraordinarily fulfilling and happy, because it also meant that the winter vacation was coming soon.
Before the Chinese New Year, every household will clean the glass, wash the curtains, clean the kitchen, steam steamed buns, and steam rice cakes, all of which are prepared just to ensure that everything will be safe and smooth in the coming year.
In this place, it is also a special custom to catch a big market before the Chinese New Year. Walking on the bustling market, it is far from the New Year's flavor in the supermarket, there are red couplets, red firecrackers, red clothes, red lanterns hanging everywhere, everywhere is a red fire, not yet the New Year, the New Year's flavor here has been fresh.
This place will even be overcrowded before the Chinese New Year, it is really crowded with people to buy, people buy very complete species, buy pistachios, buy melon seeds, are a big bag to carry home.
If you're looking for a New Year's flavor, it's stronger here than anywhere else. The children follow the adults' buttocks, helping the elders carry heavy loads and picking out their favorite snacks and fruits and vegetables. It seems that at this moment, all the requirements made by the child will be met by adults, just for the sake of an auspicious word.
Having said all this, do you know where this place is? That's right, it's Shandong, in this part of Shandong, especially in the countryside, the flavor of the New Year before the Chinese New Year is particularly strong, and it is said that there is a unique New Year's greeting ceremony in the country.
Before the Chinese New Year, Shandong people will make all kinds of fried goods, and will also make Shandong specialties - pig skin jelly, tiger head chicken, fried countless hairtail fish and balls, and before the New Year, they will prepare two large pots of dumpling stuffing in advance, because Shandong people will make dumplings basically every ton of must-haves. In addition, after buying New Year's pictures and couplets for the family, everything is ready and waiting for the New Year.
Unique New Year's etiquette
On the day of the Chinese New Year's Eve, Shandong people are the busiest. Because on the morning of Chinese New Year's Eve, they are busy pasting couplets, in Shandong, pasting couplets is time-sensitive, and the perfect couplet is pasted at an auspicious time, meaning that your family will start a smooth year.
On the afternoon of Chinese New Year's Eve, Shandong people are busy going to the grave again, yes, on this day, it is also a day for Shandong people to worship their ancestors, and the younger generations will go to sweep their graves and worship their ancestors with their thoughts of their ancestors. And put a hexagram firecracker in front of the tomb, it is the descendants who tell their thoughts about their ancestors, and also tell them how well the descendants are doing, this ancestor worship ceremony is very grand.
There is also a custom of going to the grave in Shandong, that is, unmarried women are not allowed to go to the grave. Boys take on the responsibility of worshipping their ancestors. After coming to the cemetery, it is often a family of people together, after worshipping the ancestors, kowtowing, placing tributes, and then the group of people walking home in a mighty way, at this moment, the sadness is less, more is the sense of integration of the family together.
Not only that, a big family, will also prepare a special house, on the thirtieth day, the ancestors of the tablet enshrined, that is, the so-called "please ancestors", countless descendants in this house to hold worship ceremonies, this large family ancestor worship mode, is also a unique feature of Shandong.
On Chinese New Year's Eve in Shandong, this Chinese New Year's Eve meal is particularly important, and the characteristic of Shandong people is a dumpling feast. When making dumplings, the elderly will prepare rice cakes, tofu, red dates and coins in advance, and secretly wrap them into the dumplings.
After a large pot of dumplings is cooked, a large family will be called to come and eat dumplings. And if the lucky person will eat dumplings with special fillings, it means that he will either rise step by step this year, or be prosperous, or make a fortune. Sometimes, the elderly will put dumplings with coins in the children's bowls in the hope that they will have a smooth new year.
Of course, the dumpling with the coin is not really eaten by people because although it has been cleaned before the bag, there are still health risks, so it is just an auspicious meaning, in order to please the lottery.
Worship the early years, it's really early enough
After eating this dumpling, the old people will burn paper money and incense at home again before 12 o'clock, which also means a kind of prayer for the New Year.
The night of Chinese New Year's Eve, for Shandong, especially for rural Shandong this year, is basically a sleepless night, because they need to pay respects to the early years. The Xi of worshipping the early years is really early enough in Shandong, because at 2 o'clock in the morning they will get up and go to pay their respects.
This team of Shandong New Year's greetings is very amazing. A group of as few as a dozen or as many as fifty or sixty people entered the home of an elder in the village together, and then knelt down and kowtowed in unison.
This kowtow ceremony is really unique in the country, the old people have worked hard all their lives, waiting for the respect of future generations, and this kowtow instantly shortened the distance between each other.
Family after family, according to the distance, the New Year's ceremony will last for three or four hours, and then after dawn, people begin to gather together, play cards, drink and eat, so lively.
This is the unique Shandong New Year's greeting culture, of course, in other parts of the country, also have their own New Year's greeting rituals, welcome to leave a message in the comment area, talk about your Xi customs......