Xiao Nian is one of the traditional festivals in the mainland, although it is not as famous as the "Spring Festival", "Mid-Autumn Festival" and "Qixi Festival", it is known far and wide, but it is also a traditional festival that every household must pass and attaches great importance to. The New Year, almost is the New Year's "rehearsal", people from this day began to prepare the New Year's goods, dust, sacrifice stove, pinned on the old and welcome the new, the good wish of receiving blessings. What makes Xiao Nian special is that it is also the only traditional festival on the mainland with different days from north to south.
Why is the small year divided into north and south?
The sacrificial stove is one of the main customs of the small year, and the folk sacrificial stove originates from the fire worship custom of the ancients. In the Spring and Autumn Period, there was a god of the stove, although the god of the stove was small, but in charge, so the society at that time spread that the god of the stove should be worshipped. By the time of the Han Dynasty, the sacrifice to the god of the stove had developed into a large ritual, listed as one of the most important rituals at that time, and the biggest difference from the present day was that the sacrificial stove at that time was not on the 23rd or 24th day of the lunar month, but in the summer. In the Northern Song Dynasty, people believed that the "New Year" was not an hour, a day, but a period of time, and it entered this time from the twenty-fourth day of the lunar month, and this day was the New Year's Festival. This is also the origin of what we often say now, "a small year is a year". During this period, the sacrificial stove was easily merged with the "New Year's Festival". The merger of the festival and the sacrificial stove has enriched the customs of this festival.
At the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Mongolian people with a long culture had the custom of sacrificing to the god of fire on the twenty-third day of the lunar month, and with the founding of the Yuan Dynasty of Mongolia, this custom was also brought over. However, due to the short history of the Yuan Dynasty, and only the Mongolian people sacrificed to the god of fire on the 23rd day of the lunar month, the Han people still celebrated the 24th lunar month of the lunar New Year, so the Yuan Dynasty fell until the Ming Dynasty In the documentary records, most of them took the 24th lunar month as the small year.
In the Qing Dynasty, because of the same belief in shamanism, the Qing Dynasty imperial palace and Mongolian customs were similar. At that time, the situation in the imperial palace of the Qing Dynasty was that the god of fire was sacrificed once on the 23rd day of the lunar month, and the god of the stove was sacrificed once on the 24th day of the lunar month. Later, Emperor Yongzheng saw that the two festivals were next to each other and similar in form, so he changed the twenty-third day of the lunar month to the sacrificial stove and celebrated the New Year. Under the influence of the imperial power, the custom of celebrating the New Year on the 23rd day of the lunar month slowly spread from north to south, especially the princes and nobles who went south and the officials in the south, who paid special attention to keeping in line with the royal family. In this way, the officials all followed the rules of the court and passed twenty-three, while the people still retained the tradition of passing twenty-four. The saying of "three officials and four people" has been formed. To this day, the areas in the north that were more influenced by the imperial power in those years basically took the 23rd day of the lunar month as a small year, while many places in the south, especially the Hakka cultural areas, are more accustomed to the 24th lunar month.
The custom of the young year
Although there are differences between the north and the south of the continent in terms of the time of the year, some customs and activities are consistent with people's wishes to break the old and establish the new, and to say goodbye to the old and welcome the new.
Eat stove candy Legend has it that Xiao Nian is the partner of the year, who once incarnated as a turtle to present Luo Shu to Dayu, and the mysterious "Luo Shu" pattern on its back is also the origin of the Book of Changes, which is known as the first of China's ten thousand classics. The I Ching Kun hexagram of "topography Kun gentleman and virtuous people" is the embodiment of Xiao Nian. Every year after Chinese New Year's Eve, the Great Year returns to its place of residence, the Big Dipper, to retreat and accumulate auspicious energy until Chinese New Year's Eve (the 29th or 30th day of the lunar month). Every year on the twenty-third day of the lunar month, it will send Xiao Nian to the world first to see who needs the replenishment of auspicious energy and inform it of the situation. Xiao Nian loves to eat stove candy, so people can "say good things to heaven" for Xiao Nian and the stove prince, and they have formed the folk custom of eating stove candy in Xiao Nian.
Sweeping the dust After the twenty-third day, there are only six or seven days left before the Spring Festival, and the preparations for the New Year seem to be even busier. It is necessary to thoroughly clean the interior, commonly known as dusting, and sweeping dust is to remove the old and welcome the new, and remove the ominous. Every household should be cleaned carefully and thoroughly, so that the windows are bright and clean. Painting walls, scrubbing glass, pasting windows, pasting New Year's pictures, etc. Dusting is mainly to clean the house thoroughly, and housewives usually cover the beds and furniture in the room first, wrap their heads in a headscarf, and then sweep the walls up and down with a broom. After sweeping the house, scrub the tables and chairs and rinse the floor. After the house was cleaned, the shops and residents' homes were completely renewed, all showing a joyful and thriving festival scene.
Cutting window grilles Among all the preparations, cutting and pasting window grilles is the most popular folk activity. The content has a variety of animals, plants and other stories, such as magpie Dengmei, swallow wearing peach willow, peacock playing peony, lion rolling hydrangea, three sheep (yang) Kaitai, two dragons playing pearls, deer crane Tong Chun (six contract spring), five bats (Fu) holding longevity, rhinoceros looking at the moon, lotus (even) year fish (remainder), mandarin ducks playing in the water, bangs playing golden cicada and two immortals and so on.
Folklore is the fusion of multiple cultures, the crystallization of national wisdom, and the fragrance lasts for a long time. The diversity and differences of folk customs are the proof of the richness and profundity of Chinese culture.
Organizer: Party History Research Office of Yingkou Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China