Lantern Festival is the first day of the lunar calendar. On this day, the earth made a circle around the sun and started another circle. When people send away the old days and welcome a new day, it represents a new beginning. As the first day of the year, Lantern Festival has been regarded as the most important festival since ancient times.
customs
1. Lunar New Year (early year): According to the traditional custom in China, starting from Shihai on the last night of the twelfth lunar month (from 9: 00 pm to 6: 00 pm), every family must prepare to offer sacrifices to the gods on the altar. At the same time, they also prepare food for the New Year: the whole family will stay awake together to welcome the New Year (called keeping watch). After crossing the stone sea, Zishi (11p.m. to1a.m.) comes, which is the arrival of the New Year (Lantern Festival). At this moment, people begin to celebrate by setting off fireworks. Vegetarian food and sweets will be placed on the altar and then incense will be burned to welcome the gods. In ancient times, people thought that the stone sea connected these two years, so it was called Kainian.
On the same night, some families will follow Shu Tong's instructions and place a prepared altar in the direction of "lucky god" at "lucky time" to receive God. If the direction of the God of Wealth is at a disadvantage, people will choose to accept the God of Happiness or the God of Nobleness.
2. The custom of eating Yuanxiao in southern and northern areas of China is obviously different. People in northern China have the habit of eating jiaozi. Some people may put a candy or a coin in the jiaozi, hoping to have a sweet year after tasting the candy and a rich year after tasting the coin. On the other hand, southerners in China are forbidden to kill people during the Lantern Festival. Therefore, they don't eat meat in the morning of Lantern Festival, so as not to bleed or kill each other. In order to escape misfortune, they had no meat for the first meal of the day. Instead, they eat vegetarian food for virtue.
What is special during the New Year is that parents or elders will give children red envelopes (red envelopes or lucky money). People in ancient times were more particular about distributing red envelopes: the distribution took place on New Year's Eve, so that children could restrain the past year and enter a new year. Yasui means to overcome the unpredictable future. Lucky money represents a blessing for children's healthy psychological growth, and symbolizes that elders want to see their children overcome all the unpredictable factors brought about by the "Year of the Year".
There are many taboos about Yuanxiao. Every place has its own taboo customs. Here, we will only mention a few common taboos in Fujian, Guangdong and Southeast Asia:
In the past, it was generally believed that wealth was hidden in the house. Therefore, the floor must be swept in, and there is no garbage cleaning at night. Especially on the new day of tears, in order to prevent the outflow of wealth, there is no cleaning. Some families keep this taboo until the fifth day or even the fifteenth day. If something is broken, in order not to let the wealth slip away, these things are wrapped up and only disposed of on the fifth day.
Yuanxiao (in more serious families, from 1 day to 15 day) marks a new beginning. I hope the new year will bring a good start. People should not say unkind words or vulgar language. Making noise, fighting, quarreling, and especially crying are avoided to prevent misfortune. There are even taboos about taking medicine and sneezing, because people think they can cause diseases all year round. Past taboos are also related to using knives and breaking things. If something is broken, you can't use the word "broken" or any word with similar meaning. Instead, words that convey a pleasant feeling, such as "falling flowers", are used to imply a good relationship.
On the Lantern Festival, neither lend money nor give money to others, so there will be no money flowing out in a year. There is also a saying that when men take a nap, their careers will collapse, while when women take a nap, their kitchens will collapse.
5. Ancient Ceremony: In the past, there was a ceremony called "Harmony" during the New Year. When a person visits a friend or relative, he will bring a piece of paper or card with the owner's name written on it with a brush. People who receive greeting cards usually stick them on the wall of the lobby to show their respect and gratitude to the visitors. The number of greeting cards received reflects a person's public relations with others, while the name and status of the person who sent the greeting cards indicate the owner's social relations and living standards. Nowadays, due to convenient communication, convenient transportation system and wider social network, when people send greetings, they tend to follow the western way. Greetings are now done by mail or even email. Today, all he has to do is bring a red envelope and a food gift when he visits.
In order to conform to the custom of giving money on the first day, families in some places will not give new year greetings to others. On the contrary, the whole family just goes out to play, or stays at home to enjoy family happiness.
In the past, there was a superstition that one had to take the right first step when leaving home in the new year. A specific person will look for a lucky direction according to the interpretation of the China calendar and the date of birth. On Yuan Dan, when one steps out of the house, one must go in the lucky direction and avoid the unfortunate direction. Even people who are not very special consult the China calendar to find out the lucky direction and where the fierce gods are before they take the first step out of the house.
meaning
From the customs mentioned above, we can see that there are many taboos during the Spring Festival. Especially the Lantern Festival, there are more taboos in words and behaviors than usual. Similarly, there are more activities to pursue good causes than usual. Exploring these activities and taboos, we can easily understand that the theme behind them is always related to luck, wealth and kindness, and people usually care about their good start of the year.
Some taboos may seem superstitious on the surface, but they do have effects. If we practice them carefully, they will produce practical results. For example, swearing, quarreling, crying and crying are forbidden, and the emphasis on positive thinking even if things go wrong provides some normative rules for people to follow. This gives people a chance to turn over a new leaf, cultivate a good attitude and form the habit of thinking positively and looking at the good side of things. Banning cleaning and garbage disposal in the first five days forces people to properly arrange their affairs and remove garbage at the end of each year, so that nothing unwanted will be brought into the new year. At the same time, taboos also force people to learn to be frugal. This is because in order to prevent the accumulated things from turning into garbage, people must use any paper or other things carefully to avoid wasting things.
Avoiding taking medicine and sneezing on the first day seems like a joke, which is absurd for patients. However, due to taboos, people will have enough consciousness to take care of their health seriously in windy and snowy seasons. Therefore, they will avoid getting sick in the new year and wasting precious spring.
Now, people have given up the custom of carrying greeting cards when visiting in the New Year. However, Chinese in Malaysia still keep the habit of mailing New Year cards before the New Year.
Some foreigners even send New Year greetings to their friends in China in English or Malay. In addition, people in China like to decorate their houses with colorful New Year to strengthen the atmosphere of the New Year. Just like the ancient greeting cards displayed in the hall, these modern greeting cards also reflect the social status of the recipients. In this way, the ancient He Shen ceremony developed in Malaysia, with the color of Malaysia.