the Spring Festival; Chinese New Year
The first day of the first lunar month is the Spring Festival, commonly known as "Chinese New Year", which is the most solemn traditional festival. Drink Laba porridge and count the years. After Laba (the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month), every household began to be busy with the Spring Festival. Households choose auspicious days for general cleaning, commonly known as "sweeping houses", to say goodbye to the old and welcome the new. To make new clothes and buy new year's goods, we must buy new bowls and chopsticks, which means an increase in population; There must be chicken and fish in soup, which means "good luck every year" and "more than one year"; Only by steaming rice cakes and making tofu can we pray for "high year after year" and happiness for the whole family through the homonym of "high year" and "all the best"; Every family steamed cakes. Western regions make reunion cakes, which means "family reunion"; The "combination dishes" made in the eastern region have three colors of red, white and green, which are delicious and symbolize good luck and family harmony.
On New Year's Eve, every household puts up couplets (only purple couplets when mourning), passes doormats, puts up windows, stick grilles and puts up lanterns. Spring Festival couplets use persimmon yellow gold paper, commonly known as sub-paper. Couplets express spring and pay attention to family status. Fill a water tank with water and store enough firewood for three days. In the afternoon, the family hall axis or "God of Wealth" is hung in the hall, and an incense table is set up to offer sacrifices. After everything was ready, the man dressed neatly, went to the cemetery to sweep the grave, invited his ancestors home for the New Year, and set off firecrackers to celebrate after drinking. In the evening, I took lanterns and incense sticks to the street to meet the "God of Wealth". After receiving the god of wealth, gatekeepers were arranged at the main entrance and the second door, and peach branches were inserted beside the door, all of which meant preventing evil spirits from entering the house. Straw was planted in the yard to prepare the god of wealth, and the ancestors fed the horses. At night, candles burn incense and lights are brightly lit, and people stay up all night, which is called "keeping the old age". In the old society, the poor went out to avoid debts, commonly known as the "Tibetan calendar year." The poor celebrate the New Year, so the Spring Festival is also called the "Year Pass". In the early days of liberation, we still followed the old customs. On New Year's Eve, families get together and have fun. At midnight, the elders lead their children to "send paper horses", worship the heavens and the earth, worship their ancestors, and wish the young and old peace. In the western regions, the hostess will also worship the statue of the kitchen god. After the "paper horse" was issued, the whole family, old and young, sat around the kang, drinking reunion wine (some in the middle of the night), eating New Year's Eve dinner and eating vegetarian dumplings. Put peanuts, red dates, chestnuts, copper coins, etc. Cheng jiaozi. Whoever eats this kind of jiaozi means that he is blessed. He will be rich in the coming year, live a long life, have a baby early, and be happy and sweet. Cook jiaozi without pulling the bellows, and keep quiet. To be auspicious, jiaozi will say "making money" instead of "breaking" when cooking; Don't say "crack" when the cake is cracked, say "laugh". It is forbidden to say unlucky things. After dinner, the younger generation kowtows to the elders to pay New Year's greetings, and the elders kowtow to the younger generation for lucky money, which is called "lucky money". It is customary to pay a New Year call as soon as possible and finish it before dawn. On the first day of this year, greetings and blessings are used instead of kowtowing.
On the first day of the first month, there is a custom that mother-in-law cooks and daughter-in-law eats, and daughter-in-law doesn't have to cook. Tofu, rice cakes and cakes should be left in the pot at every meal, which is called "pressing the pot". In the evening, in the Acropolis, Fangzi and Hanting, there is a custom of cleaning up the family hall and going to the ancestral grave. The others stayed until the next day and the third day. Come early on the first night, every bar door, go to bed early. The next day, firecrackers were set off, which meant "opening the market". Men and women are no longer forbidden to work and begin to take gifts to visit relatives. In the past, the first month's gifts were as thin as paper, but now they are getting thicker and thicker. Take the old custom of "grandma in grade two, aunt in grade three, aunt in grade four and aunt in grade five", and there is also the custom of "grandma in grade three, aunt in grade four and aunt in grade five". At present, most of them are "the second day and the third day, the mother-in-law first, the fourth day and the fifth day to see the aunt", and the wind of visiting relatives is getting stronger. At the same time, all kinds of folk acrobatics, stilts, dry boats, dragon lanterns, lion heads, operas and so on. It began to happen and the festive atmosphere ended at the end of the month.
The fifth day is called "Five Horses Day". There is a saying that there is a chicken, two dogs, three silkworms, four wheat and five horses. "Five horses" eat "support", which was a major event in the business community before Weicheng. At about 10 this morning, we drank, lit candles, burned incense, offered tea and made a toast. The shopkeeper respectfully holds a gold ingot made of paper, an auspicious watch and three incense sticks, and leads the shop group to burn it in the yard or in front of the door, wishing them luck and wealth. Then they filed back to their rooms, withdrew their offerings, invited them to raise the statue of the god of wealth, and led them to drink blessing wine and eat blessings. The shop owner who was called to attend said that he would stay, and what he didn't ask for "support" was the hint of being dismissed.
After the founding of New China, the state stipulated that the Spring Festival was a legal holiday, and all walks of life had three days off to celebrate. And carry out activities to support the army, support the government and love the people, and other condolence activities are more than before and after the festival. Superstitious activities such as people's worship of God have been perfunctory and gradually eliminated. But the festive atmosphere is getting stronger and stronger.
the Lantern Festival
The fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the Lantern Festival, also called the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. Yuanxiao is very popular among residents in towns and plains, symbolizing family reunion; In rural areas, people drink, eat jiaozi, get together with their families and enjoy family happiness. The Lantern Festival, also known as the Lantern Festival, includes the 14th to 16th day of the first month. There are many lanterns in every market, holding the Dragon Lantern Festival, dancing colorful dragons, walking on stilts, running donkeys and playing with car lights. Especially in Weicheng and Gaomi towns, the Lantern Festival is booming. Bright lights along the street, flaming trees and silver flowers, colorful, scrambling to watch, known as the Lantern Festival.
There is a custom of hanging lights in urban and rural areas. In towns, gauze lanterns should be on the market before the fourteenth day of the first month. There are unicorn, lion, deer, cat and goldfish lanterns, as well as children's favorite lotus lanterns, fan lanterns, peach blossom lanterns and tribulus lanterns. Relatives and friends rushed to buy and give them to their children. Domino lights are hung on both sides of the street, and rotating lights (also called lanterns) are hung on the wall. There are stories such as The West Chamber, The Legend of the White Snake and Cuiping Mountain. Palace lanterns are hung at the door of the rich family, gauze lanterns are hung in the yard, and wall lamps are hung on the screen wall. Generally, paper lanterns are hung in the homes of urban residents. In the evening, children hold lanterns and take four photos. It is said that "taking pictures of old cats doesn't hurt your eyes". In the countryside, at night, every family lights up and carries four lights, indicating that there are no insects breeding; There is no wind for three nights, which means "turn off the lights" and symbolizes a bumper harvest. There is also a saying that "headlights are sesame lights, millet lights and millet." During the day, we set up a stage, sang operas and performed acrobatics at the scene, showing a festive atmosphere everywhere.
The 16th day of the first month is the last day of Lantern Festival. Men, women and children are happy, commonly known as "playing with the sky", playing late into the night. Girls in eastern urban and rural areas have the custom of "tying water aunts". That night, the girls sat on the threshold, split a piece of straw and embedded 12 soybeans, indicating 12 months. They tied them with red lines and put them in the water tank. The next morning, they hurried to see the omen of drought and flood. The beans rose to control the flood, but the beans did not rise to control the drought. In the west, there is a custom of putting river lanterns by the river at night, and the eldest daughter cooks "clever rice" with river water by the river. The above customs have gradually died out.
After the founding of New China, many urban and rural art teams performed in the streets. At night, lanterns are set off, fireworks are set off, and the sound of gongs and drums is like day. It's very lively. Take the Acropolis as prosperity and stop at midnight. In rural areas, raise money to buy or make fireworks, set them off in the street and bless them loudly. The custom of Lantern Festival is better today than in the past, and it is getting better every year.
The second day of the second lunar month
As the saying goes, "On February 2nd, the dragon looked up". This day is usually called Dragon Head-Up Day, or "Qinglong Festival" or "Spring Dragon Festival". One means that all the insects have come back to life and are suitable for farming; Yi Long dominates the rain. If it rains more, it will be abundant in a year. So I got up early, and every household made a big circle with plant ash in the courtyard, street corner and yard, commonly known as "playing hoarding". Draw a "ten" in the circle, put food on it, and draw a ladder outside the circle, which means to pray for a bumper harvest of grain. This custom lasted until the 1970s. Today is the birthday of the earth god. In the past, people went to the land temple to offer offerings, burn incense and paper, celebrate the birthday of the land god, and pray for good weather.
Every household in urban and rural areas eats fried beans with soybeans, black beans, sweet potatoes and rice cakes, which is called "scorpion beans", which means frying scorpion poisonous insects and killing pests. This custom has lasted for a long time.
Qingming Festival
The day before in Tomb-Sweeping Day was the "Cold Food" Festival. In the past, people ate more cold meals. It is also "150" (105 days from last winter to Sunday), and it is a day to add graves to pay homage to our ancestors, which is called "Spring Festival" to mourn our ancestors. After liberation, the symbolic "Spring Festival" activities still exist, although there is no such thing as adding grave soil in urban and rural areas. Organs, schools and factories organize young people to pay homage to the martyrs' tombs in martyrs' cemeteries and carry out revolutionary traditional education.
During the festival, traditional entertainment activities are colorful. Some people play on swings, others go for an outing and fly kites. In the old city, there are critics, drummers, lotus singers, boxers, jugglers, monkeys, westerners, and sellers of sugar water and glutinous rice. It's very lively.
Eat egg rolls and porridge in the morning of the festival. Every household breaks willow branches and pine branches, or inserts them at the gate, or wears willow branches and pine branches for an outing. Outing is commonly known as "outing". On this day, men, women and children go hiking and pray for a year without foot disease. This custom continues to this day.
The custom of swinging is very common. Swing is one of the recreational activities in Tomb-Sweeping Day. There are two kinds of swings, one is a swing that swings back and forth; One is an umbrella-shaped "swing". Especially the swing is better. Most of the people who swing are young women, dressed in red and green, who show their skills, such as "the boy worships Guanyin", "the duck floats", "the phoenix spreads its wings", "Erlang bears the mountain" and "the monkey sits in the hall", and the ribbons are flying, which is really impressive. This custom is getting better every year.
Flying kites is a traditional activity custom of China residents in Tomb-Sweeping Day. Weifang kite has a long history and is famous far and near, and is known as the hometown of kites. During the festival, flying kites is very popular from town to country, and it is becoming more and more popular. There are many kinds of kites, especially Weicheng and Hanting. 1 After Weifang held the first International Kite Fair in April, 0984, Weicheng was known as "Kite City". 1988 was also named "Kite Capital".
Dragon Boat Festival
The fifth day of the fifth lunar month is the Dragon Boat Festival, also known as "Duanyang Festival". Eat corn for holiday breakfast, commonly known as "Zongzi". According to legend, one is to commemorate Qu Yuan; There is a saying that "eating Dragon Boat Festival dumplings will keep you from getting sick all summer". There is still the custom of eating zongzi in urban and rural areas.
On that day, mugwort leaves were inserted in front of each house, or placed under the kang mat, or stuffed in the ear, meaning to ward off evil spirits and repel insects. Children's hands and feet are tied with five-color lines and long-life locks are hung on their chests. Women wear "sachets" made of realgar and mugwort leaves; Or make gifts for the children of close relatives and friends to show ingenuity. This folk mountain area still exists now. Adults drinking realgar wine means eliminating plague and avoiding evil spirits.