Eating Laba porridge "messenger" on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month is "Laba porridge".

Every year on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, people in old Beijing cook a pot of "Laba porridge". The raw materials are mainly beans, rice, red dates, raisins, longan and other miscellaneous grains, which means "five grains are abundant".

The sticky and delicious "Laba porridge" was used to worship the "Kitchen God" in the old society. In the past, food was the most important thing, and the kitchen god had a great position.

Today's "Laba porridge", old Beijing will cook a pot at home, the neighbors will taste each other, and then the whole family will get together to enjoy it.

After drinking this "Laba porridge" as the messenger of the New Year, old Beijing entered the agenda of the New Year. Buy food, buy new clothes, prepare new year's goods, clean up the house, and welcome the arrival of the 30 th anniversary.

Careful colleagues also pointed out that this "messenger" has another meaning: from the day of Laba Festival, "those who pay the bill begin to collect, and those who are in debt must pay back." This not only gives the lender a reason to collect debts, but also gives the debtor a reminder. Don't cling to it. Why don't you cook this bill into next year's meal? You have to pay it back sooner or later, preferably years ago, so that you can relax for the New Year.

On Laba, old Beijingers will never forget to soak some garlic in vinegar so that they can eat jiaozi food on the first day of the Lunar New Year. This kind of garlic is commonly known as "Laba garlic".

With the passage of time, the custom of cooking Laba porridge and pickling Laba garlic is still very popular in Beijing today.

As a foreigner, I was lucky enough to taste the "Laba porridge" sent by old Beijing in Laba this year. Thick sweet porridge, wrapped in the first fragrance of old Beijing for the New Year.

On the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, "honeydew melon stick".

The 23rd of the twelfth lunar month is the real opening of the New Year curtain for old Beijingers, commonly known as "off-year", and the days are catching up, and the serious "New Year" is not far away.

This "off-year" is called "twenty-three honeydew melons stick" in old Beijing folklore. The so-called "sugar melon" is candy made of maltose.

On the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, every household in old Beijing has to offer sacrifices to the kitchen stove, and the kitchen god is delighted. He is "sweet-tongued" in front of the Jade Emperor, bringing blessings to this family for a whole year, peace and health. Moreover, honeydew melon is used to stick the mouth of the kitchen god and seal it with sugar. When he met the jade emperor, he simply said nothing, for fear that he would suffer if he said too much.

"23 honeydew melons are sticky; Twenty-four house cleaning days; 25 windows; Twenty-six stews; Twenty-seven chickens were killed; Twenty-eight sides; Twenty-nine steamed buns; Thirty children stayed up all night; Twist on the first day of the new year. "

"Cleaning Day" is a big cleaning, but it is not as simple as sweeping the floor and cleaning the windows when we were students. In addition to thoroughly cleaning up the dead corner gray net that can't be swept outside the house on weekdays, old Beijing should also do some work such as changing New Year pictures, painting and pasting walls.

It is difficult to reproduce the scene of "sticking windows" in Beijing now, so my colleagues in the planning department suggested changing it to "cleaning windows". The quadrangles in old Beijing are all wooden windows. Before the New Year in China, they must put up new white window paper and hang handicrafts such as "Fu", window grilles, paper-cutting and "auspicious knots" on the windows to symbolize peace and happiness.

It is not difficult to imagine the excitement of the New Year when you think about the scene of every household being red in those days. The most important part of this day is to put red paper and black (gold) Spring Festival couplets on our door. As soon as the Spring Festival couplets came out, the atmosphere of the New Year suddenly became strong.

"Stewing meat", "killing cock", "kneading dough" and "steaming steamed bread" are the delicious links in this huge countdown to the New Year. In those days when the diet was light, the smell of meat was a wonderful temptation. This pursuit of keeping my body and mind warm is a vivid memory of my childhood. Young people who advocate vegetarianism or various kinds of weight loss now don't know if they can understand.

According to the rules of old Beijing, these sumptuous New Year's Eve dinners must be prepared in advance. Because there is a taboo in old Beijing, you can't use a knife at the end of the year, otherwise it will be unlucky and cause trouble.

Don't even move scissors and needles except knives to avoid squabbles and long pinholes. With so many taboos, food was prepared years ago. It is not until the fifth day (after the fifth day of the fifth lunar month) that you can chop meat and cut vegetables with a knife.

On New Year's Eve, "endure" one night.

Lunar New Year's Eve is the climax of Chinese New Year, and all the accumulation and preparation seem to be for the "carnival" of this day. However, in the subtle and calm old Beijing, this kind of "carnival" is enriched by the simplicity of Beijing flavor.

On this day, old Beijing must throw the leftovers out of the door and burn the prescription it is using. It is said that this can "throw away all diseases".

In addition, the family has to prepare banquets and put on new clothes, neighbors and relatives pay New Year greetings to each other, and the younger generation kowtows to the elders, commonly known as "resigning from office". Especially newlyweds, must "resign" at their mother-in-law's house, otherwise it will be disrespectful and unfilial.

New year's day, twist it.

Stay up until dawn, but I can't sleep yet. I wash well and tidy up neatly, and I have to bow to my elders to pay New Year greetings and kowtow to send my blessings.

Children love it during the Spring Festival. If you bow your head and kowtow, you can get a lucky money red envelope. The new year begins on this day, and children open new year's red envelopes, which also opens a prosperous year.