New Year's Eve
The last day of the Lunar New Year is called New Year's Eve, and Chaoshan custom calls it "Chinese New Year".
Before New Year's Eve, people are busy preparing all kinds of new year's goods: buying chicken, duck and fish; Add new clothes; Newly purchased furniture and appliances; Buy New Year pictures, Spring Festival couplets, etc. I especially want to buy oranges, green olives and other fruits as auspicious symbols. Welcome friends and relatives. Before the Chinese New Year, men want a new haircut and women want to "pull their faces". Nowadays, most women have haircuts and beauty treatments.
Lunar calendar1February 24th is the day when "immortals" go to heaven to report their work. From that day on, every household was cleaning, packing things and bills, which was called "picking up".
One or two days before New Year's Eve, every household is making all kinds of new year's goods.
Families who go out on New Year's Eve have to rush home for reunion. On New Year's Eve, the whole family sat around the fire and had a reunion dinner. After dinner, adults give "lucky money" to children and their parents. At night, the farmer's water tank should be full of water, the rice tank should be full of rice, and the lights can't go out, which symbolizes the good omen of "more than one year old" and "more than one year old".
The custom of vigil on New Year's Eve is very common. Waiting for the arrival of the new year, the New Year bell rings and firecrackers sound in every household.
the Spring Festival; Chinese New Year
The first day of the first lunar month is called January Day, which is the head of the New Year and the beginning of spring. At the dawn of heaven, I heard guns. On the big table in the hall of every household, red plates are filled with good luck (oranges are bigger than oranges, so they are called good luck), green olives and various exquisite sweets. Decorated with lanterns in front of the door, the younger generation wishes the older generation tea. On this day, most families should be vegetarian, at least not eating meat for breakfast. After breakfast, adults and children go to relatives and friends' homes to pay New Year greetings with good luck, and the host and guest exchange blessings, congratulations on making a fortune and adding blessings. The host treats you with Daji, Betel nut (the ancient custom of honoring Betel nut is now changed to green olive) and * * * congou. The guest presents Daji and congratulates the host for good luck. The host wants to give it back with Daji, which is said to be a good wish to give it back.
On the morning of New Year's Day, many lion dance classes and English song teams beat gongs and drums to pay New Year greetings to every household in every village, and the host set off firecrackers to welcome them. There are also hand-cranked evergreen leaves (commonly known as cash cows) or books, and auspicious sentences such as "lucky money becomes treasure" posted on people's doors; Or those who play suona, knock on bamboo boards, sing songs, make four sentences and say auspicious words from door to door to pay New Year greetings are all asking for some money. On the second and third days of junior high school, rural towns organized many cultural activities to celebrate the Spring Festival. In addition to putting up a theater shed to perform Chaozhou Opera, Mountain Opera and Shadow Play, there are also gongs and drums, tigers and lions, English singers and dragon dancers marching in the villages along the street. There are also movies, ball games, calligraphy and painting exhibitions, lantern riddles and so on. During the day and night, people flock to visit and enjoy it, creating a lively and joyful atmosphere for the Spring Festival.
have a family reunion dinner
New Year's Eve is approaching after all the houses in every household are completely decorated. Therefore, housewives are busy preparing the most abundant and meaningful reunion dinner in a year. A family reunion dinner, as its name implies, is a family gathering for dinner during the Chinese New Year, and even the deceased ancestors will not forget it. Therefore, after a good reunion dinner, every household should first "worship their husbands" (worship their ancestors). When offering sacrifices to ancestors, the incense burner representing ancestors should be removed from the shrine, put on the altar, and then burn incense to pray and invite ancestors to dinner. Then the old and the young bowed down in turn, fully demonstrating the traditional virtues of the hipsters, being cautious to the end, pursuing the distance, and putting all virtues first. After the sacrifice, the food for ancestor worship was reheated, and a big table was set in the hall, and the whole family gathered around. This is a wonderful time for every family to get together. No matter how far apart the family is at ordinary times, or how many zits there are at ordinary times, we should talk and laugh at this time, and we should not say anything sad or make noise.
After dinner, housewives were busy clearing the table, so a cleaning activity began. This time, we don't have to care too much about cleaning, just for cleaning. Unlike the time at the end of the year, you have to brush pine grass. Then he lit a fire in the stove and began to prepare the offering to God tomorrow-vegetarian food. There are many kinds of vegetarian dishes, including taro, sweet potato, jujube, peanut, taro and sweet potato. All the ingredients of vegetarian dishes should be prepared and dried at noon. When frying vegetarian dishes, put the iron pot and inject a lot of peanut oil when the fire is good. When the oil boils, mix these materials with the slurry and put them into the pan, which will make squeaks and bubbles in the oil pan. Huang Chengcheng is especially attractive when cooking. At this time, if there are guests at home, the hostess will serve a plate of freshly fried vegetarian dishes, and then soak in mellow congou tea to let you taste delicious Chaoshan snacks.
Send lucky money
Giving lucky money is an important part of Chaoshan Spring Festival custom. The elders should give money to the younger generation, and those who can earn money should also send money to the elders. Money can't be sent directly to wait for a while, but it should be packed in a profit bag or a red paper bag. This is commonly known as "pressing the abdomen and waist", which means that from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, the pockets will be full of reality and wealth. What is particularly interesting is that when a child sleeps, his parents will put a large bill in his belly pocket and bring it back after waking up.
Happy new year, send big oranges.
New Year greetings, also known as "worship". In the early morning of the first day of junior high school, people get up and put on new clothes. The first thing they do is to pay homage to themselves. It is often the younger generation who wishes the elders first, and then the elders give their expectations to the younger generation. After breakfast, each of them pays a New Year call to relatives and friends. As the Chaoshan saying goes, "the first day and the second day have the meaning of New Year's greetings, and the third day and the fourth day have no intention of New Year's greetings." It is said that the sooner you pay a New Year call, the more you can see its sincerity. Therefore, some people go to pay New Year greetings to relatives and friends immediately after getting up, and then eat after coming back.
No matter how many gifts people bring, oranges (Chaozhou oranges) are indispensable. Big orange takes its homonym "Daji". It doesn't matter if you take more and less, but it can't be odd. People who pay New Year greetings enter the doors of relatives and friends, and they should look at different people and say different greetings. Say "Happy New Year" and "Longevity is better than Nanshan" to the old people, and they will grin. For those who have jobs, saying "smooth work" and "progress in the new year" will make the listeners very happy; If you are a business person, what you hear most is "making a big profit in the New Year" and "making a fortune and benefiting the market"; If children are studying, what they want most is to make progress in their studies and achieve excellent results in the new year. Send this greeting to them, and they will be very friendly to you. After being seated, the host will make famous Chaoshan congou tea to entertain the guests. Before leaving, the host will leave two oranges in the gift of the recipient, and then exchange his oranges in order to bring good luck to the other party. Humorous people often only put two oranges in their trouser pockets when they go out to pay New Year's greetings. After the New Year call, the two oranges are still in his trouser pocket. Therefore, good-hearted people call the New Year's greetings at the beginning of the year "orange-changing movement".
(of a person) return to one's place of origin or unit.
On the second and third day of the first month, the married daughters go back to their parents' homes to celebrate the New Year with their husbands and children. When a daughter returns to her mother's house, there must be a big bag of biscuits and sweets distributed by her mother to her neighbors, just like the scene of the New Year. If there are many daughters at home, and these daughters don't come back on the same day, then we must share one at a time. The gift is quite thin, just four biscuits. But it reflects the deep affection, the real "courtesy is light and affection is heavy", and expresses the girl's miss for the villagers. When the girl goes home, if there is a nephew at home, menstruation has to pay again. Although she gave lucky money on New Year's Day, this time it had a different meaning. This custom is called "eating midnight snack" by Chaoshan people. As the name implies, it's just lunch, and the daughter must get back to her husband's house before dinner.
Spring Festival Taboos in Chaoshan Area
Because the first month is the beginning of a year, Chaoshan people often regard it as a sign of good or bad luck in the New Year, so there are many "taboos" during the New Year. In terms of language, all unlucky words such as "broken", "bad", "nothing", "death", "light", "ghost", "killing", "illness", "pain" and "poverty" are taboo. It is also necessary to avoid crying of babies, because crying is "not winning the first prize", which indicates illness and disaster. Therefore, even if the child is in trouble on this day, don't fight or reprimand him, lest he cry endlessly. Behavior, end cup, end plate, end bowl, end plate should be extra careful not to break. When you accidentally break them, taking water is just a form. The custom of prohibiting sweeping the floor is gradually being eliminated, because firecrackers are set off during the Spring Festival, people come and go, and there are a lot of scraps of paper and garbage on the ground. It's really harmful not to clean. Therefore, starting from paying attention to hygiene, many young people are not very particular about these traditional taboo customs.
Creditors are not allowed to collect debts on this day, because it is considered unlucky for both borrowers and borrowers. Also avoid taking things from other people's pockets. People think that pulling out a pocket on the first day of the first month may lead to the danger of being "hollowed out" for one year.
Avoid dead people and funerals, because it will bring bad luck to the family. At the same time, don't have a haircut on this day, because people always associate a haircut with a funeral on this day. On this day, even killing is forbidden. Killing is considered to lead to disasters such as knife disaster, soldier disaster and blood disaster. However, now people's living standards have improved, and they have no scruples about eating fresh food for quick appetite.
In terms of diet, taking medicine is strictly prohibited on this day. Otherwise, I think it will lead to illness all the year round and take medicine constantly. There are several ways to avoid eating meat for breakfast on the first day of junior high school: one is to eat this meal quickly, and the effect is equal to one year; Another metaphor is frugality, not extravagance and waste.