My hometown is Guangning, a beautiful small county town and an ancient "bamboo town". The people here are simple and traditional. They have inherited the fine manners of the Chinese nation, but they also have distinctive customs and habits.
The Spring Festival is the biggest festival in Guangning.
In the middle of December of the lunar calendar, people began to clean up. Every corner from the ceiling to the ground is clean, which means that all the bad luck last year was washed away. In addition, you must make white cakes and oil cakes during the New Year, which are necessary for the New Year. Guangning century is a kind of food with local flavor. Eating a piece for a hundred years is like eating a meal, full of energy.
Sticking couplets and door paintings in Guangning is also a tradition of the Spring Festival. On New Year's Eve, every household puts up couplets and door paintings to decorate the festive atmosphere. It is said that only in this way can we prevent ghosts from entering the house and bless good luck in the coming year. After putting up couplets, we will begin to prepare for the New Year's Eve dinner. Chicken, bamboo shoots, vegetables and fresh fish are flying between pots and bowls, and the smell is delicious and mouth-watering. On this day, young people who work outside will go home for a reunion dinner no matter how busy they are. Before the New Year's Eve, people must worship God and their ancestors and pray for good weather and family safety in the coming year.
After the delicious New Year's Eve, people wear new clothes and go out of their homes one after another, and come to the busy square to enjoy various activities, such as dance performances, martial arts and cross talk, which are more exciting than one. Laughter, exclamation, applause, one after another, like a symphony unique to the Spring Festival.
Near zero, people have returned home, waiting for the New Year's bell. Setting off firecrackers is also an essential link, which means that the louder the firecrackers, the better the luck. As soon as twelve o'clock on New Year's Eve, firecrackers rang all over Guangning immediately. At this time, children will get "gifts" from home, that is, lucky money, which symbolizes bringing good luck and happiness to children. Lucky money can suppress evil spirits, because "old" and "expensive" are homophonic, and the younger generation can spend the first year safely when they get lucky money.
On the morning of New Year's Day, for people in Guang Ningxian, the hometown of martial arts, the most important program on this day is to watch the annual lion dance performance competition. Dozens of lion dance troupes gathered in the county town from various towns, competing with each other and marching in procession. When people were still asleep, martial arts performances of lion awakening began in the street. Whenever I hear the sound of lion dancing, every family should get up and watch the lion and follow the team.
After watching the lion, everyone goes to relatives and friends' homes to celebrate the Spring Festival. This is called New Year greetings. New Year greeting is a traditional folk custom in China, and it is a way for people to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, and express their best wishes to each other. In Guangning, New Year's greetings are mostly visits between relatives. Everyone takes some prepared new year's goods to relatives' homes until the seventh day of the first month.
The Spring Festival in Guangning is lively and unique, which embodies the customs and etiquette of Guangning and shows the simple enthusiasm of Zhuxiang people. The customs and etiquette of Guangning have their own unique charm, which is ancient, concise and simple without losing the flavor of the times.