The first day of the first lunar month is the Spring Festival, commonly known as the Spring Festival. It takes villagers more than half a month to celebrate the New Year, that is, from the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month to the 15th day of the first month of the following year. This custom lasted for thousands of years, which was basically consistent with the records in the Chronicles of Jingchu Years in the Southern Dynasties.
The 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, commonly known as "New Year", is called "Children's New Year". According to legend, the kitchen god, who is "the eyes and ears of heaven and the master of fireworks on earth", will return to heaven to report his work, and is called the kitchen. In order to make him "speak well in the sky, bring good luck on the earth" and "play the Jade Emperor with good words", people will do a general cleaning the day before, which is called "sweeping the dust". On the evening of 23rd or 24th, housewives light candles around the stove and offer sacrifices to them as a "farewell". The folk song says, "My sister wants flowers, my son wants a gun, then I want new clothes, and my father wants a new hat." . From that day on, the long-term workers were off work, and craftsmen no longer came to their homes. Every household is busy preparing new year's goods, making tofu, killing pigs, delivering new year's goods, preparing snacks, frying dry tea, writing Spring Festival couplets and tying lanterns.
At the end of the year, it is called New Year's Eve, or New Year's Eve. Every household cuts the ribbon and sticks the Spring Festival couplets, and the whole family gets together to drink, and all the dishes are left, which is called having a reunion dinner. After dinner, there are usually snacks such as red dates and boiled eggs. Light lanterns, burn incense and set off firecrackers, and worship the ancestors' home gods, calling the Year of Resignation and offering sacrifices to the kitchen gods. The children went to their neighbors in small groups with lanterns and said, "Please resign." . Every family stood up to welcome them, took out snacks and dry tea, and filled the children's pockets. Some children go home and unload their pockets, and then quickly join the resignation team. They can get one or two bowls of food a night, and they are so happy that they can't keep their mouths shut. So there is a saying: "Children look forward to the New Year."
On new year's eve, a maple tree (or pine tree, chestnut tree, etc. ) It burns in every stove in the countryside, which is called "Niancai Lao". Men, women and children gather around the stove, elders give their children lucky money, and the whole family eats pig's trotters and stews radish, which is called "keeping the year". The so-called "money without money, radish for the New Year".
On New Year's Eve, while the whole people are happy, many poor people are afraid to go home. The so-called happy families are worried. It is the deadline for creditors to collect debts and craftsmen to ask for wages. In the streets and country lanes, debtors' lanterns and torches are in an endless stream, and some people can't pay their bills. The copper pot clothes may be taken away, so we have to go out to hide the accounts. Others wrote "Hengmen Yanqing" in red paper and posted it on the door after resigning from office. The door is closed and no one is allowed to enter or leave, which is called "financial gate". When asked about the debtor's helplessness, the busybody wrote a doggerel: "The poor family hides the rich early, although the creditors are in trouble. If you are annoyed with the business, you will be rejected if you have no money. "
On the first day of the first month, it was called New Year's Day and Yuan Day in ancient times. Since ancient times, "firecrackers have made people indulge in it." After the Revolution of 1911, Gregorian calendar 1 was called New Year's Day, and New Year's Day in the summer calendar was changed to Spring Festival.
On the first day of the lunar new year, every family gets up with a crow, men, women and children put on new clothes, and the male owner with the highest seniority burns incense to open the door and set off firecrackers. This is called "going out of the sky" or making money. Then people in the hall worship their ancestors by candlelight, and then worship the gods of heaven and earth to the outside world. When choosing an auspicious day, they bow to Jisan or to the quartet to pray for the interests of all parties in the new year. Then the children and grandchildren pay New Year greetings to their elders in turn, and first take the first load of water by the well, light incense and join the gods. In the countryside, ancestral graves are still offered in the morning. Eating leftovers for breakfast is called eating every other year, which means having enough food and clothing. Vegetarian dishes, such as vegetables, taro, tofu, etc. It means that people are clean and auspicious, everything is fine and innocent. After dinner, the younger generation pays New Year greetings to the elders at home. In the Qing Dynasty, New Year greetings were paid with a bow ceremony, and people generally did not go out to pay New Year greetings on the first day of the New Year. After the Republic of China, it changed from bowing to bowing, and after the family paid New Year greetings, neighbors paid New Year greetings to each other, and the atmosphere was warm. But if people haven't got up yet, don't pay New Year's greetings before going to bed. When someone came into the house to pay New Year's greetings, the host stood up and handed in his hand: "Please pay New Year's greetings" and warmly treated him with dry tea.
Most people in this city travel at dawn to visit relatives and friends. Before the Qing Dynasty, those who donated money under false titles wore hats and swaggered around to pay New Year's greetings. Businessmen love to refuse to hammer, and they all "offer fragrant tea, open fruit bowls and come with betel nuts and ingots" in and out, chewing nonstop in the middle of the night. Businessmen with a wide circle of friends, if they don't go in person, let the younger generation or servants hold famous cards to congratulate them. This is called "post-worship", which is the origin of the new year cards for later generations.
On New Year's Day, people pay attention to and have many taboos. On New Year's Eve, someone posted red paper "Wealth" on the seam of the gate, and posted auspicious words such as "Open the door" and "Make money for me" on the eyes. When they open the door, they recite it aloud, which is called opening the door to see happiness. On a sunny day, watch the wind and the sky and predict the harvest in the coming year. It is believed that "the north (wind) is dominant in abundance and the south is dominant in regret"; Cloudy to sunny, dark to rainy. A lot of firewood was piled on the terrace and Chai Wan, which was harmonious and rich. On New Year's Day, holding firewood into the door means "getting rich". On New Year's Day, when you need to sweep, sweep Chai Wan with a broom and don't go out. Some scholars write auspicious words such as "long life" and "abundant crops", which are called "writing in the New Year, good luck and good luck". On New Year's Day, I especially avoid vulgar words, so I will be scolded for this day, and I will be scolded for a year. Adults always tell their children in advance: talk well on the first day! In case the child slips up, the adult will immediately explain: "I forgive everything the child said." If you accidentally break something, say "send it away"; If the glass drops, say "the wine is red."
On the second day, the son-in-law went to Yue's home to pay a New Year call. The so-called "the first son, Jiro, the third day and the fourth day". There is also the habit of inviting spring guests in the four townships: it is agreed that several generations of uncles and nephews and other relatives and friends will get together for a drink one day. After the eighth day, acquaintances met and said to each other, "Please pay a late year!" " 15, generally not mentioned in New Year's greetings.
On the fifteenth day of the first month, it was called Shangyuan Festival in ancient times, also called Lantern Festival. As the old saying goes, "The fire of thirty nights is the light of midnight snack". Lantern viewing was very popular in the Tang Dynasty, especially in the Song Dynasty. Wen Tianyang once described the grand occasion of arranging lanterns in Shangyuan, Hengzhou: "Ladies and gentlemen in the city are lingering", "The audience is blocked", "You are so tired that you can't see the difference between the lines". Before the Republic of China, all kinds of lanterns were made of paper, hung in houses or listed in the streets. On this day, every household lights candles, cooks Yuanxiao, and urchins play with lanterns. In addition to lighting candles in the dark corners of chickens in pigsty and kennel, farmers also light fires on the edge of fields to kill insects and pray for a bumper harvest. Children like to light Song Ming in the corner, while burning and singing: "On the fifteenth day of the first month, burn insects and ants, rest in heaven". Those close to the ancestral graves also send candles to the graves, so that the ancestors can share the light of the world.
What's more lively is that Spring Festival cultural activities such as catching up with temple fairs, singing big dramas, playing lion dances, riding dragons and horses, and riding bamboo horses reach their climax at this time, and they are often noisy all night, hence the name "Lantern Festival". Among them, dragon lanterns are the most common, and almost all ancestral halls in urban and rural neighborhood villages are tied with dragons. Folk believe that playing with dragons can keep auspicious days, so wherever the "dragon" goes, drums and firecrackers are everywhere, so it is often put on envelopes. Married and childless women often let the "dragon" revolve around their bodies, or let the "dragon" condense into a circle on the bed, ride a child, and send the child by a unicorn.
"Thirty nights of fire, fifteen nights of light", two major events at the end of the year, pinned people's expectations for a rich, prosperous, smooth and auspicious life. Among many lanterns, the descendants of the dragon have a special liking for them.
Playing dragon lanterns is also called dragon dancing. In the past, Huxiang had to send posts from house to house to play with dragon lanterns, and only after receiving them did they express their willingness to accept them. The receptionist should prepare good wine, rice or red envelopes. Dragon lanterns generally wander around stalls, cowshed, pigsty and granary to ward off evil spirits and avoid epidemics. At the same time, it also means to send off spring. The so-called "Long Xing takes one step, a hundred steps into spring". Later, dragon lanterns were gradually replaced by lion dances.
With the progress of the times, people's wisdom is flourishing. The superstitious color of playing dragon lanterns around the Lantern Festival has long faded, but as an important mass cultural and recreational activity, it is still welcomed and loved by people.