The Spring Festival generally refers to New Year's Eve and the first day of the first lunar month. But among the people, the Spring Festival in the traditional sense refers to the period from the twelfth lunar month on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, or the twelfth lunar month on the 23rd or 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, with New Year's Eve and the first day of the first lunar month as the climax. During the Spring Festival, my country's Han and many ethnic minorities hold various activities to celebrate. These activities mainly focus on offering sacrifices to gods and Buddhas, paying homage to ancestors, eradicating the old and bringing in the new, welcoming the new year and blessings, and praying for a good harvest. The activities are rich and colorful with strong national characteristics.

Spring Festival Customs

Sacrificing the Stove

The Spring Festival in my country usually kicks off with the sacrifice of the stove. "Twenty-three, sugar melon sticky" in the folk song refers to the sacrifice to the stove on the 23rd or 24th of the twelfth lunar month every year. There is a saying of "officials, three people, four boatmen and five", that is, on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the government, Generally, people hold sacrifices to the stove on the 24th, while people on the water hold sacrifices to the stove on the 25th.

Sacrificing stoves is a custom that has great influence among Chinese people and is widely spread. In the old days, almost every kitchen had a "Kitchen Lord" statue in the kitchen. People call this god "Si Ming Bodhisattva" or "Zao Lord Siming". Legend has it that he is the "Jiutian East Chef Siming Zao Wangfu Lord" conferred by the Jade Emperor. He is responsible for managing the kitchen fires of each family and is regarded as the protector of the family. worship. Most of the Kitchen King's niches are located on the north or east side of the kitchen room, with the statue of the Kitchen King in the middle. Some people who don't have a niche for the Kitchen King stick the statue of the god directly on the wall. Some statues only depict the Kitchen God alone, while others include two men and women. The goddess is called "Grandma Kitchen God". This is probably an imitation of the image of a human couple. Most of the statues of the Kitchen God also have a calendar for that year printed on them, with words such as "Master of the East Chef", "God of Human Supervision", "Head of the Family", etc., to indicate the status of the Kitchen God. The couplets "God says good things, and the lower realms keep you safe" are pasted on both sides to bless the whole family.

The Kitchen God has been staying at home since the last New Year's Eve to protect and supervise the family; on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the Kitchen God will ascend to heaven to report the good deeds of the family to the Jade Emperor in heaven. Or evil deeds, the ritual of sending off the Kitchen God is called "Sending the Stove" or "Citing the Stove". Based on the report of the Kitchen God, the Jade Emperor handed over the good and bad fortunes that the family should receive in the new year to the hands of the Kitchen God. Therefore, for the family, the Stove Lord's report is indeed of great interest.

Sending stoves is usually held at dusk and into night. The family goes to the kitchen first, sets the table, offers incense to the Kitchen God in the shrine on the kitchen wall, and offers sugar melons made with malt sugar and noodles. Then tie bamboo strips into paper horses and fodder for livestock. Offering caramel to the Stove Lord is to sweeten his mouth. In some places, sugar is spread around the Stove Lord's mouth, and while applying it, he says: "Say more good things, but don't say bad things." This is to stuff the Stove Lord's mouth with sugar to prevent him from saying bad things. In the Tang Dynasty book "The Chronicles of the Year under the Chariot", there is a record of "smearing wine dregs on the stove to make Siming (Kitchen Lord) drunk". After people coated Stove Lord's mouth with sugar, they took off the statue, and the paper and smoke went up to heaven together. In some places, sesame straw and pine branches are piled in the yard at night, and then the Kitchen God statue that has been kept for a year is taken out of the shrine, along with the paper horse and straw, and set on fire. The yard was brightly illuminated by the fire. At this time, the family kowtowed around the fire and prayed while burning: It is the 23rd again this year, and we send the Stove Lord to the west. There are strong horses, there is fodder, and the journey is smooth and safe. The sugar melon offered is sweet. Please say good things to the Jade Emperor.

When sending off the Kitchen God, in some places there are still several beggars who dress up in disguise and go from house to house singing songs and dancing to the Kitchen God, called "Sending the Kitchen God", in exchange for food.

The custom of sending stoves is very common in the north and south of my country. Mr. Lu Xun once wrote the poem "The Gengzi Sending Stoves": Chickens are given glue and candies, and clothes are provided with petals and incense. If there is nothing growing in the house, there are only a few yellow sheep.

He said in the article "Sends to Zao Lord": "On the day when Lord Zao ascended to heaven, a kind of candy was sold on the street, the size of an orange. We also have this thing, but Bian It's like a thick little pancake. It's called glue-toothed cake. It's intended to stick to Zao Lord's teeth so that he can't speak ill of the Jade Emperor. "In Lu Xun's poem. The allusion of "Yellow Sheep" comes from "Book of the Later Han·Yin Shi Zhuan": "During the reign of Emperor Xuan, those in Yin Zi Fang were extremely filial and benevolent. In the morning of the twelfth lunar month, when the kitchen god appeared, Zifang worshiped and celebrated again; The family had a yellow sheep, so they worshiped it. Since then, they have become extremely rich and prosperous, so they often sacrifice the yellow sheep to the stove during the twelfth lunar month. "Yinzi Fang saw the stove god and killed him. Sacrificing yellow sheep later brought good luck.

From then on, the custom of killing yellow sheep to offer sacrifices to the stove has been passed down.

In the Tang and Song Dynasties, the offerings to the stove were quite abundant. Fan Chengda, a poet of the Song Dynasty, gave a very vivid description of folk sacrifices to the stove in his "Ci of Sacrifice to the Stove": According to ancient legend, on the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month, the Stove Lord looked up to the sky and wanted to say something. The clouds, the carriages, the wind, the horses, the little ones linger, and there are cups and plates in the house for the feast. The pig's head is overcooked, the fish is fresh, and the rice bait is round with sweetened bean paste and sweet pineapple. The man offers his daughter a drink to escape, and the king is happy to drink wine and burn money. Don't listen to your servants' fights, don't get angry when cats and dogs touch you. I'll send you to heaven's gate drunk and full. Don't return to the clouds with a long spoon and a short spoon, begging for profit and return points.

The sacrifice to the stove on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month is closely related to the Chinese New Year. Because, on the eve of the New Year’s Eve a week later, the Kitchen God came to the world together with other gods with the good and bad luck that the family should receive. The Kitchen God is believed to lead the way for the gods in the sky. The other gods ascend to heaven again after the New Year, but only the Kitchen God will stay in people's kitchens for a long time. The ceremony to welcome the gods is called "receiving the gods", and for the Kitchen God, it is called "receiving the stove". The ceremony of taking over the stove is usually on New Year's Eve, and the ceremony is much simpler. At that time, you only need to put on a new stove lamp and burn incense in front of the stove niche.

As the saying goes, "men do not worship the moon, and women do not worship the stove." In some places, women do not offer sacrifices to the stove. It is said that the Stove Lord looks like a pretty boy and is afraid of women offering sacrifices to the stove. As for the origin of Stove Lord, it has a long history. Among the Chinese folk gods, the Kitchen God is considered to be very old. As early as the Xia Dynasty, he was already a great god respected by the people. According to Kong Yingda Shu in the ancient book "Book of Rites·Etiquette": "The Zhuanxu family had a son, Rili, who was Zhurong and was worshiped as the Kitchen God." "Zhuangzi. Dasheng" records: "The stove has a bun." Sima Biao commented: "The bun, The Kitchen God is dressed in red and looks like a beautiful woman. "Baopuzi. Wei Zhi" also records: "On dark moon nights, the Kitchen God also goes to heaven for sins." These records are probably the source of worshiping the Kitchen God. Also, it may be said that the Kitchen God is the "Suiren clan" who drills wood to make fire; or it is said to be the "Fire Officer" of the Shennong clan; or it is said to be "Sujili" who "the Yellow Emperor makes the stove"; or it is said that the Kitchen God's surname is Zhang, list, name Ziguo; opinions vary. There is a rather interesting story circulating among the people.

It is said that in ancient times there was a family named Zhang, two brothers, the elder brother was a plasterer and the younger brother was a painter. My brother's specialty is cooking pots. He invites guests from East Street and West Street, and they all praise him for his skill in setting up the stove. He became famous for a long time, and people from thousands of miles around called him "King Zhang Zao". It's strange that Zhang Zaowang, no matter whose house he goes to build a stove, if there is a dispute in other people's house, he likes to meddle in other people's affairs. When he meets a noisy wife, he tries to persuade her. When he meets a fierce mother-in-law, he also tries to persuade her. He seems to be an elder. From now on, the neighbors would come to him if anything happened, and everyone respected him. King Zhang Zao lived for seventy years and died late at night on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month. After the death of King Zhang Zao, the Zhang family was in chaos. It turned out that King Zhang Zao was the head of the family, and everything in the house was obeyed by his orders. Now that the eldest brother has passed away, the younger brother only knows poetry, calligraphy and painting. Although he is already sixty years old, he has never taken care of it. housework. The daughters-in-law of several houses were clamoring for separation, and the painter was helpless and looked sad all day long. One day, he finally came up with a good idea. On the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, the first anniversary of the death of King Zhang Zao, late at night, the painter suddenly called out to wake up the whole family, saying that the eldest brother had appeared. He led his son, daughter-in-law, and the whole family to the kitchen, where they saw the faces of Stove King Zhang and his late wife looming on the dark stove wall, and the flickering candlelight. The family were shocked. The painter said: "When I was sleeping, I dreamed that my eldest brother and eldest sister-in-law had become immortals. The Jade Emperor named him the Chef of the East of the Nine Heavens and the Lord of the Stove Prince. You are usually lazy and lazy, and your sisters-in-law are at odds with each other. You are disrespectful and unfilial, which makes the family gods uneasy. My eldest brother knows You are making a family separation and are very angry. You are going to tell the Jade Emperor that he will come down from the lower world to punish you on the 30th of the New Year." After hearing this, the children, nieces and nephews were horrified, and immediately knelt down and kowtowed, and hurriedly fetched Zhang Stove King. He offered his favorite sweets on the stove and begged the Stove Lord for forgiveness. From then on, the often noisy uncles, brothers and daughters-in-law no longer dared to act out, the whole family lived in peace, and young and old lived peacefully. After the neighbors learned about this incident, they spread the news to tens of thousands, and they all came to the Zhang family to find out the truth. In fact, the Stove King on the kitchen wall on the night of the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month was drawn in advance by the painter. He pretended that his eldest brother appeared as a ghost to scare his children, niece and daughter-in-law. Unexpectedly, this method was really effective. So when the villagers came to the painter to inquire about the situation, he had no choice but to fake it and give the painted Stove King portraits to his neighbors. As a result, it spread along the countryside, and every household's kitchen was pasted with a statue of the Kitchen King. As time went by, the custom of making offerings to the Stove Lord on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month to pray for the safety of the family was formed.

After the custom of worshiping stoves spread, starting from the Zhou Dynasty, the imperial palace also included it in sacrifice ceremonies, and the rules for worshiping stoves were established across the country, and it became a fixed ritual.

Due to different customs in different places, there are also folk activities of "Dancing the Stove King" and "beating the Stove King". "Tiao Zao Wang" is a form of folk activity developed from the ancient "Driving Nuo". It is mainly an activity of beggars. The days from the 1st to the 24th of the twelfth lunar month are the days of "Tiao Zao Wang". After entering the twelfth lunar month, beggars gather in groups, pretending to be the kitchen god and the kitchen lady, holding bamboo branches and making noise in the courtyard, begging for money. They are called "jumping the kitchen king", which also means to ward off evil spirits. This activity is mainly carried out in the southeast of our country.

Sweeping the dust

After the Stove Ceremony is held, preparations for the New Year begin formally. Every year from the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month to New Year's Eve, Chinese folk call this period "Spring Day", also called "Dust Sweeping Day". Sweeping dust is the year-end cleaning. It is called "house sweeping" in the north and "dust dusting" in the south. Sweeping dust before the Spring Festival is a traditional habit of our people. Every Spring Festival comes, every household has to clean the environment, wash all kinds of utensils, remove and wash bedding and curtains, sweep the Liulv courtyard, dust away dirt and cobwebs, and dredge open ditches and ditches. From north to south, everywhere is filled with the atmosphere of joyful hygiene and cleanliness to welcome the New Year.

Interestingly, there is a rather strange story about the origin of sweeping dust in ancient times. Legend has it that the ancients believed that there was a three-corpse god attached to each person's body. Like a shadow, he followed the person's whereabouts and was inseparable. The Three Corpse God is a guy who likes to flatter and gossip. He often spreads rumors and causes trouble in front of the Jade Emperor, describing the human world as ugly. Over time, in the Jade Emperor's impression, the human world was simply a dirty world full of sin. once. The three corpse gods secretly reported that the world was cursing the Emperor of Heaven and wanted to rebel against the Heavenly Court. The Jade Emperor was furious and issued an edict to quickly find out the chaos in the world. Anyone who resented the gods or disrespected the gods would have their crimes written under the eaves. Then let the spider build a web to cover it as a mark. The Jade Emperor also ordered Wang Lingguan to go down to the realm on New Year's Eve. Anyone who met a marked family would be killed and no one would be spared. Seeing that this plan was about to succeed, the three corpse gods took the opportunity to fly down to the mortal world. Regardless of the crime, they viciously marked the eaves and corners of each house so that Wang Ling Palace would kill them all. While the Three Corpse Gods were doing evil, the Kitchen Lord discovered his whereabouts and was shocked. He hurriedly found the Kitchen Lords of various families to discuss countermeasures. So, they came up with a good idea. From the day when the stove is delivered on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month to the New Year's Eve, every household must clean the house. If the household is not clean, the Stove Lord will refuse to enter. Home. Everyone followed the Stove Lord's instructions before he ascended to heaven, sweeping away the dust, dusting away the cobwebs, cleaning the doors and windows, and making their homes look brand new. When Wang Lingguan went down to inspect the world on New Year's Eve, he found that the windows of every house were bright and clean, the lights were bright, people were reunited and happy, and the world was extremely beautiful. Wang Lingguan couldn't find any sign of bad deeds, and felt very strange. He rushed back to heaven and reported to the Jade Emperor about the peace and happiness in the world and praying for a happy new year. The Jade Emperor was greatly shocked after hearing this, and issued an edict to imprison the three corpse gods. He ordered that they should be slapped three hundred times and imprisoned forever in the heavenly prison. This human disaster was saved thanks to the Kitchen God's rescue. In order to express gratitude to the Stove Lord for helping people eliminate disasters and blessing Zhang Xiang, the people always start sweeping the dust after delivering the stove, and they are busy until New Year's Eve.

The custom of "dusting and sweeping the house on the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month" has a long history. According to "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals", my country had the custom of sweeping dust during the Spring Festival in the era of Yao and Shun. According to folklore: since "dust" and "chen" are homophones, sweeping dust in the New Year has the meaning of "removing the old and spreading the new", and its purpose is to sweep away all "poor luck" and "bad luck". This custom entrusts people with their desire to destroy the old and establish the new and their prayers to say goodbye to the old and usher in the new.

The "Three Corpse Gods" Taoism refers to the "gods" worshiped in the human body. According to the "Tai Shang Three Corpses Zhong Jing": "The upper corpse is named Peng Guo, and it is in the human head; the middle corpse is named Peng Zhi, and it is in the human belly; the lower corpse is named Peng Jiao, and it is in the human foot." It is also said that every time Geng Shen is born, On that day, they went to heaven to report human sins to the Emperor of Heaven; but as long as people stayed up all night on this night, they could avoid it, which was called "Shou Geng Shen".

Eat Zao Candy

Zao Candy is a kind of maltose with high viscosity. It is drawn into a long candy stick called "Guandong Candy" and is drawn into an oblate shape. The shape is called "Tanggua". Put it outside the house in winter. Because of the severe cold weather, the sugar melon solidifies and has some tiny bubbles inside. It tastes crispy, sweet and crispy, with a unique flavor. Real Kanto candy is extremely hard and cannot be broken when dropped. It must be split with a kitchen knife when eating. The material is very heavy and fine.

The taste is slightly sour, and there is absolutely no honeycomb in the middle. Each piece weighs one tael, two taels, or four taels, and the price is also more expensive. There are two kinds of sugar melons, those without sesame seeds and those without sesame seeds. They are made of sugar into the shape of melon or pumpkin. The center is hollow and the skin is less than five minutes thick. Although the sizes are different, the transaction is still calculated based on the weight. Large sugar melons have It weighs only one or two kilograms, but it is used as a cover, and few people buy it.

Meeting the Jade Emperor

Old custom believed that after the Kitchen God ascended to heaven, the Heavenly Emperor and the Jade Emperor personally descended to the realm on the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month to inspect the good and evil in the world and determine the blessings and misfortune of the coming year. Therefore, every family sacrifices it to pray for blessings, which is called "receiving the Jade Emperor". On this day, you must be cautious in your daily life and words, and strive to perform well in order to win the favor of the Jade Emperor and bring blessings to you in the coming year.

Huan Luan Sui

After sending the Kitchen God to heaven, he did not welcome him back until New Year's Eve. During this period, there was no god in the world and there were no taboos. Many people got married, which was called "Huan Luan Sui". Chaosui is a specific period of time designed for the people to adjust their social life. At the end of the year, people have leisure and savings. This is a good time for people who rarely have the energy to take care of big things. Therefore, people invented this special time folk custom according to the needs of real life. It can be seen that in traditional societies, the order of people's lives relies on folk customs for regulation.

Zhaotian silkworms

Also known as "Shaotian silkworms", "Zhaotian silkworms" and "Shaotian wealth", it is a folk custom of praying for good luck in the Jiangnan area. On the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth lunar month, long poles tied with torches are erected in the fields to use the flames to divine the new year. If the flames are strong, they will herald a good harvest in the coming year. Some places hold this event on New Year's Eve.

Thousand Lantern Festival

It is a religious festival of Mongolian and Daur people. In Mongolian, it is called "Mingganzhuola", which means Thousand Lanterns Festival. On the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth lunar month, people make "mingganzhuola" and light them in the temple. It is believed that the more lights they light, the more auspicious they will be. This festival custom is most popular among the Virat Mongolian people in Xinjiang. Local people eat roast beef and mutton and hold traditional sports and entertainment activities on this day.

Bathing

In traditional folk customs, people should take baths and wash clothes intensively during these two days to get rid of the bad luck of the year and prepare for the coming New Year. There is a "Twenty-Seven Days to Wash Guilt Diseases" in Beijing. , the proverb "Twenty-eight washes away the filth". Taking a bath on the 26th of the twelfth lunar month is "washing fortune and fortune".

Little New Year's Eve

The day before New Year's Eve is called "Little New Year's Eve". There is a banquet at home and people call it "Farewell". Burning incense outdoors is called "tianxiang" and usually takes three days.

Celebrating the New Year

The traditional festival of the Tujia people is also called the "New Year Meeting". The Tujia people celebrate the Spring Festival one or several days earlier than the Han people.

The legend about the Tujia people “celebrating the New Year”:

1. In the Ming Dynasty, Tujia soldiers were dispatched to the southeast coast to fight against the Japanese. When the military order was urgent, they celebrated the New Year in advance and rushed to the front line. The soldiers fought bravely and achieved "the first military exploit in the southeast." To commemorate this expedition, later generations moved the New Year's Day forward as a custom.

2. The ancestors of the Tujia Nationality were poor, so they had to work for the rich on the 30th day of the new year and celebrate the new year in advance so that they could reunite with their families.

3． In the old days, every New Year's Eve, officers and soldiers would come to drive away the people. Tujia people would celebrate the New Year in advance and have a reunion dinner in order to escape.