Nanchuan District is located in the south of Chongqing, at the intersection of the Chongqing-Guizhou and Chongqing-Hunan economic belts. It is a new urban development area in Chongqing. It borders Daozhen, Zheng'an and Tongzi counties in Guizhou Province to the southeast and Wulong County to the northeast. , connected to Fuling District to the north and Banan District and Qijiang District to the west.
Nanchuan is a beautiful and timeless city with a long history, rich resources, convenient transportation, superior ecology, openness and openness. Nanchuan has been rated as the national advanced cultural area, the hometown of Chinese couplet culture, the hometown of folk songs and dances, the hometown of Shengge and Miao dance, and the hometown of bench dragon dance.
The Spring Festival customs in Nanchuan are similar to those in other places across the country.
1. Fighting lanterns
"Fighting lanterns" is a custom passed down from generation to generation by villagers in Yantang Community, Xicheng Street, Nanchuan District, Chongqing. On the evening of the 14th day of the first lunar month every year, the elderly and children in every household take the oil lamps and candles prepared in advance and go out of their homes, and light the long lanterns connected to Jackie Chan one by one along the roadside, on the ridges of the fields, and in front of the house. After the lanterns are lit, the villagers will go around the village to see who has the most lanterns and whose lights last the longest. According to local villagers, the custom of "fighting lanterns" has been going on in the local area for hundreds of years. The villagers pray for good weather in the coming year by "fighting lanterns".
2. Shopping
Everyone has his own memory of Nanchuan, and Laodong Street is the memory and feelings of Nanchuan people.
During the Spring Festival, Nanchuan people like to visit East Street. When strolling along East Street, you can not only experience the wonderful folk activities, but also taste various delicacies. You can go to Fangzhu Impression to eat all kinds of square bamboo shoots and farm dishes; there are also special snacks, such as oil tea soup, oil tea, wheat nuggets, sugar-oiled fruits, ghost steamed buns... Nanchuan on the tip of the tongue is well-deserved.
East Street is divided into cultural and tourism business comprehensive service area, cultural expo experience area, time alley experience area, parent-child outdoor education area, Jiefang Road nostalgic commercial area and other sections. It not only undertakes basic food and accommodation It has functions such as entertainment, entertainment, shopping, etc., and also undertakes comprehensive functions such as cultural display, cultural experience, interactive communication, and sightseeing experience.
East Street gradually becomes lively during the Spring Festival. From January 16th to February 5th, there will be Sichuan opera face-changing, clown performance, lantern festival, opera juggling, intangible cultural heritage (time-honored brand) New Year goods collection, folk culture parade, photography exhibition, "My Happy Year" talent show and various other events. There are various garden activities to enjoy on East Street.
The folk customs of the New Year are not only on the East Street in the city, but also at the Grand View Point outside the city. The "Spring Festival couplets" hanging all over the wall, the long-legged auspicious rabbit, the wall of Chinese red lanterns...everywhere is full of "New Year flavor".
During the Spring Festival, Daguan Origin has prepared a variety of activities, such as Xileji garden party, hometown market, New Year stilt parade, twenty-four solar terms parade, Xiangsong and eating Lantern Festival, etc. We invite everyone to return to their hometown to attend the market. , return to hometown to celebrate the New Year, allowing tourists to relive the "original rural New Year" here. At the same time, staying at the Grand View Origin Twelve Country House or the Circle Hotel at night are both good choices.
3. Sweep the dust
"Twenty-four, sweep the house." In the era of Yao and Shun, my country had the custom of sweeping dust during the Spring Festival. According to folklore: because "dust" and "chen" are homophonic, sweeping dust in the New Year means "removing the old and spreading the new", and its purpose is to sweep away all bad 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. 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. Everywhere is filled with the joyful atmosphere of doing hygiene and welcoming the New Year cleanly.
4. Keeping the year old on New Year’s Eve is one of the most important Spring Festival customs. The custom of keeping the year old has been around for a long time. The earliest record can be found in the "Fengtu Zhi" of Zhouchu in the Western Jin Dynasty: On New Year's Eve, each person greets each other with gifts, which is called "giving the new year"; "Dividing the year old"; everyone stays up all night waiting for the dawn, which is called "keeping the year old". Since the Han Dynasty, the transition time between the new and the old year has generally been at midnight.
5. New Year's greetings
When paying New Year's greetings during the Spring Festival, the younger generation should first pay New Year's greetings to their elders and wish them longevity and health. The elders can distribute the New Year's money prepared in advance to the younger generation. It is said that the New Year's money can suppress the Evil spirits, because "Sui" and "祟" are homophonic, the younger generation can spend one year peacefully by receiving the New Year's money. There are two types of New Year's money. One is made of colorful ropes threaded into a dragon shape and placed at the foot of the bed. This record is found in "Yanjing Years' Notes"; the other is the most common, which is given by parents wrapped in red paper. Children's money.
New Year's money can be given to the younger generation in public after paying New Year's greetings, or parents can secretly put it under the child's pillow when the child is asleep on New Year's Eve. Nowadays, the custom of elders giving lucky money to younger generations is still very popular.
6. Spring couplets
Spring couplets are also called door pairs, spring posts, antithetical couplets, couplets, peach charms, etc. They describe the background of the times and express emotions with neat, dualistic, concise and exquisite words. Good wishes are a unique literary form in our country. Every Spring Festival, every household, whether in urban or rural areas, selects a red Spring Festival couplet and pastes it on the door to add a festive atmosphere to the festival. This custom originated in the Song Dynasty and became popular in the Ming Dynasty. By the Qing Dynasty, the ideological and artistic quality of Spring Festival couplets had been greatly improved. The Spring Festival couplets monograph "Three Couplets on the Threshold" compiled by Liang Zhangju explained the origin of the couplets and the characteristics of various works. All discussed.
There are many types of Spring Festival couplets. According to the place of use, they can be divided into door centers, frame pairs, horizontal drapes, spring strips, bucket squares, etc. The "door center" is affixed to the upper center of the door panel; the "frame pair" is affixed to the left and right door frames; the "horizontal stripe" is affixed to the crossbar of the door; the "spring strips" are affixed to the corresponding places according to different contents; "Dojin" is also called "door leaf", which is square and diamond-shaped, and is often posted on furniture and screen walls.
7. Hanging New Year pictures
Hanging New Year pictures during the Spring Festival is also very common in urban and rural areas. The rich and colorful New Year pictures add a lot of prosperity and joy to thousands of households. New Year pictures are an ancient folk art in my country, reflecting the people's simple customs and beliefs, and reposing their hopes for the future. New Year pictures, like Spring Festival couplets, originated from the "door god". With the rise of woodblock printing, the content of New Year paintings is no longer limited to monotonous themes such as door gods, but has become rich and colorful. In some New Year painting workshops, "Three Stars of Fortune, Luxury and Longevity", "Blessings from Heavenly Officials", "Five Grain" Classic color New Year pictures such as "Prosperous Harvest", "Prosperity of Six Livestocks", "Welcoming Spring and Receiving Good Luck" can satisfy people's good wishes of celebrating the good year. There are three important producing areas of New Year paintings in our country: Taohuawu in Suzhou, Yangliuqing in Tianjin and Weifang in Shandong. They have formed three major schools of Chinese New Year paintings, each with its own characteristics.
The earliest New Year paintings collected in our country today are the woodcut New Year paintings of the Southern Song Dynasty, "Slender and Slender with the Beauty of the Country", which depict four ancient beauties: Wang Zhaojun, Zhao Feiyan, Ban Ji and Luzhu. The most widely circulated among the people is a New Year painting of "Mouse Marriage". It depicts an interesting scene of a mouse marrying a bride according to human customs. In the early years of the Republic of China, Shanghai Zheng Mantuo combined the calendar with New Year pictures. This is a new form of New Year pictures. This two-in-one New Year picture later developed into a wall calendar, which is now popular all over the country.
8. Set off firecrackers
There is a saying among Chinese people that "firecrackers open the door". That is to say, when the New Year arrives, the first thing every household does when they open the door is to set off firecrackers to ward off the old and welcome the new with the beeping sound of firecrackers. Firecrackers are a specialty of China, also known as "firecrackers", "firecrackers" and "firecrackers". It originated very early and has a history of more than 2,000 years. Setting off firecrackers can create a festive and lively atmosphere. It is a festive entertainment activity that can bring people joy and good luck.
9. Worship ancestors
The New Year is the beginning of the year, and the first thing to do is to worship ancestors. This ritual is called "worshiping ancestors in the family hall" in some places, because ancestors are called "family relatives" rather than gods.
Sacrifice to ancestors is usually done at home. In some places, every household hangs portraits of their ancestors in the main hall, but in most areas, memorial tablets of their ancestors are hung. Around midnight on New Year's Eve, before the doors open to set off firecrackers, ancestor worship activities begin. Fine wine, delicacies, and seasonal fruits are placed in front of the ancestors' tablets for the ancestors to enjoy; after lighting incense paper candles, the parents lead their children and grandchildren to perform kowtow ceremonies. When worshiping ancestors, one has to face the tablets of ancestors and report one by one the happy events that happened in the family in the past year, ranging from marrying a wife, betrothal a daughter, giving birth to children, to small things such as how one is living.
The significance of worshiping ancestors in the New Year is to pay homage to ancestors and pray for them to bless future generations with prosperity and success, which embodies the traditional ethical thinking of the Chinese nation.
10. Receiving Gods
Receiving Gods is a distinction between the old and new years, but the time of receiving Gods is not uniform. Some ceremonies begin as soon as Zizheng arrives, some begin to receive the gods at "Zizheng" time, that is, at midnight, and some begin after "Zizheng". The ceremony of receiving the gods is held in front of the heaven and earth table, and is presided over by the eldest member of the family. Because the directions in the heaven where the gods live are different, the directions from the lower world are naturally different. As for which god to pick up and where the god comes from, you must check the "Constitution" in advance and lead the whole family to hold incense and pick up the god according to the direction in the courtyard.
For example, the "Constitution" of the Xinwei Year instructs: "The God of Wealth is due to the east, the God of Fortune is to the south, the God of Gui is to the northeast, the God of Joy is to the southwest, the God of Taisui is to the southwest, etc." After kowtowing according to the direction, stand and wait until the incense is gone, kowtow again, and finally remove the incense roots, idols, ingots, etc., put them into the money and grain basin that has been prepared in the courtyard, and burn them together with pine branches, sesame straw, etc.< /p>
In short, the Spring Festival customs and activities in Nanchuan also focus on offering sacrifices to gods, paying homage to ancestors, eradicating the old and bringing in the new, welcoming good fortune, praying for a good harvest, etc., which are similar to those in other places.