Symbol of "year after year". On this night, the lights are kept on all night long, and families keep vigil together, waiting for the New Year to come.
The first day of the first month of the lunar calendar for the first of the year, called the "Spring Festival", the ancient name "New Year's Day", commonly known as "New Year's Day". Is early in the morning, every family men, women and children are wearing new clothes, firecrackers, worship of ancestors, ancestors. Sacrifice to the ancestors with vegetarian food for the offerings, because it is said that this day Maitreya Buddha sitting, so with fasting. This custom has been passed down for a long time, the Qing Shunzhi "Chaozhou Fu Zhi" cloud: "the first day of the year, sacrifices with fasting." Qing Qianlong "Puning County Zhi" said: yuan day, put ancestors with vegetarian, tough two put ancestors with meat." Then the whole family into the intimate, and gas and eat breakfast, the next generation to the elders blessing, the elders to the next generation to send expectations. After breakfast, parents will bring their children to relatives and friends to pay New Year's visit. Whenever you go to your relatives' or friends' house to pay New Year's greetings, you have to take Chaozhou mandarin oranges to them. Because the mandarin is bigger than the orange, it is named Dajiang, and the orange is the same sound as Ji, with the harmonic method, it becomes "Daji". Big tangerine means good luck. It doesn't matter how many tangerines you bring, but it must be an even number, not an odd number. The tea table of the host's house should always have a plate of red and green tangerines, Chinese nuts (nowadays replaced by olives), and candies to welcome and honor the guests. About the custom of using betel nut in Chaoshan, there are detailed records in the government records and county records, and the Qing Dynasty Qianlong "Chaozhou Prefecture Records" said, "If you don't have betel nut, you will call it simple and slow." Because betel nut and binlang homophonic, containing the meaning of guests, so "betel nut big orange" harmonized to become "Bin Lin Daji", is to greet each other, exchanging good luck of a kind of etiquette. When the guests enter the door, they say "New Year's greetings", "Congratulations on your fortune" and other auspicious words. The host to invite guests to eat olives, candies, drink work tea (Jiexi Hakka also honor to "ring tea, rice Cheng" custom), and exchange of good luck, but also to send each other children "Lishui" (red envelope). Then the master of the wine banquet guests, commonly known as Hezheng. Qing Jiaqing "Chenghai County Zhi into" each set up wine to see each other invited to drink. Proverbs, 'the first month of wine, every family has'".
The Spring Festival is a holy day, so there are many taboos in Chaoshan, such as don't sweep, don't wash clothes, for fear of losing money; don't use long and short chopsticks in the meal, or the transition will not be able to take the boat; don't eat congee or rice soup, or else go out and meet the world's rain; not allowed to bad-mouthing, swearing, fighting, if the A children hit or scolded the B children, the A parents to take a pair of large orange door to apologize, wishing the person If the child of family A hits or scolds the child of family B, the parents of family A should take a pair of large oranges to apologize to the door and wish the family good luck.