The 24th day of the 12th lunar month is the "gods" on the sky "duty" time. From this day onwards, every household is cleaned, and everything is washed and cleaned, so it is called "Caihao".
One or two days before New Year's Eve, families make various types of kueh kueh to prepare for the New Year.
New Year's Eve is the day when families have to rush back home for a reunion. On New Year's Eve, the whole family eats a reunion dinner around the fireplace. After the meal, the adults to children, children to their parents, distributed "New Year's money". It is the night of the farmhouse tank to be stored full of water, rice tank to be filled with rice, lights can not go out, to symbolize the "year after year", "year after year" a good omen.
The custom of keeping watch on New Year's Eve is very common. When the New Year's bell is rung, firecrackers are set off in every house.
The first day of the first month of the lunar calendar is called the first day of the new year, the beginning of spring. The day side of the dawn of the sound of the cannon, every family hall table, red plate full of Daji (that is, citrus, citrus is greater than oranges, so it is called Daji), green olives and a variety of fine sweets, the door is decorated with lanterns and lanterns, the younger generation of the blessing of the upper generation of the tea toast. On this day, most people will eat vegetarian, at least not meat for breakfast. After breakfast, adults and children with children to take Daji to friends and relatives to pay tribute to the New Year, hosts and guests to each other new positive as expected, congratulations on the fortune and other auspicious words; hosts invited guests to Daji, betel nut (the ancient custom of betel nut, now with green olives instead), *** Pinfu tea, guests on the gift of Daji congratulations on the master of the good luck and good fortune, the master to Daji back, commonly known as the turn of the tribute type of exchange of Ji, meant to return to the good wishes.
Early in the morning, a lot of lion dance and Ying Ge team gongs and drums to the villages and households to pay homage to the New Year, the owner of the firecrackers to welcome. There are also hand shaking Wan Nian Qing leaves (commonly known as money tree) or hand holding a book with "fortune" and other auspicious sentences small red paper pasted on the door of the family; or blowing suona, knocking bamboo board, singing songs, do four sentences, say auspicious words to congratulate the New Year, are taking advantage of the opportunity to collect a little bit of reward money. The second and third day of the countryside pueblo more than organized to celebrate the Lunar New Year cultural and recreational activities, in addition to set up a tent performances Teochew opera, mountain opera, do shadow play, there are large drum and gong team, tiger and lion team, Ying song team, dragon dance team, such as parade along the streets of villages and villages to perform. Nowadays, there are also movies, ball games, calligraphy and painting exhibitions, riddles and so on. During the day and night, people travel in groups to enjoy watching, a lively and joyful atmosphere to welcome the Spring Festival.
Eating New Year's dinner
New Year's Eve is approaching after the homes of families have been dressed up. Housewives are busy preparing the most sumptuous and meaningful New Year's Eve dinner of the year. As the name suggests, the New Year's Eve dinner is a time for families to get together and eat together without forgetting their deceased ancestors. Therefore, after a family has made a New Year's Eve dinner, the first thing they must do is to "pay homage to their husbands" (offer sacrifices to their ancestors). When making offerings to the ancestors, the incense burner representing the ancestors should be brought down from the shrine and placed on the offering table, then incense should be burned and prayers should be made to invite the ancestors to have their meal. Then the eldest and the youngest kneel in order, which fully demonstrates the traditional virtue of the Sihui people to be prudent and filial first. After the festival, the meal used for ancestor worship is reheated, a big table is set up in the hall, and the family gathers around the Jian, which is a wonderful moment of reunion for every family. No matter how far apart a family is or how many problems they have, this is the time to laugh and be happy, not to talk about sadness or quarrels.
After dinner, the housewife is busy cleaning up the dinner table, so a big cleaning activity will begin. This time, the cleaning did not need to be very elaborate, purely for the sake of cleanliness, unlike the one at the end of the year, which had to be swept and scrubbed with pine branches and grasses. Then the fire was built and the preparation of the offerings for tomorrow's sacrifice, the fasting food, began. There are many kinds of fasting food, some taro, some sweet potato, some are made of dates, some are made of peanuts, taro and sweet potato together. All the ingredients for making the fasting dishes should be prepared in the afternoon and allowed to dry. To deep-fry the dishes, put an iron pot on the stove when the fire is ready and fill it with a large amount of peanut oil. When the oil boils, the ingredients are mixed with a batter and put into the pot, and it squeaks and bubbles in the frying pan. When it is cooked, it is yellow, fragrant and very attractive. At this time, if there are guests at home, the hostess will offer a plate of freshly fried vegetables, and then brewed fragrant work tea, so that you can taste the deliciousness of the famous Sihui snacks.
Sending New Year's money
Sending New Year's money is an important part of the Spring Festival custom in Sihui, where the elders have to give money to their juniors, and those who can earn money have to send money to their elders. The money can not be sent straight, but to be very carefully packed in a Li Shi package, or with a piece of red paper package to see. This is commonly known as "pressure belly waist", meaning that the year from beginning to end, the waist bag will be full of solid, rich. Particularly interesting is that the child before going to bed, parents will be a large-denomination banknotes in the child's belly pocket, wake up after the banknotes will be retrieved.
New Year's Eve, send big orange
New Year's Eve, also known as "worship". Early on the first morning, people get up and put on new clothes, the first thing is to worship their own family, often the first generation to bless the elders, and then the elders and then to the elders to the expectations of the younger generation. After breakfast, each to their own friends and relatives to pay tribute to the New Year.