In fact, as soon as we enter the twelfth month of the lunar calendar, the atmosphere of the New Year in Taiwan will be thicker.
The 16th day of the Lunar New Year is the "Tailgate". Because of the hard life in the early years, Taiwan custom, each family will try to improve the sixteen of each month, known as the "do teeth", and the sixteen of December is the last time in a year to do teeth, so it is known as the "tail tooth". On this day, every family will put on big fish and meat and offer sacrifices to the God of the land to thank him for his blessings throughout the year.
The next step is to "send the stove", also known as "quit the stove", that is, to sacrifice the stove God (Zao Wang Wang). Legend has it that Zaoshen is the God of Heaven sent to live in each household in the sky, the end of each year to return to heaven to the Jade Emperor "duty", reporting each household to the Jade Emperor a year of good and bad, so that the Jade Emperor decided to give rewards or penalties, and the next year's good and bad will be determined by this, which is non-trivial to the people, and so people in order to let the Zaoshen So, in order to make the god of Zao "say good things in heaven and keep peace in the lower world", people make offerings to the god of Zao with sumptuous sacrifices.
Taiwan's "New Year's Eve" and "pressure money" on the 30th night of the Lunar New Year are the same as those on the mainland.
But what best reflects Taiwan's New Year's customs is the New Year's song, which is almost identical to that of the southern Fujian region. This New Year's song reflects the bustling scene of the Taiwanese folk during the Spring Festival and is a vivid picture of folklore.
Southern Fujian: the first Rong, the second stop, the third no Zi Niang; the fourth God fell to the sky, the fifth day God descending, the sixth another empty; the first seven seven yuan, the first eight reunion; the first nine days Gong Sheng, the first ten blue phase of the birth of eleven please son-in-law; twelve back to worship, thirteen food mince with mustard greens; fourteen knot lamp shed, fifteen on the Yuan Mei.
Taiwan: early on the first day, the second coincident, the third mouse to marry the bride of the publication of the fourth God fell in the sky, the fifth separated, the sixth tans fat; the seventh seven yuan, the eighth reunion; the ninth day of the male birth, the tenth food food; eleven invited to the son-in-law; the twelfth to check the son of the invitation to come to pay homage to the thirteenth food mince with mustard greens; fourteen lamps hut, fifteen on the Yuan close.
On the night of the 30th day of the Lunar New Year, the whole family sits around a round table with hot pots and pans, which is called the "round stove". Each dish on the table has a certain meaning. For example, rice dumplings and meat dumplings. Fish dumplings mean "three yuan", symbolizing family reunion; turnips are called "chai-tou" in Taiwan, meaning "good luck" and good fortune; and the whole chicken is called "chicken", which is a Taiwanese dialect word for "chicken", which means "chicken". Chicken" in Taiwanese dialect means "home", which means "eating chicken to start a family"; food that has been fried in oil means "family luck is prosperous". All participants, men and women, young and old, have to eat a little bit of every dish on the table. In addition, they should drink a little wine for good luck. Around the stove to eat vegetables, cleaned and boiled, eat from head to tail, slowly into the belly, in order to wish parents a long life.
After the fire, the custom of "observing the fire bowl" is retained in rural Taiwan. A pot of straw is lit in front of the door, and the whole family, young and old, jumps over the fire bowl in turn, taking the auspicious meaning of "prosperity as fire". While jumping, they say some auspicious words under their breath. After the fire goes out, the ashes are sent to the foot of the kitchen stove to pray to the gods for prosperity.
In some villages in Taiwan, there is still an interesting custom: from the night of the 30th day of the Lunar New Year, plays are performed in some temples, and those who were unable to pay off their debts before the Lunar New Year, in order to avoid being pressed by their creditors, ran to the temples to watch the plays to avoid debts. The reason is that if the debtors come to the temple to force them to pay the debt, it will cause public anger and they will rise up and attack the temple. The play from New Year's Eve until the morning of the first day, the debtor can go home safely after watching the play. This custom is called "avoiding debt theater", is a product of society, but very humane. However, the debtor also has a way to deal with, that is, on the first day of the New Year put on old clothes, carrying a lantern to the door to collect the debt, pretending that they are from the night of the thirtieth of the New Year to catch up to the present has not yet returned home, the lanterns are still in the hands of the New Year can not be regarded as "New Year's Day to collect the debt", this light will be called "debt-collecting lamp". This kind of lantern is called a "debt-collecting lantern". Unless the grudge is very deep, the debtor generally will not use the "debt collection lamp".
Taiwanese compatriots call the first day of the Lunar New Year "Xinzheng", meaning that the new year will have a decent start. In the early hours of the day, the first major event is to worship ancestors, with homemade red and white rice cakes to the gods and ancestors, known as "Kai Zheng". The ceremony of "Kaizheng" is very solemn, the hall is brightly lit, the doorway is red-colored, the table is set with Niankan, Niancao, livestock, tea and wine, four fruits, incense and candles, and firecrackers are set off in every household, so that the whole family gathers to pay homage to their ancestors and worship the gods, and then salute the elders in order of greetings and salutations.
The most interesting part of the Spring Festival is going out to pay homage to the New Year, which is also called "walking in the spring", "opening the spring", "Hezheng". Whenever there is a guest, the host uses a red wooden box to hold candies and serves "sweet tea" to the guest; a banquet is set up to invite guests to socialize with each other, which is called "inviting spring wine"; when the guests leave, they give each other's children red envelopes. As families go out to pay New Year's visit, it is inevitable that people are not at home, and thus gave rise to two interesting customs: go out to pay New Year's visit people always carry a stack of red paper with their names written on it, once the owner is not at home to leave a, which is called "stay post"; official power, a wide range of people, it is impossible to A family personally to pay tribute to the New Year, they sent servants with his red post on his behalf to pay tribute, which is called "fly post".
Taiwan's "the third of the mouse bride" and Minnan's "the third without the bride", meaning that the third of the day is a day off, even the mouse also chose this day to marry the bride. According to custom, that night, every family must go to bed early, so as not to disturb the rats to do wedding, and to withdraw some food in all corners of the room as a "congratulatory gift" to the rats, in order to get along with the rats, to reduce the rat infestation in the coming year. "Mouse marrying" said from the mainland, there is a "mouse marrying the bride" of the colorful stone prints of the New Year's paintings, had been widely circulated in folklore. Picture from the head of the red handkerchief "bride", to carry the sedan chair, blowing the trumpet of the deacon, etc., all are rats, one by one, lively, joyful, very popular, adding a lot of happy atmosphere for the holidays, tense for a year, even rats are on vacation to get married, let alone the people?
The fourth day of the month is the "Day of the God". Both Fujian and Taiwan call this day "God's Day". On that day, every family will offer livestock, fruits, sweets, etc., burn firecrackers, gold paper and horses in the hall to respectfully welcome the gods down to earth to continue to fulfill their duties as the masters of good and evil on earth.
The first five days of the "separated", meaning that the New Year comes to an end, is also the same as the mainland. From the next day onwards, stores opened, farmers went to the fields, and all walks of life began to resume normal life and work. According to popular legend, this day is also the birthday of the "Five Gods of Wealth", which is known as the "Descent of the God of Heaven" in southern Fujian Province and the "God of the Road" in Taiwanese. In order to make a big profit, stores on this day in the street to burn incense to worship the god, and seek the blessing of the five gods of wealth.
"The seventh day of the seventh month" and "the eighth day of the eighth month of reunion" are the same in Fujian and Taiwan. Chinese folk say that the day of the seventh day for the "seven yuan day", also known as "people day", according to legend, the heavens and the earth to create man, man was born on this day. Therefore, in Taiwanese folklore, on this day, every family should eat thread noodles (i.e., longevity noodles) and seven kinds of fresh vegetables, such as celery, spinach, mustard greens, water chestnuts, green onions, garlic, and artemisia. Among them, mustard is a kind of vegetable with a long stem and leaves and a slightly bitter taste, which symbolizes long life because of its long leaves and long silk. Eat these seven kinds of vegetables in fact, this is the ancient Chinese "five Xin plate" of the old custom of the legacy, Du Fu had a poem: "spring spring plate fine lettuce", it is aria this. "Eight reunion" is to say that the bride back to her mother's home for the Spring Festival, the first eight to return to the in-laws, "reunion", began to work, otherwise it will be considered intentionally difficult for the in-laws, not good, the husband's family will even be so "Xingshi "
"On the ninth day of the first month of the year," the "Heavenly Father" is the Jade Emperor, and the "Heavenly Father" is also the birthday of the Jade Emperor. The Jade Emperor is the chief administrator of the spirit of heaven, therefore, the festival is particularly grand. The day before, the whole family fasted and bathed, and the altar was set up in the main hall. Once midnight passes, the whole family dresses up, goes to the incense in order from the eldest to the youngest, and performs the three-kneeling and nine-kowtowing rituals. Subsequently, the burning of paper, firecrackers, until four o'clock in the morning. In the old days, sacrifices to the God of Heaven, the altar is very elaborate, in addition to the original table, but also need to set up a small table (commonly known as "top table"), the top table with five fruits and six fasting, tie the red rope of the noodle threads, three cups of tea, dedicated to the Jade Emperor. The table below is decorated with three sacrifices, five gifts and a red turtle barley, which are dedicated to the God of Heaven's subordinate deities. The gold foil burnt for the God of Heaven is specially made and is called "God of Heaven's Gold".
In traditional Chinese folklore, the son-in-law is highly favored by the family in-law, commonly known as the "delicate guest", all over China is this way, Fujian, Taiwan is no exception, therefore, there are "eleven son-in-law" custom, known as "son-in-law day", i.e., the family in-law, the son-in-law, the son-in-law, the son-in-law, the son-in-law, the son-in-law, the son-in-law and the family in-law. Day", that is, the son-in-law's family special feast days.