The Spring Festival, the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar, also known as the lunar year, commonly known as "New Year". It is one of the grandest and most lively traditional festivals in China. The Spring Festival has a long history, which originated in the Yin Shang period at the end of the year to sacrifice to the gods and ancestors. The Spring Festival is here, meaning that spring will come, the recovery of grass and trees renewed, a new round of sowing and harvesting season will begin. People have just passed through the long cold winter of ice and snow, grass and trees withered, have long been looking forward to the day of spring, when the new spring comes, naturally, full of joy to sing and dance to meet this festival. Another name for the Spring Festival is Chinese New Year. In the legends of the past, the New Year was an imaginary animal that brought bad luck to people. When the year came. Trees wither and no grass grows; once the year passes, everything grows and flowers are everywhere. How can the year pass? Need to use firecrackers to blast , so there is the custom of burning firecrackers, which is actually another way to bake a lively scene. The Spring Festival is a happy and peaceful holiday, but also the reunion of loved ones, children away from home in the Spring Festival to go home to celebrate. The night before the New Year's Eve, is the old year's Lunar New Year's Eve, also known as New Year's Eve, also known as the reunion night, in this time of transition between the old and the new, the New Year's Eve is one of the most important annual activities, New Year's Eve night, the whole family stay up to keep the New Year's Eve, get together to drink soundly, *** enjoy the joy of family, the northern region in the New Year's Eve to eat dumplings, dumplings, dumplings, and the word is the first and the noodles, and is the word; dumplings and dumplings and cross the harmony of the joints and cross the meaning, and also take more years of intercourse The dumplings have the meaning of "getting together" and "turning over the year". In the south, it is customary to eat New Year's cake on New Year's Day. The sweet and sticky cake symbolizes the sweetness of life in the new year.
Every year on the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar, the Spring Festival has just passed, ushered in is the traditional Chinese festival - Lantern Festival. The first month is the first month of the lunar calendar, and the ancients called the night "night", so the first month of the fifteenth for the Lantern Festival. The fifteenth day of the first month is the first full moon of the year, and is also the night of the restoration of the new year and the return of spring to the earth, which is celebrated by the people, and is also the continuation of the celebration of the New Year. The Lantern Festival is also known as the "Festival of the First Year". Lantern Festival is also known as the Festival of Lights, Lantern Festival lighting custom from the Han Dynasty, to the Tang Dynasty, more prosperous activities to enjoy the lights, the palace, hanging lights everywhere on the street, but also to establish a tall lamp wheel, lamp building and lamp tree, the Tang Dynasty poet Lu Zhaolian had in the "fifteenth night to watch the lanterns," which describes the lantern Festival Lantern Festival in this way, "the Han Han suspected that the stars fall, according to the building seems to be hung by the moon." "Guessing lantern riddles", also called "playing lantern riddles", is an activity added after the Lantern Festival, which appeared in the Song Dynasty. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the capital Lin'an made riddles every Lantern Festival, and there were many people guessing riddles. At the beginning of the riddles were written on strips of paper and pasted on colorful lanterns for people to guess. Because riddles can enlighten wisdom and interest, so the process of circulation is popular among all social classes. Folk custom of eating Lantern Festival. Lanterns are made of glutinous rice, either solid or with filling. The fillings include bean paste, sugar, hawthorn, and various kinds of fruits, etc. They can be boiled, fried, steamed, or deep-fried when eaten. At first, people called this food "floating rounds", and later called "soup dumplings" or "dumplings", these names "reunion "The word sounds similar, take the meaning of reunion, symbolizing the family reunion, harmony and happiness, people also use this nostalgia for parted loved ones, send a good hope for the future of life. Lantern Festival in some places there is "walking hundred diseases" custom, also known as "baked hundred diseases" "scattered hundred diseases", participants are mostly women, they walk in pairs or walk the wall, or across the bridge, walk the countryside, the purpose is to drive away diseases and disasters. The purpose of the festival is to drive away diseases and disasters. With the passage of time, the Lantern Festival activities are more and more, many local festivals added to the dragon lanterns, lions, stilt walkers, rowing the dry boat twisting rice-planting songs, playing the drums and other traditional folklore performances. This traditional festival, which has been passed down for more than 2,000 years, is not only prevalent on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, but is also celebrated year after year in overseas Chinese settlements.
Ching Ming is one of the 24 solar terms in China. Because the 24 solar terms objectively reflect the changes in temperature, rainfall, and weather conditions throughout the year, the ancient working people used them to organize their agricultural activities. Once Qingming arrives, the temperature rises and the rainfall increases, which is a good time for spring plowing and planting. Therefore, there are "before and after the Qingming, point of melon planting beans", "planting trees and forests, not over the Qingming" proverbs. It can be seen that this festival has a close relationship with agricultural production. Qingming Festival is a traditional festival in China, and also the most important festival of sacrifice, is the day of ancestor worship and tomb-sweeping. Tomb-sweeping is commonly known as visiting the graves, an activity to honor the dead. Most Han Chinese and some ethnic minorities sweep their tombs on Qingming Festival. Qingming Festival, also known as Treading Green Festival, according to the solar calendar, it is between April 4 and 6 every year, it is the time of spring bright and beautiful grass and trees spit green, but also is the people spring tour (ancient called trekking) good time, so the ancients have Qingming trekking, and a series of sports activities of the custom.
The fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, is a traditional Chinese folk festival - the Dragon Boat Festival, which is one of the ancient traditional festivals of the Chinese nation. Duanwu is also known as Duanwu, Duanyang. In addition, the Dragon Boat Festival has many aliases, such as: Wuzhi Festival, heavy five festival, May Festival, Bath Orchid Festival, Daughter Festival, the day in the festival, the ground wax, the Poet's Day, Dragon Day and so on. Although the name is different, but on the whole, people around the custom of the festival or more than different. Over the Dragon Boat Festival, is the Chinese people for more than two thousand years of traditional habits, due to the vast area, many ethnic groups, coupled with many stories and legends, so not only produced a number of different names of the festival, but also has different customs around. Its content is mainly: the daughter back to his mother's home, hanging Zhong Kui statue, welcome the ghost ship, avoiding Wu, posting Wu Ye Fu, hanging calamus, wormwood, swim in a hundred diseases, Pei Xiangbao, ready to sweet, dragon boat racing, martial arts, batting, swinging, to the children painted with xionghuang, drinking xionghuang liquor, calamus wine, eat five poisonous cakes, salted eggs, zongzi and seasonal fruits, etc., in addition to superstitious color of the activities have gradually disappeared, the rest of the so far spread all over China and the neighboring countries. Some activities, such as dragon boat racing, has been a new development, breaking through the time, geographical boundaries, has become an international sporting event. About the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, said a lot of things, such as: commemorate Qu Yuan said; commemorate Wu Zixu said; commemorate Cao E said; from the three generations of the summer solstice said; bad month and bad day to drive to avoid said, Wu Yue national totem sacrifices said and so on. Each of the above said, each of its origin. According to scholars Mr. Wen Yiduo's "Dragon Boat Festival" and "Dragon Boat Festival of the history of education" listed more than a hundred ancient records and expert archaeological evidence, the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, is the ancient Chinese southern Wu Yue national totem festival, earlier than Qu Yuan. However, over the centuries, Qu Yuan's patriotic spirit and touching poems have been widely and y rooted in people's hearts, so people "cherish and mourn them, and the world discusses their words in order to pass them on to each other", therefore, commemorating Qu Yuan's words has the widest and deepest impact, and occupies a mainstream position. In the field of folk culture, the Chinese people to the Dragon Boat Festival Dragon Boat Race and eat zongzi, etc., are associated with the commemoration of Qu Yuan.
In China, the night of the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, the weather is warm, the grass and trees fragrant, which is commonly known as the Tanabata Festival, also known as the "Begging for coincidence" or "Daughter's Day", this is the most romantic of China's traditional festivals in the color of the festival, is also the most important to the girls in the past. This is one of the most romantic of the traditional Chinese festivals, and also the most important day for the girls in the past. It is a folk custom to watch the star of Altair and Cowherd on the eve of the seventh day of the seventh month. According to legend, on this night of every year, the Weaving Maiden meets the Cowherd at the Magpie Bridge in the sky. The Weaving Maiden is a beautiful, clever and skillful fairy, and women in the mortal world beg her for wisdom and skill on this night, and also beg her for a beautiful marriage, so the seventh day of the seventh month is also known as the Begging for coincidence festival. It is said that on the night of the seventh day of the seventh month, one can look up and see the Milky Way meeting of the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden, or eavesdrop under the melons and fruits and hear the pulsating words of love between the two when they meet in the sky. Girls in this night full of romantic atmosphere, the sky of the bright moon, seasonal fruits and melons, towards the sky to worship, begging the goddess in the sky can give them a clever mind and dexterous hands, so that their knitting red skill skill, but also begging for love and marriage marriage coincidental match. In the past, marriage was a lifelong event for women to decide whether they would be happy or not, so countless loving men and women in the world would pray for a happy marriage to the starry sky at this night, when the night is quiet and people are deep in the night.
Every year on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar is the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival. It is called the Mid-Autumn Festival because it is the middle of the fall season of the year. In the Chinese lunar calendar, the year is divided into four seasons, each of which is further divided into three parts: the Meng, the Middles and the Quarter, hence the Mid-Autumn Festival is also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival. The moon on the 15th day of the 8th month is fuller and brighter than the full moons of other months, which is why it is also called "Moon Festival" and "August Festival". On this night, people look up at the bright moon in the sky like a jade disk and naturally look forward to family reunions. People who are far away from their hometowns also take this opportunity to express their nostalgia for their hometowns and loved ones. Therefore, Mid-Autumn Festival is also known as "Reunion Festival". Legend has it that an ugly woman from Qi, Wu Yan, used to worship the moon when she was young, and when she grew up, she entered the palace with outstanding character, but she was not favored. One year, on the 15th day of the 8th moon, the Emperor saw her under the moonlight and found her beautiful and outstanding, and later made her the Empress, from which the Mid-Autumn Festival of Moon Worship came to be. Chang'e in the moon, known for her beauty, so young girls worship the moon, wishing to "look like Chang'e, face like the white moon". In the Tang Dynasty, Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, playing with the moon is quite popular. In the Northern Song Dynasty. On the night of August 15, people all over the city, rich or poor, old or small, should put on adult clothes, burn incense to worship the moon to say the wish, pray for the moon god's blessing. In the Southern Song Dynasty, people gave moon cakes to each other, taking the meaning of reunion. In some places, there are also dancing grass dragon, building pagodas and other activities. Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, the custom of Mid-Autumn Festival has become more prevalent; in many places, special customs have been formed, such as burning incense, tree Mid-Autumn Festival, pointing pagoda lamps, releasing sky lanterns, walking on the moon, and dancing with fire dragons.
The ninth day of the ninth lunar month is the traditional Chongyang Festival. Because the ancient "I Ching" in the "six" as the number of yin, the "nine" as the number of yang, September 9, the sun and the moon and yang, the two nine heavy, so it is called Chung Yeung, also known as Chung Kau, the ancients believe that it is a worthy of celebrating the auspicious day, and from early on this holiday! The festival has been celebrated since a long time ago. Celebrate the Chongyang Festival activities colorful and romantic, generally include trips to enjoy the scenery, climbing high and far away, viewing chrysanthemums, all the dogwood, eat Chongyang cake, drink chrysanthemum wine and other activities. Nine nine Chongyang, because and "long time" homophonic, nine in the number is the largest number, there is a long life meaning, and autumn is also the golden season of the year's harvest, Chongyang Festival, meaning far-reaching, people have always had a special feeling about this festival, Tang poetry and Song Dynasty has a lot of congratulations on the Chongyang, chrysanthemum poetry masterpieces.
Additionally, there are the Lapa Festival, the Spring Dragon Festival, and the Year of the Snake.
The most important festival in the month of Lunar New Year is the eighth day of the twelfth month, which was called "Lunar New Year" in ancient times, commonly known as the "Lunar New Year Festival". From the pre-Qin Dynasty onwards, the Laha Festival was used to worship ancestors and gods, and to pray for a good harvest and good fortune. It is said that Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, became a Buddhist on the eighth day of the twelfth month, so Laha is also a Buddhist festival, known as "Buddha became a Buddhist festival". On the day of Laha, it is customary to eat Laha congee, which is also called "seven treasures and five flavors congee". The history of drinking Laha congee in China has been more than a thousand years. The earliest started in the Song Dynasty. On every Laha day, whether it is the court, the government, the temple or the people's home to do Laha congee. In the Qing Dynasty, the custom of drinking Laha congee was even more prevalent. In the court, the emperor, the empress, the emperor's son and so on to the civil and military ministers, court ladies give Laha congee, and to the various monasteries to distribute rice, fruit and so on for the monks to eat. In the folk world, families also make Laha congee to worship their ancestors; at the same time, families get together to eat it and give it to their friends and relatives. After the congee is boiled, it is necessary to honor the gods and ancestors first. After that, it should be presented to friends and relatives, and must be sent out before noon. Finally, it is eaten by the whole family. The leftover Laba congee is kept for a few days, but it is a good omen, taking the meaning of "yearly surplus". If the porridge is given to the poor people to eat, it is even more for their own virtue. Laha congee in folklore and witchcraft. If there are flowers and fruit trees planted in the yard, some Laha congee should be smeared on the branches and trunks, believing that there will be more fruits in the coming year. Laha this day, in addition to worship ancestors to honor the gods, there are mourning the dead country, send condolences.
Folklore has it that the second day of the second month of the lunar calendar is the day when the Dragon King, who is in charge of clouds and rain in the sky, raises his head. From then on, rain will gradually increase. Therefore, this day is called "Spring Dragon Festival". In the north of China, there is a widely circulated folk proverb: "February 2, the dragon raises its head; the big barn is full, the small barn flows." The folk proverb of "the big barn is full, the small barn is flowing. Whenever the Spring Dragon Festival comes, most areas in the north of China in the morning of this day, every family with a lantern to the well or the river to pick water, back to the house will be lighted, burn incense, offerings. In the old days, people called this ceremony "lead field dragon". On this day, families also eat noodles, fried cakes, popcorn, compared to "picking the dragon head", "eat gentian", "golden bean blossom, the Dragon King ascends to the sky, Xingyunbu rain, the five cereal harvests "in order to show auspicious celebrations. The origin of the Spring Dragon Festival, in China's northern folklore circulates this myth: Wu Zetian when the emperor, annoyed the Jade Emperor, Oracle Dragon King of the Four Seas, three years shall not rain to the earth. Soon, the Dragon King, who was in charge of the Heavenly River, listened to the cries of the people's families and watched the tragic scene of the starving people, and worried that the way of life on earth would be cut off, he disobeyed the Jade Emperor's will and sent rain to the earth once. The Jade Emperor was informed that the Dragon King was knocked down to the mortal world and pressed under a big mountain to suffer, and a monument was erected on the mountain: "The Dragon King violated the rules of heaven by sending rain, and suffered the crime of a thousand years on earth; if you want to get back to the Spiritual Pavilion, you have to wait until the golden beans blossomed". In order to save the Dragon King, people everywhere to find the blossom of the golden beans. To the second year on the second day of February, people are turning the corn seed, think of this corn is like a golden bean, fried a fried flowers, is not a golden bean blossom? On the family popcorn flowers, and set up in the yard burning incense, for the blossom of the "golden beans". Dragon King looked up, know that the people to save it, then shouted to the Jade Emperor: "Golden beans bloom, quickly let me out! The Jade Emperor looked at the earth in the courtyard of the golden bean flower open, had to pass the edict of the Dragon King back to heaven, continue to give the earth to the clouds and rain. From then on, the folk formed a habit, every February 2 this day, people will pop corn flower to eat.
Lunar month 23, also known as the "small year", is the day of the folk festival stove. It is said that every year on the twenty-third day of the lunar month, Zao Wangwang will go up to the Jade Emperor to report the good and bad of the family, so that the Jade Emperor reward and punishment. Therefore, when sending the stove, people in front of the Zaowang statue of the table for the candy, water, beans, fodder grass, of which the latter three is for the Zaowang ascension of the mount prepared materials. At the time of the Zaosai Festival, the candies are also melted with fire and applied to the mouth of the Zaosai King. In this way, he will not be able to speak ill of the Jade Emperor. There is a custom that "men don't worship the moon, women don't worship the stove", so the worship of Zao Wang is limited to men only. In addition, on the night of the New Year's Eve, King Zaobao will come to the earth with all the gods to celebrate the New Year, and on that day, there must be the ceremony of "receiving the stove" and "receiving the gods". When every family burns a palanquin, spills three cups of wine and sends away the god of the stove, then it is the turn to worship the ancestors. In the month of Lunar New Year, every family prepares for the New Year. The purpose of dust sweeping is to get rid of the old and welcome the new, and to remove the bad luck. Every house should be cleaned carefully and thoroughly so that the windows are clear. In Beijing, the twenty-fourth day of the Lunar New Year is usually designated as "house-sweeping day". Sweeping is mainly a thorough cleaning of the house, and housewives usually first cover the beds and furniture in the room, wrap their heads with a head scarf, and then sweep the walls up and down with a broom. After sweeping the house, tables and chairs were scrubbed and floors were rinsed. After sweeping the house, the stores and residents' homes look brand new. The newly-pasted spring couplets are bright and colorful, showing the red-hot Hongfu scenery. The living god of the door, look up to see the happy banner, beautiful window, colorful New Year's paintings, colorful lanterns, and the shrine on the bountiful offerings, all show a joyful, thriving festive scene.