1, the twenty-third of the lunar month, the sacrificial stove
China's Spring Festival, generally from the sacrificial stove to open the prelude. Zaosai, is a very influential in China's folk customs, widely spread. In the old days, almost every house had a "Zao Wang" god in the stove.
2, Lunar New Year's Eve dust sweeping
"Lunar New Year's Eve, dust sweeping the house", according to "Lushi Chunqiu" records, China in the era of Yao and Shun on the Spring Festival dust sweeping custom. According to folklore: because the "dust" and "Chen" consonant, dust sweeping in the New Year has "in addition to the meaning of Chen Bu Xin", the intention is to all the poor luck, bad luck, swept out the door. This custom is a symbol of people's desire to break away from the old and bring in the new and their prayers for the old and the new. Whenever the Spring Festival comes, every household has to clean up the environment, wash all kinds of appliances, dismantle the bedding curtains, sprinkle clean the courtyard, dust dust cobwebs, dredge the nullahs and ditches. Everywhere overflowing with joyful health, clean and welcome the new year's atmosphere of joy.
3, Lunar New Year's Eve 25 to receive the Jade Emperor
The old custom is that after the God of the stove in the sky, the Jade Emperor in the lunar calendar on the 25th day of the twelfth month to personally down to the world, to check the earth's good and evil, and set the next year's misfortune, so all the family sacrifices to pray for blessings, known as the "receiving Jade Emperor". On this day, people should be careful in their living and speaking, and strive for good performance in order to win the favor of the Jade Emperor and bring down blessings in the coming year.
4, Lunar New Year 27, 28 bath
Traditional folklore in these two days to focus on bathing, laundry, remove the bad luck of the year, in preparation for the next year's New Year, the capital has "27 wash guilt, 28 wash sloppy" proverb. Lunar New Year's Eve bath for "wash the blessing of Lu".
5, Lunar New Year's Eve on the thirtieth posting the God of the Door, posting the Spring Festival couplets, the New Year's Eve, firecrackers, eat New Year's Eve dinner, to the New Year's Eve money, ancestor worship
New Year's Eve is the meaning of the "month is poor and the year is up", people have to get rid of the old Department of the new, there is the old year to this year, the next year another change in the new year's meaning is the lunar calendar throughout the year, the last night. Therefore, the activities during this period are centered around the old part of the new, eliminate disasters and pray for blessings as the center.
All over China, there is the custom of posting the door god on New Year's Eve. The first door god is carved mahogany as a human figure, hanging next to the person, and later is painted into the door god portrait posted on the door.
One of the origins of Spring Festival couplets is the peach charm. Initially, people used peach wood to carve human figures and hang them next to the door to ward off evil spirits. Later, they drew portraits of door deities on peach wood, and then simplified the process by inscribing the names of the door deities on the mahogany boards.
Pastes the lucky character, pastes the windowpane, pastes the New Year's picture, pastes the hanging thousand. All of these have the folkloric function of praying for blessings and decorating one's residence. New Year's paintings are an ancient folk art in China, reflecting the customs and beliefs of the people, and holding the hope of people for the future.
Watch the New Year's Eve, China's folk in the New Year's Eve has the habit of watching the New Year's Eve, commonly known as "boiled years". The New Year's Eve vigil begins with the New Year's Eve dinner, which is eaten slowly, from the time of the lamp, some people have to eat late into the night. According to the record of "Jing Chu Yearly Records", there was a custom of having New Year's Eve dinner at least in the North and South Dynasties. The custom of keeping the New Year's Eve is both a parting gesture to the passing years and an expression of hope for the coming New Year.
Crackers, Chinese folk "open door firecrackers" said. That is, the arrival of the new year, the first thing that families open the door is to set off firecrackers, to beep, bla bla bla firecrackers to get rid of the old and welcome the new. Firecrackers is a Chinese specialty, also known as "firecrackers", "cannonballs", "firecrackers". Its origin is very early, so far has a history of more than two thousand years. Setting off firecrackers can create a festive and lively atmosphere, and is a kind of entertainment activity during festivals, which can bring joy and good fortune to people. Wang Anshi's poem "New Year's Day":
The spring breeze sends warmth to the people.
Thousands of doors and tens of thousands of pupils of the sun.
Always replacing the new peach with the old one.
It depicts the grand festive scene of Chinese people celebrating the Spring Festival.
Eating New Year's Eve dinner is the most lively and enjoyable time for families in the Spring Festival. On New Year's Eve. Abundant New Year's dishes on the table, the whole family reunion, sitting around the table, *** eat a reunion dinner, the heart of the fullness is really hard to describe.
To the New Year's Eve money, New Year's Eve money is sent by the elders of the younger generation, some families are eating New Year's Eve dinner, everyone sitting at the table is not allowed to go, and so we all ate, by the elders sent to the younger generation, and encourage children and grandchildren to learn in the new year to make progress, and do a good job.
Ancestor worship, ancient times this ritual is very prosperous. Because of the different rituals and customs of different places, the form of ancestor worship also varies, some go to the field to visit the ancestral tomb, some go to the ancestral temple to worship ancestors, but most of the ancestors at home will be placed in the ancestral tablets in order in the main hall, display offerings, and then the worshippers according to the order of the eldest and youngest on the incense and kneeling worship.
6, the first day of the first month of the New Year
The morning of the Spring Festival, open the door for good luck, the first firecrackers, called "open the door cannonball". After the sound of firecrackers, broken red all over the ground, brilliant as a cloud of brocade, known as "full red". At this time, the street is full of gas, joyful.
An important activity in the Spring Festival is to new friends and neighbors to congratulate the New Year, the old term for New Year's Eve. The first day of the New Year, people are up early, put on the most beautiful clothes, dressed neatly, go out to visit friends and relatives, each other to pay tribute to the New Year, wishing good luck in the coming year. Worship a variety of ways, some of them are the same clan leader led a number of people to go door to door to pay tribute to the New Year; there are colleagues invited a few people to pay tribute to the New Year; there are also get together to congratulate each other, known as the "group worship". Because of the time-consuming and laborious New Year's visit, some upper-class people and scholars later used the posters to congratulate each other, which developed into the later "New Year's Pieces". Spring Festival to pay tribute to the New Year, the younger generation should first pay tribute to the elders, wishing the elders a long life and well-being, the elders can be prepared in advance of the New Year's money to the younger generation, it is said that the New Year's money can be pressed to the evil spirits, because of the "age" and the "spirit" harmonic, the elders to get the New Year's money can be peaceful and safe! The new year's money is a good way to keep the evil spirits at bay.
7, temple fair
The temple fair is most Chinese people's Spring Festival complex, but also an indispensable annual tradition. Spring Festival temple fair is the earliest folk religious ceremonies, temple fair time, usually by monks, Taoist priests to do "magic" or "dojo" to worship God, people also want to incense pilgrimage, wishing, wishing, seeking blessings. During the temple fair, there are also vendors and folk art performances. There are many traditional events in the temple fair that have a long history and are loved by the people, such as lion dance, dragon dance, rice-planting song, stilt walker, dry boat running, and so on.
8, watch the social fire
In addition to the temple fair, folk self-performance of self-entertainment of the social fire is also a long history of the New Year's entertainment. Social fire originated from the ancient worship of the land god and fire god. Social, that is, the land god; fire, that is, fire ancestor, is the legendary fire god. In China, which is famous for its agricultural culture, land is the foundation of people's foothold, and it lays the material foundation for the survival and development of human beings. Fire, is the source of cooked food and warmth, but also essential to the survival and development of mankind, ancient people with primitive thinking that fire also has a "spirit", and regarded as a special meaning of the gods to be worshipped, so the formation of the concept of fire. Ancient land and fire worship, produced the custom of sacrificing to the community and fire. With the development of society, the rituals of the fire gradually become a grand scale, rich in content, a variety of forms of folk entertainment.
9, Dragon Dance
Dragon Dance, also known as "playing dragon lanterns", "dragon lantern dance", is one of the traditional dance forms of the Han Chinese people. It is a traditional dance form of the Han Chinese people. The dragon dance is practiced everywhere during festivals and celebrations.
The Dragon Dance originated in the Han Dynasty and has been practiced through the ages. The dragon dance was initially used as a ritual to worship ancestors and pray for sweet rain, and then gradually became a recreational activity. In the Tang and Song dynasties, the dragon dance was a common form of expression during the New Year's festivals.
On the origin of the Dragon Dance, there is a folk legend: one day, the Dragon King's back pain was unbearable, all the drugs in the Dragon Palace ate, but still not effective. Had to turn into an old man came to the earth to seek medical treatment. The doctor touched the pulse was very strange, asked: "You are not a person, right! The Dragon King saw that he could not hide, so he had to tell the truth. So the doctor let him back to his original form, from the waist of the scale armor to catch a centipede. After the poison was removed and medicine was applied, the dragon king recovered completely. In order to thank him for his treatment, the king said to the doctor, "If you make a dragon dance like me, you will have good weather and good harvest. After this incident, people thought that the dragon can make rain, every drought will dance dragon to pray for rain, and there are spring dance green dragon, summer dance red dragon, autumn dance white dragon, winter dance black dragon rules.
10, Lion Dance
Lion Dance, also known as "playing the lion", "Lion Dance", it is the same as the Dragon Dance, is China's traditional form of dance, but also a popular folk sports activities. It is also a popular folk sports activity. The lion dance is also performed at Chinese New Year or celebrations.
The lion dance began in the North and South Dynasties. In China, there are many different forms of lion dance, which can be roughly categorized into northern lion dance and southern lion dance. The appearance of the northern lion dance is very similar to the real lion, the whole body covered with a lion phi, lion dancers (generally two people dance a big lion) only feet, not see their people. Northern lion dance has female and male points, as well as cultural lion, martial arts lion, into the lion, cub lion points.
Southern lion dance is mainly popular in Guangdong. This kind of lion dance consists of one person dancing the lion's head and one person dancing the lion's tail. The shape, style and color of the lion are different from the northern lion. The lion dancers wear a variety of lantern pants, on the top of the Mignon buttons of the Tang suit lantern sleeve shirt or undershirt, visible lion dancers full body. The lion dance should make every effort
Why do people especially like the lion dance at the Spring Festival? According to legend, in the early Ming Dynasty, a monster appeared in Foshan, Guangdong Province, at the turn of the new year and the old year, it would come out and trample on the crops, injuring people and animals, and the people complained of endless suffering. Later, someone suggested to use lion dance to scare the monster, and it worked, the monster escaped. The local people believe that the lion has to drive away evil demons, there are auspicious signs, so every Spring Festival will beat gongs and drums, door-to-door, lion dance to pay tribute to the New Year, in order to eliminate disasters and harm, the forecast of auspiciousness.