Spring Festival Customs

6. Eating Dumplings

. The custom of eating dumplings on the Spring Festival has been quite popular in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Dumplings are usually wrapped before 12:00 pm on the night of the thirtieth year, to be eaten in the middle of the night, when it is the beginning of the first day of the first month of the Lunar New Year, eating dumplings to take the meaning of "more years of the cross", "son" for "son of the time! The word "zi" means "time", and the word "dumpling" harmonizes with it, meaning "joyful reunion" and "good luck".

7. Firecrackers

Chinese folk "open door firecrackers" said. That is, the arrival of the new year, the first thing to open the door of every household is to set off firecrackers, to beeping firecrackers to get rid of the old and welcome the new. Firecrackers are a Chinese specialty, also known as "firecrackers", "cannonballs", "firecrackers".

8. Worship

On the first day of the New Year, people get up early, put on the most beautiful clothes, dress up neatly, go out to visit friends and relatives, pay respect to each other, wishing good luck in the coming year. Worship a variety of ways, some of them are the same patriarch 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 door-to-door New Year's greetings, and later some of the upper class and the scholarly elite will use the stickers to throw congratulations to each other, which developed out of the later "New Year's card".

9. Chinese New Year food customs

Eat rice cakes, eat rice cakes taste different from place to place. Beijing people like to eat jujube rice cake, hundred fruit rice cake and white rice cake made of river rice or yellow rice. Hebei people like to add jujube, small red beans and mung beans in the rice cake steamed together. Northwestern Shanxi in Inner Mongolia and other places, New Year's Eve used to eat yellow rice flour fried rice cakes, some also wrapped with bean paste, date paste and other fillings, Shandong people with yellow rice, red dates steamed rice cakes. Northern rice cakes are mainly sweet, or steamed or fried, some people simply dip sugar to eat. In the south, rice cakes are both sweet and salty, such as those in Suzhou and Ningbo, which are made of round-grained rice and have a light flavor. In addition to steaming and deep-frying, they can also be sliced and stir-fried or boiled in soup. Sweet rice cakes are made from glutinous rice flour with sugar, lard, roses, osmanthus, mint and veggie paste, and are so well made that they can be steamed or dipped in egg white and deep-fried.

The night before the actual New Year's Eve is called the Night of Reunion, when people who are away from home have to travel thousands of miles to come back home, and the whole family has to sit around and make dumplings for the New Year.

10... Chinese New Year Poetry

Tianjia yuan day

(Tang) Meng Haoran

Last night the bucket went back to the north, today the year starts from the east;

My year is already strong, no salary is still worried about farming.

The mulberry field is in the hands of the plowman, and the hoe is with the shepherd boy;

The field house occupies the climate, and **** says that this year is rich.

The Selling of Dementia

(Tang) Fan Chengda

New Year's Eve, when the night falls, people do not sleep, and are tired of sacrificing to the new year;

The children call out on the street, and the dementia is called to be sold.

New Year's Eve

(Tang) Lai Guan

The matter of the rest has become empty, ten thousand miles of lovesickness in one night.

After the sound of the rooster has died down, I will pine away again to see the spring breeze.

The New Year's Day

(Song) Wang Anshi

The firecrackers sound a new year, the spring breeze sends warmth into the tassel;

The day of the pupil of a thousand doors and ten thousand pupils, the new peaches are always replaced by the old ones.

The Day of the New Year Jade Tower Spring

(Song) Mao Pang

The Lotus Flower leaks out in a year's time, and the well of Tusu sinks into the frozen wine.

The cold of the morning is still cold, but the slenderness of the spring season is the first to reach the willow.

The best thing to do is to ask for a long life, and the cypress leaves and peppercorns will be there for you to enjoy.

There are fewer and fewer people who know each other in the depths of the drunken country, but only with the Eastern ruler of the old days.

New Year's Eve

(Southern Song Dynasty) WEN TIANXIANG

The universe is empty, and the years have gone by;

The last road is full of wind and rain, and the poor side is full of snow.

The life of a man is over with the years, and his body is forgotten with the world;

There is no more dream of Tu Su, and the night is still young.

New Year's greetings

(Ming) Wen Zhengming

Not seeking to meet but to pay a visit, the famous paper came to my hut.

I also cast a few papers with people, the world is too simple not too false.

You new Zheng

(Ming) Ye stern

Heaven and earth wind and frost end, Qiankun weather and;

The calendar added new years, spring full of old mountains and rivers.

Plums and willows are all new, pine trees are all old;

Tusks are drunk, laughing at the white clouds.

This is the first time I've ever seen a movie in the world.

This is the first time I've ever seen a movie in the world.

This is the first time I've ever seen a movie in the world.

Fengcheng New Year's speech

(Qing) Zha Shenxing

Craftily cutting streamers to try the Shilla, painting colors and tracing gold for the moths;

From now on, the scissors are idle for a month, and there are a lot of needles and threads in the boudoir before the year is out.

New Year's Day

(Qing Dynasty) Kong Shangren

Slow white hair is not full of spikes, the year-end around the stove even waste sleep.

Cutting the candles to dry up the wine for the night, and pouring out my bag to buy spring money.

Listening to the firecrackers, the children's hearts are in the right place, and seeing the old peach blossom symbols is not the right thing to do.

Drums and plum blossoms add a new part of the year, and the fifth night of the year is a time of laughter and worship.

On New Year's Day, the Chinese government took up Liu Yazi's poem

Dong Biwu

***Celebrating the New Year, the women of the Red Rock gave the plum blossoms;

Toasting each other with the wine of Tusu, we parted from the table and tasted the tea of triumph.

Only loyalty can serve the country, and there is no happy place to call home;

We welcome the festive season with songs and dances in the capital, and we look at the scenery of Yan'an from afar.

Flower Market in Spring Festival

Lin Boqiu

May Street to see the flower market, but leaning on the riding building like a gallery;

Bunch of potted plants into a queue, the grass and woody fight fragrance.

All night long the lights are like a weave of people, a school of songs of joy,

It is this year's scenery is beautiful, a thousand red and purple to report the spring light,

This year's scenery is beautiful, a thousand red and purple to report the spring light.

Customs of the Spring Festival of various ethnic groups

A... Tibetan

Each ethnic group has its own unique culture and living habits, Tibetans are an ancient and passionate people, in the long history, also formed their own habits and taboos in life.

1, when two friends who have met each other after a long time greet each other or chat, your hand can't be on each other's shoulder.

2, you can't cross or step on other people's clothes, or put your own clothes on other people's clothes, or cross over people.

3. Women drying their clothes, especially pants, and underwear must not be dried where everyone passes by.

4. You must not whistle or cry loudly in the house.

5. You can't sweep the floor or take out the garbage at noon or after sunset or on the first day of the Tibetan New Year when your family is out of town or when guests have just left.

6. Outsiders are not allowed to mention the name of a deceased person in front of his or her relatives.

7. Work that should be completed this year cannot be left until next year, such as twisting wool, weaving sweaters, carpets and so on.

8, dusk, can not just go to people's homes, especially when people will have a pregnant woman in labor and just gave birth to a woman in labor or a seriously ill person, strangers can not go.

9. After noon, one must not take out any of the family's possessions.

10. A stranger who goes to the big mountains and cliffs and canyons that you have never been to before cannot make a loud noise.

11, you can't cross or step on eating utensils, pots and pans, ladle and basin.

12. If two people go out at the same time and in opposite directions, they cannot leave the house at the same time, but must go out before and after and at different times.

13. Women are not allowed to comb and wash their hair at night, nor are they allowed to go out with their hair draped over their heads.

14. When using brooms and dustpans, they must not be passed directly from hand to hand, but must first be placed on the ground and then picked up from the ground by another person.

15, whenever friends and relatives come to your home to visit or visit you, will take some ghee tea or barley wine and other items as a gift to you, the guests before leaving to vacate the things, can not be all empty, you must leave a little in the inside or change a little of their own things loaded.

16, chipped or cracked bowls can not be used to eat, and can not pour tea for guests.

II... Yi

The Yi torch festival, also known as the Yi year. In the eyes of the Yi people, fire symbolizes light, justice, prosperity, and a powerful force capable of destroying all evil. The Torch Festival is a festival of joy, love and happiness for the Yi people.

III. Hong Kong Chinese New Year

Lunar New Year is traditionally a grand festival in China, and I believe that no Chinese person is unaware of it. However, celebrating Lunar New Year in Hong Kong is very different from the traditional one in terms of customs and atmosphere.

In recent years, very few Hong Kong people have traditionally put up Chinese New Year couplets and paintings at home during the Lunar New Year. Instead, they put up spring scrolls in some stores or at home to wish "prosperous business" and "peace in and out of the city". In spite of this, the original intention of sticking the Spring Festival and sticking the Spring Festival couplets and New Year's paintings is the same, taking its auspicious meaning, hoping that everything will go well in the coming year, peace and security.

In addition, lion dances and dragon lanterns are also seen in some villages and walled villages in the New Territories, and it is difficult to see large-scale lion and dragon lantern dances on the streets of the city in the New Year. As for the discharge of firecrackers, firecrackers, etc. in Hong Kong is prohibited, but since 1982 every year on the second day of the Lunar New Year night, in the Victoria Harbour will hold a grand fireworks display, which has become this decade to welcome the spring of a program.

Hong Kong is known as the "Gourmet Paradise", and there are many Chinese New Year customs related to food, and most families will have a "Lunar New Year dinner" during the Lunar New Year period, which is usually a feast at home, where the whole family gathers on New Year's Eve to enjoy the Dinner. After dinner, the first choice for a major program is believed to be the flower market, during the Lunar New Year, Hong Kong and Kowloon have a number of New Year's Eve markets, including Victoria Park's flower market is the largest and most lively. Hong Kong people are accustomed to the family after dinner to visit the flower market, New Year's Eve is even more crowded, shoulder to shoulder, everyone together to celebrate the festival.

In Hong Kong during the Lunar New Year, the happiest people are the children who receive "lai see", and during the Lunar New Year, you can hear the laughter of the "lai see" everywhere. "Li is" originally "good things", to take the big luck wide good intentions, but also become the Spring Festival with loved ones indispensable custom.

Four. Macau New Year's Eve

Macao New Year's Eve has a unique flavor. One of the most traditional Chinese New Year customs preserved in Macau is "thanking Zao". On the 23rd day of the Lunar New Year, the Macau people send off the God of Stoves, which is called "thanking the God of Stoves". According to Chinese tradition, Macanese people also use Zao candies to give the god of Zao, saying that they use the candies to paste the mouth of the god of Zao, so as to prevent him from saying bad words to the Jade Emperor. I have seen a Santa Claus statue in a Macau family's house on Flower Street in Macau, and strangely enough, the Santa Claus statue is labeled with a "good things to say in heaven, and good fortune to come back to the house" link.

The Chinese New Year in Macau starts on the 28th day of the Lunar New Year, which means "easy to get rich" in Cantonese, and most business owners treat their employees to a "New Year's dinner" at the end of the year to signify their good fortune and good fortune. Macau's New Year's Eve flavor can be truly felt on the 28th day of the Lunar New Year.

Five. Taiwan's Spring Festival Customs

The Spring Festival is a traditional festival of the Chinese people with a long history and the most solemn folk tradition. In Taiwan, which is separated from Fujian Province by a stretch of water, its history and culture, customs, living habits, relatives and so on are all inherited from the motherland, especially the southern region of Fujian Province, and thus the Spring Festival customs of the people on the island are naturally similar to those of the motherland folk.

Since the ancestors of the residents of the island (mostly Minnan and Hakka) went to Taiwan to develop, a long time ago and through vicissitudes of life, the Chinese New Year customs there have gradually formed some unique patterns and colors.

VI. Interesting Jiangsu Spring Festival customs

The Spring Festival in Jiangsu folk, in addition to posting Spring Festival couplets, hanging New Year's paintings, the New Year's Eve, lion dances, the New Year's Eve and other national customs, there are also a number of unique customs, is now recorded a number of them for the benefit of the readers.

Suzhou New Year's Eve in the rice into the cooked water chestnuts, digging out when you eat, called "digging treasure", friends and relatives to come and go, bubble tea should be placed into the two green olives, said to drink "treasure tea", congratulations on wealth.

Wujin people on the morning of the first day of the year, the ancestral portrait hanging in the center hall, for the tea fruit, rice cakes, a family of old and young people in order to perform New Year's rites, known as the "worship God shadow." They are not allowed to sweep the floor from the home to the outside, lest the "wealth", "Ruyi" swept out, only from the outside to the inside sweep.

Jiangning people have the Spring Festival "playing the drums" custom, by the flag to open the way, drummers and gongs to beat the drums with all their strength, the third "playing the night drums", the seventh "on the seven drums", thirteen to fifteen to play the "shoulder drums", the atmosphere is enthusiastic.

Nantong people have the custom of inserting sesame stalks, holly, and cypress branches in front of their homes or halls, meaning that life blossoms and grows higher and higher, and is verdant all year round.

Huaiyin people also have the sixth day of the child "baked head wind" custom. It is the night to take the child to the field open space lit torches, for the child to drive away the disease, baked while singing: "baked head, wake up the brain, baked feet, step corrective, baked belly is not diarrhea, full of body are baked all over, the disease never see."

Wuxi fishermen on the eighth day of the year by boat to the West Mountain to worship the custom of Yuwang Temple, praying for the blessing of the God of Water, sacrificing ao fine Buddha, called "on?"

The custom gradually faded after the demolition of the Yuwang Temple.

During the Spring Festival, there are many taboos in the old customs in Jiangsu, such as the first day of the year does not move the scissors, lest the verbal dispute; do not move the knife, so as not to kill; do not eat rice, for fear of going out to meet the rain; do not sweep the floor, for fear of sweeping away the wealth and so on. With the popularization of scientific knowledge, there are many unscientific customs are gradually forgotten; healthy and useful entertainment and leisure activities, but has been continued.

VII. Spring Festival Customs in Guilin

The Spring Festival steps into Guilin's cities and towns with the bell ringing at zero hour on December 24th of the lunar calendar. From the 24th to the 30th day of the Lunar New Year, people are busy shopping for New Year's goods and cleaning up inside and outside their homes to welcome the New Year in a clean and tidy manner. There are many kinds of traditional foods for the festival, and they have good wishes: Steaming rice cakes on the 29th day of the Lunar New Year, which are sweet and sweet, meat and veggie, and eating rice cakes (high), will make your life and work prosper in the new year, and you will rise higher and higher.

New Year's Eve dinner, people like to get together as a family, the dishes must have "round", "happy", to take its meaning of reunion, happy.

Customs of the Spring Festival of China's ethnic minorities

China is a multi-ethnic country, in addition to the Han people, there are 55 ethnic minorities. Although they have different languages, scripts, lifestyles and customs, most of them celebrate the Spring Festival as a major festival of their own ethnic groups.

VIII. Daur ethnic group: year high

The Daur ethnic group in the north has the habit of paying New Year's visit. At the Spring Festival, people put on their festive dresses and visit each house to congratulate each other. Each family is equipped with steamed cake, the New Year's visitors enter the door, the host with steamed cake hospitality. "Cake" in Chinese and "high" resonance, to cake hospitality, said each other in the new year, the standard of living further improved. During the festival, the Daur people also held songs and dances, sports activities, has lasted half a month.

9. Mongolia: meat and wine not exhausted

The Mongolian people in the north of the Spring Festival is another scene, before the festival, families are prepared for the year of the growth of the ram and a variety of dairy products and a few altars of wine. On New Year's Eve, people put on their beautiful Mongolian robes and the whole family sits in the center of the yurt to welcome the new year. Midnight began to drink and eat, according to the usual to eat and drink, the more meat and wine left over the better, so that the symbol of the new year of meat and wine, eat and drink no worries. On the first morning, men and women dressed in various costumes, straddling the steed, in groups of three to five ran to the "Haut" (village and town), string of yurts one by one. When stringing yurts, the first to kowtow to the elders to wish, and then the son-in-law of the host family came to string yurts for the guests to toast, people sing and dance.

X. Zhuang: Welcoming the Heroes

The Zhuang, who live in southern China, call the Spring Festival the "New Year's Day". On this day, people go out and congratulate each other no matter who they meet, believing that this will make the year auspicious. In the Zhuang folk there is also the custom of the late New Year, the Zhuang called "eat Li Festival". "Eat Li Festival" is on the 30th of this month, according to legend, more than 100 years ago, a peasant army of the Zhuang people in the fight against foreign invaders returned in triumph, when the Spring Festival has passed, the Zhuang people in order to welcome them, on the 30th of this month for them to repeat the Spring Festival.

XI. Buyei: girls rush to carry the first load of water

The Buyei, who live on China's southwestern border, keep watch all night on New Year's Eve every year. At dawn, the girls compete to go outside the house to pick water, who picks back the first water, who is the most diligent girl. The Jingpo people there like to hold target shooting activities before the Spring Festival, and the girls are the organizers and referees of this activity. They hang embroidered purses on bamboo poles with threads and swing them from side to side in the tips of trees, inviting young men to shoot. Whoever shoots down the purse first, the girls give the wine as a prize. The purse usually contains a coin, a few grains of grain and a few decorative beads as a symbol of happiness.

XII. Hani: Swinging

A few days before the Spring Festival, villages inhabited by the Hani ethnic group are already bustling with women who are busy pounding poi. Ba Ba is a cake made of glutinous rice. And the young men are busy going up the mountain to cut bamboo and prepare to set up swings. The swings there are more than ten meters high, and the Hani people, young and old, love to swing. During the festival, everyone wears their favorite clothes to swing, everywhere showing a lively, harmonious festival scene.

Thirteen. Dai: throwing chaff bag

The Dai young men and women love to throw chaff bag game, during the Spring Festival, the boys and girls throw each other chaff bag, to see who threw accurate, to see who caught. Play to a certain time, the girls will quietly snatch the young man's body to wear a belt knife, head cloth or tethered horse, ran home. If the young man is in love, he will follow. When the parents see their daughters return with their head cloths and horses, they hold a banquet.

In addition, April 13 every year is the Dai New Year, but also the Dai people's grandest festival - Water Splashing Festival, they see the splashing of water as a symbol to drive away evil spirits, good luck and good fortune, but also regard this day as the most beautiful, most auspicious day.

XIV. Alpine people: "Around the Furnace"

The Alpine people who live in Taiwan Province of China have a different kind of fun when they celebrate the Spring Festival. On the evening of New Year's Eve, families sit around a round table with hot pots and pans and have a meal, called a "hibachi". The women, who usually do not drink alcohol, will also take a symbolic sip of wine as a sign of good luck. "Vegetables are eaten without being cut with a knife, but are washed and boiled with their roots, as a sign of wishing long life to the parents. If someone in the family goes out, a seat should be left empty and the clothes of that person should be put on the empty seat to show that the whole family misses him.

Fifteen. Manchu: hanging the flag for the New Year

Manchu people divided into "red, yellow, blue, white" four flags. Spring Festival, the red flag people in the door posted red hanging flag, yellow flag people in the door posted yellow hanging flag, blue flag people in the door posted blue hanging flag, white flag people in the door posted white hanging flag. These hanging flags are beautifully patterned and colorful, symbolizing an auspicious start to the year.

During the festival, the boys ganged up on firecrackers or rode on homemade wooden plows of various kinds, in the hillock, on the ice whooshing. Young girls and young daughters-in-law wearing newly made flowery clothes, in groups of three or five, split up into families to play Garaha (pig or cow's kneecap bone). From the first to the fifth night, people also voluntarily organized to twist rice-planting songs to pay homage to the New Year, a strong rice-planting team, not only in the village to twist, but also to the outside village to twist. Onlookers are often so happy that they forget about fatigue and cold. There are even enthusiastic spectators - straight along with the rice-planting team to go to the countryside, until dawn to return.

Sixteen. Bai people: "put high up"

Yunnan Bai compatriots on New Year's Eve, there is a kind of celebration called "put high up". The so-called "put high rise" is to use the whole of the big bamboo, in the bamboo joints filled with gunpowder, after ignition can be the whole big bamboo collapsed hundreds of feet into the sky, to become a veritable "high rise". Some areas of the Bai compatriots and Miao, Zhuang, from the Spring Festival to the Lantern Festival, young men and women are "throwing the embroidered ball" activities. Where the catch can not catch the embroidered ball, to give each other souvenirs, many times lost the ball and redemption of souvenirs, is to say that accept each other's love.

XVII. Dong: Lusheng will

Guizhou, Hunan Dong compatriots, during the Spring Festival prevailed a "playing Dong New Year" (also known as the Lusheng will be) of mass activities. This activity is similar to the Han Chinese "reunion", but more joyful and enthusiastic than "reunion". This kind of activity is generally organized by two villages **** with the agreement. The two teams officially hold a Lusheng song and dance competition in the square. At this time, the audience of the two villages, accompanied by music, dance, and enjoy the fun.

Eighteen. Yi: jumping tiger

Shuangbai County, Yunnan Province, the Yi people have a New Year's Eve, "jumping tiger festival" special custom, the eighth day of the first month, the village adult men gathered in the village behind the site of the land temple, kill the dog dedication "Mis" ("Mis" meaning "Mis"), "Mis" means "Mis", "Mis" means "Mis". "Mimi" means earth, "Division" means master, the fan Division that is the meaning of the Lord God of the earth), followed by the village "Bimo" sacrifices to the Lord God of the tiger. 8 villagers disguised as tigers dancing, "tigers". The "tigers" have high ears, thick tails, tiger stripes all over their bodies, a Chinese character for "king" painted on their foreheads, and a big brass bell hanging on their necks, making them look majestic. After the "Bimo" reads out the sacrificial speech to invite the tiger god, the tiger king leads all the tigers into the village. Throughout the jumping tiger festival period, the whole village up and down men, women and children are immersed in the welcome tiger, send tiger, watch the tiger jumping and drive away the evil spirits and monsters in a joyful atmosphere, the local people are convinced that only through the annual tradition of jumping tigers, tiger god and pray for the blessing of the old ancestors, all the villagers in order to be fruitful and prosperous, more than one year more beautiful and happy.

Nineteen. Sani: food dumplings

New Year's Eve, the Sani language called "Si Rub period". New Year's Eve for ancestors, eat New Year's dinner, is very solemn. In the afternoon, in front of the door of the house inserted a green branch, hanging a straw hat on the branch. This is a silent notice: Do not enter! No talking! Even the people in the house are not allowed to raise their voices.

There is an interesting phenomenon in the Sani language: "dumplings" and "New Year's Eve" is the same word, called "Kaozima". Because the New Year must eat dumplings. For half a month from the first day of the first month of the lunar year, people have a lot of fun. On the first night of the first month, a bonfire party is held, with folk songs and a three-stringed hu solo, which is simple and lyrical. The thumping and thumping of the sanxian is soaring, and people sing and dance to the music.

Sacrificing the mountain god on the second day of the lunar month and sending sparks on the fourth day of the lunar month are meant to expel disasters and show the power of human beings.

Every year, the second day of the Spring Festival in the afternoon, the farmers to take the cow out, around the village center to walk around a few times, in its forehead wear red cloth tied flowers, expressed its contribution to the year's respect. Also feed it rice and fat pork, to show their close companion's condolences.

The Sani people, from New Year's Eve to the fifth day of the month, have activities to honor their ancestors. From their veneration and remembrance of their ancestors, the cohesion of this nation and the good things in traditional morality can be found.