1. Tianjin
Tianjin people call the eighth day of the Lunar New Year "Lapaer", and have the custom of drinking Lapa congee. Many people in Tianjin also use vinegar to soak garlic on this day, the name "Lahai Garlic". Lunar New Year's Eve 15 began, a variety of New Year's goods are all listed to the Niangniang Palace as the axis of the Palace of the Palace of the North Street is bustling. Boys to the Niangniang Palace, the first goal is the wind gourd, adult men here, can not forget to buy lanterns, women come here is mostly "washing dolls. From the Niangniang Palace tethered back to the "doll" every year to "wash a back", which is the festival before the women must do things.
Tianjin also has a Spring Festival sticker hanging money custom, hanging money is made of colored paper cut and carved into the pattern, pasted on the windows and doors of the glass and horizontal prongs, as the Spring Festival festive atmosphere of the embellishment. Paste on the hanging money can only be damaged on the fifth day of the first month, otherwise it means a year of bad luck. Tianjin people call the fifth day of the first month for the "broken five", this day, families eat dumplings, chopping board to ding dong ring, so that the neighbors hear, to show that they are chopping the "little man". Tianjin people attribute bad things to the "little man" body, get rid of the "little man" in order to be lucky, smooth, the fifth night firecrackers, but also the meaning of avoiding evil and avoiding disaster.
2, Shandong
Many places in Shandong New Year's Eve after midnight all the people up to worship the gods of heaven and earth. The countryside also firecrackers, in the upper room yard set a table, the table on the tribute, burning incense and paper, people called "hair paper". Of course, there are other things such as using mats to build a "heaven and earth building" to worship the gods of heaven and earth. Many places in rural Shandong Province retained the custom of kowtowing on the first day of the Lunar New Year, early in the morning before dawn, all the men in the family to the clan to kowtow to the elders of the oldest New Year's Day, the children to pay homage to the New Year's Day but also to the "New Year's Eve money". After breakfast, all women in the family kowtow to the elders of the clan. On the second day of the Lunar New Year, some places have the custom of all the men of the clan going to their ancestors' graves to offer sacrifices to their ancestors, bringing with them abundant tributes, paper money, incense and platinum, as well as a lot of firecrackers, in order to console the spirits of their ancestors. The third and fourth days of the year are for visiting relatives.
3, Shanxi
Shanxi now not many rules to worship ancestors, but the rules of the New Year's dinner on the 30th can not talk is retained. The first meal of the Spring Festival is always dumplings. When the dumplings are cooked, firecrackers are fired. In order to drive away evil and seek good luck, some regions use sesame stalks to cook the dumplings, which means that the new year will be like the flowering of sesame seeds, and the days will be better and better. Dumplings to cook more, there must be a surplus, meaning that there is a surplus head. In addition to a bowl for each person, one or two more bowls should be served during the meal in the hope that the family will prosper.
After that, it's a busy time to prepare for the New Year, and the atmosphere grows stronger by the day. Twenty-three sacrifices to the king of the stove, twenty-four for the day of cleaning, commonly known as "Hu cleaning day". Shanxi people in the Lahai Festival from this day onwards, the preparations for the New Year's Eve reached a climax. In the past, there was a folk song in Taiyuan: "25 grind tofu, 26 rush to do work, 27 go to the market, 28 paste paste zha, 29 go to play wine, 30 wrapped dumplings." On New Year's Eve, families stay up all night, commonly known as the "violent ageing". When the rooster crows, incense is burned, lanterns are lit, offerings are set up, firecrackers are set off, the gods are received and ancestors are worshipped, and then the families pay their respects to each other. Children kowtow to their elders and the elders give them New Year's money for good luck. Merchant families pay the most pious tribute to the God of Wealth during the New Year.
The Datong area is relatively rich in coal resources, and it is bound to have all kinds of connections with the local people's clothing, food, housing and transportation. Every Spring Festival New Year's Eve night, in front of the door of the courtyard of every house to use a large piece of coal into a tower, the name is Wang Huo, for good luck, congratulations throughout the year the meaning of prosperity. Inside the firewood, written on top of a large red note "Wang Qi Chong Tian". When the firecrackers go off at midnight, the fire is lit. When the fire is lit, flames come out from countless small holes, resembling a floating picture, which is not only warm, but also spectacular. Adults and children gather in a circle, some play games, some set off firecrackers, and men, women and children come to roast the fire in order to "Wangqi Chongtian".
4, Shaanxi
Shanxi people into the waxing moon, busy and up: push on the mill pressure cake noodles, catch the donkey grinding tofu, steamed yellow steamed buns, making yellow wine, rolling miscellaneous noodles, deep-fried oil cake, New Year's Eve food to be ready before.
There is also a custom here to give children a "jujube card card" on New Year's Eve. The "jujube card card" is a red thread threaded with jujube, straw straw, hanging a copper coin above, below the drop of a firecracker, hanging on the back of the child, which is a blessing to avoid evil luck. Here, I also saw some people with red thread on the needlework with the "thimble", hanging in the child's neck, which is also a blessing of good luck, called "increase the age of the thimble". Each year, one more is added until the child reaches the age of twelve.
When New Year's Eve arrives, everything is ready, including putting up couplets, playing vinegar charcoal, hanging red lanterns and cleaning the courtyard. A unique custom is to put a piece of red-hot coal on an iron spoon and pour vinegar over it. "This is done in every corner of the house to drive away evil spirits, but it is actually a scientific way of sterilizing and disinfecting the house. At nightfall, the elderly always reverently honor the gods by lighting incense and burning paper, and leading their curious grandchildren to kowtow. The older children are busy setting off firecrackers and lighting tattoos. Careful mothers-in-law put charcoal and ice by the door, and set up a rolling pin and a knife and axe behind the door, which are said to be evil-suppressing, and are called "New Year's Eve Watching" in this area. People always sleep late on New Year's Eve. Generally, the lights in the house are kept on all night long, which is a sign of peace in all seasons and a long life. The pots and pans are filled with food, which is called "Shining Pot", meaning that there will be no shortage of food in a year.
Range songs to pay tribute to the New Year is a unique flavor of northern Shaanxi customs. During the Spring Festival, villages are organized rice-planting teams, door to door to pay homage to the New Year, where it is commonly known as "along the door". Yangge to pay tribute to the New Year is first to visit the temple, honor the gods, pray for a year of good weather conditions and a good harvest, and then to each household to pay tribute to the New Year. Yangge team to each household, umbrella head touching the scene, improvisation to create their own lyrics to the master blessing, such as "into the door look up, six holes in the stone kiln QiZhanZhan, the five grains of prosperity, all year round to protect the peace".
5, Henan
Henan people New Year's Eve is customarily called the New Year's Eve, every household in the twenty-eighth posting of Spring Festival couplets. The most important folk activities on the night of New Year's Eve ancestor worship and the New Year's Eve. On the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar, firecrackers are first set off to pay homage to the statue of the ancestors. Then, the younger generation pays New Year's greetings to the elders, who give the younger generation "New Year's money". The family ate New Year's dumplings, and then began to friends and relatives to pay New Year's Eve. In the old days, New Year's greetings were usually led by parents, who would first pay tribute to the elders' close relatives and neighbors, and then go to distant families. In order to receive the New Year's guests, the family often prepared cigarettes, tea, melon seeds, peanuts, candies and so on. The second day of the first month of the year is the day when the girl returns to her mother's home. The third day of the first month for the sacrifice of graves, ancestors of the date of sacrifice, because the old calendar said that this day, "all things are not appropriate", the third Kaifeng taboo on going to relatives. The first five for the broken five festival, folk believe that the first five is the first year after the first inauspicious day, friends and relatives are also jealous of each other visit. In addition to these two days, the festival, Kaifeng folk go to friends and relatives, a few days.
6, Hebei
In ancient times, the State of Zhao, the capital of Handan in the New Year's Eve celebrations, passed down a strange custom "throwing sad hats". The throwing of sad hats was done in the dead of night on New Year's Eve. Adults and children from all families, before going to bed, all the head over the old hat or old turban, quietly thrown into the street. The next day, when cleaning the street, and then sweep them into the nooks and crannies of the wall, to the night of the fifteenth of the next month to roast "afraid of the spirit of the fire" when burned. The old man said, this can throw away a year of old sorrow, usher in a year of new joy.
7, Gansu
In Gansu, the New Year's Eve dance social fire is an important activity during the Spring Festival in Gansu, but also a kind of singing and dancing, diverse genres, a variety of integrated performing arts, more than in the first month of the lunar calendar for the show. In the folk social fire performance, the historical heroes and heroines, good men and women and various characters in folklore are taken as characters. In order to shape the character image, artists in make-up, from the character's different temperament and character, with rich imagination, using a variety of colors, painted a variety of faces, and gradually formed a unique art of face painting. Social fire face painting faithfully expresses the people's aesthetic psychology of truth, goodness and beauty as well as their good and bad opinion of historical figures, and they exaggerate, visualize and vividly express their emotions through social fire face painting. The unique features in the social fire performance are Lanzhou's Taiping drum dance, Wuwei's attack drum dance, Zhangye's top bowl dance, Longdong's Yangge, and Tianshui's fan drums and wax flowers, etc. The first month of the year is the first month to play the swing. Swinging in the first month, into the first month of the lunar calendar, the village of Linxia, between the trees, a rack of swing set up, began the annual game of swinging. Playing the swing, there are two basic posture, one is sitting on their own horizontal board, sent by others in the back, yo-yo wobbling, flying not too high, this posture is suitable for young children; the second is to stand on the horizontal board, their own force, so that the swing quickly soared, this posture is most favored by adults. In this way, happy people fly on the swing, fly every day, fly night, until the end of the first month of the fifteenth.
Two, the south
1, Fujian
Fujian Minnan rural New Year's custom has its own characteristics. In the countryside, the farmers room more doors, in addition to posting the Spring Festival couplets, the door on both sides of the room should also be placed on both sides of the two circles of red paper stickers of the roots of sugar cane, called the "door cane", the dialect of "cane" and "good" near the sound, which means It means to enter a good place. In the hall, the table is decorated with the next year's rice, long year's vegetables, hair cake, and inserted with red and yellow paper "spring branch", which implies that the rice will be plentiful for many years to come, and good luck and wealth. Each family should be the potato vine wood sticks stacked outside the gate, lit to be its smoke around the fire, men according to the generation jumped over the pile of flames, jumping while reading: "jump in to, year after year, great wealth; jump out, carefree **** no worries; jumped over the East, grains to eat is not empty; jumped over the West, the money and silver rolled in." This is called "fire group", symbolizing the burning of the old year's evil, eliminating disasters over the luck, ushering in a clean, auspicious New Year. "Jumping fire group", we should use the new broom to clean the hall, after sweeping the broom dustpan together, garbage heap door, I hope that wish to come out from the dustpan again, to help make a fortune. At the same time, we should collect some of the remaining ashes from the fire and add them to the charcoal stove, which is called "Tim Wong", symbolizing more prosperity. Parents rate children sitting around the stove, called "around the stove to observe the New Year", the best all-night vigil, it is said that this is for parents to add life. At this time, the elders to the younger generation to share the New Year's money, called "divided round". With the progress of society, the pace of life accelerated, southern Fujian countryside, some of the tedious customs have gradually faded, but the farmers look forward to a good year's custom is still preserved.
2, Jiangsu
Jiangsu New Year's Eve customs have some unique features. Suzhou people on New Year's Eve in the rice into the cooked water chestnuts, digging out when eating, called "digging treasure", friends and relatives to come and go, bubble tea should be placed into 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 middle of the hall, for the tea and fruit, rice cakes, a family of old and young people in order to perform the New Year's rite, known as the "worship God Shadow." They are not allowed to sweep the floor from home to sweep, for fear that the "wealth", "Ruyi" swept out, only from the outside to sweep. Jiangning people have the Spring Festival "playing the drums of the gods," the custom of the flag to open the way, drummers and drummers 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 "bare shoulder drums" and the "bare shoulder drums. "The atmosphere is warm. Nantong people have in front of their homes or hall inserted sesame stalks, holly, cypress branches of the custom, meaning that life blossomed higher and higher, and verdant for many years. Huaiyin people also have the sixth to 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 evil spirits, baked while singing: "baked head, wake up the brain, baked feet, step corrective, baked belly is not diarrhea, full of baked all over the body, the disease will never see." Wuxi fishermen on the eighth day of the year to take a boat to the West Mountain to worship the custom of Yuwang Temple, praying for the blessing of the God of the water, sacrificing Ao fine Buddha, known as "on", Yuwang Temple demolition, this custom has also passed away.
3, Zhejiang
In Zhejiang Yongjia Nanxi River in the middle and lower reaches of the area, in the first Spring Festival just married, the son-in-law to the in-laws home to pay tribute to the New Year, to do the rice crackers, commonly known as the "door to the door cake". Cooked with white rice flour, put in a stone mortar pounded mushy, kneaded into a rice block, and then placed in a wooden mold, printed into a round and flat rice cakes, the front has a pattern, such as double immortal and cooperation, Liu Hai dedication of money, Scholarship Elephant and other characters. The quantity to be made is one quart, about 50 pairs to 100 pairs. In addition to this, there should be pork, muffins, longevity noodles (Suo-myeon) and so on. In Wencheng, paying homage to the New Year is called "Maungnyeon".
Wucheng County on New Year's Day, a long pole on the grass, light a fire, and beat a gong and drums, known as the "Celebration of silkworms". And point lanterns on the pole, until March 3 stop. Ningbo on New Year's Day after ancestor worship to eat bean porridge, the night to close the door before, and then point a "door cannon". Shaoxing New Year's "tea bowl tea" to guests, which should be added to the olive and kumquat, while using tea eggs to guests, known as "hold Yuanbao".
In Shaoxing, after sending the god of the stove, before New Year's Eve, each family will always choose a blessed auspicious day, which is the most grand festival of the year for each family. The statue of the god sacrificed has the four characters of "Southern Shengzong", which Shaoxing people call the blessing of the bodhisattva, the great bodhisattva, which is said to be the emperor of the Song Dynasty. After the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty, the surviving ministers were afraid of the tyranny of the Yuan Dynasty rulers and did not dare to openly offer sacrifices to the Song Dynasty kings, so they had to do it quietly in the dead of night. This kind of festival with national consciousness was later not only widely spread, but also added the meaning of thanking the gods for their blessings and praying for happiness in the coming year. According to the old people's saying, the Bodhisattva in heaven will not enter an unclean house. Therefore, before the blessing, the hall, the sacrificial table, and the sacrificial vessels must be swept and scrubbed clean. After the "five sacrificial offerings" are cooked, they are placed on a wooden vermillion-lacquered platter. If the festival is held late at night, the atmosphere is more solemn. Men perform the three-kneeling and nine-kowtowing rituals according to their generations, and women and individual men who are jealous of the Chinese zodiac have to avoid them. Not to mention the widow of the hundred body Moling Xianglin sister-in-law, that is, Lu Fu's wife, the ladies are also deprived of the blessing of qualifications. In the old days, zhejiang dongyang area, into the year-end waxing moon, folk have a kind of "precious year ghost" custom. "Predatory ghosts" began on the first day of the lunar month and ended on the fifteenth day of the lunar month. Because, at this time, the old year will be resigned, the new year is coming, in order to thousands of families, peace and quiet, happy new year, so to all the ghosts on earth抲excluding clean, so as to avoid the breeding of the scourge.
4, Guangdong
In the Chaoshan region of Guangdong, the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month is the "gods" to the sky "duty" time. From this day onwards, every household is cleaned, and everything is washed and cleaned, which is called "hoarding". One or two days before New Year's Eve, families make various kinds of kueh kueh to prepare for the New Year. New Year's Eve will visit the flower market, walking flower street, lilies, orange trees, chrysanthemums, peach blossoms and so on are indispensable, because flowers are the most good luck walking flower street, you can make good luck, New Year's good luck. The first day of the first month of the Lunar New Year is called the first day of the new year, the beginning of spring. Day side of the dawn of the sound of happy cannons, families in the hall on the big table, red plate full of Daji (i.e., 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, and the younger generation of the upper generation of the blessing 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 the new and 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 Daji congratulations on the master of the good luck and good fortune, the host to Daji back, commonly known as the turn to honor type for Ji, meant to return the good wishes.
On the morning of the first day, a lot of lion dance and Yingge team gongs and drums to the villages and households to pay homage to the New Year, the owner of the firecrackers to welcome. On the second and third day of the village pike towns are organized to celebrate the Chinese New Year cultural and recreational activities, in addition to set up a theatre performance Teochew opera, mountain opera, do shadow play, there are big gongs and drums, tiger and lion team, Ying song team, dragon dance team, etc. Along the streets of villages and villages parade performances. Sending New Year's money is an important part of the Spring Festival custom in Chaoshan. The elders have to give money to their offspring, 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 wrapped look. 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 and wealthy. Zhaoqing section of the West River in northwestern Guangdong Province, "Three Gorges" on the water, there are still living in some of the boat as a home "water family". Some of these fishermen have been living on the boat for generations, and most of them cook on the boat, and most of them still burn firewood. The fishermen also like to plant sweet potatoes, rape, green onions, garlic seedlings, etc. in the open space along the riverbank to subsidize their lives. On New Year's Day, fishermen like to stick "Smooth Sailing" on the bow of their boats, "All Good Things Go Well" and "Peace for Young and Old" on the cabins of their boats, as well as "Red Money", a unique paper-cut pattern of money, on the bow of their boats. "red money", in addition to firecrackers in the bow of the boat, sacrifices to ancestors, on the shore of the gods, to bless their own peace and happiness.
In the Huazhou area, the first day of the Lunar New Year from 0:00 a.m. point on the beginning of the firecrackers, until dawn, early in the morning you have to burn incense to the landlord, and by the way, also take a letter of firecrackers to the landlord to burn. Some people also boil sugar congee to eat, after eating sugar congee, on behalf of the finished vegetarian, you can eat fishy. This day can not kill, this day in the morning to burn incense to the land God, the family has been continuously burning incense to the night and then burn incense to the land God until, the lamp is also the same light, has been bright until the night to burn to the land God's home incense burned until the end.
5, Hainan
In the view of the Hainanese, all the folklore is according to the will of the people, people's aspirations, artificially made, so in the Hainanese dialect, all the folklore behavior in front of the addition of a "to do" word, such as do Qingming, to do in-laws (i.e., get married), and the northern people! "New Year", the Hainanese dialect called "do year". It should be noted that "do year" refers to "do the old year" that is, the Spring Festival. The north said the New Year's Day, Hainan called "do new year". However, in Hainan countryside, "New Year" is not the year to "do". Hainan proverb "year afraid of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the month afraid of fifteen". After the Mid-Autumn Festival, the countryside is preparing to "do year". New Year's Eve night, room light, room light, night and day, for days until the dawn of the fourth day to stop; commonly known as "hair light", take the "Ding Fu Cai" meaning. Early in the morning on the first day, young and old have to get up to eat "fasting rice" (i.e., for the clean and white to commemorate the ancestors). "Ramadan" is not only similar to the Islamic halal food, and just as the northern people must eat fish on New Year's Day (year after year), as well as eating things must have auspicious symbols, which must be fried eggplant (eggplant, Hainanese language means better than a year), fried watercress ("celery" and "hard work") "and" diligence "resonance, praying for the whole family in the new year hard work), long vermicelli (implying that the life of a long stream), yellow like a golden treasure-like dried bean curd (implying that wealth into the treasure)
6, Sichuan
Sichuan, ethnic minorities: "Qiang New Year Festival The Qiang people are one of the ethnic groups with a long history in the Chinese family. The Qiang now mainly live in Mao County, Wenchuan, Li County and parts of Songpan in Aba Prefecture, Sichuan. The Qiang New Year Festival is held on the first day of the tenth month of the lunar calendar every year. It usually lasts for 3-5 days, and in some villages it lasts until the tenth day of the tenth month. According to folk customs, the Qiang New Year is also a time for honoring the gods and sacrificing to the God of Heaven, the God of Mountains and the Owner of the Land (the God of the Walled City). The whole village should have reunion dinner, drink smack, dance Shalang, until all the fun is over. The whole ceremony is presided over by "Xu", and the smacking wine is opened by the respected elders in the village. During the festival, friends and relatives can congratulate and invite each other. Sichuan Hakka Spring Festival Customs The continuous migration of the Hakka people has made them even more attached to their homeland. Nostalgia for their native landscapes and customs makes them unite tightly and overcome difficulties again and again, and traditional customs have become a strong link between the Hakka people. Among the Hakka people of Sichuan origin, the traditional customs and habits of the Hakka people have been maintained for two or three hundred years. The Hakka people attach great importance to the Lunar New Year. Every household hangs colorful lanterns, pastes door gods, and writes auspicious language on granaries and poultry and livestock pens to show good luck for the coming year's harvest. Conditional Hakka townships from the first month to February to play the lamp dance, the types of lamps are dragon lamps, lion lamps, mussel lamps, etc., which is the Hakka people in the origin of the colorful lamps of the custom handed down to this day. In addition, large-scale celebrations will be held - dragon dance, there are colorful dragons, fire dragons, water dragons, off-season dragons and and on the Chuan dragon points. Among them, especially the Shangchuan Dragon is the most distinctive. Shangchuan dragon is the early Qing Dynasty Liu immigrants from Jiangxi Province brought to the west of Sichuan, by the Liu clan year after year to tie the dragon, year after year to dance the dragon, for the New Year's Day, pray for the wind and rain. The Shangchuan Dragon is huge and majestic, operated and danced by thirty to fifty people, with a dragon head weighing thirty to fifty pounds, and is skillful and versatile. Chengdu people do not eat on New Year's Day, because "rice" and "criminal", homophonic, in order to avoid, then eat dumplings or noodles to pray for family reunion, longevity. Liu Ge and other places on the seventh day of the first month "people day" but also "a small year", in addition to honoring the gods, ancestors, but also ate New Year's dinner. Chengdu people are in the western suburbs of Du Fu Cao Tang tour. Longevity County on New Year's Day in the door burning nine wax candles, known as "nine candles" to honor heaven and earth. Sichuan people love to watch the New Year's "lights" Shuzhong earth a light scene On this side, to "exotic style" as the theme of Zigong Lantern Festival only dispersed bursts of "foreign flavor"; on the other side, the traditional Chengdu Lantern Festival for the thirty-fifth time changing the charming stream of light. And in the central Sichuan Jianyang, northern Sichuan Jiangyou, southern Sichuan Yibin and other places, three very different styles of New Year lanterns will also be lit. In the New Year of the sheep in the land of Sichuan, a light scene. Lantern festival is a traditional folk cultural activities of the Chinese nation, every New Year festival in many places have hung lanterns, do the tradition of lantern festival. And for the love of lively, peaceful Sichuan people, the New Year can not be without "lights", lanterns have become the Sichuan people for the New Year's indispensable "New Year's goods". For this reason, Sichuan Lantern Festival has a long history, high level, known as "the world's first light", "China's first Lantern Festival". Especially the Chengdu Lantern Festival and Zigong Lantern Festival, the momentum of the majestic, ingenious ideas, exquisite craftsmanship, local flavor of the rich, into the Chinese local lanterns will be the leader.