New Year’s Eve is a traditional festival in China. Throughout the ages, people have celebrated it in various ways. So what do you know about the customs of New Year’s Eve? New Year’s Eve, as a traditional festival in our country, is there any stress? Xiaobian has sorted out the precautions for New Year’s Eve. Let’s take a look at those who are interested.
Customs and habits of New Year’s Eve
What are the brief introductions of New Year’s Eve customs?
"Set off fireworks". Setting off firecrackers is a must on New Year’s Eve. Legend has it that the monster "Xi" is most afraid of the sound of firecrackers. Our ancestors used firecrackers to drive away the monster. Nowadays, the firecracker has been given a new meaning. It also has the function of dispelling poverty and bad luck. The noise also represents a colorful and prosperous life in the new year. Therefore, firecrackers must be lit on New Year’s Eve. Firecrackers are a specialty of China, also known as "firecrackers", "firecrackers" and "firecrackers".
"Shounian". Keeping old age on New Year’s Eve is one of the most important activities, and the custom of keeping old age has a long history. People often stay up all night on New Year’s Eve, which is called Shounian. The earliest record of observing the old age can be found in the local records of the Western Jin Dynasty: on New Year’s Eve, all parties give gifts, which is called "giving back the old age"; Wine and food are invited, which is called "don’t be old"; It is called "dividing the age" when the young and the old gather to drink and wish a complete song; Everyone stays up all night, waiting for the morning, which is called "keeping the old age". On New Year’s Eve, the whole family get together, eat New Year’s Eve, light candles or oil lamps, sit around the stove and chat, waiting for the time to bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new year, and keep vigil all night, symbolizing driving away all evil diseases and looking forward to good luck in the new year. Because of its great significance, until today, people are still used to keeping the old year and welcoming the new year on New Year’s Eve.
Eat rice cakes and jiaozi. The traditional Spring Festival begins on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month (that is, Laba Festival), and housewives begin to arrange all kinds of food needed for the New Year. Steamed rice cakes, because of their homophonic "high age" and varied tastes, have almost become a must-have food for every family.
Pay attention to New Year’s Eve
"Bao jiaozi". Eating jiaozi is a traditional way to celebrate the New Year in the north. The Spring Festival is a family reunion festival. On this festival, wanderers who are away from home have to come home from Wan Li for thousands of miles. The whole family has to sit around and wrap jiaozi for the New Year. jiaozi’s practice is to make dumpling skins with flour first, and then use leather bags to stuff them. The contents of the stuffing are varied, and all kinds of meat, seafood, eggs and seasonal vegetables can be stuffed. The orthodox jiaozi method is to cook them in clear water and mix them with vinegar and minced garlic after picking them up. There are also ways to fry jiaozi and bake jiaozi (fried dumpling). Because the word "He" in dough mixing means "He"; Jiaozi’s "Jiao" and "Jiao" are homophonic, and "He" and "Jiao" have the meaning of reunion, so jiaozi is used to symbolize reunion of acacia; It is very auspicious to take the meaning of making friends at an older age; In addition, jiaozi, shaped like an ingot, eats jiaozi during the Chinese New Year, which also has the auspicious meaning of "making a fortune".
Pay attention to New Year’s Eve and taboo matters.
1. New Year’s Eve dinner
The New Year’s Eve dinner is also called the reunion dinner. According to Zonggu’s Record of Jingchu’s Age, it was customary to eat New Year’s Eve dinner at least in the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Because it is winter, northerners often set up hot pot in the middle of the dining table, so it is also called a stove.
The dishes of northerners’ New Year’s Eve often include dumplings, fish, rice cakes and long-term vegetables. Because dumplings look like gold ingots, which means wealth; Fish can’t be finished, because in Chinese, "fish" and "Yu" are homonyms, which means "more than one year". The rice cake has the meaning of "rising year by year"; Eating long-term vegetables has the meaning of longevity. In South China, there are many kinds of chicken, roasted meat, Nostoc flagelliforme and oyster sauce, because Nostoc flagelliforme and oyster sauce are homophonic. A typical New Year’s Eve dinner in the south of the Yangtze River must have fish and a rich soup pot.
According to the old ceremony, the traditional seats on New Year’s Eve are "respecting the east from the left" and "facing the gate for respect". The head of the annual banquet is the elder with the highest seniority, and the last seat is the lowest. If it is a treat, the chief is the most respected guest, and the host is at the bottom. No one else can sit down until the chief is seated, and no one can start work until the chief starts work.
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What are the taboos on New Year’s Eve?
2. Don’t draw water
There is a taboo of "not pumping water" during the Chinese New Year. People who have wells at home should "seal the wells" before dusk except the day, put wooden covers on the wells, burn incense and worship sacrifices after offering cakes, and then open the covers for reuse three days later.
3. ancestor worship
Sacrificing ancestors is the first important event on New Year’s Eve. In many parts of our country, on this day, people will put rich meals and light incense sticks at home, and parents will lead their children to worship. In some rural areas in the north, paper money will be burned at home. In the evening of New Year’s Eve, candles are lit in front of the ancestor statues, wine is poured, and dishes are placed. The whole family holds a grand sacrifice ceremony to express their feelings of "pursuing the future with caution". People didn’t begin to enjoy the New Year’s Eve dinner until our ancestors had eaten it.
4, lucky money
The ancients were very particular about lucky money. The copper coins used need a lot of money and new money, and then they are made into various shapes with red ropes. Some wear hundreds of copper coins, which means "long life"; Others are dressed in auspicious shapes such as carp, ruyi and dragon, meaning "money dragon" and "money surplus" in order to bring good luck. In addition to giving children "lucky money" by elders, in some areas there is also the custom of giving "fruit on the eve of the year". On New Year’s Eve, the elders will put oranges, lychees and other fruits on the child’s pillow and take the meaning of "Geely" to wish the child good luck in the coming year. With the development of the times, the current "lucky money" is more direct and pure. Generally, red tickets are wrapped in exquisite red packages and then distributed to children for a good lottery.
5. Step on the Year’s Activities
On New Year’s Eve, people in our country will also hold a year-old stepping activity, that is, stick sesame stalks in the courtyard in the shape of gold ingots made of yellow paper rolls and save them into a bundle, which is called "cornucopia". Then, the whole family crushed it with their feet to harmonize "old age" with "broken", and borrowed the auspicious meaning of sesame blossoms, wishing the family prosperity and expressing their wishes and prayers for the new year.
6, shou sui
Keeping the old age on New Year’s Eve is also a long-standing custom. As early as the Western Jin Dynasty, it was clearly recorded in the local customs: "I don’t sleep all night, waiting for the dawn to keep the old age." Legend has it that observing the age is to prevent the infringement of a unicorn, which is most afraid of fire, red and sound, so people wear red clothes, light red lights, put up red paper, set off fireworks and firecrackers, burn incense and pray all night, and have the custom of "observing the age" on New Year’s Eve. "Ji Sheng at the age of Emperor Jing" records: "High fever, silver candle, drinking pine mash, sitting on the altar, called keeping the age, and prolonging the year by omen."
Many places also call New Year’s Eve "Ji Xiangye". On this night, both adults and children should say auspicious words, not unlucky words, dirty words and disrespectful words, or they will have bad luck all year. Therefore, joy, kindness and reunion are the biggest themes of New Year’s Eve.
7. Turn on the light and sleep
You can’t turn off the lights when you sleep on New Year’s Eve. You can’t turn off the lights until dawn on the first day of the new year. On the whole night of New Year’s Eve, the lights are generally not turned off at home, especially in the house where ancestors are supported.
8, avoid breaking utensils
There is also the custom of avoiding breaking utensils on New Year’s Eve. People believe that if the dishes and cups are broken on this day, it will mean "broken luck" in the new year. Sometimes accidentally breaking cups and plates on this day, the elders will hurry to wrap them in red paper and recite auspicious words such as "Peace through the years" to remedy it. Folks believe that putting the pieces wrapped in red paper on the sacred case for a few days can resolve possible disasters. Therefore, in order to win a good lottery on New Year’s Eve, people will be cautious in their words and deeds in order to achieve a lucky year.
9. Post Spring Festival couplets
Spring Festival couplets, also called "door pairs", "spring stickers", "couplets" and "couplets", belong to a kind of couplets and are a unique literary form. This pair of the earliest Spring Festival couplets in the world, "Three Yang began to spread, and four orders began to open", was recorded on the Dunhuang suicide note unearthed in the Tibetan Sutra Cave of Mogao Grottoes, written by Liu Qiuzi, a Tang Dynasty, in the eleventh year of Kaiyuan (723). The folk custom of sticking couplets on the Spring Festival began to prevail in the Ming Dynasty, and the birthplace of the trend was Nanjing. Now people in Jiangnan pay attention to posting Spring Festival couplets on the morning of New Year’s Eve.
10. paste new year pictures
New Year pictures, like Spring Festival couplets, originated from "door gods". With the rise of engraving printing, the content of New Year pictures is not limited to the door gods and so on, but gradually the god of wealth is invited to the home, and then colorful New Year pictures such as Three Stars of Fu Lushou, heavenly god blesses the people, Harvest of Five Grains, Prosperity of Six Livestock, Greeting the Spring and Blessing the New Year are produced in some New Year pictures workshops to meet people’s good wishes of celebrating and praying for the New Year.
11. stick grilles
In the folk, people also like to stick all kinds of paper-cuts on the windows-window grilles. Window grilles not only set off the festive atmosphere, but also integrate decoration, appreciation and practicality. Paper-cutting is a very popular folk art in China, which has been loved by people for thousands of years. Because it is mostly stuck on the window, it is also called "window flower". With its unique generalization and exaggeration, window grilles show auspicious things and good wishes incisively and vividly, and decorate the festival with splendor.
12, paste the word blessing
It is a long-standing folk custom in China to stick blessings on the Spring Festival. Sticking the word "Fu" in the Spring Festival places people’s longing for a happy life and wishes for a bright future. There is no uniform standard for how to paste the word "Fu".
13, zero must go home.
After the reunion dinner is finished with laughter, the family will sit around the TV to watch the Spring Festival Gala, or visit relatives’ homes to chat, but they must get home before zero. At 1: 00, the whole family should "keep watch" at home. When the hands of clocks and watches pass 12 o’clock, people will set off firecrackers already prepared to celebrate the arrival of the New Year.
14. Burning firecrackers
There is a folk saying in China that "opening the door to firecrackers". That is, at the arrival of the new year, the first thing for every household to open the door is to set off firecrackers to eliminate the old and welcome the new with the sound of firecrackers. Its origin is very early, and it has a history of more than two thousand years. Setting off firecrackers can create a festive and lively atmosphere, which is a kind of entertainment in festivals and can bring happiness and good luck to people.
Editor in charge: Ke Jinding
