In ancient times, New Year's Day was equivalent to our Spring Festival today.
As a festival to say goodbye to the old and welcome the new, today's Chinese New Year's Eve and Spring Festival customs are mostly inherited from the New Year's Day of the ancients.
Cultural activities such as keeping the New Year, changing peach charms, and sticking to the door god are all legends and stories that can be followed in ancient times. On this New Year's Day, let's take a look at these legends and stories that contain good wishes.
Stay up for the year
The custom of keeping the New Year arose in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and many literati in the Liang Dynasty had poems and essays about keeping the New Year. "One night is two years old, and five watches are divided into two years. ”
People light candles or oil lamps and keep vigil all night to symbolize the drive away all evil plagues and diseases, and look forward to the auspicious new year.
The Song Dynasty Meng Yuanlao's "Tokyo Menghualu" recorded: "Chinese New Year's Eve......Shishu home, sitting around the fireplace, up to the end of the sleep, said to keep the year. ”
According to legend, in the ancient flood era, there was a vicious monster, and people called it Nian. Every night of the thirtieth day of the Chinese New Year's Eve, the Nian beast will crawl out of the sea to harm people and animals, destroy the countryside, and bring disaster to the people who have worked hard for a year.
In order to avoid the beasts of the year, on the night of the thirtieth day of the lunar month, they closed the gate early before it was dark, did not dare to sleep, and sat and waited for the dawn, in order to kill time, and also to strengthen their courage, they drank wine.
Wait until the morning of the first day of the new year when the beast no longer comes out, and then dare to go out.
People met each other and bowed their hands, congratulated each other, and were glad that they were not eaten by the Nian Beast, so that after many years, nothing happened, and people relaxed their vigilance against the Nian Beast.
One Chinese New Year's Eve night, the Nian Beast suddenly rushed to a village in the south of the Yangtze River, and the people in one village were almost eaten by the Nian Beast, and only one newlywed couple with red curtains and red clothes were safe and sound.
There are also a few children, in the courtyard lit a bunch of bamboo to play, the fire is red, the bamboo burns after the ** explosion, the year beast turned here, saw the fire frightened turned around and fled.
Since then, people know that the year beast is afraid of red, afraid of light, afraid of sound, every year to the end of the year, every household will paste red paper, wear red robes, hang red lights, beat gongs and drums, set off firecrackers, so that the year beast will not dare to come again.
Peach Charm
"With a peach seal, six inches long, three inches square, the five-color calligraphy is like the law, to give the door, stop the evil spirit. (Book of Later Han Dynasty, Chronicles of Etiquette).
In ancient Chinese mythology, it is said that there is a world of ghosts, in which there is a mountain, and there is a large peach tree covering 3,000 miles on the mountain, and there is a golden rooster on the treetop.
Whenever the golden rooster crows in the morning, the ghosts that wander out at night will drive back to the ghost realm. The gate of the ghost domain is located in the northeast of the peach tree, and there are two gods standing by the door, named Shen Tu and Yu Lei.
If the ghost did something unreasonable during the night, Shen Tu and Yu Lei would immediately find out and catch it, tie it up with a rope made of mango reeds, and send it to feed the tiger.
Therefore, the ghosts of the world are afraid of the gods and gloom. So the people carved their appearance with peach wood and placed it at the door of their house to ward off evil and prevent harm.
Later, people simply carved the names of Shen Tu and Yu Lei on the peach wood board, believing that this could also suppress evil and eliminate evil. This kind of peach plank was later called "peach charm".
After the Tang Dynasty, in addition to the two generals of the past Shen Tu and Yu Lei, people regarded Qin Shubao and Wei Chi Gong as the two Tang Dynasty military generals.
According to legend, Tang Taizong was sick and heard the ghost cry outside the door, and he couldn't be at peace all night. So he asked the two generals to stand by the door with ** in hand, and the next night there was no more ghost harassment.
So, Tang Taizong asked people to draw the images of these two generals and paste them on the door.
"Rat marries a girl".
The time of "rat marrying a girl" varies from place to place.
In the folklore of the Jiangnan area, it is said that rats are harmful and unlucky, so they should be married off on the night of the Chinese New Year's Eve to ensure peace and auspiciousness in the coming year.
In some places in Shanghai, it is said that the rat marries the girl on the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, and on this night, every household fried sesame candy, which is the candy prepared for the rat to marry.
In the north, rats marry on the night of the 25th day of the first lunar month.
On this night, every household did not light the lamp, and the whole family sat on the kang without making a sound, just eating the "rat claw claws", "scorpion tails" and fried soybeans made of flour in the dark.
Not lighting the lamp and not making a sound means to provide convenience for the rat to marry a girl, for fear of disturbing the happy event of marrying;
Eating "rat's paws" indicates that people expect rats' paws to itch and get up early to act;
Eating the "scorpion tail" is to make the mouse marry a girl and not be harmed by the scorpion when it comes out of the hole;
Eating fried soybeans makes a crunchy sound, which seems to be setting off firecrackers for rats to marry.
On the night of the rat's marriage, some places will also put candles all over the corners and corridors of the house, which means that the road of the rat's marriage will be illuminated.