The Spring Festival originated in China and was spread to every corner of the world by the sons and daughters of China. As the leader of the four traditional Chinese festivals, the Spring Festival not only occupies an important position in the hearts of Chinese. Some countries and nationalities that belong to the Chinese character cultural circle also have the custom of celebrating the New Year. Next, let's enjoy the unique customs of those foreign Spring Festival celebrations.
1. Singapore.
In Singapore, the Chinese make up about 80 percent of the country's total population. So, Singapore, like China, takes the Lunar New Year very seriously and has many unique customs.
For example, bringing two oranges to greet the New Year is a local custom in Singapore, and giving oranges has the meaning of blessing good luck and wishing you prosperity. Traditionally, nine oranges are also placed in the kitchen, with 9 representing "longevity", which means to bring lasting peace and prosperity.
Singapore also has a must-eat dish for the Chinese New Year: lo yu sheng. During the Spring Festival, whether it is a family gathering or a company dinner, as long as there are four or five people, you can make "fish sheng". If you are in Singapore for the Chinese New Year, you find that the gentlemen and ladies around you suddenly rush up and stand on the stool to "grab" food, yes, you have met Singaporeans fishing for sashimi.
Singaporeans usually call the fish sheng "fortune fish sheng", and the people around the table get up, scoop up the fish with chopsticks, and shout "Fish, fa!" "Everyone is getting higher and higher, which means rising step by step, and even prefers to see the scene full of messes, which means "everywhere **, blessings are overflowing!" ”
2. Malaysia.
Giving red envelopes is a folk custom of the Chinese New Year, which originated in the Han Dynasty to help children bypass devils such as "Nian". In Malaysia, there are also elderly people who give juniors big red envelopes to "good intentions and physical and mental health", but they also have their own unique taboos. For example, in Malaysia, the elderly who are not married cannot give big red envelopes to juniors. Local customs and habits think that if an unmarried man gives a big red envelope to his junior, he will not be able to marry a daughter-in-law; If an unmarried lady gives a junior a big red envelope, she will not be able to get married.
It is reported that the origin of mandarin orange throwing comes from the Fujian song "Throw good oranges, marry a good husband". On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, in addition to appreciating the lanterns and guessing the lantern riddles, single men and women gather together, and the girls will write *** on the orange, and then throw it into the river or lake, and the boys will take the opportunity to meet the destined people.
3. South Korea. Since South Korea is a country with a Chinese character cultural circle, there are many similarities between the Chinese New Year customs and China, and the Korean New Year and the Chinese New Year are the same day, and the first day of the first lunar month is the Korean New Year.
In Korea, the most important activity during the Spring Festival is to worship ancestors, Koreans have a strict saying about ancestor worship, only the rules of the table are arranged, "fish east meat west", "head east tail west", "red east white west", in front of the ancestral name of the spiritual seat to offer a variety of food, children and grandchildren pour wine and then salute, praying for the ancestors to bless peace and health during the year.
The Oba people's Chinese New Year's Eve meal is very particular, the biggest feature is that the meals are all traditional diet, the whole family has to eat "five grain rice", that is, cloud beans, soybeans, small beans, black beans and rice made of rice, in addition to "cake", including Korean "steamed buns", the main dish in addition to grilled meat, but also put more than a dozen kinds of wild vegetables or kimchi.
Koreans are still white, and in Korea white clothes mean nobility, kindness, and purity. So the Spring Festival in South Korea is white, and the Korean Spring Festival does not give out red envelopes but white envelopes.
Fourth, the DPRK. The Spring Festival in North Korea is called the New Year's Festival, and it is a three-day holiday according to national regulations. The festival tradition is also from New Year (Chinese New Year's Eve) to the fifteenth (Lantern Festival), and modern celebrations are mainly focused on Chinese New Year's Eve to the second day of the Lunar New Year.
Every year on the first day of the lunar calendar, North Koreans celebrate the New Year with new expectations and expectations, which is the biggest folk festival of the year. For the Chinese New Year, people clean up the inside and outside of the house, sew new clothes, and cook special meals.
They call the wine they drink on the first morning of the New Year "Tusu wine", which is generally brewed with medicinal herbs, and of course what is more joyful is the various games they have to participate in during the festival, such as springboarding, swinging, skating car, shuttlecock kicking, and spinning top.
5. Vietnam. Tet is also a traditional festival in Vietnam, and every Chinese New Year, every Vietnamese household buys peach blossoms and kumquat trees. Peach blossoms not only have the meaning of warding off evil spirits, but also have the meaning of winter going to spring and the earth returning to spring. Kumquat symbolizes auspiciousness and wealth, and carries the Vietnamese people's expectations for good luck and prosperity in the new year.
Another important activity in Vietnamese Tet customs is the "Rushing New Year's Day" on the morning of the first day of the new year, that is, the first person to enter the house often determines the fortune of the host family for a year. Therefore, in Vietnam, people often choose the object of "New Year's Celebration" according to the eight characters of the birthday, and the person who is chosen is often warmly entertained by the host.