Author: Wei Feng (Associate Researcher, North China University of Technology).
Every Chinese New Year, the "busy New Year's song" is endless. From cleaning the house to cooking Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, the "Busy New Year Song" has not only become a guide to people's actions during the New Year, but also subtly conveys the profound meaning of hard work and happiness, hard work and prosperity, hard work and good luck, and creating a better life with both hands. In traditional Chinese customs, the fifteenth year is a year. From the Lunar New Year to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, there is something to do almost every day. The Chinese New Year is spent in those more than 20 days of busyness and exquisiteness.
In fact, the origin of the year is closely related to the forms of labor and customs of the people. In ancient times, people called the growth cycle of grains "Nian", and the "Nian" in the oracle bone inscription is a pictogram of "people" carrying "he" on their backs, and the harvesting activities after the harvest indicate the ripeness of the grains. The ancients worked hard for a year, and after spring sowing, summer cultivation, autumn harvest, and winter storage, the growth of crops went through a complete cycle. However, in winter, when the natural conditions did not allow people to reap the fruits of agricultural labor, the people fantasized about the "Year Beast". When the "year" comes, the earth is desolate, and all things are not born; As soon as the "year" passed, the grass and trees recovered, and business was booming. How to make the "year" pass smoothly? It is necessary to use red, fire, and sound, so pasting Spring Festival couplets, hanging lanterns, sticking window flowers, wearing new jackets, and setting off firecrackers have become the main content of New Year's customs. Prosperous, lively, and noisy is not only the manifestation of the year, but also has a practical use, playing the role of driving away evil and avoiding evil, praying for blessings and auspiciousness, so that the new year will start again and again, and the work will be rewarded.
Specific to the origin of the year and every day of the year, there is a rich meaning of labor in the traditional culture of the year. In recent years, as labor education has received more and more attention from all walks of life, the Spring Festival has gradually become an important starting point for primary and secondary schools to carry out labor education. During this year's winter vacation, many schools launched the "Winter Vacation Labor List" to organize primary and secondary school students to use the winter vacation to carry out labor practice, find the "New Year's flavor" in labor, and feel the sense of New Year's ritual in practice. Check out the "Winter Vacation Labor List" launched by some schools, each of which is closely related to the culture of the year.
The first is "sweeping the dust". Usually the northern wax moon.
Two. Ten. 3. The 24th day of the southern lunar month is called the "Little Year". The small year is regarded as the beginning of a busy year, and people begin to prepare New Year's goods, begin to sweep the dust, sacrifice stoves, worship ancestors, and prepare for the New Year's food and clothing. The first thing to welcome the new year is to clean the house, so the "small year" is also called the "dust sweeping day", every household sprinkles and sweeps the courtyard house, dusts off the cobwebs and dirt, dismantles and washes the bedding curtains, and polishes the household utensils. Because of the homonym between "dust" and "Chen", the dust sweeping in the New Year has the meaning of "removing Chen Buxin". Through the sweeping, all the troubles, bad luck, and impure things deposited in the home are swept out of the house, and people's wishes to break the old and establish the new are pinned on people's prayers for leaving the old and welcoming the new. The purpose of allowing students to participate in "dust sweeping" is not only to cultivate their labor ability and labor consciousness, but also to let students understand the traditional culture and inherit the excellent traditional culture in practice; Feel the warmth of home in labor and welcome the new year hand in hand with your family.
The second is to cook a dish for the family or participate in the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner. The Spring Festival is a rare time of the year when people "never get tired of eating, and they don't get tired of being fine". People have gone to great lengths to make ordinary food complete the gorgeous butterfly transformation through one process after another, conditioning over and over again, and trying again and again. The Chinese New Year's Eve dinner may be the longest meal to prepare in a year, and the more effort you put in and the more your family participates, the more delicious the meal will be and the more joy will be for the New Year. Busy with food, even if you work hard, you are also willing to eat. Gastronomy is integrated into domestic labor, and such a feast is far more evocative than the delicacies of a hotel restaurant. Allowing students to cook a dish for their family or participate in cooking a Chinese New Year's Eve meal is not only a skills education, labor education, but also a vivid gratitude education: let parents feel their children's filial piety and growth from one dish after another, and let students understand the meaning of parents' difficulties and gratitude in one dish after another.
The third is to cut window grilles and write couplets. Every year when the Spring Festival is approaching, one of the most lively scenes is to cut window flowers, write couplets, paste window flowers, and paste couplets. In the countryside, the men, women and children of the whole village gather in squares and open spaces, watching the villagers splash ink, and line up in long lines for a couplet, full of reverence for knowledge and appreciation of the fruits of labor; In the urban community, intangible cultural heritage inheritors and calligraphers cut window flowers and wrote couplets, and they were very busy, with an endless stream of adults and children, and the scene was very lively. When it comes to sticking window grilles and pasting couplets, each family gets up early, and the family works together, you climb high and I go low, you support the couplet, I pull the tape, a lively and happy busy New Year's scene. Allowing students to learn to cut window flowers and write couplets by hand is actually to let them experience the fun of hands-on, feel the pay and return behind the traditional culture, and guide them to respect knowledge and culture, and advocate labor and creativity.
Inheriting the value and spirit of labor among the younger generation, New Year's customs activities are a vivid entry point. Throughout the ages, the Chinese New Year has been very popular among young people, especially children, and guiding them to taste the meaning of labor in the traditional culture is the best way to educate and entertain. In the context of the implementation of the "double reduction" in the country, around the Spring Festival this year, many primary and secondary schools organized students to carry out various "New Year's customs" activities to enrich students' holiday life: Jilin Linjiang Primary School used the "Dust Day" to organize year-end cleaning to promote growth through labor education; Hubei Wuhan Yucai Hankou Primary School led students to "play glutinous rice cakes" and feel the fun of the New Year; Shandong Qixia Cuiping Middle School customized the "Harmony and Beauty New Year Labor List" to carry out Jiaodong characteristic New Year customs activities. Some college students in Beijing have organized New Year's customs promotion activities in the Forbidden City and other places, and used the winter vacation to learn intangible cultural heritage skills such as the "Eight Uniques of Yanjing" and feel the spirit of craftsmen. There are also some college students who organize groups to go into nursing homes, welfare homes, and lonely elderly homes before and after the Spring Festival, dust and water flowers for the elderly, complete various housework, and send New Year blessings to the elderly with their hard work.
The inheritance of Chinese folk customs and the promotion of the spirit of labor can be compatible and mutually reinforcing. Labor has created the Chinese nation, created the glorious history of the Chinese nation, and will surely create a bright future for the Chinese nation. The future of the Chinese nation lies in the youth, and through the annual activities, the concept of "labor creates a better life" is deeply rooted in the hearts of young people, and they will surely grow into strivers in the new era who love, advocate and be good at labor.
Bright**, 2024-02-21, 13th edition).
*: Guangming Network - "Bright **".