Ancestor worship is one of the oldest elements of Chinese New Year customs. "Shangshu Shundian" recorded: "On the first day of the first day of the month, Shunge was in Wenzu. On the first day of the first lunar month, Emperor Shun went to the ancestral temple to worship his ancestors. Sacrificing ancestors is a high embodiment of the traditional culture of the Chinese nation, and it is the moral and belief inheritance of Chinese awe and remembrance of the ancestors, and it is a specific behavior to express blood and family feelings.
The original meaning of ancestor worship is to express respect, nostalgia, gratitude, inheritance and repayment to the ancestors in the form of sacrifices. When worshipping ancestors, one involuntarily recalls the various contributions that their ancestors made to their families, clans, and countries. In particular, revisiting some family rules, family mottos, and family education, telling the stories and family histories of the ancestors, these stories and family histories are easier for people to internalize in their hearts and externalize them in their forms after years of precipitation, and become a model for the clan and rules for dealing with the world.
The Analects says: "Be cautious and chase the distance, and the people's virtue will be thick", which means that let our hearts develop a kind, filial piety, and grateful heart, and the sacrifice to our ancestors is to repay the kindness, in order to repay the original and remember the ancestors.
In China, ancestor worship during the Spring Festival is a solemn folk activity. On the night of Chinese New Year's Eve, there is a custom of family reunion, setting up a church to offer fasting, lighting incense and burning candles, and respectfully inviting ancestors or deceased relatives to return home for the New Year.
The Spring Festival ancestor worship is mainly carried out at home, and the time is mostly around the dinner on Chinese New Year's Eve, which is called "taking the ancestors home for the New Year". The order of sacrifice begins with the one with the highest rank in the cemetery. Put the kang table in front of the grave, kowtow, pour a cup of wine on the ground, and after the sacrifice is completed in turn, bury the food in the soil, which is considered to be "sent" to the ancestors, and at the same time burn paper in front of the grave, which is regarded as the "pocket money" during the New Year of filial piety to the ancestors. Then the incense burner, incense tube, candlestick or wooden incense plate, placed on the west kang or on the lid of the hall box, the genealogical "spectrum" usually placed in the "ancestral box" please open and hang on the wall, some people because they are not the main branch of the long house, there is no spectrum, then according to the record of the pedigree, write the "name" of their direct ancestors of each generation on a long piece of paper and hang it, commonly known as "ancestral strips" or "spectrum strips", and some are placed wooden tablets. After the hanging, the incense began to be offered, and the whole family kowtowed in turn. Offerings are usually pasta and fruits. It was not until the end of the year that the "ancestors" were sent away after the salute, that is, the "spectrum" or tablet was returned to its original place.
Nowadays, many are buried in cemeteries, and sweeping the graves of deceased relatives requires certain ritual procedures. At the time of sacrifice, it is necessary to light a stick of incense to show respect to the ancestors; Then light three incense sticks to burn smoke to purify the atmosphere; This is followed by offerings to the ancestors, usually flowers, wine, fruits, and other foods, as a sign of respect and remembrance.
Now people's life rhythm is very fast, the Spring Festival worship so that the family has the opportunity and time to get together, the old man was at home together when he was alive, and the old man died after the family also had a reason to get together, and the bond of family affection continued from generation to generation, perhaps this is also a meaning of the Spring Festival worship now.