Beijing, February 10 (Reporter Shangguan Yun) The Spring Festival is one of the most important festivals of the Chinese nation. During the Spring Festival, go home to reunite with relatives, eat Chinese New Year's Eve meals, pay New Year's greetings, visit relatives and friends, ......Many seemingly ordinary customs carry people's hopes for a better future.
In the sound of firecrackers, the spring breeze sends warmth into Tusu. He Shaoya, a lecturer at the School of Sociology of Beijing Normal University, told reporters that the Spring Festival in the broad sense includes two periods before and after the year, and the Spring Festival in the narrow sense refers to the first day of the first month. As for the delicacies during the Spring Festival, there are rice cakes, glutinous rice balls, dumplings and so on.
Data map: Tenglong lanterns appeared in Nanjing Chengnan Old Street, creating a festive atmosphere for the New Year. Photo by China News Service reporter Yang Bo.
He Shaoya mentioned that not long ago, China's Spring Festival (Lunar New Year) was designated as a United Nations holiday. This is a signal that the Spring Festival is going to the world. In the sustainable development of the world society in the future, the Spring Festival will also play a more important role as a cultural bridge.
How did the Spring Festival come about?
Historically, the Spring Festival is also known as "Xinzheng", "New Year's Day", "New Year's Day", "Zhengdan" and so on. The emergence of the Spring Festival is closely related to the formation of the concept of the ancient calendar year. As early as three generations before antiquity, people had already grasped the concept of the time cycle of "year".
As the saying goes, "Xia is said to be old, Shang is said to be ritual, Zhou is said to be a year, and Tang Yu is said to be a year." The Xia Dynasty called the year "year", and took the harvest of crops as the annual time cycle. The Zhou Dynasty inherited the timekeeping tradition of the Xia Dynasty, taking the first month of the year in November of the Xia calendar and calling the annual cycle the year.
The Spring Festival in the narrow sense refers to the first day of the first lunar month, Chinese New Year's Eve and the Spring Festival are two consecutive days, as the saying goes, "one night even two years old, five more divided into two years", which is the Chinese New Year's Eve night vigil, farewell to the old and welcome the new year.
What is the theme of the Spring Festival?
The festival theme and cultural connotation of the Spring Festival are mainly considered from three aspects: one is family reunion, the second is to say goodbye to the old and welcome the new, and the third is to pray for blessings and auspiciousness.
Reunion is the main spiritual connotation of the Spring Festival, on Chinese New Year's Eve, people eat Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, sit in the group to observe the New Year, and enjoy the joy of family; After the Spring Festival, visit relatives and friends, pay respects and greets, and reunite with relatives and friends; Across time and space, with the help of modern new **, the sons and daughters of China around the world share the great reunion of the nation.
Farewell to the old and welcome the new year is the theme of the New Year's passing ceremony, and on Chinese New Year's Eve, people welcome the new year with firecrackers; After the New Year, we will receive sacrifices to the gods, worship ancestors, and celebrate the New Year, and enter a new journey of life.
Paste Spring Festival couplets, hang New Year's paintings, paste window flowers, paste blessing words, visit temple fairs, dance dragon lanterns ......These customs are full of gratitude and joy for the past year, as well as people's longing and dreams for the new year.
Data map: The picture shows citizens selecting Spring Festival couplets in the supermarket. **Photo by reporter Zhou Yi.
Chinese New Year", what does it mean?
The Spring Festival is an important traditional festival. In the first year of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, it was officially determined that the first month of the summer calendar was the first month, and although the calendar was constantly revised and changed, the time of the first month of the year remained unchanged, and the annual festival was fixed.
People are often accustomed to saying "New Year", and "New Year", embodied in the word "pass", refers to a process in which people are busy welcoming the New Year and celebrating the New Year happily.
The Spring Festival in a broad sense includes two periods before and after the year, and the period of the New Year is generally calculated from the beginning of the lunar New Year, and the date of the lunar New Year is uncertain before the Wei and Jin dynasties, and the Southern Dynasty has been set on the eighth day of the lunar month.
Since then, the people usually take the eighth day of the lunar month as the beginning of the New Year's Festival, and some start from the sacrificial stove (generally the twenty-third day of the lunar month in the north, and the twenty-fourth lunar month in the south) until the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.
Why was the exorcism ceremony held at the end of the ancient year?
Since the pre-Qin period, there have been activities to drive the epidemic at the end of the year. The time of the exorcism is either the day before the day of the year, or on the day of the day, or before the Chinese New Year's Eve, and is the theme activity at the end of the year.
There are two indispensable rituals in the ritual of exorcism—the drum and the mask. beat the drum, shaking the heavens and the earth; Put on a mask and use the gods to ward off the plague.
Although the folk exorcism is not so grand, it has always been inherited. At the end of the Song Dynasty, the Nu opera has gradually evolved into a Nu opera, with gongs and drums beating and routine dances in urban and rural areas.
After the Ming and Qing dynasties, the performance of the Nu dance was stronger, the secularization was enhanced, and the religious nature became weaker. It has also gradually been incorporated into other New Year's customs, such as combining it with year-end dust sweeping in some places.
Why were firecrackers lit in ancient times?
"Celebrating the New Year in full swing", this is the definition of the year by Chinese who love to be lively.
Data map: The picture shows the colorful dragon lantern promenade. Photo by Chen Yingqing.
One theory says that firecrackers originated from ancient religious beliefs. It is believed that the sound of firecrackers and other sounds will ward off evil spirits. Zong Yi's "Jing Chu Years Chronicles" records that on the first day of the first lunar month, "the rooster crows and firecrackers before the court" to expel the plague ghosts.
At that time, the firecrackers were really "firecrackers", that is, the bamboo tube was placed in the fire to barbecue, and the bamboo tube burst out due to the expansion of heat. Gunpowder and firecrackers appeared in the Song Dynasty. The ancients believed that setting off firecrackers not only brought a jubilant atmosphere for the New Year, but also had the effect of driving away plagues.
When did the custom of "New Year's greetings" become popular?
It is believed that the tradition of New Year's greetings originated from the custom of greeting New Year's greetings on the New Year in the Han Dynasty. Before the Han Dynasty, the custom of folk sacrifices to celebrate the New Year was mainly in Lari and Laming, and later moved to Zhengri.
According to the relevant records of Cui Yu's "Four People's Moon Order" of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the content of New Year's greetings at that time mainly included sacrificing ancestors, respecting elders, and worshipping the clan and the township party.
To this day, people still worship the New Year, first reuniting within the family, and respecting the ancestors and elders. After the completion of family reunion, people began to pay New Year's greetings to relatives, friends, and neighbors according to the distance between relatives.
What are the delicacies during the Chinese New Year?
Including dumplings, there is a lot of food during the Spring Festival.
Data map: Dumplings are one of the "protagonists" during the Chinese New Year. Photo by Li Dian.
For example, in some places, tangyuan is eaten during the New Year, which means reunion. Spring rolls are generally considered to be the seasonal food of the beginning of spring, but they are also eaten during the New Year in the Jiangnan region, which means welcoming spring.
Glutinous rice cake is the annual food in Hubei and Hunan. At the end of each year, people are busy soaking glutinous rice and preparing to make glutinous rice cakes. Generally speaking, the glutinous rice should be soaked first, steamed on the rice retort, poured into a stone mortar while it is hot, and the cooked glutinous rice is mashed.
After that, the mashed glutinous rice dough is taken out, spread on a dustpan or cutting board, and after cooling, cut into round or rectangular shapes, or grilled, fried, or boiled, it is equally delicious. Glutinous rice is also a good treat for customers.
What's the point of eating rice cakes?
In the early days, the sticky rice cake was used as a sacrifice to the gods, and later gradually became a landmark food for the New Year's Festival. Eating rice cakes during the New Year means that step by step is better, and every year is better than the year.
Shandong Gaomi farmers generally use millet flour to make rice cakes, spread the cake noodles and water on the ** seed, and steam them in a pot. Then, pat it into two or three centimeters thick cake with your hands, put red dates on it after patting it flat, cut it into squares and save it after it cools, you can cut it into thin slices and steam it to eat during the New Year, and the greater use is to sacrifice to the gods on the twenty-third day of the lunar month and the sacrifice to the gods during the New Year.
Suzhou rice cakes are made of glutinous rice flour, and the production method and eating method are vividly described in this poem, "Cherish the inscription cake, and the scenery is another year." ”
Why is the seventh day of the first lunar month a "human day"?
Renri is also known as "Renqing Festival" and "Renju Seven Days". It is written: "On the first day of the first month of the first month it was a chicken, on the second day it was a dog, on the third day it was a pig, on the fourth day it was a sheep, on the fifth day it was a cow, on the sixth day it was a horse, and on the seventh day it was a man." ”
As for the reason for the designation of the seven days as a human day in ancient times, there is no clear explanation in historical documents. According to folklore, after Nuwa made chickens, dogs, pigs, sheep, cows, and horses on the first six days, she created people on the seventh day, so this day is a person's birthday.
In the long-term historical heritage, Renri has accumulated a strong local culture, such as the customs of cutting ribbons and hoopoes, climbing heights, and eating Qibao soup.
How to inherit the festival culture?
He Shaoya believes that from the principle of Spring Festival inheritance, the main body of the Spring Festival inheritance should be based on communities, groups, and individuals, and ordinary Spring Festival cultural inheritors.
At the same time, in the context of globalization and urbanization, attention should be paid to improving the public cultural attributes of the Spring Festival, so that the Spring Festival can be shared by more people. It is necessary to pay full attention to and inherit the cultural core of the Spring Festival, as well as ensure the stable duration of the Spring Festival holiday.
In addition, attention is paid to the construction and promotion of the cultural symbol system of the Spring Festival. Iconic festivals and activities are an important basis for the stable inheritance of the festival, and it is necessary to respect and be cautious about the existing Spring Festival symbols, such as Spring Festival couplets, window flowers, New Year's money, etc., and consciously build Spring Festival symbols and cultural activities that adapt to modern life, such as red lanterns, Chinese knots, watching Chinese New Year movies, reading books and exhibitions, etc., so that people can enjoy the Spring Festival and consciously inherit the Spring Festival. (ENDS).