Happy new year’s eve
SPRING
FESTIVAL
New Year’s Eve is the last day of the China lunar calendar every year, and it is a day to get rid of the old and get new, and to have a family reunion. "divide" means to divide the old with the new, that is, to alternate; "Evening" originally means "sunset" and is extended to "night". "New Year’s Eve" means that the old year will be removed this evening, and the new year will be replaced tomorrow.
In Chinese’s mind, New Year’s Eve, as the most important day of the year, is celebrated by every household, welcoming relatives and friends and reuniting together.
Origin and custom of New Year’s Eve
"New Year’s Eve" originated from "banishment" in the pre-Qin period. At the end of each year in the Zhou and Qin dynasties, a ceremony of "exorcising" was held in the palace to beat drums to drive away the ghosts of plague, which was called "expelling". According to "Lu Chunqiu Ji Dong Ji", on the day before the New Year, the ancients beat drums to drive away the "ghost of epidemic disease". This is the origin of "New Year’s Eve". The earliest mention of the name "New Year’s Eve" is the book "Local Scenery" written by Zhou Chu in the Western Jin Dynasty.
The custom of New Year’s Eve is related to the legend of Nian. According to legend, in ancient times, there was a fierce beast called Nian. It is ferocious in appearance, ferocious in nature, and feeds on all kinds of animals. Nian haunts after dark and returns at dawn. At the end of each year, Nian will break into villages where people live in concentrated communities and hunt people and livestock, which makes people talk about Nian’s color change. People calculated the day when "Nian" was raging, and regarded this terrible night as a gateway, which was called "Nian Guan". After struggling with Nian for many years, people found that this beast was afraid of three things, red color, fire and noise. So on this day, people hung red mahogany boards on their doors, lit fires at the door, lit candles or oil lamps, and the whole family ate the "New Year’s Eve" together, staying up all night, knocking and beating, hoping to spend the "Year’s Eve" safely.
"Nian" broke into the village, saw every family with red and fire, heard the deafening noise, and ran back to the mountains in fear. As the night passed, people congratulated each other and celebrated the victory. At this time in winter, every family will stick red paper couplets on their doors, light lanterns, beat gongs and drums and set off firecrackers and fireworks. At night, vigil all night; The next day, I congratulated each other early in the morning. This has been handed down from generation to generation, and it has become a "New Year".
These customs have been passed down from generation to generation and become what we see today:
paste up Spring Festival couplets
The Spring Festival couplets originated from ancient peach symbols, and Ying Shao’s Customs and General Meaning and Zong Gu’s Chronicle of Jingchu’s Years are all loaded with peach symbols on New Year’s Eve. In the Song Dynasty, it was a common folk custom to hang peach symbols in the New Year. "Tokyo Dream of China Record" contains: "In recent years, the door gods, Zhong Kui, peach boards and peach symbols are printed and sold in the streets." Writing poems on Taofu, the legend began in Meng Chang of Shu after the Five Dynasties. The couplet he wrote, "New Year’s Eve in Qing Yu, Jiajie Day in Changchun", became the origin of Spring Festival couplets. Since the Ming Dynasty, people began to write couplets in red paper and post them on the portal on New Year’s Eve, completing the evolution from peach symbols to Spring Festival couplets, which were mainly used to express their aspirations, feelings and wishes, and became a popular New Year symbol with the function of welcoming auspicious and festive atmosphere of Naji.
stay up late or all night on New Year’s Eve
The ancients said that New Year’s Eve was "a night of double years, and even two years". Keeping the New Year’s Eve is one of the most important activities. Watching the New Year is the custom of staying up late to welcome the new year without sleeping on the last night of the old year, which is also called "endure the new year". The custom of observing the old age has a long history. The local customs in the Western Jin Dynasty said: "On New Year’s Eve, Da Dan didn’t sleep, which is called observing the old age." Keeping the old year, nostalgic for the old year and welcoming the new year, not only have nostalgia for the years that have passed away like water, but also have a good hope for the coming new year.
Eat new year’s eve dinner
As the highlight of New Year’s Eve, every household should prepare a sumptuous New Year’s Eve dinner, which symbolizes reunion, condenses the family’s affection and contains a unique taste of a family, also known as "reunion dinner" and "family fun". In the deep heart of Chinese, everyone has a table of family reunion dinner. On New Year’s Eve, northerners make jiaozi and southerners make rice cakes. Dumplings are shaped like "Yuanbao" and rice cakes sound like "Niangao", which are good signs of good luck. Because "fish" is homophonic with "Yu" and symbolizes auspiciousness, "no fish will make a meal", and on New Year’s Eve, the dish of fish can’t be finished, which means that there is more than enough every year.
Squeeze the age
When guarding the old age, the elders also give the younger generation lucky money. "Old" and "precious" are homophonic, and elders hope that lucky money can drive away evil spirits and avoid disasters, and bless children to grow up safely and healthily. The earliest "lucky money" appeared in the Han Dynasty, called "winning money". This kind of coin is not used for circulation, but a coin-shaped ornament for viewing and wearing. Auspicious words are generally cast on the front of "Winning Money", such as "Peace in the Four Seasons", "Good Travel" and "Happy Family". On the back, there are various patterns of folk auspicious animals and birds, such as dragon and phoenix, tortoise and snake, Pisces, sword fighting, stars, bats and deer. During the Spring Festival in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, elders would give children some copper coins to play with, in order to be safe and auspicious. This custom has always been popular. It was only in the Ming and Qing Dynasties that "lucky money" got its official name. Like Yu Pei, "lucky money" was worn as an ornament to ward off evil spirits and keep peace. In the Republic of China, the function of "lucky money" accessories to ward off evil spirits officially withdrew from the historical stage and was replaced by real money.
make dumplings
The most popular Spring Festival food in the north is jiaozi. Before the Song Dynasty, jiaozi was called a "corner" or a "water corner"; The name of "flat food" began in the Yuan Dynasty. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the word "jiaozi" has been widely used. "jiaozi" is homophonic "Jiaozi", which means Jiaozi, symbolizing the arrival of the Spring Festival. On New Year’s Eve, when jiaozi is wrapped, people begin to cook jiaozi, making it the first meal of the New Year, also known as "jiaozi in the first day", which means "alternating the old with the new and making friends at a younger age".
New year’s eve poetry
Shou sui
Song Sushi
If you want to know how old you are, there are snakes that go to the valley.
The scaling is half gone, so who can cover it?
The situation wants to tie its tail, although it is diligent and helpless.
Children are forced not to sleep, and they are happy at night.
Don’t sing the morning chicken, but you are more afraid of adding trouble.
After sitting for a long time, the lights fell and I looked at the big dipper.
There will be no year next year, and my worries will be wasted.
Try your best to make it this evening, and the teenager can still boast.
Yuanri
Song Wang Anshi
The roar of firecrackers, the old one year has passed; The warm spring breeze came to the new year, and people drank happily the newly brewed tu su wine.
The rising sun sheds light on doors of each household, New peachwood charm is put up to replace the old.
Snow removal at night
Song luyou
At the beginning of the fourth day, the north wind brought a heavy snow; The auspicious snow that god has given us comes on new year’s eve, and signs a good harvest in the coming year.
Filled with half a cup of wine in the cup still before time to raise celebration, I still in the lamp with grass font to write to write the spring festival taofu.
Jia Yin’s Miscellaneous Books for the Night (Part III)
Ming Wen Zhiming
When people are busy on New Year’s Eve, I choose old poems by myself.
Mo Xiao scholar is too pedantic, and a year’s work is a literary word.
First trial: Xu Mengxian
Final review: Huang Xiaoru
Original title: "New Year’s Eve: Traveling thousands of miles, only for this moment of reunion"
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