"Twenty-three candied melon sticks, twenty-four sweeping the house, twenty-five grinding tofu..." Whenever this "New Year's Ballad" is sung, it means that the traditional "Xiao Nian" has arrived, and people start to make candied melons, Sacrificial to the stove, busy cleaning the house, preparing all kinds of food for the New Year...
Although the dates of the small year in the north and the south are different, this year they all fall on weekends.
This weekend, the north and the south will celebrate the new year together!
Xiaonian·Stove Festival
The twenty-third of the twelfth lunar month, Xiaonian, is called the day of offering sacrifices to the stove in folk customs.
Legend has it that on this day the Stove Lord will be sent to heaven to report to the Jade Emperor, and he will not return home until the New Year's Eve. There are no taboos among the people, so they can celebrate New Year's Eve happily.
The picture shows the sacrificial stove rice.
Photo provided by netizens
Sending stoves on the 23rd, welcoming Nuo and beating dust on the 24th, receiving the Jade Emperor on the 25th, offering sacrifices to spring cattle on the 27th, cutting window grilles on the 28th, welcoming the door gods on the 29th, writing Spring Festival couplets, and the countdown to the New Year's Eve.
Small year and date
In different parts of the country, the date of the new year is different: most areas in the north are on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, and in some southern regions including Taizhou, Zhejiang, it is the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, and in some places it is called the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month For Xiaonian... Netizens are arguing about it no less than "Salty and Sweet Zongzi".
People in the northern region call the twenty-third of the twelfth lunar month a small year, while in the south it is usually the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month.
As for the date of the new year, there is an ancient saying that "officials, three people, four boats and five", which means that the official family's small year is the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the common people's is the twelfth lunar month twenty-four, and the people on the water are the twelfth lunar month twenty-five. .
Data map: Shenyang Forbidden City hangs door gods to welcome the new year.
Photo by Sun Haosheng
Folklore expert Wang Juan said that when the ancient royal family revised the calendar, they usually set the time of important festivals.
The difference in the date of celebrating the new year may be related to many factors such as the calendars implemented by different dynasties in ancient times and the regional differences in customs. It is inevitable that the dates will not be uniform.
The inconsistency of the dates of the new year also shows the richness and diversity of traditional Chinese folk culture.
New Year Customs
what to eat
In Xiaonian, folks in the north pay attention to eating dumplings, which means "send off dumplings facing the wind", and eat more cakes and buckwheat noodles in mountainous areas.
Data map.
In the southeast of Shanxi Province, it is a popular custom to eat fried corn. There is a saying in the folk proverb, "Twenty-three, don't eat fried corn, and pour it out of the pot one by one on the New Year's Day".
People like to bind fried corn with maltose, freeze it into large pieces, and it tastes crispy and sweet.
In addition to eating stove candy on the day of offering sacrifices to the stove, fire is also a very special seasonal food.
Every year on the twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar month, the business of sesame seed stalls in the city is very prosperous.
sweep the dust
Data map.
"Twenty-three, sticky melons; twenty-four, house cleaning day." After twenty-three, there are only six or seven days left before the Spring Festival.
The folks usually set the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month as "House Sweeping Day", and every household should clean the interior thoroughly, commonly known as dust sweeping.
According to folklore experts, it is called "sweeping dust" in the north and "sweeping dust" in the south, both of which are intended to clean up all the dirt, clean up all the troubles and unpleasantness, and sweep the floor to welcome the New Year with a new atmosphere.
cut window grilles
Cutting window grilles and pasting window grilles are also popular folk activities in Xiaonian.
There are stories about various animals and plants, such as magpies climbing plums, lions rolling hydrangeas, three goats (Yang) Kaitai, two dragons playing with pearls, lotus (even) years with fish (yu), mandarin ducks playing in water, and two immortals together, etc. .
write couplets
Writing Spring Festival couplets is also a folk activity in the junior year.
During the Spring Festival, the folks pay attention to posting every god, every door, and every thing.
In front of the gods, on the gate, at the mouth of the well, in the livestock pen, in the noodle barn, and on the tree, Spring Festival couplets need to be pasted everywhere, with rich content and witty words.
Data map: Earlier, when the twelfth lunar month was approaching, Dongyue Temple in Beijing held an event to welcome the Spring Festival and send Spring Festival couplets.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Tomita
Xiaonian·Memory
"Spring Festival in Beijing" (excerpt)
Author/Lao She
On the twenty-third of the twelfth lunar month, the new year is almost a "dress rehearsal" for the Spring Festival.
As soon as it gets dark and the firecrackers sound, it has the taste of the New Year.
Data map.
On this day, you have to eat candies. There are already many sellers of maltose and Jiangmi candies on the street. The candies are in the shape of long cubes or melons. They are sweet and sticky, and children like them the most.
After twenty-three, everyone is busier.
There must be a big cleaning, and there must be enough meat, chicken, fish, vegetables, and rice cakes.
"New Year" (excerpt)
Author/Feng Zikai
On the 23rd day, every family cooks red bean and glutinous rice, and first puts a large bowl in front of the Kitchen God, and then the whole family comes to eat.
After eating, at dusk, my father came to worship in front of the stove in a large dress, followed by us all bowing down.
After worshiping, the statue of the Kitchen God was invited down from the Kitchen Mountain and put into a kitchen sedan chair.
Data map.
Photo by Shi Baoxiu
We took some holly and cypress seeds, put them on both sides of the stove sedan chair, and hung a string of gold ingots made of paper on the sedan chair; we also brought some sugar flatbreads and stuck them on the kitchen stove Bodhisattva's mouth.
In this way, when he went up to meet the god, he was sticky with his mouth and tongue, and couldn't speak clearly, so as not to tell all the evil things about him.
"Peking Years" (excerpt)
Author/Liang Shiqiu
Data map.
Photo by Ma Mingyan
After the kitchen sacrifice, the New Year is near.
Every family is busy taking the tin censer, tin wax sticks, tin fruit plate, and tin saucer out of the cobweb dusty boxes for the annual scrubbing.
Palace lanterns, gauze lanterns, and ox horn lanterns came out together.
New Year’s goods also need to be prepared early, including dry goods for the kitchen, dried apples and fruits for worshiping gods and ancestors, peonies and narcissus for the house, and mixed food for the children.
"The Past Years" (excerpt)
Author/Mo Yan
After half a month of Laba, it will be the day of Cizao.
We also call the Cizao Day a small year, and we live it more seriously.
Breakfast and lunch are still rough food on weekdays, and dinner is a meal of dumplings.
In order to wait for this dumpling meal, I ate very little breakfast and lunch.
At that time, my appetite was astonishingly large, and it would be scary not to mention how many dumplings I could eat.
Data map.
There is a ceremony for resigning from the stove, that is, when the dumplings are out of the pot, two bowls are first served on the stove, and then half a knife of yellow table paper is burned, and the stove horse is also burned.
After burning, pour a little dumpling soup on the paper ashes, and then kowtow to the stove, which means the sacrifice to the stove is over.
This is the easiest.