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Spring Festival custom in Shanghai

Spring Festival, usually called "China New Year", means to bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new year. It is the biggest festival in a year. According to the custom of celebrating the New Year in old Shanghai, we have to start from the twelfth lunar month of the old year and trace it back to the solstice festival in winter. Because when the solstice of winter comes, it is close to the end of the year.

The customs of the Spring Festival in Shanghai are as follows:

The Yuyuan Garden with Growing Annual Flavor

1, eat "Winter Solstice Day and Night Meal", and worship ancestors day and night during the Winter Solstice:

The winter solstice is in the middle and late November of the lunar calendar. As the saying goes, "the solstice in winter is as big as a year", and there is also a saying that "winter is fat and a year is thin", which means that this festival is just like the Spring Festival in China. Before the Republic of China, shops, workshops and rural libraries all took vacations on the solstice in winter. On the day before the winter solstice, it is called "Winter New Year's Eve" and the whole family eats "Winter solstice dinner". Farmers also drink old wine brewed by themselves. On the morning of winter solstice, people pay tribute to relatives and friends and give gifts, which is called "winter solstice dish". In the Han Dynasty, Cai Yong's "Dictatorship" has recorded the worship of the solstice winter. Since the Song and Yuan Dynasties, there has been a saying that "sunny days celebrate winter". On this day, ancestors are also worshipped. On the night of the winter solstice, glutinous rice flour steamed cakes are ground to make "jiaozi from the winter solstice", and they are used to worship the stove, with vegetable meat, bean paste or shredded radish as stuffing.

2, eat "Laba porridge":

Entering the twelfth lunar month, the year is getting busy. First, eat Laba porridge (also known as Buddha porridge, five-flavor porridge or Qibao porridge) on the eighth day of December. According to legend, this day is the day when Buddha Sakyamuni became a Buddha. Monks and nuns in various monasteries cooked the raised white rice with dates, chestnuts, water chestnuts, beans, walnuts, water chestnuts, arrowheads, parsley, vegetables and carrots into Laba porridge, which was used to worship the Buddha, mainly as a blessing to Tan Yue (the donor). Later, people also imitated this cooking method. In the Song Dynasty, Lu Fangweng wrote a poem: "At present, Buddhism and porridge complement each other, thinking that Jiangcun is frugal and new."

3, send the kitchen god:

1February 24th, Kitchen God was sent to heaven, and was called "Xie Zao". In the first day or two, there will be sedan chairs selling paper sticks in the street. On the evening of 24th, the villagers invited the Kitchen God in the kitchen niche to the class and offered sacrifices to the kitchen with wine, fruit, grain for sacrifice, jiaozi, and ingot sugar. After the sacrifice, they sent the god horse to the paper truck and burned it, which was regarded as "heaven". Yuanbao sugar is made from malt. Thinking that the Kitchen God will inevitably talk a lot and speak ill of the people, he sealed his mouth with sticky Yuanbao sugar. The day after the stove arrived, it was to dust, clean the doors and windows, remove the garbage, do a general cleaning and prepare for a clean and comfortable Spring Festival.

Traditional "Cooking Day" Scene

4, eat "mouth porridge":

1February 25th, every household eats "several mouthfuls of porridge", which is a kind of jelly bean porridge. It is said that porridge with red beans, sweet-scented osmanthus, ginger chips and white sugar can prevent plague immunity. Interestingly, even cats and dogs are counted in the "number of mouths". If the family is not here, you have to leave one.

5. Xie Nian:

In order to thank one-year-old children for their safety, we should choose a day "Xie Nian" within three or four days before New Year's Eve. A few days ago, I was busy grinding flour, filling cakes and wrapping jiaozi, in order to offer sacrifices to gods and ancestors and give gifts to relatives and friends during the Chinese New Year. Shanghainese like rice cakes, one is Soviet-style square sugar rice cakes, and the other is round rice flour muffins. At night in Xie Nian, fragrant flowers, wine, tea, three kinds of animals, fresh fruit and cake bait are offered to the gods, but two plates of rice cakes and a pair of sugar cakes in the shape of gold ingots are needed. It's noisy to beat gongs and drums and set off firecrackers during New Year's greetings.

6, eat "New Year's Eve":

On New Year's Eve, every household is more lively. Hanging ancestors' bones (that is, portraits, also called "original works") at night to worship. Then eat "New Year's Eve", which is called "family happiness". Although there are many delicious dishes on the dining table, there are also two local specialties: fried vegetables and sweet and sour silver mustard. In addition, you have to add Ruyi (soybean sprouts) and germinated beans, which means "rising hair". This meal, if the family is far away, you have to add a pair of cups and chopsticks to show your reunion.

Prepare the New Year's Eve dinner, and the delicacies are piled on the shelves.

7. Post Spring Festival couplets, door gods and New Year pictures:

Spring Festival couplets posted on New Year's Eve are also called "Spring Postings", which evolved from the ancient "Fu Tao". Couplets are mostly four-character, five-character and seven-character. Common auspicious words include "Yu Xiujue's virtue, long hair and good fortune", "Wu Mei, outstanding people" and "New Year's Eve is Qing Yu, and the number of festivals is Changchun".

Secondly, the color printing "Door God" with the pictures of Tang Dynasty and Weichi Gong replaced the harmony on the ancient peach board to suppress evil. In addition, the word "Fu" written on red paper should be posted on the walls of the house and the hall of the kitchen. Nowadays, the words "Tie" and "Fu" are no longer popular, only Spring Festival couplets are still kept, but the content is changed into new couplets that fit the times.

Hanging New Year pictures is also of interest to every household. In the old days, there were many color-printed woodcut New Year pictures and magic models in the old school yard in Shanghai, but the products were not as beautiful as Yangliuqing, Weixian and Suzhou Taohuawu. After the Opium War, lithographs appeared in Shanghai. After the Republic of China, fashionable ladies and story paintings named "Yuepai" prevailed, and their styles were changeable and quite popular.

8. Shounian:

On New Year's Eve, many people stay up all night, which is the so-called "guarding the old age". The red candle in the class has a high fever and the house is full of spring. The family sat around the fire, drinking heartily and enjoying a wonderful evening. On New Year's Eve, after the New Year's Eve, the elders also give the younger generation "lucky money". In the old custom, dozens of copper coins decorated with red ropes were placed under children's pillows to wish them a long life. After the Republic of China, silver dollars were wrapped in red paper to give new year greetings to 20-year-old children.

1946 Shanghai, Chinese New Year elders give their children lucky money.

9, New Year, eat "three official elements":

On the morning of the first day of the first month, people ushered in the Spring Festival amid the constant firecrackers. On this day, men, women and children all wore brand-new clothes, lit red candles in front of the hall, and offered sacrifices to gods with tea fruits, rice balls and rice cakes to pray for one-year-old Kangning. After worshipping their ancestors, they paid a New Year call to their elders. The elders gave them candy plates filled with "pressed old fruits", including many oranges, dried plums and sugar cane. "Orange plum" is homophonic and auspicious, and sugarcane means "rising sun", both of which are auspicious things. Have jiaozi, rice cakes or spring rolls for breakfast. Lunch is a rich and ready-made dish. Some elderly people don't touch meat on the first day, but want to be vegetarian, which is called eating "three official vegetarian dishes".

Visit relatives and friends in the afternoon to celebrate the New Year (or go for a walk on the second and third day of the second grade). Sometimes just send a name tattoo to a friend's door and call it a "New Year card". Go back to say goodbye and call it "airmail". Zhang Chunhua's "Shanghai Year's Music" wrote: "The city skirt is in a hurry, and the circle of guests and hosts is also; Zhuo went out at noon and came home late, picking plums around the famous paper. " Wen Zhiming in the Ming Dynasty also wrote a poem: "I don't want to meet, but I want to talk. The famous papers are all people, and I also throw some papers with people. The world is too simple and not too empty. " It's also interesting to write. Guests are served with Yuanbao tea ("Yuanbao" refers to olives), candy, peanuts, melon seeds and jiaozi or rice cakes.

On the first day, I don't sweep the floor, draw water, beg for fire, drink porridge, or move a needle and thread. These rules and regulations have long been broken. From grade one to grade five, shops and factories are closed.

At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, the younger generation kowtowed to the elders at home on the first day of the first month.

10, offering sacrifices to the headstrong god, beating local cattle and collecting the god of wealth:

At the beginning of the year, beginning of spring and Old Shanghai also held ceremonies to welcome the Spring Festival: offering sacrifices to the Mang God, whipping local cattle and hanging them with red and green silk. The ceremony was presided over by local officials and gentry in the eastern suburbs, and people tended to watch it. There are also spring banquets, "recommending new dishes", eating spring cakes and lettuce. After the Republic of China, this trend no longer exists, but there are always pictures of shepherds whipping spring cattle in the almanac every year.

On the evening of the fourth or fifth day, when merchants receive the "Five-way God of Wealth", there must be a pair of live carp. "Carp" is homophonic with "profit" to get rich. Release the carp after the sacrifice. Is to eat "God of Wealth Wine" at night.

Chenghuangmiao Lantern Festival

1 1, enjoy the lantern festival:

On the fifteenth day of the first month, Lantern Festival is a great event. Thirteen lights are on (also called test lights), and eighteen lights are off. It takes six days to make trouble. "Lanterns are hung on jiaozi, and lanterns are placed on cakes." After the Lantern Festival, we eat wonton or noodles at noon and jiaozi or steamed buns (commonly known as Pearl jiaozi) at night.

Tangyuan stalls on the streets of old Shanghai

At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, farmers in Zichuan, Shandong Province played with social fires and celebrated the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month.

Two days before the Lantern Festival, kitchen lamps were lit in the kitchen hall, which is an old custom in Wuzhong. Lantern Festival will be decorated with lanterns, and all kinds of lanterns will be hung on doors and houses, such as Yuanbao lanterns, carp lanterns, elephant lanterns, flower basket lanterns, lotus lanterns, shepherd's purse lanterns, toad lanterns, Aoshan lanterns, boat lanterns and Ssangyong lanterns. Children often play with rabbit lights inside and outside the house. In the downtown areas and bridges of the city, light sheds were set up and lights were hung at different levels. The temple tied the "tower lamp" with bamboo poles. Lights are hung on the masts and boats beside the Huangpu River, which look like stars from a distance. On the outskirts, "Looking at the Field Lantern" hangs between the ridges of fields. It was also popular in Qing Dynasty to wear lanterns, which were made by peasant women. Teams of mature farmers hold lanterns and hang them in villages to wish a bumper harvest in the coming year. "Drop the Dragon Lantern" is also a lively scene of the rural Lantern Festival. Dozens of huge dragon lanterns from all walks of life gathered to dance and perform dragon balls. With drums and music, cheers were everywhere, especially in the suburbs of Shanghai and Nanxiang area of Jiading. Zhang Chunhua's "Buckling at the Age of Shanghai" has a vivid description of this: "Yan said that a year of bumper crops, nine colorful clouds steamed; A glimpse of the rainbow is like a boiling sound, and the fire tree is rolling. "

12, burning incense and visiting temple fairs:

Shanghai Chenghuang Temple is also closely related to the custom of Spring Festival. In the old society, people rushed to the Chenghuang Temple at midnight on the first day of Xinzheng to "burn incense". In the next few days, pilgrims will continue to visit temple fairs. There are many shops and department stores in the temple; There are also several teahouses and bookstores, and there are even more restaurants and stalls; In addition, there are stalls in the open air, including New Year pictures, Spring Festival couplets, bells, kites and various toys, as well as monkey shows and acrobatics, which attract a large number of tourists and linger. From the first day to the fifth day, scholars and women are in parallel, and the crowd is like a tide. From the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, all parts of the Yuyuan Garden were in charge of various industries and were not open to the public at ordinary times. Only during the Spring Festival will Cuixiu Hall, Dianchun Hall and Inner Garden be opened for people to visit as appropriate.

Lantern Festival scenery

On the third day of the first month of every year, plum blossom parties are held in the inner garden as usual. On the fourth day, all walks of life performed the "annual drama" in the temple theater for several days in a row, and on the sixth day, the money industry worshipped the city god in the inner garden. On the night of the Lantern Festival, the lantern market in the temple is the most lively. Some people sell lanterns and others enjoy them. In Wang Tao's Miscellaneous Notes on Qi Ying in the Late Qing Dynasty, there is a description of the lantern night in the Chenghuang Temple: "On the night of Shangyuan, the Luoqi was in groups, the orchestras were boiling, and the fire trees and silver flowers were extremely splendid. Liao Ming in the garden reopened and tourists gathered. The moon is as bright as a day, and only those who weave in front of the street, the dust follows the horse, and the shadows come one by one, which is not a concern. "

With the opening of Shanghai's commercial port, people from other provinces have come to settle in Shanghai, and the customs and habits of various places have also been introduced to Shanghai. Many of the above-mentioned Spring Festival customs in old Shanghai have also been reformed and updated.