Changsha, a teacher in Wei Zi
The 24th of the twelfth lunar month, commonly known as "Chinese New Year", is called "Xie Yazi (for example, Changsha dialect: refers to children) Chinese New Year". On this day, well-off families will give their children gifts other than lucky money. No wonder "Xiyazi" is looking forward to the New Year. According to legend, this day is the day when Kitchen God, as "eyes and ears in the sky and fireworks on earth", will return to the sky to report his work and ask him to resign from the kitchen. In order to make him "speak well in the sky, bring good luck on the earth" and "play the Jade Emperor with good words", people will do a general cleaning the day before, which is called "dust removal". This kind of cleaning is generally not done, but during the Chinese New Year, the room must be thoroughly cleaned, so "dust removal" now not only refers to cleaning cobwebs and dust on the wall, but also becomes synonymous with cleaning. With the accelerated pace of modern life, young housewives no longer do it themselves, but ask hourly workers and waiters from domestic service companies to do it for them. But in any case, this custom of loving hygiene and stressing cleanliness has not changed. In addition to household hygiene, personal cleaning is also essential, of which hair finishing is a very important part. In the new year, Changsha people take the meaning of "starting from scratch". People not only wash their heads cleanly and get a beautiful and generous hairstyle, but more importantly, they hope to forget all the troubles, unhappiness and setbacks of the old year and look forward to welcoming a brand-new, brilliant and beautiful new year.
The last day of the Lunar New Year is New Year's Eve. Changsha called this meal "reunion dinner" on New Year's Eve, which generally refers to New Year's Eve. Several dishes are necessary. If there must be a carp with a weight of 1 kg called "Tuannian Fish", there must be a pig elbow with a weight of about 3 kg called "Tuannian Elbow", and there will be chicken feet on the dinner table at home called "grasping the money feet", which means that there will be green vegetables in the vegetables next year, which means that the whole family will be harmonious and prosperous in the new year. Now that life is good, you don't have to wait until the Chinese New Year to eat big fish and meat. Usually there are often good dishes. It is because everyone is busy at work now, reunion is more important than eating, and filial children are embarrassed. Parents were asked to work hard for a reunion dinner for several days. Instead, I went to several famous hotels in Changsha, such as "Yuloudong" and "Fire Palace" to book a reunion dinner in advance to celebrate the New Year.
After dinner on New Year's Eve, the whole family returned home, playing chess, playing cards and watching CCTV's Spring Festival Gala, waiting for the arrival of the New Year. When the New Year bell rings, firecrackers and fireworks in the streets and alleys of Changsha are deafening, filled with a strong atmosphere of saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new. Setting off firecrackers in the Spring Festival is an ancient folk custom with a history of 1000 years. In the old society, flogging has two meanings: one is to drive away ghosts to meet God and pray for a bumper harvest; The other is to increase the festive atmosphere. Now more is to increase the festive atmosphere. Since the 1980s and 1990s, many cities have banned flogging, which virtually weakened the atmosphere of the New Year, while Changsha has never banned flogging during the New Year. As we all know, Liuyang firecrackers are one of Hunan specialties, which are well-known all over the country and at home and abroad. At the founding ceremony of New China, firecrackers exploded in Liuyang. Because of this, Changsha has never been as cold as other cities, but the city is full of noise and smoke. Changsha people also pay attention to setting off firecrackers. Setting off firecrackers at different times has different meanings. For example, on New Year's Eve in Changsha, firecrackers will be set off three times: once during dinner, which means telling people to have dinner; Thirdly, when the New Year bell rings, it means to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new; The other time is when the door opens in the morning, which means a brand-new and beautiful year. The size and time of setting off firecrackers are decided by each family, but one thing is that firecrackers cannot be interrupted. If there is an interruption, something may happen in the coming year, which everyone does not want to see. So when setting off firecrackers, people are very careful and try to avoid disturbing them.
Paying New Year greetings is another custom of the Spring Festival. The New Year greetings in Changsha are different from those in other places. Some places such as Beijing generally don't go out to pay New Year greetings on the first day, while Changsha pays attention to "the first day, the second day and the third day." This proverb says that a son should take his wife and belt to see his parents on the first day of the lunar new year; On the second day of the Lunar New Year, the family went back to their parents' home to pay New Year greetings to their parents-in-law. On the third and fourth day, the neighbors paid New Year greetings to each other. As the saying goes, "A distant relative is better than a close neighbor". Changsha people pay special attention to etiquette, and they are often very kind to others. These days, neighbors have left home and wished each other "a lively year". It is particularly noteworthy that the fifth day of junior high school is not a new year, so people call it "worshipping the fifth middle school". On this day, the married daughter returns to her family, and the family's economy will not prosper this year. It won't be a happy thing if the married daughter goes back to her parents' home or visits other people's homes. This is something that should be paid special attention to during the Spring Festival. In addition, it is important to pay attention to whether the person who wants to worship has got up or not, but if someone has not got up, don't go to bed to pay a New Year call. Lao Changsha believes that worshipping the dead is to worship at the bedside, which is considered taboo.
On the sixth day of the sixth lunar month, many businesses will choose this day to open their doors, and some people who work in other places will also choose this day to go out to work. The folk proverb says, "Go out on March 369", so the passenger flow of civil aviation, railways, highways and other transportation systems will increase greatly these days. On the eighth day of the seventh day, Changsha people pay attention to "seven don't go (say" guests ") and eight don't return", which means that they don't go out on the seventh day and don't go home on the eighth day. On the eighth day of the eighth day, "eight" means "fat". The factory started to work, the enterprise started to operate, and all activities returned to normal. Later, acquaintances met and said to each other, "Please pay one year late!" 15, generally not mentioned in New Year's greetings. On the fifteenth day of the first month, it was called Shangyuan Festival in ancient times, also called Lantern Festival. There is a saying in Changsha: "The fire of thirty nights is the light of midnight snack". Lantern viewing was very popular in the Tang Dynasty, especially in the Song Dynasty. Wen Tianxiang once described the grand occasion of arranging lanterns in Shangyuan, Hengzhou as follows: "The ladies and guests in the city", "The audience is blocked", "You are tired of your shoulders" and "You can't see the difference between words far away". In Changsha Lantern Market, there are many kinds of lanterns made of paper or hung on houses or streets. On this day, every household lights candles, cooks Yuanxiao, and urchins play with lanterns. What is more lively is that the Spring Festival cultural activities such as catching up with temple fairs, singing big dramas, playing lion and dragon dances, riding bamboo horses and so on reach their climax at this time, and they are often noisy all night, hence the name Lantern Festival. Among them, dragon dancing lanterns are the most common, and rural teams often come to the city to perform. People think that playing with dragons can ensure good luck, so wherever the "dragon" goes, gongs and drums are loud and firecrackers are ringing, which is given more packaging. Married and childless women often let the "dragon" revolve around their bodies, or let the "dragon" condense into a circle on the bed, ride a child, and send the child by a unicorn.
Eating Yuanxiao on the fifteenth day of the first month is similar all over the country, so I won't go into details. Just one thing, with the improvement of people's living standards, the stuffing of Yuanxiao has changed from sesame bean paste to fruit sugar-free stuffing.
Some experts regard folk customs as "living culture", which I deeply agree with. By describing some Spring Festival customs in Changsha today and the changes that have quietly taken place, we sincerely realize that this kind of folk custom exists in the real society and runs through all aspects of social life. U exists in a dynamic form, which is the reason why the folk custom of Changsha people's Spring Festival has become a strong homesickness and affection. It haunts my heart all the time, attracts me and urges me to return to my hometown without hesitation after studying abroad for many years. Please adopt it.