On New Year's Eve, some folk places in my country hold activities to mark the New Year.
That is, in the courtyard, sesame stalks are glued to the shape of ingots rolled up with yellow paper and piled into a bundle, which is called a "treasure basin".
Then, the whole family would crush it with their feet, using the word "broken" to mean "year". They also borrowed the auspicious meaning of sesame seeds blooming day by day to wish the family prosperity and express their blessings and wishes for the new year.
Sixth, stay up late.
Watching the New Year's Eve on New Year's Eve is also a long-standing custom. As early as the Western Jin Dynasty, there is a clear record in "Feng Tu Ji": "Stay awake all night, waiting for the dawn to stay up late."
Legend has it that the purpose of staying up late is to prevent the intrusion of a unicorn (called the nian beast in many legends).
This kind of unicorn is most afraid of fire, red and sound, so people wear red clothes, light red lanterns, put up red paper, set off fireworks and firecrackers, burn incense and pray on New Year's Eve, and stay up all night, thus creating the concept of "watching the year old".
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"The Record of the Years in the Imperial Capital" records: "Burn silver candles, drink pine mash, sit down to watch the dawn, which is called keeping the year old, and using signs to prolong the year."
When I was a child, in Lijia Village, on this night, both adults and children must be careful when speaking.
The old man said that if you say bad words, swear words or disrespectful words, you will be unlucky for a year.
There are some words that cannot be said on the first day of the new year. I remember when I was very young, I woke up on the first day of the new year and just said: "Mom, I got up."
My mother covered my mouth with her hands and told me not to say the word "qi" in the first grade of junior high school.
Sure enough, I overplayed with my friends that day, fell down, and got a big bump on my forehead.
I smiled and asked the ninth day of the lunar month, does it mean "get up" on the first day of the lunar month every year?
Seventh, keep the lights on all night on New Year’s Eve.
When sleeping on New Year's Eve, you cannot turn off the lights. You can only turn off the lights at dawn on the first day of the new year.
During the whole night of New Year's Eve, the lights at home are usually not turned off, especially in the house where ancestors are raised.
Eighth, avoid breaking utensils on New Year’s Eve.
There is also a custom of not breaking utensils on New Year's Eve. Folks believe that if you break dishes and cups on this day, it means bad luck in the new year.
Sometimes if a cup or plate is accidentally broken on this day, the elders will quickly wrap it up in red paper and recite auspicious words such as "Every year (broken) peace" and other auspicious words to remedy the situation.
Folks believe that placing the fragments wrapped in red paper on the altar for a few days can avert possible disasters.
Ninth, post Spring Festival couplets on New Year’s Eve.
Spring couplets, also called "door pairs", "spring posts", "couples" and "couples", are a type of couplet and a unique literary form.
"Three Yangs begin to spread, and the Four Seasons begin to bloom" is the world's earliest Spring Festival couplets.
It is recorded in the Dunhuang posthumous notes unearthed from the Sutra Cave of Mogao Grottoes. The author was Liu Qiuzi of the Tang Dynasty, and it was written in the eleventh year of Kaiyuan (723).
The custom of people posting Spring Festival couplets during the Spring Festival only became popular in the Ming Dynasty, and the trend originated in Nanjing.
Nowadays, people in Jiangnan area pay attention to posting Spring Festival couplets on the morning of New Year's Eve.
Tenth, post New Year pictures and door gods on New Year’s Eve.
New Year pictures, like Spring Festival couplets, originated from the "door god".
With the rise of woodblock printing, the content of New Year pictures is no longer limited to the door god, but also gradually invites the god of wealth into the home.
Then, in some New Year painting workshops, colorful New Year paintings such as "Three Pictures of Fortune, Luxury and Longevity", "Blessings from Heavenly Officials", "Abundance of Grains", "Prosperity of Six Animals", "Welcoming Spring and Receiving Good Luck" were produced to satisfy people's good wishes of celebrating the new year.
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Eleventh, post the window decoration paper cutting.
Among the people, people also like to paste various paper-cuts - window grilles - on their windows.
Window grilles not only enhance the festive atmosphere, but also integrate decoration, appreciation and practicality.
Paper-cutting is a very popular folk art in my country and has been loved by people for thousands of years. Because it is mostly pasted on windows, it is also called "window flower".
With its unique generalization and exaggeration, window grilles vividly express auspicious symbols and good wishes, and decorate the festival with prosperity and splendor.
Twelfth, post the Chinese New Year blessing characters.
Posting the word "福" is a long-standing custom among Chinese people.
Posting the word "福" on the Spring Festival expresses people's yearning for a happy life and wishes for a better future.
Among them, Kangxi's "blessing" is known as the best blessing in the world. It was written in 1673 AD, when Kangxi was 19 years old and had been in the throne for 13 years. He was in his prime.
Emperor Kangxi wished his grandmother, the Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang, a blessing and a long life. He was very happy and wrote the word "福" with a brush.
The word "Fu" in Kangxi has the Chinese character "子" in cursive script in the lower left corner, the Chinese character "多" in cursive script in the upper right corner, and the Chinese character "田" in cursive script in the lower right corner. Together they look like "福".
There is also a folk saying that Kangxi's blessing is: blessing of many children and fields.
Thirteenth, you must go home at midnight on New Year’s Eve.
After the reunion New Year's Eve dinner, which is finished amid laughter and laughter, the family will sit together, organize entertainment programs, or visit relatives' houses to chat, but they must return home before midnight.
As soon as midnight arrives, the whole family should stay at home to "stay up" on New Year's Eve.
When the clock hands pass 12 o'clock, people will set off firecrackers that have been prepared to celebrate the arrival of the New Year.
Fourteenth, light firecrackers on New Year’s Eve.
There is a Chinese folk saying of "opening the door with firecrackers".
That is to say, when the New Year arrives, the first thing every household does when they open the door is to set off firecrackers, with the sound of beeping firecrackers to drive away the old and welcome the new.
Of course, according to the stories passed down, its origin is very early and has a history of more than 2,000 years. The first purpose of setting off firecrackers was to drive away the Nian beast.
After chatting all the way, we arrived at the terminal.
The place where we are is a very small town.
Later I learned that this was not a town, but a county town. The county town had a population of only 30,000 people.
"Guo Guo, let's find a place to stay. It's dark and it's hard to travel at night. We'll replenish some food before setting off tomorrow."
Chujiu pointed in a direction and said that there were two places to stay in the county.
One is a guest house in the county seat, and the other is an ordinary hotel.
I looked at the eight-meter-wide street and there were not many people. This street was not as spacious as the streets in the county town of our hometown.
I once thought that our county, as one of the top ten poor counties in the country, was already backward enough. Unexpectedly, this county looked worse than our hometown.
Can a hotel have business in such a small place?
I remember when I was in junior high school, a classmate’s family opened a hotel in the county town, but it closed because there was no business all year round.
Chujiu told me that even though there are not many people now, there are still quite a lot of people passing by when traveling in summer.
This is the junction of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan, not far from the national highway, there are often tourist buses taking a rest when passing by here.
It didn't feel like I had walked for more than a few minutes before I arrived in the center of the county. Next to the county government office was the guest house.
The guest house is a two-story building. There is a rockery in the large yard. There is a landscape pool next to the rockery, and there are some goldfish swimming around in it.
While walking to the hall, Chujiu said that when he was a child, he went to the city with his grandfather, and he often thought about when he could live here again.