Guangzhou people’s sense of ceremony for the New Year begins with ＂off-year＂

Guangzhou people’s sense of ceremony for the New Year begins with "off-year", such as thanking the stove, boiling oil in wok, steaming cakes, washing sloppy clothes, and sticking out the spring to bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new year. Every day, there are different arrangements. Lunar New Year is a very important folk festival in China, also known as the Festival of Sacrificing Kitchen, the Festival of Kitchen King and the Day of Cleaning Dust. Interestingly, the dates of such an important folk festival vary from region to region. The northern part of the country celebrates the Lunar New Year on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, while the southern part celebrates the Lunar New Year on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, and the customs and habits of the northern and southern parts of the country are different. Guangfu people also attach great importance to the nodes of the 23rd and 24th of the twelfth lunar month-recently, in an interview with reporters, Rao Yuansheng, a special researcher of Guangzhou Development Research Institute of Guangzhou University and director of Guangzhou Folk Culture Research Institute, said that from the traditional customs, Guangfu people have to thank and send stoves these two days. "The relevant customs of thanking stoves have always existed, and the completion of this ceremony means officially entering the rhythm of resigning the old and welcoming the new." After the off-year, the north and the south are very different. They worship the kitchen god in the off-year and look forward to the Spring Festival. As a prelude to the Spring Festival, "offering sacrifices to the stove to enter the new year", which is called "off-year" in the north, is usually regarded as the beginning of a busy year. In the pre-Qin period, the sacrificial stove was always in summer, and it was a celebration for Zhu Rong, the god of fire. It is a custom only in the Jin Dynasty to move the day of offering sacrifices to stoves to the twelfth lunar month. "Qing Jia Lu" quoted the local customs in the Jin and Zhou Dynasties as saying: "The 24th day of the twelfth lunar month is dedicated to the kitchen …" According to records, from the Song Dynasty to the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month was regarded as a small year in both north and south. Taking the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month as a small year, it appeared in the late Ming Dynasty and was first popular in some northern areas. By the Qing Dynasty,The custom of celebrating the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month is popular among the people in the north. With the passage of time, the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month is gradually regarded as a small year in the northern region, while the 24th of the twelfth lunar month is mostly regarded as a small year in the southern region. Due to different local customs, the time of off-year is not absolutely unified. Moreover, different regions and customs are different. Sacrificing stoves in the off-year is a common custom in the south and the north. "Explanation of Names" says: "Cooking stoves creates food." In myths and legends, the duty of the kitchen god is to take charge of the kitchen fire and manage the diet. Sacrificial stoves are endowed with a beautiful meaning of praying for the safety of the whole family and happiness in the coming year. We have to sweep the dust on the day of the sacrifice. Northerners call it "sweeping the house" and southerners call it "dusting". According to the folk saying, "dust" is homophonic with "Chen", so sweeping dust is also called "sweeping Chen", sweeping away old things, which means not only cleaning up the old dirt in the courtyard, but also cleaning up the unhappiness encountered in the old year. In terms of customs, the difference is that the north eats jiaozi and stick grilles, while the south eats stove candy. "Seeing jiaozi off on the windward side" is a common saying in the north. jiaozi almost never misses every festival in the north, and off-year is no exception. Jiaozi takes the meaning of "alternating the old with the new, making friends at a younger age". During the Spring Festival, jiaozi is an indispensable food on the table of every household. In northern China, people are used to eating jiaozi at night. Cutting window grilles is also one of the most important folk activities in northern China, mostly to prepare for the New Year. The window grilles contain all kinds of animals, plants and other anecdotes. Under everyone’s skillful hands, the magpie climbed the branches of Chimonanthus praecox and the swallow jumped onto the peach branches.The lion is busy rolling hydrangeas … These window grilles with auspicious and beautiful meanings are pasted on doors and windows to pray for happiness in the coming year. In the south, we eat stove candy on off-year days. Cooking sugar often takes corn, millet, rice and barley malt as raw materials, and after several processes such as boiling sugar, kneading sugar and pulling sugar, it is finished by covering its surface with sesame seeds. Legend has it that everyone hopes that inviting Kitchen God to eat sweets can make him put in a good word. In addition, there are many different off-year customs all over China. Popcorn candy is a special food in Jingan, Jiangxi Province. On this day of off-year, the local people will make popcorn candy with maltose and popcorn, which means a great fortune and a happy life in the new year. In Fuzhou, sugar cane is an essential food for offering sacrifices to stoves. Taking its meaning of "increasing day by day", we will get a good start for the new year. Whether it is the 23rd or 24th of the twelfth lunar month, it is a custom to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, and it is also a good hope for the coming year. Although the days are different and the customs are different, regardless of the north and the south, everyone hopes that the new year will be healthy and safe. People in Guangzhou don’t celebrate off-year holidays? In fact, the custom of "Xie Zao" has been circulating! Some people in Guangzhou said that "Winter is the New Year", and the family had a grand time on the winter solstice, but "Laba" and "Xiao Nian" did not seem to be impressed. Is it true that people in Guangzhou don’t celebrate off-year holidays? In this regard, as a well-known scholar of Guangfu culture, Rao Yuansheng believes that Guangzhou people may not pay special attention to the concept of "off-year", but it does not mean that everyone does not pay attention to the twenty-third and twenty-fourth days of the twelfth lunar month. "From the traditional customs, Guangfu people have to thank and send stoves these two days.Therefore, this node is also very important for Guangzhou people-after completing the ceremony of thanking the stove, it will enter the rhythm of resigning the old and welcoming the new. " Rao Yuansheng told reporters that regarding the custom of thanking and sending stoves, "in fact, it has been circulated all the time." Food is the most important thing for the people, and eating is regarded as a big thing. In ancient times, it was said that the kitchen god was responsible for managing the kitchen fires of various families. Before the Chinese New Year, the kitchen god had to report to heaven on his work, so it became an important ceremony to thank and send the kitchen. "On this day, everyone should prepare some tributes, including a bowl of rice, two pieces of sugar, a letter of profit, a bowl of clear water, a piece of roast pork, some sugarcane, oranges, paper money, etc., and do enough courtesy. In addition, there is some maltose-folklore hopes that the kitchen god will say more sweet words and good deeds after eating dessert to ensure the peace of the kitchen in the coming year. " "Guangfu people’s’ Xie Zao’ is a must, at least a good meal, eating chicken, eating roast meat, etc." Rao Yuansheng believes that there have been different opinions on whether to hold the ceremony to thank the kitchen stove on the 23rd or 24th of the twelfth lunar month. "There is a folk saying that’ officials, three people and four people are responsible for the kitchen stove’, which means that in ancient times, the official family began to thank the kitchen stove on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the people were responsible for the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, and it was the turn of the kitchen stove family (water residents) on the 25th of the twelfth lunar month". As for why the ceremony of "thanking the stove" seems to be gradually forgotten by everyone, Rao Yuansheng said that it may be related to social development. "In the past, every household had a stove, but now everyone uses a gas stove and an induction cooker. In this environment, the scene is missing, and this ceremony is slowly omitted." Beautiful traditional customs,Like the gentle breeze and drizzle affecting every generation, Rao Yuansheng introduced that after "thanking the stove", every day has different arrangements: at the age of 23, the clothes are washed; At the age of 24, clean the side of the house; At the age of 25, sweep the house and dust; At the age of 26, clean the poultry house; At the age of 27, the inside and outside are washed into one; At the age of twenty-eight, wipe the furniture; At the age of 29, all the sundries were moved away. On the 23rd and 24th of the twelfth lunar month, we have to thank the stove, wash bask in the quilt and clothes, and the family begins to prepare for the New Year. We also have to have a toothache and have a good meal. After Xie Zao, in addition to continuing to clean, we have to "blow up". "Boil the wok!" Many people in Guangzhou follow the tradition of making "oilers", that is, frying oil horns, frying piles, scattered eggs, smiling dates, sugar rings, salty water horns, red bean paste horns and other cakes, which are crispy and delicious, with beautiful meanings. "I remember that when I was a child, we not only helped my family to make oil angle, make scattered eggs and cut cow ear cakes, but also went to my classmates’ homes to help. I was very happy." Rao Yuansheng said, "Fried piles are full of gold and silver" and "Fried piles in the evening, people have me", and fried piles are essential. "Open oil wok" fried oil angle Qing Dynasty "Yuedong Notes" recorded that there was a kind of food fried in Guangzhou during the Qianlong period. "The custom of Guangzhou was that the glutinous rice valley was fierce and hot at the end of the year, and it was called Paogu, which thought that fried piles were trapped in the heart; For those who fry piles, glutinous rice flour is used as the size circle to add oil effect, so as to give sacrifices to relatives and friends first, and then glutinous rice is used to make pig flowers into oil frying, which is called ten flowers; Stir-fried with powdered white sugar sand in pig oil, named Shayong. " But because eating these "oilers" will "get angry",In addition, it is very convenient to buy seasonal food now, so there are fewer and fewer neighborhoods that "boil oil" at home. In the twelfth lunar month, every household is busy steaming cakes. Besides steamed rice cakes, people in Guangzhou also like to make radish cakes, water chestnut cake cakes and nine-layer cakes. The word "cake" and "high" are homonyms, which means "step by step in the Spring Festival". Roll up your sleeves and clean up, bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new year. There is a common saying in Guangzhou that "cleaning the house on 26th and washing it on 27th", and there is also a tradition of "washing untidiness on 28th", that is, carrying out general cleaning around 28th of the twelfth lunar month. It is said that the origin of this custom can be traced back to the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. The Book of Building a House in Secret Austria records that "the ditches are clear, the houses are clean, there is no foul gas and no plague". The Qing Dynasty’s Qing Jia Lu even suggested that "La will be disabled, so it is advisable to choose a constitutional book (referring to the almanac) to sweep away the house and go to the court for dust and filth, or on the 23rd, 24th and 27th, it is vulgar to beat Ai Chen." In addition to cleaning the house, this custom has another meaning, which means to "sweep" all bad luck and mildew out of the house, pinning people’s desire to break new ground and create new things, and praying for a new atmosphere in the new year. On the 29th of the twelfth lunar month, after cleaning the house, the industrious Guangzhou people are busy, posting Spring Festival couplets at home, representing going to the old and welcoming the new year. People in Guangzhou call Spring Festival couplets "waving spring". There are many styles of waving spring, besides the word "Fu" which means "Happiness is at the door", there are all kinds of Chinese characters waving spring for good luck in the New Year, such as "heavenly god blesses the people", "Happy New Year", "Everything wins", "Go in and out safely" and "Congratulations on making a fortune".Auspicious words such as "the mountains, the sun and the moon are long". On New Year’s Eve, have a reunion dinner together. Lunar New Year’s Eve is also called New Year’s Eve, and Guangzhou is commonly known as "New Year’s Eve". People in Guangzhou will have a neat family dinner, which means reunion. Cantonese-style reunion dinner must be served in even numbers, and the dishes are also very knowledgeable. There must be several ingredients on the dinner table that symbolize good omen for the reunion dinner: chicken (Guangzhou people often say "no feast without chicken"), fish (more than every year), pig’s hand (making a fortune), lettuce (making a fortune), roasted meat (being strong and healthy), Nostoc flagelliforme and oyster sauce (making a fortune), vermicelli (continuous) and yuba (rich and sweet) "Selling laziness" means selling children’s laziness and being smarter and more clever in the new year. Rao Yuansheng said that after listening to the old people, they had to do one thing when they were young, that is, call friends and friends to "sell laziness". Each child took a lantern and a red egg, lit a wick of incense, and went to the streets and lanes to sing: "Sell laziness, sell it at the end of the year, people are lazy and I am not lazy!" The children sang and walked to the land temple in groups and sold "lazy" to the land temple. However, many children don’t know the annual custom of "selling laziness" now. "Washing sloppy clothes, steaming rice cakes, pasting spring flowers, buying new shirts, and buying New Year flowers … When I was a child, I prepared for the New Year with my family. Now I take my children to say goodbye to the old year and welcome the new year. The’ taste of the year’ in Guangzhou has always warmed me." On social media, many neighborhoods feel that traditional customs are "interesting" and "unforgettable". Rao Yuansheng said: "Many beautiful traditional customs affect every generation like a gentle breeze and drizzle.We hope that good customs can be passed down, and everyone will have a better Spring Festival and be closer to life in Chinese. ". These folk customs "sense of ceremony" are indispensable. "The whole person is super happy at the thought of going to the flower street this year!" As a young "Guangzhou boy", the netizen "A Le" said that he had been shopping with his family since he was a child. "The flavor of Guangzhou may be in that pot of flowers." There are also "new Guangzhou people" who say that the biggest impression of Guangfu’s annual taste is "Italian head". "Isn’t this the homophonic stalk of Guangzhou?" Very interesting. " In Guangzhou, the traditional Chinese New Year folk custom, which is full of "sense of ceremony", has promoted the rise of fireworks in the city. Sticking the word "Fu" is particular. Besides waving spring, on New Year’s Eve, everyone likes to stick a word "Fu" at the door. Many people like to paste the word "Fu" upside down, but Rao Yuansheng reminds everyone that there is another saying, "The word" Fu "at the gate cannot be pasted upside down, but should be pasted right now. If you want to paste the blessing on the trash can and water tank, you can paste it backwards, because the trash can and water tank are to be’ inverted’. " Writing about the Spring Festival couplets’ Flower Street Universiade "Spring Festival Evening, Flower Street, Spring Blossoms Full of Rows, Thousands of Flowers Blooming …" This well-known Guangzhou folk song describes the scene of a family, old and young, walking in the flower street. "Not going to the flower market is not a New Year". For Guangzhou people, it is only a complete trip to the flower market before the Spring Festival, which means "going to the Universiade" in the New Year. When walking in the flower street, Guangzhou people like to buy flowers and windmills. Among them, the windmill symbolizes the wind and water in the New Year, and the annual flowers mainly refer to the flowers that should be celebrated.There are traditional peonies, daffodils, chrysanthemums, cockscomb flowers, silver willows, etc., and there are also Phalaenopsis, lilies, peonies, roses, Belgian rhododendrons, roses, etc. that have emerged in recent years. Peach blossom and New Year’s orange are even more indispensable-Cantonese "red peach" and "grand plan" are homonyms, so buy peach blossom and hope to "make great achievements"; The New Year’s Orange symbolizes good luck. Ornaments and red envelopes are hung on the New Year’s Orange to create a beautiful holiday atmosphere. Rao Yuansheng revealed that the flower market is downstairs. "Don’t look at the sea of flowers and crowds on New Year’s Eve. When I woke up at the beginning of the year, the whole city miraculously returned to the tranquility of life, and the flowers were transferred to thousands of households. This is the time to witness the miracle, and it is also a very hard time for sanitation workers. For the common sense of ceremony, many people are silently contributing. " The meaning of "meaning head" in Cantonese is similar to the meaning of "color head" in Mandarin, and everything should be auspicious. Rao Yuansheng introduced that Guangzhou people should buy sugar cane with a head and a tail during the Chinese New Year, and buy lettuce with roots, all of which are part of the "talking about meaning". "I remember when I was a child, I had to put two fried shad in the rice jar, covered with two pieces of red paper and put two oranges, which meant that there was more than one year." Rao Yuansheng said that in the old days, people in Guangfu still had the tradition of "celebrating the year". In addition to shad, they also had to buy a whole cane, and lettuce, celery, red onion and garlic with roots were put in a rice jar full of rice, which respectively represented "having a head and a tail" and "weighing the cane" (Cantonese, meaning that things were going very smoothly.Some of these behaviors are exquisite. When we were young, our parents always told us to "don’t talk nonsense" during the Spring Festival, and some behaviors were also exquisite during the Spring Festival. Avoid unlucky words. In terms of speech, unlucky words should be avoided as much as possible during the Chinese New Year. In addition, the New Year’s atmosphere is jubilant, and people will think that children’s crying is inconsistent with the atmosphere, so when the New Year comes, parents usually don’t severely reprimand their children and try not to affect the jubilant atmosphere. Sweeping in does not sweep out the cleaning before the Spring Festival. According to the custom, when cleaning, you should sweep the door first, preferably in the order from outside to inside, from roof to underground, from hall to kitchen. Remember not to sweep from the inside out, especially don’t sweep the garbage directly out of the hall. Moreover, on New Year’s Day, we also pay attention to not sweeping the floor, so as not to sweep away all the "wealth" of the new year. At the end of the twelfth lunar month, it is a happy day for the whole family. Everyone hopes to be safe, healthy and healthy. The traditional concept is that it is best not to travel far at this time, and the family is round and round.