What are the customs of Pingtan people during the Spring Festival?

Pingtan people call the Spring Festival "an important year". This year is similar to the legends in other places. According to legend, in Archaean, there was a monster called Nian, which often appeared at the end of the year and devoured people and animals. People regard the end of a year as a difficult task, so there is a saying of "celebrating the New Year" and "closing the year". Most people in Pingtan are immigrants from the Central Plains, and the folk custom of Chinese New Year has both the ancient customs of the Central Plains and the characteristics of Pingtan.

Dust removal: Spring Festival is a very grand festival, and a lot of preparations must be made before the festival. Lunar calendar1February 23rd is a dust removal day. It is from this day to the 30th that we should choose odd days to clean the house and the outside. Tie bamboo poles with zongzi or grass and dust the ceiling and walls. Besides washing doors and windows, floors, furniture and so on. Is to have a clean Spring Festival.

Be a young man? Lunar calendar1February 24th is the Lunar New Year, commonly known as "being a young man". Is to prepare for the new year. In the old society, long-term workers had little food, so they settled accounts with their hosts and went home for the New Year. Except the guys at the store. They want to take the master's bill to the door of the creditor's house to collect debts, but generally they don't charge money, just to inform them. Collect money on the 25th. Until New Year's Eve closes, no one is allowed to call home to collect accounts after closing. From this day on, every household began to buy new year's goods, cut new clothes, kill pigs and sheep, steam rice cakes, kill chickens and ducks, buy New Year pictures, Spring Festival couplets, firecrackers and so on. Adults are busy and worried, while children are looking forward to the new year with joy. This day is also a day for people to sacrifice stoves. Legend has it that on this day, Kitchen God will return to heaven and report the situation of each family. The host family will buy candy and cakes in the kitchen to see him off. On the fourth night of the first month, a new map of the kitchen god will be posted to welcome him back.

On the eve of the Spring Festival, the married daughter will send new year's goods to her parents. Pingtan people call it "sub-year", which is actually the abbreviation of "sending new year goods". In the first year of Chinese New Year, the gift-giving requirements are strict. Generally, you should give a pair of pig's trotters, five pounds of noodles and ten pieces of five meats and five vegetarian dishes. After the second year, there is no limit to the number of gifts. Dividing the age is a good custom of respecting the old and filial piety, which still continues in Pingtan.

Sticking Spring Festival couplets and New Year pictures: This custom is similar to other places. Generally, Spring Festival couplets and spring paintings should be posted before New Year's Eve to welcome the arrival of the New Year. People who have new funerals this year will only post green Spring Festival couplets to show Dai Xiao.

Chinese New Year: One of the important contents of the New Year's Eve dinner is to eat it. Pingtan people call it "thirty blind breasts", and the host takes out the best things to make New Year's Eve dinner. The richer, the better. But it can't be made into ten dishes, it can be nine or eleven. There is a custom in Pingtan that ten bowls of dishes should be placed when offering sacrifices to ancestors, so living people generally don't put ten bowls. Pingtan people don't order all ten dishes in the usual order, which is why no matter how rich your New Year's Eve dinner is, you should cook something dry called "next year's meal", which means that you can't finish it every year, and there is always next year's meal. After a family eats the New Year's Eve dinner, elders will give lucky money to unmarried children and grandchildren, which is called giving lucky money. Then the whole family sat around. Have a heart-to-heart talk, look forward to the future, until zero, open the door and set off firecrackers to meet the god of wealth. Lights should be lit all night on New Year's Eve, and the lights will be bright and prosperous in the coming year.

Centennial:

The first day of the first month is also called New Year's Day. Just after midnight, someone set off firecrackers. It means "get up early at first, get up early all year round". On New Year's Day, every family has sweet noodles with a pair of Taiping eggs for breakfast. I hope this year's life is sweet, long and peaceful. It has become a habit to eat more noodles or eggs at the first bite of breakfast instead of soup first. Therefore, there is a saying that "drinking noodle soup in the morning of the first day will rain when you go out".

After dinner, everyone goes out to pay New Year greetings, and the host or housewife stays at home to receive guests. On New Year's greetings, the guests bowed to their hosts and wished them all the best and a safe family. The host should also bow and congratulate, and then invite the guests to enjoy candy, preserves, fruits and melon seeds. This is called "eating sweet". Close relatives and friends also send lucky money to each other. On this day, anyone who meets an acquaintance on the road, whether a friend or not, should nod to congratulate each other and wish each other peace and wealth.

Steamed rice cakes: Because of its homophonic "old age" and varied tastes, rice cakes have almost become a must-have food for every household. The styles of rice cakes are square yellow and white rice cakes, which symbolize gold and silver and express the meaning of making a fortune in the New Year. The taste of rice cakes varies from place to place. Pingtan people must make "boiled sugar cakes" and steamed cakes during the New Year.

On New Year's Day, the taboo of Pingtan folk is:

Avoid sweeping the floor: I am afraid of sweeping away the wealth. Later, it was changed to sweep the garbage from the gate, and it was not poured until the fourth day of the "holiday".

Avoid surgery: I am afraid that surgery is unlucky. This taboo is to prevent you from accidentally hurting your hands and feet on the first day and ruining the festive atmosphere. Avoid unlucky language: avoid bad luck. In fact, it is afraid that people's language will not agree with each other and hurt people's feelings.

Avoid beating and scolding children: fear of crying is an ominous sign. On this day, adults try their best to meet children's requirements and make them happy.

Avoid debt collection: don't embarrass others on the big day. It reflects the ancient customs of Pingtan people and is famous for its kindness and friendship.

Avoid eating porridge: prevent going out in rainy days.

Don't break the plate in case you write on the wall.

Although there is no scientific reason for these taboos, people are willing to follow them in order to bode well for the New Year and a happy and auspicious year.

Worship the second day of the lunar calendar. This is a folk festival to mourn the dead and comfort their families. Every family that has lost an adult in the past year will set up a coffin for the deceased on this day so that relatives and friends can mourn. Mourning the dead on the second day of the Lunar New Year is unique to Fuqing in Pingtan. It is said that at the end of the forty-first year of Jiajing (AD 1562), after Qi Jiguang defeated the Japanese invaders who invaded Pingtan and Fuqing, the refugees went home for the New Year. On the first morning, they got together to congratulate each other and wish each other peace, and the next day they went to the victims' homes to offer condolences. Inherited, it has become a unique custom in Fuqing, Pingtan. On the second day of Pingtan, people generally don't visit relatives and friends.

Leave:? The fourth day holiday means the end of the Spring Festival holiday and the beginning of the new year's work. People began to get busy. Markets and shopping malls open early in the morning with firecrackers. Fishermen and farmers arrange fishing gear and farm tools for production, and those who work outside set out to work. Steamed hair cakes (different from rice cakes, which are fermented and steamed with flour and a small amount of sweet potato powder and sugar, and look like rice cakes) can only be "opened" (cut with a knife) on the festival day and steamed again.