The custom of Huizhou Spring Festival?

To sum up, Huizhou's Chinese New Year customs generally include pre-holiday preparation, posting couplets, praying for the door gods, sending the chef's grandfather to heaven, worshipping the gods, having a reunion dinner, observing the new year, lighting firecrackers, dancing dragons and lions, wearing new clothes, changing bowls and chopsticks, breaking the fast on the first day, opening the new year, sending the poor, celebrating the New Year and greeting each other.

These customs are basically the embodiment of China's traditional customs in Huizhou, but they also have some local characteristics of Huizhou.

Preparations before the year can be divided into four categories: one is to sweep the dust and clean the house; The second is to prepare new clothes; The third is to prepare food; The fourth is to prepare new bowls and chopsticks.

1, "Sweep the dust"

Cleaning clothes, cleaning the corners of the roof, and cleaning the dirt on tables, chairs and tables is called "sweeping dust". Legend has it that it began in ancient times and is a superstitious ceremony for people to eliminate epidemics and disasters. This custom prevailed in the Tang Dynasty.

Step 2 prepare new clothes

Huizhou folks don't care if they have new clothes. Well-off, new clothes, new shoes and socks in New Pants are all new; Those who are not rich can't buy all the new clothes, but at least they should have a new coat.

This custom is very special among Huizhou people. Some old people take old clothes worn last year or coarse cloth for other purposes to the dyehouse for re-dyeing, and sew a skirt by themselves, which is also called new clothes.

The reason for this habit is not recorded in detail, but it is related to the "sweeping dust" before the festival, which should be derived from it, meaning "praying for a safe New Year". According to Huizhou folks, if you put on new clothes in the New Year, you will have good luck in the coming year. If you don't wear new clothes, next year will be bad.

3. What to eat and use

According to Huizhou custom, the first thing to prepare food before the New Year is to prepare chicken. As early as July 14th of the lunar calendar, famous families began to prepare chickens for the New Year, usually buying chickens, and many people hatched themselves after the old ones.

After the rooster has been kept for more than a month, it is castrated, which is used to be called "castrated chicken" in Huizhou. When raised in the New Year, a large capon weighing several kilograms or even ten kilograms is often developed, which is the main chicken used in Huizhou folk tradition for the New Year.

Huizhou tradition attaches great importance to the use of chicken in the Spring Festival, which is regarded as a symbol of ostentation and extravagance. As a folk proverb says, "You won't know who is ostentation and extravagance until the evening of the 30th (or the second day of the first year of the year)", in which "ostentation and extravagance" means "see whose chicken is bigger" or "who has more chickens".

In addition to chicken, most of the foods prepared for the New Year are dried vegetables and fruits, such as squid, shredded pork, mushrooms, peanuts, melon seeds, red beans, bacon, eggs and fruits. There are also candied lotus seeds, candied melon strips, candied lotus roots and other candied foods; Fried foods such as doughnuts, scattered eggs, rice cakes, etc.

Huizhou folks are used to steaming big cages and gathering cakes during the Spring Festival. Therefore, many families prepare glutinous rice and glutinous rice and grind them into rice noodles before the Spring Festival. This work is laborious and tedious, and often takes up more time for many people to prepare before the Spring Festival.

Because the Spring Festival means celebrating the harvest and the solstice of spring, the time to prepare food before the festival often accounts for a very large proportion. Ordinary people often spend a year's savings and try their best to buy all the food they need for the Spring Festival.

Buy spare things, mainly couplets, door gods, blessings, New Year pictures, paper treasures, candles and firecrackers.

Step 4 prepare new bowls and chopsticks

This is a unique folk custom in Huizhou. Huizhou dialect says "prepare a new bowl for the New Year". Even if there is no shortage of chopsticks at home, it is the custom in Huizhou to buy a set. Pay attention to matching when buying new bowls and chopsticks, that is, make a bowl and a spoonful with the same pattern and glaze color, and then buy a corresponding number of chopsticks; The purchase quantity is mostly "ten".

In Huizhou folk, "ten" is an auspicious number, which means "full ten" and "full". According to Huizhou folks, buying new bowls and chopsticks has two meanings:

First, "add more vegetables and bowls" to show that children and grandchildren are full of doors, including "happiness";

The second is "add new bowls, buy new chopsticks, and have no food in the coming year", which means "wealth". "Fu" and "wealth" are the most important and affordable words among Huizhou people.