Do you know how many of the top 10 customs of the Spring Festival?

Do you know how many of the top 10 customs of the Spring Festival?

The Spring Festival, commonly known as “Nian Jie” or “Guo Nian”, is a grand and distinctive ancient festival in China’s folk culture, and it is also one of the liveliest traditional festivals. Narrowly speaking, the Spring Festival refers to the first day of the first lunar month, the first day of the new year. Broadly speaking, the Spring Festival lasts from the Laba Festival or the Little New Year all the way to the 19th day of the first lunar month of the following year, and all this period is considered the Spring Festival.

Here are 10 folk customs during the Spring Festival. Let’s see how many of them you know.

1. Spring Cleaning

According to the records in Lu’s Spring and Autumn Annals, as early as the era of Yao and Shun, there has been the custom of spring cleaning during the Spring Festival in China. Since the Chinese character for “dust” (“尘”) has the same pronunciation as the character for “old” (“陈”), spring cleaning has been given a new meaning. It means “getting rid of the old and ushering in the new”, hoping to sweep away all poverty and bad luck.

2. Pasting Couplets, the Character “Fu”, and Door Gods

In the afternoon before the Spring Festival, children will step on stools, hold paste and brushes, and paste couplets on the doors. Then they will ask the adults below to check if the couplets are pasted straight. Some couplets also have a horizontal scroll, which is pasted on the lintel. The couplets are pasted on the left and right sides of the door. Some people also paste the Chinese character “Fu” on the house doors, walls, and lintels, expressing people’s yearning for a happy life. Some people will paste paintings of door gods on the door panels, praying for a safe year and adding a festive and joyful atmosphere.

3. Ancestor Worship and God Worship

The custom of worshiping gods during the Spring Festival is widespread across China, from the east to the west and from the north to the south. The customs of worshiping gods in various places are more or less the same, and the basic purpose is to pray for favorable weather, a bumper harvest of grains, and great luck in the coming year.

Ancestor worship is generally carried out after god worship, and the customs vary from place to place. In my hometown, before lunch every day, each family sends a representative to bring food and offerings to the ancestral hall to pay homage to the ancestors. This practice continues until the 15th day of the first lunar month, when the ancestral hall closes.

4. Eating Dumplings, Tangyuan, and Nian Gao

In most areas of northern China, there is a custom of eating dumplings in the morning during the Spring Festival. People often put a coin inside a dumpling. Whoever eats the coin is said to be the luckiest person in the family in that year. In Huai’an, Jiangsu Province, there is a custom of eating tangyuan (sweet dumplings) in the morning. In Kaifeng, Henan Province, people eat both dumplings and tangyuan on the Spring Festival day. There is also a custom of eating nian gao (sticky rice cakes) during the Spring Festival, and the flavors of nian gao vary from place to place.

5. Staying Up Late on New Year’s Eve and Giving Lucky Money

Staying up late on New Year’s Eve is also one of the most important Spring Festival activities. Neighbors and friends gather together, or families get together. Some play cards, and some watch the Spring Festival Gala. Everyone stays up all night, waiting for the dawn together to welcome the arrival of the new year.

Giving lucky money is the favorite custom of children and younger generations. After the New Year’s Eve dinner, the elders will give money to the younger generations respectively. They will string copper coins together with red threads and hang them on the chests of children, saying that it can ward off evil spirits. This custom has been popular since the Han Dynasty. Of course, there are no copper coins now, and usually, people put cash in red envelopes.

6. Setting Off Firecrackers

When the Spring Festival is approaching, the first thing that every family does when opening the door is to set off firecrackers. The crackling sound of firecrackers is used to bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new year, indicating celebration and good luck. Of course, in many places, setting off firecrackers is now prohibited. We should abide by national regulations and give priority to safety.

7. Paying New Year’s Calls

Paying New Year’s calls is one of the most important activities and customs of the Spring Festival. On the morning of the first day of the lunar new year, adults and children all put on new clothes and new hats, visit relatives and friends, and pay New Year’s calls to each other, wishing everyone great luck in the new year. Paying New Year’s calls generally starts from one’s own home. After the younger generation pays their respects to the elders, when people meet each other outside, they will greet each other with smiles and wish each other a happy new year.

8. Visiting Temple Fairs

During the Spring Festival, there are usually temple fairs in rural areas. In the early days, temple fairs were just a solemn sacrificial activity. However, with the development of the economy and people’s needs, while maintaining the sacrificial activities, temple fairs have gradually added bazaar trading activities and some rich and colorful entertainment activities.

9. Dragon and Lion Dances

The dragon is a legendary auspicious animal. It is said that it can control the wind and rain in the sky and also pray for good luck and eliminate disasters for the world. As early as the Han Dynasty, there were activities of dragon dancing to pray for rain. In addition to dragon dancing, lion dancing is also a relatively common custom during the Spring Festival. In northern China, it is also called “performing the lion dance”. I often saw it when I was a child, but now it is less common.

10. Stilt Walking

Stilt walking is also an entertainment activity during the Spring Festival with a long history. It is recorded in Liezi. Shuo Fu Pian: “There was a man named Lanzi in the State of Song… He tied two stilts that were twice the length of his body to his shins and ran side by side.” Stilt walking is also called “Zha Gao Jiao” or “Ta Gao Qiao”. The performers tie wooden stilts two or three feet high to their feet and perform various strange and funny actions. When I was a child, this activity was basically carried out in every village, but later it became less and less common.