The Spring Festival is one of the most important traditional festivals in China. During the Spring Festival, Chinese hung lanterns, purchased New Year goods, visited relatives and friends, and the whole country was full of joy. And in South Korea, which has long been influenced by China in history, it also celebrates the Spring Festival. So is the Spring Festival in South Korea the same as the Spring Festival in China? In fact, the Spring Festival in South Korea and the Spring Festival in China have many similarities, but due to various factors such as geographical environment, way of thinking, and economic level, there are many differences in the Spring Festival of the two countries.
So what are the similarities and differences between the Korean Spring Festival and the Chinese New Year?
The origin of the Chinese and Korean Spring Festival
Chinese society has long been an agrarian society, which makes everyone from the heavenly son to the common people pay great attention to the development of agriculture. This is not surprising. Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory points out that physiological needs are the most basic needs of people. The ancients met a good year, ate enough, met the most basic survival needs, and the quality of life was higher. So the ancients used every means to create a good year.
Watching the wind and rain, thermostat, with the continuous exploration of people and the development of the level of instruments, the possibility of a good year in ancient times seems to have increased. But when disasters such as floods and droughts hit again and again, people began to doubt manpower and rely on divine power. Therefore, in the good year, people began to prepare good wine and food, and began to reward the gods. However, due to China's vast territory and different geographical conditions, people in different places often celebrate the harvest year differently. This laid the foundation for the emergence of the Spring Festival.
In the Han Dynasty, the Spring Festival entered a period of finalization. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Luo Hong formulated the "Taichu Calendar", "with the first month as the beginning of the year", even if the first day of the first lunar month is the Lunar New Year, burning firecrackers, eating reunion dinners, viewing flower lanterns and other different celebrations of the gods in various places are also unified to the official New Year.
With the development of the economy, political stability, and cultural openness, the Spring Festival gradually tends to be entertaining. For example, during the Spring Festival of the Tang Dynasty, there were plays that adapted religious ceremonies, as well as the feasting occasions of Tianzi courtiers and the vigil customs of the people who lit fires all night.
During the Sui and Tang dynasties in China, ancient Koreans drew up their own calendars from the Taichu Calendar, and the term Spring Festival landed on Korean land. In terms of holiday time, the Korean Spring Festival is similar to That of China. In terms of festival customs, Koreans have absorbed Chinese customs and derived some local customs in combination with their own characteristics.
Many of the customs of the Korean Spring Festival are similar to those of the Chinese New Year, which are evident in the two major customs of sacrifice and New Year's greeting.
1. Sacrifice
In terms of sacrifice, like Chinese, Koreans believe that it is important to sacrifice ancestors in the new year. Only by commemorating the ancestors and offering their filial piety to the ancestors can the descendants be auspicious and blessed in the new year.
How do Koreans sacrifice? On New Year's Day, Koreans wear traditional Korean costumes and prepare sacrifices to worship their ancestors. Before the ancestral spiritual seat, Koreans will take the first prostration ceremony in the order of the eldest and youngest, and the eldest son will not only perform the ceremony, but also light the pre-spiritual candle and drink wine for the ancestors. At the end of the prostration ceremony, the wine is sprinkled to lay the ceremony. Before this was over, the daughter-in-law of the family had to collect the sacrifices to make a dumpling after the sacrifice and eat with the family. Koreans believe that ancestors have left blessings and affection in food, and that they can be blessed by their ancestors after eating a rice ball.
China has a vast land, and there are some differences in the sacrifice customs in each place, but it is not difficult to see that korean sacrifice customs are similar to Chinese sacrifice customs, right? Chinese sacrifices, but also to prepare sacrifices, consider the elderly and young, perform the ceremony of laying wine, etc., but may not be like koreans wearing traditional costumes and kneeling to worship ancestors.
2. Press the old money
Pressing old money is a "gift" that many Chinese children dream of. As a child, as parents visit relatives and friends and get money, it is not to mention how happy it is. South Korea also has the custom of paying tribute to the New Year.
Like China, Korean elders are ready to press the old age money, and if the sweet-mouthed junior says something auspicious to him, the elder will be satisfied to press the younger generation to the old age. It can be seen here that giving money to the New Year is an important custom of the Spring Festival in China and South Korea, but due to cultural differences, China and South Korea use different words to express "New Year's Greeting". South Korea refers to "New Year's Greetings" as "Year's Eve".
The meaning of year and year is also relatively similar, and the year and year can refer to one year, and can also refer to the agricultural harvest. The Korean Spring Festival also has the saying of "year food" and "year wine", which shows that South Korea has a special love for "year". Chinese prefer to say "year", there are Chinese New Year's Eve rice, purchase of New Year goods and other statements. In general, although the sayings of the year and the year are different, the forms of the two are very different.
From the above, it can be seen that there are many similarities between the Spring Festival customs in Korea and the Chinese Spring Festival customs. However, the national conditions of one country and one country, the Spring Festival customs of China and South Korea have some differences in food culture and other aspects.
1. Food culture
What food do Koreans prepare during the Spring Festival? Here's a look at the typical food rice cake soup. During the Spring Festival, Koreans cut rice cakes into round slices, supplemented with some meat, and add water to boil the soup, which is a rice cake soup. The rice cake is white in color and cut into round pieces, which means family reunion and reflects the worship of the white sun by ancient Koreans. In Korea, a child eating rice cake soup is equivalent to another year older, so this is a veritable New Year's meal.
Koreans think that it is not interesting to eat vegetables, so they think of wine, and call the wine they drink during the Spring Festival "old wine". Although it is winter, Koreans do not like to drink hot sake, but prefer cold sake. What does this cold wine mean? According to Kyoto Magazine, cold wine means spring. Drink lightly in the mouth, a hint of coolness, the original is spring!
Koreans mainly eat rice cakes and pickles during the New Year, while Chinese eat more food during the New Year, including dumplings, tangyuan, chicken, duck and fish, rice cakes, etc., which are relatively richer than Korean food types. In terms of drinks, tusu wine in ancient China is also called nianjiu, which has long been an essential drink for the Spring Festival. However, China's Tusu wine, in addition to the same as South Korea's old wine has the same accident of retiring the old and welcoming the new, but also has the effect of driving away evil spirits and longevity.
2. Folklore game project
Koreans play some folk games during the Spring Festival, such as the game of flip board. The flip board game, that is, find four wooden sticks of about one foot, split them in half, and then throw them at the same time, representing the change of seasons. According to the rules of the game such as three strokes and one flip and 1 point, Koreans play chess on the board according to points, and the one who finishes the pieces first wins.
It can be seen that Korean folk games are still very distinctive. The Chinese folk games are also very rich, including playing gyros, putting firecrackers, Luban locks, nine rings, etc., in various forms.
3. Different colors
Chinese Shanghong, Korean Shangbai. At the New Year, Chinese wrapped red envelopes, pasted red couplets, hung red lanterns, and did not see anyone who would wrap white packets, paste white couplets, and hang white lanterns. But Koreans are still white, and their red envelopes, couplets, lanterns, and other symbols of festivities are all white.
Why are there similar customs during the Chinese and Korean Spring Festivals?
There are some similarities in the customs of the Chinese and Korean Spring Festival, which I believe is mainly due to the fact that both China and South Korea are deeply influenced by Confucian culture.
Confucianism pays attention to filial piety and orderliness, so it can be seen that during the Spring Festival sacrifice, the ancestors eat first, and the descendants then move chopsticks; the elders worship the ancestors first, and the younger generations offer incense. Confucians want a person to have both "benevolence, righteousness, wisdom and faith", so during the Spring Festival, elders often pray to their ancestors to make their juniors smart and filial piety, and set many taboos for the younger generations, such as not swearing, not taking a nap on the first day of the New Year, and so on.
Confucians advocate etiquette and exchange, believing that "coming and going is not incivility", so during the Spring Festival, it can be seen that Chinese and Koreans will exchange gifts between relatives and friends in order to maintain long-term ties.
And what is the reason for the difference between the Chinese and Korean Spring Festival customs?
1. Geography is different
Surrounded by the sea on three sides, South Korea is mountainous, has obvious climate and oceanic characteristics, and has fewer materials than China. Therefore, Koreans eat New Year's meals, food is often better stored rice cakes and pickles, etc., and Chinese more easily obtain a variety of foods, so they like to put fresh and hearty dishes on the table, unlike Korea to prepare a lot of pickled products. In addition, Chinese like to drink hot drinks during the Spring Festival, because they can warm their stomachs, but Koreans do the opposite in order to exercise gastrointestinal ability, and like to drink cold.
2. Costume traditions vary
South Korea is a monolithic nation-state, with 90 percent Koreans, so its traditional costumes are better preserved. During the Spring Festival, Koreans tend to wear hanbok. China is a multi-ethnic country, historically there was a dynasty of clothing, and now it is a place and a tribe with its own dressing habits, so there is no situation where all Chinese wear uniform traditional clothing for the festival.
3. Different concepts of thinking
Let's analyze the example of the treatment of red and white by Chinese and South Koreans. China's red symbolizes festivity and auspiciousness, so the "Chinese red" element abounds during the Chinese New Year. In China, white often means bad things, and white things are often desperate and sad things, such as funerals. Koreans don't think so, they think white is the purest and noblest color in the world, so in the Spring Festival, the time of family reunion, they want to dye every corner of the home white. This is the difference in the way chinese and South Koreans think.
In addition, Chinese think that "good things are in pairs" and like even numbers, while Koreans think that "three lives are all things" and like singular numbers.
Author: Xia Zhen Correction/Editor: Lilith
Reference: "Comparative Study of Chinese and Korean Festival Cultures: Taking the Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, and Mid-Autumn Festival as Examples" ] KANG SUKJONG Shandong University 2018
The text was created by the History University Hall team, and the picture originated from the Internet and the copyright belongs to the original author