On February 4, the fourth day of the first lunar month, it was spring, and coincidentally, this day coincided with the traditional customs of some parts of the mainland to welcome the "king of the stove home".
Luo Shuwei, a historian and researcher at the Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences, said that the Spring Festival is a traditional festival of the Chinese nation, commonly known as the "New Year". The beginning and end point of the "year" is generally from the Chinese New Year's Eve of the lunar calendar to the "Lantern Festival" on the fifteenth day of the first month, or the "residual lamp at the end of the temple" on the sixteenth day of the first month. However, most of the "New Year's" actions begin with the "sacrifice stove" of the eighth or twenty-third day of the waxing moon, until the "dragon raises its head" on the second day of February. In any case, China's Spring Festival should be the longest festival in the world.
Poster Maker: Fang Jinyang
Spring is the beginning of spring. Luo Shuwei said that China has been a country based on agriculture since ancient times, so the ancients had high hopes for spring. The term Lichun was first seen in the Zhou Dynasty, according to the "Zhou Li", every time Lichun, Zhou Tianzi personally led the secretaries of state, princes, and scholars to hold a spring ceremony in the eastern suburbs, rewarding the courtiers and benefiting the people. After the Eastern Han Dynasty, the government and the public generally held various spring celebration activities in Lichun, such as women "cutting ribbons for swallows" or making headdresses with "Chunhata Chunsheng" and pasting "Yichun" on the door... At this time, Lichun is not just a festival, but a festival. During the Tang and Song dynasties, on the spring day, the following courtiers under the prime minister wanted to enter the court to congratulate him. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, whether it was "welcoming spring" or "whipping spring cattle (beating spring)", the ceremony was extremely solemn.
To this day, some ancient spring customs are still circulating in the folk, such as the rural areas have the act of "playing spring", which is intended to send cold air and promote spring ploughing. At home, you should eat spring wine, spring plates, spring rolls, spring cakes and vegetables, or eat turnips to "bite spring". "Spring plate spring wine is good every year, try on silver and sentence drunk." The Southern Song Dynasty poet Lu You described the spring customs in the "Magnolia Li Chun Ri Zuo" in Li Chun Ri. These interesting customs are superimposed together, enriching the cultural connotation of the Spring Festival and adding a festive atmosphere to the Spring Festival.
Luo Shuwei said that the Spring Festival will generally catch up with the "five-nine-six-nine" before and after the Spring Festival. The folk proverb says that "spring hits six or nine heads", which means that the day of Lichun is exactly the first day of "June 9", and this year's Lichun is like this. Ushering in the Spring Festival will make the Spring Festival more spring.
On the day of Spring Day, some places on the mainland also have the custom of welcoming the "king of the stove home". Luo Shuwei said that the worship of the "King of Stove" stems from the reverence of the ancestors for "fire". But "a hundred miles are different from the customs", just as "offering the stove" (sending the "stove king to heaven") or on the twenty-third day of the waxing moon, or the twenty-fourth day of the waxing moon, "ying stove" is also either in the fifth day of the new month, or on the fourth day of the first month of the first month. On this day, people in these places should prepare various fruits and other offerings, and set off firecrackers, indicating that the king of the stove is going to "return to the palace to descend auspiciously" after "the heavens have said good things". (Reporter Zhou Runjian)
Source: Xinhua News Agency