What do people do during the Chinese New Year?
Chatting with the friends, the answer with the highest vote was: "There are two things in the New Year: one is to grab the red packet, and the other is to play mahjong."
Our parents' generation paid great attention to the New Year customs, and there were many exquisite ones. For example, when we were young at home, our mother would supervise us:
You must take a bath before the New Year,
Be sure to get up early on the first day of the New Year,
During the New Year, we must pay attention not to saying the words "broken", "dead" and "finished".
When I was a child, I didn't know the world, I always thought about coming according to my own ideas, and I felt that those who were poor and exquisite could completely leave them behind, how to come happily. Unfortunately, when I grew up, I found that I really didn't have those "poor" exquisite, and the taste of the year was really getting weaker and weaker every year. If there is a regret, we will solve it.
As clever as I have a new idea, I create some New Year customs for my baby at home: telling New Year customs stories. When it comes to the old story, which one can you think of? The man-eating Nian Beast is still a "secret" that specializes in bullying children.
Share some different New Year's stories with you, which is guaranteed to make you harvest a bunch of children's adoring eyes.
Why is it called "Year"
The story of the nian beast, you told the child, right? To be honest, to a seven- or eight-year-old child like CC, it is likely to be despised: "This is all a lie to children." "We can put it another way:
The thirteenth monarch of the Shang Dynasty was named Zu Yi, and during his reign, there was a woodcutter named WanNian who was very good at observing and thinking.
The seasons were chaotic, and if people didn't grasp the time when they farmed, there was no good harvest. Wannian had the intention of setting the seasons accurately, but he could not find a way to calculate the time.
One day, he went up the mountain to cut firewood tired, sat in the shade of the tree to rest, the movement of the tree shadow inspired him, he designed a sun shadow time to measure the time of day.
Later, Wannian drank water at the spring, saw the water on the cliff dripping rhythmically, and the regular dripping sound inspired him, and he made a five-layer leaky pot to calculate time.
Over time, he found that every three hundred and sixty days, the four seasons were reincarnated once, and the length of the days was repeated.
If you understand the law of the operation of the sun and the moon, you don't have to worry about the inaccuracy of the seasons, which is a great thing for the benefit of all the people. Wannian took a homemade sundial and a leaky pot to see Zu Yi.
At that time, many people felt that the festival was related to the gods and did not believe in wannian, but Zu Yi was very wise to stand on the side of wannian. He left Wannian behind and supported him to continue his research.
When Wannian dedicated the complete solar calendar to Zu Yi's successor monarch, he was already a white-haired old man. Deeply moved, the monarch named the solar calendar the Perpetual Calendar and named the Ten Thousand Years as the Sun, Moon, and Birthday Star.
In order to commemorate him, people later set the beginning as "year".
Why paste the word Fu upside down
Chinese New Year's Eve paste the couplet and instruct the child to paste it upside down.
Why, how do you react when your child asks? "Blessing is the meaning of blessing", which is also too perfunctory, it is better to give the child a "long long ago" story.
Does Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang understand?
He was the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and he was particularly cruel, killing people at every turn, and killing them was the kind of nine tribes that killed them all.
One year, Zhu Yuanzhang sent his men down to kill people on a large scale, and agreed to use the word "Fu" as a marker, and whoever had the word "Fu" at the door of his home would kill his entire family.
Zhu Yuanzhang's wife, Empress Ma, was a very kind person, and after she knew this, she secretly ordered all the people in the city to put the word "Fu" on their doors.
Although the common people did not know why, they did not dare to disobey Empress Ma's will, and every household obeyed the order.
Only one family had an accident, the family was illiterate, and they put the word "Fu" upside down.
Zhu Yuanzhang's men came out to see that every family had a blessing word, and it was impossible to kill all the people in the city, so there was no way to go back to Zhu Yuanzhang.
Zhu Yuanzhang listened, understood that someone was making trouble for himself, and was very angry. He wanted to take this blessing and cut off their whole family.
Empress Ma was busy saying to Zhu Yuanzhang, "The family knew that you had sent someone to visit, and deliberately pasted the word Fu upside down, which means 'Fu to', and the people regard you as 'Fu', which is a gratifying thing!" ”
Zhu Yuanzhang was happy to hear this, and immediately ordered the release of people, and a catastrophe was finally eliminated.
Since then, during the New Year, people have pasted the word Fu upside down, one is to seek an auspicious, and the other is to commemorate the kind and resourceful Empress Ma.
Why do you put coins in dumplings
Many customs of the New Year, the older generation still have their own insistence, for example, my grandmother must put coins in the dumplings every year.
For hygiene reasons, she has now learned to replace peanuts and candy, but this process must not be omitted (the most important thing is that people are the main force in making dumplings). "Why put something in dumplings?" Grandma's saying is: "Win a good lottery head in the New Year", but the child still can't understand, what is a good lottery head, this story comes in handy.
This custom originated in the late period of Empress Dowager Cixi, who was the de facto ruler of the late Qing Dynasty and a very powerful person.
She had a habit of leading the queen and the concubines to make dumplings every year Chinese New Year's Eve, saying that they were pinching the mouths of the little people so that they could no longer talk nonsense.
Of course, it is said that it is personally done, but in fact, it is still the eunuch and the palace maid who do the work, and she can stand next to her and direct the command.
In this pot of dumplings that Empress Dowager Cixi participated in, she would make a request: she would wrap four small gold yuan treasures in it to see who could eat them.
The eunuchs who were waiting on the side were very discerning, and they would firmly remember which dumpling was wrapped in gold yuanbao, cooked, and then fished up and offered to Empress Dowager Cixi.
Every year Empress Dowager Cixi eats dumplings, she will eat four gold yuan treasures, and everyone will hurry to congratulate her next to her, and Empress Dowager Cixi will feel that she has won the lottery, and she is very happy and feels that she is very blessed.
In 1908, the year empress dowager Cixi died, unexpectedly, she only ate three gold yuanbao.
Probably because the Qing Dynasty was about to end at that time, the eunuchs around her were not very responsible, and fished the fourth golden treasure dumpling to the then Empress Longyu.
Empress Dowager Cixi should definitely be unhappy at this time, the empress dowager is not happy, the consequences are very serious, what to do?
Empress Longyu was very clever, and she secretly stuffed the gold yuanbao to the eunuch in charge, and the eunuch secretly put the gold yuanbao into the pot, falsely claiming that it was boiled.
When Empress Dowager Cixi heard that Jin Yuanbao was in the pot and no one was robbing her own lottery head, she was happy again.
When to eat Chinese New Year's Eve meal?
Chinese New Year's Eve Chinese New Year's Eve meal, what time does your family have dinner?
My grandmother will generally control the time at about 7 o'clock, finish eating at 7 o'clock, then clean up, and then sit and wait for the Spring Festival gala to start. It is said that in many rural areas of Hubei, due to different surnames, the time to eat New Year's dinner is also different. Those with the surname Wang begin to reunite at more than five o'clock in the morning; those with the surname Gao generally hold a banquet at about 12:00 noon; those with the surname Yang can only be after 12 o'clock in the evening...
Is there a small partner in Hubei, given a true or false?
It is said that this is also allusion:
After Qin Shi Huang unified China, the original Chu state had reached the point of "the extinction of ten thousand people", and there was no population within a few miles.
When Qin Shi Huang saw that this was not possible, he ordered some of his people to emigrate from the Jiujiang area (that is, present-day Jiangxi) to live in the Chu state.
There is always a sequence of everyone's arrival, some people go early and arrive in the morning; some people delay for a while, noon arrives, some people rush over in the afternoon...
In order to commemorate this housewarming, the local people set the time for eating the New Year meal at the time of arrival at the new residence.
If you think it's too late to eat, you can only blame your ancestors for not having enough foot strength...
Why do you "eat dumplings again"?
Friends in the north look over, how many dumplings will your family eat during the New Year? My family's habits: Chinese New Year's Eve, the first day of the Chinese New Year, the fifth day of the new year, these days it is necessary to eat new dumplings, and each meal of dumplings must be leftover, which is called "more than every year". Three days to eat dumplings, plus a few days to eat leftover dumplings, which directly leads to eating dumplings every day during the New Year.
When children protest, "Why eat dumplings again," the story comes in.
Dumplings were invented by the famous medical scientist Zhang Zhongjing at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, who was revered by posterity as "medical saint" and was a very great person.
One year, Zhang Zhongjing was passing through Nanyang, Henan, and he saw that the villagers on both sides of the Bai River were yellow and thin, hungry and cold, and many people's ears were frozen, and they were very distressed, so he wanted to help them.
He asked his disciples to set up a medical shed in Nanyang Dongguan, support a large cauldron, put the lamb and some cold herbs in the pot to boil, and then fish out the lamb and medicine and chop it, and wrap it in dough skin to form an ear-like "delicate ear".
He distributed two "delicate ears" and a large bowl of broth to each of the locals and let everyone eat them together. People ate "delicate ears" and drank "cold soup", warmed their bodies, their ears were warm, and no one frostbitten their ears anymore.
On the first day of the Chinese New Year, people celebrate the New Year, but also celebrate the rehabilitation of rotten ears, imitating the New Year's food, people call this food "jiao'er", "dumplings", "partial food" and so on.
Zhang Zhongjing's original intention of inventing dumplings was to help the people resist the cold, and since its development, the small dumplings have become a miniature "dietary pagoda".
The skin of dumplings is made of flour and belongs to grains; dumplings can be wrapped in vegetables, meat, eggs, seafood, etc.; and some oil is added when filling dumplings. Nutritionally balanced and comprehensive, nutrition experts believe that dumplings are a wholesome food.
In addition to the shape of the dumplings, it resembles the ancient treasures, which symbolize people's hope for wealth. Eating dumplings during the festival has become a kind of eating habit slowly formed in the development of the Chinese nation, which means auspiciousness, reunion and happiness.
What is the story of rice cake?
In addition to dumplings, many people also eat a food during the New Year: rice cakes.
In different places, the method of rice cake is different, some are cylindrical, some are square. Among them, after the square rice cake is cooled, what do you think it looks like?
Like a brick? Like that, there is also a beautiful legend behind it.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there was a high official of the State of Wu named Wu Zixu, who was a major vassal under king Wu and the founder of Gusu City (now Suzhou).
At that time, in order to prevent the invasion of outsiders, Wu Zixu led people to build the famous Lu City, which was the predecessor of Gusu City.
After the city was repaired, Wu Zixu said to his confidants: "After I die, if the country suffers and the people are hungry, they can dig up soil under the city gate for a few feet, and they can find food." ”
Later, Wu Zixu was framed and committed suicide. The Country of Vietnam took the opportunity to cut down Wu, the war was continuous, and the local hunger was everywhere. When in danger, someone remembered Wu Zixu's instructions before his death, and secretly dug under the roots of the city wall.
The original foundation of the city was bricks and stones made of glutinous rice, and people dug it out to make food and survived the difficulties. This food is rice cake.
Later, people used glutinous rice to make rice cakes to sacrifice Wu Zixu, in addition, the pronunciation of rice cakes is the same as "Nian Gao", people think that eating rice cakes has the meaning of "step by step every year", thinking that it is an auspicious food.
How many of these old stories have you heard?
This is what I have done a lot of homework, put a lot of effort into, and sorted it out. Just wait for the New Year's Day, and show it in front of the child. Imagine that twenty or thirty years later, when CC and DD are celebrating the New Year, they will tell their children with a nostalgic face: "When I was a child, the New Year was the most interesting, and my mother would tell me some stories that no one had ever heard." Although the old mother is a cook, she can still release the radiance of motherhood and be satisfied.
If you can't fix your child's stomach, then try to win the child's heart!