Customs of the Beginning of Spring

Welcoming the Spring in the Eastern Suburbs

Welcoming the Spring on the Beginning of Spring is an important activity carried out by the Chinese ancestors on the Beginning of Spring. It is an important activity from the emperor to the common people. An activity to attend. In the Zhou Dynasty, at the beginning of spring, the emperor personally led the three gongs and nine ministers, princes and officials to the eastern suburbs to welcome the spring and pray for a good harvest. After returning, he should reward the officials, Budude and orders to benefit the people. This kind of activity will inevitably affect the common people, making it a spring celebration activity for the whole people for generations to come. In ancient times, the Spring Festival activities began in the eastern suburbs, because the God Jumang worshiped in the Spring Festival activities was the god of the East. Later, Spring Festival activities were held not only in the eastern suburbs, but also in the palace, in front of government offices and other places, and the content of the activities became more and more abundant. In the Song Dynasty, "On the day of the beginning of spring, ministers below the prime minister came to court to congratulate them" ("Mengliang Lu" by Wu Zimu of the Song Dynasty). This kind of greeting festival at the beginning of spring is also a kind of spring welcoming activity. In the Qing Dynasty, there was also the so-called "worship the spring" custom: "The first day of spring is the spring dynasty, and the scholars and common people celebrate each other, which is called 'spring worship'. The powder is made into pills, and the gods are worshiped first. The ceremony is inferior to that of the new year dynasty. "It comes at the winter solstice" ("Worship the Spring" in "Qing Jia Lu" written by Gulu of the Qing Dynasty). This kind of "spring greeting" activity is similar to the "new year greeting" on New Year's Day, and it is also a kind of spring welcoming activity. The Spring Welcome Ceremony is also called the Spring Festival.

Spring posts

Also known as spring posts, spring posts, and spring posts. This is a kind of post with poems in a book that is cut and posted on the palace door tent on the "beginning of spring" day. The style of poetry is close to that of palace poetry, mostly composed of quatrains, with beautiful writing skills. Most of the content is about praising virtues or containing regulations and admonitions. Posting spring posters and writing spring poems on the "Beginning of Spring" day was very popular in the Song Dynasty.

Spring Ox

A symbolic ox used to encourage farmers to start plowing on the first day of spring. It is made of mud and paper and is also called "earth cow". On the first day of spring, the emperor led his ministers to welcome the spring in the eastern suburbs and whipped the spring oxen to encourage farming. The scholars and people all went out of the city to watch.

Biaochun

Eating spring pancakes on the first day of spring is called "Biaochun". Folks eat some fresh spring vegetables on the day of the Beginning of Spring, not only to prevent diseases, but also to welcome the New Year. The "Four Seasons Treasure Mirror" of the Tang Dynasty records: "At the beginning of spring, people eat reeds, spring pancakes, and lettuce, called 'vegetable plates.'" It can be seen that people in the Tang Dynasty had already begun to try spring dishes and eat spring pancakes. The so-called spring cake, also called lotus leaf cake, is actually a kind of hot noodle pancake - use two small pieces of water, grease the middle with oil, roll it into a pancake, and peel it into two pieces after it is cooked. Spring pancakes are used to wrap vegetables, including cooked and stir-fried vegetables. In the past, when eating spring pancakes, it was important to go to the box shop to order "Su Pan" (also known as box dishes). A box shop is a sauce butcher shop, and the store sends people to deliver food to your home. In the box, smoked tripe, pine nut tripe, roasted pork (a hanging oven roasted pork), clear sauce pork, smoked elbow, sauced elbow, sauced strips, smoked chicken, sauced duck, etc. need to be cut when eating. Cut into thin strips, and serve with several home-cooked stir-fries (usually stir-fried leek sprouts with shredded pork, stir-fried spinach with shredded pork, mung bean sprouts cooked in vinegar, fried vermicelli, spread eggs, etc. If you have the newly launched "pheasant neck leek" stir-fried lean meat Shredded, and topped with eggs, it is even more fragrant and refreshing), rolled into spring cakes and eaten together.

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Beijing people’s sacrifice to stoves

The custom of Beijing people celebrating the Spring Festival is very interesting of. The so-called Spring Festival refers to the first day of the first lunar month in the Chinese lunar calendar. It heralds a new beginning, the revival of all things in the world, the arrival of spring, and the beginning of the year's farming work. Therefore, it has always been valued by the Chinese people. Later, when the Gregorian calendar was implemented, the country used January 1st of the Gregorian calendar as "New Year's Day", and the "New Year's Day" of the lunar calendar had to settle for the second best in name and renamed it "Spring Festival".