In ancient times, there was a fierce monster scattered in the mountains. People call them nian. Its appearance is ferocious, its nature is ferocious, and it specializes in eating birds, animals and insects. It changes its taste every day, from kowtowing insects to living people, which makes people talk about "Nian".
Later, people gradually mastered the activity law of "Nian", that is, every 365 days, people go to places where people live in concentrated communities to taste fresh food. The haunting time is after dark, and when the rooster crows at dawn, they return to the mountains.
After determining the date of the ravages of 2008, people regarded this terrible night as a gateway, and came up with a set of methods to close the New Year's Day: every family prepared dinner in advance, turned off the fire, cleaned the stove, then tied all the cowpeas, sealed the front and back doors of the house, and hid in the house to eat the "New Year's Eve" because this dinner was uncertain.
So, it's rich. In addition to inviting the whole family to have dinner together to show a harmonious reunion, it is also necessary to offer sacrifices to our ancestors before eating and pray for their blessing to spend the night safely. After dinner, no one dared to sleep, so they sat together and chatted with courage. Gradually formed the habit of not sleeping on New Year's Eve.
2. perpetual calendar
According to legend, there was a young man named Wan Nian in ancient times. Seeing that the festivals at that time were chaotic, he had a precise plan, but he couldn't find a way to calculate the time.
One day, he was tired of chopping wood on the mountain and sat in the shade to rest. The movement of the shadow inspired him. He designed a sundial to measure the time of the day. Later, inspired by the dripping spring water on the cliff, he began to make a five-layer clepsydra to calculate the time.
Over time, he found that every 360 days, the four seasons would cycle once, and the length of the weather would be repeated. At that time, the monarch was called Zu Ti, who was often troubled by the unpredictable weather. Ten thousand years later, he took the sundial and the clepsydra to see the emperor and explained to Zu Ti the truth about the movement of the sun and the moon.
Zu Ti was very happy after hearing this and felt reasonable. So I left for ten thousand years and built the Sun and Moon Pavilion in front of the Temple of Heaven, as well as the sundial platform and the Leaky Pot Pavilion. I hope I can accurately measure the laws of the sun and the moon, calculate the exact time in the morning and evening, and create a calendar to benefit people all over the world. Knowing that the perpetual calendar was created, I personally boarded the Sun Moon Pavilion to visit the perpetual calendar.
Wan Nian pointed to the astronomical phenomena and said to Zu Ti, "Now it is exactly twelve months. The old year has passed and the new year has begun again. Please make a festival for you. " It is said that this is the origin of the Spring Festival.
After years of long-term observation and careful calculation, he worked out an accurate solar calendar. When he showed his successor the solar calendar, he was covered with silver whiskers. The monarch was deeply moved. In order to commemorate the achievements of 10 thousand years, he named the solar calendar "perpetual calendar" and named it the birthday star of the sun, moon and moon.
3. Fu Tao
Long ago, Dushuo Mountain in the East China Sea had beautiful scenery, and there was a peach forest on the mountain. Among them, there is a huge peach tree, flourishing and winding for three thousand miles. Peaches are big and sweet. If people eat peaches from trees, they can become immortals. One dark night, a ghost with blue face and fangs, red hair and green eyes tried to steal Xiantao.
The owners of Taolin, Shen Tu and Lei Yu, used peach branches to play ghosts, tied ghosts with straw ropes and fed tigers to watch the mountains. From then on, the names of the two brothers scared ghosts and became immortals who specialized in punishing evil and promoting good after death. Later generations painted two immortals, Shen Tu and Lei Yu, on a mahogany board one inch wide and seven or eight inches long to ward off evil spirits. This kind of red board is called "Fu Tao".
With the changes of the times, Fu Tao itself is changing. Later, people wrote the names of two immortals on the Fu Tao instead of portraits. Later, it developed into "Inscription of Fu Tao", that is, short poems with equal words, symmetrical structure and corresponding meanings were inscribed on Fu Tao, which was the predecessor of Spring Festival couplets.
4, paste Spring Festival couplets, door gods
According to legend, there is a ghost world with a mountain in it. There is a big peach tree covering three thousand miles on the mountain, and there is a golden rooster on the top of the tree. Whenever the golden rooster crows in the morning, the ghost who travels at night will rush back to the ghost domain. The Gate of Ghost Domain is located in the northeast of Peach Tree District. There are two gods standing by the door, named Shen Tu and Lei Yu.
If the ghost does something unnatural at night, Shen Tu and Lei Yu will immediately find it, catch it, tie it up with a rope made of Miscanthus and give it to the tiger. So all the ghosts in the world are afraid of Shen Tu and Lei Yu. So people carved them into peach trees and put them at their doorsteps to ward off evil spirits and prevent harm.
Later, people simply carved the names of Shen Tu and Lei Yu on the mahogany board, thinking that this could also eliminate disasters. This kind of red board was later called "Fu Tao".
5, lucky money
In ancient times, there was a little demon named Chong who came out to touch the head of a sleeping child on New Year's Eve. The child often cries with fear, then has a headache and becomes a fool. Therefore, on this day, every family will turn on the lights and stay up late, which is called "keeping special". ? There was a couple who had a son in their later years and regarded him as their favorite. On New Year's Eve, they were afraid that "worship" would harm their children, so they took out eight copper coins to play with them.
When the child fell asleep playing, they wrapped eight copper coins in red paper and put them under the child's pillow. The couple dare not sleep. In the middle of the night, an evil wind blew the door open and blew out the lights. Chong reached out and touched the child's head, and the pillow flashed in.
Scared the "special forces" to run away. The next day, the couple told everyone about wrapping eight copper coins in red paper to scare them away. After that, everyone learned, and the children were safe. It turns out that these eight copper coins were exchanged by the Eight Immortals to secretly protect the children. It is a homonym of "worship" and "age", and later it gradually evolved into "lucky money".
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, it was called lucky money. What elders give their children is also called lucky money. "So some places call giving children lucky money' string money'. In modern times, it has evolved into a kind of red paper wrapped in 100 copper coins, which is given to the younger generation, meaning "long life". "For an adult mistress, put a silver dollar in a red paper bag, which means" one book is profitable ".
After the currency is changed to paper money, the elders like to go to the bank to change their children into new paper money with face numbers, wishing them "promotion step by step".