The Folk Culture of Chinese New Year in Laoshan

Spring Festival, the traditional Chinese New Year's Day, is Chinese most important national holiday, is also a traditional day for family reunions．

As the Spring Festival approaches every year, Lunar year is a lively affair where millions fill the streets to celebrate peace and happiness. Laoshan new year markets sell Spring Festival scrolls, firecrackers and New Year pictures...The hanging red couplets with auspicious and festive pictures make the new year's fair particularly prosperous. Business is booming in front of the stalls selling chicken, duck, fish, dried fruits and seasonings. During the Spring Festival, Laoshan communities will organize yangko dance, dry boat race, dragon lantern dance and stilts walking.

Chinese New year's Eve

1. Hang a genealogy or landscape painting (if not hang a genealogy), and stick couplets, Fu, door stickers, window decorations.....before noon.

2. At noon is the family reunion dinner, is the elaborate meal of the year, with the whole family gathering for this special occasion.

3. Preparing new year's Eve dinner and making dumplings in the afternoon. Dumplingis an indispensable meal in New Year's Eve dinner. Generally, a few coins and red dates will wrap in dumplings, eat those dumplings indicate good luck or sweet life in the coming year.

4. Before eating dumplings in the evening, cook some taro, which means the family has enough to spare every year.

5. Cooking dumplings and shooting off firecrackers, (eating dumplings after 10 o' clock at night to about 12 o'clock， after eating dumplings),pay a new year's call after eating.

Laoshan area new year's Eve, stay up all night, known as "Shou Nian"or"Shou Sui"． Nowadays, many families in rural areas still keep the custom of staying up all night on New Year' s Eve.

Chinese New year's Day: (Spring Festival)

1. The main purpose of the first new year's day  is to pay New Year's greetings. Generally, it is to pay New Year's greetings to the elders of the patriarchal clan.

2. Many families are entertaining the eldership the son who is married will invite the elder for dinner.

3.Generally, there are many people who visit their aunts today. This is usually arranged in advance.

The Second Day of the Chinese New Year

1. nephews visit their uncles, have lunch and drinking together.

2. Making dumplings in the afternoon. send new year at night , eating dumplings and set off firecrackers.

3. Unmarried boys will invite their girlfriends to send the new year, eating dumplings together, the parents of boys usually give girls lucky money.

The Third Day of the Chinese New Year

1. Pick off genealogies replaced with landscape paintings.

2. This day is the traditional time to see father-in-law and mother-in-law.

3. The unmarried boy will visit his future father-in-law and mother-in-law today.

The Fourth Day of the Chinese New Year

1. Visiting relatives, such as visiting aunts, aunts, uncles, elder brothers and sisters, friends, etc;

2. Visiting the old father-in-law and the old mother-in-law.

The Seventh Day of the Chinese New Year

1. From this day, return to work.

The Lunar Calendar Eleventh

1. Today is the birthday of the crops. setting off Firecrackers in the morning to wish the crops a good harvest in the coming year.

The Lunar Calendar Fifteen (Lantern Festival)

1. In the morning, eat yuanxiao and set off firecrackers.

2. A custom called "sending lights", which means to send lights to the old people who died ,such as candles and lanterns. Generally, they go to the old people's grave to burn incense, burn paper, set off firecrackers and light small candles.

3. Eating dumplings and setting off firecrackers in the evening

4. Unmarried girl may be invited to her boyfriend's home for dinner .

Lantern Festival --- in this traditional folk Lantern Festival, eat Lantern Festival and set off fireworks, fishermen will send lights and tie red silk belts on their fishing boats to wish the new year a good harvest and a safe and smooth fishing season.

The Lunar Calendar Sixteenth

1. Eat dumplings and set off firecrackers in the evening

2. An unmarried boy may be invited to his girfriend's home for dinner.

3. After the first month  16, the next morning, pick off landscape paintings.