Spring Festival story: Pasting the word "Fu" to welcome the God of Wealth and the mouse's daughter's wedding

Spring Festival Story: New Year's Eve

According to legend, there was a monster called "Nian" in ancient China. It had a green face, fangs, sharp horns and claws, and was extremely ferocious. They live deep in the mountains all year round and only come down on New Year's Eve to devour livestock and kill people. Therefore, every New Year’s Eve, every household would leave home to avoid being harmed by the Nian beast, and this was called "celebrating the New Year."
On New Year's Eve one year, people were carrying their elderly and children to the mountains to seek refuge when an old beggar came from outside the village. Some people were sealing windows and locking doors, some were packing their luggage, and there was a scene of haste and panic everywhere. No one cared about the beggar. Only an old woman at the east end of the village made dumplings for the old man and advised him to go up the mountain quickly to avoid the Nian beast. In order to repay the old woman's kindness, the old man told her that Nian was most afraid of the color red, fire and explosions. He asked her to wear red clothes, post red paper on the door, light red candles, and burn bamboo in the yard to make explosions.
In the middle of the night, the Nian beast broke into the village. It found that the village was brightly lit, and its eyes were forced to close due to the glaring red light. It also heard loud firecrackers coming from someone's house, so it ran away trembling all over. From then on, people knew how to drive away the Nian. Every New Year’s Eve, every family would put up red couplets and set off firecrackers; every house would light candles and stay up to wait for the new year. Early in the morning on the first day of the New Year, people would visit relatives and friends to congratulate them and wish them well in surviving the ravages of the Nian beast. Later, this custom spread more and more widely and became the most solemn traditional festival among the Chinese people.

Spring Festival Story: The Story of Laba Congee

On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, people in my country have the custom of eating Laba porridge. It is said that Laba porridge was introduced from India. The founder of Buddhism, Sakyamuni, was originally the son of King Suddhodana of Kapilavastu in northern ancient India (in present-day Nepal). Seeing that all living beings were suffering from birth, old age, sickness and death, and being dissatisfied with the theocratic rule of the Brahmins at the time, he gave up the throne and became a monk. He achieved nothing at first, but after six years of asceticism, on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, he attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree and became a Buddha. During these six years of asceticism, he only ate one grain of hemp and one grain of rice every day. Later generations did not forget the suffering he endured, and ate porridge on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month every year to commemorate him. "Laba" became the "Buddha's Enlightenment Day".
"Laba" is a grand festival in Buddhism. Before liberation, Buddhist temples across the country held Buddha bathing ceremonies and chanting sessions, and imitated the legend of the shepherdess offering gruel to Sakyamuni before his enlightenment, by cooking porridge with fragrant grains and fruits to offer to the Buddha. Laba porridge was given to disciples and believers, and it later became a folk custom. It is said that before the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, monks in some temples would hold bowls and beg for alms on the streets. They would cook the collected rice, chestnuts, dates, nuts and other ingredients into Laba porridge and distribute it to the poor. It is said that eating it can bring blessings from the Buddha, so the poor call it "Buddha porridge". There is also a legend that there is a "rice storage building" for storing leftovers in the Tianning Temple, a famous temple in Hangzhou. Usually, the monks would dry the leftovers every day to accumulate a year's surplus food. On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, they would cook it into Laba porridge and distribute it to believers, which was called "Fu Shou porridge" or "Fu De porridge", meaning that eating it could increase one's blessings and longevity.
There is also a legend about Laba porridge. When Zhu Yuanzhang was a child, his family was poor and they often had to worry about having no food. One day, he came back from herding cattle and was extremely hungry. Suddenly, he saw a rat hole in the corner of the wall. He wanted to catch a rat to satisfy his hunger, but unexpectedly, he took out glutinous rice, millet, soybeans, red beans, wheat grains, peanuts and other things. He washed the grains and cooked them into porridge, and had a delicious meal. Later, he became emperor and ate delicacies from land and sea all day long, which made him feel sick and annoyed. Suddenly, he remembered the time when he dug rat holes and cooked porridge when he was a child. He ordered people to imitate his recipe and all his ministers tasted it together, and all of them praised it as delicious. Because that day was the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, Zhu Yuanzhang called this porridge Laba porridge. Later, it spread to the people and became a custom.

Spring Festival story: the legend of the Chinese character "Fu"

Emperor 朱璋 (Zhu Zhang), the first emperor of Ming dynasty, once used the character "福" as a hidden signal to prepare killing someone. In order to avoid this disaster, the kind-hearted Queen Ma ordered every household in the city to paste the word "Fu" on their doors before dawn. Naturally, no one dared to disobey Empress Ma's order, so the word "Fu" was posted on the door of every household. One family was illiterate and pasted the label with the word "Fu" upside down. The next day, the emperor sent people to the streets to check and found that every household had pasted the word "Fu" on their doors, except for one household which had pasted the word "Fu" upside down. The emperor was furious after hearing the report and immediately ordered the imperial guards to execute the entire family. When Empress Ma saw that things were not going well, she hurriedly said to Zhu Yuanzhang: "That family knew you were coming today, so they deliberately pasted the word "Fu" upside down. Doesn't this mean "good fortune has arrived"? "The emperor thought it made sense and ordered the release of the people. A disaster was finally averted. From then on people began to paste the word "Fu" upside down, one to pray for good luck, and the other to commemorate Queen Ma.

Spring Festival Story: The Legend of the Mouse's Wedding

The folk legend of "The Mouse's Wedding" is very popular in our country. However, the date of "Rat's Wedding" varies from place to place.
According to folk legends in the Jiangnan area, mice are harmful and unlucky, so they must be married off on the night of the 30th day of the lunar year to ensure peace and good fortune in the coming year. In some places in the suburbs of Shanghai, it is said that the mouse's daughter gets married on the 16th day of the first lunar month. On this night, every household fries sesame candy, which is the wedding candy prepared for the mouse's wedding.
In the north, the mouse daughter's wedding is on the night of the 25th day of the first lunar month. On this night, no lights were turned on in every household. The whole family sat on the kang, silent, eating "rat claws", "scorpion tails" and fried soybeans made of flour in the dark. Not lighting the lamp and not making any noise means to provide convenience for the mouse to marry its daughter, for fear of disturbing the happy event. Eating "rat claws" means that people hope the mouse's claws will itch so that they can get up and move earlier; eating "scorpion tails" is to prevent the mouse from being harmed by the scorpion when it marries its daughter out of the hole. The crisp sound of eating fried soybeans seems like setting off firecrackers for a mouse wedding.
On the night of the mouse's wedding, some places put candles in the corners of the house and in the aisles, with the intention of lighting up the path for the mice to pass by during the wedding.

Spring Festival Story: The Legend of Welcoming the God of Wealth during the Spring Festival

According to folklore, the fifth day of the first lunar month is the birthday of the God of Wealth, and after the first day of the new year, the God of Wealth must be welcomed. On the night before the God of Wealth’s birthday, every family prepares a banquet to celebrate for the God of Wealth. There are many folk legends about the God of Wealth:
Cai Jing of the Song Dynasty was very wealthy. According to folklore, he was the reincarnation of the God of Wealth. He was born on the fifth day of the first lunar month, so people worshipped him as the God of Wealth. Later, Ji Jing was demoted and the people replaced the God of Wealth. At that time, the surname of the Song Dynasty was Zhao, so the God of Wealth was given the name Zhao Xuantan and worshiped. Xuantan's face is like the bottom of a pot, he holds a steel whip in his hand, rides a black tiger, and looks extremely majestic. In addition to Zhao Xuantan being revered as the "main God of Wealth", there are also the "partial God of Wealth" Wuxian God of Wealth, the "civil God of Wealth" Caibo Xingjun, and the "military God of Wealth" Guandijun.
Summary: The five stories introduced in the above article are about some customs of the Spring Festival. You can learn about them. If you want to know more, please visit Mr. Shui Mo for inquiries!
After reading this, there are more exciting content in the Spring Festival special topic, let’s take a look!