小年到除夕的习俗（中英双语）

春节是我国一个古老的节日，也是全年最重要的一个节日，中国人“过年”有哪些习俗？《腊月歌》有云：“二十三糖瓜粘；二十四扫房子；二十五磨豆腐；二十六去割肉；二十七宰公鸡；二十八把面发；二十九蒸馒头；三十晚上熬一宿，大年初一扭一扭。”

过去，中国人把从腊月初八开始的过年的准备过程，还编成了一个顺口溜：
    In the past, Chinese people started the preparation at the 8th of the last lunar month. There was even a piece of doggerel about the preparation.

二十三，糖瓜粘；二十四，扫房日；二十五，碾白薯；二十六，炖牛肉；二十七，宰公鸡；二十八，把面发；发面，（就是）发酵嘛，二十九，蒸馒头；

    On 23, make candies; on 24, make a thorough cleanup; on 25, make sweet potatoes; on 26, brew beef; on 27, slaughter a rooster; on 28, prepare dough (To prepare dough means to make fermented dough); on 29, steam Mantou.

小年习俗：  二十三， 糖瓜粘 

New Year (Chinese: Xiaonian), which falls about a week before the lunar New Year, is also known as the Festival of the Kitchen God, the deity who oversees the moral character of each household. In one of the most distinctive traditions of Spring Festival, a paper image of the Kitchen God is burned on Little New Year, dispatching the god's spirit to Heaven to report on the family's conduct over the past year. The Kitchen God is then welcomed back by pasting a new paper image of him beside the stove. From this vantage point, the Kitchen God will oversee and protect the household for another year. The close association of the Kitchen God with the Lunar New Year has resulted in Kitchen God Festival being called Little New Year.

There are numerous customs associated with honoring the Kitchen God and determining the date of Little New Year. The date of this holiday was sometimes assigned according to location, with people in northern China celebrating it on the twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar month, and people in southern China celebrating it on the twenty-fourth. People make sacrifices to the Kitchen God on this day. A paper image is burnt dispatching the god's spirit to Heaven to report on the family's conduct over the past year. The Kitchen God is then welcomed back by pasting a new paper image of him beside the stove.

you should know about the Little New Year, another sign of the start of spring.

 Offer sacrifices to Kitchen God

In one of the most distinctive traditions of the Little New Year is the burning of a paper image of the Kitchen God, dispatching the god's spirit to Heaven to report on the family's conduct over the past year. The Kitchen God is then welcomed back by to the home through the pasting of a new paper image of him beside the stove. From this vantage point, the Kitchen God will oversee and protect the household for another year.

The offerings to the Kitchen God include pig's head, fish, sweet bean paste, melons, fruit, boiled dumplings, barley sugar, and Guandong candy, a sticky treat made out of glutinous millet and sprouted wheat.

Most of the offerings are sweets of various varieties. It is thought that this will seal the Kitchen God's mouth and encourage him to only say good things about the family when he ascends to heaven to make his report. The Kitchen God will be invited to sit in a sedan chair for his trip to heaven.

Consequently, the day before Little New Year, the streets and alleyways are filled with vendors selling papier-mâché sedan chairs and paper gold and silver ingots for the Kitchen God's journey.

Although very few families still make offerings to the Kitchen God on this day, many traditional holiday activities are still very popular.

二十四，扫房子

民谚称“二十四，扫房子”。举行过灶祭后，便正式地开始做迎接过年的准备。每年从农历腊月二十三日起到除夕止，我国民间把这段时间叫做“迎春日”，也叫“扫尘日”。扫尘就是年终大扫除，北方称“扫房”，南方叫“掸尘”。在春节前扫尘，是我国人民素有的传统习惯。每逢春节来临，家家户户都要打扫环境，清洗各种器具，拆洗被褥窗帘，洒扫六闾庭院，掸拂尘垢蛛网，疏浚明渠暗沟。大江南北，到处洋溢着欢欢喜喜搞卫生、干干净净迎新春的气氛。

The 24th day of the 12th month in Lunar Calendar: The folk saying goes like 腊月二十四，掸尘扫房子。

腊月二十四日，有俗语说“腊月二十四，掸尘扫房子”。

On this day, each family will thoroughly clean their house. This practice is similar to the modern idea of spring cleaning。

在这一天，每一个家庭都会彻底的清扫他们的屋子，这与现代理念“春扫”有异曲同工之妙。

However, in Chinese folk belief, cleaning up the house does not only for the hygienic reason, butalso for a symbolic one。

但是，在中国传统信仰中，打扫屋子并不是仅仅为了清洁的原因，也有一定的象征意义。

　　In Chinese, the word of dust (尘，chen) shares the exactly same pronunciation of the word ofold ( 陈，chen). Thus, 掸尘(dan chen)， or to whisk the dust, symbolises the idea of getting rid ofthe old and set up the new, or 除陈布新 ( chu chen bu xin)。

在中文中，“灰尘”的“尘”与“陈旧”的“尘”有同样的发音，所以“掸尘”也就是“去除灰尘”，就象征着“除尘布新”，“摆脱陈旧迎来新生活”的意思。

As such, it is very important that the floor is swept toward the door as this is symbolic of sweepingaway all misfortune, diseases and suffering in the past year which is the ‘old’ year。

因此，扫地的方向一定要向着大门，因为这样象征着把不幸、疾病以及去年也就是“旧”年的苦全都扫出门外。

After a thorough cleaning, the house will not be cleaned during the beginning of Chinese New Yearas this might cause good fortune to be swept away。

在彻底的清扫之后，在中国春节伊始是不会再次清扫的，因为这样会导致好运也被扫走。

The two feather dusters (鸡毛掸子，ji mao dan zi)， placed inside the porcelain vase, are used forcleaning up the furnitures and porcelains. But it is not easy to find nowadays mainly because thevacuum cleaner is more common。

在瓷花瓶里面放两只鸡毛掸子，就是用来清洁家具以及瓷器的，但是现在已经不常见了，因为有吸尘器替代。

 当然，随着时代的变迁，人们的生活内容有了变化，所以现在人们过年准备内容与过程也变化了，但是一些传统还保留着。正月二十四，扫房日，实际上就是大搞家庭环境卫生，这一天，家家户户开始扫房、擦窗、清洗衣物、刷锅洗瓢，进行干净彻底地卫生大扫除。
    Of course, there are many changes in people’s life with the time. Therefore, the process and contents of the preparation for Spring Festival also changed. However, some traditional customs are still kept. The 24th day on the last lunar month is the day for cleanup. Every household will do home cleaning, sweep their home, clean windows, wash clothes and clean dishes and have a spring-cleaning.

二十五， 做豆腐  

The 25th day of the 12th month in Lunar Calendar: The folksaying goes like 腊月二十五，做豆腐。

腊月二十五，俗语说“腊月二十五，做豆腐”。

Why make 豆腐 (dou fu, beancurd, or tofu )?

但是为什么是做“豆腐”呢?

Why make tofu? the Chinese character “腐” has the same pronunciation with character “福 fú” (happiness). Making tofu also means welcoming happiness and a good harvest in the new year.

当然，“做豆腐”也有象征性的意义。中文“腐”与“福”有相似的发音，做豆腐也就意味着“在新年收获幸福以及福气”。

As for the food itself, tofu is a very good substitution for meat. In the old days, poor peoplealways looked forward to a feast of meat on New Year.However, they were often too poor toafford one. So they turned to tofu, which was ‘in between’ meat and vegetables and they couldmake various dishes from it instead of meat。

就豆腐本身而言，是取代肉类不错的选择，在过去，穷苦的人们总是盼望着在新年吃上一顿好的。但是，肉类对于穷苦的人家来说并不是承担得起的，所以他们就会选择豆腐，豆腐是介于肉与蔬菜之间的食品，可以制作不同的菜式，而取代肉类。

Nowadays, people will not make their own tofu and they have many other choices of food. It isvery common to see Chinese people pasting a paper cutting work of the Chinese character of 福up side down on the window or door. By doing this, they actually express the same idea ofwelcoming happiness to their house。

如今，人们并不会自己做豆腐，他们会有更多别的选择，非常常见的有，中国人常把剪好的“福”字倒着贴在窗户或者门上，这样，人们也表达了同样的意思，希望“幸福福气”来到他们的家。

二十六， 去买肉

 In the old days, many people could not afford meat dishes and so they really looked forwardto the New Year Feast of meat. It is not difficult to understand why meat represents wealth in folkbelief. This is a claypot of a famous festival meat dish, 红烧肉， ( hong shao rou, or literally RedCooked Meat, the braised pork belly cubes with sugar and soya bean sauce)。

在过去，许多人承受不起肉食，所以他们很期待新年年夜饭能吃上一顿肉。在传统理念中，肉食代表财富。最具盛名的节日肉食就是“红烧肉”。

Nowadays, meat dish is very common in daily diet. However, Chinese people will still prefer havingmeat in accordance with the festival season. This may be the reason why Bak Kua ( 肉干，rougan, barbecued dry meat product) is very popular among South East Asian during Chinese NewYear period。

如今，肉类菜式已经在日常生活中相当普及了。但是，中国人依然偏爱在节庆时节吃肉。这可能也就是为什么肉干在中国新年之际在东南亚地区十分受欢迎的原因。

二十七， 宰公鸡

二十七，宰公鸡。为什么在这一天要宰公鸡，不宰母鸡？因为公鸡在中国的传统中代表着吉祥，每逢喜事就杀一只公鸡，代表事情顺顺利利。所以二十七宰公鸡也代表着一种物质储备。

　

二十八， 贴花花

Today is the 28th day of the 12th month in Lunar Calendar.The folk saying goes like 二十八，贴花花.
腊月二十八，俗语说，二十八，贴花花。

Today they will make sure all the new year decorations are right at the place。
今天他们会确保所有的新年装饰都已经到位。

In folk saying, 花花 ( hua hua) refer to all kinds of Chinese new year decoration in general。
俗语中的“花花”，指的是所有形式的中国新年装饰物。

People will paste spring couplets (chun lian, 春联on both sides of the door with a horizontal scroll (heng pi, 横批) on top of it。
人们会在最顶部贴好春联。

　　Besides the paper cut on the windows, many prefer the new year picture ( nian hua, 年画，atradition form of Chinese coloured woodblock printing) or the poster of the Door Gods ( menshen, 门神) as shown in my drawing。
除了窗户上的窗花，很多人都很喜欢新年年画，就像是上面那幅画中的门神海报。

In Chinese fold religion, the two Door Gods whose separate martial images are posted onrespective halves of double front door of private homes to guarantee protection from evil spirits(gui, 鬼)。
在中国宗教中，在两扇门上各贴一个手持长矛的门神，可以防鬼镇宅。


         in Northeast China, people also used to paste paper in the windows on this day. Since living conditions were fairly bad in the old days, people had to paste a layer of paper over their windows to prevent drafts and keep warmth in the room (today, this is still practiced in parts of Northern China, although many people have replaced paper with Saran wrap). Replacing the last year’s paper with new paper and pasting red Spring Festival couplets provides a jubilant atmosphere for the new year.

二十九， 蒸馒头

除夕前一日的腊月二十九，叫“小除夕”，家置酒宴，人们往来拜访叫“别岁”。焚香于户外，叫“天香”，通常要三天。

The new year is really near, people have cleaned up the houseand have started preparing the food。
新年临近，人们已经清扫了屋子，并且开始准备食物。

Your mouth will be watering if you hear this Chinese saying :

[In the final lunar month] the 23rd is the day for melon-shaped maltose eating, the 24th for house cleaning, the 25th for tofu making, the 26th for meat buying, the 27th for chicken preparation, the 28th for leavened dough and the 29th for man tou steaming. 

二十三，糖瓜沾，二十四，扫房子，二十五，做豆腐，二十六，去买肉，二十七，宰公鸡，二十八，把面发，二十九，蒸馒头。

 

From the 25th day of the last month of the lunar year, people begin their preparation of food for Spring Festival. That is because according to the old tradition, family members are not allowed to use knives to cook on the eve and first day of lunar New Year. On the second day, they begin visiting friends and relatives. Consequently, Chinese people need to get 4 to 5 days’ food done before the holiday starts!

三十， 

     人们贴完春联，门口贴完对联，贴门神，贴窗花。新衣服做好了，吃的东西、年夜饭的东西，这些东西都做好了，这一切都准备好以后，才到了除夕这天晚上。
    New clothes have been made. All the things for eat and the spring festival dinner are ready. People have pasted couplets and pictures of door gods, and paper cuttings on door panels. at this moment all the preparations are done. When everything is ready, it is the eve of Spring Festival.

    持续半个多月的春节准备活动，说到底，其实就是两方面的事：一个是除旧，去除过去一年里脏的、旧的、不愉快的东西，另一个是为迎接新的一年而准备。
    The half month continuous preparation for the Spring Festival is in indeed preparation in two aspects. One is to get rid of the old things. To get rid of the dirty, old and unpleasant things. The other is to prepare to welcome the new year.