Tujia New Year is an important and ancient festival of the Tujia people in Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Hunan Province. In the thousands of years of historical development, some relatively fixed and unique customs and habits have been formed and passed down from generation to generation. Although this kind of New Year (Tujia language: Nongka) was moved forward by one day and called "Guo Gan Nian", the customs formed in the long-term historical development process have been passed down to this day and preserved. Its rich and colorful content and long duration are rare in the big family of the Chinese nation. On May 18, 2010, Tujia New Year was included in the third batch of national intangible cultural heritage list. Spring Festival, that is, New Year's Day. In the Qing Dynasty, it was called New Year's Day according to the lunar calendar. After the Xinhai Revolution (1911) overthrew the Qing Dynasty, it changed from "following the Xia calendar, so as to follow the agricultural time" to "following the Western calendar, so as to facilitate statistics", and the first day of the first lunar month was determined to be the Spring Festival. The people in Xiangxi commonly call the New Year's Day "Guo Nian". The New Year originated from the La Festival in ancient times. "All the five grains are ripe, which means a good year." The word "year" in oracle bone script and bronze inscriptions both represent a good harvest of fruits and ripe ears of grain. It can be seen that the Chinese New Year is not only a day to bid farewell to the old year and usher in the new year, but also contains the meaning of a good harvest. This ancient "Four Beginnings Festival" that marks the beginning of the year, the beginning of the time, the beginning of the day, and the beginning of the month has a special and important position and significance in people's minds, and its celebration rituals are the most enthusiastic and grand. The New Year festivals in some Tujia areas of Xiangxi Tujia Autonomous Prefecture, Hunan Province, have a special form, forming a unique Tujia New Year. In addition to the "New Year's Eve" on the 29th (or 28th) of the twelfth lunar month, a few areas also celebrate the "June New Year" on the 25th of the sixth lunar month and the "October New Year" on the first day of the tenth lunar month. But the most representative one is still the "New Year's Eve". After preparing the meat for the New Year and passing the winter solstice, the Tujia people (Tujia language) : Bizika) will choose a red day to slaughter the New Year pig, and it is said that they can raise big pigs in the next year. The atmosphere of slaughtering the New Year pig in the Tujia settlement area is also lively, with butchers coming in from one house to another. The flat ground in front of the wooden buildings in the village shaded by green trees has become the most intense battlefield between people and pigs in the winter months. When people put the pig into a large wooden barrel, scald it, and repair it, lift it up, hang it on a ladder or put it on a chopping board, then the butcher will cut the meat into pieces according to its parts, including pig head (Tujia language: Zikuoba), pig legs (Tujia language: Zizipa), pig 0 and block meat, etc. Pig legs are mostly used to pay New Year's greetings to the father-in-law and mother-in-law. The owner will give a few pieces of pork chopped by the butcher (Tujia language: Zisi) to neighbors, relatives and the butcher, so that they can share the hard work and warmth of the year. When slaughtering the New Year pig, the owner will also ask the neighbors on the left to The neighbors, relatives and friends will have a meal together, and the invited family will not be polite. Among the Tujia people, there is a saying that "fish jump when eaten, and pigs scream when eaten", which means that the meat of the newly slaughtered New Year pig tastes better than any other time. Every Tujia family raises pigs every year, usually two or three pigs per household, and some raise seven or eight pigs. In addition to selling the meat to make money, one or two pigs will be kept for the family to use during the New Year. After the pig is killed, it is time to smoke bacon. The process of smoking bacon is very complicated and very original. First, apply salt, pepper and Sichuan pepper powder to the pork, mutton, beef or dog meat, and then put it in a wooden barrel for about ten days to let the flavor of salt, pepper and Sichuan pepper penetrate into the meat. Then, hang them above the kang piece by piece and smoke them with firewood every day. Smoking takes several months. There are many kinds of Various kinds of wood contain various nutrients. These nutrients are smoked onto the meat with the smoke, and the bacon has a special fragrance. Especially the bacon smoked with materials with special fragrance such as pine branches, cypress, sandalwood, cinnamon, orange peel, and chaff is even more fragrant. Due to the long smoking time, the bacon in Xiangxi does not have any moisture, and it will not deteriorate or become rancid even after being stored for several years. When eating, burn the skin with fire and wash it with hot water, and the color will be very beautiful. It can be fried or steamed, all of which are fat but not greasy, oily and refreshing. People in Xiangxi also stuff sausages during the New Year. A pair of pig intestines (Tujia language: Zibila) must be washed with salt for two hours before letting go. After washing the intestines, add a little salt to the lean meat chopped into meat paste. People who like spicy food will also mix a little chili powder. Then stuff it into the intestines little by little. After stuffing, hang it on the kang and smoke it on the kang like bacon. Smoked sausages can be steamed or fried. Whether steamed or fried, they are delicious! Pushing tofu Tofu (Tujia language: 跌hi) is a must-have dish for the Tujia people during the Chinese New Year. The Tujia people mostly live in mountainous areas. The rich and sweet mountain spring water creates a particularly high-quality natural condition for the Tujia people to make tofu. The tofu made with mountain spring water from the mountains tastes particularly sweet and is even more delicious. The process of making tofu is: soak soybeans in mountain spring water the night before, filter out the water the next morning, and use a small spoon to throw the soybeans into a special small stone mill to grind them. After the soybeans are ground into soybean milk, they are put into the bundle hanging on the big pot on the stove and shaken. The soybean milk is filtered through the bundle and enters the pot. Use a gourd (Tujia people’s name for a water scooping tool) to hold about one liter of cold slurry for later use. Then boil the filtered slurry in the pot. While the pot is being heated, grind the gypsum that has been burned in the fire into powder, put it into the cold slurry to be used, and stir it evenly for later use. After the slurry in the pot is boiled, pour it into a large barrel, cool it until the surface forms a bean coat, and remove the bean coat in time. Then pour the cold slurry that has infiltrated the gypsum powder along the inner edge of the barrel. (When putting gypsum powder, it should not be too much or too little. If there is too much, there will be too little tofu and the taste will be very bad; if there is too little, it will be full of mesh and cannot be twisted.) After covering the lid for about five minutes, take a chopstick and insert it vertically into the slurry in the barrel to see if the chopstick can stand upright in the barrel after being separated from the hand. If the chopstick can stand upright (if it cannot stand upright, it still needs to be covered with the lid for a few minutes). You can pour it into the bundle in the tofu box dedicated to making tofu, wrap it slightly with the bundle, then cover the lid of the wooden box, and put some heavy objects on it, such as stones. After a few hours, the tofu is ready. The prepared tofu can be fried, boiled, or deep-fried, and it tastes particularly delicious. On the day before the Chinese New Year, the Tujia people will fry these tofu into various shapes of triangles, small rectangles, small squares, or cubes. The fried tofu is very fragrant. After the tofu is made, people eat it fresh and keep it for making fried tofu. Then they put the tofu on the kang to smoke it into dried tofu. Or they can find a wooden barrel, put a layer of straw, put a layer of tofu, then another layer of straw, and then another layer of tofu, cover it by the kang, let the heat of the fire heat the tofu and make it moldy, and make it moldy tofu. After it is moldy, add chili powder, pepper powder, and ginger shreds, and soak it in oil soup for a month. The color of the moldy tofu is bright and clean, and it is very appetizing to eat. The filtered bean dregs are generally disposed of immediately. After the Tujia people have eaten a meal of fresh bean dregs, they will pinch the bean dregs into balls, put them in a basket, and smoke them with bacon. After ten days and a half months, the smoked bean dregs are dry yellow and fragrant, and the Tujia people call it "Qie Nong". It is more delicious when fried with vegetables. Baba is a must-have food for the Tujia people during the Spring Festival. Baba is a big job. Usually, several families from the neighborhood come together to make it, or brothers, sisters-in-law and close relatives come together to make it. Men, women, old and young all join in the battle, and the work is divided in an orderly manner. Some are responsible for steaming it with a steamer, some are responsible for making fire, some are responsible for making baba, and some are responsible for making baba. The people who make baba are usually several strong people in the family, and women are mainly responsible for making baba. There are more people making baba and more women making baba, and the other procedures can usually be completed by one person. The baba made by the Tujia people mainly include glutinous rice baba, sorghum baba and millet baba. The method is to wash glutinous rice, sorghum and millet separately the night before, soak them overnight, drain them separately the next morning, steam them separately in a steamer, and then put them in a baba trough and beat them with a T-shaped mallet. When the glutinous rice, sorghum and millet are beaten to the point that there are no grains and they are sticky together, the man who beats the baba will use the mallet to pick it up, and the woman who makes the baba will stretch out her hand that has been rubbed with cooked oil to catch it, and put them together on the clean square table. The skillful daughter-in-law will twist the glutinous rice ball into a small ball of appropriate size and distribute it to other people who make baba. The people who make baba put these small balls under a special wooden board and press them evenly into round cakes. There are generally three sizes. The common baba that is often used for consumption is about two or three inches in diameter and 1 cm thick. The diameter of the larger ones is about one foot, and the largest ones require about three to five pounds of glutinous rice, or even more than ten pounds. This kind of baba is generally used for festive occasions such as weddings. When the baba is almost finished, the women who are most skillful and good at making baba will make a few large baba. This kind of baba is called "Polong baba", which not only symbolizes "a bumper harvest", but also shows the generosity of the Tujia people. In addition, there is a legend about the origin of this baba. It is said that the ancestors of the Tujia people with the surname Tian originally had nine brothers and a sister. After the sister got married, she had a son-in-law. Due to their powerful strength, the emperor was worried that they would dominate one side and affect the ruling status of the court, so he sent soldiers to try to kill them. When the soldiers came on the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month, when they were making baba, they saw the aggressive soldiers coming, and the brothers hurriedly divided the baba in the trough into several pieces and carried them up the mountain with a dustpan. After the soldiers left, several brothers returned home with the baba that had become hard and difficult to separate. When eating, they could only cut it into small pieces with a knife and roast or fry it. Later, the nine brothers lived in different places and raised their own children. They did not forget the hardships of the past. In order to commemorate the past, they made several large babas to share during the New Year. This habit was inherited by their descendants and gradually became a custom. Later, this kind of baba was generally kept until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, and some were even kept until the Qingming Festival. After the baba was made, five stacks were placed on the chopping board to cool. After it was dry and cold, it was placed in a clean container at home for seven or eight days, and then soaked in mountain spring water, and the water was changed every ten days or half a month. The baba made by the Tujia people has the characteristics of easy storage, not easy to deteriorate, and easy to eat. In the lives of the Tujia people, baba has an unusual meaning. Spring is the busy farming season, and baba is put to good use. It is simple, practical and delicious to roast or fry over a fire. You can even bring it into the mountains, get some dry firewood, and light a fire to burn baba. When guests come to the house, after chatting around the fire pit, they can quickly use the boiling water in the tripod pot on the fire pit and sweet wine to cook baba together to entertain the guests. When paying New Year's greetings, baba is also useful. In the Tujia area, there is a folk proverb "pay New Year's greetings, pay New Year's greetings, baba comes forward", which means that baba is a must-have for Tujia people when visiting relatives. Especially when Tujia people pay New Year's greetings for their son's engagement, a pair of baba as big as the bright moon symbolizing reunion is indispensable. Making burnt rice flour in the twelfth lunar month is also an important life custom of the Tujia people. Tujia 煻糲 is made from glutinous rice. Before making it, soak the glutinous rice overnight, scrub it vigorously to make it white and shiny, then steam the glutinous rice with a sieve, put the steamed glutinous rice in a special round bamboo ring with a diameter of about 20 cm, put the bamboo ring on a smooth wooden board, and then use the power of the palm to push the glutinous rice in the round bamboo ring to make the thickness of the glutinous rice in the ring uniform. Gently move the prepared round cake to a bamboo mat covered with straw and "煻": smokeless ash or charcoal is used under the mat to smoke until dry. If the weather is fine, it can be directly dried in the sun. Some special 煻糲 is used as a gift. The Tujia people will also use rice grains dyed in red, blue and other colors to carefully arrange various words, such as red double happiness, blessing, longevity and other words. Some people pile up a piece of glutinous rice to form a word, which can be connected to form "a bumper harvest", "enough food and clothing", "a garden full of people", etc.; some people also paint landscapes, flowers and birds or lace patterns. After everything is arranged and painted, take out the bamboo ring and wait for the rice to harden and dry, and it will become raw glutinous rice (Tujia language: Ziga). Raw glutinous rice can be chewed slowly or cooked directly, which is more delicious than ordinary glutinous rice. It is best to stew it with poached eggs when needed, which is a top tonic for the mother-in-law. Raw glutinous rice becomes cooked glutinous rice (Tujia language: Sami) after being fried and puffed. Cooked glutinous rice is crispy and delicious, and easy to eat. It can be eaten dry or soaked in boiling water. It is a top-notch sacrifice, gift, tea and food for worshiping ancestors, worshiping gods, entertaining guests, and visiting relatives and friends. Roasted rice is a kind of dry food that can be stored for months or even years. It originated from military or migration. Pasting Spring Festival Couplets and Door Gods During the Spring Festival, the Tujia people generally have the custom of pasting door gods, New Year paintings, couplets and paper-cut patterns. Nowadays, the door gods pasted by the people in Southern Chu are no longer the portraits of Shentu and Yulei, two gods who catch ghosts and feed tigers, as quoted in the "Guotu Map" quoted in the "Jingchu Sui Shi Ji". Some families paste the portraits of Qin Qiong and Yuchi Gong, famous generals of the Tang Dynasty; some families paste the portraits of Guan Yu, Zhang Fei or Zhong Kui and Cheng Yaojin. During this important festival, the Tujia people post them on the door as the protective gods to ward off evil spirits, which shows their desire to live a peaceful life. Inserting cypress and plum blossoms and pasting money paper During the Spring Festival, every Tujia household will insert the cypress branches and plum blossom branches they get on the shrine, the central pillar of the main hall, and the door. This is related to the war living environment of the Tujia ancestors. It is said that in ancient times, soldiers who went to war had to celebrate the New Year together. Due to the large number of people, there were not so many or large houses to serve as restaurants for these soldiers. Many soldiers had to celebrate the New Year in the plum garden and pine and cypress forests outside the village. In order to commemorate the living environment of the Tujia people during the war, later generations inserted cypress branches and plum branches on the shrines in the main hall, the central pillars in the main hall, and the gates as a memorial. Over time, it became a custom of the Tujia people to celebrate the New Year. In addition, on the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month, the Tujia people also posted New Year's money (paper money used to worship the Bodhisattva) on doors and windows, pig pens, cattle pens, chicken coops, stone mills, and production tools such as plows, rakes, hoes, and threshing barrels, large furniture at home, and nearby fruit trees, in order to foreshadow the prosperity of the next year. These money papers can only be torn off and burned on the 15th day of the first lunar month. At the same time, the Tujia people have a strong concept of ancestor worship, and they still miss their ancestors who have long passed away on this day. Before eating the New Year's Eve dinner, people should offer sacrifices in front of the shrine. Most people offer sacrifices with pig heads and pig tails. During the sacrifice, the pig tail is held in the pig's mouth to show that the whole pig is offered sacrifices, with both head and tail. During the sacrifice, people burn incense and paper and set off firecrackers. After offering sacrifices to the ancestors, people offer sacrifices to the door gods, the gods of land, the gods of wealth, etc. The custom of offering sacrifices to the Kitchen God is prevalent in urban and rural areas in Xiangxi, and the Tujia people also attach great importance to it. Because the relationship between fire and humans is extremely important, the discovery and use of fire by humans has immeasurable significance in the history of human evolution. The stove and fire are inseparable. Offering sacrifices to the Kitchen God reflects the Tujia people's worship of fire that has been passed down since ancient times, and also expresses their gratitude to the Kitchen God for "cooking food to feed the people". This ancient custom was recorded in "Jingchu Sui Shi Ji" by Zong Yan of the Liang Dynasty in the Southern Dynasty: "On that day, pig wine was offered to the Kitchen God." Fan Chengda of the Song Dynasty wrote in rhyme "Offering Sacrifice to the Kitchen God" to specifically describe the custom of offering sacrifices to the Kitchen God in the south during the Song Dynasty. Legend has it that on the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, the Kitchen God will go to heaven to report on the good and bad of the host family in the past year. In order to please the Kitchen God, the host family will wipe the stove clean, paste a new portrait of the Kitchen God and a couplet that reads "Heaven presents good deeds, and the earth brings good luck" and a horizontal banner that reads "The master of one family". The sacrifices before the Kitchen God "goes to heaven" are even more particular, and some families even bathe and fast. Celebrating the New Year in Xiangxi is a way of catching up with the New Year. The Tujia people celebrate the New Year one day earlier than the Han people, that is, on the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month for a long month and on the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month for a short month. The Tujia people call this way of celebrating the New Year one day earlier than the Han people "Celebrating the New Year in a Fast Way". Celebrating the New Year has a history. Legend has it that during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, Japanese pirates invaded China. The Tujia people were busy preparing for the Chinese New Year. Suddenly, the imperial court issued an imperial decree to the Tusi King, mobilizing Tujia soldiers to rush to the southeastern coastal area to fight against the Japanese pirates. According to the itinerary, they had to arrive at the designated location on time, so they could not celebrate the Chinese New Year. In order to let these officers and soldiers who were about to set off celebrate the Chinese New Year, the Tusi King decided to celebrate the Chinese New Year in advance. After the officers and soldiers reunited with their families, the Tusi King immediately rushed to the anti-Japanese front with these officers and soldiers, and arrived at the designated location on time to participate in the anti-Japanese battle. Under the leadership of the Tusi leaders Peng Xunchen and Peng Yinan, the Japanese pirates were defeated in one fell swoop and a major victory was achieved. The Japanese pirates were driven away and the country was saved. The Ming Emperor issued an imperial decree and bestowed an imperial plaque, granting the title of "the first merit in the southeast" to the officers and soldiers of Xiangxi. At that time, the Tusi Dynasty in Xiangxi was a family and clan system. The Tusi King was a man with the surname Peng, who was the first to send troops, and it happened to be the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month. So the Peng family celebrated the New Year in advance on the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month. They set out right after the New Year. The Tian family went out on the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month, so the Tian family celebrated the New Year on the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month. The Xiang family celebrated on the 26th day of the twelfth lunar month, the Tan family celebrated on the 27th day of the twelfth lunar month, the Li family celebrated on the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month, and the Wang family celebrated on the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month. Each surname celebrates the New Year on a different day. In order to commemorate the victory of this expedition, and also to express the people's deep remembrance of the anti-Japanese soldiers, the Tujia people celebrate the New Year one day in advance, that is, the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month. Over time, it has become a New Year custom of the Tujia people. Eating a family reunion dinner during the New Year is a day for the family to reunite. "Cold Dew and frost push the sand, fish rush to the deep pool, and guests rush home." People who are away from home travel thousands of miles to reunite with their families. The Tujia people in Xiangxi have a reunion dinner on this festive day, and firecrackers are set off in both urban and rural areas. The food eaten for the New Year's Eve dinner is particularly particular, and it symbolizes auspiciousness. The reunion dinner is the most important ritual for the Tujia people during the Chinese New Year. In order to seize the New Year and have a good reunion dinner on the New Year's Day, the Tujia people often prepare the reunion dinner carefully one or two days in advance. The Tujia people have a distinction between celebrating the Little New Year and celebrating the Big New Year. The Little New Year is celebrated one day earlier than the Big New Year. In some places, the Little New Year is celebrated on the 23rd or 24th of the twelfth lunar month. The New Year dinner during the Little New Year is simple, and the requirements are not as high as those for the Big New Year. The celebration of the Little New Year usually starts at noon, while the celebration of the Big New Year varies according to the surnames. Some people celebrate in the morning, while others do so at noon. Regardless of whether it is morning or noon, the New Year dinner will be prepared early in order to grab the New Year. It is said that the earlier a family eats the New Year dinner during the New Year, the more auspicious and prosperous the next year will be. Firecrackers will be set off on both the Little New Year and the Big New Year to grab the New Year and have good luck in the next year. After the New Year dinner is prepared, people should take incense paper, wax candles, meat, baba, tofu and other New Year dishes to pay respect to the eight gods, then go to the Land Hall to pay respect to the Land God, the Well God and other protective gods, and finally return to the main hall to pay respect to the ancestors. The Tujia people not only worship their ancient ancestors who have played an important role in history and have made great military achievements in legend as clan gods, but also worship their ancestors of their own family, especially the elders who are closely related by blood, as family gods all year round, and the incense is never extinguished. Every family has a shrine for the ancestors in the main hall. On the New Year's Day, the tablets, incense burners and candlesticks that have been enshrined on the shrine for many years should be taken down and placed on the big table below the shrine. All the men in the family, led by the most senior elders, burn incense and candles in front of the tablets of the ancestors and kowtow in worship. First, invite the ancestors of all generations to have a reunion dinner with the descendants and have a happy and lively New Year; second, pray for the ancestors to bless the descendants with a good harvest, prosperous livestock, abundant wealth and family happiness in the coming year. The tablets of the ancestors will not be enshrined on the shrine until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. After placing all kinds of New Year dishes on the table, each person has to put a piece of meat on the rice in his bowl, and insert chopsticks into the rice. The whole family stands around the table, and the elders burn paper money under the table, sprinkle three cups of fine wine on the ground, and respectfully invite the ancestors to the table for dinner. After that, firecrackers are set off to grab the New Year. Whoever's firecrackers are set off first at this time will grab a good harvest in the next year. After all the people who should be respected are respected, they sit down to eat according to their seniority and the size of the seats. Generally, the upper seat should be given to the oldest person in the seniority when eating the New Year dinner. After the elders are seated, the younger ones will sit down one after another. Children under the age of twelve cannot eat the food used in the sacrifice. It is said that eating it will have a bad memory and forget things, so separate rice must be served to the children. Children are also not allowed to eat chicken feet. If they eat it, their grades will be bad and their handwriting will be bad. The handwriting looks like it was scratched by chicken feet. It is forbidden to eat pig tails and pig feet (pig trotters). Eating pig tails will make you fall behind in everything; eating pig feet will make you fall behind in everything. When you grow up and ask for a partner, if someone is willing to fork you, your partner will be forked out. Adults and children are not allowed to drink hot water. If they do, there will be a flood in the next year, the fields will collapse, and the harvest will be bad. Children will be criticized for leaving food in their bowls during the reunion dinner, but the more food left in the bowls during the reunion dinner, the better, which means a good harvest in the next year. The time for eating the New Year dinner is generally required to be longer than usual, and you cannot wipe the table or wash the dishes immediately after the meal. Legend has it that in ancient times, the Tujia people had to fight with foreign races frequently, and they were always restless. One year, when the Tujia people were busy preparing the New Year dinner, a child came to the Tujia village. No one paid attention to the child's arrival. Later, they learned that the child came to "explore the water" (to get information). Because the Tujia people were careless, the situation in the village was discovered by the child. The Tujia people had just finished their reunion dinner and had not had time to wash the dishes and wipe the table when the enemy launched a fierce attack on the Tujia village. The young and strong had to immediately join the battle, while the elderly and children fled to the caves in the back mountain and hid. After the enemy was repelled, everyone came back to wipe the table and wash the dishes. In order to learn from the lesson, the later generations have kept this habit, and it has been passed down from generation to generation as a custom of the Tujia people during the New Year. The reunion dinner held by the Tujia people must be steamed in a steamer. The lower layer of the steamer is usually steamed with rice, and the upper layer is placed with lumps of meat wrapped in millet or rice flour. The steamer cover is covered and placed on the stove to steam. A lot of steamed rice is steamed on the day of the reunion dinner, and it is usually necessary to eat until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month before washing the steamer. Among the meals, a dish called "Hecai" is also required, which is to cook shredded pork, shredded radish, cabbage, kelp, vermicelli, pork offal, etc. together. This dish is called "Hecai", which is the homonym of "He" and also means to congratulate the Tujia ancestors for winning the battle on the New Year's Day in ancient times. Everyone must eat a few bites of this "Hecai", which means the whole family is happy and everything goes well. If you don't eat it, your parents will say you are ignorant, but parents will not get angry and scold you on this day. It is said that one reason is that they are afraid of offending their ancestors, and the other is that scolding and being scolded both have a sense of ominousness. The Tujia people also have a history of steaming rice in a steamer. When the Tujia officers and soldiers were about to celebrate the New Year, they were called up by the imperial court to fight against the Japanese invaders. They had to gather together to celebrate the New Year in advance. Because of the large number of people, the meat could not be cut into pieces one by one. They had to chop the meat into pieces with axes and kitchen knives, and then wrap some millet on the outside of the meat and steam it on the upper layer of the steamer to steam it. As for other dishes, there was no time to stir-fry them separately, so they had to cook all kinds of dishes together and eat them. Later, this way was passed down from generation to generation and gradually became a custom of the Tujia people to prepare dishes during the New Year. Staying up and grabbing the new year on New Year's Eve Staying up and grabbing the new year on New Year's Eve (Tujia language: Nong Ayi) is one of the most important New Year customs of the Tujia people. Staying up is the custom of not sleeping on the last night of the twelfth lunar month of the old year (the twenty-ninth night if the month is short) to welcome the arrival of the new year. It is also called staying up on New Year's Eve, commonly known as "staying up all night". On New Year's Eve, people will light firecrackers as soon as the rooster crows. There is an interesting story about the origin of this custom: It is said that in ancient times, there was