Follow the General Secretary to see China | Warm Chinese New Year feelings are everywhere Xi Jinping | Taste of the New Year | China | Warm Chinese New Year feelings are everywhere

The Lunar New Year is the Year of the Dragon. The dragon in Chinese culture has multiple meanings such as bravery, endless vitality, good luck and good luck, and it entrusts a beautiful vision. Everyone should be confident in the new year and live a better life. During the Spring Festival, various places can hold more cultural activities that are popular with the masses to make the festival more festive and cheerful.

———— From February 1st to 2nd, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out when he went to Tianjin to visit grassroots cadres and the masses

On the eve of the Spring Festival, General Secretary Xi Jinping visited grassroots cadres and masses in Tianjin and saw citizens and tourists beaming with joy while enjoying traditional folk performances, feeling a strong sense of the New Year.

The New Year is what every Chinese person looks forward to. Headed by the Year of the Centenary, Chinese people always celebrate the New Year in the most solemn and ceremonial way.

Spring couplets, window grilles and blessing characters are put up, red lanterns are hung up, New Year’s Eve dinner is eaten, dumplings are made, glutinous rice cakes are made, and a “village party” is held... The Year of the Dragon is here, and various New Year customs and cultures make the Year of the Dragon a new year. The New Year flavor is particularly satisfying!

"Eating rice cakes will bring you prosperity every year." Every Spring Festival, Zhenjiazhuang Village in Xindu District, Xingtai, Hebei Province has the custom of making rice cakes and eating rice cakes, which means "getting rich every year and getting promoted step by step."

Local villagers use home-grown millet noodles, jujubes and other ingredients to steam the rice cakes through processes such as kneading, spreading jujubes, and spreading noodles. The handmade rice cakes are golden in color, soft and sweet, and the aroma of the cakes floats in the streets and alleys, adding a strong warmth to the winter countryside, and you will feel the "taste of the New Year" after taking a bite.

On the eve of the Spring Festival in 2017, at the stove of a villager's home in Desheng Village, Hebei Province, General Secretary Xi Jinping held chopsticks in one hand and a colander in the other and exploded rice cakes, which symbolize prosperity every year. The golden rice cakes are sweet and fragrant, and the aroma of oil rises along with the festive New Year flavor.

"Although you can buy rice cakes everywhere now, if you don't make rice cakes during the New Year, you always feel like you are missing something. It is a New Year custom engraved in your heart." said a villager in Zhenjiazhuang Village, Xindu District, Xingtai, Hebei .

Rice cakes are made differently in different places. Hubei people also have their own way of making rice cakes. Cut the rice cakes into 0.3 cm thick rice cake slices, heat the oil pan to 80% hot, fry the bacon slices, and add rice cake slices, garlic and other seasonings. , the color is beautiful when fried, and it is full of cured flavor. It is the most familiar Chinese New Year flavor at home.

A mouthful of glutinous rice balls makes the whole family happy. In Sichuan, glutinous rice balls are eaten on the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, and on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. In order to eat glutinous rice balls during the Chinese New Year, every household has to make preparations very early.

Wang Xiaoqun, a villager in Xinsheng Village, Fengming Town, Hejiang, Luzhou, Sichuan, started preparing the ingredients for making glutinous rice dumplings years ago. Serving a bowl of hot brown sugar glutinous rice dumplings is the "supreme etiquette" for entertaining guests when visiting relatives and friends. Wang Xiaoqun said: "A few years ago, every household would make glutinous rice dumplings for later use. During the Chinese New Year, when relatives and friends come to visit, we would make some glutinous rice dumplings to eat. Adults and children all like it."

On the eve of the Spring Festival in 2018, General Secretary Xi Jinping came to Sichuan for an inspection and saw the villagers in Zhanqi Village making glutinous rice balls. He raised his thumb and said to everyone in Sichuan dialect: "I wish you a life as comfortable as eating glutinous rice balls!"

Nowadays, the life of ordinary people is indeed like this round bowl of glutinous rice balls, full of reunion and happiness. For example, in Hubei, people must eat dumplings during the Chinese New Year, such as fried dumplings, pearl dumplings, fish dumplings, lotus root dumplings, tofu dumplings... What they eat is dumplings, and what they look forward to is reunion.

In Huozhou, Shanxi, the flavor of the New Year comes as soon as the New Year buns are steamed. On the eve of the Spring Festival in 2022, in Feng Nanyuan Village, Huozhou, Shanxi, General Secretary Xi Jinping made a jujube steamed bun in a few seconds. Looking at the various New Year steamed buns made by the villagers such as jujube flowers, rabbits, and small fish, he praised them as "very auspicious" and "gives people a feeling of getting better every year, and represents the longing of the majority of villagers for a better life."

After careful design and skillful kneading, ordinary dough is transformed into dough sculpture art with auspicious meanings and unique shapes. This year, the steamed buns with the theme of "dragon element" are steaming up the hot New Year flavor.

There are many steps to make a New Year's bun. You need to use pumpkin, radish, spinach, celery, etc. to squeeze the juice for coloring, garnish with red dates, black beans, walnuts, sesame and other coarse grains and dried fruits, and then use a comb, fork, and scissors to shape it. In this way, after kneading, kneading, pinching, pulling, cutting, and dotting the small dough pieces one by one, the dragon-shaped New Year buns filled the table.

At present, Huozhou New Year Steamed Bun has become the local "rich steamed bun" and "happy steamed bun", directly creating employment for more than 5,000 people.

Since the New Year’s Eve, the 2024 New Year Lantern Festival in Yucun, Anji, Zhejiang has been lighting up, with 9 groups of 11 original dragon lanterns appearing brightly.

"Come, come, come, let's take a photo in front of this 'dragon rising thousands of miles'." Walking into the Yucun Year of the Dragon New Year National Trend Garden Party, tourists gathered in small groups, looking for the dragon to check in, and participate in the market and national style music party... The prosperous and festive atmosphere makes visitors to the countryside feel the strong flavor of the Chinese New Year.

Yucun is the birthplace of the concept that “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets”. In March 2020, General Secretary Xi Jinping inspected Yu Village, Tianhuangping Town, Anji County, Zhejiang Province, and had cordial conversations with the villagers. He learned about the village’s implementation of the concept of “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets” over the years and its efforts to promote green development. Big changes.

In recent years, Yucun has actively promoted the "Yucun Global Partner Program", attracting many young people to go to the countryside and participate in rural co-creation. The 9 sets of dragon lanterns displayed this time were all designed by Yucun’s global partners and young cartoonists. Each set of dragon lanterns contains the achievements and stories of Yucun’s development and youth’s participation in rural revitalization and rural co-creation.

Also ushering in the 2024 Year of the Dragon New Year Lantern Festival is Xuanen County, Enshi Prefecture, Hubei Province. The dragon-shaped lanterns here are particularly eye-catching, especially one of the very spectacular "Gongshui Swimming Dragons", with a body of more than 30 It is composed of bamboo rafts connected in series, with a total length of more than 200 meters. Visitors can also board a dragon boat to watch the lantern show and enjoy the night scenery. As the golden dragon meanders and swims in the blue water, it also conveys auspicious meanings.

On the evening of February 2, the first village party of Xujiachong Village, Taipingxi Town, Yiling District, Yichang City, Hubei Province kicked off. Celebrating the big drum "A Good Start", the ground flower drum "A River of Clear Water", the intangible cultural heritage piece "The Ground Flower Drum"... Each group of literary and artistic teams took turns to take the stage, and the enthusiasm for the performance became higher and higher.

In April 2018, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized during an inspection in Xujiachong Village, Taipingxi Town, Yiling District, Yichang City, Hubei Province that rural revitalization is not about sitting back and enjoying the gains, and it cannot be delivered if it cannot be waited for, but must rely on the struggle of the majority of farmers. These words gave the people of Xujiachong Village more confidence and courage.

"The first village evening takes the villagers as the protagonists, uses programs written, directed and performed by the villagers and down-to-earth performances to organize the whole village to gather together to talk about nostalgia and development." Xujiachong Village Party Branch Secretary Xie Rong said that the villagers' own "People's Spring Festival Gala" vividly demonstrated the positive spirit and happy and beautiful rural life of the Three Gorges immigrants.

Warm Chinese New Year, warm love in the world. Red Chinese knots, festive dragon lanterns, lively village evenings, delicious food... Spring Festival rituals in various places are rich and colorful, full of people's love for life and longing for the new year. The taste of the New Year in memories has never gone away. , but it will last forever in the inheritance and development.