The Spring Festival is the most important traditional festival and shared cultural symbol of the Chinese nation. As the saying goes, "After the Laba Festival, the New Year is the New Year." From drinking Laba Congee and eating New Year's Eve reunion dinner to New Year's Day greetings and Yuanxiao (Filled round balls made of glutinous rice-flour for Lantern Festival) Lantern Festival, the New Year custom activities lasted for more than a month, including ceremonies, decorations, food and entertainment, etc. These unique New Year customs, rituals, and traditions not only present regional differences in the north and south of the country, but also integrate into the practice of "family family hometown". The inheritance and dissemination of these festivals rooted in the family field is the core category of family folklore studies. Family reunion: The cultural significance of the Spring Festival symbol. The Spring Festival has always been full of enduring vitality for thousands of years, which stems from its unique value in family, society, history, and other dimensions. Among them, the family is the smallest unit that constitutes society, and various ceremonies and activities during the Chinese New Year are carried out based on the family or clan. Although the customs and styles of different regions have their own characteristics, their core is always the reunion that carries emotional connections. The unique "Spring Festival travel rush" in China is the largest annual migration activity for Chinese people who are drifting abroad. Planes, trains, and even motorcycles are their means of transportation to their hometowns, and watching the "Spring Festival Gala" is a landmark entertainment activity for Chinese families at home and abroad during the Chinese New Year. The Spring Festival has long become a common cultural symbol of the Chinese nation. Whether at home or abroad, the word "New Year" can evoke a shared sense of patriotism and activate cultural genes in the blood. Returning home for reunion is the obsession of wanderers, rooted in the memory shaping of "family family hometown" year after year. This is a collective carnival after hard work, and every Chinese New Year is a deep condensation of national emotions. The diversity of Chinese culture not only embodies the different customs and styles of the north and south, but also demonstrates the Chinese nation's spiritual pursuit of filial piety, harmony, peace, and happiness. The Spring Festival provides an opportunity for family members to reunite: younger generations return home to visit their parents, grandparents, and siblings, while parents who work outside return home to accompany their children. This process not only carries the emotional experience of family reunion and filial piety, but also fills the emotional gap caused by daily separation, and provides solid emotional support for people's struggle in the new year. Hometown Flavor: Emotional Stories Incorporating Eating, Drinking, and Playing. China has a vast territory, and different regions and ethnic groups have their own unique rituals for welcoming the New Year. The long sung "Busy New Year Song" expresses the behavior patterns of most Chinese people before the Spring Festival. Although there are slight differences in different regions, they all prepare for a good New Year, including a clean environment, sufficient food, brand new clothes, etc. The New Year's flavor gradually unfolds around eating, drinking, and having fun in an orderly collective practice. In families, the experiences of elders and juniors are different - elders arrange food, drink, and entertainment for juniors, while juniors enjoy pleasure wholeheartedly. The flavor of the New Year is concentrated in the smoke and human touch. It is a lively and joyful family reunion, a blessing from elders to encourage younger generations, a drink for younger generations to respect their elders, dumplings to eat together on a heated kang, and a long-lasting taste of traditional culture integrated into modern life. Like in other regions, after the "Sending off Stove" ceremony on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month in Northeast China, the elders at home start their busy New Year rhythm. As stated in the couplet "The Beginning of a New Year, All Things Update", the thorough cleaning is a crucial ceremony for the Spring Festival. Adults cover their furniture with sheets and old newspapers, cover their heads with headscarves, and tie feather dusters or brooms to bamboo poles to sweep every corner of the house. Afterwards, everyone becomes a "big flower face". Children always enjoy playing around, and this memory quietly shapes our habits - after growing up and getting married, during the Spring Festival, we will spend a few days tidying up the kitchen, changing curtains, cleaning thoroughly, and preparing new plates, bowls, chopsticks, as well as a brand new four piece set and towels. It is customary to eat ready-made food from the first day of the New Year to the Yuanxiao (Filled round balls made of glutinous rice-flour for Lantern Festival) Festival, so we should prepare enough food for more than ten days before the New Year. People in the Northeast have been storing vegetables such as cabbage, radish and potatoes since autumn. People living in bungalows will also dig snow cellars as natural refrigerators to store Mantou, bean buns, meat, etc., but the dumplings for the first, second and fifth days of the lunar calendar must be ready. Snacks such as frozen pears, frozen persimmons and frozen bonuses are also infinite. The "Youzila" refined by the elderly at home and the small vegetable hearts left over from making pickled Chinese cabbage stuffing are all delicious in memory. The New Year's Eve dinner is the highlight. The dishes emphasize even numbers, symbolizing that good things come in pairs; Fish must be placed, symbolizing abundance every year; Potatoes, radishes, etc. will not be served on the dinner table last year. The meal times vary from place to place, such as in Fujin City, Heilongjiang Province, where meals are usually served before 4 pm and all members are required to be present; Pujiang County, Zhejiang Province, needs to wait for the copper gong to ring in the village before the whole village can start eating. Nowadays, many families choose to have a New Year's Eve dinner at a restaurant, but its core meaning is still reunion. After watching the Spring Festival Gala, setting off firecrackers and eating dumplings are the finale. The dumpling filling is filled with sugar and coins, and eating sugar symbolizes a sweet and smooth coming year, while eating coins symbolizes abundant wealth. Play is exclusive to children. Wearing new clothes to visit relatives and friends, you can not only enjoy delicious food and play to your heart's content, but also receive smiles from your elders. This is a rare and relaxed time of the year where you can make requests without being rejected and make mistakes without being beaten. Setting off firecrackers is a highly ceremonial activity during the New Year: girls prefer colorful fireworks, while boys carry a full set of throwing firecrackers. Bold ones may even challenge more powerful firecrackers. On the first day of the Chinese New Year, playing becomes a shared activity for families. Family outings, temple fairs, lantern festivals, and flower streets such as Beijing Ditan Temple Fair and Changdian Temple Fair, Hubei Hanyang Guiyuan Temple Fair, Jiangsu Nanjing Qinhuai Lantern Festival, Shanxi Changzhi Community Fire Festival, Ningxia Liupanshan Spring Official Blessing Festival, and Guangdong Yuexiu Flower Street are all popular holiday events that bring people a sense of happiness during the Spring Festival entertainment, while the elderly wait at home for their relatives and friends to come and pay their respects. During the Spring Festival, family members gather together, share delicious food, and talk about the gains, losses, and experiences of the previous year. This companionship injects spiritual support from the family into the journey of the new year. In short, every Chinese person is a participant, experiencer, inheritor, and creator of the Spring Festival customs. New Year's ceremony and customs: Families with standardized behavior follow the New Year's ceremony, which is a gift given to each other during the New Year period, carrying filial piety to elders, blessings to younger generations, and a symbol of friendship between relatives and friends. New Year's customs refer to traditional customs and rituals such as ancestor worship, New Year's greetings, and New Year's greetings, among which New Year's greetings are often accompanied by New Year's ceremonies. Not only do people pay attention to the object and time of New Year's greetings before the fifth day of the lunar new year, but the appropriate gift giving also needs to be carefully considered. These matters are generally handled by the elders in the family. The Spring Festival customs and traditions connect interpersonal relationships through bidding farewell to the New Year, celebrating the New Year together, and paying New Year's greetings. They not only build a cultural bridge for emotional and spiritual interaction, but also contribute to the harmony and harmony of families and society. New Year's customs continue to be rejuvenated through inheritance - traditional door-to-door visits have been replaced by WeChat red envelopes, short videos, and other forms of New Year greetings due to changes in modern lifestyles, which have become important supplements to traditional festival customs. In addition to gathering with family members during the Spring Festival, it is equally important to express a sense of remembrance and respect for the deceased. Chinese New Year is a special day for immortals to take charge. Sending off the Kitchen God to heaven on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month is a way for humans to establish a connection and communication with heaven and earth. The worship before the first day of the Chinese New Year is very important. In places with ancestral halls, worship is the responsibility of the entire family. Individual families in Northeast China mainly worship ancestral statues according to established regulations. During the Chinese New Year, adults, as the main organizers of food, drink, and entertainment, have to abide by many taboos, while children are the most carefree at this time - adults cannot scare, beat, or scold children, and must keep the house full of laughter at all times, and children are not allowed to cry or fuss; Children can play freely, but they cannot say anything discouraging, which is also an important reason why they still look forward to the Chinese New Year when they grow up. Adults have another set of behavioral norms: everyone should greet each other with a smiling face, open their mouths with auspicious words, and deliberately avoid expressions that sound similar to negative words; At night, the whole house is brightly lit until dawn on the first day of the lunar new year; During this period, it is not allowed to sweep the floor or dump garbage outside, symbolizing the gathering of wealth. Some places abide by this rule until the second day of the lunar new year, while others until the fifth day; On the seventh and eighth day of the lunar new year, it is forbidden to use scissors, and there is also the old custom of not having a haircut in the first lunar month. A folk song from Northeast China sings: "Stay overnight on the 30th night, and walk the streets on the first day of the lunar new year to pay respects." On the first day of the lunar new year, elders welcome guests at home, while younger generations go to the homes of their relatives to pay respects; The second year of junior high school is the day when daughters return to their parents' homes after getting married; On the third day of junior high school, people will go to their uncle's house again. Traditional New Year greetings require carrying even number gifts, but interestingly, there is still a phenomenon of fluidity in the New Year's gifts - the gifts given may go around and return to one's own hands. Nowadays, it has become common for small families to experience the "New Year's flavor" with their parents across regions. On the 16th day of the first lunar month in Foshan, the "Tongji Tour" and the Chaozhou Shantou English song and dance performances also attract a large number of out of town tourists based on their "traditional+modern" characteristics. The New Year customs are the core carrier of the New Year flavor and ceremony. A series of New Year customs practices such as ancestor worship, New Year's greetings, and New Year's greetings not only create a layered New Year flavor full of fireworks and human touch, but also allow the orderly transmission of the New Year ceremony carrying filial piety, blessings, and friendship. The taste of the New Year is the emotional destination of the customs and rituals of the New Year, while the rituals of the New Year are the material embodiment of the taste and customs of the New Year. The three are interdependent and inseparable, together forming a unique Chinese New Year experience. The Spring Festival is a gathering of thousands of families, where everyone participates to build a cultural symbol of "reunion" and contribute unique cultural strength to family harmony, social stability, and national prosperity. Author: Gao Hehong (Researcher at the Oral Tradition Research Center of the Institute of Ethnic Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)