Birth, oldness, illness and death, are human nature. After ten months' pregnancy, a new baby was born. The baby would cry aloud at birth and then learn to speak, grow up day by day. He or she would experience every step of human life, from maturity, marriage, bringing up a family, aging to final death, which forms a cycle of life. Joys or sorrows, gains or losses, successes or failures...Everything would become slim and insignificant as compared to life. However, it was those experiences that make human life colorful. As a result, there had been special folk customs to mark each and every stage of human life in Beijing.

生老病死,人之常情也。十月怀胎,一个幼小的生命诞生。直到呱呱坠地,牙牙学语,一步一步地成长。经历人生的种种,成年、结婚、生子、年老,最终迎来死亡。一个生命的轮回。喜与悲,得与失,成与败……,在生命之前都变得渺小与微不足道。然而正是这些喜怒哀乐、是非成败,为人的一生增添了各种各样的色彩。在生命的各个阶段,北京都有着各个阶段独具特色的民俗。