The economic significance of Spring Festival culture

In terms of history and social culture, rural sentiment and family sentiment are the basis of patriotism and nationalism. In China, without the local complex and family complex, patriotism and nationalism become a tree without roots and water without a source. There is no doubt that rural sentiment, family sentiment, and the patriotism and nationalism generated on this basis are the foundation of the nation, the foundation of the country, the powerful spiritual glue that unites more than one billion people, and the most precious thing for the Chinese nation. of cultural heritage.

In the past seven days, whether in bustling cities or remote villages, people all over China and even in places around the world where Chinese people live have been celebrating the New Year happily. Celebrating the Spring Festival has become a central topic shared by more than one billion people. Various news in the fields of politics, economy, culture and other fields arising from celebrating the Spring Festival have also become hot spots of concern to the whole society to a certain extent. It can be seen that in a specific period, celebrating the Spring Festival has a vital impact on the Chinese people.

From the perspective of folklore, traditional festivals are the carrier of national culture. They condense the spirit of a nation, mark the style of a nation, highlight the value of a nation, and display the character of a nation. Pursue. The Spring Festival is undoubtedly the most important traditional festival of the Chinese nation, and the cultural significance contained in it cannot be overestimated. When this joyful New Year is about to pass but still has more to say, it may not be meaningless to give a rough modern interpretation of the traditional festival of the Spring Festival.

The Spring Festival is a product of agricultural society. In ancient China, "Spring Festival" first referred to the sequence of spring, which was basically synonymous with the word spring. Later, it specifically referred to the New Year's Day of the lunar calendar year. In an agricultural society, the greatest influence on material production is the weather. "Cold comes and goes, summer comes, autumn harvests and winter stores" is a true portrayal of agricultural production. In his article "Spring Festival in Beijing", Mr. Lao She listed various phenomena during the New Year and pointed out that they are all related to agricultural society, which is very true. The food culture during the Spring Festival is based on the rich and colorful products of agricultural society; the entertainment culture during the Spring Festival is based on winter leisure in agricultural farming; the worship culture during the Spring Festival is based on farmers praying to God for good weather and good harvests. Almost all cultural forms during the Spring Festival are typical expressions of agricultural culture.

Culture in a broad sense refers to the sum of material wealth and spiritual concepts, but when people use the word culture, they mostly refer to spiritual concepts. The spiritual concept of agricultural culture comes from agricultural farming methods. If we take a closer look at agricultural farming methods, we will find that its biggest feature is geographical fixity. Agricultural peoples are not like nomadic peoples who live by water and have no fixed abode. Agricultural peoples are not like commercial peoples who are pursuing profit and leaving no trace. Agricultural people have cultivated fixed land for generations and passed it down from generation to generation. Over time, they have developed two very obvious ideological concepts, namely, the incomparable attachment to their hometown land and the extreme emphasis on family ties. The former is a rural concept, and the latter is a family concept. In China, regardless of the passage of time, social changes, government changes, and personnel changes, the concept of locality and family affection have long been transformed into a deep complex, rooted in the bone marrow of the descendants of Yan and Huang. Ancient poems such as "I feel more timid when I'm close to my hometown, I don't dare to ask people who are coming", "I miss my relatives even more during the holidays", etc., all reflect this kind of sentiment. In terms of history and social culture, rural sentiment and family sentiment are the basis of patriotism and nationalism. In China, without the local complex and family complex, patriotism and nationalism become a tree without roots and water without a source. There is no doubt that rural sentiment, family sentiment, and the patriotism and nationalism generated on this basis are the foundation of the nation, the foundation of the country, the powerful spiritual glue that unites more than one billion people, and the most precious thing for the Chinese nation. of cultural heritage. The Spring Festival inherits exactly this kind of meaning. Hundreds of millions of Chinese people, no matter how cold the weather is, how exhausted they are, no matter how far the journey is, or how tiring the trains and boats are, they still have to go home to reunite with their parents and fellow villagers. Isn’t this the greatest nostalgia? Hundreds of millions or even more than a billion people *** watched CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala. They rejoiced and sang and laughed together with the program, creating a strong atmosphere of the big family of the Chinese nation. This is not the biggest Family affection? The powerful spiritual power generated by this traditional culture should push us to build a well-off society faster. In the past few years, some scholars proposed the theory of "cultural power", which aroused heated discussions in the theoretical circles. The author believes that as a social phenomenon, the Spring Festival can completely become evidence of the theory of "cultural power".

It is worth recalling that the classic Marxist writer said: Tradition is the inert force of history. So, as the Spring Festival is a traditional festival, are the traditional meanings it carries incompatible with certain aspects of modern society? In fact, the way Chinese people celebrate the Spring Festival has changed a lot over the past few decades, and the significance of rituals such as praying to gods and worshiping ancestors has been greatly weakened. However, it is undeniable that the Spring Festival still has some negative factors for modern society. From an economic perspective, the economic phenomenon caused by the Spring Festival is actually an abnormal economic phenomenon, which is contrary to the market economy of modern society. Because the production methods of industrial society are completely different from those of agricultural society. Industrial production relies on market demand rather than seasonal and seasonal changes. Industrial production is more regular and balanced than agricultural production. Except for some man-made specific circumstances, there are rarely big colds, big heats, big ups and downs. The agricultural economy is a seasonal economy with uneven busyness and leisure. Since the Spring Festival originated from the agricultural society, the Spring Festival economy is of course a seasonal economy and will inevitably bring certain obstacles and impacts to modern industrial and commercial operations. From a cultural perspective, the meaning of the Spring Festival can express nostalgia, enhance family ties, unite people, and contribute to social stability and peace. However, while placing too much emphasis on local attachment and family ties, the other side of the coin may be a neglect of the rigid legal rules of modern society, which may not be beneficial to the construction of the rule of law in modern society. The phenomenon of "back door", "nepotism", "connected households" and other phenomena in Chinese society are not unstoppable. In a deep sense, they are related to the deep-rooted concept of overemphasis on human relations and family ties in traditional culture. Facts have proven that the Spring Festival is also a time of year when unhealthy tendencies in society are most prevalent. Of course, I do not think that native family affection and other traditional cultures are inherently irreconcilable with the legal rules of modern society, but you cannot ignore the huge differences in their expression methods.

Tradition is often a double-edged sword. It accumulates history and enriches culture, but its concepts and cultural identity formed in a specific historical stage may also hinder the penetration of new ideas and new ideas into the hearts of the people; as The Spring Festival in the traditional cultural sense is also a double-edged sword. Its positive impact has long been known to all Chinese people, but some of its traditional customs are incompatible and incompatible with modern society. People feel that But it may not be fully understood. How to promote the positive impact of Spring Festival culture, eliminate the negative impact of traditional Spring Festival culture, and give the Spring Festival more modern significance and flavor of the times is exactly what we can calm down and consider after celebrating this peaceful and beautiful Spring Festival. Today, the meaning of interpreting the ideological connotation of the Spring Festival from a modern perspective lies in this.

In recent years, with the development and opening up of society, many people have gradually felt that the Spring Festival is no longer as attractive as before, and the flavor of the New Year is getting weaker and weaker.

Professor Tao, a well-known folklorist and director of the Folk Culture Research Center of Minzu University of China, said in an interview with reporters that now material life is getting richer and richer. People feel that the Chinese New Year is boring. It is definitely not because they have material things. What is lacking is precisely because the spirit is not fully satisfied. In the memory of our nation, the Spring Festival is the most important and lively festival. It includes various cultural phenomena such as astronomy and calendar, folk beliefs, weddings and funerals, clothing, food, housing and transportation. Nowadays, the Spring Festival has lost a lot of its original cultural connotation, so everyone feels that the spirit of the New Year is dull, and they feel psychologically unsatisfied.

Professor Tao believes that with the development of society, people's pace of life has accelerated significantly, and cultural life styles have become richer than before. These may indeed impact the Spring Festival, making some traditional rituals born in the farming era no longer possible. more suitable for modern society. Of course, some customs or rituals of the Spring Festival may no longer adapt to the development of modern society. That is a matter of updating folk customs, but the theme and essence of the Spring Festival will never go out of style.

The Mid-Autumn Festival should become a national statutory holiday as soon as possible

Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival. When people invite friends to admire the moon at night, many people also express their regrets: the eighth month of the lunar calendar The fifteenth day of the 15th is not a legal holiday.

After China has achieved world-renowned economic growth and the material living standards of the Chinese people have also been significantly improved in recent years, why do people show such concern for the historical traditions of the Chinese nation, including traditional festivals? Growing interest? Tradition and modernity, a pair of seemingly opposite concepts and things, are being given new connotations and interpretations. The more modern a society, the more people need spiritual comfort, spiritual support and emotional expression. After the needs of people's inner world increase, the historical tradition with rich accumulation of spiritual resources will be more likely and necessary to be revived. Reappearance. This is no exception for China, which is increasingly modernizing.

More than eighty years ago, the British philosopher Bertrand Russell visited China. After nearly two years of inspection, he believed that the Chinese nation is a nation with a very free spirit and knows how to be happy. What he worries about is that after China becomes as "modern" as the West, the rationality and efficiency of modern society will give up the pursuit of traditional ideals of goodness and beauty.

Reflecting today on what this "wise man of the century" said many years ago, what the Chinese people should think about is: How to inherit and embrace the freedom and happiness of tradition in the "modern" framework? In other words, how to be a Chinese with the cultivation and yearning for beautiful ethics and morals and aesthetic emotions in modern society?

In this regard, traditional Chinese festivals can play a powerful role in spiritual nourishment. The rituals of traditional festivals have been loved by the Chinese nation for thousands of years. They themselves are a manifestation of the inner emotions of the Chinese nation and contain rich aesthetic ideals and ethical and moral pursuits. Like any country or nation with its own historical tradition, people in traditional Chinese society have a religious sense of settling down, emotional cultivation of aesthetic sense, careful pursuit of ethics and moral significance, etc. These basic personal and social virtues are widely scattered in those traditional societies. in the spiritual ideals contained in the festival.

In the thousands of years of history of the Chinese nation, poets and poets of all ages have left too many popular and beautiful poems and beautiful legends surrounding these festivals. These legends and texts are not rigid ethical and moral dogma, but a vivid display of the soul of a nation. Paul S. Reinsch, an American diplomat who served as minister to China for a long time during Yuan Shikai's administration, wrote deeply when he participated in China's Confucius Ceremony in 1913: "The most profound thing about the ceremony is that Because of the expressions of the chants, the music, and the very solemn attitude of the people participating in the ceremony... I can't help but feel that the Chinese people are unwilling to completely abandon these traditions because they have an instinct for music. "

< p>It should be noted that these traditional festivals that have been passed down for thousands of years, as well as the ethical, moral and aesthetic connotations of the festivals, still have important social and life significance today. Why is it that after China becomes "modern", it is more necessary to emphasize these festivals and think that they should be revised as national statutory holidays? We also need to see the fact that unlike traditional societies where people have a lot of leisure time, after the modern market economy lifestyle and bureaucratic management methods become increasingly popular, and social life becomes standardized and rationalized, traditional festivals without corresponding national Although protected by legislation, it will inevitably be impacted by the lack of time guarantee. Therefore, in the form of legislation, all or most of China's five traditional festivals - Spring Festival, Qingming, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Double Ninth Festival, etc., have been upgraded from simple folk festivals to national festivals with holiday protection, so that people have time to enjoy such activities. During the festivals, it is very necessary today to feel China's own historical traditions from various festival rituals and enjoy the spiritual joy brought by the festival