What is the origin of the Spring Festival, the culture of the Spring Festival and the customs of the Spring Festival?

The Spring Festival, the Lunar New Year, commonly known as the Chinese New Year, generally refers to New Year's Eve and the first day of the first lunar month. But among the people, the Spring Festival in the traditional sense refers to the period from the twelfth lunar month on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, or the twelfth lunar month on the 23rd or 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, with New Year's Eve and the first day of the first lunar month as the climax. The Spring Festival has a long history, originating from the activities of worshiping gods and ancestors at the beginning and end of the year during the Yin and Shang Dynasties. During the Spring Festival, China's Han and many ethnic minorities hold various activities to celebrate. These activities mainly focus on offering sacrifices to gods and Buddhas, paying homage to ancestors, eradicating the old and bringing in the new, welcoming the new year and receiving good fortune, and praying for a good harvest. The activities are rich and colorful with strong national characteristics.

The Spring Festival, commonly known as the "New Year's Day", is the most solemn and traditional festival of the Chinese nation.

Since the first year of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the first day of the first lunar month of the summer year (lunar calendar) has been regarded as the "year" (i.e. "year"), and the dates of the New Year's Day have been fixed and continue to this day. The New Year's Day was called "New Year's Day" in ancient times. After the Revolution of 1911, people began to use the Gregorian calendar (Gregorian calendar) to calculate the year, so January 1st of the Gregorian calendar was called "New Year's Day" and the first day of the first lunar month was called "Spring Festival". The annual festival is also known as the "traditional festival". They have a long history, are widely spread, and have great popularity, mass, and even national characteristics. New Year's Day is a time to get rid of the old and bring in the new. Although the New Year's Day is set on the first day of the first lunar month, the activities of the New Year's Day do not end on the first day of the first lunar month. Starting from the Little New Year's Day on the 23rd (or 24th) of the twelfth lunar month, people start to be "busy for the New Year": cleaning the house, washing hair and bathing, preparing New Year utensils, etc. All these activities have a common theme, which is "farewelling to the old and welcoming the new". People welcome the New Year and spring with grand ceremony and enthusiasm. New Year's Day is also a day for offering sacrifices and praying for good luck. The ancients said that when the millet is ripe, it is called a "year", and when the grain harvest is good, it is called a "good year". In the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, annual activities to celebrate the harvest began. Later, offering sacrifices to heaven and praying for good years became one of the main contents of annual customs. Moreover, gods such as the Kitchen God, the Door God, the God of Wealth, the God of Joy, the Well God, etc., all prepare to enjoy the incense in the world during the New Year. People use this to thank the gods for their care in the past and pray for more blessings in the new year. New Year's Day is also a day for family reunions, family reunions and ancestor worship. On New Year's Eve, the whole family gathers together to have a "reunion dinner". The elders distribute "New Year's money" to the children, and the family sits together to "watch the New Year." As the New Year approaches the New Year, firecrackers go off, and the activities of bidding farewell to the old year and welcoming the new year reach a climax. Each family burns incense and pays homage to heaven and earth, and pays homage to their ancestors. Then they pay New Year greetings to their elders in turn, and then relatives and friends of the same clan send congratulations to each other. After the first day of the New Year, people begin to visit relatives and friends and send each other gifts to celebrate the New Year. The New Year's Day is also a festival for people's entertainment and carnival. After the first day, various colorful entertainment activities are carried out: lion dancing, dragon lantern dancing, yangko dancing, stilt walking, acrobatics, etc., adding a strong festive atmosphere to the New Year.

At this time, around the time of the "beginning of spring", a grand spring welcoming ceremony was held in ancient times, whipping oxen to welcome the spring, and praying for good weather and a good harvest. Various social fire activities reach a climax again on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. Therefore, the annual festival, which integrates prayers for good luck, celebrations and entertainment, has become the most solemn festival of the Chinese nation. To this day, except for activities such as worshiping gods and ancestors, which have become weaker than before, the main customs of the New Year have been inherited and developed intact. The Spring Festival is an important carrier of the excellent traditions of Chinese national culture. It contains the wisdom and crystallization of Chinese national culture, embodies the life pursuit and emotional sustenance of the Chinese people, and inherits Chinese family ethics and social ethics. After thousands of years of accumulation, the colorful Spring Festival folk customs have formed a profound and unique Spring Festival culture. In recent years, with the improvement of material living standards, people's demand for spiritual and cultural life has grown rapidly, and their desire for family, friendship, harmony, and happiness has become stronger. Traditional festivals such as the Spring Festival have attracted more and more attention and attention from all walks of life. We should vigorously carry forward the excellent traditional culture condensed during the Spring Festival, highlight the theme of bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new, wishing reunion, peace and prosperity, and strive to create a festive atmosphere of family harmony, stability and unity, joy and peace, and promote the long-lasting and continuous development of Chinese culture. [1]

History

The beginning of the Chinese lunar year is called the Spring Festival. It is the most solemn traditional festival for the Chinese people. It also symbolizes unity, prosperity and new hope for the future. According to records, the Chinese people have celebrated the Spring Festival for more than 4,000 years. There are many theories about the origin of the Spring Festival, but the one generally accepted by the public is that the Spring Festival originated from Yu Shun. One day more than 2000 BC, Shun ascended the throne as emperor and led his men to worship heaven and earth. From then on, people regard this day as the beginning of the year. It is said that this is the origin of the Lunar New Year, which was later called the Spring Festival. The Spring Festival used to be also called New Year's Day. The month in which the Spring Festival is located is called January. The dates of New Year's Day in China are not consistent throughout the ages: the Xia Dynasty used the first month of Mengchun as the first month, the Shang Dynasty used the twelfth lunar month (twelfth month) as the first month, Qin Shihuang used October as the first month after unifying the six kingdoms, and the early Han Dynasty followed the Qin oil painting Sun Yat-sen took office Provisional President

Calendar. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty Liu Che felt that the calendar was too chaotic, so he ordered his ministers Gongsun Qing and Sima Qian to create a "solar calendar", which stipulated that the first month of the lunar calendar should be the first day of the year, and the first day of the first lunar month should be the first day of the year, which is New Year's Day. Since then, China has continued to use the Xia calendar (lunar calendar, also known as the lunar calendar) until the end of the Qing Dynasty, which lasted for 2080 years. The Spring Festival has different names in different eras.

In the pre-Qin period, it was called "Shangri", "Yuanri", "Chanisui", "Xiansui", etc.; in the Han Dynasty, it was also called "Three Dynasties", "Suidan", "Zhengdan", "Zhengri" ; In the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, it was called "Yuanchen", "Yuanri", "Yuanshou", "Suichao", etc.; in the Tang, Song, Yuanming and Ming dynasties, it was called "New Year's Day", "Yuan", "Suiri", "Xinzheng" ", "Xinyuan", etc.; in the Qing Dynasty, it was always called "New Year's Day" or "Yuan's Day". When Sun Yat-sen took office as the interim president of the Republic of China in Nanjing in 1912, he announced the abolition of the old calendar and the replacement of the Gregorian calendar with the Republic of China calendar. And decided to use January 1, 1912 AD as January 1, the first year of the Republic of China. January 1st is called New Year, but not New Year's Day. However, the people still follow the old calendar, that is, the lunar calendar, and still celebrate the traditional New Year on February 18 of that year (the first day of the first lunar month of the Renzi year), and other traditional festivals remain the same. In view of this, in July 1913 (the second year of the Republic of China), the then Minister of Internal Affairs of the Beijing government submitted a report on the four-season holiday to President Yuan Shikai, saying: "Our country's old custom is that the four-season holiday every year should be clearly stipulated. , it is proposed to designate New Year's Day as the Spring Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival as the Summer Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival as the Autumn Festival, and the Winter Solstice as the Winter Festival. All our citizens must have a rest, and those who are in public service are also allowed to have one day off." But Yuan Shikai only approved the first day of the first lunar month. In order to commemorate the Spring Festival, a routine holiday was agreed for the Spring Festival, which came into effect from the following year (1914). Since then, the first day of the lunar calendar has been called "Spring Festival". On September 27, 1949, the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference decided to adopt the world's common AD chronology while establishing the People's Republic of China. In order to distinguish the two "years" of the solar calendar and the lunar calendar, and because the "beginning of spring" with 24 solar terms in a year happens to be before and after the lunar year, the first day of January in the solar calendar is called "New Year's Day", and the first day of the first lunar month is officially renamed "Spring Festival" . The earth goes around the sun once, which is called a year on the calendar, and the cycle goes on and on, never ending. However, according to the different seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter, people regard the first plenary session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference

on the first day of the first lunar month as the beginning of the year. Every year after midnight (twelve o'clock) on the 30th day of the twelfth lunar month (the twenty-ninth day of the small month), the Spring Festival officially arrives. As the Spring Festival approaches, people buy new year's goods, and on New Year's Eve, the whole family gets together to have a New Year's Eve dinner. Post New Year pictures and Spring Festival couplets to welcome the coming of the new year. With the founding of New China, the Spring Festival celebrations have become more colorful. It not only retains the past folk customs and eliminates some activities with feudal superstition, but also adds a lot of new content. Give the Spring Festival a new flavor of the times. On December 23, 1949, the People's Government of the People's Republic of China stipulated a three-day holiday for the Spring Festival every year. China is a multi-ethnic country, and each ethnic group celebrates the New Year in different ways. The customs and habits of the Han, Manchu and Korean people during the Spring Festival are similar. The whole family gets together, people eat rice cakes, dumplings and various sumptuous meals, decorate with lanterns, set off firecrackers and wish each other well. Celebrations during the Spring Festival are extremely rich and varied, including lion dancing, dragon dancing, stilt walking, and land boat racing. In some areas, people continue to worship ancestors and gods in the past, praying for good weather, peace and a good harvest in the new year. The ancient Mongolians called the Spring Festival "White Festival" and the first month Baiyue, which means good luck and good luck. Tibetans celebrate the Tibetan New Year. The Hui, Uyghur, Kazakh, etc. people celebrate the "Eid al-Adha". The Spring Festival is also a grand festival for the Miao, Tong, Yao and other ethnic groups. [2]

Legend

Stay up late and stay up late on the New Year

Stay up late

Stay up late on the last night of the New Year The custom of welcoming the new year is also called staying up late on New Year's Eve, commonly known as "staying up late". Looking into the origin of this custom, there is an interesting story spread among the people: In ancient times, there was a ferocious monster that lived scattered in the deep mountains and dense forests. People called them "Nian". It has a ferocious appearance and a ferocious nature. It specializes in eating birds, animals, and scale insects. It changes its taste every day, ranging from kowtowing insects to living people, making people talk about the "New Year".

Later, people slowly