The Origin and Customs of New Year's Day in China

Today's New Year's Day, called "New Year" in most countries in the world, is the first day of the Gregorian New Year. Yuan, meaning "first"; Dan means "day"; New Year's Day means "the first day". The word "New Year" first appeared in the Book of Jin, but its meaning has been used for more than 4000 years.

In ancient China, the first day of the twelfth lunar month and the first day of October were New Year's Day, the first day of the twelfth lunar month and the first day of October were 65438+ 1, the first day of the Gregorian calendar was the Republic of China 1, and the first day of China people was the Gregorian calendar 1.

New year's day source

New Year's Day in China always refers to the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar (summer and lunar calendar). The "yuan" of "New Year's Day" refers to the beginning, which means the first. The beginning of every number on New Year's Day is called "Yuan"; "Dan" is a hieroglyph, with the upper "sun" representing the sun and the lower "one" representing the horizon. "Dan" means that the sun rises from the horizon of Ran Ran, symbolizing the beginning of a day.

People put "Yuan" and "Dan" together, which means the first day of the New Year. New Year's Day is also called "three yuan", that is, year yuan, month yuan and hour yuan.

New year's day development

The word "New Year's Day" first appeared in the Book of Jin: "It is actually the spring of New Year's Day when the emperor was transferred to the first month." Lan Xin, a poet in the Jin Dynasty, once wrote a poem "Jacky": "Jiaqing was born here in Jacky. Fairy plays for thousands of years, and small and big have fun. " Described the scene of the New Year's Day celebration.

In Xiao Ziyun's poem "Jieya" in the Southern Dynasties, there is also a record of "New Year's Day in four seasons and long life in early spring". Wu's Dream in the Song Dynasty said: "The first day of the first month is called New Year's Day, and the custom is called New Year's Day. This is the first one. " Record.

Legend of New Year's Day

Legend has it that in the heyday of ancient Yao and Shun, when Emperor Yao was in power, he worked diligently for the people and did many good things for the people, which was deeply loved by the people. However, due to his son's incompetence, he did not pass on the throne of "emperor" to his son, but passed it on to Shun, who has both ability and political integrity.

Yao said to Shun, "You must pass on the throne in the future, and you will be relieved when I die." Later, Shun passed the throne to Yu, who had rendered meritorious service in water control. Yu also loves the people and has done many good things for the people like Shun, and is deeply loved by the people.