The Spring Festival is one of the four traditional festivals in China. Lunar New Year, the traditional "New Year Festival", is scheduled on the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar every year.
there is a popular folk song? "Chinese New Year Song": Twenty-three people pay homage to the stove official, twenty-four sweep the house, twenty-five grinding bean curd, twenty-six cut the meat, twenty-seven kill pigs and chickens, twenty-eight steam jujube flowers, twenty-nine go to wine, make a package of jiaozi on the 31th, and stumble around on the first day of the New Year. Seeing these feelings, the taste of the year is getting stronger and stronger, the taste of the year and the deep affection.
The origins of the Spring Festival include: La Worship's theory of Spring Festival, witchcraft ceremony, "Nian" beast theory, the rise of worship to heaven in Yu Shun period, the word "He" in ancient scripts, the idea of "competing for flowers to rule the world", "lucky money", the theory of regulations after Qin Shihuang unified six countries, and the theory of door gods. I think among the many origins of the Spring Festival, five are most worth mentioning. Let's take a look with me:
? One of the origins of the Spring Festival: the "Year" beast theory?
It is said that in ancient times in China, there was a monster called Nian, with a long sharp head and an unusually fierce head. Nian beast lives in the bottom of the sea for many years. Every New Year's Eve, it crawls ashore to devour livestock and hurt people's lives. Therefore, on New Year's Eve, people help the old and take care of the young and flee to the mountains to avoid the harm of Nian beast. It is said that Nian beast has a big head and a small body, and its length is more than ten feet. Its eyes are like two bells, and it comes and goes like the wind. When it barks, it makes the sound of "Year after Year", so it is named Nian beast.
A fierce monster called Nian, on the 31th of the twelfth lunar month, goes from house to house, foraging for human flesh and killing creatures. On the thirtieth night of the twelfth lunar month, Nian arrived in a village, and it happened that two cowboys were competing for a whip. "Nian" suddenly heard the sound of whipping in mid-air, and ran away in fear. It fled to another village, and saw a bright red dress drying in front of a door. It didn't know what it was, so it turned around and ran away. Later, he came to a village, looked into the door of a family, and saw the bright lights inside, which made him dizzy and had to slip away again, with his tail between his legs. From this, people realized the weakness of "Nian", which is afraid of noise, red and light, and thought of many ways to resist it, so it gradually evolved into the present Chinese New Year.
Nian beast should have evolved from wild animals. Because from the time point of view, "Chinese New Year" is the end of winter and the beginning of spring, and heavy snow closes mountains and roads. Humans have learned to preserve food, resist the cold and concentrate on life, but wild animals can only risk going down the mountain to eat people. After human development, there were years, months and years, but the environment rarely changed, and wild animals still went down the mountain to eat people in late winter and early spring. With the word of mouth from generation to generation and the processing of "literati" at that time, the "Nian beast" appeared.
? The second origin of the spring festival: the theory of creating a calendar in the year?
According to legend, in ancient times, a young man named Wan Nian saw that the festivals were chaotic at that time, and he had an idea to make them accurate. But he couldn't find a way to calculate the time. One day, he was tired of going up the mountain to cut wood and sat in the shade of a tree to rest. The movement of the shadow inspired him. He designed a sundial to measure the time of the day. Later, the dripping spring on the cliff inspired him, and he began to make a five-layer leaky pot to calculate the time. Over time, he found that every three hundred and sixty days, the four seasons would cycle once, and the length of the weather would be repeated.
On one occasion, Zu Yi went to learn about the progress of the calendar. When he boarded the Sun and Moon Altar, he saw a poem engraved on the stone wall beside the Temple of Heaven: "Sunrise and sunset are 361, starting all over again. The vegetation is divided into four seasons, and there are twelve circles in a year. " Knowing that the calendar has been created in ten thousand years, I personally boarded the Sun Moon Pavilion to visit ten thousand years. Wannian pointed to the astronomical phenomena and said to Zu Yi, "Now it is twelve months old, the old year is over, and the new year begins again. Please make a festival for the monarch." Zu Yi said, "Spring is the first year of the year, so let's call it Spring Festival". It is said that this is the origin of the Spring Festival.
winter goes and spring comes, year after year. After years of long-term observation and careful calculation, he worked out an accurate solar calendar. When he presented it to his successor, he was covered with silver whiskers. The monarch was deeply moved. In order to commemorate the achievements of ten thousand years, he named the solar calendar "perpetual calendar" and named it the birthday star of the sun, moon and moon. In the future, people hang up Shou Xingtu during the Chinese New Year, which is said to commemorate the venerable ten thousand years. In memory of him, the beginning must be "year".
? The third origin of the Spring Festival: Yu Shun's theory of offering sacrifices to heaven?
There are many legends about the origin of the Spring Festival, but it is generally accepted by the public that the Spring Festival started in Yu Shun.
In the era of historical legends, Zhucheng and Juxian were one of the active areas of Dongyi, and Dongyi was one of the earlier tribes in China after Shao Hao. Therefore, Xu Xusheng thinks that Chiyou is the leader of Dongyi tribe, Chiyou was defeated in the battle of Zhuolu, and the culture of Yanhuang tribe moved eastward to the Yao and Shun period.
However, the worship of Mount Tai is different from the general worship of heaven, but the worship of heaven by emperors or tribal alliance leaders. For example, Yu Shundong toured Mount Tai to worship heaven; Tao Wenzhi's sacrifice to heaven found in Lingyang River in Juxian County may be a sacrifice to heaven at the local clan level. Wen Tao unearthed in Qianzhai of Zhucheng is a sacrifice to heaven at the tribal level. From the rich connotation and complex stratigraphic relationship of Qianzhai site, it can be seen that the ancestors there were a relatively advanced tribe that worshipped birds and the sun and was also the cultural center of the tribe at that time. It is worth noting that this place is not far from the legendary "Fengs" in Shunshengdi, and belongs to the Weihe River Basin. It is very likely that Yu Shun once lived here before he was elected as the tribal leader, or he belongs to the tribe. Of course, the site of Lingyang River in Juxian County is also related to Yu Shun. Even Yu Shun once made a small-scale and tribal sacrifice to heaven in Qianzhai or Lingyang River, and after being elected as the tribal leader, he brought the custom of worshipping heaven in Qianzhai of Zhucheng to Mount Tai and rose to the imperial level.
One day more than 2111 BC, Shun became the emperor, leading his subordinates to worship heaven and earth. Since then, people have regarded 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 called New Year's Day. The month in which the Spring Festival is held is called January.
? The fourth origin of the Spring Festival: the evolution theory of the word "He" originated from ancient calligraphy?
In other words, the word "year" was first seen in the oracles of Yin Ruins. Oracle Bone Inscriptions's glyph is "He" (a crop with full drooping ears) and "Man" below. As a whole, it looks like a man carrying harvested grain, which means a bumper harvest, and "Man" is also a sound. Oracle inscriptions often say "pray for the year" and "accept the year", which means praying for a bumper harvest of crops.
Because in Shang Dynasty, crops were planted once a year and harvested only once a year, "year" was also extended to a time unit, that is, 12 months. There are such sayings as "as for seven years" and "as for five years" in Oracle inscriptions.
year: Shuo Wen Jie Zi was originally published. Gu Shu also. Thousands of voices from the grain. The opening of seal script makes the writing of the word Nian in regular script, which directly affects the writing of the word Nian in this grass. Many contemporary calligraphers only imitate the handwriting of the ancients and don't go deep into the source of cursive script.
in ancient Chinese calligraphy books, the word "nian" was put in the grain department to show that the weather is good and the crops are plentiful. Because cereal crops are usually harvested once a year. The "year" was extended to the name of the year. From the original meaning and extended meaning of the word "Nian", we can know that China has been an agricultural country based on agriculture since Shang Dynasty at the latest.
? The fifth origin of the Spring Festival: contending for flowers to rule the world?
There are legends about the Spring Festival among the people in Guanzhong area of Shaanxi Province. According to legend, the Jade Emperor sent Maitreya from the Heavenly Palace to earth in order to govern the world. When the Tathagata knew about this, he thought, I am the Buddha's Lord, why not let me go? So, I went to the Jade Emperor to argue. The Jade Emperor was speechless and had to say, "Let's discuss it." Taking advantage of the discussion, the Jade Emperor thought of a solution. ?
He invited Maitreya Buddha and Tathagata Buddha, put two pots of flowers in front of them, and said, "You should each take care of one pot of these two pots of flowers. Whoever blooms first will come down to earth to manage the world." The Tathagata is thoughtful and thoughtful, knowing that the Jade Emperor must be partial to Maitreya, because he guessed that the Jade Emperor was afraid that what he said would be hard to accept, so he took the service of flowers as an excuse to do it. I'm afraid the Jade Emperor has secretly made arrangements for these two potted flowers, so he also came up with a subtotal. He took the opportunity of Maitreya Buddha's closing his eyes to thank him and quietly changed the position of the two pots of flowers. The next day, the Tathagata's flowers opened, so Maitreya took care of the world for one day, which was the first day of the first month. Legend has it that Maitreya Buddha is kind-hearted. On this day, he made people eat well, wear well and sleep well, so on the first day of the first month, people spent the day in high spirits. ?
Later, in order to commemorate Maitreya, people called the moment when the two Buddhas handed over in early spring "Spring Festival". Some people say that, because the Tathagata was blinded by stealing flowerpots, until now, there are still petty theft in the world.
Of course, these are just legends, but from these well-organized and rule-based legends, it can be reflected from the side that in the ancient farming society, people's fear of nature was highly abstract, but it also tells us that in the face of fear, they are not powerless, and they always pray for the good weather and let the people live and work in peace and contentment!